Data collected from a sample of New York banks were used to assess factors expected to influence the profitability of the various loan programs of commercial banks. Loan loss and loan service costs were lower for farm loans than for either installment or commercial loans. Although not required to maintain compensating balances, farmer time and demand deposits represented 23 percent of outstanding loan balances. The high rate of turnover on farm mortgage loans resulted in an average loan repayment period of 6.2 years, only 40 percent of the original financing period. Lower farm loan costs indicate that banks could charge 3/4 percent lower interest on farm loans than commercial loans.

We economists value writing skills, holding expectations that our students from introductory through graduate level courses be able “to represent one's analysis and evaluation of an issue in a way which will communicate effectively to others” (Weidenaar, p. 99). We have assumed, over the years, that a certain amount of such communication will be in writing. We often have held, furthermore, expectations that the analytical writing will be of high quality.

This study reviews articles using regression analysis published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 1994 to 1998 to determine agricultural economists’ effectiveness in reporting and conveying research procedures and results. Based on the authors’ experiences of surveying articles for this study, several suggestions for reporting of results and how to better separate statistical from economic significance are offered. First, clearly define the dependent variable—preferably in the results table as well as within the text. Second, report parameter estimates in an interpretable form either in the results table or in a subsequent table. Third, report summary statistics. Fourth, report degrees of freedom conspicuously in the results table. Fifth, report if statistically insignificant variables have been dropped. Lastly, weigh economic importance aside from statistical significance and use simulation to express economic significance where appropriate.

Policymakers are concerned about nitrogen and phosphorus export to water bodies. Exports may be reduced by paying farmers to adopt practices to reduce runoff or by paying performance incentives tied to estimated run-off reductions. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of practice and performance incentives for reducing nitrogen exports. Performance incentives potentially improve farm-level and allocative efficiencies relative to practice incentives. However, the efficiency improvements can be undermined by baseline shifts when growers adopt crops that enhance the performance payments but cause more pollution. Policymakers must carefully specify rules for performance-incentive programs and payments to avoid such baseline shifting.

This paper summarizes selected findings of a study of faculty advisors and advising programs in departments of agricultural and resource economics. Undergraduate advising program characteristics in the Northeast are contrasted with those in other regions. Interdepartmental advising loads, advising budgets and allocation of advising resources are measured. Differences were found in advisor selection, training, support, coordination, rewards and evaluations. Advising programs were generally strong in advisor accessability and weak in career follow-ups. Advising faculty members in the Northeast generally earned lower salaries and taught more terms during the year than nonadvising faculty members. Continued program documentation, support and rewards are recommended.

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works is considering legislative proposals to reduce emissions of long-range transport air pollutants which may be a major factor in acid depostion. Preliminary results indicate that these proposals will have substantial impacts on coal production and employment in northern Appalachia, a region with long-standing structural unemployment problems.

This study analyzes consumers’ preferences for nutrition and convenience attributes in ready-to-heat meals, using grocery scanner data applied to a Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes model. Households’ preferences for convenience meals stem on saving time. Also, households prefer convenience meals with higher contents of sugar, fat, sodium, cholesterol, and fiber, and lower in calorie content. Results prove that consumption of convenience foods implies a high intake of ingredients with negative consequences on dietary quality and health. Findings showcase the importance of the advancement and adoption of alternative food processing technologies that would circumvent the production of convenient foods high in non-healthy ingredients.

Without a doubt, climate change will be one of the most important environmental topics of the 1990s and will be high on the research agendas of many scientific disciplines in years ahead. While not yet universally accepted, it is now widely believed that anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases have the potential to substantially warm climates worldwide. Although there is no consensus on the timing and magnitude of global warming, current climate models predict an average increase of 2.8°C to 5.2°C in the earth's temperature over the next century (Karl, Diaz, and Barnett). Changes in regional temperature and precipitation will likely accompany the global warming, but there is even less scientific agreement on the magnitude of these changes.

Despite massive off-farm migration and relatively prosperous agricultural years, estimates of returns to factors of production indicate that labor earnings in agriculture remain low. This is primarily caused by farm factor market characteristics and the resulting tendency of any increase in farm income to be capitalized into land values.

This paper examines the adaptation of dasymetric mapping methodologies to agricultural data, including their testing and transposition, in order to recover the underlying statistical surface (i.e., an approximation of the real distribution of data). A methodology based on the ideas of Gallego and Peedell (2001) and on the binary method is proposed. It has several steps: (i) the exclusion of target zones for which no observations exist (binary method), (ii) the application of an iterative process to define the most precise densities for data distribution, and (iii) the stratification/definition of sub-units with homogenous characteristics if the results of the previous step are not satisfactory, and the subsequent application of step two.

The methodology was applied in the Alentejo region of Portugal, using data from the 1999 Agricultural Census. Several counties are used as source zones. The aim was to generate a distribution of agro-forestry occupations as close as possible to reality. Two lines of analysis were followed: (i) application of the methodology simultaneously to all counties (definition of regional densities), and (ii) application of the methodology separately to the different subareas with similar characteristics (definition of sub-regional densities). For an easy application of the methodology, a computer tool was created, which allowed the easy optimization, validation, and exportation of the data into a Geographic Information System (GIS).

The results were validated using several error indicators at the county level, as well as in a sample of parishes. We show that the second variant of the methodology yielded more precise results, and is superior for the types of data available. This method yielded maps in which the distribution of the most relevant agro-forestry occupations is closest to reality.

As a result of accelerated growth during the past decade, land use change over time and its accompanying problems represents a policy area germane to New Hampshire. Accurate projections of the future pattern of land use would be helpful to decision makers responsible for land use policy. Such projections could assist policy makers either directly in formulating land use plans or indirectly in justifying the need (or lack of need) for overt land use planning. Future projections, based upon various alternative land use policy scenarios, will increase the quantitative supply of information to decision makers in a two-fold manner. First, such estimates provide an insight into the current trend in land use mix and, secondly, give an overview of what impacts various policies directly have upon land use change.

Potato chips are believed to have been first made in this country about the middle of the last century, and for many years were prepared only in the home kitchen. Commercial production did not develop to any great extent until improved peeling and frying methods became available. In 1939 the U. S. chip industry is estimated to have used only 2.1 million hundredweight of potatoes. Chip production increased rapidly during and immediately following World War II, and annual use of potatoes for chipping grew to 29.0 million hundredweight in 1950. Quantity of potatoes used for chipping reached a peak for the crop year ending June 30, 1972, of 35.1 million hundredweight but dropped about .5 million hundredweight the following year due to the smaller 1972 crop. Use of potatoes for chip production in 1972 amounted to about 11 per cent of the crop and 17 pounds per person. Potato chip markets were first developed in the Northcentral and Northeastern States and processing plants were established close to these major markets.

Trivial or irrelevant attributes are defined as attributes that do not create a meaningful difference in a brand's performance. The objective of this paper is to determine if and how trivial attributes affect consumers in their choice of variety/brands of food products including frozen green beans, orange juice, canola oil, and frosted strawberry toaster pastries. Sixty subjects participated in the experiment. Subjects understood that trivial attributes are less important than substantive attributes. Substantive (important) quality attributes and economic variables affecting choice were all perceived equal across brands by the subjects in the experiment. Two critical driving forces in determining the presence and direction of the effect of a trivial attribute on the consumer choice are the size of the choice set and the type of trivial attribute, i.e., product versus promotional attribute.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and its amendments and related legislation currently require that applicants for registration or reregistration of a pesticide demonstrate to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that there is not “any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of use of the pesticide.” Present benefit evaluation guidelines call for consideration of effects on users, nonusers, consumers, GNP, and employment. Minimum guidelines call for a partial budgeting analysis and, if output effects of eliminating the pesticide appear large, a more sophisticated analysis using neoclassical multimarket economic-surplus concepts.

The majority of U.S. dairy farmers have invested in on-farm storage equipment with capacity for at least two days’ milk production. However, the remaining farms, with limited investment in storage capacity may have a major impact on milk assembly costs. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact daily milk pick-ups have on milk assembly costs and to compare these costs to the cost of increasing on-farm milk storage capacity.

In this article, we introduce a recreational amenity—a greenbelt park—into a simple urban economic model. For multiple possible park placements, we solve for the associated equilibrium urban structure, including the equilibrium rent gradient, city boundary, total number of park visits, the overall utility level, and total vehicle miles traveled. We examine how these change with alternative park placement sites. We then show how two modifications of the basic model—allowing congestion at the site to affect site quality, and introducing the possibility of a substitute site at the city's periphery—affect our conclusions about how greenbelt location influences urban structure.

The agriculture and food sectors contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. About 15 percent of food-related carbon emissions are channeled through restaurants. Using a contingent valuation (CV) method with double-bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) questions, this article investigates U.S. consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for an optional restaurant surcharge in support of carbon emission reduction programs. The mean estimated WTP for a surcharge is 6.05 percent of an average restaurant check, while the median WTP is 3.64 percent. Our results show that individuals have a higher WTP when the surcharge is automatically added to restaurant checks. We also find that an information nudge—a short climate change script—significantly increases WTP. Additionally, our results demonstrate that there is heterogeneity in treatment effects across consumers’ age, environmental awareness, and economic views. Our findings suggest that a surcharge program could transfer a meaningful amount of the agricultural carbon reduction burden to consumers that farmers currently shoulder.

Public programs of agricultural preservation continue to be of interest in many states of the urbanized Northeast. Farmers themselves, of course, have always been concerned with this issue, and in recent years they have found effective allies among public planners, for whom the agricultural sector has become a chief source of scenic and cultural amenities as well as insurance against unforeseen disruptions in future supplies of food and fiber. Programs of use-value assessment have been enacted by almost all of the northeastern states, as well as by those in many other parts of the country. Partly as a result of the fact that the effectiveness of this approach has been in doubt, attention in some states is turning to programs in which the development rights are purchased from agricultural land in order to alleviate development pressure on these areas. New Jersey has recently undertaken a program of development rights purchase, Massachusetts is currently shaping legislation for such a program, and many other states have shown interest.

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.

Historically, farm families relied primarily on income from farming for family living needs. Income from off-farm sources was usually of minor importance to the family. However, as mechanical and technological revolutions reduced total labor requirements needed in farming, many farmers combined farming with a nonfarm job to stabilize or increase their family income and improve their overall economic situation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of off-farm income among people with farm earnings, especially the wage and salary component of off-farm income.