Cotton and synthetic fiber competition in textile mills between 1961-1990 was examined using a time-varying parameter regression model. Results indicate that the structure of demand for cotton is not stable and cotton's share responses to changes in the prices of cotton and synthetic fiber vary over time. Cotton and synthetic fiber competition in textile mill use is essentially between cotton and noncellulosic fiber. Cellulosic fiber is not a cotton competitor.

Key determinants of monthly wholesale prices for 12 beef cuts include the quantity of the specific cut, stickiness in prices, marketing costs, quantities of pork and chicken, and seasonality. Seasonal patterns across the respective cuts are very different. Relative to the price in December, prices at the wholesale level in other months can be as much as 6 percent lower to as much as 21 percent higher.

This study investigated the influence of economic, personal, and attitudinal factors on the intended conservation effort of a sample of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract holders after their contracts have expired. Economic factors were found to dominate the decision about future conservation effort. Attitudes towards conservation were found to have no significant influence on the decision. This fact may relate to the recent changes in the regulatory environment brought about by the 1985 Food Security Act which changed conservation from a voluntary to regulated nature.

The economic impact of migrant farmworkers on an agriculture-dependent region is investigated. The direct effects of inflows of state and federal dollars for migrant services, and production of high-valued commodities are computed. Indirect and induced effects are modelled through the use of the IMPLAN input output model. Various alternatives to migrant labor are investigated, including production of less labor-intensive crops, acreage retirement, and contract H2A workers. Migrants are found to create substantial economic activity on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

The impact of an ad valorem pesticide tax on cropping patterns and pesticide use was examined in the South Central Texas Crop Reporting District. Output supply equations were econometrically estimated and used in the simulation. A 25 percent tax on pesticide was estimated to have major impacts on cropping patterns and on pesticide use. Assuming other input and output prices were unaffected, the supply of one important crop would fall by more than half. Demand for some of the highly soluble and persistent pesticides, which present the greatest threat to groundwater quality, would also decrease substantially (some as much as 50 percent).

A net trade model that includes environmental variables is used to analyze economic and environmental implications of various EC policies. There are environmental benefits from CAP reform, but a fertilizer tax results in greater nitrate and phosphate abatement. The input tax also results in smaller drops in EC farm income compared to CAP reform.

Feedforward networks have powerful approximation capabilities without the “explosion of parameters” problem faced by Fourier and polynomial expansions. This paper first introduces feedforward networks and describes their approximation capabilities, then we address several practical issues faced by applications of feedforward networks. First, we demonstrate networks can provide a reasonable estimate of a Bermudagrass hay fertilizer response function with the relatively sparse data often available from experiments. Second, we demonstrate that the estimated network with a practical number of hidden units provides reasonable flexibility. Third, we show how one can constrain feedforward networks to satisfy a priori information without losing their flexible functional form characteristic.

A multinomial logit model was estimated and used to analyze the impact of various producer characteristics on the adoption of flow-through and recirculating technology in soft-shelled crab production. Because of the industry's geographic isolation and high turnover rate, data was collected by personal interviews in 1991. The results suggest that increased adoption might be fostered by targeting education programs towards full time, family operated businesses in non-traditional production regions. However, development of effective education programs may be hindered by the lack of a significant relationship between producer adoption decisions and the information provided by university or extension personnel.

Optimal crop and livestock mix was determined for a representative Alabama farm using a dynamic programming model. Results indicate that decisions concerning livestock production are highly influenced by the amount of cotton base available on the farm. In most cases, increasing cotton base results in less cattle production. The triple base provisions of the 1990 Farm Bill, however, may give some cotton farmers an incentive to produce more stocker cattle during the winter months. Research results also indicate that the availability of farm programs can alter the optimal enterprise mix on a farm with no beginning base in cotton.

This classroom experiment allows students to explore pricing strategies available to the monopolist. Students are given full information about their costs but know nothing about demand except that it is simulated by the instructor. They submit their price-asked and quantity-offered records on one day and receive the quantity-sold response from the instructor on the next day, continuing this routine until they discover the profit-maximizing price and quantity. One of the objectives is to demonstrate that search strategies based on economic principles (MC=MR) can be more efficient than trial-and-error.

The impacts of program subsidy on productivity growth is investigated in this study. Mundlak's concept of endogeneity is applied to technical efficiency and generalized within a dual framework. Technology is described by an aggregate cost function while technical efficiency is conditional on a vector of state variables. Empirical evidence from the U.S. dairy sector supports the hypothesis that protectionism, in the form of program subsidy, is the source of considerable technical inefficiencies.

In a recent article in this Journal, Whitehead (1992) presents a method for estimating annual economic surplus for recreation trips to a natural resource site based on whether an individual participates in recreation at that site. Whitehead proposes his method as an alternative to the traditional two-stage travel cost approach. We contend that Whitehead's method contains two serious problems. The first is theoretical, and results in an overstatement of the value of recreation trips. The second is empirical, and pertains to the likely misspecification of his model in failing to incorporate what we feel is important sample information. We address these issues in order.

In Whitehead (1992), I proposed a one-step method of estimating recreational use values. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify several points made in the original paper and correct some mathematical errors. The criticisms raise three major issues that should be addressed: the theoretical construct of use value, diminishing marginal utility, and empirical specification. Before I address the criticisms I would like to emphasize that the one-step, recreation-participation method is not viewed as superior to the two-step, travel-cost method or any of its extensions. The method is a means of obtaining order of magnitude use-value estimates if the travel-cost method can not be implemented. To re-state one of the conclusions: “The one-step method is a useful, low-cost substitute for two-step travel cost models when research budgets are limited (Whitehead, 1992 p. 118).” This notion was underemphasized in the original paper.