Comparative Levels of Food Safety Regulations in Three U.S.-Asian Trading Groups
Yuan Wang and Julie A. Caswell
Abstract: U.S.-Asian trade currently represents about 35% of the total value of U.S. agricultural and food trade. Country-by-country comparisons show significant differences in levels of food safety regulations in the U.S., Japan, newly industrialized countries in Asia, and Asian developing countries. These disparities result in significantly different import requirements that may impede trade in agricultural and food products.
Key Words: Asia, food safety regulation, international food trade, nontariff trade barriers
Sukant K. Misra and Kyle A Clem
Abstract: This study focuses on the nature of Texas consumer perception and willingness to purchase milk produced using recombinant bovine somatotropin(rBST). Further, the possibility of market segmentation is analyzed by estimating the price sensitivity of consumer demand for conventionally produced milk versus rBST-produced milk. Results show that the price elasticities of demand for the two types of milk are different, indicating potential to develop niche markets for both rBST-produced and conventionally produced milk in Texas.
Key Words: bovine somatotropin, demand, milk
Darren Hudson
Abstract: The implications of market development in the catfish industry on catfish price behavior are explored using cointegration. It is hypothesized that market development, through increases in competetion between processors and shifts in consumer preferences toward fish, has caused changes in price behavior among levels of the cat catfish market. Using monthly catfish price data, a cointegration analysis of subsets of prices shows that price behavior has changed through time, with catfish prices becoming integrated as the number of processors had increased. These results may have implications for the examination of market price behavior in developing or emerging markets.
Key Words: catfish, cointegration, price behavior, vertically related markets
Stan G. Daberkow and William A McBride
Abstract: Corn producers are the largest users of cropland and agrichernicals in U.S. agriculture, and represent a major market for precision agriculture technologies. Based on a USDA survey of 950 corn-producing farms, approximately 9% utilized some aspect of precision agriculture for corn production in 1996. A logit analysis indicated that farmers were more likely to adopt precision technologies if they farmed a large number of corn acres, earned a sizable farm income, and had high expected corn yields. The probability of adoption was also higher for farm operators using a computerized farm record system, who were less than 50 years of age, and who relied on crop consultants for information on precision agriculture.
Key Words: corn farms, logit analysis, precision agriculture, precision farming, technology adoption
Notie H. Lansford, Jr., David W. Freeman, Donald R. Topliff, and Odell L. Walker
Abstract: Yearling quarter horse prices are dependent upon a number of characteristics. Quantifiable genetic and macroeconomic variables for 5,295 sales from 1982-92 are used in a hedonic price model. Marginal values and, discrete incremental prices are determined for 23 characteristics, 21 of which are found to be significant. The model's fit implies it may be helpful for maximizing breeder returns. Overall, buyers pay substantial premiums if the yearling's first dam or sire was a champion and if the sire or first dam previously produced a champion. Likewise, yearlings whose second and third dams are winners and producers of winners receive higher prices. Prices paid for fillies and older yearlings exceed those paid for colts, geldings, and younger horses.
Key Words: genetic characteristic, hedonic model, marginal price, quarter horse, race-bred, yearling
Excise Taxes and Commodity Promotion: A Diagrammatic Motivation
Garth John Holloway
Abstract: This note shows how the solution to the promotion problem--the problem of locating the optimal level of advertising in a downstream market-can be motivated simply, diagrammatically, and without the need to resort to complicated mathematical arguments. The optimality condition is for the level of the farm price to remain invariant to marginal adjustments in the program.
Key Words: commodity promotion, excise taxes, optimality