The principle of equality of opportunity has raised serious legal questions about the revenue distribution associated with use of the property tax as the main school funding vehicle. Partially in response to the recognition of a maldistribution of funds at the local level there has been renewed interest in the degree to which the distribution of state revenue, via alternative foundation plans, does in fact provide compensating state revenue to low wealth districts. It is now widely recognized that many existing state foundation plans have performed inadequately in this regard and alternative plans are under study in many states. Relatively little public attention or research effort, however, has been devoted to examination of the distributional impact of the federal component of schooling revenues, particularly at the school district level.

Specialization by a region is determined primarily by resources available and the available markets for the products. In addition, specialization in the production of a product or in an industry is an initial stage of regional development but may not be sufficient. As firms locate in a region to produce with the available resources, a derived demand will develop for substitute and complementary resources.

Input supply firms will locate in the region to satisfy the derived demand for resources. In addition, other firms will locate in the region to process some of the output of the emerging industry. As associated industries locate in the area, an interdependency will develop between the industry's supply requirements and/or markets for their products. Consequently, regional development has a tendency to include firms that are interdependent.

Many farm operators strive to increase and stabilize the net returns of their farming operation. The opportunity to affect annual net returns may lie in the reorganization of products and inputs, firm growth and introduction of non-traditional enterprises. There has been considerable research on reorganization and firm growth. However, since new enterprises adaptable to a farm firm organization are often based on technological innovations, economic research usually lags behind for these new enterprises. This implies some farm operators may become involved in a non-traditional farm enterprise before the economic status of the enterprise is established.

Egg production in Georgia traditionally was by small producers with eggs marketed through retail stores. Beginning in the early 1960's feed millers, egg distributors and broiler integrators began shifting from broilers and other enterprises to commercial egg production. Growth of the industry through the decade of the sixties developed into two different types of production and marketing structures. Industry leaders primarily interested in selling feed, and handling eggs encouraged expansion of independent ownership of flocks by small producers. Independent producers purchased feed and started pullets at retail prices and sold eggs on a grade-yield basis to processor-distributors. Other industry leaders encouraged vertical integration by offering production contracts. Contract producers provided facilities and labor for egg production and received a fixed payment per unit from the integrator. The integrators owned the layers and provided feed, medication and supervision for flocks.

Pesticides have become a major input for commercial agriculture. The quantity of pesticides applied annually is approximately 140 million pounds. Even with this level of pesticide use, research indicates that per an additional dollar of pesticide use, returns are increased two to four dollars. However, recent emphasis on environmental quality has caused considerable pressure to discontinue use of some pesticides. This raises important questions regarding the impact of withdrawing specific pesticides from commercial agriculture.

In response to possible cancellations, research has been directed toward establishing expected effects. However, much of the completed research is directed principally at the producer level and associated economic consequences of restricting the use of a pesticide. Some of the pesticides evaluated are phenoxy herbicides, organochlorines and chlordane. Other studies have considered the effect of a tax and change in government farm policy on level of pesticide use.

Regression analysis with its many modifications and extensions plays a dominant role as an analytical tool in economic research. The linear regression model with random coefficients (hereafter RCR for random coefficient regression) provides a generalization of the classical linear regression model and permits a more realistic specification of the real world than does the classical model. As a consequence RCR will probably play an increasingly important role in econometric analysis of a wide class of problems-particularly as probabilistic micro-economic theory develops.

A number of highly aggregated policy simulation models have been developed for the U.S. agricultural sector. While these models are useful in providing broad-stroke sketches of the effects of alternative farm policies, they have been criticized for their lack of commodity detail. Individuals, organizations and congressmen from a cattle producing state, as an example, are more interested in the impact of a changed agricultural policy on cattle prices and incomes than its effect on the income of all farmers. The reason most often given for not disaggregating by commodity groups is the researcher's reluctance to quantify opportunities for substitution among commodities in production and consumption. However, there may be more agreement on the relative magnitudes of supply and demand elasticities for individual commodities than the price elasticities of supply and demand for all farm output. Hence, a disaggregated model may distort reality much less than a highly aggregated model and at the same time provide detail on indirect effects of proposed policies that is so often sought by policy makers.

In 1964, 89 percent of the citrus acreage in the U.S. was treated with pesticides. The percentage increased to 97 percent in 1966. Total expenditures for pesticides during the two years were 13.8 and 21.3 million dollars, respectively. Expenditures on a per acre basis were $12.74 and $18.82, respectively, in these years. The trend in pesticide use on citrus pest control has been upward.

The increased usage indicates that pesticides are recognized by growers as important inputs to increase output and/or improve fruit quality. The negative side effects of pesticides on the environment are also being increasingly recognized.

“The rate of interest charged should be … the amount the money could earn in an alternative investment. Interest is commonly charged at 6 percent on the average value of the machinery. …” This is a quotation taken from a bulletin published in 1965. Similar statements can be found in many publications. That bulletin has recently been revised. In the revision, the first part of that statement is still recognized, but the average investment method is not used to calculate interest costs.

In the first sentence, the principle of alternative opportunities is accepted, i.e., the minimum acceptable rate of return is that which the investor can obtain in an alternative investment that he would be willing to make. In general, economists agree that this is the rate that should be used in analyzing investment opportunities.

The rapid increase of real estate debt and nonreal estate debt outstanding in the farm sector at the national level is well documented [e.g., 2, 4, 6]. Reasons for these increases include the rapid consolidation of land ownership, continuing adoption of capital intensive technology, greater off-farm purchases of operating inputs, increases in land values, and other such factors. On the one hand the ability of the farm sector to attract this debt is encouraging. Yet, serious questions arise concerning agriculture's liquidity position, repayment capacity, and the actual performance of its finance market. Much of the increased debt came from land sellers, other individuals, and merchants and dealers. None of these are specialized lenders.

The location basis variability aspect of hedging commodities in futures should be of especial concern to Southern hog producers who might contemplate hedging in the live hog futures market. Location basis variability affects hedgers who, like Southern hog producers, are distant from designated futures contract delivery points and cannot, as a practical matter, make (or take) physical delivery to discharge their obligation under a futures contract. To liquidate hedges, Southern producers would have no real alternative but to market hogs locally and purchase offsetting futures contracts. Any change in the spatial relationship of hog prices between the time a hedge was placed and when it was lifted causes a disparity between the intended and actual outcome of the hedge, hence, the term location basis variability. Hedgers with access to a delivery-point market are more or less insulated from its effect, because of the delivery option. Since hedging is presumably conducted to reduce the effects of price variability on the enterprise, location basis variability stands as a potential barrier to the usefulness of hedging to Southern hog producers.

The use of the futures market as an aid in marketing farm commodities has been gaining in popularity among producers. Current hedging practices are largely based on average basis or basis movement over some historical time period. The difficulty with this approach is that the year to year variation in the calculated basis is large and using the mean value to predict basis in a given year does not give a highly accurate estimate. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine if regression analysis could be used to accurately predict the harvest basis at planting time, and (2) to evaluate the performance of alternative hedging strategies using historical average basis estimates versus basis estimates based on regression analysis.

With the industrialization that has been occurring in the agricultural sector, various agricultural commodity interests are increasingly recognizing the need for an organization for marketing. Once formed, commodity organizations commonly wish to develop markets for their product but likely lack the expertise to evaluate alternatives open to their organization for market development. In addition, no comprehensive statement of the market development concept has appeared in the literature. This situation lends impetus to the need for a definition and description of market development along with the alternatives which may exist for various marketing institutions.

Perhaps the degree of accuracy with which migration has been recorded and studied in the U.S. is unique to the relative youth of the nation in historical terms. However, many of the phenomena associated with migration that have economic significance are still very poorly understood. One of these is the functioning of the rural-urban labor market in the migration process. This particular aspect of the migration process is examined in this paper.

Specific information on the job research process of 396 migrants from Eastern Kentucky is reported and compared with previous research findings - with subsequent generalizations regarding the policy implications of observed patterns of job search activity.

This paper discusses plant location models applied to a honey processing-marketing cooperative firm with emphasis on sensitivity of findings to some alternative objectives and specifications. Though the study was nationwide in scope, the southern regions of the United States played a significant role in the analyses.

The first objective was to determine the number, size, and location of honey processing plants which would minimize total assembly, processing, and product shipment cost. In pursuit of the first objective, two of several questions receiving consideration were: 1. In comparing an optimizing least-cost result to an actual operating cost result, what is a valid specification of “actual” cost? 2. Is there a simple way of checking on the validity of a minimum cost solution?

The commercial farm problem is often defined as a disequilibrium condition in which agriculture's productive capacity exceeds utilization at socially acceptable prices. However, commodity supplies are determined by the level and composition of resources committed to their production. While the commercial farm problem surfaces as a production-utilization disequilibrium, basically it is a resource imbalance problem.

Resource imbalances in agriculture result in an inefficient organization of the industry. To be efficient, resource use in the farm industry must satisfy three conditions:

1. the allocation of resources among agricultural and non-agricultural products must result in output and price levels that reward identical resources equally,

2. the use of resources in agriculture must result in a product mix geared to the relative demands for different products, and

3. each farm product must be produced at minimum factor cost.

The research reported in this paper focuses on the last efficiency condition. More specifically, we estimate the level and combination of resources for historical production levels of feed grains, wheat, soybeans, cotton and tobacco that minimize factor cost.

During the past two decades corn production has increased in the South Atlantic region defined as Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia but not as rapidly as total U. S. production. The region accounted for 6.7 percent of the U. S. corn production in 1950 compared with 3.7 percent in 1970. During the same period soybean production has increased in the South Atlantic relative to other areas, accounting for 5.3 percent of U. S. production in 1970, up from 2.9 percent in 1950.

The major consumer of both corn and soybeans is the livestock industry. During the past twenty years this industry has expanded in the South Atlantic. In terms of grain consuming animal units (GCAU), the region accounted for 7.4 percent of U. S. production in 1953 compared with 9.1 percent in 1970. As a result the area is a deficit producer of both corn and soybeans, although with the relative increase of soybean production, the soybean deficit is expected to decrease.

It is widely recognized that outdoor recreation is an important segment of our economy. Most recent efforts to quantify the size of the recreational segment of our economy result in determining only isolated parts of total recreational value. This is particularly true of efforts to determine the value of various aspects of publicly owned natural resource systems. This paper presents procedures to estimate total recreational value of water in a river basin system: the Kissimmee River Basin, Florida.

In September, 1968 the Tennessee Valley Authority recommended construction of two dams on the Duck River in middle Tennessee. Subsequently, an environmental impact statement (EIS) was prepared which further described the plan and provided a summary of the national economic efficiency justification for its implementaion. Table 1 summarizes the EIS justification. However, the accuracy of the EIS analysis may be subject to question. This paper evaluates the sensitivity of the EIS national economic analysis to changes in expansion benefit estimates, reconsideration of cost estimates and their use, and the discount rate used for analysis. Also discussed is the consideration given to alternatives to the Duck River Project, and institutional limitations on the TVA's mission that affect the use of economic analysis.

The simulation model discussed in this paper evolved from problems encountered in estimating future United States cropland availability as part of the OBERS agricultural projection system. Available literature describing land use changes indicate that land resource economists have not been concerned with projecting future patterns of land use implied by historic observations.

Some research has involved selection of optimum cropping patterns for agricultural cropland subject to alternative flood plain management policies. However, the broader application of such models between sectors (agriculture, industrial, urban, etc.), in the main, has been ignored. Because of “historical bias” there has not been a concerted effort to develop analytical capabilities for use in evaluating the future implications of alternative regional and/or national policies designed to alter trends in land use shifts.