Due to a lack of internationally comparable agricultural price data, implicit output/input price ratios are constructed as the reciprocals of input MPPs. The MPPs are estimated by a production function fitted to data from a world cross section of 119 countries. Although the output/purchased...

The main purpose of this paper is to construct a theoretical framework which explains the growth in size of full-time family farms.

Accurate estimates of returns to scale require that inputs and output are measured without error and that environmental and managerial differences among firms of varying sizes are taken into account. Measurement problems affecting estimates of returns to scale in agriculture include: (1)...

The results of estimating reduced form supply and input demand functions suggest that farm programs have increased the area planted to corn and soybeans in the corn belt by about 12 percent, and increased fertilizer and chemical use per acre by about 18 percent. It is argued that a limited land...