Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Scott H. Irwin. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin. / Bibliography: leaves [146]-147.

Inaug.-diss.--Göttingen. / Lebenslauf. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [261]-267.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1969. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Farmland plays a dual role for farm business households; it can be both a production cost and an asset. As a production cost, farmland affects farm production decisions. As an asset, farmland comprises 80% of the total farm households assets. The total land available for farming is decreasing due to non-farming demand for land. The primary goal of this dissertation is to examine the impact of farm household income on farmland values. Specifically, I will assess the impact of off-farm income and government subsidies on farmland values in South Korean farm households. The majority of the studies on off-farm income, government agricultural subsidies, and farmland values have been conducted using either United States or other developed countries data. This dissertation contributes to the literature by investigating the impact of off-farm income and government subsidies in Korean agricultural households. Examining Koreas situation will improve the decision making of farm policymakers and researchers who are interested in reducing agricultural subsidies and increasing the economic well-being of Korean farm households.

The Agricultural Act of 2014, signed February 7, 2014, introduces a new era of federal support in the production of major agricultural commodities in the United States for the 2014 through 2018 crop years. The ultimate result of the Act was a 954-page piece of legislation that represented market-oriented policies such as the creation of an area-wide shallow loss revenue support program for covered commodities and a greater reliance on crop insurance products offered as a suite of risk management tools available to producers. The impact that this law has on agricultural producers in the Mississippi River delta region of the Mid-south is not yet fully known. Moving forward, the elimination of the direct payment program is likely to have an impact on farm income, as these payments were made annually and were decoupled from actual market prices. Various combinations of federal farm programs, chosen irrevocable, paired with multiple crop insurance products, that are purchased annually, will act to mitigate the risks of production. Simulation analysis provides a basis for evaluating the variability associated with production systems in the Mississippi River delta region. Three representative rice and soybean farms and six corn, cotton, and soybean farms were modeled as to determine the five year net returns resulting from price and yield risk as well as to evaluate alternative farm program and crop insurance selection. Financial performance of these farms is measured for varying levels of risk using a stochastic efficiency criteria. Results are presented for multiple combinations of the agriculture risk coverage and price loss coverage programs of the commodity title and revenue protection, supplemental coverage option endorsement, and the stacked income protection plan for producers of upland cotton contained in crop insurance title of the current farm law. For each farm at each location, an estimate to the net present value of the cumulative net returns above variable costs to the producer for the five year life of the farm bill is provided. Results from different farming operations suggest the preferred pairing of farm programs and crop insurance policies does vary across locale and crops.

This thesis presents investigations of three topics in non-market valuation; contingent valuation, hedonic property price analysis, and benefit transfer. Chapter Three presents an original analysis of contingent valuation data collected at a popular birding site in California using a heteroskedastic Tobit model. Also the distribution of willingness to pay bids is estimated using kernel density estimation. Chapter Four presents the estimation of a hedonic price function. The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of proximity to the Tanque Verde riparian corridor in Tucson Arizona on the value of homes in the area. The third topic is an analysis of benefit transfer techniques, with particular attention to the transfer of non-market benefit estimates across time. These techniques are presented and evaluated in Chapter Five.

Soil compaction due to wheeled tractors and trailed equipment has been a concern since the beginning of agricultural machanization. The interest in this subject has increased in recent years, as tractors and trailers have become heavier. Gantries pass over the field in fixed unplanted paths, between which lay the crop beds. Wheel traction increases due to soil compaction on the pathways, while the elimination of soil compaction in the growing area improves soil tilth, and provides the best soil condition for crops. To obtain optimum performance with a gantry, it must be properly designed to ensure that the structural components are strong, yet light. Since forces arising from various field operations which would act on the gantry were not directly available from the literature, they were estimated from various sources. Finite element analysis was then used to analyze the design and determine the most appropriate material sizes.

This dissertation offers three independent studies that each contributes to the literature on trade facilitation. The papers are built on the gravity model framework where the relationship between trade facilitation variables and the volume of agricultural exports across the border are examined. To deal with the issue of endogeneity, instrumental variable regression is used. The study also corrects for sample-selection bias present in the trade data. The first paper examines the role of e-governance on bilateral agricultural trade. The study finds that better quality of e-governance promotes agricultural exports. Specifically, according to the findings of the paper, the quality of e-governance in the exporting country increases the volume of agricultural exports across the border. However, the quality of e-governance prevailing in the importing country does not influence agricultural exports significantly. The second paper deals with the effect of corruption on bilateral agricultural trade. Using different measures of corruption this paper examines the role of institutional quality on agricultural exports. The study finds both trade-enhancing and trade-taxing role of corruption on agricultural exports. Furthermore, according to the findings of the study, the effects are much more prominent for the degree of corruption in the exporting country than the importing country. The third paper studies the impact of Internet adoption on bilateral trade. This paper distinguishes between agricultural and non-agricultural commodities. According to the findings of the paper, Internet penetration encourages non-agricultural exports but it does not have any significant impact on agricultural trade.

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