Optimal control models of aggregate milk supply and demand behavior are used to describe the optimal phasing of the deregulatory dairy price support in the presence of supply growth. Producers are assumed to face costs of adjustment, and are myopic with respect to price expectations and the adoption of the new quasi-fixed factor augmenting technology.

The technical efficiencies of New York dairy farms were estimated using a frontier production function. The average farm was 69 percent efficient. Individual farm efficiency was regressed on variables not considered inputs to explain why a farm was not on the frontier. Favorable location in the state and larger size (cows) as proxies for technology lead to greater efficiency. Participation in the Dairy Herd Improvement Cooperative and use of mail-in computerized records as proxies for management result in a reduction in efficiency. However, only 9 percent of variation in farm efficiency could be explained.

This paper examines the possible use of information on the relative marginal costs of point and nonpoint source water pollution abatement to assess the efficiency implications of shifting a greater portion of the burden for water quality protection to nonpoint sources. The inherent uncertainty about the effects of changes in resource allocation for nonpoint pollution abatement on nonpoint pollution loads is recognized in the analysis. This uncertainty is shown to result in significant limitations on the use of marginal cost comparisons even when point and nonpoint pollutants are perfect substitutes.

Most econometric studies of the groundfish sector have suggested that either imports are not sensitive to U.S. prices, or that domestic prices are not much affected by imports, or both. Using a six equation model of the domestic fresh groundfish market we obtained contrasting results. For example, a 5.82 percent tariff of the type proposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission in 1986 would, if it applied to both whole fish and fillets, lower imports of fresh fish 3.7 percent and raise domestic ex-vessel prices 2.6 percent in the long run. The main reasons for the different results appear to be our inclusion of exchange rate effects and a more accurate measure of total fresh imports.

This paper examines the forces that affected the Northeastern fresh tomato supply in the post-WWII period. A simultaneous equation model is developed which incorporates a composite price expectation model, supply response, and factors affecting regional price. Findings reveal that data are consistent with the Rational Expectation Hypothesis. Urban pressure played a major role in shifting supply response while shipments from competing areas had a modest impact on regional production or price. The positive elasticity of producers' revenue with respect to local production highlights the aggregate benefits of increasing yields.

Simulation was used to analyze the distribution of benefits from the 1981 and 1982 federal income tax legislation for farm types that exhibit various tax characteristics. The results indicate that distributional effects are largely attributable to the reduced progressivity of the tax rate schedule. The largest farms benefited relative to the smaller farms of all farm types. Intensive livestock farms and producers of perennial crops experience additional benefits relative to other farm types primarily because of the large reduction in useful life for tax purposes of specialized livestock facilities, orchards, and vineyards.

The pure theory of international trade, in its most elementary form, is predicated on differences in resource endowments between different countries. It has been argued, most notably by the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin, that the existence of such inter-country differences in resource endowments explain the comparative cost differences between the factors of production, and hence the prevalence of trade. In the mid 1950's though, W. W. Leontiev's findings with regard to the nature of U.S. trade gave rise to considerable controversy because of the paradoxical nature of the findings. In this paper, the findings of Leontiev are examined and the seemingly anomalous trade patterns of India and Japan are also explored. It will be seen that while the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem (to be explained) still holds, resource endowments in themselves are never a complete explanation of trade patterns.