What Legislation Will Producers Support? How Knowledge, Relevance, and Complexity Influence Attitudes of Wheat Growers Towards Farm Bill Legislation

摘要

In this study, we analyze the producer preferences which underlie political support. To include both complicated producer motives and limited information regarding specific program provisions, we model the preferences of Washington wheat growers for Farm Bill programs with a utility-latent factor approach. Empirically, we find that producers' knowledge levels and perceived program relevance affect producers' preferences. Programs can be divided into familiar, irrelevant, or unfamiliar but potentiallyrelevant types. U sing factor analysis we find that a single common factor may represent a common attitude/belief about many sets of programs, especially where interests are common and/or information scarce.