Are "Decoupled" Farm Program Payments Really Decoupled? An Empirical Evaluation

This analysis utilizes farm-level data to evaluate the extent to which U.S. farm program benefits, particularly direct payments, bring about distortions in production. The issue is important in WTO negotiations and in the debate over the distortionary effects of decoupled ("green-box") payments. Our results suggest that the distortions brought about by AMTA payments, though statistically significant in some cases, are very modest. Larger effects are implied for market loss assistance payments. Probit models suggest that AMTA payments do not influence the likelihood that agents will acquire more land. Our results are reinforced using an aggregate county-level acreage model.     

Measurement of cost inefficiency with safety first measure of risk

The objectives of this paper are to incorporate a measure of risk aversion in the translog frontier cost function to estimate cost inefficiency. Risk-averse behaviour of farmers is hypothesised to reduce efficiency by leading to a situation in which the marginal value product of an input is less than price. In developing agriculture, farmers are aware of their subsistence needs and seek to minimize the probability of their incomes falling below a disaster level of income. Using such a safety first principle, a measure of risk-taking is developed and explained by socio-economic characteristics. This measure is used in the translog cost function as a fixed input and, using the frontier approach (with half normal distribution of inefficiency disturbance), a measure of cost inefficiency is obtained. This is related to socio-economic characteristics such as education, assets and holding size. A survey data of 436 farmers for the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan is used to reach policy conclusions for reducing cost inefficiency.     

Off-Farm Labor Participation Decisions of Married Farm Couples and the Role of Government Payments

The determinants of off-farm work by married farm couples are examined using data from the 2004 Agricultural Resource Management Survey and multinomial logistic regression. Expected government payment is found important in decreasing the likelihood of off-farm work strategies involving work by the husband only or by both husband and wife relative to a strategy of no work by either husband or wife. The marginal impact of government payments on the probability of the wife working off farm alone is found positive suggesting the possibility of nonpecuniary motives for off-farm employment for 21% of farm households in the selected weighted sample.     

MULTIVARIATE COINTEGRATION APPROACH TO THE DETERMINATION OF RESERVES AND BANK CREDIT: A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY*

The paper estimates both long-run reserves and long-run money demand equations using the multivariate cointegration approach. An economic model is constructed, based on the monetary approach to balance of payments in which the monetary authorities can control money supply through changes in bank credit. The vector auto-regressive methodology is used to derive latent equilibrium relationships, and the short-run error correction equations are estimated for both nominal money stock and reserves. A response function for the short-run changes in bank credit is developed. Given the institutional system and slow adjustments, a response function of changes in bank credit to lagged changes in reserves performs well for the period 1960–88.     

Wealth Effects of Acquiring Financially Distressed Firms

The purpose of the present research is to study target and acquirer shareholder wealth effects of acquisition announcements in which the target is financially distressed. The abnormal returns and the dollar abnormal gains to both the target and acquiring firms are examined according to whether the mode of acquisition is a merger or a tender offer. A regression analysis is also undertaken to examine the importance of the mode of acquisition, an industry effect, and tax variables in determining the abnormal dollar gains in acquisitions of financially distressed targets.