7,266 research outputs found
An International Comparison of the Effects of Government Agricultural Support on Food Budget Shares
This study evaluates econometrically the effect of government support to agriculture on a measure of the affordability of food in 10 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The panel model we construct specifically utilizes two values calculated by the OECD: Producer Support Estimates as a percentage of gross farm receipts and the Consumer Nominal Protection Coefficient. These two variables represent transfers from taxpayers to agricultural producers through government programs and transfers from consumers to government through protectionist measures, respectively. By using dummy variables, we find implications for groups of countries on the basis of their relative levels of support and protection.agricultural policy, obesity, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, I18, Q18,
Incentives Matter: Assessing Biofuel Policies in the South
As a result of the increase in the real cost of fossil fuel-based energy in recent years, federal and state governments have taken a more active role in energy policy by creating incentives to develop alternative sources of energy, including biofuels. However, policymakers often become focused on the specific type of energy and not the energy services consumers ultimately value. The lack of recognition of energy as a commodity results in policies that ignore the characteristics of the associated markets: easy entry and exit, no barriers to entry, and sensitivity to changes in supply and demand. Consequently, energy industries may fail to arise because entrepreneurs must be able to account for all costs and earn—at a minimum—a competitive return on the investment. This article evaluates the options available to policymakers related to biofuels, which are of particular concern to the South, and includes an assessment of the knowledge base on which policy decisions are made.alternative energy, biofuels, energy policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q41, Q42, Q48,
Random close packing revisited: How many ways can we pack frictionless disks?
We create collectively jammed (CJ) packings of 50-50 bidisperse mixtures of
smooth disks in 2d using an algorithm in which we successively compress or
expand soft particles and minimize the total energy at each step until the
particles are just at contact. We focus on small systems in 2d and thus are
able to find nearly all of the collectively jammed states at each system size.
We decompose the probability for obtaining a collectively jammed
state at a particular packing fraction into two composite functions: 1)
the density of CJ packing fractions , which only depends on
geometry and 2) the frequency distribution , which depends on the
particular algorithm used to create them. We find that the function
is sharply peaked and that depends exponentially on
. We predict that in the infinite system-size limit the behavior of
in these systems is controlled by the density of CJ packing
fractions--not the frequency distribution. These results suggest that the
location of the peak in when can be used as a
protocol-independent definition of random close packing.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure
Alien Registration- Corey, Miles H. (Garfield Plantation, Aroostook County)
https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32811/thumbnail.jp
The Effect of Changing Government Subsidy Programs: An Analysis of Revenue at the Farm level
Producer revenue is simultaneously simulated for several hundred county-specific representative farms. The effects of current and alternative commodity programs are analyzed. In particular, two variations of revenue-triggered programs similar to plans proposed by the National Corn Growers Association are evaluated.Risk, commodity policy, simulation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, Q180,
Understanding the Frequency Distribution of Mechanically Stable Disk Packings
Relative frequencies of mechanically stable (MS) packings of frictionless
bidisperse disks are studied numerically in small systems. The packings are
created by successively compressing or decompressing a system of soft purely
repulsive disks, followed by energy minimization, until only infinitesimal
particle overlaps remain. For systems of up to 14 particles most of the MS
packings were generated. We find that the packings are not equally probable as
has been assumed in recent thermodynamic descriptions of granular systems.
Instead, the frequency distribution, averaged over each packing-fraction
interval , grows exponentially with increasing . Moreover,
within each packing-fraction interval MS packings occur with frequencies
that differ by many orders of magnitude. Also, key features of the frequency
distribution do not change when we significantly alter the packing-generation
algorithm--for example frequent packings remain frequent and rare ones remain
rare. These results indicate that the frequency distribution of MS packings is
strongly influenced by geometrical properties of the multidimensional
configuration space. By adding thermal fluctuations to a set of the MS
packings, we were able to examine a number of local features of configuration
space near each packing including the time required for a given packing to
break to a distinct one, which enabled us to estimate the energy barriers that
separate one packing from another. We found a positive correlation between the
packing frequencies and the heights of the lowest energy barriers .
We also examined displacement fluctuations away from the MS packings to
correlate the size and shape of the local basins near each packing to the
packing frequencies.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures, 1 tabl
INVESTIGATING THE IMPLICATIONS OF MULTI-CROP REVENUE INSURANCE FOR PRODUCER RISK MANAGEMENT
This study investigates the potential for alternative multi-crop revenue insurance designs in comparison to single crop yield and revenue insurance designs. A non-parametric multi-crop insurance model is developed which subsumes the single crop designs. The results compare alternative designs in terms of rate levels and risk reduction gains for representative Mississippi producers.crop insurance, revenue insurance, risk, Risk and Uncertainty,
Crop Supply Response under Risk: Impacts of Emerging Issues on Southeastern U.S. Agriculture
In this paper we consider factors that affect both crop prices and yields in order to examine supply responses of major crops in the Southeast. Due to the variable nature of crop production in the Southeast, previous studies that ignore price and yield risk may fail to capture one of the salient features of the region’s agriculture. Our results indicate supply elasticity values for corn, cotton, and soybeans of approximately 0.670, 0.506, and 0.195, respectively. Compared with the results of studies in other regions, corn and cotton acres respond more to price changes and soybean acres respond less to price changes.acreage supply, crop supply response model, risk analysis, Southeast U.S. agriculture, Crop Production/Industries, Production Economics, Q12, Q13, Q16,
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