Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 19, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

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The evaluation of public investments in agricultural research has been a topic of special interest to research administrators and others concerned with productivity in agriculture. Tighter research budgets and diminished purchasing power due to inflation have increased concern about research budget allocations. Earlier research evaluation studies have indicated high rates of return to overall agricultural investments. This study is concerned with the evaluation of research investments made at an individual agricultural commodity level. The primary objectives of this study are: (a) to estimate the marginal product and internal rates of return to research investments in corn, wheat, soybeans, and sorghum. (b) to estimate separately the internal rate of return to extension investments in these commodities. (c) to estimate the effect of spillovers from research investments in these commodities by other outside states. (d) to estimate the impact of these research and extension investments in grain commodities for individual geographical production regions in the U.S. The theoretical framework of a supply response model with inclusion of a variable to account for aggregate risk by producers was developed as the basis for analyzing research and extension investments in corn, wheat, soybeans, and sorghum. Individual commodity models focusing on the relationship of yield per acre to output prices, land quality differences, weather, aggregate risk, and investments in research and extension were specified. Data were collected for these variables for a cross-section of the major producing states of each commodity for the 1973-1979 crop years. The Park's model, a generalized least squares procedure which includes adjustments for first-order autocorrelation within each state and cross-sectional correlation among states, was used to estimate coefficients of individual commodity models. Empirical results for the individual commodity models indicate that the prices of output and a substitute commodity, weather, land quality differences, aggregate risk, in-state and outside research investments, and extension investments were significant variables explaining yield per acre of corn, wheat, soybeans, and sorghum. The estimated internal rates of return on research investments indicate very favorable rates of return to both in-state and outside investments in agricultural research. The returns to in-state research investments ranged from 81 percent for wheat to 177 for corn and the returns to outside research investments ranged from 21 percent for wheat to 133 percent for sorghum. The rates of return to outside research expenditures indicate that the benefits of research investments are not confined solely to the state making the investment. The significance of these spillovers suggest that the contribution of federal funds to state research programs is appropriate as a means of compensating states for the externalities. The contributions of extension investment to productivity increases of these grain commodities were estimated separately from the contributions of investments in agricultural research. Based on assumptions of 8 and 12 year "inverted V" distributions of benefits from increased yield per acre, the estimated IRORs for extension investments ranged from 42 percent for sorghum to 96 percent for corn. The estimated IRORs for research and extension investments in the various U.S. production regions were comparable to the rates estimated for the U.S. in total. While the IROR to research investments were higher than for extension investments, these rates are highly sensitive to assumptions made concerning the length and structure of the lag between expenditures and impacts. The measure of benefits based solely on yield increases also may not be appropriate for all types of research and extension expenditures. Aggregate risk based on past variations in prices has a significant impact on corn and wheat yields. The significant negative coefficients imply risk-averse behavior by corn and wheat producers in the aggregate. Increases in price variability have a depressing effect on yield. The models developed in this study enable price elasticities for grain yields to be estimated. Elasticities estimated at mean levels, using expected nominal prices, ranged from .06 for sorghum to .30 for corn. These elasticities indicate total supply response is 6 to 30 percent greater than estimates based solely on acreage response. / Ph. D.

This thesis demonstrates that Calvin Coolidge applied a philosophy of limited government to his executive decisions concerning two domestic issues, Prohibition and agricultural policy. In both matters, various groups attempted to pressure Coolidge into permanently increasing the scope of the federal government's activities. Coolidge refused to comply with their demands and maintained his belief in the benefits of a federal government that limited itself to minimal activism by mediating the disputes of conflicting interest groups. Through both Prohibition and the agricultural problem, Coolidge exhibited his effectiveness in handling divisive political issues while maintaining his philosophy of limited government. Overall, this thesis contributes to the scholarly revisionism of Coolidge. / Department of History

American agriculture in the twentieth century underwent immense transformations. The triumphs in agriculture are emblematic of post-war American progress and expansion but do not accurately depict the evolution of American agriculture throughout an entire century of agricultural depression and economic failure. Some characteristics of this evolution are unprecedented efficiency in terms of output per capita, rapid industrialization and mechanization, the gradual slip of agriculture's portion of GNP, and an exodus of millions of farmers from agriculture leading to fewer and larger farms. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an environmental history and political ecology of overproduction, which has lead to constant surpluses, federal price and subsidy intervention, and environmental concerns about sustainability and food safety. This project explores the political economy of output maximization during these years, roughly from WWI through the present, studying various environmental, economic, and social effects of overproduction and output maximization. The complex eco system of modern agriculture is heavily impacted by the political and economic systems in which it is intrinsically embedded, obfuscating hopes of food and agricultural reforms on many different levels. Overproduction and surplus are central to modern agriculture and to the food that has fueled American bodies for decades. Studying overproduction, or operating at rapidly expanding levels of output maximization, will provide a unique lens through which to look at the profound impact that the previous century of technological advance and farm legislation has had on agriculture in America.

This study applies Destler's institutional counterweights to Putnam's two-level analysis, substituting Liberal Institutionalism and Realism for internationalism and isolationism, in a comparative case study of the roles played by the U.S. and the EC in multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture under the aegis of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade during the first half of the Uruguay Round. Using game theory as an analytical tool in the process, this present study demonstrates that a clear pattern emerges in which stages of cooperation and deadlock can be easily anticipated in games of Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma in accordance with various but predictable levels of institutional influence.