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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2006‒02‒05
twenty-two papers chosen by |
| By: | Aliza Fleischer; Yacov Tsur |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study agricultural-urban land allocation in light of the rising amenity value of agricultural landscape. A given land area is to be allocated between a number of agricultural activities (crops) and urban use. Each activity (crop) area generates private benefits (profit from agricultural produce) and amenity benefits (open space, aesthetic landscape, hiking trails). Land allocated for housing provides only private benefits. Land markets overlook the social (environmental) role of agricultural land and as a result lead to undersupply of farmland. In an empirical study of an Israeli case, we find the undersupply of farmland and the associated deadweight loss to be substantial. Investigating effects of population and income growth processes, we find that, contrary to market outcomes, the socially optimal allocation may call for more farmland preservation under either process. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p55&r=agr |
| By: | Paul Courtney; Denis Lépicier; Bertrand Schmitt |
| Abstract: | Small and medium-sized towns have traditionally formed an integral part of the agricultural sector and wider rural economy, acting as a source of farm inputs, a first destination of farm outputs and as a source of consumer goods and services to farm households. In recent years, this relationship has been substantially eroded through processes socio-economic restructuring, including the transformation of agriculture and a decline in other primary industries. Further, a number of endogenous and exogenous drivers have resulted in the uneven development of rural economies throughout Europe, leading not only to disparities but also to decline of small and medium sized towns as thriving economic and service centres. As a result, these settlements have received increasing attention from policy makers aiming to both maintain the traditional socio-economic fabric of rural areas, and to stimulate rural development through territorial, as opposed to sectoral – and namely agricultural – approaches. This paper considers these two issues through an analysis of local economic linkages in and around small and medium-sized towns. Using primary data collected in a study of thirty towns across five European countries, the paper examines the degree to which local firms and farms are integrated into the local economies of such towns relative to other sectors, and identifies the organisational characteristics associated with strong and weak local integration. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of evolving European rural development policy. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p128&r=agr |
| By: | Kara M. Reynolds (Department of Economics, American University) |
| Abstract: | The explosion of antidumping activity over the past 10 years has raised concern among agriculture analysts that antidumping regulations are biased toward imposing more protection on U.S. agricultural goods than other products. This research fails to find a statistically significant bias in the outcomes of antidumping investigations involving agricultural goods compared to other products, nor does it find significant evidence that foreign antidumping investigations into imports of food products have resulted in higher levels of protection than U.S. investigations. However, the results from a comprehensive case study analysis suggest that despite the lack of statistical evidence of bias, U.S. agricultural producers have reason to question the fairness of global antidumping regulations. Given these results, government officials should consider whether U.S. food producers could be better served by changes to both U.S. antidumping regulations and the World Trade Organization Antidumping Agreement. |
| Keywords: | antidumping, agriculture trade, import protection |
| JEL: | F13 Q17 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:0306&r=agr |
| By: | Jan Ole Schroers; Patrick Sheridan; Eike Rommelfanger |
| Abstract: | An assessment of agricultural policy measures and their sustainability needs to consider economic, social, and ecological aspects. The current paradigm shift of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from coupled to decoupled transfer payments calls for such an evaluation. Land users have to reevaluate their production program and its spatial allocation. Consequently, agricultural policy influences regional land use patterns and shares of land use systems, which in turn influence regional plant species richness. Connecting land use and ecological models allows to assess socioeconomic and ecologic effects of policy measures by identifying interactions and estimating potential trade-offs. The paper presents the land use model ProLand and the fuzzy expert system UPAL. ProLand models the regional distribution of land use systems while UPAL predicts plant species richness. The models are connected through a GIS and applied to a study area in Hesse, Germany, in order to simulate the effects of changing conditions on land use, economic and social key indicators, and plant species richness. ProLand is a spatially explicit comparative static model that simulates a region’s land use pattern based on natural, socioeconomic, political, and technological parameters. The model assumes land rent maximizing behavior of land users. It calculates and assigns the land rent maximizing land use system for every investigated decision unit, generally a field. A land use system is characterized through crop rotation, corresponding outdoor operations, animal husbandry if applicable, and the relevant political and socioeconomic attributes. The fuzzy expert system derives the values of ecologically relevant parameters from several site specific attributes and land use operations. Land use dependent site characteristics that influence plant species richness are derived from predictions generated by ProLand. Detailed information on crop rotation, fertilization and pesticide strategy, and outdoor operations are considered. The expert system then classifies natural and land use dependent site characteristics into aggregate factors. Based on a set of rules it assigns the number of species to the classes and thus to the decision units. Simulation results for the study area show that the CAP reform causes a rise in grassland area. These land use changes mainly occur in areas currently used for arable farming but with natural conditions favoring grassland. Plant species richness is positively influenced by the increase in extensive grassland area. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p613&r=agr |
| By: | Hild-Marte Bjørnsen |
| Abstract: | The liberalisation of trade with building down of tariffs and quotas, and with subsequently lower output prices, has enforced considerable structural changes in the agricultural sector. In Norway, both naturally given factors such as climate and topography, and social conditions such as a tradition for small family farms and strong governmental regulations, contribute in making this process even harder on the individual farmer. So how do the farmers respond? National farm statistics show that the amount of cultivated land stays approximately the same even though the number of farm units and agricultural employment falls annually. This implies that both farm size and productivity have increased. In this paper we utilise sample survey data on living conditions in agricultural households to examine whether we can observe changes in farmers ’experienced utility. Have contentment dropped and are there any obvious regional differences in contentment? The data consists of non-overlapping cross-sections for the years 1995 and 2002 and we make use of a standard ordered probability model in the estimations. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p95&r=agr |
| By: | Aris Gaaff; Tom Kuhlman; Frank Van Tongeren |
| Abstract: | When we model land use change, we utilize – consciously or unconsciously – other models as well. The variables we regard as exogenous are often generated endogenously by a different model. We are not always fully aware of the implications of this for our modelling exercises. The model which generated the demographic growth that we use in forecasting the need for residential space may have used assumptions that are at variance with ours. The model resulting in claims for agricultural land may have already taken competing claims into account – whereas our land use model may simulate this competition all over again. The data used for different models may not be compatible. Conversely, our land use simulation exercises can also be used by others as input. A model for the agricultural sector, for instance, must consider the constraint of available land – especially whether the land required is available in a particular area which is regarded as optimal for a particular production line. Land use models can provide that input. The Agricultural Economics Research Institute in The Hague, uses a number of models at various spatial levels – from the individual farm to the global economy – and for different purposes. Recently, the linkages between these models have received more attention, which also lays bare the compatibility problems between them. In order to examine both the possibilities and the problems inherent in these linkages, a research project on this ‘model train’ has been undertaken. Based on two opposing scenarios prepared by the Dutch Central Planning Bureau, the study calculates the long-term consequences of these scenarios: beginning with a general equilibrium model at global level (GTAP) through a sectoral model at national and regional scale - the Dutch Regionalized Agricultural Model (DRAM) – to a model assessing ecological effects in a local area (SOMMA). The Land Use Scanner, a land use information system and simulation model for the Netherlands, has been used to predict changes in the agricultural area for the regions used in DRAM. The land claims, which are an exogenous variable in the Land Use Scanner, were generated from projections of future population and GDP, on the basis of their historical correlation with land use. This project has led to interesting insights into the problems of linking models. It is hoped that these insights will help to improve the models we use – including land use models. The paper highlights the importance of making modelling assumptions explicit, such that the outcome of one model can indeed be a useful input into another one. The integrated modelling approach yields more consistent projections of land use. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p451&r=agr |
| By: | Mehmet Kucukmehmetoglu; Jean-Michel Guldmann |
| Abstract: | The allocation of water in a multi-country river system necessarily involves conflicting objectives, where increasing water benefits to one country may entail losses to other countries. This paper presents the formulation and application of a multi-objective linear programming model, where each objective represents the benefits to a country from using water for agricultural, municipal, and energy uses, net of conveyance costs. This model extends the Euphrates and Tigris River Basin Model (ETRBM), presented in Kucukmehmetoglu and Guldmann (2004), with the three objective functions representing the net water benefits to the three riparian countries – Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. The model is used to delineate the set of non-inferior solutions (Pareto frontiers), where no individual country benefit can be increased without reducing the benefits of at least another country. These Pareto frontiers, and the underlying water resources allocations, are graphically displayed and analyzed under different scenarios related to river flow, electricity price, and agricultural productivity. The trade-offs between the three benefits are assessed, providing the basis for possible compromises among the three countries. Potential policy implications for trans-boundary water resources utilization are discussed. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p9&r=agr |
| By: | Joana Gonçalves |
| Abstract: | The agenda is to explain the historical evolution of land uses in small islands. First we assess the capacity of the island territory for different uses based on agronomic analysis and transform these capacities in attraction coeficients. Then we design a spatial interaction model with five different sectores which employment can be closely related with surface area. Finally we use historical data on population and main export crops in order to calibrate the model for each historical period. Therefore, based on data on the export crop and on the population it is possible to estimate the different land use of the island for all the sectors. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p258&r=agr |
| By: | Maria Nijnik; Arie Oskam; A. Nijnik |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the establishment of forest plantations on bare lands and marginal agricultural lands: a multifunctional afforestation programme for Ukraine is elaborated. The multiple forest functions are limited in this research to wood production and erosion prevention. Ukraine is faced with erosion on 35% of its arable lands. Some 20 million ha of lands are experiencing various stages of erosion, and it is increasing with time. Erosion is especially harmful in the Carpathian Mountains where it causes windthrows and floods, and in the Steppe zone where it results in blowing up sands. Along with exploration of the expanded timber supply from the newly created forest plantations, soil protection forest functions therefore are examined. The proposition that forest cover affects the rates of soil erosion is tested empirically by means of regression analysis. The results of the estimations show a statistically significant negative relationship between soil erosion and forest cover in Ukraine and across the forestry zones. Using the results of the analysis, indicative estimates of the soil protection role of the forests are computed. Further discussion focuses on the proposed expansion of forest cover and on the potential positive effects for agriculture due to erosion prevention. Calculations have been made at different levels of detail. By using a simulation technique and cost-benefit analysis, in combination with LP modelling, it is revealed that for the discount rate of 4%, planting trees on bare lands, except in the Polissja and the Crimea, is an economically efficient means to address wood production and erosion prevention. Results are highly dependent on the relevant discount rate. For marginal agricultural lands mixed results are obtained. Moreover, there is a difference between estimated benefits for agriculture and benefits for the planter of the trees. It seems therefore necessary that e.g. the government balances costs and benefits to provide incentives for the planter of the trees. Finally, the research comes up with some practical suggestions for forest management decisions. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p746&r=agr |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources For the Future); Albers, Heidi; Batz, Michael (Resources For the Future); Ávalos-Sartorio, Beatriz |
| Abstract: | Shade-grown coffee provides a livelihood to many farmers, protects biodiversity, and creates environmental services. Many shade-coffee farmers have abandoned production in recent years, however, in response to declines in international coffee prices. This paper builds a farmer decision model under price uncertainty and uses simulation analysis of that model to examine the likely impact of various policies on abandonment of shade-coffee plantations. Using information from coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper examines the role of various constraints in abandonment decisions, reveals the importance of the timing of policies, and characterizes the current situation in the study region. |
| Keywords: | coffee farming, decision analysis, numerical modeling, Monte Carlo, price variability |
| JEL: | O13 Q17 Q12 Q23 Q24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-05-61&r=agr |
| By: | Tiina Heikkinen |
| Abstract: | This paper studies optimal investment in Finnish agriculture under uncertainty regarding future income subsidies. The approach is based on stochastic programming. A multi-stage stochastic programming model is studied, where the farmer has the option to postpone the investment decision. The optimal investment problem is a modified optimal stopping problem. The value of information is evaluated as the difference between the profitability of investment under stable income subsidies and under uncertain subsidies. This difference measures the cost due to imperfect information, reducing the incentive to make investments. The need to maintain productivity enhancing investments in rural regions motivates the development of stable income support programs. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p656&r=agr |
| By: | Ellen Moons; Bert Saveyn; Stef Proost; Martin Hermy |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a methodology to select a combination of forest sites that maximizes net social benefits taking into account restrictions on the total surface/size of new forest land. We use GIS technology to estimate for each site the major cost and benefit elements including lost agricultural output, timber and hunting values, carbon sequestration, non-use and recreation benefits. Special emphasis is placed on the recreational value of a potential site as this raises two issues. First, the recreation benefits of a base site estimated via the travel cost method need to be transferred to all potential sites. Second, the recreation benefit of each potential site depends on the existing sites and on the other sites that are in the selection. We show that the same ‘amount’ of afforestation (i.e. the same total surface divided into multiple sites at varying locations) creates a wide range of potential net social benefits due to the role of a varying set of recreation substitutes.We show that the net social benefit of new forest combinations respecting the area constraints may differ up to a factor 21. The substitution effect between forests, both new and existing, turned out to be the dominant factor in the benefit estimation. Compared to the existing literature, our paper improves the methodology by working with realistically feasible sites rather than grid sites, by including the complex recreation substitution effects between potential sites and by including all costs and benefits of afforestation bringing the analysis closer to a real cost benefit analysis. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p58&r=agr |
| By: | Olarreaga, Marcelo; Nicita, Alessandro; Kee, Hiau Looi |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and nontariff barriers for 91 develo ping and industrial countries. For each country, the authors estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. The first one summarizes the degree of trade distortions that each country imposes on itself through its own trade policies. The second one focuses on the trade distortions imposed by each country on its import bundle. The last index focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions imposed by the rest of the world on each country ' s export bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than manufacturing protection. Nontariff barriers contribute more than 70 percent on average to world protection, underlying their importance for any study on trade protection. |
| Keywords: | Free Trade,Economic Theory & Research,Trade Policy,Consumption,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2006–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3840&r=agr |
| By: | Dao-Zhi Zeng; Toru Kikuchi |
| Abstract: | The "home market effect" (HME) is an essential topic of the new trade theory. Assuming the transport costs only for the manufacturing goods, Krugman (1980) shows that the country with bigger market size is a net exporter. The assumption of free transport of the agricultural good was shown mattering a great deal rather than being innocuous by Davis (1998). Particularly, when manufacturing and agricultural goods have identical transport costs, the HME disappears. However, we find that the homogeneous-agricultural-good assumption in Davis' model derives the discontinuity of inverse demand functions, which causes the disappearance of the HME. After establishing an analytical solvable model and assuming two differentiated agricultural goods in two countries, we find that the HME does exist even if the transport cost of the agricultural goods is positive. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p135&r=agr |
| By: | Annelie Holzkamper; Ralf Seppelt; Angela Lausch |
| Abstract: | Heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes is supposed to be of significant importance for species diversity in agroecosystems (Weibull et al. 2003). Thus it is necessary to account for structural aspects of landscapes in land management decision processes. Spatial optimization models of land use can serve as tools for decision support. These models can aim at various landscape functions like nutrient leaching and economical aspects (Seppelt and Voinov 2002), water quality (Randhir et al. 2000) or habitat suitability (Nevo and Garcia 1996). However neighbourhood effects stay unconsidered in these approaches. In this paper we present an optimization model concept that aims at maximizing habitat suitability of selected species by identifying optimum spatial configurations of agricultural land use patterns. Bird species with diverging habitat requirements were chosen as target species. Habitat suitability models for these species are used to set up the performance criterion. Landscape structure is quantified by landscape metrics (McGarigal et al. 2002) estimated within the species home range. Statistical significance of these metrics for species presence was proven by a logistic regression model (Fielding and Haworth 1995). The landscape is represented by a grid based data set. Based on a genetic algorithm the optimization task is to identify an optimum configuration of model units. These model units are defined by contiguous cells of identical land use. Within this concept we can study how optimum but possibly artificial landscapes vary in structure depending on the selected species for which habitat suitability is maximized. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p67&r=agr |
| By: | Barrie Needham; Arno Segeren |
| Abstract: | For many years, land markets have been analyzed as though parcels of land were being traded in a frictionless market subject to no rules. To the extent that there were rules which could not be ignored – such as land-use regulations – the effect of these was incorporated as ‘distortions’ to the market. An institutional analysis of land markets, on the contrary, starts by looking the the rules which structure the exchange of rights in land. These are the formal rules regulating such things as access to the market, which rights may be traded and which not, land-use and environmental rules, fiscal rules, inheritance rules. Then there are the informal rules, customary practices, taken-for-granted ways of doing things. All those rules create a structure which affects the availability of information, risk and uncertainty, transaction costs, organizations for buyers and sellers and brokers, etc. It is assumed that people act in a rational way within that structure. The results are the market outcomes: what is traded where, by whom, in what volume, at what price? This paper sets out the method for such an institutional analysis and applies it to two land markets in the Netherlands – for agricultural land and for land on industrial estates. The results of applying this analysis allow market outcomes to be explained better than by an analysis which ignores institutions. The paper is based on research carried out by the authors at the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research (Ruimtelijk Planbureau). |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p582&r=agr |
| By: | Paul Cheshire; Stephen Sheppard |
| Abstract: | Although directed to the British system of land use planning this paper has relevance for many OECD countries. The paper starts by characterising the basic features of planning systems which seek to impose 'growth boundaries' as has been the case in Britain since 1947. In contrast to the planning literature this analyses such policies as an issue of resource allocation. A conclusion is that the system explicitly excludes any use of price signals from its decisions and effectively determines the supply of land for any use by fiat. Cumulatively over time the result has been to generate major distortions in land market prices. Because the planning system has deliberately constrained the supply of space, and space is an attribute of housing which is income elastic in demand, rising incomes not only drive rising real house prices but also mean that land prices have risen considerably faster than house prices. Several housing attributes other than garden space are to a degree substitutes for land but the underlying cause of the inelastic supply of housing in the UK is the constraint on land supply. The final section proposes a way of including the information embodied in the price premiums of neighbouring parcels of land zoned for different uses in determining land supply while safeguarding the underlying purposes of land use regulation. Such premiums signal the relative scarcity of land for different uses at each location and should become a key element in planning decision-making. If they were above some threshold, this should provide a presumption of development unless maintaining the land in its current use could be shown to be in the public interest. If combined with Impact Fees, such a change would not only make housing supply more elastic and the system more transparent but would help to distance land availability decisions from the political process. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p42&r=agr |
| By: | Paul Metzemakers; Erik Louw |
| Abstract: | To justify industrial land development, municipal planning officials frequently use the argument that unrestricted availability of business sites will foster economic development and employment growth. However, to date convincing evidence to support this claim does not exist. So empirical research into this subject is warranted. Furthermore, this relationship implicitly assumes that the acreage of land, necessary for firms to be able to conduct their business, is a production factor like labour and capital. Unfortunately, research on land use from this perspective has since long disappeared from mainstream economic theory. Ample research is done on land use in relation to firm location, both empirically and theoretically. However, the amount of land as a production factor for firms is generally disregarded. This lack of theory may hinder research into the claim made by planning officials. Therefore, present paper seeks to reintroduce land as a production factor in economic theory. In this article we explore to what extent land can be regarded as a production factor. We aim to integrate this view into established economic models from urban land economics and real estate theory. We do so at the macro and at the micro economic level. At the macro level, the available amount of industrial land could be a factor in national economic growth, just like growth of the labour force. At the micro level we consider whether the theory of individual firms’ production function is able to incorporate the amount of land as production factor. We commence this paper with a historical overview of the treatment of land in economic theory, before we pursue a theoretical framework that incorporates land as a factor of production. The paper concludes with a comparison between land and the established production factors labour and capital. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p220&r=agr |
| By: | Markus Groth |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an outcome-based payment scheme to reward ecological services in agriculture. It was designed by a research group from the Georg-August-University of Goettingen. Starting in January 2004 the payment scheme is tested upon it’s implementation as an agri-environmental program in a model-region (administrative district Northeim in the south of Lower Saxony – Germany). The intention of the program is to overcome the disadvantages of existing and mostly action-orientated agri-environmental programs, especially those in the European Union. The design of the payment scheme is based on fundamental criteria of market economy such as supply and demand and it integrates auctions as an award procedure. Furthermore it is outcome-based and considers the interests of the local people and the relevant stakeholders and their demand for botanical diversity. The main research topic is to explore the use of auction in agri-environmental programs seen from an transaction cost economics point of view. Therefor the relevant farmers transaction costs will be measured. In the course of this research it is essential to analyse the practical relevance of transaction costs and to draw conclusions to their theoretical foundation. Results as well as of the first auction and two surveys of local farmers already show, that this payment scheme is not just an theoretical construct but that it is already practicable in the model-region. However further research is needed to make sure that at the end of the current case study this payment scheme is authorised from an ecological economics point of view and has a high potential to be a part of a sustainable future agri-environmental policy in Germany and the European Union. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p180&r=agr |
| By: | Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | The lay of the policy land for addressing and managing environmental risk includes the hillock of the precautionary principle, the mountain of the practice and ethics of monetary valuation, and the tectonic plates of real-world innovations in markets and trading exchanges for nonmarketed environmental goods. This paper offers an overview of these contemporary and as yet unresolved issues and asks how each might be addressed in disparate environmental risks such as lightning, climate change, and severe weather. The overview focuses on issues that may be of interest to the American Meteorological Society’s annual policy colloquium. |
| Keywords: | risk, environment, public policy, economics |
| JEL: | Q00 D89 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-01&r=agr |
| By: | Marcelo de Paiva Abreu (Department of Economics PUC-Rio); Felipe Tamega Fernandes |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on market power by certain countries in specific commodity markets as a crucial factor in explaining the level of protection. It is argued that a country which is a price maker in the world market of a specific commodity might affect its world price through export taxes, import taxes and commodity stockpiling. Standard reduced form equations were estimated to test if significant market shares in international markets of Brazilian coffee, Chilean saltpetre and US cotton implied domestic variables were relevant for the determination of the corresponding world commodity prices. Results suggest the producers succeeded in passing through increases in internal costs to the relevant world commodity price. |
| JEL: | N71 N76 F13 F14 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rio:texdis:511&r=agr |
| By: | Amit Batabyal; Peter Nijkamp |
| Abstract: | How should one manage the problem of resistance to antibiotics and pesticides? Although the salience of this question has now been recognized, the formal modeling of this question is very much in its infancy. Consequently, we have three objectives in this paper. First, we construct a dynamic and stochastic model of antibiotic or pesticide use. Second, we analyze two different strategies (interventionist and non-interventionist) for overseeing the problem of resistance. Finally, we identify a specific probability function and we show that whether the problem of resistance is best addressed with an interventionist strategy or a non-interventionist strategy depends fundamentally on this probability function. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p161&r=agr |