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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒10‒25
twenty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Couvet, Denis (UMR CESCO MNHN-CNRS-UPMC); Desquilbet, Marion (TSE (INRA,GREMAQ)); Dorin, Bruno (CIRAD, UMR CIRED) |
| Abstract: | We show that between intensive and extensive farming, the production method most beneficial to biodiversity depends on the equilibrium of agricultural markets. All other things equal, as long as demand reacts to prices and extensive farming has higher production costs, extensive farming tends to be more beneficial to biodiversity than intensive farming, except when there is a very high degree of convexity between biodiversity and yield. Extensive farming is detrimental to consumers when their surplus is evaluated restrictively, as increasing in quantities consumed, while its effect on agricultural producers is indeterminate. Extensive farming has no straightforward effect on food security, but could decrease the pressure on protected areas. Any increase in demand, notably for animal feed or biofuels, decreases biodiversity, regardless of the production method employed. However, additional demand reinforces the preference for extensive farming, especially in the case of animal feed, for which price elasticity is higher. |
| Keywords: | conservation, farming, biodiversity, land use, markets, welfare |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:27647&r=agr |
| By: | Peter Warr; Arief Anshory Yusuf |
| Abstract: | Spikes in international food prices in 2007-2008 worsened poverty incidence in Indonesia, both rural and urban, but only by small amounts. The paper reaches this conclusion using a multi-sectoral and multi-household general equilibrium model of the Indonesian economy. The negative effect on poor consumers, operating through their living costs, outweighed the positive effect on poor farmers, operating through their incomes. Indonesia’s post-2004 rice import restrictions shielded its internal rice market from the temporary world price increases, muting the increase in poverty. But it did this only by imposing large and permanent increases in both domestic rice prices and poverty incidence. Poverty incidence increased more among rural than urban people, even though higher agricultural prices mean higher incomes for many of the rural poor. Gains to poor farmers were outweighed by the losses incurred by the large number of rural poor who are net buyers of food and the fact that food represents a large share of their total budgets, even larger on average than for the urban poor. The main beneficiaries of higher food prices are not the rural poor, but the owners of agricultural land and capital, many of whom are urban based. |
| Keywords: | Indonesia; food prices; poverty incidence; general equilibrium modeling. |
| JEL: | D58 I32 F14 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2013-07&r=agr |
| By: | Szvetlana Acs; Oleksandra Borodina; Sergio Gomez y Paloma (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Andriy Kharchenko (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | Ukraine is one of the few countries in the world that is in a position to significantly increase grain net exports, due to its strategic location and agro-ecological potential of its soils. The grain production potential of Ukraine depends on the two main factors: land area cultivated and yield. This report analyses possibility of increasing both of these factors, highlighting the unstable character of land area under grain and defining the causes of such fluctuations including extreme weather conditions, absence of crop insurance system, lack of environmental measures and unsustainable mid- and long-term state policy in grain production and trade. The rapid emergency of large intensive agricultural enterprises and agro-holdings in the last decade is widely promoted by policy makers due to their effectiveness; however in terms of operational efficiency, environmental footprint and monetary productivity, peasant farms often have better results, as we have shown in this report. In terms of economic and institutional challenges, we have analysed issues with logistics and trade infrastructure, rule of law, transparency of grain markets and financial support to the farmers. As a result of the analysis, we can conclude that by liberalizing its markets, improving the rule of law and providing more state support for sustainable agricultural practices and infrastructure development, Ukraine shall be able to increase its grain production and exports, attract more investment into the sector and improve producer profitability. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable agriculture, Ukraine, food security, grain supply, rural development, European Development Cooperation. |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc84652&r=agr |
| By: | Kaditi, Eleni |
| Abstract: | The labour force engaged in the agricultural sector is declining over time, and one can observe the reallocation of labour from family members to hired workers. Using farm-level data, this paper analyses the on-farm labour structure in Greece and assesses the factors driving its evolution over the period 1990-2008. The impact of agricultural policies and farm characteristics is examined in a dynamic panel analysis. Family and hired labour are found to be substitutes rather than complements, while agricultural support measures appear to negatively affect demand for both family and hired labour. Decoupled payments and subsidies on crops are found to have a significant impact on both sources of labour, as well as subsidies for rural development that do not favour on-farm labour use. The paper also finds that structural labour adjustments are the result of farm characteristics, such as farm size and location. The results are robust to various estimation techniques and specifications. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:177&r=agr |
| By: | Falkowski, Jan; Jakubowski, Maciej; Strawinski, Pawel |
| Abstract: | In order to stabilise and improve their income situation, rural households are strongly encouraged to diversify their activities both within and outside the agricultural sector. Often, however, this advice is only moderately pursued. This paper addresses issues of rural household income diversification in the case of Poland. It investigates returns from rural household income strategies using propensity score matching methods and extensive datasets spanning 1998-2008. Results suggest that returns from combining farm and off-farm activities were lower than returns from concentrating on farming or on self-employment outside agriculture. This differential is stable over time although returns from diversification have relatively improved after Poland’s accession to the EU. This is also visible in the fact that since 2006 returns from combining farm and off-farm activities have evened with returns from relying solely on hired off-farm labour, thus smoothing the difference observed before the accession. Further, over the analysed period, households pursuing the diversification strategy performed better than those relying solely on unearned income. Finally, in general, the income in households combining farm and off-farm activities was higher than in those combining two off-farm income sources. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:178&r=agr |
| By: | Huanxiu Guo; S�bastien MARCHAND |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to test the effect of smallholder farmers' participatory social learning on their gain of performance in a village of southwest China. By exploring a panel structure survey data collected in the village, we identify the social learning effect using a Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) model. Particularly, we calculate the technical efficiency and environmental efficiency from a SFA model and use them as dependent variables of the model. Moreover, we investigate the social learning of different technologies, i.e., conventional and organic farming, by separating the estimations. Our identification results suggest that the effect of social learning is weak due to the technological heterogeneity in the general case, whilst it is significantly positive for organized organic farming. However, it appears that farmers learn to improve their economic performance (i.e., maximize yield) rather than environmental performance (i.e., minimize environmentally detrimental input). These results reveal a critical limitation of social learning, and demand more environmental orientation in the agricultural extension service, which is expected to guide smallholder farmers and foster their environmental performance for sustainable agricultural development. |
| Keywords: | Smallholder farming, Social learning, Organic farming, Technical efficiency, Environmental efficiency, China. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1461&r=agr |
| By: | Mohajan, Haradhan |
| Abstract: | Zambia is a landlocked country located in southern central Africa and it is one of the poorest countries in the world and is considered a least developed country. Malnutrition is a chronic and difficult problem in this country. Agriculture is the main occupation and maize is the staple food. About 90% farmers of the country are smallholders, dependent on rain fed agriculture. After independence it was rich in food and could export maize but since 2002 it has to import maize every year. Literacy rate is low and women are less literate than men. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are fatal diseases in Zambia and mortality rates are among the highest in the world. The rural transportation network is largely undeveloped and communication costs are very high; foreign direct investment is also very low. The main export of the country is copper. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 49% of the Zambian population is undernourished and unable to access minimum energy requirement. |
| Keywords: | Copper, economy, food aid, food security, poverty, Zambia. |
| JEL: | Q18 |
| Date: | 2013–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50683&r=agr |
| By: | Vranken, Liesbet; Van Herck, Kristine |
| Abstract: | This Factor Markets Working Paper analyses the impact of increasing direct payments on land rents in six new EU member states in which agricultural subsidies largely increased as a result of their EU accession. The authors find that up to 25 eurocents per additional euro of direct payments is capitalised in land rents. In addition, the results show that capitalisation of direct payments is higher in more credit constrained markets, while capitalisation of direct payments is lower in countries where more land is used by corporate farms. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:175&r=agr |
| By: | Simon Anastasiadis (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Suzi Kerr (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | Pastoral farming can result in adverse environmental effects such as nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the cost of mitigation and hence the socially appropriate level of tolerance for environmental effects is still unclear. Research to date within New Zealand has either estimated the costs of specific mitigation technologies or used simulation modelling at a farm scale. This is limited for two key reasons: neither approach uses data from actual implementation of technologies and practices on real farms and hence costs are speculative; and both largely treat farms as homogenous when in reality they vary greatly. We use data on 264 farms to estimate a distribution of “farm management” residuals in how efficiently nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas are used to generate production. We interpret this distribution as a measure of the potential for feasible, relatively low-cost mitigation to take place as less efficient farmers move toward existing best practice. We can explain only 48% percent of the OVERSEER-modelled variation in New Zealand dairy farms’ nitrogen use efficiency based on geophysical factors, specific mitigation technologies and practices that move emissions across farms such as wintering off animals. This suggests a potentially large role for management factors and farmer skill. In contrast, OVERSEER-modelled variation in greenhouse gas use efficiency is more easily explained by the observable factors (73%) but the potential for mitigation through management changes is still not insignificant. Using management practices that are already in commercial use, this first study using this approach suggests that improvements in nitrogen use efficiency may be able to reduce leaching by more than 30 percent, while improvements in greenhouse gas use efficiency may be able to reduce emissions by more than 15 percent; the potential varies considerably across farms. |
| Keywords: | Marginal abatement cost curves, climate change, agriculture, greenhouse gas, heterogeneity, leaching, mitigation, nitrogen, use efficiency |
| JEL: | Q53 Q57 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:13_11&r=agr |
| By: | Kym Anderson; Maros Ivanic; Will Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper first considers the impact on world food prices of the changes in restrictions on trade in staple foods during the 2008 world food price crisis. Those changes—reductions in import protection or increases in export restraints—were meant to partially insulate domestic markets from the spike in international prices. The authors find that this insulation added substantially to the spike in international prices for rice, wheat, maize, and oilseeds. As a result, although domestic prices rose less than they would have without insulation in some developing countries, in many other countries they rose more than they would have in the absence of such insulation. The paper’s second purpose it to estimate the combined impact of such insulating behavior on poverty in various developing countries and globally. The analysis finds that the actual poverty-reducing impact of insulation is much less than its apparent impact, and that its net effect was to increase global poverty in 2008 by 8 million people, although this increase was not significantly different from zero. The paper examines the relative efficiency and equity of trade restrictions and domestic policies, such as conditional cash transfers, than are designed to provide social protection for the poor when international food prices spike. It also examines the potential consequences of multilateral agreements to limit changes in restrictions on trade during such times. |
| JEL: | F13 Q02 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19530&r=agr |
| By: | Fenske, James; Kala, Namrata |
| Abstract: | African societies exported more slaves in colder years. Lower temperatures reduced mortality and raised agricultural yields, lowering slave supply costs. Our results help explain African participation in the slave trade, which predicts adverse outcomes today. We use an annual panel of African temperatures and port-level slave exports to show that exports declined when local temperatures were warmer than normal. This result is strongest where African ecosystems are least resilient to climate change. Cold weather shocks at the peak of the slave trade predict lower economic activity today. We support our interpretation using the histories of Whydah, Benguela, and Mozambique. |
| Keywords: | Africa, climate change, slave trade, temperature |
| JEL: | N57 O10 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50816&r=agr |
| By: | Antoine Leblois (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech, Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X); Philippe Quirion (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech); Benjamin Sultan (LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques - Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] - INSU - CNRS : UMR7159 - Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) - Paris VI - Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN)) |
| Abstract: | In the Sudano-sahelian zone, which includes Northern Cameroon, the inter-annual variability of the rainy season is high and irrigation is scarce. As a conse- quence, bad rainy seasons have a detrimental impact on crop yield. In this paper, we assess the risk mitigation capacity of weather index-based insurance for cotton farmers. We compare the ability of various indices, mainly based on daily rainfall, to increase the expected utility of a representative risk-averse farmer. We first give a tractable definition of basis risk and use it to show that weather index-based insurance is associated with a large basis risk. It has thus limited potential for income smoothing, whatever the index or the utility function. Second, in accordance with the existing agronomical literature we find that the length of the cotton growing cycle, in days, is the best performing index considered. Third, we show that using observed cotton sowing dates to define the length of the grow- ing cycle significantly decreases the basis risk, compared to using simulated sowing dates. Finally we found that the gain of the weather-index based insurance is lower than that of hedging against cotton price fluctuations which is provided by the national cotton company. This casts doubts on the strategy of international institutions, which support weather-index insurances in cash crop sectors while pushing to liberalisation without recommending any price stabilization schemes. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, weather, index-based insurance. |
| Date: | 2013–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-00796528&r=agr |
| By: | Bruno Dorin (CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD], CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech); Jean-Charles Hourcade (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech); Michel Benoit-Cattin (CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD]) |
| Abstract: | This paper questions the Lewis Path perspective of a "world without agriculture" which underpins the "structural transformation" paradigm of "modern growth." It shows that the Lewis Path is only one of four potential structural paths, and that half of the world's population is spiralling into a "Lewis Trap" with more farmers and an increasing income gap between them and other workers. After showing how land constraints and the productivity dynamics outside agriculture might prevent this population from switching to a Lewis Path, it delineates the condition of an alternative path that would not transfer the disparity problem to cities. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture; Productivity; Development; Structural transformation; Poverty; Agro-Ecology |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-00866413&r=agr |
| By: | May, Peter H.; Soares-Filho, Britaldo Silveira; Strand, Jon |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the current state of knowledge concerning the value of the Amazon rainforest, including a survey of work to date to quantify changes in economic values when the rainforest cover changes. The focus is on local and regional impacts of forest loss or protection, including both gross values of forest protection and opportunity costs of converting the forest to other uses including agriculture. Important gross value items surveyed are timber and non-timber product extraction from a sustainably maintained rainforest; local values of eco-tourism; biological resources including bio-prospecting; a range of hydrological impacts including watershed protection, hydropower production, and changes in rainfall patterns; and impacts of forest fires and their control. Mapping such values in geographical space is of high value for implementing efficient and effective (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation ) programs for protecting the remaining forest. The current data basis for such mapping is found to be quite weak and in need of improvement for all value elements. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies,Wildlife Resources,Climate Change and Environment,Forestry |
| Date: | 2013–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6668&r=agr |
| By: | Petrick, Martin |
| Abstract: | This article evaluates the recent evolution of farm structure in Kazakhstan's grain region against the reform objectives of the 1990s and the family farm theory that underpinned the latter. In the study region, super-large agroholdings, large-scale enterprises and smaller individual farms emerged side-by-side and now compete for resources in a homogenous production environment. Drawing on two survey rounds of farm-level data, we find that the agroholdings display the highest factor productivity and are the most competitive on land and labour markets among all farms. However, we also find constant technical returns to scale across farm types and a layer of smaller family farms that is highly competitive on land markets. It is thus too early to conclude that large corporate farms are economically superior to individual (family) farms. But the present analysis clearly calls into question that family farms are a per-se desirable or even the only viable way of organising agricultural production. A revision of the received family farm theory may thus be due. -- Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Entwicklung der Betriebsstrukturen in Kasachstans Getreideregion im Lichte der Reformziele der 1990er Jahre und der Theorie des landwirtschaftlichen Familienbetriebs, die diese Ziele untermauerte. In dieser Region entstanden riesige Agroholdings, landwirtschaftliche Großbetriebe und bäuerliche Einzelwirtschaften nebeneinander. In einer homogenen Produktionsumgebung stehen sie nun im Wettbewerb um Produktionsfaktoren. Basierend auf zwei Befragungsrunden ergeben unsere Analysen, dass unter allen Betriebsformen die Agroholdings die höchste Faktorproduktivität und die größte Wettbewerbsfähigkeit auf Boden- und Arbeitsmärkten aufweisen. Allerdings belegen die Untersuchungen auch konstante Skalenerträge und die Existenz einer Gruppe kleinerer Einzelbetriebe, die ebenfalls eine hohe Zahlungsbereitschaft für Boden haben. Es erscheint daher verfrüht zu schlussfolgern, dass die juristischen Personen den Einzelbetrieben wirtschaftlich überlegen sind. Jedoch stellt die vorliegende Analyse die Sichtweise in Frage, der zufolge Familienbetriebe eine an sich wünschenswerte oder sogar die einzig lebensfähige Form der Betriebsorganisation in der Landwirtschaft seien. Eine Überprüfung der Theorie des landwirtschaftlichen Familienbetriebs scheint daher angebracht. |
| Keywords: | family farms,agroholdings,land market,labour market,Kazakhstan |
| JEL: | O13 P32 Q12 Q15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamodp:141&r=agr |
| By: | Wolz, Axel |
| Abstract: | Up to the end of World War II, the political-economic framework had been relatively similar all over Germany. However, the farm structure was different. While in both parts, the West and the East, about 90 per cent of all farms cultivated less than 20 ha and about one per cent more than 100 ha, the large fams cultivated about 7 per cent of the agricultural area in the West, but about 30 per cent in the East. Following the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945 and its division by the four Allies, the differences in the organisation of agricultural production between East and West became more pronounced. In the Soviet Occupation Zone and then with the creation of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949, the socialist model of agricultural production was introduced in three phases: (1) an enforced land reform between 1945-49; (2) the repression of farmers cultivating more than 20 ha, starting in 1949, and finally (3) the collectivization of agricultural production starting in 1952 and finalised in the Socialist Spring in April 1960. While socialist agriculture had been built up on blood and tears, it came to be fully accepted by the East German population over time and heavily defended also by those political forces which pushed for a regime change in 1989. With the collapse of the socialist regime in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, socialist agriculture had to be transformed into a system compatible with pluralistic democracy and market economy. Similarly, those whose assets had been confiscated were supposed to be restituted. However, the legal system at reunification differentiated between those who were expropriated either before 1945 or after 1949 and those between 1945 and 1949 under Soviet occupation. While the first group was entitled to restitution, the latter group received little compensation. At the time of transition, most politicians and agricultural economists assumed that family farming would re-emerge in the East and the modes of agricultural production would adjust between the two parts. However, even more than two decades after reunification, German agriculture is characterized by two distinguished different agricultural production systems. While West German agriculture continued the tradition of small-scale family farms relying on family labour, East German agriculture is characterised by large-scale corporate farms relying on permanently employed labour. In this way, German agriculture can be characterised as One country - Two systems. -- Bis zum Ende des 2. Weltkriegs waren die politischen Rahmen in ganz Deutschland einheitlich. Allerdings gab es Unterschiede in der Organisation der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion zwischen dem westlichen und östlichen Teil. Zwar umfassten in beiden Teilen ca. 90 Prozent der Betriebe weniger als 20 ha und ca. ein Prozent mehr als 100 ha, doch bewirtschafteten die größten Betriebe im Westen ca. sieben Prozent der landwirtschaftlichen Nutzfläche, im Osten jedoch ca. 30 Prozent. In Folge der bedingungslosen Kapitulation Deutschlands sowie der Aufteilung in vier Besatzungszonen wurden diese Unterschiede in den folgenden Jahrzehnten weiter verstärkt. In der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone und später der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik wurde in drei Phasen ein sozialistisches Modell der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion geschaffen: (1) entschädigungslose Enteignung von Gutsbesitzern und Nazi-Kollaborateuren im Zuge der Bodenreform von 1945 bis 1949; (2) Beseitigung des Groß- und Mittelbauerntums ab 1949; sowie (3) Kollektivierung durch Bildung von Landwirtschaftlichen Produktionsgenossenschaften ab 1952, die mit dem Sozialistischen Frühling im April 1960 abgeschlossen war. Die sozialistische Landwirtschaft wurde mit Blut und Tränen aufgebaut. Im Laufe der Jahre wurde sie jedoch von der Bevölkerung völlig akzeptiert. So wurde sie nach 1989 auch von jenen politischen Gruppen verteidigt, die auf einen Sturz des Regimes hingearbeitet hatten. Nach dem Zusammenbruch des sozialistischen Regimes musste auch die Landwirtschaft nach marktwirtschaftlich konformen Prinzipien organisiert werden. Die zwangsenteigneten Betriebsmittel und Vermögen mussten an ihre ursprünglichen Besitzer zurückgegeben bzw. privatisiert werden. Allerdings wurde juristisch zwei Gruppen unterschieden: (1) diejenigen, die entweder vor 1945 sowie nach 1949 enteignet wurden und (2) diejenigen, die zwischen 1945 und 1949 während der sowjetischen Besatzung enteignet wurden. Während die erste Gruppe einen Rechtsanspruch auf Rückgabe des Vermögens hatte, gab es für die zweite nur einen auf eine relativ geringe Entschädigung. Die meisten Politiker und Agrarökonomen gingen in der Anfangsphase der Transformation davon aus, dass sich in Ostdeutschland schnell Familienbetriebe entwickeln und somit die Organisation der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion in beiden Teilen Deutschlands angleichen würde. Mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte nach der Wiedervereinigung ist die Landwirtschaft jedoch in zwei unterschiedlichen Systemen organisiert. In Westdeutschland dominieren weiterhin kleinstrukturierte Familienbetriebe. In Ostdeutschland herrschen großstrukturierte Betriebe vor, die als juristische Personen registriert sind und primär festangestellte Arbeitskräfte beschäftigen. In diesem Sinne kann man die Landwirtschaft in Deutschland als Ein Land - Zwei Systeme beschreiben. |
| Keywords: | organisation of agricultural production,Soviet Occupation Zone,German Democratic Republic,reunification,Germany |
| JEL: | N54 P32 Q1 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamodp:139&r=agr |
| By: | Lucie Schmidt; Lara Shore-Sheppard; Tara Watson |
| Abstract: | Does the safety net reduce food insecurity in families? In this paper we investigate how the structure of benefits for five major safety net programs – TANF, SSI, EITC, food assistance, and Medicaid – affects low food security in families. We build a calculator for the years 2001-2009 to impute eligibility and benefits for these programs in each state, taking into account cross-program eligibility rules. To identify a causal effect of the safety net, we use simulated eligibility and benefits for a nationally representative sample as instruments for imputed eligibility and potential benefits. We also perform a two-sample instrumental variables estimation in which we use simulated benefits as instruments for actual reported benefits. Focusing on non-immigrant, single-parent families with incomes below 300 percent of the poverty line, the results suggest that each $1000 in cash or food benefits actually received reduces the incidence of low food security by 4 percentage points. These estimates imply that moving from the policies of the 10th percentile state of Kentucky to the 90th percentile state of Vermont would reduce low food security by 1.7 percentage points on a base incidence of 33 percent. We are unable to reject equivalent impacts of cash and food assistance. The results also highlight the importance of jointly considering a full range of safety net programs. |
| JEL: | H31 I38 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19558&r=agr |
| By: | Andrew Leicester |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the potential role of in-home scanners as a method of data collection for national budget surveys such as the Consumer Expenditure Survey. A detailed comparison is made between scanner data and diary-based budget survey data for food at home in the UK. Levels of recorded spending are lower in scanner data for all commodities, but patterns of spending are similar. A large part of the difference is explained by households in the scanner survey failing to record any food spending in a given week. The gaps are widened once demographic differences between the surveys are controlled for. There is clear evidence that short-term diaries do not accurately capture household food spending patterns given infrequency of purchase for some commodity groups. Conditional on store choice, demographics play little role in explaining food spending patterns in scanner data. This suggests that attempts to impute detailed spending patterns from aggregate store-level spending would be difficult. |
| JEL: | C42 C81 C83 D12 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19536&r=agr |
| By: | Junko Sagara; Keiko Saito |
| Keywords: | Urban Development - Hazard Risk Management Food and Beverage Industry Environment - Natural Disasters International Terrorism and Counterterrorism Conflict and Development - Disaster Management Industry |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16146&r=agr |
| By: | Syed Abul Hasan |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the eect of a sharp rice price increase on welfare and poverty in Bangladesh. We employ household expenditure information to estimate the welfare loss in- duced by the price increase. Our ndings suggest that we underestimate the proportionate welfare loss for the rice producing households and overestimate that of the households who do not produce rice, if we ignore indirect eects arising from a change in household consump- tion and production behaviour. Our estimates further support the hypothesis of a quadratic relationship between welfare loss and permanent household income. We also demonstrate that higher rice prices either increase or decrease the poverty head-count ratio, depending on the choice of the poverty line. However, if we consider the per capita income gap as a measure of poverty, we always observe that higher rice prices unambiguously increase poverty. |
| Keywords: | Welfare; Poverty; Rice Price Increase; Semiparametric Regression; Bangladesh |
| JEL: | O13 O53 Q12 D12 I32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2013-11&r=agr |
| By: | Matthew Collin |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and the demand for formal land tenure in urban Tanzania. Using a unique census of two highly-fractionalized unplanned settlements in Dar es Salaam, I show that households located near coethnics are significantly less likely to purchase a limited form of land tenure recently offered by the government. I attempt to address one of the chief concerns - endogenous sorting of households - by conditioning on a household’s choice of coethnics neighbors upon arrival in the neighborhood. I also find that coethnic residence predicts lower levels of perceived expropriation risk, but not perceived access to credit nor contribution to local public goods. These results suggest that close-knit ethnic groups may be less likely to accept state-provided goods due to their ability to generate reasonable substitutes, in this case protection from expropriation. The results are robust to different definitions of coethnicity and spatial cut-offs, controls for family ties and religious similarity as well as spatial fixed effects. Finally, the main result is confirmed using a large-scale administrative data-set covering over 20,000 land parcels in the city, exploiting ethnically-unique last names to predict tribal affiliation. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, Land tenure, Tanzania, Unplanned settlements |
| JEL: | J15 Q15 R23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2013-12&r=agr |