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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2005‒05‒29
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Blam Inna |
| Abstract: | This paper employs the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to examine changes in Russian households' averting behavior against air and drinking water pollution and their willingness to pay additional money to the federal or local government for cleaner environment over the period 1994–1998. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the households income and the local environmental pollution do influence the respondent's decision on both averting behavior and his or her willingness to pay for cleaner air and drinking water. Also, the individual's life expectancy, living conditions, and knowledge about the negative impact of polluted environment (higher or serious illness thought to be caused by pollution in the respondent's family) are found to be significant determinants of the probability of the willingness to pay for environmental goods. |
| Keywords: | Russia, willingness to pay for better higher environmental quality, averting behavior |
| JEL: | D12 Q53 |
| Date: | 2005–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eer:wpalle:05-08e&r=agr |
| By: | Gilles Spielvogel (DIAL, Paris) |
| Abstract: | n this paper, we expose the economic conditions of cities emergence in a spatial general equilibrium framework. The presence of increasing returns based on the division of labour, transport costs and the possible existence of an agricultural surplus are enough to generate different possible urban equilibrium. A city may not be sustainable if internal transport costs are too high. On the other hand, a persistent migratory pressure may exist between the city and the surrounding rural hinterland if the urban labour market is saturated. In addition, we study the conditions of stability of the monocentric equilibrium in the different cases. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization, division of labour, agricultural surplus, monocentric urban system |
| JEL: | R13 R14 O18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:108&r=agr |
| By: | Mollard, A.; Rambonilaza, M.; Vollet, D. |
| Abstract: | Site-specific characteristics are attributes of tourism services for consumers and a factor influencing their costs and quality for producers. These services are a fine illustration of territorial rents. Using estimates from hedonic price equations, we test the role of environmental/territorial variables as services differentiation tools in the context of a non-competitive market, and recover the value of territorial rent generated by tourism managers' strategies. Two territories of reference are chosen, one currently benefiting from the renewed interest of the public, and a usual tourist destination. The results of a comparative analysis suggest that tourists' preferences for new destinations, combined with firms' strategies generate some catching up effect by emerging territories. |
| Keywords: | ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION; HEDONIC METHOD; SERVICE DIFFERENTIATION; TOURISM |
| JEL: | Q21 Q26 R14 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:gaelwp:200427&r=agr |
| By: | Avenel, E.; Corolleur, F.; Gauthier, C.; Rieu, C. |
| Abstract: | Based on an original dataset, we analyze empirically the determinants of firm growth in the French biotech industry during two periods, 1996-1999 and 1999-2002. We have two main results. First, Gibrat's law is violated. The growth of annual turnover is influenced by teh initial size of the firm. The effect is non-linear, negative for small firms. Second, location has a significant impact on growth. We use different sets of dummies to characterize location and different measures of firm growth. As a whole, our results point at Marseilles (and its region) and Nanterre (but not Paris and Evry) as favorable places for the growth of firms between 1999 and 2002. For the 1996-1999, the favorable places are Strasbourg (and Alsace) and Rhône-Alpes (Lyon/Grenoble). Our analysis thus suggests that the changes in the (notably legal) environment of French biotech firms that took place in 1999 had a drastic effect of the comparative advantages of locations for biotech firms. |
| Keywords: | BIOTECHNOLOGY; INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERING; FIRM GROWTH; FRANCE |
| JEL: | L25 L65 R30 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:gaelwp:200503&r=agr |
| By: | Cheryl R. Doss (Yale University); John G. McPeak (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | Market-based development efforts frequently create opportunities to generate income from goods previously produced and consumed within the household. Production within the household is often characterized by a gender and age division of labor. Market development efforts to improve well being may lead to unanticipated outcomes if household production decisions are non-cooperative. We develop and test models of household decision-making to investigate intra-household decision making in a nomadic pastoral setting from Kenya. Our results suggest that household decisions are contested, with husbands using migration decisions to resist wives' ability to market milk. |
| Keywords: | Intrahousehold decision-making, household production, Kenya |
| JEL: | D13 O12 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:906&r=agr |
| By: | Douglas Gollin (Yale University and Williams College); Stephen L. Parente (University of Illinois); Richard Rogerson (Arizona State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of agricultural development on a country's overall development and growth experience. In most poor countries, large fractions of land, labor, and other productive resources are devoted to producing food for subsistence needs. This "food problem" can delay a country's industrial development for a long period of time, causing its per capita income to fall far behind the world leader. Once industrialization begins, this trend is reversed. The extent to which a country catches up to the leader depends primarily on factors that affect productivity in non- agricultural activities: agricultural productivity is thus largely irrelevant in the very long run. But in the short run, a country that experiences large improvements in agricultural productivity (due to, say, a Green Revolution) will experience a rapid increase in its income relative to the leaders. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, Economic Growth, Subsistence, Food Problem, Agricultural Technology, Long-run Growth |
| JEL: | E13 O40 O41 Q10 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:899&r=agr |