Lynn W. Robbins

The Relationship Between Managerial Heuristics and Economics in Pricing Retail Meats

This study develops a theoretical model of the multiproduct firm which allows for imperfect competition in the output market. Hypotheses are tested for retail meat prices concerning the degree and speed of price transmission, the effects of interfirm competition, and the interrelationship between prices within the store. Empirical results indicated that meat prices within a store were highly interrelated. Further, the firm was found to be very responsive to prices of competitors in the short run, but more responsive to wholesale price changes in the long run.

Grain export elevators: An economies of size analysis

An economic engineering approach was used to investigate physical economies of size in port elevators. Results confirmed that physical economies of size do exist. Comparisons with operating port elevators indicate that either engineered configurations are overly constraining or non-physical variables influence size decisions.

Simulated Behavior of Fast Food Restaurants under Alternative Cost/Volume Conditions

The food service industry has become a major factor in total retail food sales during the past decade. Expenditures for food away from home were about 35% of all food expenditures in 1978. Between 1963 and 1978, fast food restaurant sales increased 305%, adjusted for inflation. Fast food restaurants are defined as eating establishments that utilize standard food preparation, service, equipment, management systems, and labor savings technologies in providing a limited food menu. Their share of total eating place sales more than doubled from 1963 to 1972. This share undoubtedly will show further increases as more recent data become available (Van Dress). Changes in the socioeconomic structure of American society, such as the increasing number of working wives and single person households along with changes in income, tastes, preferences, eating habits, and a general transition to more leisure time, have contributed to expansion in food service. Growth of this magnitude creates informational needs among both industry and public sector participants. Typically, the appearance of economic, marketing, and management information about a new sector of the economy lags its growth in importance. Because of fast foods especially rapid growth, the related informational demand is large. While some research relating to fast food and other food service industries exists, information remains relatively scarce (Haas, p. 89). A typical fast food restaurants behavioral and operational relationships are described in detail. Some opportunities for improved marketing and operational efficiency are identified. The typical fast food restaurant is modeled and analyzed using sensitivity analyses. That is, model parameters are systematically altered to evaluate potentially viable operating policies that would be costly, time consuming, and impractical to test in reality. In a micro sense, efficiency improvements reduce operating costs and in turn increase short-run firm profits. Industry-wide competition is enhanced as information on efficient processing and marketing reaches other firms. If marketing costs are reduced across the entire system, greater returns to producers and lower prices to consumers should result. Research Design

Kentucky's ANSER: The Agricultural Network Serving Extension and Research

used for data retrieval. Unlike some computer systems, ANSER is geared to serve the needs of many interests. The system is designed to meet the needs of a diversified clientele including farmers, county agents, rural development specialists, agribusinessmen, local political figures, and other decision makers. These clientele share a common need for up-to-date assistance in making knowledgeable decisions. The scope of ANSER is broad-based and comprehensive. By studying systems developed in other states, extensive planning by personnel in the college of agriculture has been done to ensure that the system has appeal to the diverse clientele of agricultural economics (Diesslin; Harsh; Kendrick, Thompson, Murray; Payne). This paper (a) describes the design philosophy upon which the systems development was based, (b) outlines the software development effort, (c) describes the hardware selections, and (d) explains how clients will use the system.

Twelve-Month and Nine-Month Agricultural Economics Faculty Salaries

Ever more agricultural economics departments are offering appointments for nine rather than twelve months but little if any analysis of the impact of this change has been done. Our research shows that converting to nine-month contracts is an effective way to raise salaries without an initial outlay of new funds and thus meets the retention criterion. Lower ranks do not suffer significantly lower salaries (without supplements) and professors earn more. Because the nine-month alternative costs more, justification for converting all twelve-month faculty members must rest on other factors, such as enhanced grants or comparability.

Benefits, Costs, and Distributional Consequences of a Publicly Assisted Marketing Cooperative

During the last two decades, public policy makers have recognized a need to enhance the earning capacity of low income rural residents. For the rural population now supplementing minimal incomes with income from agricultural production, current policy instruments are slow in effect. Designed primarily for long-run development of nonagricultural employment through industrialization and the enhancement of human capital through schooling, such policies largely ignore small farms as a transitional source of income and employment. An exception to this general tendency, Title III of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 planned to strengthen the income earning capacity of small farm households. Although larger farms have been served by organizing cooperatively, small, low income farms have appeared limited in their ability to organize cooperatively by inadequate investment capital. Title III sought to ease this perceived capital constraint with a program of grants and loans. The primary objectives were (a) to provide the opportunity for increased farm income through productive employment and (b) to direct this income enhancement opportunity toward otherwise low income households (U.S. Congress). Existing evaluations tend to stress more the need for changes in administrative procedures than careful consideration of project benefits and costs. Where income changes have been estimated, analytic methods are unclear and leave the significance and validity of such results in doubt. The role of Title III in en-

Enhancing Mutual Benefits from Firm-Level Research Efforts

The food system is usually thought of as having a series of participants that includes consumers, retailers, wholesalers, processors, assemblers, farmers or ranchers, input manufacturers, and input suppliers. Although there are others, the university is one important participant omitted from that list. The omission is made by both food industry executives and university scholars. Excluding the university component from the food system diminishes the opportunities of interaction between agribusiness and the campus. Potential for reciprocal advantage through increased interaction would suggest considering the university as an integral part of the food system, although currently the industrial and scholastic activities have fairly large nonoverlapping parts (figure 1). This paper discusses the potential for enlarging the UB intersection in figure 1 by enhancing the mutual benefits from firm-level studies such as those being conducted under existing research approval policies. Barriers blocking potential interaction and suggestions for suppressing them are analyzed with specific illustrations from a case example. Alternative activities for capturing benefits similar to those from firm-level research are also explored briefly.