This article investigates the evolution of hog spatial market integration in China based on a minimal spanning tree by using provincial hog price data. The empirical results show that hog spatial market integration in China has increased gradually and reached a high stable level after 2012. Hog spatial market integration underwent a structural break in April 2007, after which hog market integration was greatly strengthened. Moreover, the market power of hog markets in eastern China and central China is increasing, and Shandong is a price setter, whereas hog markets in southwestern, northeastern, and northern China are price followers.

After Mexican sugar producers gained unlimited, tariff-free access to the U.S. market in 2008, U.S. and Mexican governments bilaterally agreed to constrain Mexico’s sugar exports to the United States because of dumping allegations by U.S. producers in December 2014. This analysis employs a dynamic partial equilibrium model to estimate the price and welfare impacts of the U.S.-Mexico agreement by simulating the reimplementation of North American Free Trade Agreement sugar policies. Estimates suggest liberalizing the market would decrease U.S. sugar prices, translating to an average annual decrease in producer surplus of approximately $660 million and increase in consumer surplus of $1.67 billion across the simulation.

This study utilizes a dynamic programming decision model, considering an intertemporal nitrogen carryover function, combined with both linear stochastic and deterministic plateau response functions to evaluate optimal nitrogen fertilizer decision rules and net present values (NPVs) in Texas High Plains cotton production. Nitrogen recommendations and NPVs are influenced by response function choice and nitrogen-to-cotton price ratios. Results indicate the stochastic plateau function better describes the data; the optimum nitrogen recommendation is to apply approximately 40 lb. of nitrogen for each bale of cotton production when considering nitrogen carryover information.

We use models incorporating the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from remote sensing satellites to improve soybean yield predictions in 10 major producing states in the United States. Unlike traditional methods that assume an ordinary least squares model applies to all observations, we allow for global flexibility in the relationship between NDVI and soybean yield by using the flexible Fourier transform (FFT) model. FFT results confirm that there is a nonlinear response of soybean yield to NDVI over the growing season. Out-of-sample predictions indicate that allowing for global flexibility with the FFT improves the predictions in time-series prediction and forecasting.

This article studies the political activities of individual cotton farmers and cotton political action committees (PACs) by exploiting a vote to amend the 2008 Farm Bill. Using a simultaneous model, I estimate reduced form equations for donations from cotton farmers and cotton PACs using tobit models, which instrument donations in the probit vote equation to control for the hypothesized endogeneity between campaign contributions and legislative votes. I find evidence that cotton farmers, like cotton PACs, contribute to legislators representing a median cotton farming constituency. I find no evidence that contributions from cotton farmers or cotton PACs significantly affected the vote decision.

Korea replaced its rice import quota with a tariff rate quota (TRQ) in 2015. A structural model representing the Korean rice market is developed to evaluate this new trade policy and examine the possibility of Korean rice imports under uncertainty. Results indicate that rice imports in excess of the current TRQ quantity are unlikely for a range of market conditions. Two scenarios, which are the over-quota tariff rate reduction and the TRQ quantity expansion, show how the market responds to policy changes. In addition, Korean rice imports are sensitive to consumer preferences for different rice types.

This study examines the price level and volatility interaction between international staple food and cash crop futures price indices. Understanding the relationship between these commodities bears significant implications for low-income food deficit countries that depend on cash crops to finance food import bills. We use a wavelet analysis to decompose the price indices and then apply a BEKK-MGARCH (Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner–multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) approach to analyze the relationship across timescales. Results indicate the level of correlation and volatility linkages are strongest at lower frequencies (longer run) than at higher timescales (short run), with information running from staple food to cash crop markets.

Cattle are costly to transport, which could lead to segmented regional cattle markets. The cointegration of cattle prices over regions has been of research interest for decades. This article investigates price cointegration between regional cattle markets in the United States and proposes a simple procedure for incorporating a flexible transition function into an economic indicator–controlled smooth transition autoregressive (ECON-STAR) model to evaluate market dynamics. The empirical results show that these markets have been highly integrated when excess supply exists, but when cattle inventories decrease, the market pattern becomes very regionally segmented.

We present a game-theoretical model arguing that greater public transparency does not necessarily lead to higher social welfare. Political agents can benefit from providing citizens with misleading information aimed at aligning citizens’ choices with the political agents’ preferences. Citizens can lose from being fooled by political agents, though they can mitigate their losses by conducting costly inspections to detect false information. Producing and detecting false information is costly and can reduce social welfare.

On May 29, 2013, the U.S. government announced that contamination of non–genetically engineered wheat supplies occurred. We provide a methodology to empirically assess the impacts of this contamination event on national prices and on farm-specific prices and receipts for spring red hard wheat. Results suggest that U.S. spring red hard wheat farmers in the aggregate had lost receipts ranging from $32.77 million to $131.06 million and incurred a drop of 3.83% in wheat price equivalent to $0.27 per bushel. At the farm level, a hypothetical farmer received $0.31 less per bushel culminating in $4,807 in lost receipts.

Export tax reform in Argentina could improve its competitiveness in China’s soybean market, displacing exports from competing countries like Brazil and the United States. We examined the factors that determine China’s demand for imported soybean products and how export taxes could affect exporting countries. Using import demand and vector autoregression estimates, we conducted simulations of China’s import demand assuming the elimination of export taxes in Argentina. Results indicated that Argentine soybean products could realize gains in the Chinese market, but only in the short run. Projected import demand changes in the long run were insignificant for all exporting countries.