Browsing by Author "Dr. Mitch Renkow, Committee Co-Chair"

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    Characteristics, Transaction Costs, and Adoption of Modern Varieties in Honduras (Draft)
    (2003-01-20) Hintze, Luis Hernando; Dr. Daniel Hallstrom, Committee Member; Dr. Daniel Phaneuf, Committee Member; Dr. Mitch Renkow, Committee Co-Chair; Dr. Gerald Carlson, Committee Co-Chair
    This dissertation researches the factors contributing to the low levels of adoption of improved maize varieties and the choice of maize varieties among small farmers in Honduras. An agricultural household model is developed. It explicitly incorporates two explanations from the adoption literature that have not yet been tested simultaneously: (i) consumption and production characteristics of different varieties as perceived by farmers, and (ii) transaction costs and access to markets. The empirical analysis also considered additional variables that have been used by previous adoption studies related to household characteristics, human and financial capital, and environmental characteristics. To test the model, information was collected in a survey of 167 farmers located across 34 villages in two distinctly different agro-ecological zones in Honduras. From non-parametric analysis of the information regarding farmers' perception of maize characteristics, four conclusions were drawn: (i) Farmers perceive differences among varieties for some of the characteristics they consider to be important; (ii) varieties that are widely used tend to be regarded as having good performance with respect to the most important characteristics; (iii) sometimes, varieties that are widely used are outperformed by other varieties for some of the characteristics evaluated. In those cases, however, the ratings obtained by the more popular varieties indicate that they have an acceptable performance; (iv) there are important differences in how farmers in the two regions studied perceive the different varieties available to them. The empirical analyses of the determinants of household variety choice and adoption used qualitative choice models and tested the degree to which varietal characteristics contributed to adoption decisions, controlling for an array of household socioeconomic characteristics and proxy measures of village-specific marketing costs and household-specific transaction costs. Results indicate that in both regions yield was the only characteristic that consistently had a significant impact on varietal choice. On the other hand, consumption characteristics appear to play little if any role in varietal choice in either area. Transaction costs variables, particularly the quality of roads connecting villages to markets are also significant in explaining variety choice.
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    Technological Change in the U.S. Agriculture: The Role of Public and Private R&D
    (2002-09-23) Tokgoz, Simla; Dr. Michele C. Marra, Committee Co-Chair; Dr. Mitch Renkow, Committee Co-Chair; Dr. David Dickey, Committee Member; Dr. Dan Hallstrom, Committee Member
    The objective of the study is to explore the relationship between TFP growth in the U.S. agricultural sector and R&D investments. To this end, an endogenous growth model is utilized to understand the link between TFP growth and technological change, and to examine how R&D investments lead to technical change. The main feature of the model is that R&D investments and technical change are endogenously determined in the economic system. The model in this study contributes to the existing literature on endogenous growth theory by incorporating a role for the public R&D sector. The public R&D sector helps the private R&D sector through subsidies; however it also may crowd out part of private R&D sector investment by competing with it when trying to create new and better technology. In the empirical analysis, first the link between TFP growth and technical change is explored using agricultural patent data as a proxy for technical change. Next, a patent production function is estimated with explanatory variables as public and private R&D investments. Then, the factors that determine private agricultural R&D investment are examined. To pursue these objectives, a system of equations is estimated with time series data for U.S. with seemingly unrelated regression technique. A negative relationship between TFP growth in the agricultural sector and agricultural patents is found, though the coefficient estimate is insignificant. Public R&D and extension services have a positive and significant impact on TFP. Public and private agricultural R&D investments have a positive effect on agricultural patents. It is also found that public R&D investment does not crowd out private R&D investment.