Leo Polopolus

Agricultural Economics Beyond the Farm Gate

The industrialization of American agriculture during the past three decades has diminished farm numbers and the farm population. While total agricultural production has increased, the input, finance, service, processing, transportation, and distribution industries surrounding production agriculture have now become the dominant economic components of the food and agriculture system. The transformation of production agriculture from a major economic sector of the U.S. economy to minor status has been in progress since the founding days of the Republic, but has received impetus in the post-World War II era via the technological revolution involving mechanical, chemical, biological, and managerial innovations on the farm. What has emerged from this process is a highly interdependent subsystem of the U.S. economy for providing food and fiber for consumers at home and abroad. Agricultural scientists, including agricultural economists, have tended to place undue emphasis upon the technological, economic, and social aspects of production agriculture as the food and fiber system changed over time. While public investments in research and education for the production side of agriculture are admittedly inadequate, the lack of attention to the technological and economic problems of the balance of the food and fiber system is deplorable. In terms of value added, employment, or other measures of economic importance, the food and fiber system beyond the farm gate is roughly twice that of production agriculture. More significantly, productivity and inflation problems beyond the farm gate have affected national economic performance more persistently than gyrations in the farm economy per se. The overall purpose of this paper is to challenge agricultural economists and policy makers to think about some important issues facing our contemporary economic system. This emphasis does not mean that farm production economics is unimportant or unnecessary. It is argued, however, that changes are needed within the agricultural economics profession to deal with a large number of significant economic problems and concerns beyond the farm gate.

Ranking of Agricultural Economics Departments by Citations

Ranking of agricultural economics departments based upon the number of articles or article pages does not take into account the impact or usefulness of these journal articles or other works to the profession. In this paper, an alternative ranking scheme is employed which utilizes citations from a broad array of publications of a departments faculty. Rankings are developed for agricultural economics units at 1862 land grant universities, 1890 land grant universities, independent U.S. universities, and Canadian universities, as well as an overall composite ranking and comparisons with economics departments.

Ranking of Agricultural Economics Departments: Influence of Regional Journals, Joint Authorship, and Self-Citations

Citations are increasingly used to indicate the quality of an academic units work. The set of literature or journals, however, becomes crucial to any ranking scheme. Citations from the broadly based Social Science Citations Index suggest a different ranking of departments than the ranking obtained from a somewhat narrowly focused set of North American journals of agricultural economics. The paper seeks to determine the influence of regional journals, joint authorship, and self-citations on departmental rankings. Data bases of citations are developed for the faculty of seventy-three departments of agricultural economics in the United States and Canada.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SANCTIONS, AND LABOR CONTRACTING

Entrepreneurs innovate their individual business organizations not only to deal with production and price risks, but also to cope with the risk of sanctions or penalties imposed by societys laws and regulations. More specifically, labor-intensive agricultural firms, faced with potentially large fines for violation of immigration and labor laws, increasingly modify the organization of their firms by shifting the management of routine seasonal labor jobs to independent farm labor contractors. The use of labor contracting is further intensified because of the effectiveness of labor contractors in the recruitment of illegal aliens.

Optimal Allocation of Generic Advertising Budgets

A model is developed for allocating advertising budgets among multiple consumer products marketed in several regions so that total consumer expenditures net of advertising costs are maximized. The model pertains specifically to unbranded commodity advertising where the budget is dependent upon uncontrolled industry production. Time series-based empirical estimates of consumer sales response to advertising expenditures are utilized as input data in a quadratic programming algorithm. Consumer expenditures under optimum and actual allocations were compared for selected historical budgets of the Florida Department of Citrus to obtain a measure of possible gain from more efficient allocation of advertising funds

Farris, Paul L., ed., Future Frontiers in Agricultural Marketing Research. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1983, vii + 341 pp.,

Feel lonely? What about reading books? Book is one of the greatest friends to accompany while in your lonely time. When you have no friends and activities somewhere and sometimes, reading book can be a great choice. This is not only for spending the time, it will increase the knowledge. Of course the b=benefits to take will relate to what kind of book that you are reading. And now, we will concern you to try reading future frontiers in agricultural marketing research as one of the reading material to finish quickly.

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International markets have been important The paper by Professor Schmitz presents a to Southern agriculture since the 17th cenrevealing portrait of an important aspect of tury. During that early period, the coloniinternational trade and competition not comzation of the South was primarily oriented monly discussed by professional agricultural to the production of such crops as rice, toeconomists, i.e., how marketing institutions bacco, forest products, and cotton for export function and perform in the context of into Europe (McPherson and Langham). In more ternational commodity marketing (Schmitz). recent times, the South has also been an What we find is a quite complex world of important source of exports of wheat, corn, public traders, private traders, domestic poland soybeans. icies, and international policies. In some sitFor the basic commodities (cotton, touations, private traders may be the most bacco, peanuts, corn, rice, and wheat), the important actors in carrying out the details domestic farm policies have insulated proof international transactions even where tradducers from the realities of international maring was initiated between state traders in both kets since the 1930s. However, the South the exporting and importing countries, eg., contributed its fair share of United States wheat. On the other hand, international trade exports of wheat, rice, feed grains, and soymay involve various combinations of multibeans to a hungry world market in the 1970s. national trading firms, brokers, and governAs is well known, the decline in international ment trading agencies. The existence of sales of agricultural commodities in the 1980s broadly recognized futures markets usually has been caused by several factors, particuresults in international markets with lower larly the relatively high value of the United transactions costs, when compared with States dollar and the protective nature of transactions costs in international markets United States price support programs. where futures markets are not established. The important point about reviewing the Political factors and political affiliations can historical pattern of the South is that dramatic also have a major impact upon trading patadjustments in output levels and commodity terns. mix have occurred. For example, cotton and Professor Schmitz concludes that internatobacco have been replaced by cattle, soytional marketing institutions are reasonably beans, and broilers as the major commodities efficient. But by being so efficient, exporting in terms of cash farm receipts in the South nations, such as the United States, may suffer (Sumner). Adjustments have occurred befrom increased competition and lower procause of responses to competitive import ducer prices. He argues that more cooperaproblems (with other regions of the United tion among exporters would be desirable. States and other nations), as well as comOne can seriously question, however, the petitive situations in exports (from the region probable effectiveness of a grain or other to other regions of the United States and other agricultural commodity cartel in light of the countries). recent OPEC experience. Even if there is

The Competitive Position of Southern Commodities in International Markets: A Synopsis

Antitrust laws generally seek to promote competition in U.S. markets. Alternatively, these laws attempt to correct the type of market failure that occurs when the market does not sustain price competition or embodies undesirable features, such as prices fixed and agreed upon by rival sellers. It is well known that the federal policy to curb price-fixing agreements was central to the enactment of the Sherman Act of 1890. Formal cartels of the 19th and early 20th centuries, with their sales quotas, exclusive sales agencies, price-fixing committees, and customer and geographic sales allocations, apparently have been eliminated from the contemporary scene. Despite the disappearance of United States based formal cartels, there has been considerable litigation in recent years over pricing behavior of individual firms. A wide array of agricultural and food industries have been involved in these actions.