Recent developments in the U.S. pecan industry appear to limit the utility of past research. The importance of pecan variety has emerged as an issue which could alter past results. The linear and double-log models previously fitted to all-pecans (averaged) data may be too restrictive and hence, are less useful for variety-specific analysis. Past research also analyzed price turning points using nominal data. This study investigated functional form and data-averaging problems by fitting separate flexible Box-Cox price-dependent models for all-pecans and each variety of pecans (1970/71-1988/89 deflated data). Results indicate: other nuts substitute for different pecan varieties, estimated all-pecans price flexibility is biased and clouds variety-specific flexibilities, and restrictive functional forms are inappropriate.

This study examined the relationship between debt position and choice of marketing instrument. Specifically, this study employed first and second degree stochastic dominance, and stochastic dominance with respect to a function to determine whether the efficient marketing instrument changes between debt positions. The results indicate that the choice of marketing instrument does vary with debt position in some marketing periods if the decisionmaker is moderately risk averse.

The world was astonished in 1989 by the initial collapse of socialist institutions and subsequently by the pace at which change swept across the Eastern European region. For a time, even the Soviet Union seemed to be moving toward greater political pluralism, market orientation and the effective end of the Cold War. It is now approaching two years since this political convulsion began (in Poland). This is sufficient time to enable the transition programs to take form, and to permit informed speculation about the potential for their success and, ultimately, how the Eastern European and Soviet situations could affect the farming and food sectors of our economy.

Recent investigations have provided mixed assessments of farm firm efficiency. This analysis examined the efficiency of a homogeneous sample of central Illinois grain farms over a six-year period. A best-practice frontier was constructed using the ray-homothetic function, which allowed optimal farm output to vary with factor intensity. Efficiency measures were found to increase with temporal aggregation. The ray-homothetic approach was found to attribute high scale inefficiencies to larger sample farms in cases where the factor shares did not vary appreciably across farms. The findings suggest that policy recommendations regarding farm efficiency must be made with care.

In January of 1990, Moscovites were introduced to “Big Maks” and “Kartofel fries” with the opening of a new McDonald's franchise in the heart of Moscow. A short time later, article six of the Soviet constitution was amended to remove the Communist Party's legal monopoly on power. By the end of 1990, McDonald's had surpassed the Lenin Mausoleum as the prime attraction in Moscow. The line for “Big Maks” is now longer than the line for viewing the preserved founder of the Soviet communist state. Between these events a cavalcade of economic and political events occurred. The pace of new announcements and decrees quickened during the last half of 1990 as the economy began to crumble.

Decisions regarding when to harvest and when to sell sweet potatoes are more complex than for other crops because yields continue to increase after the crop is initially ready for harvest, and sweet potatoes can either be sold at harvest or cured and stored for later sale. The optimum marketing decision, based on expected net revenue, is dependent on yield and prices and their variability, and on costs of storage. A marketing strategy is developed using Target MOTAD and data covering 21 years.

Tornquist input quantity indices were used to derive total and partial factor productivity measures for U.S. cotton across time, region, and scale. Total factor productivity for U.S. cotton increased .2 percent per year between 1974 and 1982. Partial productivity measures revealed that yield growth was about .6 percent and input use grew about .4 percent per year. Cotton enterprises in Alabama and Mississippi gained and those in the Texas High Plains lost competitive advantage relative to California. In 1982, very large (1750-5900 acres) and large (950-1749 acres) cotton enterprises were 2 percent more productive than medium-size enterprises (570-949 acres).

Empirical analysis of manufacturing plant location requires the use of a single industrial site quality measure. Under hedonic price theory, the price of industrial sites can be explained by their quality characteristics. The estimated site price is included with ten other location factors in an ordered, categorical logit model of plant attraction to Georgia counties. The results inform public decisionmakers of the relative impact of site location factors and how changes in location factors can alter the probability of attracting a manufacturing plant.

This analysis indicates that generic advertising expenditures, ceteris paribus, generated rightward shifts in demand for fluid milk in the Texas Market Order over the period January 1980 to September 1988. Generally, the results from this study are in agreement with previous research efforts which suggest that generic advertising can increase the demand for fluid milk. Importantly, in this analysis, the impacts of television and radio advertising have been effectively disentangled. Television advertising generates a response that wears off more quickly than radio advertising. Also, the long-run effect of radio advertising is about 1.75 times greater than the long-run effect of television advertising.

A logistic regression (logit) model was developed to examine how socioeconomic characteristics of cow-calf producers influenced their perceptions of themselves as profit maximizers. Amount of pasture acreage, percent of income earned from the cow-calf operation, and desire to increase net worth and efficiently use labor significantly increased the producer's probability of claiming to be in the business primarily to maximize profits. Some sociological reasons for owning cattle significantly reduced the probability of the producer claiming to be a profit maximizer while others significantly increased the probability.

This study determined probable future directions in U.S. value-added agricultural exports to middle-income developing countries (MIDCs) under the assumption of continued income growth. Import share equations for U.S. bulk, semi-processed and value-added wheat or beef products, as a percent of total U.S. wheat or beef product exports to each MIDC, were econometrically estimated using the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique. The empirical results indicate that in most MIDCs, increases in real per capita income have negative effects on the import share of processed wheat products while having positive effects on the import share of bulk wheat. However, import shares of U.S. processed beef products are likely to increase with income growth in most MIDCs.

This study used a new body of quarterly data to estimate multilateral import demand relations for soybeans and soymeal. The countries of origin were the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. The areas of destination were the EEC, Japan, and Eastern Europe. The results indicated that own- and cross-price elasticities were quite large. These demand relations were then inverted and solved for prices to examine the effect on total revenue of increases in supplies from each of the exporting countries. Results showed that, in all cases except one, own-total revenue was inflexible with respect to increase in the own-quantity supplied. These results imply that an increase in exports will be associated with smaller proportional increase in revenue from exports.

Much of the solid waste stream in the United States is generated by metropolitan areas, while associated landfills are often located in adjacent rural communities. Landfill disposal of municipal solid waste often creates external costs to nearby residents. Contingent valuation was used to estimate external costs of siting a landfill in the Carter community of Knox County, Tennessee. Estimates of annual external costs were $227 per household. Household income, size, years in the community, and distance from the proposed landfill and the respondent's education, sex, and perception of health risks were important in determining a household's willingness to pay to avoid having a landfill in the Carter community. Also, households whose (drinking water supplies were at risk of contamination were willing to pay $141 more than those who used piped city water or bottled water.

Marginal probability effects of demographic variables on consumer concerns about pesticide residues were assessed as well as the likelihood of consumer beliefs given different channels of information on produce safety and risks. This was done using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of ordered logit models. The empirical results showed that pesticide residue concern levels appeared to be lower for more highly educated and high income households. Safety information from the academic community was found to have the highest likelihood of acceptance by consumers.

Empirical tests were made of components of the corn basis in the U.S. utilizing a general theory of intertemporal price relationships for storable commodities. These tests showed that the basis consists of a risk premium, a speculative component, and a maturity basis apart from other factors such as storage costs for storable commodities. The results provide insights into factors affecting basis patterns for corn.

Conjoint analysis was used to examine buyer preferences toward farm-raised hybrid striped bass at the wholesale, retail, and restaurant levels. Low price and round form were found to be important attributes in the product preference rating for the wholesale and retail markets. The filleted form contributed the most to restaurants' preference rating. Following these, larger fish size was preferred by all markets.

Farm size and production costs are varied in a six state variable stochastic dynamic programming model that quantifies monthly hedging, storage, and cash cotton sale decisions for an Alabama cotton producer. State variables considered are: (1) cash cotton price; (2) basis level; (3) before-tax income level; (4) cotton holdings; (5) futures position; and (6) value of futures position. Results indicate that when farm size and production cost level differ, marketing decisions diverge the most for cash cotton sales at the end of the tax year and lower range of cash price (less than $.65/lb.), basis (less than -$.05/lb.), and before-tax income (less than $0.00) states.