Recreation trends indicating an increasing demand for quality recreation experiences suggest the need for special consideration of quality in analysis of fee access recreation. By viewing quality as a subjective latent variable, this paper uses a simultaneous equation framework to consider the use of subjective versus objective appraisals of quality in fee-based recreation access analysis.

Recreation demand studies have traditionally utilized a two-step valuation method, estimating conditional recreation participation probabilities and then intensity of use decisions. These two steps of analysis are combined to estimate the use value of natural resource recreation sites. The purpose of this paper is to provide a method by which use value can be estimated solely from the participation decision. The one-step resource valuation method allows estimation of use values from coefficients of the logistic regression recreation participation equation. The benefits of the method are the reduced data and effort required to value natural resource areas.

Output supplies and input demands were estimated for each of five South Central states. The model structure in each state was based on prior parametric tests of homothetic separability, and estimates were generally consistent with a competitive, profit-maximizing industry. Considerable diversity among states was evident in selected production relationships. These results further document the non-uniform ways in which producers respond to government farm programs and market information.

An eleven-region stochastic coefficient econometric model was estimated and used in an optimal control framework to evaluate the effectiveness of the dairy price support program and marketing orders in reducing and stabilizing government purchases of dairy products. The results showed significant pressure on the reduction of the support price both in the presence and absence of Class I differentials. The optimal control model also showed that the drop in price support levels did not dramatically alter the regional distribution of milk production.

Quality factors affecting fed cattle prices were examined during a six-month period in southwestern Kansas. Transaction prices were significantly affected by the percentage of cattle expected to grade choice times the choice-to-select carcass price spread, finish uniformity, average weight, dressing percentage, breed, number of cattle purchased by a single packer on a given day, the packer, the feedyard, the day-of-the-week the cattle were sold, and the number of bids received. Asking prices were significantly affected by many of the same factors. Asking and transaction prices reflected approximately 25 percent of the packer value differentials for expected carcass quality grades.

A model of the political economy of agricultural policy formulation was used to analyze the current stalemate in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations. The combination of social welfare increasing and transferring policies in the European Community and the U.S. is one of the primary causes of the deadlock in trade negotiations. The Community's farm policy of high internal price supports, limited market access, and export subsidies represents short-term equilibria in the market for social-welfare policies which distribute benefits to producers at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. Thus, the opportunity for internal reform of the CAP leading to a compromise in the GATT negotiations is problematic at best. However, international commitments to agricultural policy reform will force the Community to make concessions which will bring equivalent change in domestic policy.

The economic context for rural development has changed markedly since the 1970s. While natural resource industries have continued to decline in importance as rural employers, the internationalization of markets, reorganization of industries, new production technologies, and the rapid development of new information technologies have eroded the competitive position of many rural areas with respect to other industries. In the South, as well as in the rest of the country, the critical rural issue for the 1990s is whether rural areas will be able to find niches to replace those they lost in the 1980s. Thus far, the new economy has been primarily an urban economy, and most rural areas have been left out. This has serious implications for rural development policy.

Variability in feed prices and crop yields are important sources of risk to dairy farmers. A simulation model of a representative dairy farm was used to evaluate crop insurance and hedging as risk management strategies. These strategies lowered expected net returns but also reduced risk. The preferred set of strategies at lower levels of risk aversion included hedging and crop insurance, although a base scenario in which no risk management strategies were employed was also efficient. The preferred strategy at higher levels of risk aversion was a combination of crop insurance and hedging.

A discussion of rural development policy could focus on a number of issues surrounding the economic well-being of rural communities and rural residents. Research shows that rural America is experiencing many problems including widespread stagnation in job creation, reduced rates of population growth, substantial outmigration, and underdeveloped human resources (Brown et al.). According to Rasmussen, the first rural development efforts (e.g., improving physical characteristics of rural areas) met with quick and quantifiable success, but unemployment, persistent poverty, and inadequate housing may be more intractable.

Stochastic simulation was used to analyze revenues and costs for a small-scale catfish processing plant under various combinations of operating capacity utilization and price paid for live fish. The probability for a positive level of daily net income ranged from 11 to 100 percent depending on the price paid for live fish and level of operating capacity utilized. Daily average total cost per pound of live fish processed changed by 2.10 percent given a 10 percent change in live fish processed. Short-term cyclical patterns in revenues and costs suggest a need for financial planning to provide for possible year-end revenue shortfalls.

Economic analysis was conducted on hypothetical agronomic research on new crop cultivars for Arkansas dryland soybean and wheat producers. In relation to farmers' attitudes toward risk, the microeconomic effects and level of adoption of yield variability reducing cultivars were analyzed utilizing a production management decision-making model formulated with mathematical programming techniques. The study indicated that negative covariance between crops continues to be an effective means of reducing production risk associated with yield variability. However, under varying circumstances, agronomic research on the breeding of new soybean and wheat cultivars with reduced yield variability is worthwhile if there is only slight concurrent reduction in expected yields.

An econometric model of the dairy industry was used to estimate the effects on farmers, consumers, and taxpayers of nationwide adoption of the California nonfat solids standards for fluid milk. It was estimated that adoption of the California standards would raise farm-level milk prices by 1 to 5 percent in the short run and by 1 to 2 percent in the long run. The average retail price of fluid milk would rise by 9 to 13 cents per gallon. Dairy program costs fall under most scenarios, but could rise if surpluses fall to levels that would trigger increases in the support price.

Seasonal price premiums have been proposed as a means of dampening the highly seasonal patterns of milk production in Florida. A Markov decision bio-economic model of the breeding and replacement decisions was solved via stochastic dynamic programming and used to analyze the potential supply response to seasonal price premiums. The results of the analysis suggest that the seasonal milk supply in Florida is highly price inelastic.

An increasing emphasis on surface and groundwater quality and food safety may result in some form of pesticide regulations. A restricted profit function model of Georgia agriculture is used to examine the short-run effects of 2 and 5 percent reductions in all pesticides. Point estimates of short-run impacts, along with their 90 percent confidence intervals are presented.