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This thesis explores the processes by which agri-environmental policy has developed in Scotland, using the 1996 Countryside Premium Scheme consultation as a case study. The role of interest groups within the policy process and the impacts those groups have on policy outcomes through the provision of information to policy-makers are investigated. In the process of developing a new policy, policy-makers require new information. In designing agri-environmental schemes, the Scottish Office requires information on the likely environmental, farm management and farm income impacts of proposed schemes and prescriptions. Such information is increasingly sought through public consultations, which can be considered in terms of the policy-makers demanding information which is then supplied by interested parties. This policy 'market' is amenable to analysis using economic tools more generally used in conventional markets for priced goods and services, such as the Structure-Conduct-Performance framework and the analysis of transaction costs. The public consultations undertaken prior to the introduction of the Countryside Premium Scheme in 1997 was investigated as such a policy 'market'. This revealed the structure of the agri-environmental policy network within Scotland. Three-quarters of the 71 respondents to the consultation were interviewed to establish their conduct within the policy process, and the costs involved in their providing information to the Scottish Office. The impact of the information provided on the policy outcome was explored using a combination of the perceptions of the policy actors surveyed and, more objectively, a comparison of the suggestions made in the written consultation responses with the changes made prior to implementation of the Scheme. The transaction costs paid by interest groups involved in this consultation were the equivalent of around £50,000. In return for this investment, both agricultural and environmental interest groups were found to have had some limited impact on the policy outcomes, through the provision of different types of information.

Agricultural policy changes directly affect the economic viability of Texas crop producers because government payments make up a significant portion of their net farm income (NFI). NFI projections benefit producers, agribusinesses and policy makers, but an economic model making these projections for Texas did not previously exist. The objective of this study was to develop a model to project annual NFI for producers of major crops in Texas. The Texas crop model was developed to achieve this objective, estimating state prices, yields and production costs as a function of their national counterparts. Five hundred iterations of national price and yield projections from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), along with FAPRI’s average production cost projections, were used as input to the Texas crop model. The stochastic FAPRI Baseline and residuals for Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) equations relating Texas variables to national variables were used to incorporate the risk left unexplained by OLS equations between Texas and U.S. variables. Deterministic and probabilistic NFI projections for Texas crops were compared under the January 2005 and January 2006 FAPRI Baseline projections. With production costs increasing considerably and prices rising moderately in the January 2006 Baseline, deterministic projections of 2006-2014 Texas NFI decreased by an average of 26 percent for corn, 3 percent for cotton, 15 percent for peanuts, and 12 percent for rice, and were negative for sorghum and wheat. Probability distributions of projected NFI fell for all program crops, especially sorghum and wheat. Higher hay price projections caused deterministic projections of NFI for hay to rise roughly 13 percent, and increased the probability distributions of projected hay NFI. Deterministic and probabilistic projections of total NFI decreased for each year, especially for 2006-2008 when fuel price projections were the highest. The Texas crop model can be used to simulate NFI for Texas crop producers under alternative FAPRI baselines. The model shows the impact of baseline changes on probability distributions of NFI for each crop and for Texas as a whole. It can also be useful as a policy analysis tool to compare impacts of alternative farm and macroeconomic policies on NFI.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-114). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Abstracted in Dissertation abstracts, v. 19 (1958) no. 2, p. 382-383. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-211).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-114). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin, 1967. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 17, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Patrick Westhoff. Includes bibliographical references.

The basic objectives of this thesis are to build an earnings function for farm incomes of Canadian farm operators, and estimate the rate of return to schooling. It is hypothesized that the low levels of farm income are related to the low investment in education by farm operators. If reasonable estimates of positive returns to schooling are found, they will be useful for policy makers in considering the improvement of the quality of farm operator labour via schooling, as an alternative measure to increase farm income. To achieve the goals of this study, an earnings function is built for the group of entrepreneurs, in particular the farm operators. As a test of functional form a digression is made and a value added approach discussed and utilized as an alternative way of computing the contribution of schooling to farm income. Although both methods yielded significant estimates of the return to schooling comparable to previous studies, the value added approach was found to be a better specified formulation with respect to estimating the productivity of schooling in farm production. The estimate of the marginal product of schooling using the earnings function approach was found to be higher as we concentrated on the full-time farmers. For the value added approach, the estimates differed as we varied the input specification, being higher as we decrease the number of decision variables in the estimating equation. Estimates for both models however have their respective biases and shortcomings attributable mainly to the variables omitted in both specifications. These estimates could be improved with the availability of better specified variables and use of an alternative analytical procedure. In addition to providing strong evidence that schooling is a significant determinant of farm incomes, this study also led to another important conclusion. Using a transformed labour variable in the value added function at the census division level led to an important finding that a similar output-input relationship exists in the agricultural sectors of both the U.S. and Canada. Specifically the relationship was identical for the elasticities of output with respect to labour, with respect to education (schooling), and with respect to the weighted labour variable (product of labour and schooling) values of selected years. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate