TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cooley,Thomas F.
AU  - DeCanio,Steven J.
TI  - Varying-Parameter Supply Functions and the Sources of Economic Distress in American Agriculture, 1866-1914
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 57
PY  - 1974
Y2  - September 1974
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0057
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0057.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas F. Cooley
Department of Economics
Stern School of Business
44 West 4th Street, Room 7-88
New York, NY  10012-1126
Tel: 212/998-0870
Fax: 212/995-4218
E-Mail: tcooley@stern.nyu.edu

Steven J. DeCanio
AB  - The agrarian unrest in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century is examined. This unrest is often viewed as stemming from the inability of farmers to adapt to changing conditions in world agriculture. This hypothesis is tested in the context of a distributed lag supply function. Varying parameter estimation methods are used to trace the history of the parameters in the supply function and to decompose observed prices into permanent and transitory components over time. The patterns of variation are tested for conformity with a model of rational price-expectation formation. The conclusion is that farmers behaved as economic theory would predict, but that neither theory nor practice gave them relief from the troubles which plagued them.
ER  -