Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association最新文献

The environmental benefits of conservation tillage (CT) are fully realized when the practice is used continuously. Little is known about farmer's tillage choice dynamics due to the scarcity of panel tillage data. Using publicly available data, we estimate rotational and continuous CT (CCT) probabilities for 1992–2008 for Iowa, U.S. The results show that approximately one million acres of corn and soybeans moved away from CCT to greater tillage intensity practices in 2001–2008 when corn prices increased sharply. Spatially, more acreage in lower soil productivity and more likely classified as highly erodible land were taken out of CCT during 2001–2008.

This study examines how information nudges shape consumer preferences for locally grown foods. Using an online discrete choice experiment with blueberries, we assess the effectiveness of tailored information emphasizing local economy support, quality, and environmental benefits in increasing consumer valuation of state-branded products. Results indicate that consumers respond positively to all information treatments, with quality—particularly freshness—having the strongest effect. State ethnocentrism plays a key role, as consumers with higher state ethnocentrism exhibit greater willingness to pay for the state-branded logo across all treatments. These findings provide insights for improving local food marketing strategies and strengthening state-level marketing programs.

Accurately evaluating yield response to nitrogen is essential for increasing farm profitability. Data often come from randomized experiments, ensuring nitrogen is independent of other factors. However, when data from multiple experiments are combined, as many studies do, correlations between nitrogen and unobserved field heterogeneity can arise, potentially leading to biased results if the endogeneity problem is not addressed in regression analysis. This study examines the bias caused by this endogeneity using data from 41 large-scale on-farm precision experiments. We find that this bias can be both statistically and economically significant.

Retail meat price data, an essential element of market analysis, can differ substantially across data sources. Volume-weighted retail meat prices calculated using scanner data are lower than Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) prices. Generally, the difference between BLS prices and scanner-based prices increases as the volume sold increases and as the concentration of retail sales decreases. We explore the impacts of alternative data sources on meat price spreads and the farmers' share of the retail meat dollar. When estimated using scanner-based versus BLS prices, farmers receive, on average, 9.0 and 3.1 percentage points more of retail beef and pork dollars, respectively.

The U.S. faces increasing competition from Argentina and Brazil for sorghum and cotton exports. Using a dynamic Auto Regressive Distributed Lag model, this study shows that U.S. sorghum and cotton exports are positively affected by area harvested, yield, and export price. The positive causal relationship between yield, export price, and exports are further confirmed by the Kernel Based Least Square results. Therefore, the U.S. must prioritize developing locally adapted high-yielding varieties while maintaining quality to increase competitiveness. Reducing overreliance on a few markets, the U.S. needs to diversify its export markets to strengthen its resilience against external shocks and trade barriers.

Value estimates such as willingness to pay and their confidence intervals are commonly calculated from estimated random-parameters logit models. That parameters in these models have a distribution within the population as well as a sampling distribution poses a challenge for how to best help an audience understand variation in willingness to pay. We detail this issue, discuss the ways in which willingness to pay and related distributional information have been conveyed in the literature, and review and propose several ways to meaningfully but relatively succinctly convey both sources of variation to audiences.

Given the widespread credibility crisis of empirical research, disciplines including economics have increasingly turned attention to replicability-seeking venues to enhance trust. One of these approaches is to pre-register a study and prepare a pre-analysis plan. There are promising benefits but also clear challenges, leading selected disciplines of economics to adopt pre-registration and pre-analysis plans for empirical research with caution. This study investigates how agricultural and applied economists view the current development of pre-registration and pre-analysis plans, and offers guidance for future advancements of these practices within the profession.

This study examines the association between income from off-farm work and nutritional outcomes in Ghanaian agrarian households, analyzing data from the Ghana Living Standards Surveys of 2005/06, 2012/13, and 2016/17. Findings from 24,550 observations reveal that off-farm work is associated with increased intake of protein, fat, essential minerals, and vitamin availability but decreased intake of dietary fiber and carbohydrates. Households engaged in both nonfarm business and wage employment show dietary shifts over time.

Modern measurement of food security in the United States asks consumers about their household conditions, often with reference to whether they have “enough money for food.” However, “enough” may be subjective, with some households holding the view that retail food prices are unfair and therefore unaffordable. This study determines the association between food insecurity and perceptions of retail food price fairness using online data. Applying ordered probit models, our results show a statistically significant difference in perceptions of fairness cross levels of household food security status. Therefore, understanding perceptions of food price fairness may be an important component of understanding food insecurity in the United States.

Social protection programs designed to reduce the impact of economic, climatic, and social shocks on vulnerable livelihoods are becoming more popular. This study explores the causal effects of index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) programs that have been implemented among pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya. Our findings indicate that IBLI coverage influences household labor allocation by prompting shifts and expansions in agricultural production, leading to more diversified livelihood activities both on and off-farm in both countries. These findings have significant policy implications for promoting the diversification and transformation of livelihood options for households in drought-prone regions.