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Abstract
This paper examines the impact of participation in direct marketing on the entire distribution
of farm sales using the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) estimator. Our analysis yields
unbiased estimates of the unconditional impact of direct marketing on farm sales and reveals
the heterogeneous effects that occur across the distribution of farm sales. The impacts of direct
marketing efforts are uniformly negative across the UQR results, but declines in sales tend to grow
smaller as sales increase. Producers planning to sell more in local outlets should expect sales to
decline. Marketing experts and extension professionals can use this information to guide farmers
who are considering initiating or expanding direct marketing activities.