A theory for analyzing incidental consumption in a single site recreation demand model is presented. We show that incidental consumption on a recreation trip, such as a visit to see friends or a visit to a second recreation site, can be treated as a complementary good and analyzed using conventional theory. We also show that the analysis applies whether the side trips are incidental or joint. In a simple application we find that failing to account for incidental consumption appears to create little bias in valuing recreation sites.

Cooperation among players requires a realization of economic benefits to all players and a meeting of efficiency requirements through economically driven allocations. Cooperation among political (and sometimes hostile) players may not meet these requirements. Political considerations, usually ignored in economic analyses, can hinder or even block possible arrangements. A framework is proposed that includes both economic and political considerations for evaluating transfers or trades of scarce resources. This method quantifies both the economic payoffs using n-person game theory and the political likelihood of any of the coalitions actually forming, using the PRINCE Political Accounting System. The economic-political approach is applied to a case of a potential water transfer in the western Middle East. Results suggest that incorporating political considerations in the analysis stabilizes the regional solution suggested by economic-related allocations.

Formula pricing of eggs is typically based on quotations issued by Urner Barry Publications, and egg producers worry that the quotes are systematically lower than equilibrium levels. Egg Clearinghouse, Inc. (ECI) provides a public forum for cash trading, intended to facilitate price discovery. Evidence from 1994–95 does not suggest that Urner Barry understates producer level prices on average. Granger causality tests indicate a feedback relationship between the Urner Barry quotes and ECI prices, with ECI leading during price upswings. Lead times appear to have fallen since the late 1970s and early 1980s, confirming earlier predictions regarding market efficiency.

This study identifies several socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of individuals who visited farmer-to-consumer direct markets in New Jersey. The analysis was performed for each type of direct marketing facility: pick-your-own farms, roadside stands, farmers’ markets, and direct farm markets. Logit analysis results indicate that various factors affect visitation to each type of facility. Factors examined include consumer's consumption and variety of fruits and vegetables, price expectation, purpose of buying, age, sex, education, race, income, urbanization, and presence of home garden.

A multiyear regional risk programming model was used in evaluating the impacts of different environmental policies on cropping systems, input use, nonpoint source pollution, farm income, and risk. A direct expected utility maximizing problem (DEMP) objective with a Von Neuman Morgenstern utility function was used in deriving optimal cropping systems. A biophysical simulation model provided input for the optimization. Three types of policies—taxing, regulating the aggregate, and regulating the per acre level—were studied for two farm inputs—nitrogen and atrazine. It was observed that policies had varied and multiple cross-effects on pollutant loads, farm income, and risk. This information is crucial in developing successful policies toward improving water quality. If an appropriate input policy is chosen, both targeted and nontargeted pollutant loads can be managed. The three policies varied in their effects on pollutant loads and involved tradeoffs in water quality and economic attributes.

Despite the rapid rise in complex carbohydrate consumption over the last twenty-five years, fresh potato consumption has fallen by over 50%. Fresh potato growers and retailers alike need to know whether these changes reflect consumer responses to changing relative prices or incomes, or whether they are due to changes in consumer tastes. This paper uses a linear approximation almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) to investigate the effect of relative prices, expenditures, and a set of socioeconomic variables on complex carbohydrate demand. Estimation results show that the socioeconomic variables explain some of the changes in demand, but a significant amount remains as evidence of a change in consumer tastes.

A labor supply model is used to examine the relationship between farm ownership and operators’ participation in the off-farm labor market for the Northeast region. The results indicate that ownership significantly influences operators’ off-farm employment participation. In particular, part-owners significantly allocate labor services to off-farm activities. The results also show that the participation rate among part-owner operators is high partly because the availability of other income sources accelerates the process of acquiring assets to become full-owner operators.

This paper provides the model, analysis, and results of the investigative research by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) staff on the U.S. lamb market impacts from the countervailing duty (CVD) order imposed on certain U.S. imports of New Zealand lamb meat during 1985–90. Presented here are the monthly three-stage least squares model of the U.S. lamb meat industry at the wholesale or meat-packing level, along with the econometric results and analyses obtained from the USITC investigation. Analysis of model results quantifies average estimated CVD-attributed effects on U.S. lamb price, demand and supply of domestically produced lamb, and U.S. lamb import levels. A number of economic parameter estimates and inference results concerning U.S. wholesale lamb market relationships are reported and are of interest, given the scarce published research on the U.S. lamb industry.

The trend toward deregulation and the relatively high prices in the Florida milk market have increased competition for milk supplies between the Florida dairy cooperatives (FDCs) and other cooperatives like Dairymen Incorporated and Southern Milk Sales. Because of the increased competition in the Florida markets, the FDCs may need to implement a discriminatory spatial pricing policy. The discriminatory pricing policy allows the FDCs to expand their membership by absorbing some of the transportation cost of producers in distant locations that would otherwise be independent producers or members of competing cooperatives. Spatial pricing policies are analyzed to determine the effects of discriminatory pricing on the blend price, average aggregate revenue of cooperative members, and total costs and quantity of milk imports. The results of this study show that a nondiscriminatory pricing policy maximizes the cooperative members’ blend price and average aggregate revenue. However, if the FDCs were able to increase the price by $0.50 as a result of using spatial price discrimination to gain market power, spatial price discrimination would maximize average revenue and blend price.

Stochastic dominance analysis of five crop rotations using twenty-one years of experimental yield data returned results consistent with Pennsylvania cropping practices. The analysis incorporated yield risk, output price risk, and rotational yield effects. A rotation of two years corn and three years alfalfa hay dominated for approximately risk neutral and risk averse preferences, as did participation in government programs under the 1990 Farm Bill. Crop rotation selection appeared to impact net revenues more than the decision to participate in government programs.