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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2011‒01‒30
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | Linda Kleemann |
| Abstract: | As consumer demand for organic food grows, organic certification is increasingly promoted in many developing countries. Organic products earn a premium price on the market compared to conventional varieties. Hence, organic production is often seen as a valuable alternative for developing countries with many smallholders. Using value chain analysis for the case of the pineapple sector in Ghana and extensive data from the European market, this paper tries to shed light on the feasibility and profitability of organic small-scale production. Even though smallholders tend to have quality problems with their fruit and large farms benefit from economies of scale, production for the export market is a realistic option for both organic and conventional smallholders. The results indicate that organic production is more profitable for smallholders than conventional production and farmers collect a fair share of the price premium on the retail level. Even more, from a theoretical perspective, organic farmers should also be more likely to get into contractual relations with exporters. The results are set into perspective with relation to the debates on small versus large farms, environmental impact, and the selection effect of standards |
| Keywords: | private voluntary standards, organic agriculture, trade in organic products, GLOBALGAP, value chain analysis |
| JEL: | F14 L11 L15 O13 Q13 Q17 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1671&r=agr |
| By: | Rolf J. Langhammer |
| Abstract: | As consumer demand for organic food grows, organic certification is increasingly promoted in many developing countries. Organic products earn a premium price on the market compared to conventional varieties. Hence, organic production is often seen as a valuable alternative for developing countries with many smallholders. Using value chain analysis for the case of the pineapple sector in Ghana and extensive data from the European market, this paper tries to shed light on the feasibility and profitability of organic small-scale production. Even though smallholders tend to have quality problems with their fruit and large farms benefit from economies of scale, production for the export market is a realistic option for both organic and conventional smallholders. The results indicate that organic production is more profitable for smallholders than conventional production and farmers collect a fair share of the price premium on the retail level. Even more, from a theoretical perspective, organic farmers should also be more likely to get into contractual relations with exporters. The results are set into perspective with relation to the debates on small versus large farms, environmental impact, and the selection effect of standards |
| Keywords: | private voluntary standards, organic agriculture, trade in organic products, GLOBALGAP, value chain analysis |
| JEL: | F14 L11 L15 O13 Q13 Q17 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1672&r=agr |
| By: | Anonymous; Das, Prakash Kanti; Mallick, Amal Kumar; Dutta, Amitava; Goswami, Rupak; Ali, Md. Nasim |
| Abstract: | This document is a collection of 157 abstracts received during the National Seminar on "Integrated Rural Development and Management: Issues, Strategies and Policy Options" held at the IRDM Faculty Centre of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University during 17-18 December, 2010 |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Health, Rural Education, Women and Child Education, Human Resource Development, Rural Development Administration, Corporate Social Responsibility, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Public Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2010–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:rmvuns:98255&r=agr |
| By: | Samarasinghe, Oshadhi; Greenhalgh, Suzie |
| Abstract: | In an attempt to value soil natural capital, we use the inherent characteristics of soil and land valuation data to examine the relationship between soil characteristics and rural farmland values in the 6000ks2 Manawatu catchment in New Zealand. The study applies a hedonic pricing method to determine if the value of âcriticalâ inherent characteristics of soils are reflected in land values. We find empirical evidence that the examined characteristics of soil natural capital stock, e.g., particle size, drainage, potential rooting depth and profile available water, are in fact reflected in rural land values. |
| Keywords: | Natural capital, soil characteristics, value of soil, hedonic prices, rural land value, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:nzar09:97158&r=agr |
| By: | Singh, Vivek Kumar; Singh, RD |
| Abstract: | Agricultural development has been analysed by studying the cropping pattern and cropping diversification and crop specialization in any agro-ecosystem in regional and temporal framework. Tribal regions are experiencing agricultural intensification through diversification of cropping systems and crop specialization as a result of ecological economic changes as well as impact of public policy of technology transfer and resource use intensification. The market forces also are influencing the crop intensification as a result of exogenous market demand. In this paper, an attempt is made to analyze the pattern of cropping system in inter regional framework and identify how these patterns have changed over a period of time in Jhabua tribal district of Madhya Pradesh. Such an analysis will help in taking policy decisions for diversification and specialization of crop production in the changing cropping systems in regional framework with the objectives of achieving higher level of regional food production, maximisation of production and income to the farmers through promotion of cash crops etc. The analysis of the pattern diversity in regional framework would indicate to the eco-regional and exogenous impacts of market and public policies following the law of entropy. |
| Keywords: | Cropping pattern; diversification; tribal regions |
| JEL: | Q01 |
| Date: | 2011–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28156&r=agr |
| By: | Aravindakshan, Sreejith; Sherief, Aliyaru Kunju |
| Abstract: | Unscathed agrobiodiversity remaining in-situ today is found on the small-scale farms and homestead gardens of poorer and developing countries (Brookfield, 2001). The indigenous traditional farming of Muthuvan tribe as the case of Finger millet or Ragi (Eleusine coracana), a minor millet cultivated in the Western Ghats in Kerala in the Indian South is one such classic example for in-situ agrobiodiversity management, based on organic farming systems. On such fields, the use of labour intensive, traditional production techniques have persisted throughout the period of controlled state farming and the market based large-scale farming. The homestead gardens close to fringes of ‘South Western Ghats-the hotspot of biodiversity’ also play a crucial role in tribalistic context, by contributing to the rural livelihoods in time periods and locations when markets or state institutions do not. This paper attempts to analyse the opportunity costs of minor millet cultivation incurred by indigenous tribe in scheming compensations for biodiversity conservation. It further discusses possibilities to deliver a tangible and hopeful alternative towards sustainable livelihood in the backdrop of climate change. The methodology involves use of ‘Switching Regression model’ in the estimation and comprehension of opportunity costs, and further looks at its relevance in traditional farming of underutilised minor millets in the tribal homesteads and is equated in terms of indirect payment for biodiversity conservation. The analysis of results concludes the importance of creating incentives for the conservation of agrobiodiversity, especially the on-farm diversity of underutilised crops and supporting poverty alleviation, and preventing welfare losses among vulnerable communities. |
| Keywords: | agro-biodiversity; muthuvan; minor millets; opportunity cost; payment; organic agriculture; tribal homesteads; sustainable livelihoods; indigenous people; climate change |
| JEL: | Q56 Q0 O13 Q54 Q57 Q18 Q58 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28136&r=agr |
| By: | Martine Audibert (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Jean-François Brun (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Jacky Mathonnat (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); M.-C. Henry (CREC - CREC - CREC) |
| Abstract: | The sectors of coffee and cocoa represented in Côte d'Ivoire, before the political crisis, approximately 15% of the GDP and 40% of exports. The zones of production of these two cultures are in the forest area which is infected with malaria. The culture of these products is less constraining than that of the food crops such as rice or yam (one does not need to replant each year for example). However, the maintenance of the ground and of the trees and pest management contribute to obtain high yields. In addition, these products allow the producers to obtain monetary income. However, output is not the sole determinant of the level of income: precocity and speed of gathering, by permitting early sale, contribute to get higher income. In addition, food crops such as rice growing, are produced in the area. The objective of this paper is twofold, first, to evaluate the role of malaria on coffee and cocoa productions, second, to assess if the behaviour of rural households facing a liberalisation of the coffee and cocoa chains has an impact on their income. Three functions are thus estimated: production of coffee, production of cocoa and income. Data are taken from a survey carried out on 800 households (21 villages) in 1999 in the forest area of Danané. The main results are the absence of malaria impact on productions and the dominance of individual over collective sale strategies. |
| Keywords: | cocoa;coffee;lowland rice;malaria;sharecropping;Côte d'Ivoire |
| Date: | 2011–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00557214&r=agr |
| By: | Shijun Ding; Laura Meriluoto (University of Canterbury); W. Robert Reed (University of Canterbury); Dayun Tao; Haitao Wu |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the impact on income inequality of government efforts to increase agricultural incomes in rural China. It collects and analyzes survey data from 473 households in Yunnan, China in 2004. In particular, it investigates the effects of government efforts to promote improved upland rice technologies. Our analysis shows that farmers who adopted these technologies had incomes approximately 15 percent higher than non-adopters. Despite this relatively large increase, we estimate that the impact on income inequality was relatively slight. This is primarily due to the fact that lower-income farmers adopted the improved rice technology at rates that were roughly equivalent to those of higher-income farmers. |
| Keywords: | Rural economic development; Chinese economic development; upland rice; rural-urban income inequality; agricultural income policy |
| JEL: | O13 O18 O53 Q12 |
| Date: | 2011–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:11/04&r=agr |
| By: | Goswami, Rupak; Basu, Debabrata |
| Keywords: | technology transfer, agricultural information network, social network analysis, adoptiondecision, India, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:rmvuwp:97607&r=agr |
| By: | M. Bruna Zolin (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Bernadette Andreosso O’Callaghan (University of Limerick) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this article is to provide an analysis of the relationship existing between cereal prices and several variables such as population, income, exports, the exchange rate, and speculation, by using a linear regression analysis. Specific emphasis is placed on the speculative dimension. The methodology used helps us explore the forms of relationships between the different variables, and, more specifically, it gives an insight into the extent of speculation during the recent critical time period. Our results show that speculation (defined by the long position of traders) has played a crucial role during the period June 2001 – December 2009. According to our analysis, speculation it is the most relevant independent variable that affects cereal prices. Exports, in some ways connected to the former variable, occupy second place, in term of significance. However, their impact on cereal prices is less relevant than that of biofuel production. Population growth does not have impact in a positive way on cereal prices; it acts in the opposite direction due to the change in diets, implying that population increases would tend to affect primarily other agricultural markets. Excessive volatility in food prices, as that observed in the last years is a dramatic question. From a demand point of view, consumers in developing countries and vulnerable income groups in other countries (farmers) have to be protected. More than one policy on both international markets and domestic markets have to be introduced so as to lessen food/cereal lower price volatility. |
| Keywords: | cereal prices, future markets and speculation, renewable energy, agricultural demand and supply. |
| JEL: | Q11 Q18 Q17 O13 F43 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2010_23&r=agr |
| By: | Jeffrey LaFrance; Rulon Pope; Jesse Tack |
| Abstract: | Crop production is subject to supply shocks, and both expected and realized outputs as well as output prices are unknown when inputs are chosen. The process by which producers form expectations is difficult to model, especially when working with aggregate data. We present a necessary and sufficient condition on cost and technology to allow variable input demand equations to be specified as functions of input prices, quasi-fixed inputs, and total variable cost. These all are observable when inputs are committed to production, so that ex ante demands can be estimated with observable data. A flexible, exactly aggregable, and economically regular model of variable input demands is derived and applied to aggregate U.S. agricultural data for the period 1960-1999. We use the empirical results of this model to aid in the specification of a dynamic life-cycle model for agricultural producers facing output and output price risk, with investment in an off-farm, conditionally risk free asset, risky financial assets, savings, consumption, and agricultural production opportunities. This framework admits a coherent, structural, econometric model of input use, output production, savings, investment, and consumption for agricul-ture. We apply this model to U.S. data for the period 1960-1999. Ongoing work focuses on updating the data set to the 21st century and applying both components of the model at the state-level. |
| JEL: | C3 D2 D8 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16716&r=agr |
| By: | Juan Carmona; James Simpson |
| Abstract: | Recent literature on sharecropping has emphasized its importance in reducing problems associated with moral hazard in cultivation (Tuscany), or in providing an important ‘rung’ on the farm ladder (US South). Yet despite these and other important features, sharecropping is surprisingly absent in many, if not most other settings. Using case studies associated with French wine production, this paper argues that a number of factors have often been overlooked in the literature: 1) the need for landowners to be able to offer farms that were both sufficiently large to employ full time the sharecropper’s family, and allowed them to produce a variety of products to minimize risk; 2) measurement problems associated with the division of the harvest, especially when quality was an important factor in determining farm price; 3) and the nature of vertical co-operation and integration associated with the production and marketing arrangements of individual crops explains that landowners were not indifferent to receiving payment in cash or kind, and this affected contract choice. This paper incorporates these ideas to explain not just the presence and absence of sharecropping in different geographical localities, but also the wide variety of different forms of the contract that existed in Europe. |
| Keywords: | Sharecropping, French agriculture, Wine history |
| JEL: | D24 L61 N13 N14 N63 N64 O47 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp10-15&r=agr |
| By: | Claudio Araujo (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Catherine Araujo Bonjean (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Jean-Louis Combes (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Pascale Combes Motel (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Eustaquio J. Reis (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the impact of property rights insecurity on deforestation in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Deforestation is considered as a risk management strategy: property rights insecurity reduces the present value of forests and fosters forest conversion into agricultural and pasture lands. Moreover, deforestation is the consequence of strategic interactions between landowners and squatters. Landowners clear the forest preventively in order to assert the productive use of land and to reduce the expropriation risk. Squatters invade land plots, clear the forest and may afterwards gain official recognition with formal property titles. A particular attention is paid to the measure of land property rights insecurity in the Brazilian context. It is assumed that property rights insecurity has a multidimensional character taken into account by the number of homicides related to land conflicts and expropriation procedures. Principal component analysis allows synthesising such information. An econometric model of deforestation is estimated on a panel dataset on the 1988-2000 period and the nine states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The hypothesis that insecure land property rights contribute to higher rates of deforestation is not rejected when the simultaneity bias between insecure property rights and deforestation is addressed. This result questions the modality of the Brazilian land reform that considers forested areas as unproductive and thus open for expropriation procedures. |
| Keywords: | deforestation;insecure property rights;Brazilian Legal Amazon |
| Date: | 2011–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00556699&r=agr |
| By: | Anonymous; Baker, Derek; Fadiga, Mohamadou L. |
| Abstract: | The case studies and the synthesis papers were presented at a mini-symposium at the International Association of Agricultural Economists conference held in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, on 18â24 August 2009. |
| Keywords: | demand, livestock products, quality, safety, developing countries, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ilrirr:97973&r=agr |
| By: | Rachael E. Goodhue; Carlo Russo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines interactions between market power and agricultural policy in the U.S. wheat flour milling industry using a non-parametric approach. The analysis focuses on marketing loan and pre-1986 deficiency payment programs; farmers’ payments from these programs are dependent on whether or not the market price exceeds a “policy” price. It assesses if the payments trigger a change in the underlying economic behavior of the milling industry, and any resulting change in the flour-wheat price margin. The analysis compares the outcomes of using constrained and unconstrained sliced inverse regressions in order to identify the significant factors affecting millers' pricing behavior. In both cases, the link functions are then estimated using a non-parametric regression of prices on these factors. Constraining the factors in the sliced inverse regression in order to generate coefficients that are easily interpreted using economic theory does not affect the results. Based on the SIR factors, millers were able to extract an additional $0.24/cwt. of flour by increasing their marketing margins in years farmers received program payments. Based on the CIR factors, the increase in the marketing margin was $0.23/cwt. In both cases the increase was approximately 10 percent of the estimated marketing margin in years farmers received program payments. |
| JEL: | C14 Q18 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16706&r=agr |
| By: | Jean-Pierre Butault |
| Abstract: | This report proposes a methodology to express OECD indicators of support in real terms and establishes specific purchasing power parities for a broad range of commodities so as to compare developments in output volume and prices at an aggregate level. It analyses the evolution of prices, farm receipts and support to agricultural producers in real terms in OECD countries and a number of emerging economies. In the OECD area, support to producers decreased between 1986 and 2009, but two periods can be distinguished. Prior to 1999, the producer support estimate (PSE) in real terms decreased by 20%, but as a percentage of farm receipts (%PSE), the reduction was only 2 percentage points as farm receipts also decreased in a context of falling world prices. Between 1999 and 2009, in a context of rising world prices and farm receipts the decline in both the %PSE and the PSE in real terms was more marked, and the gap between domestic prices and border prices was significantly reduced. This analysis has also been applied to seven additional countries for the period 1995-2007, including two that have since become OECD members (Chile and Israël). Output growth was very strong in these countries with the exception of Russia and Ukraine, leading to higher farm receipts in terms of purchasing power. Support to producers declined in Israël, Chile and South Africa, and increased in other countries, albeit moderately. As a percentage of farm receipts, it remains well below the OECD average. |
| Keywords: | agricultural support, PSE, purchasing power parity, OECD support indicators, Single commodity transferts, GDP deflator |
| JEL: | Q10 Q18 |
| Date: | 2011–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:37-en&r=agr |
| By: | Mutuc, Maria; Hudson, Darren |
| Abstract: | Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, February 6-9, 2010 |
| Keywords: | Cotton, cotton gins, transitional probabilities, Markov, minimum efficient scale, Crop Production/Industries, Industrial Organization, |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ttudco:96676&r=agr |
| By: | Ethan Ligon |
| Abstract: | The federal government has developed a large number of programs to insure various “specialty crops” over the last two decades; a given program is peculiar to a particular county and crop. This development has been particularly notable in California, because of its size and the diversity of crops produced there. If the extension of federal crop insurance programs to cover fruit and vegetable production has affected either producer or consumer welfare, then we would expect to see this reflected in output and prices. Exploiting variation in the timing of program introduction in different locations for different crops to estimate the effect of crop insurance on the output and prices of the insured crops. We find that the supply of and demand for insurance for tree crops is much larger than for non-tree crops. Crop insurance has a small but significant negative effect on prices of insured crops. This last finding is consistent with the view that demand for such highly disaggregated commodities is likely to be highly elastic. A consequence is that crop insurance for these specialty crops has little benefit for consumers, even when it generates a large supply response. |
| JEL: | D2 Q12 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16709&r=agr |
| By: | Islam, S.M. Fakhrul; Jabbar, Mohammad A. |
| Abstract: | Demand for animal products has been increasing rapidly in Bangladesh due to urbanization and increases in per capita income. There are rudimentary indications that demand for improved food quality and safety has also been increasing and that consumers were willing to pay higher prices for such attributes of products. However, there is little empirical evidence on the criteria and indicators of quality and safety that consumers use in their buying decisions, or that suppliers use in differentiating products to promote sales, or the extent to which consumers are willing to pay for such attributes. This study is the first attempt to comprehensively characterize and quantify Bangladeshi urban demand for animal products with a focus on quality and safety. Based on a multi-stage sample survey of 900 households from Dhaka and Mymensingh cities, successive analyses present statements of preference based on ratings, identified quality criteria, stated sources of supply and recent purchasing behaviour both at home and away from home, and econometric analysis of relationships between price ratings and quality ratings across attributes, so as to generate willingness to pay for those attributes. The findings show that officially defined grades and quality standards of livestock products are either absent or poorly defined and enforced. On the other hand, producers and consumers in the market use specific attributes or criteria and indicators to differentiate quality and safety of livestock products and they also charge and pay different prices based on those attributes. Although targeted at urban populations, considerable variation between locations in terms of the product preferences and attributes used to differentiate quality was identified. Establishment of standards and grades will become necessary to meet consumer demand on the one hand and facilitate producers and market agents to respond to consumer demand on the other. Whether smallholders will have any comparative advantage in supplying an expanding market requiring more homogenous and better quality and safer products need to be studied regularly along with studies on consumer demand because of the dynamic nature of the emerging and evolving market, the industry and the sector. |
| Keywords: | demand, quality, safety, livestock products, Bangladesh, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ilrirr:97972&r=agr |
| By: | António Pinheiro (Universidade de Évora, Departamento de Economia); Nuno Ribeiro (Universidade de Évora, Departamento de Fitotecnia) |
| Abstract: | Fire is the biggest forest enemy in many countries, especially in those that have dry and hot climates. Fire destroys biomass and makes forest production a very risky business. Forest insurance could decrease fire risk and would contribute to make forest activities more profitable. Nowadays, in many countries, it is not easy to find companies that want to insure forests stands. The most important reasons to explain this fact are the followings. First, in many countries, forest insurance is not mandatory; so many farmers don?t make it. This increases the risk premium that insurance companies ask for those that were willing to make the insurance contract. Second, insurance companies need to have models based on desegregated and reliable data that allow them estimating the probability of fire occurrences. Finally, it is very difficult for insurer to estimate the real value of the stands (forests) because their values vary from species to species and for the same species with the age and market prices. So, it is difficult for insurer to practice fair and reasonable insurance premiums. The main objective of this paper is to present simple models that help to estimate ?fair? insurance risk premiums, contributing in this way to make forest business more appealing and sustainable. |
| Keywords: | forest fire, insurance, risk premium, forest property insurance. |
| JEL: | G22 Q23 Q54 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:evo:wpecon:1_2011&r=agr |
| By: | Jean-Louis Combes (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Samuel Guerineau (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Pascale Combes Motel (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This paper establishes a link between deforestation and credit cycles in Latin American countries. The latter exhibit rapid deforestation rates as well as macroeconomic instability that is often rooted in credit booms and crunches episodes: data available on the last years show a coincidence between higher macroeconomic instability and deforestation increases. This paper provides a theoretical explanation and econometric investigations of this phenomenon. A key ingredient of the model is the existence of two sectors: a modern agricultural sector and a subsistence one, which are hypothesised to catch the basic features of Latin American agricultural sectors. Agricultural production relies on three production factors: land, capital and labour. Agents clear forested areas in order to increase agricultural lands. Interest rates movements have an effect on agricultural decisions and thus on deforestation since they induce factor movements between the agricultural sectors. It is shown that deforestation occurs in response to interest rates increases or decreases primarily because of the irreversible character of forest conversion. Econometric tests are conducted on the 1948-2005 period on an exhaustive sample of Latin American countries. The database on deforestation is a compilation of FAO censuses and several measures of credit cycles are calculated as well. The main output of the paper is to evidence a link between credit cycles and deforestation. The results are robust to the introduction of usual control variables in deforestation equations. |
| Keywords: | Credit cycles;deforestation;Latin America |
| Date: | 2011–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00556809&r=agr |
| By: | Cyprien Awono (GREDI, Département d'économique, Faculte d'administration, Université de Sherbrooke); Catherine Laroche Dupraz (Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France); Dominique Vermersch (Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France) |
| Abstract: | Consumer concerns in food purchasing contain a number of attributes, including the nutritional and sanitary values, conditions of breeding and selling, and other social issues. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an analytical and an empirical approaches to estimating the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for chicken attributes in Cameroon using data from an investigation on the field. First we constructed a theoretical model of implicit price. Secondly, we assumed that WTP for chicken attributes can be derived from estimate hedonic function, there by expressing the prices consumers are willing to pay as function of implicit price of each chicken attributes. Two models are proposed and discussed. Our findings indicate that in spite of the possibility of bargaining the price of the local flesh chicken, consumer’s substituted it by imported frozen cut chicken which main attributes are low cost, sold in separated parts and available in all urban markets. |
| Keywords: | West Africa, attributes, poultry, marginal willingness to pay, implicit price |
| JEL: | C5 D12 Q18 |
| Date: | 2011–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:11-01&r=agr |
| By: | Hoel, Michael (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Jensen, Svenn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We use a two-period model to investigate intertemporal eects of cost reductions in climate change mitigation technologies for the power sector. With imperfect climate policies, cost reductions related to carbon capture and storage (CCS) may be more desirable than comparable cost reductions related to renewable energy. The nding rests on the incentives fossil resource owners face. With regulations of emissions only in the future, cheaper renewables speed up extraction (the `green paradox'), whereas CCS cost reductions make fossil resources more attractive for future use and lead to postponement of extraction. |
| Keywords: | climate change; exhaustible resources; carbon capture and storage; renewable energy; green paradox |
| JEL: | Q30 Q42 Q54 |
| Date: | 2010–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2010_019&r=agr |
| By: | Fischer, Carolyn (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the role of market power on the cost-effectiveness of policies to address fuel consumption. Market power gives manufacturers an incentive to under- (over-) provide fuel economy in classes whose consumers, on average, value it less (more) than in others. Adding a second market failure in consumer valuation of fuel economy, a policy trade-off emerges. Minimum standards can address distortions from price discrimination but, unlike average standards, do not provide broad-based incentives for improving fuel economy. Increasing fuel prices raises demand for fuel economy but exacerbates undervaluation and incentives for price discrimination. A combination policy may be preferred. For modelers of fuel economy policy, failure to capture consumer heterogeneity in preferences for fuel economy can lead to significant errors in predicting the distribution of effort in complying with regulation, as well as the calculation and distribution of the benefits. |
| Keywords: | fuel economy, regulation, imperfect competition, price discrimination |
| JEL: | D4 L62 Q5 |
| Date: | 2010–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-10-60&r=agr |
| By: | Jean-Louis Arcand (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Béatrice D'Hombres (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their characteristics, and households will take their production decisions as if they were profit-maximizing firms. This observation constitutes the basis for one of the most popular empirical tests for complete markets, commonly known as the “separation” hypothesis. In this article, we show that most existing tests for separation using panel data are potentially biased towards rejecting the null-hypothesis of complete markets, because of the failure to adequately control for unobservable household-specific effects. Since the variables on which the test for separation is based cannot be identifed in most panel datasets following the usual covariance transformations, and are likely to be correlated with the household-specific effect, neither the within nor the variance-components procedures are able to solve the problem. We show that the Hausman-Taylor 1981 estimator, in which the impact of covariates that are invariant along one dimension of a panel can be identifed through the use of covariance transformations of other included variables that are orthogonal to the household-specific effects as instruments, provides a simple solution. Our approach is applied to a rich Tunisian dataset in which separation –and thus the null of complete markets– is strongly rejected using the standard approach, but is not rejected once correlated unobservable household-specific effects are controlled for using the Hausman-Taylor instrument set. |
| Keywords: | panel data;household-specific effects;Household models;testingfor incomplete markets;development microeconomics;Tunisia |
| Date: | 2011–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00557188&r=agr |
| By: | Mutuc, Maria; Pan, Suwen; Hudson, Darren |
| Abstract: | Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, February 6-9, 2010 |
| Keywords: | Cotton, oil price, demand shocks, supply shocks, structural vector autoregression, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ttudco:96675&r=agr |
| By: | Aronsson, Thomas (...); Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the standard welfare economics assumption of anthropocentric welfarism, i.e., that only human well-being counts intrinsically. Alternatives where animal welfare matters intrinsically are explored theoretically, based on moral philosophical literature, and empirically where the general public‘s ethical preferences are measured through a survey with a representative sample in Sweden. It is concluded that welfare economics should be generalized in order to encompass the idea that animal welfare should sometimes matter intrinsically.<p> |
| Keywords: | animal welfare; anthropocentrism; welfarism; ethics; ethical preferences; cost-benefit analysis |
| JEL: | D60 D70 Q50 |
| Date: | 2011–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0485&r=agr |