The current energy crisis, water supply and distribution problems, land use conflicts, and environmental issues are bringing with them a series of federal and state policy actions (legislation, new institutions, and court decisions) in response to the complex problem of resource allocation. In their simplest form, the policy questions deal with the public sector influence on the allocation of available scarce resources among alternative uses, and the allocation of scarce public investment funds among alternative programs to augment available supplies of these resources.

At a time when economists have been accused of being imperialistic for attempting to infiltrate other social sciences, we should not be too surprised by attempts to incorporate other social sciences into economics. The Lynne paper is clearly an effort in this direction. The other two attempt to reform or broaden the mainstream neoclassical model.

Price risk has been a major problem for cattle feeders during the 1970s. Since 1972, variability in cash cattle prices has increased dramatically as a result of volatility in the feed grain sector, the cyclical liquidation of cattle numbers which began in late 1973, and cyclical moves in hog prices. The increased levels of price risk have prompted increased interest in hedging.

The literature on hedging strategies for cattle feeding operations continues to grow. Results of early studies show hedging has the capacity to reduce risk in cattle feeding as measured by the variance of per head profits (Heifner; Holland, Purcell and Hague). More recent studies have developed and tested strategies which have the potential both to reduce price risk and increase profits. Selective hedging is typically employed. A mathematical model to predict cash price, sell-buy signals based on some technical trading system, or some other approach is used to select when the cash position should be hedged.

Regression analysis with its many modifications and extensions plays a dominant role as an analytical tool in economic research. The linear regression model with random coefficients (hereafter RCR for random coefficient regression) provides a generalization of the classical linear regression model and permits a more realistic specification of the real world than does the classical model. As a consequence RCR will probably play an increasingly important role in econometric analysis of a wide class of problems-particularly as probabilistic micro-economic theory develops.

With the industrialization that has been occurring in the agricultural sector, various agricultural commodity interests are increasingly recognizing the need for an organization for marketing. Once formed, commodity organizations commonly wish to develop markets for their product but likely lack the expertise to evaluate alternatives open to their organization for market development. In addition, no comprehensive statement of the market development concept has appeared in the literature. This situation lends impetus to the need for a definition and description of market development along with the alternatives which may exist for various marketing institutions.

Concern over the effects of public policies based on misspecified econometric models motivates interest in a procedure to test, diagnose, and improve the specification of models that have been estimated with three-stage least squares. A test of system-wide specification based on Hausman's specification test is employed in a test of the a priori restrictions placed on the parameters of a structural model of the U.S. shrimp market. The null hypothesis of proper specification is rejected. After diagnosis via a comparison of unrestricted and restricted reduced forms and respecification, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected.

The willingness to plant identity preserved (IP) crops was examined using Mississippi soybean producers as an example. A contingent valuation framework was used to assess the impacts of offered premiums on a producer's probability of planting IP soybeans. Findings suggest that offered premiums significantly affect planting decisions. In addition, desire to learn more about IP production was found to increase the probability of planting, suggesting that desire to learn leads to experimentation. Finally, prior knowledge or experience planting IP crops significantly decreased the probability of planting.

Typically, marketers define market segments by their demographic characteristics, assuming that these segments represent consumers with relatively homogeneous buying patterns. A more managerially useful definition, however, groups consumers of similar behavior directly and then seeks to find demographic commonalities among them. This study uses a latent class analysis technique to segment consumers based on their responsiveness to a set of marketing variables, finding that a multiple-segment model provides a better fit to the data, and that these segments differ significantly in their responsiveness. By targeting marketing activities to their most responsive segments, the efficiency of commodity promotion can be dramatically improved.

Attention is now focused upon problems confronting our Nation in the area of environmental pollution. There is a close correlation between industrial and agricultural expansion and increases in population over the last few decades. There is also a pronounced association between increases in population and the magnitude of pollution problems. As an example, there is some concern about environmental pollution associated with power production which is rapidly expanding to meet the demands for electricity of an increasing population and industrial complex. Power production expansion is occurring largely in areas which already have high population densities.

Impacts of alternative specifications for heteroscedastic error structures are examined by estimating various production functions for corn in Central Texas. Production- and profit-maximizing levels of inputs and the shape of the profit equation obtained from models not corrected for heteroscedasticity differed from those obtained from models corrected for heteroscedasticity. Using the profit-maximizing input levels for each production function gave essentially the same estimated yield and profit, regardless of the specification for heteroscedasticity employed. Differences of up to one-quarter to one-third are noted, however, in the amount of profit-maximizing levels of inputs used, depending on the heteroscedasticity correction.

Remarkable changes have occurred over the years in the domestic andinternational economic environment of the fruit and vegetable industry.These changes are partly driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement,nutrition policies, and development and enforcement of new food safetystandards. The articles in this invited session examined the effect of thesedrivers and their implication on the future competitiveness of the southernfruit and vegetable industry.

The supply of poultry meat is being augmented by hundreds of millions of pounds annually at little economic cost and no increase in the output of chickens or turkeys. The food-processing innovation responsible for boosting the utilization efficiency of our scarce food protein resources is mechanical deboning, a technique that separates the remaining meat from bones destined to be rendered into inedible products. The potential gains to society from further widespread adoption of this technology could be enormous. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the factors that affect the market supply response to this technology, as well as the impact of additional regulations governing its use.

Researchers as well as planners have been concerned with the impact of augmenting an existing recreation system with new recreational areas. That is, they are concerned with the substitution or duplication of services stemming from additional numbers of recreational areas.

The production of feeder pigs as a cash commodity has been widespread in the southeastern U.S. during the past several years. One indication of the extent of marketing pigs at this intermediate stage is the fact that in 1979, 41 percent of the total Tennessee pig crop was sold through organized feeder pig sales (Rawls). This specialized production is continuing in many areas of the Southeast, although a trend has emerged that has more producers holding feeder pigs and feeding them to market weight.

Entomologists and other pest control specialists recognize that pest mobility creates difficulties when control is left to individual property owners. Control of mobile weeds, insects or contagious diseases has characteristics of a public good with high exclusion costs and near equal availability to all people in the affected area. If abatement benefits for areas to which the pest is spreading are not considered, there will be under production of abatement. Cooperatives, county abatement districts or state and federal agencies are often set up to administer area-wide abatement efforts. Economies of scale in pesticide treatments, coordination of efforts to limit spatial spread of the pest (quarantine activities) and scale economies in technology to reduce adverse side effects of pesticides are given as justifications for public or large-scale pest control programs.

Thin markets create challenges for reporting market information by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and for users of the information. This study examines distributions of transactions comprising daily price reports in the U.S. hog market. We determine publicly reported daily prices are sensitive to which packing plants buy hogs. Transaction prices comprising USDA Agricultural Marketing Service price reports are not normally distributed; care must be taken in reporting and interpreting transaction prices. Economically important variations in prices occur because of packer-specific indicators. Daily reported prices are used as base prices in marketing agreements, making variation of even greater importance.

Biogas created from anaerobic digestion on dairy farms can be used to generate electricity, produce coproducts, and reduce reliance on off-farm inputs. We incorporate risk into simulation models representing dairy farms in Texas and demonstrate the profitability of new anaerobic digester installation. Based on this market, results indicate projects that have low investment costs, receive grant support for construction, utilize coproducts, or have some combination of these factors have higher net present value at the end of the study period; however, even with generous grant support and high electricity prices, projects with average investment costs remain unprofitable.