Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of adult children’s migration on the smoking behavior of rural parents who are left behind and raise the concern that the rural residents’ increasing tendency to migrate to urban areas in China nowadays could encourage such a...

This paper applies the stochastic Translog input distance function and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method to evaluate the operational efficiency of farm lenders in the commercial banking industry and the Farm Credit System (FCS). This paper uses the late 2000s recession as a backdrop for...

This study presents results of cost estimation and efficiency analyses of various size categories of agricultural and nonagricultural commercial banks using the Fourier Flexible (FF) function model. The traditional cost estimation model is expanded in this study with the inclusion of loan...

A structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model along with a direct acyclic graph is employed to decompose how supply/demand structural shocks affect food and fuel markets. The results support the hypothesis that fundamental market forces of demand and supply are the main drivers of food price...

Georgia vegetable farmers are pressed for time to make the transition to new fumigation methods as use of methyl bromide (MeBr) will be completely banned soon. This study focuses on alternative fumigation methods for Georgia's bell pepper production with production efficiency matching MeBr....

Enhanced environmental quality, fuel security, and economic development, along with reduced prices of blended diesel, are often used as justifications for a U.S. federal excise tax exemption on biodiesel fuels. However, the possible effect of increased overall consumption of fuel in response to...

We conduct models and tests to ascertain whether there are speculative bubbles and which factors contribute to the bubbles if there exits one. In the model, we use the option value to represent the investment value of farm real estate and compare the option value, calculated from dynamic...

The rapid upward shift in ethanol demand has raised concerns about ethanol’s impact on the price level and volatility of agricultural commodities. The popular press attributes much of this volatility in commodity prices to a price bubble in ethanol fuel and recent deflation. Market economics...