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 $P(\phi)$ for obtaining a collectively jammed state at a particular packing fraction $\phi$ into two composite functions: 1) the density of CJ packing fractions $\rho(\phi)$, which only depends on geometry and 2) the frequency distribution $\beta(\phi)$, which depends on the particular algorithm used to create them. We find that the function $\rho(\phi)$ is sharply peaked and that $\beta(\phi)$ depends exponentially on $\phi$. We predict that in the infinite system-size limit the behavior of $P(\phi)$ 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 $P(\phi)$ when $N \to \infty$ 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 $\Delta \phi$, grows exponentially with increasing $\phi$. Moreover, within each packing-fraction interval MS packings occur with frequencies $f_k$ 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 $\epsilon_0$. 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,