Small research firms developing biotechnology applications often focus on establishing intellectual property rights (IPRs), which can then be sold to more established firms with existing market channels. This paper presents a method for valuing the IPRs for an innovation that lowers product production costs below those associated with the patented process of a monopolist. The application to Glucocerebrosidase enzyme from transgenic tobacco suggests an IPRs value of about $1.75 billion. Despite the innovator's market power, significant surplus gains also accrue to consumers. Further, U.S. antitrust laws that prohibit IPRs acquisition by the current monopolist increase consumer welfare by almost 50%.

The objective of this study is to analyze whether a discount or premium exists for coordination strategies in food processing, wholesale grocery, retail supermarkets, and restaurants. Significant premiums are found for food processor and restaurant vertical integration or diversification strategies. Significant discounts are found for food wholesaler and retail supermarket integration or diversification strategies. Food processors are found to be integrating toward retail supermarkets during this time period.

In-person interviews were carried out with Mexican millers who were administered a conjoint-type survey designed to incorporate uncertainty in attribute levels. Two methods were used to model millers' risk preferences: a modified mean-variance approach and an explicit expected utility approach. Controlling for variability, Mexican millers are willing to pay premiums for increases in quality factors such as test weight, protein content, falling number, and dough strength/extensibility. We find millers are not particularly sensitive to changes in the variability of quality characteristics. Out-of-sample forecasts suggest the mean-variance model provides an accurate depiction of actual Mexican imports.

Our study uses the data collected during the implementation of the tobacco buyout program in Kentucky to evaluate how rural households, diverse in income, age, family structure, location, education level, and other characteristics, made a choice between annuities and a lump-sum payment. Subjects in our field experiment did not have to retire or change their employment, as did subjects in many field studies of the choice between annuities and lump-sum payments, which allowed us to evaluate the relationship between the option choice and a decision whether to exit the tobacco market. Our results suggest that while discounted utility theory gives acceptable predictions of the farmers' behavior, other factors have to be taken into consideration. First, there are consistent biases that describe individual intertemporal behavior, such as availability bias or acquiescence bias. Second, there is a certain degree of heterogeneity in individual intertemporal preferences that correlates with their personal characteristics, such as education and production status. Third, our analysis revealed that the decision to exit the tobacco market positively correlated with the decision to take a lump-sum payment.

Production functions to explain regional wheat yields have not been studied extensively in the Canadian prairies. The objective of this study is to employ a Just-Pope production function to examine the relationship between fertilizer inputs, soil quality, biodiversity indicators, cultivars qualifying for Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR), and climatic conditions on the mean and variance of spring wheat yields. Using regional-level wheat data from Manitoba, Canada, model results show nitrogen fertilizer, temporal diversity, and PBR wheat cultivars are associated with increased yield variance. Mean wheat yield is reduced by the proportion of land in wheat, the interaction of growing temperature and precipitation, and spatial diversity. By contrast, higher soil quality and PBR wheat cultivars increase mean yield. The wheat yield increases attributed to PBR range from 37.2 (1.4%) to 54.5 kg/ha (2.0%). Plant Breeders' Rights may have enhanced royalties from increased certified seed sales, but the benefits in terms of higher wheat yield or lower yield variability are limited. Future research is required to understand the interactive effects of fertilization practices, genetic diversity, and environmental conditions on regional wheat yield stability.

This study applies portfolio theory to rice varietal selection decisions to find profit maximizing and risk minimizing outcomes. Results based on data from six counties in the Arkansas Delta for the period 1999-2006 suggest that sowing a portfolio of rice varieties could have increased profits from 3 to 26% (depending on the location) for rice producers in the Arkansas Delta. The major implication of this research is that data and statistical tools are available for rice producers to improve the choice of rice varieties to plant each year in specific locations. Specifically, there are large potential gains from combining varieties that are characterized by inverse yield responses to growing conditions such as drought, pest infestation, or the presence of a specific disease.

This article analyzes factors that affected the decision to exit tobacco production in the wake of the tobacco buyout program using the data collected through a survey of Kentucky tobacco farmers. Using the Heuristic logistic regression model, we find that the decision to exit tobacco growing was affected by efficiency considerations, availability of off-farm employment, and exit barriers. Availability of off-farm employment had the strongest effect on farmers younger than 46, while the effect of variables measuring efficiency and exit barriers seemed to be more uniform across age groups. Based on the results we suggest several policy interventions.

This study investigates the determinants affecting producers' adoption of some Best Management Practices (BMPs). Priors about the signs of certain variables are explicitly accounted for by testing for inequality restrictions through importance sampling. Education, gender, age, and on-farm residence are found to have significant effects on the adoption of some BMPs. Farms with larger animal production are more apt to implement manure management practices, crop rotation, and riparian buffer strips. Also, farms with larger cultivated acres are more inclined to implement herbicide control practices, crop rotation, and riparian buffer strips. Belonging to an agro-environment club has a positive impact for most BMPs.

A web-based contingent behavior analysis was developed to quantify the effect of both negative and positive information treatments and post harvest processes on demand for oysters. Results from a panel model indicate that consumers of raw and cooked oysters behave differently after news of an oyster-related human mortality. While cooked oyster consumers take precautionary measures against risk, raw oyster consumers exhibit optimistic bias and increase their consumption level. Further, by varying the source of a counter-information treatment, we find that source credibility impacts behavior. Oyster consumers, and in particular, raw oyster consumers, are most responsive to information provided by a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization. Finally, post harvest processing of oysters has no impact on demand.

We estimate adults' willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce health risks to their own or other families' infants to test for altruism. A conjoint analysis of adults paying for bottled water found marginal WTP for reduction in risk of shock, brain damage, and mortality in the cash treatment of $2, $3.70, and $9.43, respectively. In the hypothetical market these amounts were $14, $26, and $66, indicating substantial hypothetical bias, although not unexpected due to the topic of infant health. Statistical tests confirm a high degree of altruism in our WTP results, and altruism held even when real money was involved.

Animal welfare concerns are having dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets. Here we examine consumer preferences for pork products with a focus on use of gestation crates. We examine underlying consumer valuations of pork attributes while considering preference heterogeneity as well as voluntary and legislative alternatives in producing gestation crate-free pork. Our results suggest that prohibiting swine producers from using gestation crates fails to improve consumer welfare in the presence of a labeling scheme documenting voluntary disadoption of gestation crates. Consumers are found to implicitly associate animal welfare attributes with smaller farms. Preference heterogeneity drives notably diverse consumer welfare impacts when pork produced with use of gestation crates is no longer available for consumption.

This study analyzes consumer purchasing behavior of organic fresh fruits and vegetables using the 2006 Nielsen Homescan panel. An ordered logit model was estimated to quantify the impacts of economic and socio-demographic factors on the probability of a household belonging to a specific organic user group—devoted, casual, or nonuser. Results suggest that price and income, to some extent, affect consumer purchases of organic produce. Additionally, the profile of an organic produce user is most likely to consist of an Hispanic household residing in the Western United States with children under 6 years old and a household head older than 54 years with at least a college degree.

The generalized dynamic Rotterdam model was used in estimating U.S. demand for disaggregated catfish. The overall goal was to examine habit persistence in consumption and to determine the adjustment process in demand. Results indicated that it took up to 1 month for catfish-product demand to fully adjust to changes in expenditures and prices. Additionally, habit persistence played a role in demand where present consumption of a given product was positively affected by past consumption of that product. Consequently, U.S. catfish demand was significantly more elastic in the long-ran.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tariffs on U.S. potato imports to Mexico were phased out by 1993. Citing phytosanitary issues, in 1996, the Mexican government placed quantitative restrictions on U.S. potato imports and restricted their import only to designated border areas. This article estimates the welfare cost of restricting U.S. potato imports into Mexico. We find that removing trade restrictions may lead to over 1.8 million tons of new imports into Mexico, a gain of consumer surplus of 4.0 billion pesos per year, and a loss of 2.9 billion pesos of producer surplus.

This paper considers how the welfare of U.S. sugar producers can be affected by the use of production controls in the presence of rising sugar imports and falling sugar prices, taking into account the negative externalities associated with U.S. sugar production. Even if production controls are used, producer welfare can be affected negatively under rising imports.

This study elicits preferences for multimedia in the classroom for students and faculty members in agricultural economics. Employing an Internet-based conjoint ranking survey, the results show that students prefer multimedia instructional tools over a traditional chalkboard/whiteboard lecture format while faculty members do not. Neither students nor faculty members are enthusiastic about electronic textbooks, and students will accept them only if they save $80. Finally, preferences for multimedia are shown to differ with students who self-report differing note-taking abilities, preferences for chalkboard lectures, and the need for an engaging class. Successful multimedia adoption requires appropriate use and lowering costs for students.