Although computer technologies have evolved rapidly, farmers have been slow to adopt these technologies. This research identities factors influencing farmers' adoption of computers and the number and type of applications for which the computer is used. Ohio commercial farmers were randomly sampled and analyzed using multinomial logit techniques. Results suggest that older farmers are less likely to adopt computers, less likely to find them useful, and make fewer applications of the computer in their business. Education level is positively associated with computer adoption and with increased numbers of applications made of the computer.Agricultural businesses increasingly use information as an input in the production process. During the past decade, information options available to farmers changed substantially. Rapid development of computer and telecommunication technologies and corresponding reductions in their costs have increased the capability of computers to assist business managers in the collection, storage, and processing of information. However, adoption of this technology has lagged behind its development. Various projections made nearly a decade ago forecasted that most commercial farmers would be using computers by 1990. These projections have proven grossly inaccurate, even though computer processing speed and software availability have improved remarkably. Recent estimates of computer adoption rates range from a mere 3% of all farmers (Willimack) to just over 25% (Puder and Zilberman).Objectives of this paper are to address computer adoption and integration within farm businesses. Specific objectives are to (a) identify factors associated with computer adoption by Ohio commercial farmers, (b) determine how The authors are, respectively, associate professors and an assistant professor, The authors are grateful to Rob King and Ed Rister for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. these factors relate to operators' computer usefulness evaluations, and (c) determine the type and number of computer applications. Multinomiallogit analyses of a random sample of Ohio commercial farmers are used to address these objectives. Previous ResearchSeveral studies have estimated farmers' adoption rates for computer technologies. Willimack, using data from the 1987 Farm Costs and Returns Survey, found that less than 3% of U.S. farmers use a computer to maintain farm records. Because her analysis focused on farm record keeping, it probably understated computer use in the sample. Furthermore, the sample employed the census ($1,000 sales) definition of a farm and thus included many small operations.Other studies of commercial-sized farm businesses have found higher adoption rates. Farm Futures magazine conducted a telephone survey of a random sample of its subscribers and found that 31% owned computers. Lazarus and Smith found that 15% of New York dairy farmers enrolled in the Farm Business Summary and Analysis program in 1986 owned computers. A follow-up study (Lazarus, Streeter, and JofreGiraudo) tr...

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Multinomial logit models were used to examine farmers' information preferences for marketing, production, and financial decisions. Dependent variables represented the preferred information source category: Cooperative Extension Service, printed, broadcast, specialist, and other sources. Independent variables included farm and business characteristics. In general, farmers preferred information from printed sources, and the Cooperative Extension Service ranked highly as an information source. Results did not support the contention that farmers are substituting specialist services for information received from the Cooperative Extension Service.

While a number of studies have investigated the relationship between debt and psychological well-being, none so far has explored if and how this relationship evolves over time. We seek to fill this gap in the literature by empirically analyzing the impact of household credit card debt on debt stress. Using cross-sectional data collected by The Ohio State University's Consumer Finance Monthly survey between August 2008 and December 2010, we construct a debt stress index and categorize households into three groups based on the length of credit card indebtedness. Our empirical results provide statistical evidence of time-varying impacts of credit card debt on stress levels. Specifically, we find that debt stress for short-run debtors is more than twice that of long-run debtors. The results are robust across a range of econometric specifications.Previous research by economists and psychologists has established a negative relationship between consumer debt and psychological well-being. 1 For example, Brown, Taylor, and Price (2005) find that outstanding non-mortgage credit adversely influences psychological well-being based on data from the British Household Panel Survey. Drentea and Lavrakas (2000) argue that because high credit card debt is often spurred by financial hardship (e.g., income loss or inadequate savings), it may prompt substitution away from what is deemed unaffordable "quality goods and services" such as healthy foods, at the expense of mental and physical well-being. Using a sample of Ohioans, they find empirical evidence for their conjecture; specifically, debt and debt stress are both associated with the worsening of self-reported health and 1. According to the World Health Organization (2001), psychological well-being is "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community." (2000) reports that anxiety increases with the ratio of credit card debt to income 2 ; Norvilitis et al. (2006) find that undergraduate students tend to simultaneously report a high level of credit card debt and a great amount of stress. Despite a substantial number of studies on debt and debt stress, to our knowledge, no previous analysis has sought to discern between the short-and the long-run psychological effects of debt.The key hypothesis tested in this article is that the impact of credit card debt on debt stress, an indicator of loss of psychological well-being, varies over time. Moreover, we are interested in investigating the direction of the change; does debt stress increase or decrease in the long run given unchanged indebtedness status? The rationale for this hypothesis is based on the theories of sensitization and habituation that are well known to psychologists but barely explored by economists. Habituation and sensitization refer to two interactive behavioral processes that result in either decreased or increased responsiveness to continuous sti...

The authors use weekly milk scanner data from six stores of a national supermarket chain to investigate empirically the purchasing patterns of suburban and inner-city residents for conventional and organic milk. They disaggregate conventional milk products into four categories based on fat content (whole, 2%, 1%, and skim); organic milk is disaggregated into these same categories, but for empirical estimation, some categories are combined. Their descriptive statistics show that suburban consumers, relative to inner-city consumers, purchase more organic and lower-fat conventional milk. These same consumers pay higher prices for conventional and organic milk, save for conventional 1% and skim milk. Our econometric results indicate that suburban consumers are price insensitive toward the purchase of all conventional and organic classes; inner-city consumers are price-sensitive toward conventional whole and 2% milk-products that constitute 89% of their milk expenditure; these same consumers are price insensitive toward all other classes of conventional and organic milk. [JEL codes: Q110, Q130, Q180]. r