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This dissertation focuses on developing a production model of pesticide use with pest tolerant response, establishing proper estimation procedures, applying these procedures to actual field data, and exploring the statistical properties of the resulting estimators. This dissertation, distinct from most historical studies on pesticide productivity, emphasizes the different characteristics between the productive and the protective inputs and examines how they affect the production function. Instead of modelling a direct relationship between a protective input and product yield, an abatement function is introduced into the production model to add realism to the manner in which such an input affects agricultural production. Pesticide level, initial pest population, and pest tolerant response are included in the abatement function. The assumption is that the protective input affects abatement directly which, in turn, affects yield. Thus, the protective input is said to have an indirect effect on yield. The phenomenon of pest tolerant response is often discussed in the literature of the biological sciences and may prove to be a useful addition to the notion of a pest abatement function. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is typically ignored in the econometric specification of the agricultural production function. An important contribution of introducing pest tolerant response into the production function may lie in its provision of a benchmark for pesticide use. For example, if the initial pest population level is less than or equal to the pest damage threshold, then pesticide should not be used at all. Based upon biological properties of pests, plants, and pesticides, a "max" operator is utilized in the abatement function. Unfortunately, this "max" operator prohibits us from using conventional first-order and second-order differentiations during the production function estimation; therefore the well-established properties of estimates developed from a conventional production function are not immediately obvious. Under this situation, searching for estimation procedures and exploring properties of estimators become a core duty. Maximum likelihood estimation procedures are used for this particular production model, and the existence and consistency properties of estimates will be developed based upon Wald's theorem on the consistency of the maximum likelihood estimates. In addition, two smoothing transition procedures are presented in this dissertation. Four sets of field data from Massachusetts Weed Science Research Results (data) are used to test this production model. All original data sets and estimation results are reported in this dissertation. Robust estimation results re-enforce the argument concerning effects of pest tolerant response in the production model and on pesticide management policy.

<div>This dissertation consists of three essays that attempt to fill a gap in the agricultural economics literature. Most academic research on the topic of agricultural finance focuses on the farm business and ignores the household itself. This dissertation is an acknowledgement that the men and women who raise livestock and cultivate crops do not participate in their profession to maximize some abstract measure of risk adjusted rate of return, but ultimately to earn a living and provide for their household. By examining consumption, the dollars spent on goods and services, food and shelter, and all other non-business-related expenses that define someone’s lifestyle, this dissertation attempts to directly study the well-being of U.S. farm households. The first essay quantifies the dollar-for-dollar effect of fluctuations in incomes on consumption, with a specific emphasis on the tariff relief payments of the U.S. – China trade war. The second essay offers an in-depth study on the variability of farm household consumption and aims to put the magnitude of that variability into context. The third essay measures the riskiness of the farm household’s income sources from the perspective of their consumption, and analyzes characteristics associated with higher or lower levels of risk.</div>

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This thesis analyses the economic response of the Polish agricultural sector to the post 1989 political and economic reforms. The research adopts a two tiered spatial structure that utilises the Polish economic responsefrom both the national and regional perspectives. At the national level, the overriding concern is the economic performance of the Polish farming sector and its affiliated industries during the country's transition from a centrally planned to a more marketorientated economy. The thesis includes an evaluation of a number of inter-related variables including ownership rights, the role of research, technology and development, the availability of private andpublic sources of investment and rural infrastructure, the implications of current EU-Poland trade agreements and increasing trade competitiveness. The centrepiece of this research is an econometric analysis of Poland's primary sector using the Cobb Douglas prcxiuctionfunction. In short, the model is a production-based, supplyside analysis of the relationship between agricultural output and inputs, evaluating econometrically the determinants of Polish national and regional arable supply (1989-1993). The empirical component of the research programme uses published and unpublished Polish secondary agricultural and meteorological data; interview material gathered from European Union officials, Polish central and local government representatives, academics.farmers and state sector managers. Localised information gathered in two study areas in Poland during 1993 and 1994 provides further useful insights into the local impact of economic reforms. These theoretical and empirical inputs allow a two tier analysis of the response of Polish farming to the transition process. Thefirst focuses upon issues surrounding economic transition and itsfuture implications for Polish agricultural production. The second considers the general role of the primary sector in socio-economic development. This empirical research, therefore, synthesises various aspects of agricultural development theory within the present climate of Central and Eastern European economic change.