Replaced with revised version of paper 11/28/06. Former title: The Expanded and Re-Parameterized Johnson System: A Most Crop-Yield Distribution Model

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/31/06.

The paper investigates the value of biodiversity as it relates to the productive value of services provided by an ecosystem. It analyzes how the value of an ecosystem can be "greater than the sum of its parts." First, it proposes a general measure of the value of biodiversity. Second, this...

Do milk marketing orders affect various demographic groups differently? To answer this question, we use supermarket scanner data to estimate an incomplete demand system for dairy products. Based on these estimates, we simulate substitution effects among dairy products and the welfare impacts of...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/19/06.

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/01/06.

This study attempts to investigate the effects of exchange rate, soybean price, and ocean freight costs on import demand for U.S. grain with forward-futures markets. The focus is on soybeans. The panel data cover the major exporting markets for U.S. soybeans over the last decade. China and...

While recent studies point towards the importance of institutions, in particular secure property rights, as key determinants of economic growth, options to foster institutional change to make property rights more secure are not well understood. Data from 800 villages all over China on the...

The European Union sugar policies, in place for over 49 years, underwent a first major reform in 2005, yielding to mounting pressures coming from the EU 2004 enlargement, the recent EBA initiative to least developed countries and the recent WTO-panel ruling on EU sugar export subsidies. The...