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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒03‒03
sixteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Fuller, Frank H.; Beghin, John C. |
| Abstract: | "Enlargement, Structural Change, CAP Reform, and Trade Liberalization in European Agriculture." A special issue of the Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development. Frank H. Fuller and John C. Beghin, guest editors, Vol 3, 2007 Table of Contents Enlargement, Structural Change, CAP Reform, and Trade Liberalization in European Agriculture: Highlights of the Special Issue Frank H. Fuller and John C. Beghin Agricultural Productivity Growth in the European Union and Transition Countries Supawat Rungsuriyawiboon and Alexej Lissitsa European Integration, Reforms, and Governance of Food Supply Chains in Eastern Europe Johan F.M. Swinnen Differentiated Food Quality Standards and Industry Structure in the Enlarged EU: The Polish Meat Sector Marie-Luise Rau and Frank van Tongeren The Impact of the European Enlargement and CAP Reforms on Agricultural Markets. Much Ado about Nothing? Jacinto F. Fabiosa, John C. Beghin, Fengxia Dong, Amani Elobeid, Frank H. Fuller, Holger Matthey, Simla Tokgöz, and Eric Wailes The 2003 Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis for Ireland Janine Dixon and Alan Matthews Policy Implications of the Decoupling of the EU Cotton Subsidies Manuel Arriaza and José A. Gomez-Limon Preferences Erosion and Trade Costs in the Sugar Market: the Impact of the Everything But Arms Initiative and the Reform of the EU Policy Piero Conforti and George Rapsomanikis The EU Import Regime for Oranges - Much Ado about Nothing? Linde Götz and Harald Grethe |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12734&r=agr |
| By: | Beghin, John C.; FAPRI, staff |
| Abstract: | Policy reforms in the EU require careful consideration because the EU is a significant player in international agricultural markets for many commodities. We analyze the effects on world agricultural markets of the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and the accession of ten new member states (NMS) to the EU on May 1, 2004. Given past reforms, changes introduced in the 2003 CAP have only a moderate impact on the EU-15, causing small decreases in production for most commodities and raising domestic prices marginally. Beef, rice, and dairy experience the greatest changes. Accession leads to substantial increases in domestic prices of several commodities in the ten NMS because their prices were historically below EU-15 prices. Consequently, consumption of agricultural products in these countries decreases while production rises. Trade with the NMS causes EU-15 prices to decline modestly, and the two reforms combined have moderate or negligible effects on world markets. |
| Keywords: | CAP reform, Common Agricultural Policy, EU enlargement, European agriculture, New Member States. |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12731&r=agr |
| By: | Beghin, John C.; Aksoy, Ataman |
| Abstract: | While global analytical approaches to agricultural trade liberalization yield large gains for most economies, there are substantial variations in the policy regimes across commodities. To clarify the multiplicity of distortions and impacts, the World Bank’s Trade Department undertook a series of commodity studies. The studies highlight the important challenges faced by negotiating countries in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations. The studies provide a sharper look at the North-South dimensions of the agricultural trade debate, with the North’s trade barriers, domestic support, and tariff escalation. They also underscore the South-South challenges on border protection and the reduced rural income opportunities for the lowest-income countries due to policies in higher-income countries that depress world prices. Agricultural trade liberalization would induce significant price increases for most commodities. The studies identify the detrimental effects of multilateral trade liberalization for some countries because of lost preferential trade agreements and higher prices on net consumers of commodities. Given the complexity of specific issues in agriculture, as well as the North-South and South-South dimensions of distortions, a global solution would be required to liberalize these markets. Rather than being self-contained, agricultural trade negotiations should involve concessions on other sectors and issues (services and intellectual property rights for example) to identify overall reform packages palatable to all parties. |
| Keywords: | agricultural trade liberalization, Doha, World Bank, commodities |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12736&r=agr |
| By: | Beghin, John C. |
| Abstract: | This background paper is devoted to US sugar policy. A first section describes the features and economics of the US sugar program; a second section is devoted to the welfare and trade effects of the US sugar program; and a final section reports on potential emerging reforms, their expected effects, and implications. Beyond well-established findings on the social cost and inefficiency of the US sugar program, the main findings of this paper are as follows. The current sugar program is becoming unsustainable because sugar imports are progressively creeping into the US market through regional trade agreements, eventually inducing large sugar inventories, or contracting domestic production to unpalatable low levels in order to maintain high internal prices. The sugar program in its current form is also a potential target for reform because of likely reductions in amber box limits under a potential Doha Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The current support accounting for sugar under the WTO favors abandoning the current program. A possible outcome would be to change the current sugar program into a standard program, removing the domestic supply controls (allotments), lowering the loan rate, implementing countercyclical, and direct payments, but keeping the current trade protection nearly intact thanks to the high bound-tariff on sugar. Slightly lower consumer prices would result. Payment limitations would penalize large growers. The paper also looks at the cost and implications of a buy-out. The recent resolution of the sweetener dispute (sugar, and corn syrup) between the US and Mexico removes much uncertainty from these markets. Long-term expansion of Mexican sugar exports into the US remains a possibility in 2008. A standard crop program with a lower loan rate would reduce incentives for Mexican producers to export sugar to the US market. |
| Keywords: | dispute, HFCS, NAFTA, sugar, sugar program, sweetener, trade, TRQ, US farm bill. |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12735&r=agr |
| By: | John C. Beghin (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD); Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI)) |
| Abstract: | This background paper is devoted to US sugar policy. A first section describes the features and economics of the US sugar program; a second section is devoted to the welfare and trade effects of the US sugar program; and a final section reports on potential emerging reforms, their expected effects, and implications. Beyond well-established findings on the social cost and inefficiency of the US sugar program, the main findings of this paper are as follows. The current sugar program is becoming unsustainable because sugar imports are progressively creeping into the US market through regional trade agreements, eventually inducing large sugar inventories, or contracting domestic production to unpalatable low levels in order to maintain high internal prices. The sugar program in its current form is also a potential target for reform because of likely reductions in amber box limits under a potential Doha Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The current support accounting for sugar under the WTO favors abandoning the current program. A possible outcome would be to change the current sugar program into a standard program, removing the domestic supply controls (allotments), lowering the loan rate, implementing countercyclical, and direct payments, but keeping the current trade protection nearly intact thanks to the high bound-tariff on sugar. Slightly lower consumer prices would result. Payment limitations would penalize large growers. The paper also looks at the cost and implications of a buy-out. The recent resolution of the sweetener dispute (sugar, and corn syrup) between the US and Mexico removes much uncertainty from these markets. Long-term expansion of Mexican sugar exports into the US remains a possibility in 2008. A standard crop program with a lower loan rate would reduce incentives for Mexican producers to export sugar to the US market. |
| Keywords: | dispute, HFCS, NAFTA, sugar, sugar program, sweetener, trade, TRQ, US farm bill. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:fpaper:07-wp442&r=agr |
| By: | Philip W. Gassman (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)); Manuel R. Reyes; Colleen H. Green; Jeffrey G. Arnold |
| Abstract: | The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is a continuation of nearly 30 years of modeling efforts conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service. SWAT has gained international acceptance as a robust interdisciplinary watershed modeling tool, as evidenced by international SWAT conferences, hundreds of SWAT-related papers presented at numerous scientific meetings, and dozens of articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The model has also been adopted as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating Point & Nonpoint Sources) software package and is being used by many U.S. federal and state agencies, including the USDA within the Conservation Effects Assessment Project. At present, over 250 peer-reviewed, published articles have been identified that report SWAT applications, reviews of SWAT components, or other research that includes SWAT. Many of these peer-reviewed articles are summarized here according to relevant application categories such as streamflow calibration and related hydrologic analyses, climate change impacts on hydrology, pollutant load assessments, comparisons with other models, and sensitivity analyses and calibration techniques. Strengths and weaknesses of the model are presented, and recommended research needs for SWAT are provided. |
| Keywords: | developmental history, flow analysis, modeling, SWAT, water quality. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:07-wp443&r=agr |
| By: | Salifou B. Diarra; Niama Nango Dembélé (Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University) |
| Keywords: | food security, food policy, Mali |
| JEL: | Q18 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:icpwrk:ml-promisam-tn-04&r=agr |
| By: | Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary and environmental economics have a potentially close relationship. This paper reviews past and identifies potential applications of evolutionary concepts and methods to environmental economics. This covers a number of themes: resource use and ecosystem management; growth and environmental resources; economic and evolutionary progress; and individual behavior and environmental policy. The treatment will cover both biological and economic – including institutional, organizational and technological – evolutionary phenomena. Attention will be drawn to the fact that evolutionary economics shows a surprising neglect of environmental and natural resource factors. |
| Keywords: | Coevolution; economic growth; environmental policy; innovation; progress; self-regulation; renewable resources; resilience; social preferences |
| JEL: | B52 O3 O4 Q2 Q5 |
| Date: | 2007–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070018&r=agr |
| By: | Nimon, W.; Beghin, John C. |
| Abstract: | Using U.S. apparel catalog data, we estimate hedonic price functions to identify market valuation of environmental attributes of apparel goods. We identify a significant and robust premium for the organic fibers embodied in the apparel goods. We also find a discount for the "no-dye" label. We do not, however, find any evidence of a premium for environment-friendly dyes. We further investigate the pricing behavior of apparel suppliers for potential heterogenous pricing of the organic-fiber attribute and find no evidence of different premia across firms. |
| Keywords: | Eco-labels, organic-cotton apparel, dyes, hedonic price |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12741&r=agr |
| By: | Chris Elbers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Jan Willem Gunning (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Lei Pan (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Assessing the scope for insurance in rural communities usually requires a structural model of household behavior under risk. One of the few empirical applications of such models is the study by Rosenzweig and Wolpin (1993) who conclude that Indian farmers in the ICRISAT villages would not benefit from the introduction of formal weather insurance. In this paper we investigate how models such as theirs can be estimated from panel data on production and assets. We show that if assets can take only a limited number of values the coefficients of the model cannot be estimated with reasonable precision. We also show that this can affect the conclusion that insurance would not be welfare improving. |
| Keywords: | Structural estimation; discrete choices; insurance |
| JEL: | C51 D91 |
| Date: | 2007–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070011&r=agr |
| By: | Oeindrila Dube; Juan F. Vargas |
| Abstract: | The “Resource Curse” posits a positive association between the value of natural commodities and civil conflict. In this paper, we suggest that the value-to-violence relationship differs across commodities, and that the factor intensity of production determines whether a rise in the price of a legally traded good will exacerbate conflict. We exploit exogenous price shocks for coffee and oil to test this hypothesis, using data on politically-motivated violence in Colombia over 1988 to 2004. We find that a drop in coffee prices during the 1990s led to a disproportionate rise in conflict in the coffee areas. Poverty dynamics follow a similar pattern, while substitution into drug crops do not, which suggests that it is the fall in income rather than the drug trade that fuelled this effect. In contrast, we find that oil prices are positively related to clashes with government forces, and that state revenue is used to strengthen military presence in oil areas. Our results suggest that the income channel is critical in determining how price shocks to labor-intensive commodities affect insurgency. However, for capital-intensive goods, the revenue effect predominates in mediating how the value of the commodity affects violence. |
| Date: | 2006–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001058:002748&r=agr |
| By: | Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov (The Swedish Retail Institute (HUI)); Orth, Matilda (School of Economics and Commercial law, Gothenburg University); Rudholm, Niklas (The Swedish Retail Institute (HUI)) |
| Abstract: | A real-options approach was used, incorporating uncertainty and irreversibility of investments, to study the number of stores entering the Swedish retail food market during the period 1994-2002. It was found that uncertainty affected the entry-decision. Entry was less frequent in highly concentrated local retail food-markets characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, whereas higher profit opportunities seem to have increased the probability of entry. |
| Keywords: | Real options; uncertainty; retail food; entry; negative binomial regression |
| JEL: | L13 L81 |
| Date: | 2007–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:huiwps:0001&r=agr |
| By: | Ricardo Argüello; Andrés Zambrano |
| Abstract: | A diferencia de la generalidad de trabajos sobre la pobreza rural en Colombia, este estudio emplea un enfoque de activos para indagar acerca de los determinantes de la pobreza rural. En particular se examinan la existencia de no convexidades locales en el proceso de generación de ingresos, el grado de concentración de los hogares en ciertos rangos de acumulación de activos y la presencia de retornos marginales diferenciados a los activos. Con base en esto se proporciona evidencia prima facie acerca de la existencia de una trampa de pobreza en el sector rural, abriendo una línea promisoria de investigación sobre el tema, que puede contribuir de forma importante a su comprensión y a un mejor diseño de política social y sectorial. |
| Date: | 2006–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001070:002774&r=agr |
| By: | Françoise Dauty (LIRHE - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les Ressources Humaines et l'Emploi - [CNRS : UMR5066] - [Université des Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I]); Gabriel Tahar (LIRHE - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les Ressources Humaines et l'Emploi - [CNRS : UMR5066] - [Université des Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I]); Michel Vernières (MATISSE - Modélisation Appliquée, Trajectoires Institutionnelles et Stratégies Socio-Économiques - [CNRS : UMR8595] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | L'hypothèse centrale de ce travail collectif est que la dotation en ressources naturelles et même en capital physique des territoires ruraux n'apparaît pas comme le premier ressort de leur développement. Celui-ci est essentiellement fonction de leur capacité à innover socialement et économiquement, à mobiliser les ressources humaines dont ils disposent et à en attirer de nouvelles. L'impulsion initiale peut être issue d'entrepreneurs, d'associations ou d'autorités politiques locales. Mais, dans tous les cas, c'est la capacité collective d'un grand nombre d'acteurs divers à constituer des réseaux, à agir en partenariat, qui est au cœur du développement rural |
| Keywords: | marché du travail locaux;adéquation;offre de travail;demande de travail;mobilité |
| Date: | 2007–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00131772_v1&r=agr |
| By: | Fuller, Frank H.; Beghin, John C.; Rozelle, S. |
| Abstract: | Using urban survey data collected by the authors in 2001-2002, this paper analyzes demographics, cultural factors, and purchasing behaviors influencing the consumption of fresh milk, yogurt, ice cream, and powered milk in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, China. Results from estimation of a double-hurdle model of consumption show that income and marketing channels are the key determinants of milk consumption levels; however, education, advertising, and convenience play a more important role in consumption of other dairy products. There is some evidence that milk powder, as a consumer good, may be becoming an inferior product in urban China. Finally, the survey data suggest that the growing sophistication of China’s retail sector is influencing consumption of dairy products. |
| Keywords: | dairy products, demand analysis, survey data, limited dependent variable models, China |
| Date: | 2007–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12730&r=agr |
| By: | Lei Pan (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | It is often assumed that transfers received from governments, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), friends and relatives help rural households to pool risk. In this paper I investigate two functions of transfers in Ethiopia: risk pooling and income redistribution. Unlike most of the literature this paper investigates not only whether but also how much risk pooling is achieved. I find evidence that transfers from governments/NGOs play a role in insuring covariant income shocks, (weak) evidence that transfers from friends/relatives insure idiosyncratic income shocks and evidence that transfers target the poor households. However, the contributions of transfers to risk pooling and income redistribution are economically very limited. |
| Keywords: | Risk; Insurance; Income redistribution |
| JEL: | I38 O17 |
| Date: | 2007–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070014&r=agr |