The issue of ethics has received little notice in agricultural economics journals. This study utilized a survey technique to reveal the ethical attitudes among some 500 students at four Land Grant Universities. The data were analyzed using multiple regression techniques. Individuals negotiating with strangers were more willing to use questionable ethical tactics. Women, individuals who were cooperative rather than competitive in negotiation situations, and those who regularly attended religious services were consistently less willing to use questionable ethics in negotiation. The size of the individual's hometown and family income had no clear impact on ethical attitudes in negotiations.

In this paper, we present an econometric analysis of the effects of a price floor on price dynamics and price volatility. A price floor (implemented as a part of government pricing policy) provides a censoring mechanism for price determination. We specify and estimate a dynamic Tobit model under time-varying volatility. The model is applied to analyze the effects of a price support program on price dynamics and price volatility in the U.S. American cheese market. The econometric analysis provides useful insights on price dynamics in the presence of a government-determined price floor.

The paper analyzes the relationship between off-farm labor allocation and on-farm enterprise diversification as farm household income stabilization strategies with census data from the federal state of Upper Austria, Austria. The results suggest that both on-farm diversification and off-farm labor allocation are related to farm and household characteristics. Larger farms tend to be more diversified. Younger farmers are more likely to work off-farm. Larger farm households tend to allocate more labor to off-farm income activities.

In this paper, we assess consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program applied to beef ribeye steaks, chicken breasts, and pork chops, all labeled as “Certified U.S.” products. A consumer survey was mailed in spring and early summer 2003 to households in the continental United States. Results indicate that consumers are in general very concerned about food safety issues, viewing U.S. meat as the safest among the selection of countries considered. Nevertheless, consumer willingness to pay for Certified U.S. products is relatively small, although above the expected implementation costs associated with a mandatory labeling program. This finding coincides with the fact that only 36% of the sample favored consumers paying directly for the costs related to a mandatory COOL program.

Both market advisors and researchers have often suggested multiyear rollover hedging as a way to increase producer returns. This study determines whether rollover hedging can increase expected returns for producers. For rollover hedging to increase expected returns, futures prices must follow a mean-reverting process. To test for the existence of mean reversion in agricultural commodity prices, this study uses a longer set of price data and a wider range of test procedures than past research. With the use of both the return predictability test from long-horizon regression and the variance ratio test, we find that mean reversion does not exist in futures prices for corn, wheat, soybean, soybean oil, and soybean meal. The findings are consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. Simulated trading results for 3-year rollover hedges provide additional evidence that the expected returns to the rollover hedging strategies are not statistically different from the expected returns to routine annual hedges and cash sale at harvest.

The application of manure phosphorus at rates above crop uptake has resulted in water pollution for some regions. In response, new manure management standards will require some farms to match manure phosphorus application rates with crop uptake. For some regions, this will lead to more crop acres and a shift toward crops with greater nutrient uptake, both of which will increase nitrogen runoff. The greater nitrogen runoff could offset the lower phosphorus runoff to result in greater water pollution. This demonstrates the law of unintended consequences, which results when policy does not consider how economic agents respond to incentives.

Cow-herd standardized performance analysis (SPA) data for Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico were used to determine economic factors affecting cow-herd costs, production, and profitability. Total cost was defined as the financial cost associated with raising a calf through the weaning stage; production, as pounds weaned per exposed female; and profits, as rate of return on assets. Variables affecting one or more performance measures included herd size; pounds of feed fed; real estate, machinery, and breeding-stock investments; calving percentage; death loss; and breeding-season length. Management variables were especially important for financial costs and profitability of the cow-herd operation.

This study analyzes the potential risk-reduction gains from naive diversification among market advisory services for corn and soybeans. The total possible decrease in risk through naive diversification is small, mainly because advisory prices are highly correlated on average. Moreover, because marginal risk-reduction benefits decrease rapidly with size and the cost of holding the portfolios increases linearly due to services' subscription fees, it is optimal to limit portfolio size to a few advisory programs. Based on certainty equivalent measures and two representative risk-aversion levels, preferred portfolio sizes are between one and three programs.

Florida's open-space land-acquisition program is one of most aggressive in the country, with $3.7 billion paid for 3.8 million acres since 1972. Using data from the Conservation and Recreational Lands (CARL) program, hedonic analyses found that acquiring private lands with valuable natural resources, habitat for rare species, and important historical sites for public preservation is more costly. Development potential and pressure also increased acquisition costs. The presence of additional endangered natural elements and needing to contract with additional landowners, however, were found to decrease the cost. Results provide a basis for landowners and land-acquisition agencies to negotiate.

With increasingly thin margins and new technologies, it is important that farm managers know their cost of field operations on a per unit basis (e.g., acre, ton, bale). Accurate per unit costs give confidence when constructing enterprise budgets and evaluating new technologies, such as no-till. Custom rates are often used as a proxy for per unit costs; however, this research, using entropy and jackknife estimation procedures, found that custom rates understate total ownership and operating costs by approximately 25% for an average Kansas farm. Estimates from these models are then used to benchmark actual costs against expected cost.

Forward pricing behavior of random samples of Indiana, Nebraska, and Mississippi crop producers was analyzed using Heckman's two-step limited information maximum likelihood estimation procedure. Producers who forward priced during the 1995–1998 period generally expected to forward price in 1999 using similar techniques. Probit models were estimated for cash forward contracts and taking a direct position in futures or options separately and combined. Results provide limited support for the hypothesis that forward pricing should be analyzed as an adoption decision. Variables reflecting risk attitudes do affect the decision to use forward pricing, while variables related to economic position affect the level of forward pricing.

Herbicide-resistant (HR) rice technology is a potential tool for control of red rice in commercial rice production. Using an ex ante mathematical programming framework, this research presents an empirical analysis of HR rice technology adoption under uncertainty. The analysis accounts for stochastic germination of red rice and sheath blight to model a profit maximization problem of crop rotation among HR rice, regular rice, and soybeans. The results demonstrate that risk attitudes and technology efficiency determine adoption rates and optimal rotation patterns.

Land use changes and timberland use by ownership and forest type in Alabama and Georgia between 1972 and 2000 are analyzed using a modified multinomial logit approach. Low average land quality, federal cost-share incentives, and favorable returns to forestry relative to agriculture were the main factors associated with timberland increase. Higher forestry returns helped increase industrial timberland but not nonindustrial private forests. An increase in hardwood forests at the expense of softwood and mixed forests was driven by increasing hardwood returns. Increasing softwood returns and tree planting assistance programs alleviated declines in softwood forests. Because factors influencing timberland use changes differ by ownership and forest type, treating all timberland as one major category may lead to incorrect predictions.

This paper uses microlevel data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey to examine the changes in the distributions of household wealth and to assess the role farm subsidies play, among other factors, in affecting these distributions. The empirical analysis relies on the concept of the adjusted Gini coefficient and on fixed-effect regression procedures. Coefficients from fixed-effects estimation indicate a negative correlation between government payments and wealth dispersion, with the effect shifting toward more of a positive relation when government payments were allowed to interact with regional dummies.

EPA's new restrictions on land application of manure nutrients by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) could decrease the net return of 6–17% of the medium and large dairy farms with lagoon systems in the southwestern United States. Many of the other dairy CAFOs in the region could achieve higher net income under the restrictions if they reduce feed costs by better utilizing manure and expanding homegrown feed production.

Do cost considerations justify the current structure of production of extension services in which one or more providers exists in virtually all of the contiguous U.S. states? Provision of extension services has sizable cost implications for the host institutions. Yet, to our knowledge, there has been virtually no analysis of the impact of extension on higher education costs. Using academic year 1995–1996 data, we estimate a multiproduct cost function for 1,445 public institutions of higher education in the United States, including 65 that provide extension services. We find evidence of significant economies of scale with respect to the provision of extension services but no evidence of significant economies of scope between the provision of extension and the production of research, undergraduate education, or graduate education.

Hypothetical bias is a pervasive problem in stated-preference experiments. Recent research has developed two empirically successful calibrations to remove hypothetical bias, though the calibrations have not been tested using the same data or in a conjoint analysis. This study compares the two calibrations in a conjoint analysis involving donations to a public good. Results find the calibrations are biased predictors of true donations but that calibrated and uncalibrated models together provide upper and lower bounds to true donations.

Harvest timeliness is a continual problem in the rotation of cotton and peanuts. Efficient allocation of land and labor resources during production of cotton and peanuts requires decisions be made on allocating resources throughout the growing season. Of particular concern is efficient allocation during planting and harvesting. Through economic analysis and linear programming optimization, planting and harvesting timeliness issues are addressed and compared with prevailing practices. Results for a representative farm indicate that cotton planting should increase during the early period of the planting season as compared with current practice, and most cotton should be harvested before peanut harvest begins.

The issue of whether vertical integration can raise market power is hotly debated because firms have a market power-related incentive to integrate vertically. Using a sample of U.S. food manufacturing industries, this “market power” motive is empirically tested in this study. Empirical analysis shows that forward vertical ownership integration (or vertical mergers) did not increase food manufacturers' market power in the final product market. The study, however, shows that both market structure and conduct significantly influenced market power in the food industries.

Farm financial structure may affect both short- and long-run input usage, thereby affecting farm efficiency. Any inefficiencies arising from the choice of inputs can be magnified over time as credit constraints continue to affect input usage. In a panel of 54 North Dakota crop farms, efficiency and debt structure were related. Intermediate debt was found to be positively related to farm technical efficiency, and short-term debt was negatively associated with technical efficiency. Use of intermediate-term debt was positively associated with farm-scale efficiency, whereas no significant relationship was found between short- and long-term debt and scale efficiency.