The Value of Variable Rate Technology: An Information-Theoretic Approach

David Streed Bullock (), Matías L. Ruffo, Donald G. Bullock and Germán A. Bollero

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2009, vol. 91, issue 1, pages 209-223

Abstract: We present a theoretical treatment of the economics of variable rate technology and its interplay with information. The framework facilitates description of on-farm empirical profitability studies of variable rate nitrogen application on Illinois cornfields. We estimate site-specific "ex ante" economically optimal nitrogen application rates, and the value of site-specific information in the management of variable rate technology. We find that with site-specific information provided free, variable rate nitrogen application would have been profitable in six of eight fields. Because private markets are unlikely to provide such information sufficiently, more public funding of long-term, multiregion, multiyear experimentation is appropriate. Copyright Copyright 2008 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent ... &year=2009&part=null link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ajagec:v:91:y:2009:i:1:p:209-223

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0002-9092

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Agricultural Economics is edited by Peter Berck, Robert J. Myers, Ian M. Sheldon and B. Wade Brorsen

More articles in American Journal of Agricultural Economics from American Agricultural Economics Association
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().