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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2009‒07‒03
37 papers chosen by |
| By: | Anderson, Kym |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:48742&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym; Croser, Johanna L.; Nelgen, Signe; Valenzuela, Ernesto |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:48576&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym; Swinnen, Johan |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:48624&r=agr |
| By: | Lloyd, Peter J.; Croser, Johanna L; Anderson, Kym |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:48627&r=agr |
| By: | Opata, Patience. I; Nweze, Noble. J |
| Abstract: | Paper to be presented for International Conference of Women in Africa and African Diaspora (WAAD) at Yaradua Conference Centre Abuja, August 3-11, 2009 |
| Keywords: | Women, Credit and Savings, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Financial Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2009–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:miscpa:51554&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym; Croser, Johanna |
| Abstract: | The global database developed as an integral part of the World Bank's research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, which is publicly available at www.worldbank.org/agdistortions, provides around 30,000 estimates of nominal rates oassistance to agricultural industries (NRAs) and associated consumer tax equivalents for 75 countries that together account for between 90 and 95 percent of the worldâs population, farmers, agricultural output and total GDP. They also account for more than 85 percent of farm production and employment in each of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the transition economies of Europe and Central Asia as well as all OECD countries. More than 70 products are included (an average of 11 per country), which represents around 70 percent of the gross value of agricultural production in each of the focus countries, and just under two-thirds of global farm production valued at undistorted prices over the period covered. Not all countries had data for all of the entire 1955-2007 period, but the average number of years covered is 41 per country. This paper provides details of the coverage of the database. It also summarizes the distributions of the NRAs by showing two sets of Box plots for 1955-84 and 1985-2007, one set for various regions of the world, the other for all the covered products for each focus country. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural price and trade policies, nominal rates of assistance, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, F59, H20, N50, O13, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50307&r=agr |
| By: | Bates, Robert H.; Block, Steven |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new data on agricultural policy interventions to examine the political economy of agricultural trade policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Historically, African governments have discriminated against agricultural producers in general (relative to producers in non-agricultural sectors), and against producers of export agriculture in particular. While more moderate in recent years, these patterns of discrimination persist. They do so even though farmers comprise a political majority. Rather than claiming the existence of a single best approach to the analysis of policy choice, we explore the impact of three factors: institutions, regional inequality, and tax revenuegeneration. We find that agricultural taxation increases with the rural population share in the absence of electoral party competition; yet, the existence of party competition turns the lobbying disadvantage of the rural majority into political advantage. We also find that privileged cash crop regions are particular targets for redistributive taxation, unless the country's president comes from that region. In addition, governments of resource-rich countries, while continuing to tax export producers, reduce their taxation of food consumers. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, agriculture, taxation, political economy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, O13, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50302&r=agr |
| By: | Romina Cavatassi (Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization); Mario González (Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC); Paul Winters (American University, Washington, DC); Jorge Andrade-Piedra (International Potato Center, Quito, Ecuador); Graham Thiele (International Potato Center, Lima, Peru); Patricio Espinosa (International Potato Centre, Quito, Ecuador) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of participation in multi-stakeholder platforms (Plataformas) aimed at linking smallholder potato farmers to the market in the mountain region of Ecuador. It describes and evaluates the Plataformas’ program to determine whether it has been successful in linking farmers to higher-value markets and the effects that such connections have brought, particularly with regard to farmers’ welfare and to the environment. The analysis is run comparing a set of different and carefully constructed control groups to beneficiaries and using various specifications. Results are strongly consistent across the different specifications and are sound across the counterfactuals, suggesting impacts are adequately identified. Findings suggest that the program was successful in improving the welfare of beneficiaries, while potential negative environmental impacts, particularly with relation to agrobiodiversity and use of agrochemicals seem not to be a concern. Mechanisms through which impacts have been achieved are analyzed. Little spillover effects are found. |
| Keywords: | New agricultural economy, Ecuador, smallholder potato farmers, impact evaluation, food-security, agrobiodiversity, natural resources. |
| JEL: | D13 O13 Q13 Q51 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fao:wpaper:0906&r=agr |
| By: | Pavel Ciaian; d'Artis Kancs |
| Abstract: | The present paper examines a long-run relationship between the energy, bioenergy and food prices. In the recent years the bioenergy production has increased significantly around the world. The increase has been driven by rising energy prices as well as by environmental policies aiming at reducing the harmful effects of conventional sources of energy, such as climate change. Bioenergy, in turn, affects agricultural markets, because it uses agricultural commodities as inputs. The theoretical model we develop predicts that, because of price inelastic food demand, the agricultural price increase may be substantial. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical hypothesis that energy prices do affect prices of agricultural commodities. However, the co-integration is weaker than theoretically predicted. The price effect of bioenergy might be mitigated by new technological development, which improve yields and lead to an offsetting effect in the supply of agricultural commodities, and by fallow land brought into cultivation, when agricultural profitability is rising. |
| Keywords: | Energy, bioenergy, crude oil, prices, cointegration. |
| JEL: | Q11 Q13 Q42 |
| Date: | 2009–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2009_06&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym; Croser, Johanna; Sandri, Damiano; Valenzuela, Ernesto |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes a new database that sheds light on the impact of trade-related policy developments over the past half century on distortions to agricultural incentives and thus also to consumer prices for food in 75 countries spanning the per capita income spectrum. Pricesupport policies of advanced economies hurt not only domestic consumers and exporters of other products but also foreign producers and traders of farm products, and they reduce national and global economic welfare. On the other hand, the governments of many developing countries have directly taxed their farmers over the past half-century, both directly (e.g., export taxes) and also indirectly via overvaluing their currency and restricting imports of manufactures. Thus the price incentives facing farmers in many developing countries have been depressed by both own-country and other countriesâ agricultural price and international trade policies. We summarize these and realted stylized facts that can be drawn from a new World Bank database that is worthy of the attention of political economy theorists, historians and econometricians. These indicators can be helpful in addressing such questions as the following: Where is there still a policy bias against agricultural production? To what extent has there been overshooting in the sense that some developing-country food producers are now being protected from import competition along the lines of the examples of earlier-industrializing Europe and Japan? What are the political economy forces behind the more-successful reformers, and how do they compare with those in less-successful countries where major distortions in agricultural incentives remain? And what explains the pattern of distortions across not only countries but also industries and in the choice of support or tax instruments within the agricultural sector of each country? |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural price and trade policies, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, F59, H20, N50, O13, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50305&r=agr |
| By: | Viet-Ngu Hoang; Tim Coelli (CEPA - School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uqcepa:38&r=agr |
| By: | Masters, William A.; Garcia, Andres F. |
| Abstract: | This paper describes agricultural policy choices and tests some predictions of political economy theories. It begins with three broad stylized facts: governments tend to tax agriculture in poorer countries, and subsidize it in richer ones, tax both imports and exports more than nontradables, and tax more and subsidize less where there is more land per capita. We test a variety of political-economy explanations, finding results consistent with hypothesized effects of rural and urban constituentsâ rational ignorance about small per-person effects, governance institutionsâ control of rent-seeking by political leaders, governmentsâ revenue motive for taxation, and the role of time consistency in policy-making. We also find that larger groups obtain more favorable policies, suggesting that positive group size effects outweigh any negative influence from more free-ridership, and that demographically driven entry of new farmers is associated with less favorable farm policies, suggesting the arrival of new farmers erodes policy rents and discourages political activity by incumbents. Another new result is that governments achieve very little price stabilization relative to our benchmark estimates of undistorted prices, and governments in the poorest countries actually destabilize domestic prices. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural price distortions, political economy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, D72, D78, F11, H23, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50301&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym |
| Abstract: | During the 1960s and 1970s most developing countries imposed anti-agricultural policies, while many high-income countries restricted agricultural imports and subsidized their farmers. Both sets of policies inhibited economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries, while doing little to assist small farmers in high-income countries. Since the 1980s, however, many developing countries began to reduce the anti-agricultural bias of sectoral policies, and from the early 1990s the European Union began to move away from price supports to more-direct forms of farm income payments. This paper summarizes a forthcoming book that seeks to explain this evolving pattern of distortions to incentives conceptually and econometrically by making use of new political economy theory and a new globally comprehensive and consistent set of estimates of the changing extent of annual distortions over the past half-century. The distortion estimates involve more than 70 products that cover around 70 percent of the value of agricultural output in each of 75 countries that together account for over 90 percent of the global economy, and they expose the contribution of the various policy instruments (both farm and non-farm) to the net distortion to farmer incentives. Such a widespread coverage of countries, products, years and policy instruments has allowed this collection of studies to test a wide range of hypotheses suggested by the new political economy literature, including the importance of institutions. As a set it sheds much new light on the underlying forces that have affected incentives facing farmers in the course of national and global economic and political development, and hence on how those distortions might change in the future â or be changed by concerted actions to offset political pressures from traditionally powerful vested interests. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural price and trade policies, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, F59, H20, N50, O13, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50306&r=agr |
| By: | Rozelle, Scott; Swinnen, Johan |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the political and institutional factors which are behind the dramatic changes in distortions to agricultural incentives in the transition countries in East Asia (China and Vietnam), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, etc), the rest of the former Soviet Union, and in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper explains why these changes have occurred and why there are large differences among transition countries in the extent and the nature of the remaining distortions. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural distortions, transition economies, China, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, N50, O13, O21, P22, P26, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50298&r=agr |
| By: | Attanasio, Orazio; Battistin, Erich; Mesnard, Alice |
| Abstract: | We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. After controlling for the endogeneity of total expenditure and for the (unobserved) variability of prices across villages, the best fit is provided by a log-linear specification. Our estimates imply that an increase in total expenditure by 10% would lead to a decrease of 1% in the share of food. However, quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of the programme on total and food consumption show that the share of food increases, suggesting that the programme has more complex impacts on expenditure patterns than those induced by higher household income and expenditure. |
| Keywords: | demand patterns; evaluation of welfare programmes; food Engel curves |
| JEL: | C52 D12 I38 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7326&r=agr |
| By: | Cadot, Olivier; Olarreaga, Marcelo; Tschopp, Jeanne |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to evaluate the extend to which trade agreements affect agricultural trade policy volatility. Using a new panel database compiled as part of the World Bank's Agricultural Distortions research project, we estimate the effect of regionalism (proxied in various ways) on the volatility of price distortions measured by the absolute value of their first differences, averaged, for each country and year, over all agricultural goods. Using an instrumental-variable approach to correct for the endogeneity of regional trade agreements, (RTAs), we find that participation in RTAs has a significantly negative effect on agricultural trade-policy volatility. We find that the WTO's agricultural agreement also contributed to reducing agricultural trade-policy volatility, in spite of the weak disciplines involved, but the effect is only weakly identified. Our results are robust to a variety of robustness checks and hold, in particular, for the Latin American sub-sample. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural protection, volatility, credibility, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, F10, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50303&r=agr |
| By: | Sharma, Abhijit; Bailey, Alastair; Fraser, Iain |
| Abstract: | This paper examines technology adoption and integrated pest management strategies employed by UK farmers, using both parametric and nonparametric methods. We employ a unique survey data set collected from UK cereal farmers to assess the determinants of technology adoption in relation to pest management. Our preferred model specification is nonparametric which makes use of the recently developed methods of Li and Racine (2007) and Racine and Li (2004). These methods allow us to combine categorical and continuous data and thereby avoid sample splitting and resulting efficiency losses. Our analysis reveals that total area farmed is positively related to the number of technologies adopted, whereas age is negatively related. We also find evidence of significant statistical differences for number of adoptions by region across the UK. |
| Keywords: | technology; adoption; cereal farming; UK; nonparametric |
| JEL: | Q16 O14 |
| Date: | 2009–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15805&r=agr |
| By: | Gawande, Kishore; Hoekman, Bernard |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically explores the political-economic determinants of why governments choose to tax or subsidize trade in agriculture. We use a new data set on nominal rates of assistance (NRA) across a number of commodities spanning the last five decades for 64 countries. NRAs measure the effect on domestic (relative to world) price of the quantitative and price-based instruments used to regulate agricultural markets. The data set admits consideration of both taxes and subsidies on exports and imports. We find that both economic and political variables play important roles in determining the within-variation in the NRA data. Based on our results we offer a number of data-driven exploratory hypotheses that can inform future theoretical and empirical research on why governments choose to tax or subsidize agricultural products â an important policy question that is also one of the least understood by scholars. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural price distortions, political economy of trade policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, D72, D78, F11, H23, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50300&r=agr |
| By: | Olper, Alessandro; Raimondi, Valentina |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the effect of constitutional rules on agricultural policy outcomes in a panel of observations for more than 70 developing and developed countries in the 1955-2005 period. Testable hypotheses are drawn from recent developments in the comparative politics literature that see political institutions as key elements in shaping public policies. Using differences-in-differences regressions we find a positive effect of a transition into democracy on agricultural protection. However, this average effect masks substantial heterogeneities across different forms of democracy. Indeed, what matters are transitions to proportional (as opposed to majoritarian) democracies, as well as to permanent (as opposed to temporary) democracies. Moreover, while we do not detect significant differences across alternative forms of government (presidential versus parliamentary systems), there is some evidence that the effect of proportional election is exacerbated under parliamentary regimes, and diminished under presidential ones. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Comparative Political Economics, Agricultural Distortions, Constitutional Rules, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, D72, H23, O13, P16, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50304&r=agr |
| By: | Jean Kennedy (University College Dublin); Liam Delaney (University College Dublin); Aileen McGloin (University College Dublin); Patrick G. Wall (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | In early December 2008, a global recall of Irish pork was initiated as a result of a subset of the national pork output being contaminated with dioxin. In this study, members of a panel from an internet-based longitudinal monitor of public opinion on food and health, was used to assess public perceptions about the dioxin incident in late December. A larger proportion of respondents reported that that there was a 'very high' health risk from pork (8.6 %) than any other food of animal origin. The risk posed to human health from dioxins was considered to be relatively high compared to a broad range of potential food and non-food risks. The majority of respondents (70.5 %) accepted that the way in which the authorities managed the crisis was 'adequate' or 'very efficient'. These findings should be considered in light of the following facts: the European Food Safety Authority and the Irish authorities announced that there was no risk to human health from the dioxins in pork, there was extensive media attention about the dioxin incident, and the Irish Government had to introduce a 200 million euro compensation package for the Irish pork industry which was funded by the Irish taxpayer. |
| Keywords: | food risk, dioxins, consumer risk perception |
| Date: | 2009–06–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:200919&r=agr |
| By: | Eberhardt, Markus; Teal, Francis |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate a `global' production function for agriculture, using FAO data for 128 countries from 1961-2002. Our review of the empirical literature in this field highlights that existing cross-country studies largely neglect variable time-series properties, parameter heterogeneity and the potential for heterogeneous Total Factor Productivity (TFP) processes across countries. We motivate the case for technology heterogeneity in agricultural production and present statistical tests indicating nonstationarity and cross-section dependence in the data. Our empirical approach deals with these difficulties by adopting the Pesaran (2006) Common Correlated Effects estimators, which we extend by using alternative weight-matrices to model the nature of the cross-section dependence. We furthermore investigate returns to scale of production and production dynamics. Our results support the specification of a common factor model in intercountry production analysis, highlight the rejection of constant returns to scale in pooled models as an artefact of empirical misspecication and suggest that agro-climatic environment, rather than neighbourhood or distance, drives similarity in TFP evolution across countries. The latter nding provides a possible explanation for the observed failure of technology transfer from advanced countries of the temperate `North' to arid and/or equatorial developing countries of the `South'. |
| Keywords: | agriculture; cross-country productivity analysis; nonstationary panel econometrics; factor models |
| JEL: | C23 O13 Q10 |
| Date: | 2009–05–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15810&r=agr |
| By: | Nye, John V.C. |
| Abstract: | Britain â contrary to received wisdom â was not a free trader for most of the 1800s and, despite repeal of the Corn Laws, continued to have higher tariffs than the French until the last quarter of the century War with Louis XIV from 1689 led to the end of all trade between Britain and France for a quarter of a century. The creation of powerful protected interests both at home and abroad (notably in the form of British merchants, and investors in Portuguese wine) led to the imposition of prohibitively high tariffs on French imports -- notably on wine and spirits -- when trade with France resumed in 1714. Protection of domestic interests from import competition allowed the state to raise domestic excises which provided increased government revenues despite almost no increases in the taxes on land and income in Britain. The state ensured compliance not simply through the threat of lower tariffs on foreign substitutes but also through the encouragement of a trend towards monopoly production in brewing and restricted retail sales of beer (which began around 1700 and continued throughout the eighteenth century). This history is analyzed in terms of its effects on British fiscal and commercial policy from the early 1700s to the end of the nineteenth century. The result is a fuller, albeit revisionist account of the rise of the modern state that calls into question a variety of theses in economics and political science that draw on the naive view of a liberal Britain unilaterally moving to free trade in the nineteenth century. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural trade policies and war, economic history of Europe, alcohol taxes, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, H20, N40, N43, N53, O13, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50295&r=agr |
| By: | Swinnen, Johan F.M. |
| Abstract: | The 1980s and first half of the 1990s were a very active period in the field of political economy of agricultural protection. While the past decade has witnessed a slowdown in this area, there have been very important developments on political economy in other parts of the economics profession. This paper reviews key new insights and developments in the general political economy literature and draws implications for the study of the political economy of distortions to agricultural incentives. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural distortions, high-income countries, developing countries, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, N50, O13, P16, P26, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50308&r=agr |
| By: | Eric Strobl (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X); Robert Strobl (Institut for Environment and Sustainability - European Commission) |
| Abstract: | We examine the distributional impact of major dams on cropland productivity in Africa. As our unit of analysis we use a scientifically based spatial breakdown of the continent that allows one to exactly define regions in terms of their upstream/downstream relationship at a highly disaggregated level. We then use satellite data to derive measures of cropland productivity within these areas. Our econometric analysis shows that while regions downstream benefit from large dams, cropland within the vicinity tends to suffer productivity losses during droughts. Overall our results suggest that because of rainfall shortages dams in Africa caused a net loss of 0.96 per cent in productivity over our sample period (1981-2000). However, further dam construction in appropriate areas could potentially lead to large increases in productivity even if rainfall is not plenty. |
| Keywords: | dams, agricultural productivity, Africa |
| Date: | 2009–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00392381_v1&r=agr |
| By: | Juan Carmona Pidal; Joan Roses R. |
| Abstract: | To what extent were land markets the cause of Spanish agrarian backwardness? This paper uses new provincial data on average real land prices, together with provincial level variation in land productivity, to analyse land markets efficiency. To address this unresolved issue, we test whether land markets were spatially integrated and whether their prices can be explained with the present value model. Our results suggest that land prices converged across provinces and that variations were driven by fundamentals. In consequence, we conclude that institutional failure in land markets was not the cause of the relatively poor productivity performance of Spanish agriculture |
| Keywords: | Land prices determinants, Price convergence, Panel unit-roots, Present value model |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp09-02&r=agr |
| By: | Rausser, Gordon C.; Roland, Gerard |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on recent theoretical developments in political economy and what role they might play in explaining and reforming individual country and global distortions in food and agricultural markets. Four groups of forces are isolated: political governance structures emphasizing the role of democratic mechanisms; the design of polycentric structures for assigned governmental authority for setting policy instruments; market structure and other socioeconomic characteristics; and the role of sector mobility and asset diversification. Each of these forces are distilled and data sources are reviewed that will allow econometric specifications that have both explanatory and policy reform implications. |
| Keywords: | Political economy, agricultural distortions, public interest, vested interests, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, H23, N50, Q18, O13, P16, P26, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50294&r=agr |
| By: | Kit Prins (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Sebastian Hetsch (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Franziska Hirsch (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Roman Michalak (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Ed Pepke (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Florian Steierer (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) |
| Abstract: | This essay explains the importance of the forests as a factor in addressing the challenges in mitigating climate change. The potential of using the forest sector more fully to capture and store carbon has been limited by the failure of current protocols and other climate change mechanisms to adequately account for the contribution of this sector. Thus, a better accounting, which will give the proper credit to the impacts that this sector is having, is viewed to be an important next step to increasing the resources that countries will devote to this factor in addressing climate change. The degree to which global warming is already affecting the forest is also discussed; increasingly mankind may be required to be more proactive in implementing “planned adaptation” activities such as increasing the diversification of forestry resources. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, global warming, forest, biofuels |
| JEL: | Q23 Q50 Q52 Q54 Q57 Q58 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ece:annrep:2009_4&r=agr |
| By: | Orden, David; Blandford, David; Josling, Timothy |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the political economy of U.S. farm policy since the Uruguay Round trade negotiations concluded in 1994 and established the WTO. The continued ability of the powerful farm lobby in the United States to elicit support in the political arena is evident from this analysis. Yet there have been some substantial changes in policy that have reduced their distortionary effects, as well as some setbacks to liberalizing reform. New Doha Round commitments could put further constraints on subsidies provided by some U.S. policy instruments. And despite the ability of the farm lobby to retain its support programs through 2012, there are several political uncertainties about the alignments that have allowed U.S. farm support to endure. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, United States farm policies, political economy of agricultural distortions, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, O13, P22, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50297&r=agr |
| By: | Dutt, Pushan; Mitra, Devashish |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the political economy drivers of the variation in agricultural protection, both across countries and within countries over time. The paper starts by listing the key insights provided by both the theoretical and empirical literature on the political economy of trade policy formulation. We then set out a basic framework that allows us to put forth various testable hypotheses on the variation and evolution of agricultural protection. We find that both the political ideology of the government and the degree of income inequality are important determinants of agricultural protection. Thus, both the political-support-function approach as well as the median-voter approach can be used in explaining the variation in agricultural protection across countries and within countries over time. The results are consistent with the predictions of a model that assumes that labor is specialized and sector-specific in nature. Some aspects of protection also seem to be consistent with predictions of a lobbying model in that agricultural protection is negatively related to agricultural employment and positively related to agricultural productivity. Public finance aspects of protection also seem to be empirically important. |
| Keywords: | Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural protection, political economy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, D72, D78, F11, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50299&r=agr |
| By: | Viet-Ngu Hoang; Mohammad Alauddin (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | Nutrients balance such as nitrogen and phosphorus balance are increasingly used as an indicator of the environmental performance of agricultural sector in international and global context. However there still is a lack of harmony in the use of methods for estimating the nutrients balance among countries. This is because of the disagreement regarding the accuracy and uncertainty of different accounting methods. The lack of harmony in the methods used in different countries further increases the uncertainty in the context of the international comparisons. This paper provides a new framework for nutrients balance calculation using the farm-gate accounting method. The calculation under this new framework takes advantage of availability of data from FAO and other reliable national and international sources. Due to this, the proposed framework is highly adaptable in many countries, making the global comparison feasible. The paper also proposes three criteria including adaptability, accuracy and interpretability to assess the appropriateness of nutrients accounting method. Based on these criteria, the paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the farm-gate and soil-surface methods in accounting country-level nutrients balance of agricultural production. The paper identifies some shortcomings of the soil-surface balance and shows that the farm-gate method has a greater potential of providing a more accurate and meaningful estimation of national nutrients balance. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:389&r=agr |
| By: | Eric Strobl (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X) |
| Abstract: | We empirically estimate the impact of hurricane strikes on local crop productivity in the Caribbean region. To this end we first identify local cropland at 1km2 geographical units via Global Land Cover data. We then employ a windfield model combined with a power dissipation equation on hurricane track data to arrive at a scientifically based index of potential local destruction along these 1km2 cropland grid cells for landfalling and passing hurricanes. Cropland productivity at the local level is approximated by annual net primary production values derived from satellite spectral reflectance data. This provides us with a panel of over 150,000 potentially affected cropland areas in the Caribbean over the period 2000-20006. Our econometric results indicate that cropland productivity is substantially reduced after a hurricane strike. |
| Date: | 2009–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00393883_v1&r=agr |
| By: | Pamela Kaval (University of Waikato); Richard Yao (University of Waikato); Frank Scrimgeour (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a national study examining the economic value of biodiversity in New Zealand. Three valuation techniques were used to collect information from respondents: the contingent valuation method, the well-being method and the choice modelling method. Results revealed that respondents were familiar with the native plants and animals in their areas and valued them highly, therefore having a strong value for native biodiversity. |
| Keywords: | native biodiversity; New Zealand; choice modelling; contingent valuation; well-being; community volunteers |
| JEL: | Q57 Q2 Q25 |
| Date: | 2009–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:09/05&r=agr |
| By: | Parthapratim Pal |
| Abstract: | The implementation experience of the Uruguay Round (UR) indicates that the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) was unable to curb the widespread use of domestic farm subsidies by developed countries.This paper analyses the provisions of Annex A of the July Framework and shows that, by itself, the July Package will not lead to any real decrease in the domestic levels of subsidies in developed countries. This paper points out that there are some waivers built into the Framework, which may allow developed countries to maintain and, in some cases, even to increase domestic farm support and still remain WTO-consistent. However, in most cases, the July Framework only provides broad guidelines and leaves the specific modalities of subsidy reduction to be decided through negotiations. It will be possible for negotiators to plug some of these loopholes if appropriate subsidy reduction formulae are used. This forms the crux of the current phase of negotiations on domestic subsidies. [CENTAD Hong Kong Series- 2] |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Negotiations, July Framework, WTO, India |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2076&r=agr |
| By: | Swinnen, Johan F.M. |
| Abstract: | Dramatic changes took place in agricultural policies in Europe in the 19th and 20th century. In the 1860s European nations agreed on a series of trade agreements which spread free trade across the continent. In the 1960s European nations concluded an international agreement which spread heavy government intervention and protection against imports across the continent. This paper offers hypotheses as to the causes of these dramatic changes in agricultural protection. |
| Keywords: | Political economy, agricultural distortions, high-income countries, economic development of Europe, F13, N53, O13, Q18, P16, |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:wbadwp:50296&r=agr |
| By: | C. Peter Timmer (Non-resident Fellow, Center for Global Development, Washington D.C., USA) |
| Abstract: | How much did speculation affect the formation of rice prices during the rapid escalation of prices in world markets late in 2007 and early in 2008, through what mechanisms, what will happen as these influences unwind, and how is the story for rice different from other commodities? To answer these questions, this paper addresses four separate topics, each linked to the others by basic mechanisms of price formation. Simple supply and demand models are a start. The difference between short run responses to prices changes, and those responses after full adaptation is possible in the long run, is crucial and the conceptual model highlights the importance of these differences for understanding current prices. History matters. But storage and price expectations also become important for storable commodities in the short run—the length of time the commodity can be stored—a year or so for rice. A model of the “supply of storage,” is used to understand the factors affecting price expectations, and price formation, in the short run. This model is very powerful in its ability to explain hoarding behavior and subsequent impact on prices. Next, an effort is made to understand empirically the impact of financial factors and actors on commodity price formation using very short run prices and Granger causality analysis, for a wide range of financial and commodity markets, including rice. Speculative money seems to surge in and out of commodity markets, strongly linking financial variables with commodity prices during some time periods. But these periods are often short and the relationships disappear entirely for long periods of time. The links between financial markets and commodity markets are not simple nor are they stable. Finally, the paper addresses the long-run relationship between prices of the three basic cereal staples, rice, wheat and corn (maize), since 1900. It is clear there has been a long-run decline in the prices of all three cereals. Despite this common pattern, however, and important cross-commodity linkages, price formation for rice has several unique dimensions that are also worthy of further study. |
| Keywords: | Commodity price formation, speculation, world rice market, world food crisis. |
| JEL: | C22 D4 D84 G13 L66 O13 Q11 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fao:wpaper:0907&r=agr |
| By: | Dana Goldman; Darius Lakdawalla; Yuhui Zheng |
| Abstract: | A popular policy option for addressing the growth in weight has has been the imposition of a “fat tax†on selected foods that are deemed to promote obesity. Understanding the public economics of “fat taxes†requires an understanding of how or even whether individuals respond to changes in food prices over the long-term. We study the short- and long-run body weight consequences of changing food prices, in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We found very modest short-term effects of price per calorie on body weight, and the magnitudes align with the previous literature. The long-term effect is much bigger, but it takes a long time for the effect to reach the full scale. Within 30 years, a 10% permanent reduction in price per calorie would lead to a BMI increase of 1.5 units (or 3.6%). The long term effect is an increase of 1.9 units of BMI (or 4.2%). From a policy perspective, these results suggest that policies raising the price of calories will have little effect on weight in the short term, but might curb the rate of weight growth and achieve weight reduction over a very long period of time. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15096&r=agr |
| By: | Akay, Alpaslan (IZA); Martinsson, Peter (University of Gothenburg); Medhin, Haileselassie (University of Gothenburg); Trautmann, Stefan T. (Tilburg University) |
| Abstract: | We looked at risk and ambiguity attitudes among Ethiopian peasants in one of the poorest regions of the world and compared their attitudes to a standard Western university student sample elicited by the same decision task. Strong risk aversion and ambiguity aversion were found with the Ethiopian peasants. Ambiguity aversion was similar for peasants and students, but peasants were more risk averse. Testing for the effect of socio-economic variables on uncertainty attitudes showed that poor health increased both risk and ambiguity aversion. |
| Keywords: | risk attitudes, ambiguity attitudes, poverty, cultural differences |
| JEL: | D81 C93 O12 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4225&r=agr |