AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

The goal of this project is to understand changes to the economic performance of existing agriculture institutions and measure the economic impact. Institutions change because of the changes to the transaction costs that underlie the existing institutional performance. Institutions are broadly defined to include contracts, organizations, laws, and customs. Transaction costs are broadly defined to include bargaining costs, search costs, and enforcement costs. The purpose of this research is to reduce costs to organizational decision-making and accelerate institutional adaptation to improve long-term economic performance due to greater awareness to the changes to transaction costs.The objectives of this research will be to:1) Identify external changes in the agri-food sector that may necessitate changes to existing agriculture institutions.2) Quantify changes in economic performance and transaction costs to existing agriculture institutions using predictive analytics.3) Quantify the economic performance of alternative institutions in an existing and hypothetical state using predictive analytics and relevant theoretical frameworks. The hypothetical states will be based on alternative assumptions regarding technology, laws, consumer and producer behavior, and climate.4) Make recommendations to stakeholders on the economic performance of existing or alternative institutions.