Specialty Crops and the 2007 Farm Bill: The Potential Role of Farm Savings Accounts

This paper discusses the findings of a research project that examined the potential benefits of establishing farm savings accounts for specialty crop growers1. The primary goal of the project was to determine whether farm savings accounts would provide specialty crop growers with a useful tool for managing financial risk. The project examined how various farm savings account proposals ultimately impacted the benefits that specialty crop growers would receive from the accounts.Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries,

The Paradox of Risk Balancing: Do Risk-reducing Policies Lead to More Risk for Farmers?

The study presents stochastic optimal control/dynamic programming (SOC/DP) to derive the optimal debt level and consumption in farm models concerning two sources of uncertainty: the return on assets and interest rate. The SOC/DP analytic framework is used to analyze the impacts of risk-reducing farm policies on farm’s financial and risk adjustments. The results show the violations of the risk-balancing concept, which theorizes that risk-reducing farm policies may lead to increases in financial leverage, total risk, and the expected returns. Also, this study examines the extent to which the estimates of the optimal debt level are biased when interest rate risk is ignored.Stochastic Optimal Control/Dynamic Programming, Financial Leverage, Uncertainty, Risk Balancing, Agricultural and Food Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

The optimal ordering policy with trade credit under two different payment methods

[[abstract]]Suppliers’ offering delay payment terms to retailers can be regarded as a type of price reduction. In today’s ever competitive marketplace, offering delay payments has become a commonly adopted method to suppliers. Most of the inventory models with permissible delay in payments assumed that the entire lot size is delivered at the same time. However, in practice, goods ordered are usually arrived overtime in separate batches. In this study, we discuss an inventory problem with a finite replenishment rate under trade credit for two payment methods. We establish a theorem to find the optimal solution for each payment method. Numerical examples are also given to illustrate the solution procedure. Finally, to investigate the effect of changes of some main parameter values on the optimal solution, a sensitivity analysis is performed and some management interpretations are proposed.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]DE

Consumer Willingness to Pay and Marketing Opportunities for "Quality Guaranteed Tree-Ripened Peaches" in New York State

This study identifies consumer characteristics associated with willingness to pay a higher price for quality guaranteed tree-ripened peaches, with a focus on evaluating factors important to consumers when making decisions to purchase tree-ripened peaches. Telephone interviews were conducted with consumers in New York State in summer, 2002. Seventy-eight percent of the 258 survey respondents reported that they were willing to pay a higher price. A logistical regression model of willingness to pay was estimated. The empirical results indicated that willingness to pay was positively affected by the existence of previous experiences in purchasing tree-ripened peaches and by consumer dissatisfaction with peaches consumed in the past. An analysis of consumer experiences and consumer dissatisfaction showed that consumers in the two identified segments had mutually exclusive characteristics that present marketing opportunities for high quality New York-grown peaches.Consumer/Household Economics,

Lifshitz holographic superconductor in Horava-Lifshitz gravity

We study the holographic phase transition of superconductor dual to a Lifshitz black brane probed by an anisotropic scalar field in the probe limit in Ho\u{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity. With the use of numerical and analytical method, we investigate how the critical temperature of the condensation is affected by the Lifshitz exponent $z$, $\alpha-$correction term in the action as well as the dimensions of the gravity. We also numerically explore the condensation of the dual operator and optical conductivity of the holographic system. Various interesting properties of the holographic condensation affected by the parameters of model are discussed