Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)

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    The costs of cooperation: the effects of section 199 on basis for farm cooperatives in the midwest
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Swanson, Andrew Chase; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Anton Bekkerman
    The 2004 American Jobs Creation Act created Section 199, a tax provision for producers of domestic goods. During the ensuing decade, Section 199 became especially important for agricultural cooperatives, partly because of a series of favorable Internal Revenue Service private letter rulings for marketing cooperatives. I analyze the impacts of Section 199 on agricultural markets by assessing differential effects on the pricing behavior of grain marketing cooperatives and non-cooperatives in Nebraska and Kansas. I first develop a model for the agricultural cooperatives pricing behavior that incorporates a tax on the qualified patronage received by cooperative patrons. This model produces several testable predictions. First, Section 199 will lower the spot prices offered by cooperatives while increasing the spot prices offered non-cooperatives that compete with cooperatives for agricultural commodities. Second, the widening of prices between cooperatives and non-cooperatives will be mitigated by increased spatial competition. I empirically test the predictions of this model using a difference-in-difference empirical strategy and winter wheat basis data. The results indicate that the series of IRS letter rulings in 2008 widened the basis differential between cooperative and non-cooperative firms by almost 5 cents per bushel on average. Furthermore, these market distorting effects are greater for elevator locations that do not have a competing location within 10 miles of their location. While the benefits of Section 199 have been widely touted by cooperative lobbying groups, the results of this thesis show the importance of also considering the costs of policy interventions directed at specific agricultural firm types.
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    Characterizing the effect of USDA report announcements in the winter wheat futures market using realized volatility
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2015) Bunek, Gabriel David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joseph Janzen
    The United States Department of Agriculture provides information about fundamental supply and demand conditions for major agricultural commodities. I consider whether USDA's crop reports facilitate price consensus in the winter wheat futures market by testing the hypothesis that uncertainty, as measured by realized price volatility is reduced following the release of USDA reports. This hypothesis was originally developed in studies using implied volatility and found significant decreases. I instead calculate realized daily and intraday volatility using transaction level data from Kansas City Board of Trade futures contracts. Dates on which USDA reports are released are compared to the ten days around the report. Exploiting the full granularity of data, intraminute volatilities are computed to test whether there are distributional differences between report and non-report days. All results suggest that realized volatility does not decrease following USDA wheat report releases but instead increases. Regression analysis shows this result is robust to the inclusion of a limited but relevant set of controls.
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    Genetic determinations in winter wheat Triticum aestiyum L. em. Thell. aneuploids using serological techniques
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1968) Volin, R. B.
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    Protein distribution in high and low grain protein winter wheats
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1986) Noaman, Maher Noaman Mohamed
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    The effect of the Russian wheat aphid on cold-hardiness of acclimating winter wheat seedlings
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1991) Storlie, Eric William
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    A comparison of hill, micro-, and miniplots with conventional row plots in winter wheat
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1979) Frederickson, Leslie John
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    Stem-solidness stability of selected winter wheat cultivars
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1991) Bradley, Vicki Lynn
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    Influence of planting depth and surface residue on osmotic potential in overwintering crown of wheat
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1990) DeNoma, John Thomas
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    An economic evaluation of nitrogen fertilization of Montana winter wheat
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1977) Garnick, Bradley
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    An economic evaluation of fertilization of Montana winter wheat
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1980) Simons, Craig Edgar
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