While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research explaining social capital itself lags behind. The literature has a long tradition of examining the effect of social capital on local economic growth and development. In this paper we examine whether local economic development can explain the variation in social capital across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. We begin by devising a measurement tool, a Human Development Index (HDI), to measure community development. Our social capital measure includes associational memberships, voluntary activities, and philanthropy obtained from the Georgia Social Capital Survey. The findings show that even after accounting for various demographic and economic characteristics, the HDI explains the variation in a number of social capital levels (especially those measured by associational involvement) across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia.

The effects of the exchange rate, the U.S. agricultural price, the domestic income, and the interest rate on the U.S. net farm income are investigated in a cointegration framework. For this purpose, the Phillips-Hansen fully-modified cointegration (FM-OLS) procedure is applied to annual data for the period 1957-2008. Results suggest that there exists the long-run equilibrium relationship between the U.S. net farm income and the selected macroeconomic variables. We also find that the exchange rate and U.S. agricultural price are more important than other variables in determining the U.S. net farm income.

This study used and compared hypothetical conjoint analysis and nonhypothetical experimental auctions to elicit floral customers' willingness to pay for biodegradable plant containers. The results of the study show that participants were willing to pay a price premium for biodegradable containers, but the premium is not the same for different types of containers. This article also shows the mixed ordered probit model generates more accurate results when analyzing the conjoint analysis Internet survey data than the ordered probit model.

Several recent papers have used annual changes and monthly data to estimate demand systems. Such use of overlapping data introduces a moving average error term. This paper shows how to obtain consistent and asymptotically efficient estimates of a demand system using seasonally differenced data. Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application to the estimation of the U.S. meat demand are used to compare the proposed estimator with alternative estimators. Once the correct estimator is used, there is no advantage to using overlapping data in estimating a demand system.

This article tests the efficiency of the hog options market and assesses the impact of the 1996 contract redesign on efficiency. We find that the hog options market is efficient, but some options yielded excess returns during the live hogs period but not during the lean hogs period. Our findings indicate that the hog options market is efficient and is consistent with the new contract improving the efficiency of the market. However, other market conditions such as lower transaction costs during the lean hogs period can also contribute to reduce expected option returns during the latter period.

This article explores the similarities, differences, and implications from the 1970s-1980s experience for the macroeconomic dynamic that may arise from the 2008 price spike and subsequent recession. Role of monetary policy (deviations from Taylor rule) is assessed. This is an argument that has not been too prominent in public discourse about causes of the financial crisis or the policies undertaken to restore stability to financial markets and avoid an even deeper downturn than occurred. The “misery index” is compared across the past and recent macroeconomic events. Effects on agriculture of exchange rates are reviewed, effects dependent on currency values and interest rates that can change quickly and in unexpected ways.

The impacts of economic and demographic variables on the demand for food grain commodities in urban Jiangsu province of China are estimated, using both the QUAIDS and the AIDS models. Results show that the demands for wheat flour and coarse grains are price-elastic while the demands for rice and grain products are price-inelastic. Certain demographic variables show as having a significant impact on food grain demand. Finally, a decomposition of causes of changes in rice consumption over the period of 1995-2007 is performed.

In the last settler's syndrome, each new settler wants the area to remain as it was on their arrival. Newcomers' preferences often differ from long-term residents, and conflicts arise. To explore land use issues among various groups, a survey of opinions on mountain views was developed and administered to Watauga County residents in western North Carolina. Watauga County provides an interesting case study, because it is a growing area with an influx of newcomers along with long-time residents. The results suggest that agreements can be achieved on some land use issues, whereas disagreements will arise on others.

Hedging is one of the most important risk management decisions that farmers make and has a potentially large role in the level of profit eventually earned from farming. Using panel data from a survey of Georgia farmers that recorded their hedging decisions for 4 years on four crops, we examine the role of habit, demographics, farm characteristics, and information sources on the hedging decisions made by 57 different farmers. We find that the role of habit varies widely and that estimation of a single habit effect suffers from aggregation bias. Thus, modeling farmer-level heterogeneity in the examination of habit and hedging is crucial.

The interconnections of agriculture and energy markets have increased through the rise in the new biofuel agribusinesses and the oil-ethanol-corn linkages. The question is whether these linkages have a causal structure by which oil prices affect commodity prices and through these links, instability is transferred from energy markets to already volatile agricultural markets. In this article, we present empirical results using contemporary time-series analysis and Granger causality supplemented by a directed graph theory modeling approach to identify the links and plausible contemporaneous causal structures among energy and commodity variables. The results show that although there is a strong correlation among oil and commodity prices, the evidence for a causal link from oil to commodity prices is mixed.

A regime-switching model for analysis of market integration has been developed that incorporates rate of trade information. An application of the methods to United States–China soybean trade demonstrates that the extended trade information allows better interpretation of market conditions. While the empirical results show that China's reform efforts since mid 1990s toward an open market have greatly improved United States–China soybean markets integration, about 40% of nontransitional disequilibrium occurrences likely indicate infrastructural limits such as the lack of information availability and limited competition. The United States–China price linkage is observed to be closer after China's World Trade Organization membership. The link has also been found relatively slack during the South American soybean harvest.

Periodically, events occur in the domestic and global economies that remind agricultural economists that macroeconomics matter. This was evident in the early 1980s when the Federal Reserve responded to double-digit inflation by driving interest rates to post-World War II period highs. The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, rising oil prices this past decade, and current stress in domestic and overseas financial markets serve to remind us again that externalities can have an effect on the economic performance and financial strength of U.S. agriculture. These effects are transmitted through interest rates, inflation, unemployment, real gross domestic product, and exchange rates.

Machinery-sharing provides an alternative for smaller producers to obtain the efficiencies of large farming operations and remain competitive in an increasingly concentrated agricultural industry. This research uses a multiple case study design to examine the motivations for sharing equipment and labor among farms and to better understand how group members handle the transaction costs of sharing. Our case evidence finds that in addition to cost savings, access to reliable labor is an important motivation for participating in a sharing arrangement. Trust and frequent communication among group members helps to minimize the transaction costs incurred from sharing.

The development of the commodity programs in the 2008 Farm Bill involved the origination of two complex revenue support initiatives. The two new programs, Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) and Supplemental Revenue Assurance (SURE), expanded the risk management tool kit of agricultural producers. The SURE program is a permanent disaster assistance program, whereas the ACRE program is a revenue-based commodity program offered as an alternative to the price-based Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) created in the 2002 Farm Bill. For the 2009 signup, only 7.7% of eligible U.S. farms enrolled in the ACRE program. In the southern region, three states had no farms electing ACRE and four others had less than 50. Excluding Oklahoma, less than 1% of all farms in 13 southern states made the ACRE election.

Farm-level data from Illinois and Kansas for the 1991-2007 crops are used to examine the interaction and overlap among crop revenue insurance, Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE), and Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE). Compared with 75% Crop Revenue Coverage Insurance (75% CRCP), ACRE provides more payments and has a greater impact on minimum farm revenue for the Illinois farms. In contrast, for the Kansas farms, 75% CRCP has the greater impact. SURE's relative impact on the Illinois and Kansas farms depends on the metric. The overlap in payments from ACRE and 75% CRCP resulting from covering the same part of the revenue risk distribution is estimated to be less than 5% of ACRE payments. Several proposals for improving the farm safety net are discussed.