Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Chapter 1 About Economics

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. As this photo shows, much of the oil was carried to shore. Economists were asked to measure in dollars how much people value cleaning up the sound. Image courtesy of Office of Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Figure 1.1. Result of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.2 The Three I’s of Economic Theory : Incentives, Interactions and Indifference

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.3. Wren is indifferent between farming and industry labor

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.4. With the government subsidy, Wren prefers being a farmer

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.5. The government subsidy raises land rent, leaving Wren indifferent once again.

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.6. Price differences for wheat in selected Midwest states. All differences are relative to river ports in Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma ( a negative difference means the price is lower relative to river ports). Map made available by Agmanager, Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. Available at Accessed September 20,

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Tim Cassidy, a native of Wyoming, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University in Soon after graduation he went to work for the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company as a commodity trader. Tim earns his salary by arbitraging for ADM. Each day at work, Tim scouts the differences in soybean, corn, wheat, and soybean meal prices across regions, and if profit opportunities present themself, he places orders to buy or sell thousands of dollars of a commodity. Not every arbitrage will make money, but if one understands market forces, significant profits can be made over time. Figure 1.7. Meet Tim Cassidy “Within weeks of my first job out of college I was managing thousands of dollars of soybeans at one time. At first I was overwhelmed with the responsibility, but by holding fast to the principles I learned in agricultural economics, I have learned to do my job well and have a lot of fun in the process!” --Tim Cassidy Archer Daniels Midland Company, an industry leader in agricultural processing and fermentation technology, recruits qualified candidates for internship and entry-level positions. Our internships are designed to give students meaningful work experience and business exposure through a global leader in the agricultural industry. We actively recruit for positions in the following areas: Accounting, Commodity Trading/Elevator Management, Engineering, Grain Terminal Operations Management, Internal Audit, Information Technology and Specialty Areas (i.e., Finance, Marketing, R&D, Human Resources). To learn more about opportunities at ADM, please visit us at under Careers. A Word from ADM

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.8. Price of winter wheat in Kansas City

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure 1.9. A Few Words From the Father of Economics Image made available by the Adam Smith Institute. Available at

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure Change in Calories Per Day Consumed for U.S. Males Percent of Total Change a Breakfast % Lunch % Dinner % Snacks % Total % A Shows the percent of increase in total calorie consumption due to each factor. Source: Cutler, Gleaser, and Shapiro.

Norwood and Lusk: Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis © 2008 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Figure Discounting Example (discount rate = 10%) Cost of InvestmentPresent Value of Investment Benefit The investment costs $150,000 today, but yields $70,000 in profits each year for the next three years. Current Year$150,000$0 Year 1$0(1+0.1) -1 (70,000) = $63,636 Year 2$0(1+0.1) -2 (70,000) = $57,851 Year 3$0(1+0.1) -3 (70,000) = $52,592 Sum$150,000$174,080