AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics collects, indexes, and electronically distributes full text copies of scholarly research in the broadly defined field of agricultural economics including sub disciplines such as agribusiness, food supply, natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, agricultural trade, and economic development.
The majority of items in AgEcon Search are working papers, conference papers, and journal articles, although other types such as books chapters and government documents are included. AgEcon Search will serve as the permanent archive for this literature and encourages authors and organizations to use this electronic library as the storehouse for additional appropriate scholarly electronic works.
AgEcon Search is co-sponsored by the Department of Applied Economics and the University Libraries at University of Minnesota and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
The site has received encouragement and financial support from:
Agricultural Economics Reference Organization
Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
European Association of Agricultural Economists
Farm Foundation
International Association of Agricultural Economists
USDA Economic Research Service
AgEcon Search is part of the University of Minnesota's Digital Conservancy, which provides stewardship, reliable long-term access, and broad dissemination of the digital scholarly and administrative works of the University of Minnesota faculty, departments, centers and offices.
Papers and articles downloaded from AgEcon Search may be used for non-commercial purposes and personal study only. No other use, including posting to another Internet site, is permitted without permission from the copyright owner, or as allowed under the provisions of Fair Use, U.S. Copyright Act, Title 17 U.S.C.
AgEcon Search does not hold the copyright to articles, working papers, conference papers, or other materials available in the database. Copyrights may be held by any of the following: individual authors, multiple authors, organizations, institutions, or publishers.
History
AgEcon Search began in 1995 as an experiment to see if it were possible to use the internet to archive, index and deliver on demand, full text working papers produced by university agricultural economics departments. The first papers were from agricultural economics departments at Minnesota and Wisconsin. These early papers predated the World Wide Web and were mounted on a GOPHER server in WordPerfect format. The project was (and still is) a cooperative project of the University of Minnesota Libraries, the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). The Farm Foundation and the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided financial support in the beginning of the project. Patricia Rodkewich and Louise Letnes managed AgEcon Search until Patricia's retirement in 2001, when Julie Kelly joined the AgEcon Search team. Erik Biever also served on the original AgEcon Search team, providing valued technical services and guidance. The members of the Agricultural Economics Reference Organization endorsed the efforts of AgEcon Search early on and have been instrumental in expanding the use of AgEcon Search in their respective institutions.
Since its inception AgEcon Search has operated as a distributed network, with each institution designating a member of their organization to submit papers on their behalf. With this model, costs for maintaining the system were kept low and institutions do not have to pay membership fees for participation. In the cases where an institution had no central person to act as the network member, a fee has been charged for AgEcon Search staff to submit papers. The first organization to choose this option was the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, which since 1997 has been contracting with AgEcon Search to post its annual conference papers.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 101 - 105 of 376Testing Speculative Behavior in Farmland Demand
Substantial increases in farmland demand in sub-urbanization have had profound effects on agriculture and produced a surge in farmland values. With escalating land values, farmland can take on the characteristics of a speculative asset and farmland owners may be more responsive to the investment value of farmland than the productive value. Speculation has been shown to have a significant impact on the agricultural production decisions of farms, and may encourage farmers to curtail capital investments and prematurely idle productive farmland.
Government, Effectiveness, Performance and Local Property Values
We offer a practical test of local government effectiveness in the provision of public services. Building on the work of Brueckner (1979, 1982, 1983) and Henderson (1990, 1995) we offer a property value maximization model where levels of local public services are capitalized into property values. Using data for Wisconsin municipalities we demonstrate that service expenditure levels, and corresponding taxation levels, should be increased. In other words, the property value maximization test suggests that local public services in Wisconsin are consistently under-provided.
An Empirical Examination of Real Options and the Timing of Land Conversions
Many studies have examined the effects of land use regulations on land prices and urban spatial form. Increasingly, jurisdictions have adopted incentive based mechanisms, such as purchase of development rights (PDR) programs, to manage the pace and pattern of urban growth and the conversion of agricultural land. PDR programs provide a third option to landowners in urbanizing areas: in addition to deciding whether to develop or not, landowners can decide whether to preserve their land.
The Issue of Land Ownership and Rural Nationalism in the East Central European/ECE/Countries. A Case Study of Hungary
Land has had a crucial role in the rural-nationalist ideology, especially with respect to its scarcity. In this ideology the land itself embodies a symbolic meaning which could be referred to as the "national mother-earth" which must be protected from aliens. This was the reason why the governments of the ECE candidate countries asked and received a period of 7-12 years exemption from EU rules with respect to the free movement of capital for the purpose of purchasing agricultural land.
Should Europe Further Strengthen Intellectual Property for Plant Breeders? An Analysis of Seed Industry Proposals
This paper illustrates the potential negative effects of increasing the scope of plant breeders' rights (PBR) protection, as has been proposed for Europe by leading plant breeding firms. Such a policy could increase the costs for varietal development for breeding companies, particularly if their access to varieties of the market leader is constrained. This is represented as an asymmetrical increase in breeders' cost functions in a simple model of endogenous quality choice under price competition.