This paper examines technical efficiency of more separated ownership and control (SOC) grain and oilseed farms relative to combined ownership and control (COC) in the U.S. Theory has provided specific benefits to why SOC firms can be more efficient, thus more likely to survive, despite SOC being...

In this article I discuss the nature of ethical dilemmas and responsibilities. I begin by noting that there are two types of dilemmas, philosophical and behavioral. I distinguish between them, give examples, and explain why it is important to understand their differences. I also use the...

The purposes of this paper are to examine how public trust affects public support for biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) foods and to assess how an understanding of the determinants of public trust impact post-market surveillance of GM foods. To this end, a model of trust is developed...

Organizational and contract economics have achieved an increasingly important role in analyses of the food, agribusiness, and agricultural sectors. In particular, formal theoretical models of contract design and firm integration have begun to appear in the leading agricultural economics...

According to empirical evidence, extrinsic incentives often crowd out intrinsic motivation, thus reducing the effort choices of workers. This article presents a simple model illustrating how the introduction of monetary incentives causes a discontinuous reduction in worker effort as well as a...

We examine how organizational characteristics of producer-owned firms affect the level of perceived trust among cooperative members, using survey data from a sample of U.S. agricultural cooperatives. Our results indicate trust is correlated with property right and organizational structures...

According to empirical evidence, extrinsic incentives often crowd out intrinsic motivation, thus reducing the effort choices of workers. This article presents a principal-agent model that incorporates insights from cognitive evaluation theory in order to show how the introduction of explicit...

This paper tests the hypothesis that capital market imperfections constrained the growth of British firms during the Industrial Revolution. Using data on the cost structure of a representative British cotton manufacturer during the 1798 to 1827 period, this paper shows that the scale of...

There are two competing approaches to sustainability in agriculture. One stresses a strict economic approach in which market forces should be allowed to guide the activities of agricultural producers. The other advocates the need to balance economic with environmental and social objectives, even...

This paper examines the effects of married women's employment on their fertility behavior in the United States. Data from the National Survey of Family and Households are used in a hazard model to determine whether a woman's employment status affected the rate at which she had a second, third or...