Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Comes First, Agricultural Growth Or Democracy?, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Today, the international community faces two major development challenges, how to ignite growth and how to establish democracy. Economic research has identified two plausible hypotheses regarding this association. The first hypothesis emphasizes the need to start with democracy and institutions that secure property rights. The second hypothesis emphasizes the need to start with physical and human capital accumulation. In this paper we discuss some of the econometric evidence on the relationship between institutions, human capital, and agricultural productivity growth across developed and developing countries with the objective of finding support for one or the other hypothesis. We use Barro type …

Leasing Decisions For The Volatile Year Ahead, Bruce B. Johnson

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimating Griliches' K-Shifts, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Griliches’ k-shift, a crucial parameter in the welfare evaluation of technological change, is shown to be equal to the radial rate of technological change plus a vector of commodity bias parameters obtained from the distance function. The analysis permits decomposition of sectoral productivity growth into productivity growth by commodity. The k-shifts estimated for wheat, corn, soybeans and beef in U.S. agriculture indicate a decrease in the marginal cost of production of corn, soybeans and wheat during the 1950-1993 years.

Department Of Agricultural Economics Publications In 2007

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Annual Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publication List (for 2007)

The Impact Of Technological Change On A Competitive Industry, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study analytically evaluates the impact of technological change on output and input markets in a competitive industry of identical firms. Firm-level technology and technological change are represented parametrically as local approximations to unknown functional forms. The comparative statics analysis solves for changes in equilibrium market prices and quantities as functions of parameters that characterize technological change. The technology-induced shift in industry supply is shown to equal the rate of technological change plus the share-weighted induced change in input prices. The model provides a consistent and systematic framework for evaluating the impact of technological change, either ex ante or ex …

Spatial Welfare Impacts Of A Grain Ethanol Plant, Justin Van Wart, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study inquires into the spatial welfare impacts of a grain ethanol plant established in an area with a beef feeding industry. Corn producers will benefit, but by how much? Why do plants seem to price their animal feed byproduct so low that beef producers may benefit from lower feed costs, despite the higher corn price? Why do ethanol plants in some areas dry all their byproduct feed while in other areas plants sell it all in wet form? How are these outcomes affected by the density of corn production, by the density of feedlots, and by the size of …

Rates Of Return To Public Agricultural Research In 48 U.S. States, Alejandro Plastina, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The internal rate of return (IRR) to public investment in agricultural R&D is estimated for each of the continental U.S. states. Theoretically, our contribution provides a way of obtaining the returns to a local public good using Rothbart’s concept of virtual prices. Empirically, we use the spatial dependency among states generated by knowledge spillovers to define the ‘appropriate’ jurisdiction. We estimate an average own-state rate of 17% and a social rate of 29%. These figures should inform the policy debate on the allocation of federal funds to research in the actual food crisis environment.

Updating The Farm Bill Safety Net In An Expanding Sea Of Risk, Wes Harris, Bradley Lubben, James Novak, Larry Sanders

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Several months past due, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act (FCEA) of 2008 (P.L. 110-246) is now law. Reform, budget, and national and international politics were central issues fueling a debate that resulted in this new bill. Whether this new Farm Bill will ultimately succeed in providing an adequate farm and food safety net and whether it is a “good” or “bad” bill depends on one’s perspective. As to cost, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores the bill at $307 billion for a 5–year period (2008–2012), with 68% going to nutrition, 11% to commodity programs, 8% of estimated expenditures to …

Ethanol And Food Prices - Preliminary Assessment, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Food prices in the U.S. rose dramatically in 2007 and early 2008. Given the integration of the world markets for foodstuffs, prices increased around the world as well, leading to riots in a number of countries in early 2008. The popular press has tended to attribute these food price increases to demand for corn by the ethanol industry. Grain prices are one determinant of food prices, but they constitute less than 5% of food costs in the U.S.(a higher percentage elsewhere.) This paper focuses on the likely relationship between ethanol and food prices, ignoring the potential role of other important …

Rejoinder, Alejandro Onofri, Lilyan Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Public Inputs And Dynamic Producer Behavior: Endogenous Growth In U.S. Agriculture, Alejandro Onofri, Lilyan Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This paper is an attempt to understand the impact of public R&D and public infrastructure on the performance of the U.S. agricultural sector during the last part of the twentieth century. A neoclassical Solow growth model is not sufficient for this understanding given the sustained growth performance of the sector. We base our analysis on a well known endogenous growth model, the 'AK model' where nonconvexities are introduced through non-rival inputs. Based on these models and within the dynamic models that rationalize private and public decision making, we have identified three testable hypotheses regarding the aggregate agricultural production technology. They …

Switchgrass Cost Of Production: Data From On-Farm Trial, 2001-2005, Richard K. Perrin, Kenneth P. Vogel, Marty R. Schmer, Robert B. Mitchell

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Switchgrass is considered a potential commercial biomass feedstock but field scale production and production cost data have been limited. The costs of production incurred on ten commercial-sized fields in the northern Great Plains, between 2000 and 2005 have been reported in a scientific journal paper4. This report provides the detailed information, in English metric units, that was used to conduct the economic analyses. The average annualized cost to produce and store switchgrass on these farms was $60 per ton of dry matter, which translates to an ethanol feedstock cost of about $0.66-0.75 per gallon of ethanol, depending upon the ultimate …

Grain Ethanol - Why Consider Food For Fuel?, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Current U.S. energy policy encourages additional ethanol production through a combination of subsidies and mandates. Grain ethanol production converts a potential food into fuel. Concerns have been expressed that this drives up the price of food, and could contributed to world hunger problems. Other objections to grain ethanol have been raised: it might not reduce greenhouse gases much if at all; intensified cropping could deteriorate environmental resources, and it might increase smog in cities. Why, then, do proponents favor increased grain ethanol production? It is possible that it will educe greenhouse gas emissions; it can reduce petroleum imports, it can …

Net Energy Of Cellulosic Ethanol From Switchgrass, Marty R. Schmer, Kenneth P. Vogel, Robert B. Mitchell, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Perennial herbaceous plants such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) are being evaluated as cellulosic bioenergy crops. Two major concerns have been the net energy efficiency and economic feasibility of switchgrass and similar crops. All previous energy analyses have been based on data from research plots (<5m²) and estimated inputs. We managed switchgrass as a biomass energy crop in field trials of 3–9 ha (1 ha = 10,000m²) on marginal cropland on 10 farms across a wide precipitation and temperature gradient in the midcontinental U.S. to determine net energy and economic costs based on known farm …

Net Energy Of Cellulosic Ethanol From Switchgrass, Marty R. Schmer, Kenneth P. Vogel, Robert B. Mitchell, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Perennial herbaceous plants such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) are being evaluated as cellulosic bioenergy crops. Two major concerns have been the net energy efficiency and economic feasibility of switchgrass and similar crops. All previous energy analyses have been based on data from research plots (<5m²) and estimated inputs. We managed switchgrass as a biomass energy crop in field trials of 3–9 ha (1 ha=10,000m²) on marginal cropland on 10 farms across a wide precipitation and temperature gradient in the midcontinental U.S. to determine net energy and economic costs based on known farm inputs …

Managing Global Climate Change An Executive Interview With Carole Brookins, H. Douglas Jose

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Carole Brookins is an international consultant known for her work as a policy and trade strategist on issues concerning the global political economy and its effect on the food and agriculture sector. She currently serves on the board of several corporate and non- profit organizations concerned with global food system issues and is currently helping to develop solutions which can offset the effects of global climate change through the reduction and management of carbon emissions—an issue of increasing importance in future food marketing and world trade. Ms. Brookins served as U.S. Executive Director to The World Bank from 2001-2005 and …

Managing Global Climate Change An Executive Interview With David Lobell, H. Douglas Jose

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Many of the world’s poorest regions could face severe crop losses in the next two decades because of climate change, according to Dr. David Lobell, a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University in the program on Food Security and Environment.

The average world temperature is increasing slightly says Lobell and a one-degree Celsius increase over time greatly impacts climatic growing conditions. Unfortunately, agriculture is also the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate. Understanding where these climate threats will be is central to our efforts in fighting hunger and poverty over the coming decades. Dr. Lobell outlines some of …