This study extends Batten's synthetic demand modeling approach to increase the flexibility of the uniform substitute specification of the Rotterdam demand system. Marginal propensities to consume (MPC) vary with budget shares and Slutsky coefficients are defined in terms of varying MPCs. An application of the model to orange-juice products shows that the pattern of income and price elasticities over time is much different than when MPCs are restricted to be constant.

A differential approach is employed to analyze demand for meat in the United Kingdom during 1989-99. Differential demand systems with fixed price effects (Rotterdam and CBS) better explain consumers' retail purchase allocation decisions for beef, lamb, pork, bacon and poultry compared with models containing variable price effects (NBR and differential AIDS). The real expenditure and the Hicksian demand elasticities are generally found to be quite different from earlier studies using AIDS models. A quality change index of meat consumption is constructed from the estimated CBS model estimation results and decomposed into real expenditure, substitution, trend, seasonal and residual effects.

Evaluations of the factors influencing the adoption of agricultural and natural resource management technologies among small farmers in developing countries have been mostly limited to qualitative discussions or simple descriptive statistics resulting in superficial and inconclusive findings. This study introduces the use of Poisson Count Regressions as a statistically appropriate procedure to analyze certain common types of adoption data. It uses them to assess the impact of key socio-economic, bio-physical, and institutional factors on the adoption of integrated pest management, agroforestry, and soil conservation technologies among small farmers in three Central American countries: Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador.

This paper examines factors influencing the adoption of improved maize seeds and the use of inorganic fertilizer for maize production by farmers in the intermediate and lowland zones of Tanzania. The results indicate that availability of extension services, on-farm field trials, variety characteristics and rainfall were the most important factors that influenced the extent of adopting improved maize seeds and the use of inorganic fertilizer for maize production. Farmers preferred those varieties which minimize field loss rather than maximizing yields. Future research and extension policies should emphasize farmer participation in the research process and on-farm field trials for varietal evaluation and demonstration purposes.

The impacts of using export taxes as a price control in a multi-market framework are explored using the cotton and yarn sectors in Pakistan as examples. Results show that the export tax on cotton increased domestic consumption and decreased exports of cotton in Pakistan, transferring income from cotton producers to yarn spinners and the government. There was a social loss to Pakistan in the cotton sector. The export tax on cotton increased domestic yarn production, consumption, exports, and incomes of yarn spinners, but resulted in a large transfer (social loss) out of the yarn sector.

In 1996, the USDA began reporting cattle-on-feed placements in various weight groups, which should provide information regarding expected slaughter timings and improve fed cattle price forecasts and marketing strategies. Private data were collected to obtain the necessary degrees of freedom to test statistical relationships between placement weight distributions, beef supply, and fed cattle prices. Use of placement weights improved beef supply forecasts only at a one-month horizon; it contributed nothing to price forecast accuracy or returns from selectively hedging.

The distributional behavior of futures price spreads is examined for four commodities: corn, live cattle, gold and T-bonds. Remarkably different results are found over commodities, time period, and sample size. Actual spread changes for the smaller sample size of gold and T-bonds and for corn produce more normal distributions for weekly than for daily differencing intervals, while all live cattle spreads for actual changes are normally distributed. However, the larger sample size of both gold and T-bonds and the relative spread changes for corn and live cattle do not become more normally distributed under temporal aggregation of the data.

Two methods were used to estimate the cost of forward contracting hard red winter wheat. One hundred days before delivery, the estimated cost of forward contracting ranged from six cents/bu. to eight cents/bu. Thus, further evidence is provided that the cost of forward contracting grain is not zero.

A survey of Kansas, Texas, and Iowa agricultural producers was taken to examine the factors affecting their grain marketing practices. Sales indices models and models of qualitative choice are used to determine whether marketers' choices of cash market, forward contract, or futures and options oriented marketing practices are significantly affected by their personal and farm business characteristics. Results indicate that geographic location, farm size, grain enterprise specialization, farming experience, use of grain storage, and use of crop insurance have significant effects upon the respondents' choice of grain marketing practices.

From 1993–1995, Florida dairy cooperatives implemented a seasonal pricing plan in an attempt to decrease the variability in seasonal production. Farmers that participated in the seasonal pricing plan were able to reduce seasonality in each year when compared to 1992 by as much as 20 percent. For farmers that did not participate, seasonality increased in each year by as much as 32 percent. Overall, the seasonal pricing plan was effective in reducing seasonality for those farmers that chose to participate in the plan and that its limited short-run success was the result of seasonality increases by non-participating farms.

We estimate actuarially fair premium rates for yield and revenue insurance for Georgia and South Carolina peaches. The premium rates for both products decrease at a decreasing rate as the mean farm-level yield increases. In general, the premium rate for revenue insurance exceeds the premium rate for yield insurance for a given coverage level and expected yield. Although the revenue and yield insurance rates differ in a statistical sense, they do not appear to differ in an economic sense except at high coverage levels for growers with very high yields.

Potential benefits of variable rate nitrogen application are illustrated and information needs identified. Lower costs of precision farming services, higher crop prices, and greater divergence in yield response potentials across management zones reduce the spatial variability required for profitable variable rate application. Information needs include identification and measurement of management zones within a field and estimation of management zone yield response functions, crop and input prices, and the cost of precision farming services.

Mathematical programming-based systems analysis is used to examine the consequences of alternative operation configuration for the agricultural operations within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Continuation versus elimination of the total operation as well as individual operating departments are considered. Methodology includes a firm systems operation model combined with capital budgeting and an integer programming based investment model. Results indicate the resources realize a positive return as a whole, but some enterprises are not using resources profitably. The integer investment model is found to be superior for investigating whether to continue multiple interrelated enterprises.

Laboratory experimental methods are used to investigate the impacts of supply and/or demand risks on prices, quantities traded, and earnings within forward and spot market institutions. Random demand and/or supply shifts can be as much as 25 percent of the expected equilibrium outcome. Nevertheless, results suggest that the spot or forward trading institution itself has a greater influence on market outcomes than the presence of risk within the trading institution. Sellers tend to have relatively higher earnings in a spot market than buyers, regardless of the risk. Total surplus, however, generally is greater in a forward market.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department depredation payments were established to increase landowner tolerance toward, and thus the supply of, certain types of wildlife. This study examined how socio-economic and demographic characteristics of farmers and ranchers in Wyoming relate to tolerance toward wildlife and depredation claim submission. The severity of depredation and landowner satisfaction with the depredation policy were evaluated. The financial stability and economic intent of farmers and ranchers significantly influenced tolerance toward wildlife. Landowners tended to be less tolerant of depredation ensuing from elk. The complexity of the submission process was a deterrent to damage claim submissions.