Resource adjustment problems in U.S. agriculture are motivated against the background of the farm problem. The adjustment cost hypothesis is invoked to specify and estimate consistently a system of dynamic investment demand and output supply equations by utilizing recent advances in dynamic duality theory. The investment demand equations assume the form of a multivariate flexible accelerator. Results indicate that labor, capital services, and land exhibited quasi‐fixity while intermediate materials were a variable factor. This can be construed as a form of asset fixity within aggregate U.S. agriculture. The univariate flexible accelerator hypothesis is rejected.

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This article investigates the determinants of foreign direct investment and its relationship to trade in the U.S. food industry. A multinational corporation maximizes profits by choosing between production at home, which is exported, and production in a host country. This introduces the possibility that foreign affiliate sales can substitute and/or complement exports. The empirical framework consists of a four-equations system with foreign affiliate sales, exports, affiliate employment, and FDI as endogenous variables. The results confirm small substitution between foreign sales and exports, and that the host country's protection policies affect the decision to invest abroad. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.

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This paper examines the causal relationship between agricultural productivity and exports for selected Asian and Latin American countries. Alternative views about the causal relationship between these variables of economic interest exist. Economic theory provides no firm basis to judge whether productivity causes exports or exports cause productivity (export‐led growth). Since this issue is empirical, econometric tests are utilised to investigate the nature of this causality. Test results are mixed although the export‐led growth hypothesis is validated in a few cases.

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This research incorporates the development and adoption of an induced technology under uncertainty into a conceptual dynamic model to more broadly examine efficient policies for mitigating invasive species infestations. We find that under optimal policy, marginal costs of adopting conventional control measures are equal to the sum of the marginal benefits from development and adoption of new technology, as well as the use of conventional control measures. This result implies that a resource allocation designed for controlling invasive species is not adequate when an induced technology is not considered. Our results also reveal that the shadow values associated with the probabilities of developing and then adopting an induced technology increase as the shadow values associated with the stock of an invasive species population increase.

In Vasavada, U. and Ball, V.E., 1988. A dynamic adjustment model for U.S. agriculture: 1948-79.Agric. Eco/l., 2: 123-137.A multioutput model is developed within the adjustment cost framework to analyze the structure of dynamic adjustments in Ll.S. agriculture during the post-war period. An important feature of this model is that the econometric model is consistent with dynamic economic theory. Fluctuations in capital stocks, variable inputs, and outputs are explained by changing opportunity costs. Empirical results indicated that durable equipment, farm-produced durables, and family labor exhibited significant rigidity in adjustment as a response to exogenous shocks. Surprisingly, the hypothesis that real estate was a variable input could not be rejected. The univariate flexible accelerator hypothesis, which is widely maintained in most agricultural adjustment studies, is inconsistent with the data.