Information requirements of public policy makers have placed a heavy responsibility on economists involved in applied research in the area of sport fishing. Increased fishing pressure and, in some cases, decreasing stocks have generated considerable competition between sport and commercial fishermen over scarce fish. Regional Fisheries Management Councils have sought advice as to how they can “best” allocate the scarce stocks between these two competing interests. Federal and state agencies, too, have sought guidance on estimation of benefits from replenishment and other programs for increasing sport fish catch.

In recent decades modern technology has created phenomenal growth in U.S. agricultural output. Large scale farming systems and the application of scientific techniques have been largely responsible for the increased production of farm products. However, recently there has emerged a growing concern over the social costs of modern agricultural technology Displacement of labor with little off-farm employment opportunities, concentration of agriculture in fewer hands and extensive usage of manufactured chemicals are viewed by some with alarm. The ensuing debate has drawn attention to organic farming as an alternative to modern farming.

The role of the economist is to identify and solve puzzles. Unsolved puzzles seem to crop up more frequently these days or perhaps my ability to solve them has diminished. The purpose of this paper is to set forth selected enigmas in hope that someone (perhaps a bright, young mind who fails to appreciate the intractability of the problem) will find solutions. I begin with national macroeconomic policy, then turn to international economics. After looking at past trends in supply and demand for farm output, I conclude with sections on farm investment behavior and the role of the agricultural economist in an affluent farming economy.

The eleven state area of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont comprises the Northeast agricultural area. According to the latest farm number estimates in 1980, there are over 159,000 farms in the Northeast with the largest number of farms concentrated in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, respectively. Given the large number of farms and the diverse topography of the region, farmers in the Northeast produce a wide variety of agricultural commodities. In 1980, farm cash receipts in the Northeast were estimated at $8.2 billion with livestock and products accounting for about two thirds of the total and crops (including specialty crops) accounting for the balance. In terms of cash receipts, Pennsylvania is the largest agricultural production state in the Northeast followed by New York and Maryland.

Higher relative prices for energy and food are often referenced as important continuing problems in the United States. For example, the Council on Wage and Price Stability attributed 5.2 percent of the 18 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in early 1980 to higher crude oil prices and described energy prices as “uncontrollable.” Similarly, the substantial upward movements in food prices during 1978 and 1979 were identified by policy-makers as a major source of inflation and stimulated Congressional hearings and an Administration investigation of the causes of rising food prices.

Production of milk under various pricing policies were examined for a representative dairy farm operating under the base-excess plan. Three pricing scenarios were examined to determine calving schedule, milk production, and shadow prices. The period May-July was most profitable, and December-January the least profitable months for calving, under the base-excess program in the Mid-Atlantic Order. The representative producer responded to the pricing policies by shifting production in response to changes in the seasonal patterns of the base and excess prices.

If all the speeches with similar titles, delivered at the beginning of each decade during the twentieth century, were assembled here, they would doubtless fill this room to overflowing. Although each would have its “special touch,” common threads of growth and optimism, appeals to God and Country, as well as self-interest would be woven throughout.

Recently released reports of the 1980 Census of Population has again focussed attention on the relatively poor economic performance of the Northeast region. This paper suggests that the labor costs and market conditions that have allegedly been responsible for the movement of traditional manufacturing out of the Northeast may be changing. Thus, this movement will not be a “drag” on the future economic development of the Northeast. The potential “turnaround” in the Northeast is suggested by the recent economic performance in New England and by Pittsburgh's ability to attract firms in rapidly growing manufacturing sectors.

Regression analysis was used to analyze the geographic distribution of physicians in the Northeastern U.S. The ratio of general practitioners (GP's) to population, and specialists to population was calculated for each of the 299 counties in the region. The independent variables were categorized into three types of factors: economic, professional, and quality-of-life.

Results indicated that both types of physicians responded similarly to economic and quality-of-life variables, but responded differently to professional considerations. This suggests that the urban concentration of specialists vis-a-vis GP's is due primarily to the relative importance of professional considerations to specialists. Policy implications and directions for further research are presented.

The composition of revenues in general purpose local governments in the Northeast in 1977 is examined and compared with the pattern found in 1957. The composition of local government revenues varies between types of local governments and between states. In general, local governments in the New England states are most dependent on property taxes. This pattern has not changed greatly since 1957 despite increases in the importance of intergovernmental aid. Revenue composition in many states in the Northeast diverges considerably from the nationwide pattern. Changing attitutes towards government and taxes could result in substantial changes in the years ahead.

Part-time farming in Maryland and the Northeast with full-time off-farm employment of one or more of the farm operators is competitive income-wise with many types and sizes of commercial farms. Individuals, families, and society in general will benefit in the future from the encouragement of fuller utilization of underutilized or unemployed rural resources to produce marketable agricultural output and subsistence types of food for household and local charitable purposes. Labor extensive types of crop and animal production activities have increased relatively and absolutely during the past decade on Maryland and Northeastern part-time farms. Average characteristics of a sample of 80 part-time farmers showed 1) age of male operator – 44 years, 2) education of operator − 12 years, 3) number of children on the farm − 3 children, 4) years of experience in farming − 15 years, 5) days of off-farm employment − 225 days, 6) proximity of off-farm job to a major metropolitan center − 20 miles and 7) distance to off-farm job − 29 miles.

Policy-makers need analytical frameworks which aid in evaluating the distribution of impacts of their decisions. The first section of this paper describes an Environment – Behavior – Impact framework for analyzing the impacts on agriculture of government policy changes which favor development in non-urban areas. An illustration of the framework using a hypothetical example follows, and the final section is a discussion of the applicability of empirical methods to the framework.

University teaching at an undergraduate level has always involved opportunity costs, especially in the trade-off of the individual's time between teaching and research. However, recent external forces, as we move into the ‘80's could very well force major changes in the Agricultural Economic's teaching profession. This paper examines the conventional wisdom that teaching and research are mutually reinforcing. It further examines conflict of goals and several of the economic principles that we teach but seem to ignore in addressing our personal trade-off between teaching and research. A framework is presented for resolving this conflict.

Affected by industrialization, agriculture in New England adapts to economic changes. Farms have become either large commercial units or small part time farms. Distributions of farm income have changed from an inverted-J distribution to a U-shaped distribution in the past three decades. Farm income grows slower and shows a larger dispersion in urban counties than in rural counties. Analyses of census data support the hypotheses (1) that farm income is lognormally distributed and (2) that industrialization has a complementary effect on agriculture while growth of urbanization essentially reduces farm numbers mostly in middle income classes.

The competitive position of agriculture in a region is determined by a mosaic of interacting forces. The physical, capital, and human resources available to the sector set technical limits to production possibilities. The pressures exerted on the use of these resources by the region's nonfarm sector help establish economic limits. The production characteristics of the agricultural sector of other regions also, of course, impact a region's competitive position.

Permanent conversion of agricultural land to urban uses has concerned both suppliers and demanders of agricultural products in recent years. Although controversy on the importance of the problems associated with this conversion persists among economists (General Accounting Office, Healy, Plaut), policymakers across the nation have accepted the preservation of farmland as a goal requiring government action. All but two States (Georgia and Mississippi) provide some form of preferential property tax assessment for farmland (Davies and Beiden). Most localities with zoning authority attempt to protect farmland, and several less common land use management institutions have been implemented with farmland preservation as a principal goal.

This paper examines the implications of New York's new procedures for determining agricultural values for use-value assessment purposes. It has been argued that use values based on comparable sales, regardless of efforts to confine the data to farm-to-farm sales, still contained some speculative influences, which in turn, inflated use-value estimates in an urban state like New York. Interestingly, this paper shows that the Legislature's remedy – use-value estimates based on capitalized net returns to land – is likely to bring with it rather substantial increases in use values estimated for much of the State's cropland base.

Costs impose restraints upon all activities. Certain costs chargeable to a sector of an industry–as for example, milk assembly and hauling costs–must be broken down from their total into the shares chargeable to individual users. When there is flexibility in this apportionment of cost shares, part of the burden upon the individual shipper becomes an industry-apportioned constraint upon individual firms, in this case dairymen-shippers. An alternative means of apportioning hauling costs is suggested, to retain large shippers in the conventional hauling system, and to sustain that system for the benefit of small dairymen.