Using the 1987–88 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey, twelve food commodity groups were analyzed according to household poverty status. Parameter estimates were used to obtain subsistence expenditures, own-price elasticities, expenditure elasticities, and income elasticities. Own-price elasticities were similar between the income groups for most commodities. However, income elasticities were consistently higher for the lower-income group. The use of average estimates of price and income elasticities for the population as a whole for the projection of individual commodity demands is not likely to be successful if notable changes are evident in income distribution. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.

Food expenditures and subsistence quantities of poverty status and non-poverty status US households are analysed within a Linear Expenditure System that postulates subsistence quantities to be linear combinations of demographic variables. Using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1992 Consumer Expenditure Survey and Detailed Monthly Consumer Price Indices, this article obtains expenditure elasticities, own-price elasticities and subsistence quantities for each income group across nine broadly aggregated food commodity groups. Elasticity estimates and subsistence quantity estimates differ across income groups, supporting the premise that policies targeted at specific income groups should be based on the target group's elasticity estimates rather than average population elasticities. Parameter estimates are then used to simulate how subsistence quantities and own-price elasticities can be expected to vary according to the demographic composition of the household within a specific income group.

This research examines the economic effects of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) on backgrounding and finishing phases of cattle production. This research measures the effectiveness of using serum haptoglobin (Hp) concentration to predict BRD occurrence and the impact of multiple treatments for BRD infection on cattle performance and returns. During the backgrounding phase, 222 heifers were grouped by Hp level. After the backgrounding phase, 193 heifers were then grouped by number of BRD treatments in the finishing phase. Net returns decreased in the backgrounding phase and the combined phases as the number of BRD treatments increased. Hp concentrations had no significant effects on net returns.

Binary logit regression models were used to estimate factors affecting adoption of recommended management practices. Variables analyzed include aspects of farm structure, human capital, farm objectives, and production system employed by the producer. Results reveal that operation size and dependency upon income from the stocker operation, in particular, influence the adoption of recommended practices. Older producers and those pursuing a year-round production strategy were found to lag in adoption.

Structural models used to measure market power, though widely employed, continue to be criticized. We compare alternative market power tests, including nonparametric and Solow residual-based (SRB) tests. We develop SRB methods that permit nested testing for both monopolistic and monopsonistic market power by the same firm. These tests and a set of nonparametric tests are implemented to examine market power exertion by U.S. cigarette manufacturers from 1977 to 1993. All tests indicate that cigarette manufacturers exerted monopsonistic power in the upstream tobacco market. They are mixed on whether monopolistic power exertion was exerted in the downstream market. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.