The issue of ethics has received little notice in agricultural economics journals. This study utilized a survey technique to reveal the ethical attitudes among some 500 students at four Land Grant Universities. The data were analyzed using multiple regression techniques. Individuals negotiating with strangers were more willing to use questionable ethical tactics. Women, individuals who were cooperative rather than competitive in negotiation situations, and those who regularly attended religious services were consistently less willing to use questionable ethics in negotiation. The size of the individual's hometown and family income had no clear impact on ethical attitudes in negotiations.

We employed Vickrey auctions to generate willingness-to-pay (WTP) data forred meat traceability and related product characteristics with comparableexperimental auctions in the United States, Canada, the U.K., and Japan. Theresults show that subjects are willing to pay a nontrivial premium fortraceability, but the same subjects show even higher WTP fortraceability-provided characteristics like additional meat safety and humaneanimal treatment guarantees. The implication is that producers might be ableto implement traceable meat systems profitably by tailoring the verifiablecharacteristics of the product to consumer preferences.

In this paper, we present an econometric analysis of the effects of a price floor on price dynamics and price volatility. A price floor (implemented as a part of government pricing policy) provides a censoring mechanism for price determination. We specify and estimate a dynamic Tobit model under time-varying volatility. The model is applied to analyze the effects of a price support program on price dynamics and price volatility in the U.S. American cheese market. The econometric analysis provides useful insights on price dynamics in the presence of a government-determined price floor.

We model the interaction of off-farm work and adoption of agriculturaltechnologies and the impact of adopting these technologies on farm householdincome from on farm and off-farm sources after controlling for suchinteraction, and estimate the model for the case of adoption ofherbicide-tolerant (HT) soybeans using a nationwide survey of soybean farmsfor 2000. We find that adoption of HT soybeans is positively andsignificantly related to off-farm household income for U.S. soybean farmers,after controlling for other factors. In addition, while on-farm householdincome is not significantly related to adoption, total household incomeincreases significantly with adoption.

We combine econometric and financial analyses of the NAHMS 2000 Swine Surveydata to examine whether evidence exists for reducing risk by usingantibiotics for growth promotion (AGP) in the U.S. swine industry. Astochastic dominance analysis of alternative lengths of time (days) of AGPapplication reveals that AGP used in the range of 65–75 days is preferred byrisk-averse producers. Risk is reduced and profits are increased from use ofAGP. The combined impacts of increased average daily gain and decreasedvariability in pig live weight increase producer profits by $2.99 per pigmarketed.

The paper analyzes the relationship between off-farm labor allocation and on-farm enterprise diversification as farm household income stabilization strategies with census data from the federal state of Upper Austria, Austria. The results suggest that both on-farm diversification and off-farm labor allocation are related to farm and household characteristics. Larger farms tend to be more diversified. Younger farmers are more likely to work off-farm. Larger farm households tend to allocate more labor to off-farm income activities.

This study identified the factors that influenced whether farmers in theSoutheastern United States perceived an improvement in environmental qualityfrom adopting precision farming technologies (PFTs). Farmers with largerfarms or higher yields were more likely to believe that they observedpositive externalities associated with PFTs. Farmers who found PFTsprofitable or who believed input reduction was important had higherprobabilities whereas those with higher incomes or who were more dependenton farm income were less likely to perceive such benefits. Interestingly,the importance of environmental quality and length of time using PFTs werenot found to affect the probability of perceiving an improvement inenvironmental quality.

In this paper, we assess consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program applied to beef ribeye steaks, chicken breasts, and pork chops, all labeled as “Certified U.S.” products. A consumer survey was mailed in spring and early summer 2003 to households in the continental United States. Results indicate that consumers are in general very concerned about food safety issues, viewing U.S. meat as the safest among the selection of countries considered. Nevertheless, consumer willingness to pay for Certified U.S. products is relatively small, although above the expected implementation costs associated with a mandatory labeling program. This finding coincides with the fact that only 36% of the sample favored consumers paying directly for the costs related to a mandatory COOL program.

Both market advisors and researchers have often suggested multiyear rollover hedging as a way to increase producer returns. This study determines whether rollover hedging can increase expected returns for producers. For rollover hedging to increase expected returns, futures prices must follow a mean-reverting process. To test for the existence of mean reversion in agricultural commodity prices, this study uses a longer set of price data and a wider range of test procedures than past research. With the use of both the return predictability test from long-horizon regression and the variance ratio test, we find that mean reversion does not exist in futures prices for corn, wheat, soybean, soybean oil, and soybean meal. The findings are consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. Simulated trading results for 3-year rollover hedges provide additional evidence that the expected returns to the rollover hedging strategies are not statistically different from the expected returns to routine annual hedges and cash sale at harvest.

This study uses a hedonic property price method to estimate how wetlandsaffect residential property values in a rural area. The study utilizeswetland inventory data coupled with extensive property sales records betweenJanuary 2000 and September 2004 from Carteret County, NC. Our resultsindicate that i) a higher wetland percentage within a quarter mile of aproperty, ii) closer proximity to the nearest wetland, and iii) larger sizeof the nearest wetland are associated with lower residential propertyvalues. These results contrast with previous hedonic studies that use datafrom urban areas, which found positive associations between wetlands andproperty values. The amenity value of wetlands appears to depend at least asmuch on the characteristics of the area being considered as it does on thecharacteristics of the wetlands.

The effects of various supply and demand shifts on beef price, quantity, andindustry welfare have been widely studied under the assumption of beefquality homogeneity. In this paper, we construct a model of the beef sectorthat incorporates differences in beef quality. The model is used to analyzethe effect of supply and demand shifts on changes in prices and quantitiesof high- and low-quality beef and changes in revenue accruing to producersof high- and low-quality beef. Model results indicate that supply and demandshocks have the potential to alter the average quality of beef on the marketand the price premium charged for high-quality beef, which has importantimplications for retailers selling quality-differentiated beef and producersselling cattle on a grid.

The application of manure phosphorus at rates above crop uptake has resulted in water pollution for some regions. In response, new manure management standards will require some farms to match manure phosphorus application rates with crop uptake. For some regions, this will lead to more crop acres and a shift toward crops with greater nutrient uptake, both of which will increase nitrogen runoff. The greater nitrogen runoff could offset the lower phosphorus runoff to result in greater water pollution. This demonstrates the law of unintended consequences, which results when policy does not consider how economic agents respond to incentives.

Cow-herd standardized performance analysis (SPA) data for Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico were used to determine economic factors affecting cow-herd costs, production, and profitability. Total cost was defined as the financial cost associated with raising a calf through the weaning stage; production, as pounds weaned per exposed female; and profits, as rate of return on assets. Variables affecting one or more performance measures included herd size; pounds of feed fed; real estate, machinery, and breeding-stock investments; calving percentage; death loss; and breeding-season length. Management variables were especially important for financial costs and profitability of the cow-herd operation.

Whereas consumer theory employs several different empirical specificationsfor estimating indirect utility functions, producer theory has relied on theTranslog specification to estimate the indirect production function. In thispaper, we apply Lewbel's more general functional specification andinvestigate its implications for the estimation of indirect productionfunctions in productivity analysis. An attractive feature of the Lewbelmodel is that it nests both the Translog and the almost ideal supply system,offering a method to assess the empirical validity of all threespecifications. Aggregate U.S. production data are used to examine theperformance of the three models in an empirical application.