DECOUPLED PAYMENTS: HOUSEHOLD INCOME TRANSFERS IN CONTEMPORARY U.S. AGRICULTURE

Decoupled payments are lump-sum income transfers to farm operators that do not depend on current production, factor use, or commodity prices. Such payments are not currently constrained by global trade rules, but many countries argue that they distort production and trade and that their use should be limited. This report examines the U.S. experience with decoupled payments in its Production Flexibility Contracts program under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996. The payments have improved the well-being of recipient farm households, enabling them to comfortably increase spending, savings, investments, and leisure but with minimal distortion of U.S. agricultural production and trade. However, farm operators may retain as little as 40 percent of program benefits due to higher land rents. While commercial farms received the largest share of decoupled payments, they rent in over two-thirds of their program acres, which suggests that a sizable portion of their program benefits may be passed through to nonfarming landowners.Consumer/Household Economics,

ARE U.S. FARM PROGRAMS GOOD PUBLIC POLICY? TAKING POLICY PERFORMANCE SERIOUSLY

Distributional analysis is employed to assess the ethical acceptability of agricultural policy along plurastic moral criteria. Using 1999 micro-data from USDA ARMS survey and the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, we discuss policy performance (measured as the effect of direct government payments on the distribution of incomes and profits) relative to policy goals. We show that current programs only minimally address the post-?farm problem? objective of providing a safety net, and the goal of providing an abundant supply of agricultural products is potentially well-implemented given institutional constraints.Agricultural and Food Policy,

FIRM EFFICIENCY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USE: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. CASH GRAIN FARMS

We implement stochastic frontier analysis techniques to show the effects of information technology use on firm efficiency. Results from a sample of 1,865 U.S. cash grain farms reveals that information technology use within the farm business moved farms significantly towards the efficiency frontier. Also moving farms towards the efficiency frontier were the use of written long-term plans, advanced input acquisition strategies, and increased farm labor hours relative to total labor hours. In contrast, an increase in the debt to asset ratio was associated with movements away from the efficiency frontier.Crop Production/Industries,

DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF U.S. FARM HOUSEHOLD INCOME

expenditures, farm safety net, household income, poverty, stochastic dominance, wealth, Consumer/Household Economics,

Development and performance analysis of a saturated core high temperature superconducting fault current limiter

Recent international activity in the field of high voltage Fault Current Limiters (FCLs) has intensified since the North American blackout of 2003. A number of national and international peak body groups in the USA, Europe and Japan have been established to assess the need for FCLs and the issues associated with their design, specification, operation, protection and integration into the electricity grids. This paper details the development of a prototype 3-phase saturated core High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) FCL in Australia. Through experimental analysis, the performance of this device is characterised in terms of DC saturation, steady state performance, and fault current limiting ability

GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL REFORM AND U.S. AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT CAPACITY

This paper focuses on U.S. agriculture response to policy reform. A growing body of empirical literature describes the potential aggregate gains for the U.S. markets if global agricultural tariffs and subsidies can be further reduced (USDA, 2001; World Bank, GEP 2002; Tokarick, 2003). These gains are based on an aggregation of expected responses at the micro-level, by firms and households, to changing market conditions. Some of them will be "gainers" whose current economic activities and assets will benefit from the new opportunities presented by policy reform. Some will be "losers" who are adversely affected by the reduction or loss of subsidies or import protection.Agricultural and Food Policy,

RURAL POVERTY, INCOME SHOCKS, AND LAND MANAGEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE LINKAGES IN EL SALVADOR

Data collected in surveys of more than 700 Salvadoran households carried out in 1996 and 1998 are used in an econometric analysis of linkages between land and labor use. Particular emphasis is offered on how poor households allocated labor resources in response to the El Nino weather phenomenon of 1997. Implications for resource conservation are offered.International Development, Land Economics/Use,

THE MARKET FOR E-COMMERCE SERVICES IN AGRICULTURE

We report results of a survey of 608 Ohio agribusinesses in 1999 and show them to be divided in their attitudes and acceptance of e-commerce. Half of the respondents report that their business has a web site, although many had taken a negative stance toward such a move. Nearly all say that the internet will significantly change their sector, and the majority of managers report that e-commerce has significantly affected the way they view their business.Marketing,

Boundary Data Smoothness for Solutions of Nonlocal Boundary Value Problems for nth Order Differential Equations

Under certain conditions, solutions of the boundary value problem y(n)=f(x,y,y′,…,y(n−1)), y(n)=f(x,y,y′,…,y(n−1)), y(i−1)(x1)=yiy(i−1)(x1)=yi for 1≤i≤n−11≤i≤n−1, and y(x2)−∑mi=1riy(ηi)=yny(x2)−∑i=1mriy(ηi)=yn, are differentiated with respect to boundary conditions, where

INCOME, WEALTH, AND THE ECONOMIC WELL-BEING OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS

Agricultural policy is rooted in the 1930s notion that providing transfers of money to the farm sector translates into increased economic well-being of farm families. This report shows that changes in income for the farm sector or for any particular group of farm businesses do not necessarily reflect changes confronting farm households. Farm households draw income from various sources, including off-farm work, other businesses operated, and increasingly nonfarm investments. Likewise, focus on a single indicator of well-being, like income, overlooks other indicators such as the wealth held by the household and the level of consumption expenditures for health care, food, housing, and other items. Using an expanded definition of economic well-being, we show that farm households as a whole are relatively better off than the average U.S. household, but that about 6 percent remain economically disadvantaged relative to the rest of the population.Consumption, farm households, income, wealth, well-being, off-farm employment, Consumer/Household Economics,