Direct Marketing and the Structure of Farm Sales: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach

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.