D. Gale Johnson

Bio: D. Gale Johnson is an academic researcher from University of Chicago. The author has contributed to research in topics: Agriculture & Agricultural policy. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 104 publications receiving 2119 citations.

Resource Allocation under Share Contracts

Abstract: H ow are resources allocated when a share of the total product is paid for the use of a particular physical asset, such as farm land or a retail store? This is an important practical question because three-fourths of all rented agricultural land is leased under share contracts and they are becoming increasingly prevalent in the retail field. It is also an interesting theoretical issue that has not been adequately treated in economic literature. A share-rent contract usually requires the tenant to pay the landlord a specified proportion of the farm's produce or of the gross sales of a retail store. The crop-share lease, which calls for payment of a certain proportion of the crop to the landlord, is the commonest share lease in agriculture. In the cotton areas the true sharecropper pays a share rent not only for the use of the land but for the seed and fertilizer and the use of capital equipment, including work horses or mules. If resources are to be allocated in an optimum manner, certain marginal conditions must be satisfied. In the factor markets, all factors of comparable nature tend to receive the same marginal return. Within the firm, resources must be so employed that the value of the marginal product is equal to the marginal cost of the factor, and the marginal cost of the factor must equal its price. The stipulations of the crop-share lease create circumstances in which both the tenant and the landlord, when each views his interest separately, consciously attempt to violate the marginal conditions required for maximum output. Under a crop-share lease, if the landlord's share of the crops is half, the tenant will apply his resources in the production of crops until the marginal cost of crop output is equal to half the value of the marginal output. The same tenant, however, will conduct his livestock operations, where important costs are borne by the landlord and the receipts are not shared with him, in the usual manner. The landlord will not invest in land assets unless the value of the marginal product is twice the marginal cost. It is at once obvious that, if both the tenant and landlord act as though the interest of one is distinct from the interest of the other, the net product of the farm will be less than it could be. The tenant will farm extensively, and the landlord will refuse to make improvements that would pay under a more rational method of pricing land. Before John Stuart Mill, the well-known English economists condemned share leases on these grounds. Adam Smith argued that the tenant would be extremely reluctant to employ his own capital on the farm, inasmuch as the landlord would reI The research on which this article is based has been done on a project financed by a grant for Agricultural Economics Research at the University of Chicago, made by the Rockefeller Foundation. I am indebted to my colleagues, Professors 0. I-l. iBrownlee, E. J. Hamilton, and T. W. Schultz, for suggestions and criticisms.

World agriculture in disarray

Abstract: Politics and economics and farmers farm and trade policies of the industrial countries present state of disarray agricultural change agriculture must change agricultural prices and the use of resources world prices for farm products - real or fictitious? world food adequacy and security who gains from agricultural protection? what difference does trade make? limited achievement of farm policy objectives new directions for agricultural policy in the industrial countries negotiations for freer trade in agricultural products.

World Agriculture, Commodity Policy, and Price Variability

Abstract: The primary emphasis in this paper will be upon governmental agricultural commodity policies and their effects upon price variability. It is the commodity policies of the governments of the world and in the rest of the world's food and agricultural systems.

Population Growth and Economic Development: Issues and Evidence

Abstract: This volume reviews the available empirical evidence on the interrelationships between population growth and economic development in developing countries from a variety of perspectives. Issues examined include the relationship between population growth and natural resources; agriculture; savings investment and trade; health education and welfare; and labor and urbanization. Several chapters attempt to unravel the conceptual issues involved in understanding how population change affects economic development. The chapters were prepared for the Working Group on Population Growth and Economic Development which concluded that slower population growth would on balance benefit most developing countries and that the positive effects of slower population growth on economic development would be clearest in the poorest and most densely populated countries. Nevertheless the scientific literature contains few adequate studies of the effects of slower population growth in developing countries; it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about overall impacts.

Research on Internal Migration in the United States: A Survey

Abstract: This study was begun while the author was on a Brookings Economic Policy Fellowship in the Office of Economic Research of the Economic Development Administration. Acknowledgements are due Paul L. Burgess, Richardj Cebula, James A. Chalmers, Herbert M. Kaufman, Todd Sandler, WalterJ Wadycki, and the referees for this journal, all of whom have made helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper and none of whom bears any responsibility for remaining shortcomings.

Economic behavior and institutions

Abstract: An important research programme has developed in economics that extends neo-classical economic theory in order to examine the effects of institutions on economic behaviour. The body of work emerging from this line of inquiry includes contributions from various branches of economic theory, such as the economics of property rights, the theory of the firm, cliometrics and law and economics. This book is a comprehensive survey of this research programme which the author terms 'neoinstitutional economics'. The author proposes a unified approach to this research, integrating the work of various contributors and emphasising the common principles of inquiry that tie the work together. The theoretical discussion is accompanied by empirical studies dealing with a range of institutions and economic systems. This book will serve as the primary resource for economists and students who want to learn about this important branch of economic theory.

Hunger and Public Action

Abstract: This study was well-received and widely discussed when it appeared in hardback in 1990. It is devoted to analysis of the enduring problem of hunger in the modern world, and of the role that public action can play in countering it. The book is divided into four parts. The first attempts to provide a coherent perspective on the complex nutritional, economic, social and political issues involved in the causation of hunger and deprivation. The second deals with famine prevention, paying special attention to Africa and India. The third focuses on chronic undernourishment and related deprivations. Parts two and three include a number of case studies of successful public action for the prevention of hunger and famines in various parts of the world. The fourth part of the book draws together the main themes and concerns of the earlier chapters, and provides an integrated view of the role of public action in eliminating hunger.

Emerging foodborne pathogens: Escherichia coli O157:H7 as a model of entry of a new pathogen into the food supply of the developed world.

Abstract: There would appear to be little argument that the large outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 which have occurred since the early 1980s represent a distinct, new phenomenon. The number of reported cases have increased dramatically, starting from zero in 1981; however, it is also clear that this increase in reported cases is in part an artifact of improved surveillance and reporting. Available data suggest that E. coli O157:H7 infections were present prior to 1982, although numbers appear to have been small. At a molecular level, the organism shows evidence of clonal origin, but there is not the striking clonality, with virtually identical pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and ribotyping patterns, which has been seen in situations such as the emergence of Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal in the Indian subcontinent in 1992 or the introduction of V. cholerae O1 into naive populations in South America in 1991 (127-129). Findings are more consistent with the image of an organism which arose from a common ancestor, but which has had time to become distributed geographically and to show some evidence of genetic divergence. While this is an "emerging" infection, at least in terms of its distribution and public recognition, it is unlikely that it will be possible to identify the "first" O157:H7 case or to track the clonal spread of the organism through cattle or human populations.