The theory and methods used to analyze the market, management, and policy elements of agricultural finance draw substantially on modern finance concepts, but with significant tailoring to the unique characteristics of agricultural sectors throughout the world. Both developed and developing...

Uncertainty and risk are quintessential features of agricultural production. After a brief overview of the main sources of agricultural risk, we provide an exposition of expected utility theory and of the notion of risk aversion. This is followed by a basic analysis of agricultural production...

This chapter presents a review and synthesis of effects of education in agriculture, summarizes major contributions, and suggests major research gaps in the literature. Although growth in knowledge enables skill acquisition and specialization of labor, which generally raises labor productivity,...

The work of more than 50 years aimed at gaining empirical insight into the production structure of agriculture and the related modes of farmers' behavior is reviewed, and orders of magnitude of the various parameters of interest are quoted. The review follows the lines of the evolution of the...

Agricultural marketing and distribution are broad areas that cover a wide assortment of pricing and market structure issues for agricultural commodities and processed food products. A synthesizing framework is developed in order to discuss the relevant Handbook chapters and an assortment of...

Important advancements in agricultural economics have combined the insights of the economic discipline and its analytical paradigm with the practical and scientific knowledge of agriculture. We discuss advancements made in the areas of production and marketing, the characteristics of...

This chapter surveys studies that have used the methods of mechanism design, optimal taxation, nonlinear pricing, and principal-agent analyses in the analysis of agricultural policy. The optimal design and reform of agricultural policy are studied under the presumption that agricultural...

Trade policy has been one of the most important issues in agricultural economics for more than 200 years. Our focus here is on evaluating relatively recent contributions to the understanding of agricultural trade policy and trade agreements. We present some background concerning trade policies...

Over the last few decades, the structure of agricultural production around the world has been changing. An economic analysis of the factors influencing this evolution is presented. Special attention is given to the role of technology and resource mobility. Linkages with changes in market...

Macroeconomic events and policies strongly influence agricultural sector outcomes. Chapters synthesized here delineate both feed-forward and feedback linkages between agriculture and the macroeconomy, examining how relationships change as countries develop and undergo structural transformation....