IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03227973.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Making of Informational Efficiency: Information Policy and Theory in Interwar Agricultural Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Delcey

    (UB - Université de Bourgogne, LEDi - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dijon [Dijon] - UB - Université de Bourgogne - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE])

  • Guillaume Noblet

    (Auteur indépendant)

Abstract

This article offers a historical analysis of American interwar agricultural economists and their interest in information. Believing that the main problem facing farmers was a lack of information, agricultural economists designed an information policy aiming to produce, format, and disseminate information. Using administrative archives, the article analyzes the motivations of these economists and the implementation of this policy. As the article shows, the policy was a prerequisite for theoretical discussions about information, and it established institutional tools that are still used today, such as the USDA market news service.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Delcey & Guillaume Noblet, 2024. "The Making of Informational Efficiency: Information Policy and Theory in Interwar Agricultural Economics," Post-Print hal-03227973, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03227973
    DOI: 10.1215/00182702-11242749
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03227973v2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-03227973v2/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1215/00182702-11242749?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Working, Holbrook, 1922. "Factors Determining the Price of Potatoes in St. Paul and Minneapolis," Technical Bulletins 7528, University of Minnesota, Agricultural Experiment Station.
    2. Federico, Giovanni, 2005. "Not Guilty? Agriculture in the 1920s and the Great Depression," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 949-976, December.
    3. Holbrook Working, 1937. "Futures Trading and Regulations: Discussion by Holbrook Working," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 19(1), pages 309-312.
    4. V. B. Hart, 1929. "Encouraging the Farmer to Take Agricultural Outlook Material and Use It," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 11(1), pages 108-125.
    5. Haas, G. C. & Ezekiel, Mordecai, 1926. "Factors Affecting the Price of Hogs," Miscellaneous Publications 330853, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Carl Williams, 1929. "Continuous Economic Information Readily Available to Farmers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 11(1), pages 79-94.
    7. Holbrook Working, 1926. "Practical Applications of Correlation Studies of Prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 8(2), pages 227-244.
    8. H. R. Tolley, 1931. "The History and Objectives of Outlook Work," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 13(4), pages 523-534.
    9. Holbrook Working, 1925. "The Statistical Determination of Demand Curves," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 39(4), pages 503-543.
    10. Thomas Cooper, 1929. "Encouraging the Farmer to Take Agricultural Outlook Material and Use It: Discussion by Thomas Cooper," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 11(1), pages 125-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Delcey & Guillaume Noblet, 2021. ""The Eyes and Ears of the Agricultural Markets": A History of Information in Interwar Agricultural Economics," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03227973, HAL.
    2. Thomas Delcey & Guillaume Noblet, 2021. ""The Eyes and Ears of the Agricultural Markets": A History of Information in Interwar Agricultural Economics," Working Papers hal-03227973, HAL.
    3. Runge, C. Ford, 2006. "Agricultural Economics: A Brief Intellectual History," Staff Papers 13649, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    4. Thomas Delcey, 2019. "Samuelson vs Fama on the Efficient Market Hypothesis: The Point of View of Expertise [Samuelson vs Fama sur l’efficience informationnelle des marchés financiers : le point de vue de l’expertise]," Post-Print hal-01618347, HAL.
    5. Richard S. Grossman & Christopher M. Meissner, 2010. "International aspects of the Great Depression and the crisis of 2007: similarities, differences, and lessons," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 318-338, Autumn.
    6. Poitras, Geoffrey, 2023. "Cobweb Theory, Market Stability, And Price Expectations," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 137-161, March.
    7. Pédussel Wu, Jennifer & Metzger, Martina & Neira, Ignacio Silva & Farroukh, Arafet, 2023. "What determines demand for digital community currencies? OurVillage in Cameroon," IPE Working Papers 209/2023, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    8. Fouquet, Roger, 2014. "Long run demand for energy services: income and price elasticities over two hundred years," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59070, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. David Teira Serrano, 2006. "A positivist tradition in early demand theory," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 25-47.
    10. Wolf, Nikolaus, 2008. "Scylla and Charybdis. Explaining Europe's exit from gold, January 1928-December 1936," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 383-401, September.
    11. Emeric Lendjel, 1998. "L'origine statistique du diagramme du cobweb," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00268370, HAL.
    12. Walter Labys, 2005. "Commodity Price Fluctuations: A Century of Analysis," Working Papers Working Paper 2005-01, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    13. Chesher, Andrew, 2007. "Instrumental values," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 15-34, July.
    14. Arthur Lewbel, 2019. "The Identification Zoo: Meanings of Identification in Econometrics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(4), pages 835-903, December.
    15. Merino Troncoso, Carlos, 2021. "Consumer Demand Estimation," MPRA Paper 105169, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Myers, Robert J., 1992. "Time Series Econometrics and Commodity Price Analysis," 1992 Conference (36th), February 10-13, 1992, Canberra, Australia 146550, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    17. Merino Troncoso, Carlos, 2023. "Introduction to Competition Economics," MPRA Paper 115999, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. John Pencavel, 2016. "Whose Preferences Are Revealed In Hours Of Work?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 9-24, January.
    19. Apostolides, Alexander, 2012. "Small debt, large problems in Cyprus: How even small debt in a British Colony led to the political crisis and violence in October 1931," MPRA Paper 43210, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bell, Frederick W. & Nash, Darrel A. & Carlson, Ernest W. & Waugh, Frederick V. & Kinoshita, Richard K. & Fullenbaum, Richard F., 1970. "The Future of the World's Fishery Resources: Forecasts of Demand, Supply and Prices to the Year 2000 with a Discussion of Implications for Public Policy," File Manuscripts, United States National Marine Fisheries Service, Economic Research Division, number 233219, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    History of economics; Agricultural economics; Economics of information;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03227973. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.