provided by Research Papers in Economics
Valuing Farm Financial Information
Dana M. Marcellino and Christine A. Wilson*
Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the American Agricultural Economics Association
Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, July 23-26, 2006
Copyright 2006 by Dana M. Marcellino and Christine A. Wilson. All rights reserved. Readers
may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means,
provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.
Abstract
Despite the merits of good farm record keeping, little is known about the value farmers place on
their farm financial records. This study uses a willingness-to-accept experimental second price
auction to elicit such values from farmers. Results indicate farm records are extremely valuable
and that some diversity in values is explained by the characteristics of the records and farmers.
We find that experimental auctions can be used to elicit values for extremely high-valued goods,
and we demonstrate how they can be used to value a complex good comprised of many sub-
components.
Key words: experimental auction, farm financial records, willingness-to-accept.
*Dana M. Marcellino is a former M.S. student and Christine A. Wilson is an assistant professor
in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University. Contact: Christine Wilson,
Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics, 403 West State Street, West
Lafayette, IN 47907; Phone: (765) 494-4299; Fax: (765) 494-9176; e-mail:
[email protected].