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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒06‒30
twelve papers chosen by |
| By: | Msuya, Elibariki |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on agricultural productivity and poverty reduction are examined. Factors that hinder FDI flow to agriculture in Tanzania are assessed. Specifically, the role of FDI in improving an agricultural firm’s efficiency in Tanzania and reforms required for more effective investment promotion in agriculture are examined. The study uses literature review to draw its conclusions and policy recommendations. It is observed that FDI has a positive impact on productivity especially to smallholder farmers who are linked in integrated producer schemes. The study recommends rethinking of the smallholder institutional setup for increasing productivity and FDI flow to the agricultural sector. An important implication of the results is that FDI to Tanzania and specifically to agriculture, has a much more far- reaching economic and social impact than in other sectors. |
| Keywords: | FDI; Smallholders; Integrated Producer Schemes; Agricultural Productivity; Poverty Reduction; Tanzania |
| JEL: | Q01 F21 Q13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3671&r=agr |
| By: | Huffman, Wallace |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an updated assessment of the changing demand for farm labor, including its components and relative use, as reflected in the capital-labor ratios for California and Florida, which are major coastal producers of fresh fruits and vegetables, and of Iowa and Texas, which are two major midland agricultural states. Iowa is known for the production of the field crops of corn and soybeans. Texas is a large state with diverse climates and agriculture, which produces wheat and cotton and significant fresh fruit and vegetables. In order to get a good overview of long-term trends, much of our analysis spans more than four decades; i.e., we take this long-term perspective so as to be able to see the “forest” and not be obscured by all of the “trees” that are in noise data. In particular, this paper spans fifteen additional years of data relative to the data in my paper of one year ago (Huffman 2006)—extending the data forward over 2000 to 2004, which is the most recent data available from the USDA-ERS, and also extending backwards by an additional decade, 1960-1969. Our ability to summarize and analyze trends in US farm labor by state have depended heavily upon data collected by the USDA, but the USDA has withdrawn its funding for its data on self-employed and unpaid family labor by state. Without this information, we will be missing one of the important components of the total farm labor and farm input picture. |
| Date: | 2007–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12827&r=agr |
| By: | Mendelsohn, Robert; Seo, Sungno Niggol |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes t he impact of climate change on animal husbandry in Africa. It regresses the net revenue from raising animals in small and large farms across Africa on climate, soil, and other control variables to test the climate sensitivity of livestock. The study is based on a survey of over 9,000 farmers across 11 countries conducted by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. From this dataset, 5,400 farms were found to rely on livestock. The paper develops models to test whether the climate coefficients of small and large farms are similar. It turns out that small farms tend to be more labor intensive, rely on native stocks, and have few animals. Large farms tend to be more commercial operations, with much larger stocks and more modern approaches. The analysis finds that warming is good for small farms because they can substitute animals that are heat tolerant. Large farms, by contrast, are more dependent on cattle, which are not heat tolerant. The wetter scenarios are likely to be harmful to grazing animals because greater rainfall implies a shift from grasslands to forests, an increase in harmful disease vectors, and a shift from livestock to crops. Overall, because large farms dominate the sector, African livestock net revenues are expected to fall. However, if future climates turn out to be dry, livestock net revenue will increase. At least against the risk of dryness, livestock offer a good substitute for crops. |
| Keywords: | Livestock & Animal Husbandry,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems,Climate Change,Dairies & Dairying,Wildlife Resources |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4261&r=agr |
| By: | Pagiola, Stefano; Rios, Ana R.; Arcenas, Agustin |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) project being implemented in Nicaragua to examine the extent to which poorer households that are eligible to participate are in fact able to do so, an issue over which there has been considerable concern. The study site provides a strong test of the ability of poorer households to participate as it requires participants to make substantial and complex land use changes. The results show that poorer households are in fact able to participate—indeed, by some measures they participated to a greater extent than better-off households. Moreover, their participation was not limited to the simpler, least expensive options. Extremely poor households had a somewhat greater difficulty in participating, but even in their case the difference is solely a relative one. Transaction costs may be greater obstacles to the participation of poorer households than household-specific constraints. |
| Keywords: | Payments for Environmental Services; PES; poverty; participation |
| JEL: | Q57 Q2 |
| Date: | 2007–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3705&r=agr |
| By: | Louis Augustin-Jean |
| Abstract: | The entry of China into the WTO, in 2001, has generated a lot of research related to the marketization of China’s economy. This debate has overlooked a more important one, which is to analyse the shape taken by the organization of China’s economy, in relation to the reforms introduced by this country since the end of the 1970s and its integration into the world economy. In other words, the changes that are currently occurring, provide a unique chance to understand the role and the interaction of different agents in the (re)construction of a market. For this purpose, a specific industry has been selected. The choice of the sugar industry allows us to understand its organization from the basic producer (the farmer) up to the final consumer (the food industry). It also allows us to take into account the changes that are currently underway in the international market of sugar (due to changes in the sugar regime of the European Union, an increasing production in Brazil, etc.), which exert considerable pressure on an industry that is undergoing complete restructuring in China. Taking into account these changes, the paper makes use of the commodity value chain approach as well as of the sociology of organization. Based on a fieldwork conducted from 2004 to 2006, it shows that, while China’s central government seems committed to further liberalize its economy, the diverging interests of agents involved in the industry (farmers, mills, local and provincial authorities…) have in effect reinforced the role of the various levels of government agencies – despite the partial privatisation. It also shows that all the measures taken to protect the most vulnerable agents have led to increased instabilities and uncertainties in a market which, nonetheless, has been continuously expanding for the last 25 years. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2007-4&r=agr |
| By: | Sudipta Sarangi; Gautam Hararika |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of household access to microcredit upon work by seven to eleven year old children in rural Malawi. Given that microcredit organizations foster household enterprises wherein much child labor is engaged, this paper aims to discover whether access to microcredit might increase work by children. It is found that, in the peak harvest season, household access to microcredit, measured in a novel manner as self-assessed credit limits at microcredit organizations, raises the probability of child work in households with sample means of owned land and number of retail sales enterprises. It appears this is due to children having to take up more domestic chores as adults are busied in household enterprises following improved access to microcredit. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2007-09&r=agr |
| By: | Östblom, Göran (National Institute of Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | A cost-effective policy instrument to attain the Swedish carbon emission target, suggested by the Government’s commission on flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto protocol, is the purchase of emission allowances within the EU trading scheme, instead of reducing domestic CO2 emissions at higher costs. Also, proposed by the commission, is that only grandfathered, but not imported emission allowances, should be accounted for in the carbon emissions target. This formulation of the target is now under consideration by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as instructed in Sweden’s Budget Bill for 2007. The nitrogen and sulphur outcomes of these suggestions for the climate policy are here assessed in the view of Sweden’s official emission projections for 2010 and 2020. In view of the historical emission multipliers and the analysis presented here, the proposed climate policy does not conform to Sweden’s interim targets for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Although, the CO2 emission target could be attained at the least costs through emission trading, an environmental policy which brings also SO2 and NOx emissions to the acceptable levels requires additional policy instruments aiming at the exclusive reduction of these emissions. The findings here suggest that these reductions would correspond to decreases of the SO2/GDP and NOx/GDP ratios by 8 and 12 per cent, respectively. The emission multipliers of aggregate demand for CO2-permit trading and non-trading sectors, are calculated by exploiting the environmental accounting matrix of Sweden for 2000 within the framework of an inter industry model. |
| Keywords: | Emission multipliers; carbon trading; emission/GDP ratio; environmental goals |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nierwp:0101&r=agr |
| By: | Jonathan Conning (Hunter College, Department of Economics); Partha Deb (Hunter College, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A large number of land property rights reforms, including land formalization and titling projects, are taking place around the world today. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the expected impacts of such interventions, the challenges and problems that arise in measuring and estimating these impacts, as well as survey designs and methods for purposeful impact evaluation to overcome or ameliorate these concerns. We present a practical approach to evaluation of programs that should be accessible to non-specialists interested in impact evaluation. Using a hypothetical example of a land titling program in an urban setting we illustrate with simple visual examples how the distribution of observable and unobservable characteristics of treatment and comparison group samples might change according to the nature of the program intervention and treatment selection rules ( e.g. how the project targets geographic areas or population groups, whether and how households are allowed to self-select, etc.). This visual approach focuses attention on the key importance of survey design and data collection strategies to avoid confounding effects, and eschews a good deal of the math usually required to present these issues. Most methods for impact evaluation analysis can be explained as strategies to anticipate and adjust to these sample selection issues and as efforts to maintain a balance between observable and unobservable characteristics in treatment and comparison groups. |
| Keywords: | Property rights, impact evaluation, land titling, land reform, average treatment effects, survey design. |
| JEL: | O1 O12 O17 C8 C21 P14 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:htr:hcecon:419&r=agr |
| By: | Lawrence, John D.; Grimes, Glenn |
| Abstract: | A 2007 survey of US pork producers indicated that nearly two-thirds of US hogs are produced by less than 200 firms marketing 50,000 or more hogs per year. We estimate that 27 operations marketing at least 500,000 hogs a year sold 43% of US hogs in 2006. The next 164 operations marketing between 50 and 500 thousand hogs a year sold 21% of US hogs. Another 21% were marketed by 1,450 firms with annual sales of 10-50 thousand head. The remaining 15% of hogs were sold by firms marketing less than 10,000 hogs a year and this size category is losing market share as larger operations expand. Producers in all size categories are planning growth over the next three years. Production and marketing characteristics, cost of production, and plans for the future are reported by size category. |
| Date: | 2007–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12828&r=agr |
| By: | Congdon Fors, Heather (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | There are several factors that may contribute to the decision to send a child to work, such as poverty, market imperfections and parental preferences. The aim of this paper is to determine empirically the relative importance of these diverse factors on the incidence of child labor in rural India. In order to examine several potentially influential factors separately, we outline a theoretical model of child labor in a peasant household based on the model presented in Bhalotra and Heady (2003) with modifications to allow for the child to participate in different types of labor. We then use the theoretical model to specify and estimate an empirical model of rural child labor participation. Our results indicate that parental education and household income appear to play the most important role in determining whether a child works, attends school or is idle. Market imperfections, on the other hand, only play an important role in determining whether the child participates in family labor. <p> |
| Keywords: | child labor; school attendance; market imperfections; India |
| JEL: | I20 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2007–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0256&r=agr |
| By: | Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | Employing an environmentally differentiated duopoly model, we analyze how emission standards affect imports, the environment, and social welfare. We show that a strict emission standard is not necessarily import-restrictive, whereas it may possibly degrade the environment. Furthermore, we present evidence that the effect of emission standards on net social surplus depends on the mode of market competition and the degree of marginal social valuation of environmental damage. |
| Keywords: | emission standards, environmentally differentiated duopoly, green market |
| JEL: | D43 F12 F13 L52 Q28 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:34&r=agr |
| By: | Christiaensen, Luc; Dercon, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Much has been written on the determinants of input and technology adoption in agriculture, with issues such as input availability, knowledge and education, risk preferenc es, profitability, and credit constraints receiving much attention. This paper focuses on a factor that has been less well documented-the differential ability of households to take on risky production technologies for fear of the welfare consequences if shocks result in poor harvests. Building on an explicit model, this is explored in panel data for Ethiopia. Historical rainfall distributions are used to identify the counterfactual consumption risk. Controlling for unobserved household and time-varying village characteristics, it emerges that not just ex-ante credit constraints, but also the possibly low consumption outcomes when harvests fail, discourage the application of fertilizer. The lack of insurance causes inefficiency in production choices. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory & Research,Financial Intermediation,Consumption,Insurance & Risk Mitigation,Inequality |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4257&r=agr |