NONPARAMETRIC ESTIMATION OF MULTIPRODUCT AND PRODUCT-SPECIFIC ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Numerous studies have utilized nonparametric estimation of production efficiency but no such study focuses on multiproduct or product-specific economies of scale. A mathematical program is specified to nonparametrically estimate these measures for crops and livestock for Kansas farms. Results show that many farms would realize benefits from expansion.Industrial Organization,

Wealth, Debt, Government Payments, and Yield Performance

We use a large sample of Kansas Farm Management Association farms for eight different crop/practice combinations (dryland and irrigated corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat)for 1994 through 2006 to evaluate the determinants of relative yield performance and explore the ability of financial variables to account for some of the remaining unexplained variation. Our hypothesis is that more financially sound farms should be able to implement better production thecniques, thus have better yields. We further test whether decoupled payments can be used to enhance yield performance. Our hypothesis is that payments may be used to boots investment in inputs or equipament that can lead to better yields. Our results suggest this could be the case.yield performance; decoupled payments.

MODELING CHANGES IN THE U.S. DEMAND FOR CROP INSURANCE DURING THE 1990S

The crop insurance purchase decision for a group of Kansas farmers is analyzed using data from 1990sa period that experienced many changes in the federal crop insurance program. Farm-level data are used. Results indicate a reduction in the elasticity of the demand for crop insurance with respect to premium rates by the end of the decade. This corresponded with a considerable increase in government subsidies by the end of the 1990s. This may also reflect the attractiveness of new revenue insurance products that may have made producers less sensitive to premium changes.Risk and Uncertainty,

Farmers' Crop Acreage Decisions in the Presence of Credit Constraints: Do Decoupled Payments Matter?

While in theory decoupled payments do not distort production decisions, in practice there are several potential coupling mechanisms for these payments. We use farm-level data from Kansas to revisit the issue of how (de)coupled are these supposedly “decoupled” payments by focusing on how they may impact production through credit constraints. In particular, we study how production effects may have differed across farmers with varying levels of debt pressure. Our empirical approach exploits the fact that we can observe the same farm over time (and so can account for the effects of time-constant omitted variables) to study how these payments affected total crop acres, owned acres, and the decisions to plant corn, sorghum, soybeans and wheat. Like previous studies, we find small production effects. Nonetheless our results suggest decoupled payments have potentially distortionary effects on production.decoupled payments, credit constraints, Agricultural Finance, Q17, Q18,

Effects of Decoupling on the Average and the Variability of Output

Previous research has ignored the influence of inputs on output risk when assessing the effects of decoupled income-support payments on production decisions. This paper studies the impacts of agricultural policy decoupling on output variability and mean by explicitly considering the influence of agricultural input use on the stochastic component of production. We develop a theoretical framework that studies production responses of agricultural producers to apparently decoupled payments. Results show that, under DARA preferences, government transfers will have the effect of increasing production risk. Inferences on the effects of payments on output mean are also made. In our empirical application we use farm-level data collected in Kansas to illustrate the model.decoupling, output risk, risk preferences, Just-Pope production function, Demand and Price Analysis, Q12, Q18,

Decoupling farm policies: how does this affect production?

This paper studies the extent to which decoupled income support measures in agriculture can have production implications both at the extensive and intensive margins. We develop a theoretical framework that analyzes production responses of agricultural producers to apparently decoupled payments, by explicitly considering risk attitudes and uncertainty. We use farm-level data collected in Kansas to estimate the model. Technology and risk preference parameters are jointly estimated. Results show that though lump sum payments are not fully decoupled in the presence of risk and uncertainty, their effects on agricultural production are likely to be of a very small magnitude.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Property Tax Lids and the Effect on Kansas

Cross sectional time series data in a partial adjustment model examine local government behavior under an aggregate property tax levy limit and under Truth in Taxation in Kansas. Results indicate that the aggregate levy limit would have continued to restrict property tax revenue and spending had it not been replaced.Public Economics,

Framed to fit? Challenging the domestic abuse ‘story’ in child protection

The current framing of domestic violence generates profound problems for those concerned with supporting change for all involved. In particular, the stress on the ‘equal vulnerability’ of all women to domestic abuse, irrespective of economic or social circumstances, is out of line with a developing evidence base and deprives policymakers and practitioners of the conceptual tools that are needed to situate actual identities, choices and challenges with differing implications for women as well as men. In this article, we note the relative lack of attention in the UK to the work of international researchers on how gendered inequalities intersect with those arising from a range of others, crucially, class and ‘race’. This body of work also draws attention to the importance of understanding the impact of state interventions on marginalised communities, an area also neglected in the UK