LEVI A. RUSSELL, PH.D.

RESEARCH

Below are links to my work. Some of them are, unfortunately, gated, but you can contact me for more information. Additionally, you can find a complete list of all my work by clicking the "Curriculum Vitae" button below.

IDEOLOGY, ELECTORAL INCENTIVES, PAC DONATIONS, AND THE AGRICULTURAL ACT OF 2014

This paper examines the effect of legislator ideology, electoral incentives, and interest group political action committee (PAC) spending on the passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014. A mixed process model is used to examine the correlations between ideology, constituent characteristics, and PAC campaign contributions by agricultural and environmental interests and the probability that a legislator voted in favor of the bill. Instrumental variables are used to control for potential endogeneity in the effect of PAC contributions on legislators’ votes. I find a positive association between both agricultural and environmental PAC contributions and the probability that a legislator voted in favor of the bill. Further, I find that legislators representing districts or states with relatively large rural populations were more likely to vote in favor of the 2014 Farm Bill.

THE EFFECT OF THE 2007 ETHANOL MANDATE ON DOWNSIDE RISK IN AGRICULTURE: EVIDENCE FROM KANSAS FARMERS

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 increased the amount of corn ethanol that must be blended into motor vehicle and other fuels as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard. The purpose of this paper is to look at how the increase in demand for corn influenced the profitability of farms. We conducted this investigation using annual data for more than 300 farms in Kansas from 1997 through 2014. We find that the probability of a farmer’s experiencing a negative return on equity (i.e., the “downside risk” of farming) decreased by 25 percentage points after 2007.

CROP INSURANCE WILL BE AT THE CENTER OF THE 2019 FARM BILL DEBATE

This article discusses several political and economic issues related to debates surrounding crop insurance in the upcoming Farm Bill debate.

FINANCIAL LEVERAGE AND AGENCY COSTS IN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which agency costs of leverage are present in farm supply and marketing cooperatives.
The authors calculate total factor productivity growth of a sample of agricultural cooperatives from 2005 to 2010 and use regression to determine the effect of leverage on productivity growth. The findings indicate that there is a small but statistically significantly negative effect of leverage on productivity growth. This indicates that, at the margin, the costs of leverage outweigh the benefits. This paper measures the magnitude of what is typically considered an important financial transaction cost. The authors find that the magnitude of this effect is small, indicating that government policy should address other financial issues.