Publications

• Basha Yildirim, A. From Conventional to Organic: The Case of Dairy Farm Transition Decisions. Forthcoming in Applied Economics Education and Extension (AEEE).

• Zhang W. and A. Basha. (2022). Will the soaring farmland market drop when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates? Agricultural Policy Review, Iowa State Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.

• Basha A., W. Zhang , and C. Hart . (2021). "The impacts of interest rate changes on US Midwest farmland values." Agricultural Finance Review, 81(5), 746–766 https://doi.org/10.1108/AFR-11-2020-0163
  
  

Working Papers

• Costs Structures and Input Demand in Conventional and Organic U.S. Dairy Farms   Job Market Paper [draft available here]
  Using Agricultural Resource Management Survey data, I estimate translog cost systems to compare cost structures and input demand between organic and conventional U.S. dairy farms. The results show meaningful differences in input use and adjustment, with organic farms relying more heavily on labor and exhibiting less price-responsive feed and labor demand. Organic farms face higher average economic and marginal costs but also receive substantially higher milk prices, while both systems exhibit economies of scale. The findings highlight how differences in input use, prices, and farm capacity shape the relative cost structures of organic and conventional dairy production.

• Crossing the Threshold: Entry in U.S. Organic Dairy [draft available here]
  Using farm-level financial data, I compare price-cost margins for organic and conventional dairy farms over time and combine these results with a county-level ordered probit model of organic dairy entry across the United States. The results show that organic dairy farms generally earn higher price-cost margins than conventional farms. Estimated entry thresholds indicate that supporting the first organic dairy operation requires a local market of approximately 806,000 people, while supporting a second operation requires about 3.6 times more local market demand. These findings highlight the substantial market scale needed to sustain continued growth in the U.S. organic dairy sector.

Work in Progress

• Certification, Adjustment Costs, and Farm Structure in U.S. Dairy