This paper estimates changes in demand for imported wines by source country and resulting welfare effects due to Section 301 tariffs imposed on certain European wines in October 2019. A two-stage expenditure allocation scheme is used to estimate the import demand for red, white, and other wines in the first stage, and source-differentiated red wine and white wine demand in the second stage. From derived price elasticities measuring first and second stage interactions, welfare measures are simulated capturing effects of the new tariffs on both taxed and non-taxed exporters as well as the US importers of red and white wine.

The Net Present Value Sire Summary Professional Package (NPVSS) is a microcomputer program designed for technical personnel to help dairy producers better manage investments in genetic improvement. NPVSS is written in C language, utilizes the MS-DOS operating system, and requires 256K of RAM. It is menu driven and includes parameter screens to define herd management characteristics of individual producers. Profit rankings of bulls can be generated to evaluate alternative: a) objective functions (selection policies for genetic merit in milk income and type scores), b) herd management performance factors (conception rate, calving interval, age at first calving), and c) economic factors (milk price, semen price, discount rate, planning horizon).

The market for agribusiness extension activities and programming is diverse, intensely competitive, and national or international in scope. It is a market that agricultural economists cannot serve alone. Despite these complexities, a strong agribusiness extension effort is critical to the success of agribusiness research and teaching programs. Agribusiness extension opportunities include extending traditional agricultural economics research, small business management programs, economic/technical education programs, and management education. Keys for conducting successful agribusiness extension programs include understanding client needs, locating and employing the best instructional talent available, and flawless execution of the activity. Stimulating faculty interest in agribusiness extension is a major challenge. Most schools will have the opportunity to focus their traditional extension education efforts on the non-traditional agribusiness audience. A few schools will be successful in developing a new extension program emphasis in agribusiness management education. Both types of contributions are important for the long-run viability of the profession.

A five-year, 0-1, mixed integer programming model was developed to analyze the effects of 1990 Farm Bill legislation on the crop-mix decisions made on cotton farms. Results showed that, when compared to the 1985 Farm Bill, the 1990 Farm Bill can result in higher whole-farm income despite new "triple base" provisions limiting payment acres. The increase in income results from elimination of limited cross-compliance provisions and the change to a three-year base calculation. The model was also used to assess the likely impact of possible changes in the current legislation.

As national and local economies become more globalized, many rural areas are going to find it more difficult to compete for private capital investments. A traditional tool, modifications to tax policy, of state and local governments will not be as effective (for many communities it has never been effective) in the future. These communities will need to seek other avenues of growth. However, for many rural communities even alternative avenues will not lead to enhanced economic opportunity.

The relevance of macroeconomic theory to the analysis of economic behavior in the agricultural sector is a recurring theme in applied research in this area. On the one hand, it is possible to find the view that the agricultural sector should be treated in isolation as an independent market or set of markets not subject to the influences of changes in monetary and fiscal policy or (other) changes in aggregate demand and supply. On the other hand, it is also possible to find literal acceptance of the usefulness of macroeconomics—perhaps in the form of a particular version of the theory—with the controversial part surfacing in the particular view of macroeconomics and how it bears on (and is influenced by) agricultural markets. The fact that this dichotomy exists is highlighted by the contrasting views expressed recently by Breimyer (1981) and Tweeten. At the same time that Breimyer advocated that “macro-economics should be struck from the lexicon,” Tweeten chose to devote his AAEA Presidential address to a discussion of the implications of current developments in macroeconomic theory and policy for the agricultural sector; his particular emphasis is on the important role of “supply-side” macroeconomics.

Cotton producers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas face continuing economic pressures arising from increasing costs of productive inputs, yield-reducing infestations of insecticide-resistant pests, and often adverse climatic conditions. The input price increases in the LRGV are similar to those in other production regions of the U.S. However, insect problems arising from the LRGV climate are unique. LRGV farmers have been unable to control late-season tobacco bud-worm infestations which often reach damaging levels when beneficial insects are destroyed by insecticide treatments for boll weevils [3]. These late-season insect infestations are a result of the predominantly excessive rainfalls which occur during the harvest months of August and September. Moreover, high rainfall during harvest reduces both the quality and level of cotton yields [1].

Pesticides have become a major input for commercial agriculture. The quantity of pesticides applied annually is approximately 140 million pounds. Even with this level of pesticide use, research indicates that per an additional dollar of pesticide use, returns are increased two to four dollars. However, recent emphasis on environmental quality has caused considerable pressure to discontinue use of some pesticides. This raises important questions regarding the impact of withdrawing specific pesticides from commercial agriculture.

In response to possible cancellations, research has been directed toward establishing expected effects. However, much of the completed research is directed principally at the producer level and associated economic consequences of restricting the use of a pesticide. Some of the pesticides evaluated are phenoxy herbicides, organochlorines and chlordane. Other studies have considered the effect of a tax and change in government farm policy on level of pesticide use.

The effects of variation in household age-sex composition on food expenditures are not, conventionally, accounted for when food expenditures are expressed on a per capita basis. Because households differ in physical makeup as well as in their ability to generate income, the specific requirements certain household members place on the family budget raise the problem of determing their relative economic position. The per capita approach fails to reflect the effect of variations in household composition on food expenditures. Therefore, it is desirable to isolate the normal food expenditure relation to the “household-specific” effects.

Recent developments in the U.S. pecan industry appear to limit the utility of past research. The importance of pecan variety has emerged as an issue which could alter past results. The linear and double-log models previously fitted to all-pecans (averaged) data may be too restrictive and hence, are less useful for variety-specific analysis. Past research also analyzed price turning points using nominal data. This study investigated functional form and data-averaging problems by fitting separate flexible Box-Cox price-dependent models for all-pecans and each variety of pecans (1970/71-1988/89 deflated data). Results indicate: other nuts substitute for different pecan varieties, estimated all-pecans price flexibility is biased and clouds variety-specific flexibilities, and restrictive functional forms are inappropriate.

Employment history affects subsequent choices. Based on their original job choice, operators are divided into farmers and workers. Equations are estimated to determine their probabilities of working off-the-farm. Education increases the probability that workers work off-the-farm, whereas vocational training increases farmers' probability. The probability of working off-the-farm decreases as unearned income increases, and its impact on workers is larger than on farmers. An employed spouse increases the probability that farmers work off-the-farm, but has the opposite impact for workers. Employment density increases the probability that workers will work off-the-farm.

As a result of the increase in the real cost of fossil fuel-based energy in recent years, federal and state governments have taken a more active role in energy policy by creating incentives to develop alternative sources of energy, including biofuels. However, policymakers often become focused on the specific type of energy and not the energy services consumers ultimately value. The lack of recognition of energy as a commodity results in policies that ignore the characteristics of the associated markets: easy entry and exit, no barriers to entry, and sensitivity to changes in supply and demand. Consequently, energy industries may fail to arise because entrepreneurs must be able to account for all costs and earn—at a minimum—a competitive return on the investment. This article evaluates the options available to policymakers related to biofuels, which are of particular concern to the South, and includes an assessment of the knowledge base on which policy decisions are made.

This article analyzes the impact of removing the U.S. tobacco program inboth a partial and general welfare economics framework. In apartial-equilibrium framework, a consumer tax-funded quota buyout can resultin producer gains, consumer losses, net losses resulting from higher prices,and deadweight losses. In a general-equilibrium framework, society can gainfrom the buyout resulting from considerable potential savings from reducedhealthcare costs attributable to a reduction in smoking. Additionally, wepresent a model that addresses the addictive qualities of tobacco whileconsidering the effects of the quota buyout. We also conclude that anotherpossible effect of the buyout is an increase in worker productivity becauseemployees who are able to quit smoking reduce the amount of smoking-relatedsick days taken.

This study examined the relationship between debt position and choice of marketing instrument. Specifically, this study employed first and second degree stochastic dominance, and stochastic dominance with respect to a function to determine whether the efficient marketing instrument changes between debt positions. The results indicate that the choice of marketing instrument does vary with debt position in some marketing periods if the decisionmaker is moderately risk averse.

The relationship between the degree of competitive market pressure and the rate of productivity growth is empirically investigated with a case study of the Florida fresh winter vegetable industry. The results indicate that crops which faced considerable competitive pressure exhibited significant productivity growth while the crops that faced minimal competitive pressure generally exhibited little growth in productivity. Thus, the hypothesis that competitive pressure is positively related to productivity growth is supported.

Several definitions of diversification exist. Typically, the concept is dynamic and refers to the relationship among various activities or enterprises in which the firm is engaged. As new activities are acquired by a firm from some existing base of activities, complementarity of the newly acquired activity relative to the existing base is subjectively determined. Judgment is rendered on whether the result represents diversification or conglomeration.

Conventional wisdom has not succinctly differentiated between diversification and conglomeration. Some writers have considered conglomeration a special case of diversification [2, 7]. For purposes of this paper, this taxonomic argument need not be settled.

Agricultural sales cooperative unions (ASCUs) in Turkey are heavily influenced by both domestic and international government policies. Both export taxes and import tariffs are used as policy tools to regulate cotton markets. Domestic price support programs, water subsidies, fertilizer subsidies, and credit subsidies have also been used as domestic policy tools. These types of subsidies are not uncommon among developing countries. This paper provides empirical estimates of the degree of economic inefficiency associated with government intervention in Turkish cotton markets. A two-region partial equilibrium model of cotton exports and imports is developed under the “small country assumption” to obtain empirical estimates of the deadweight welfare loss associated with these government subsidies. Although government intervention results in significant income distribution among the various cotton sectors within Turkey, the overall economic inefficiency of the redistribution is very low.

This paper develops and illustrates the application of a procedure to evaluate and compare the cost effectiveness of alternative crop insurance products for cotton in terms of their effect on expected producer net returns and the variation of net returns. Farm unit-level cotton yields and state-level price distributions are estimated by a multivariate nonnormal parametric modeling procedure and used to simulate the net returns to alternative crop insurance products over a 10-year planning horizon. The ranking of alternative insurance products using third-degree stochastic dominance is presented for Texas cotton producers.