We detail the rewards and barriers to participating in multidisciplinary research (MDR) using a 2011 survey of applied economists at U.S. universities. We compare these findings with an earlier 1993 survey to assess if rewards and barriers have changed over time. Different administrative levels of U.S. universities are sending contradictory signals regarding rewards from MDR. External funding agencies convey positive signals. Although the scope and breadth of questions addressed by applied economists are changing over time, institutional incentives and reward structures are not keeping pace with these changes. Progress toward adapting to new professional demands has been slow.

The effectiveness of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in achieving its goals at the national, regional, and state level is unknown. Using US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data from all states and territories for the years 2000-2006, the impact of program and participant characteristics and returns to scale on the three outcome indicators used by the USDA are estimated. Program and participant characteristics do not seem to be as important as the amount of money spent on the program. Generally speaking, there are constant and increasing returns to scale for two of the three federal outcome indices for most states but not all.

Information about consumer welfare effects associated with quantity changes in demand is important for agricultural and food policy decision-makers because many policy options are directly related to controlling supplies as a means to stabilize or raise commodity prices and farmers' income. A new method is developed to measure the consumer welfare effects by using the estimates of an inverse demand system and a modified quantity-adjusted Malmquist index to represent the efficiency in quantity metric welfare. The methodology is validated by applying it to a U.S. inverse food demand system consisting of 13 food groups and a nonfood sector.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a point of purchase advertising program conducted for two local horticultural brands in Texas. The results based on surveys gathered before and after the program was launched suggest that the campaign size was not sufficient to significantly increase brand awareness and overall demand, yet it increased willingness to pay by 5.5% for those consumers aware of one of the brands. A major factor found to increase willingness to pay and likelihood of brand awareness was purchase frequency measured in transactions per month, which suggests that other advertising methods aimed to increase buying frequency might affect demand more effectively.

In this article, we examine disclosure as a tool to mitigate the effects of asymmetric information in a Thoroughbred yearling market. If disclosures influence market price, information contained therein must be valuable to buyers and hence diminish asymmetric information. Using public auction data, we find that disclosures do not influence price in a segment of the auction in which an implicit quality certification is available. However, in the other segment, we find evidence that some disclosures may provide valuable information to buyers.

Using Missouri Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifers Inc. sale data, this article uses hedonic modeling to assess the marginal implicit values of physical and genetic characteristics, expected performance characteristics of calves, and market factors to bred heifer price. In 2008, a higher quality standard, known as Tier II, was created combining minimum expected progeny difference (EPD) accuracies for a heifer's sire with previous heifer standards. Heifer characteristics and market factors as well as yearling and carcass weight EPDs were found to significantly influence heifer price. Results suggest that Tier II heifers receive a premium compared with traditional Show-Me-Select heifers.

Using farm-level panel data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture, this research examines whether hog producers with production contracts increased output more, or were more likely to survive in business over 5 years, compared with independent producers. Additionally, this research examines whether independent producers who adopted a production contract grew more than similar independent operations who did not contract. The local availability of contracts serves as an instrumental variable to address the potential endogeneity of the contracting decision. Results indicate that the use and adoption of production contracts affect farm size growth and survival differently depending on the initial size of an operation.

This article investigates how information from cotton yield monitors influences the perceptions of within-field yield variability of cotton producers. Using yield distribution modeling techniques and survey data from cotton producers in 11 southeastern states, we find that cotton farmers who responded to the survey tend to underestimate within-field yield variability (by approximately 5-18%) when not using site-specific yield monitor information. Results further indicate that surveyed cotton farmers who responded to a specific question about yield monitors place a value of approximately $20/acre/year (on average) on the additional information about within-field yield variability that the yield monitor technology provides.

Combinations of futures and options contracts on milk and feed were simulated to determine their influence on a representative dairy farm's ability to meet cash flow requirements and reduce the variance of net income. Compared with the reference scenario of selling milk and procuring inputs on a monthly cash basis, the risk management activities did not result in a significant change in either the level or variance of net farm income. The results suggest that on average the current marketing procedure of monthly cash milk pricing and monthly feed purchases (and pricing) produces a strong built-in natural hedge for dairy farmers.