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on Agricultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒11‒29
thirty-two papers chosen by |
| By: | Holden, Stein (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Otsuka, Keijiro (GRIPS, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This article provides a review of the past and potential future roles of land tenure reforms and land markets in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as responses to population growth in the process of land use intensification and livelihood transformation. The farm size distribution and the existence of an inverse relationship (IR) between farm size and land productivity in SSA and the implications of this relationship for efficiency and equity are investigated. More secure property rights and removal of restrictions on land markets have the potential to create both efficiency and equity benefits, but there are high risks of elite capture of large land areas with inefficient and inequitable outcomes. This situation is the case not only in land-abundant areas but also in urban and peri-urban areas where increasingly larger proportions of people will make their living. Increasing population pressure in densely populated rural areas contributes to more rapid rural–urban migration, and creating alternative livelihood opportunities for the migrating youth population is essential to achieving economic development with social stability. |
| Keywords: | Inverse farm size–productivity relationship; tenure security; tenure reform; land markets; migratio; livelihood opportunities |
| JEL: | O13 Q12 Q15 Q56 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_015&r=agr |
| By: | Maxime Agbo (Granem - Groupe de Recherche ANgevin en Economie et Management - Agrocampus Ouest - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) : UMR49); Damien Rousselière (Granem - Groupe de Recherche ANgevin en Economie et Management - Agrocampus Ouest - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) : UMR49); Julien Salanié (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure (ENS) - Lyon) |
| Abstract: | We build a theoretical model to study a market structure of a marketing cooperative with direct selling, in which many farmers are members of an agricultural marketing cooperative. They can sell their production either to the cooperative or on a local market. We show that the decision to sell to the cooperative induces an anti-competitive effect on the direct selling market. Conversely, direct selling may create a "healthy emulation" among farmers, leading to more production benefiting the cooperative. |
| Keywords: | marketing cooperative; direct selling; local market; competitive |
| Date: | 2013–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00906894&r=agr |
| By: | Vandercasteelen, Joachim; Dereje, Mekdim; Minten, Bart; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum |
| Abstract: | Adoption of yieldincreasing technologies is seen as a key driver to increase agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence on the impact of programs aiming to scale-up the adoption of improved technologies from research settings to the farm level. To fill this gap, this paper assesses the impact of the promotion of a new agricultural technology, i.e. row planting at reduced seed rate, on farmers’ teff yields in Ethiopia. The results of a randomized control trial show that the program to scale-up row planting on average has a positive effect on teff yield. Depending on the measure of yield used, we find increases between 2 percent—but not statistically significant—and 22 percent. These findings are in contrast with larger yield increases found on village demonstration plots and in more controlled settings, as well as with the yield increase expected by teff farmers. The differences seemingly are linked to problems in implementation of the program and of its recommendations, methodological issues, and likely over-optimism on the potential of row planting in real farm settings. |
| Keywords: | Ethiopia; teff yield; row planting; adoption; new technology; |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/425652&r=agr |
| By: | McCornick, Peter; Smakhtin, Vladimir; Bharati, Luna; Johnston, Robyn; McCartney, Matthew; Sugden, Fraser; Clement, Floriane; McIntyre, Beverly |
| Keywords: | Climate change; Water resources; Water management; Water productivity; Water governance; Water storage; Groundwater recharge; Aquifers; River basins; Irrigation schemes; Agriculture; Rainfed farming; Food security; Health hazards; Malaria; Soil moisture; Gender; Women; Environmental flows |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:bosers:h046223&r=agr |
| By: | Aikaterini Kavallari (LEI, part of Wageningen UR); Marie-Luise Rau (LEI, part of Wageningen UR); Martine Rutten (LEI, part of Wageningen UR) |
| Abstract: | This report presents the simulations of deeper economic integration in the Euro-Mediterranean area by applying the general equilibrium model MAGNET. The scenarios are conducted in order to provide insight about how growth in North Africa, specifically Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, could potentially be promoted. The focus is on the agri-food sectors, which are investigated in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, framed within the negotiations of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) between the European Union and respectively Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The report also refers to Turkey, being a significant trading partner in the Mediterranean basin. Four scenarios are analysed in the horizon 2020, by paying special attention to key challenges such as non-tariff measure removal, world food price rising, productivity gains, and food waste mitigation. |
| Keywords: | Economic integration, agricultural trade, modelling tools, food security |
| JEL: | F15 C68 D58 Q17 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc84800&r=agr |
| By: | Mohamed Ben Abdallah (Tunis El-Manar University, Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion de Tunis (FSEGT), Laboratoire d'Intégration Economique Internationale (LIEI)); Abdelkader Ait El Mekki (National School of Agriculture in Meknes); Gamal Siam (Faculty of Agriculture at Cairo University) |
| Abstract: | This report presents the macro-effects of deep trade integration between the EU and respectively Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Overall, the simulation results from both a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model and Social Accounting Matrixes (SAM) analyses show that further trade liberalisation leads to a general gain for the countries under review, with the effect being more pronounced for combining tariff elimination with Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) reduction. |
| Keywords: | Economic integration, agricultural trade, modelling tools, food security |
| JEL: | F15 C68 D57 Q17 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc84801&r=agr |
| By: | Singh, Amarendra Pratap; Narayanan, Krishnan |
| Abstract: | Agriculture stands as most sensitive economic activity to climate variations. Modelling climate-agriculture relationship is one of the most researched issues in recent times. This paper reviews some of the issues regarding modelling agriculture response to climate change. |
| Keywords: | Yield,Climate Change, Ricardian technique |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:51410&r=agr |
| By: | Holden, Stein (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Bezu, Sosina (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We have used gender-disaggregated household panel data from 2007 and 2012 in combination with dictator games and hawk-dove games to assess the effects of joint land certification of husbands and wives on wives’ involvement in land-related decisions within households. Wives’ stated preferences for stronger land rights to women and husbands’ stated preferences for the traditional weak position of women were significantly affecting the wives’ degree of within household involvement in land-related decisions in opposite directions. Within-household generosity as expressed in dictator game experiments between husbands and wives, was correlated with stronger involvement of wives in land-related decisions. |
| Keywords: | Joint land certification; gender; empowerment of wives; experiments; Ethiopia |
| JEL: | D03 J16 Q15 |
| Date: | 2013–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_014&r=agr |
| By: | Robartus J. van der Spek; Bas van Leeuwen |
| Abstract: | In this paper we try to analyse market efficiency during the Seleucid and Parthian era in the Babylonian Empire. We find that prices in Babylon were less correlated with those in Rome than of most other regions around the Mediterranean. This suggests that Rome was indeed the urban centre of the Roman Empire and it also suggests that extensive trade (and/or tribute) relations existed around the Mediterranean Sea. Babylon, however, was located far away from direct sea or land trade routes. In addition, it produced largely barley (because of salinization of the soil) which was the less preferred grain around the Mediterranean. The price in Babylon remained relatively low, however, because of its productive agriculture and because barley has less nutritional value per litre than wheat. This lack of trade meant that markets were more sensitive to external shocks. Markets could not cope with external supply or demand shocks by means of imports (or exports). This increased volatility, as described by Persson, means less efficient markets. Indeed, we find that coefficient of variance of prices of staple crops was higher in Babylon than elsewhere, indicating less efficient markets. In addition, after a price shock, prices take a long to converge to their normal values. We find that for both barley and dates the expected average duration of a deviation of the price was considerable, varying between 9.5 months and 3.5 years. This suggest that often there may be autocorrelation, that is that bad harvest in year t may lead to a bad harvest in year t+1 because of lack of storage and lack of seed. Equally, recovery to normal prices seems largely to take place during a harvest instead of in between harvests. Hence, the relatively long duration of high prices and the lack of recovery in between harvests suggest the absence of substantial imports. Quick recovery was possible, though, and this must be related then to the fertility of the land, which allowed abundant harvests, and not to imports from afar. On occasion relief could be effected by short distance trade (e.g. from Uruk or the Diyala region) if famine was caused by a very local problem which only affected the city of Babylon and its close environment. |
| Keywords: | Babylon, Rome, trade, price volatility |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0047&r=agr |
| By: | Elizabeth Brainerd (Economics Department, Brandeis University); Nidhiya Menon (Economics Department, Brandeis University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of fertilizer agrichemicals in water on infant and child health using water quality data combined with data on child health outcomes from the Demographic and Health Surveys of India. Because fertilizers are applied at specific times in the growing season, the concentrations of agrichemicals in water vary seasonally and by cropped area as some Indian states plant predominantly summer crops while others plant winter crops. Our identification strategy exploits the differing timing of the planting seasons across states and differing seasonal prenatal exposure to agrichemicals to identify the impact of agrichemical contamination on various measures of child health. The results indicate that children exposed to higher concentrations of agrichemicals during their first month experience worse health outcomes on a variety of measures; these effects are largest among the most vulnerable groups, particularly the children of uneducated poor women living in rural India. |
| Keywords: | Fertilizer Agrichemicals, Water Pollutants, Child Health, Infant Mortality, India |
| JEL: | O12 I15 Q53 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brd:wpaper:64&r=agr |
| By: | Klein, Alexander (School of Economics, University of Kent); Ogilvie, Sheilagh (Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | A shift in occupational structure towards non-agricultural activities is widely viewed as a key component of European economic growth during the early modern ‘Little Divergence’. Yet little is known about this process in those parts of eastern-central Europe that experienced the early modern ‘second serfdom’, the massive increase in the institutional powers of landlords over the rural population. We analyze non-agricultural occupations under the second serfdom using data on 6,983 Bohemian villages in 1654. Bohemia resembled other eastern-central, nordic and southern European economies in having a lower percentage of non-agricultural activities than western Europe. But Bohemian serfs engaged in a wide array of industrial and commercial activities whose intensity varied significantly with village characteristics. Nonagricultural activity showed a significant positive relationship with village size, pastoral agriculture, sub-peasant social strata, Jews, freemen, female household heads, and village mills, and a significant negative relationship with arable agriculture and urban agglomerations. Non-agricultural activity was also positively associated with landlord presence in the village, although the relationship turned negative at higher values and landlord presence reversed the positive effects of female headship and mills. Under the second serfdom, landlords encouraged serf activities from which they could extort rents, while stifling others which threatened their interests. |
| Keywords: | occupational structure, non-agricultural activities, Czech |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:175&r=agr |
| By: | Peter A. Groothuis; Kristan Cockerill; Tanga M. Mohr |
| Abstract: | Even in historically water-rich areas, population growth and drought put pressure on water supplies. Understanding public attitudes about water management and, especially water conservation, may become increasingly salient as these regions attempt to address water supply issues. Using the contingent valuation method we estimate the willingness to pay for water conservation measures. Our analysis finds that younger individuals, individuals with higher education and higher income are more likely to say they are willing to pay for these measures. We also find that people who are on municipal water or a shared well are willing to pay more for public water conservation measures than individuals who have their own well or access to a spring. In addition we find that older individuals and respondents who have ancestors in the area are less willing to pay for water conservation methods. Lastly, using bivariate probit analysis that focuses on averting behavior expenditures and our contingent valuation question, we find that there are some unmeasured characteristics of respondents that make them more likely to participate in private ‘averting behavior’ and increase their willingness to pay for water conservation measures. Key Words: economics |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:13-26&r=agr |
| By: | Carolina Gavagnin (GRETA Associati, Venice); Maria Bruna Zolin (Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the main features of world cotton market by focusing on the role of China, and analysing the effect of predetermined macroeconomic variables on Chinese cotton market. First, a global overview of cotton market is given; after that, the main reasons for considering China as the leading country in this sector are illustrated. To follow the paper analyses what factors and to which extent they may have affected Chinese cotton production, consumption and international trade over the last years by means of a correlation matrix. Findings and conclusions are lastly presented. |
| Keywords: | Cotton, China, Production, Consumption, Trade, Man-made Fibres, Public Policies |
| JEL: | Q11 O53 Q17 Q18 O13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2013:27&r=agr |
| By: | Bo Xiong; John C. Beghin (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)) |
| Abstract: | Maximum residue levels (MRLs) regulations in plant products can create unnecessary trade barriers on one hand and enhance demand via risk mitigation or quality assurance on the other. We stipulate a generalized gravity equation model to disentangle the effects of MRLs on the import demand and foreign exporters’ supply. Applying the framework to the MRLs on pesticides imposed by high-income OECD countries, we find that the MRLs jointly enhance the import demand and hinder foreign exporters’ supply. In addition, exporters from the less and least developed countries are more constrained by the MRLs than their competitors from the developed world. |
| Keywords: | maximum residue level, sanitary and phytosanitary, food safety, nontariff barriers, gravity model. JEL classifications: F14, Q17 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:fpaper:13-wp544&r=agr |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (IWMI) |
| Keywords: | Irrigation systems; Farmers; Empowerment |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:bosers:h046192&r=agr |
| By: | Valentina G. Bruno; Bahattin Buyuksahin; Michel A. Robe |
| Abstract: | Commodity-equity and cross-commodity return co-movements rose dramatically after the 2008 financial crisis. This development took place following what has been dubbed the “financialization” of commodity markets. We first document changes since 2000 in the intensity of speculative activity in grain and livestock futures. We then use a structural VAR model to establish the role of speculative activity in explaining the strength of co-movements between grain, livestock and equity returns. We find that speculative intensity does not in itself affect the extent to which grain markets move in sync with the stock market. Rather, pre-crisis, financial speculators’ futures positions facilitated the transmission of macroeconomic shocks into grain markets. Strikingly, in the post-crisis period, this transmission channel weakened to the point of statistical insignificance. The role of speculative activity is less evident in livestock markets, where only macroeconomic conditions have a statistically significant impact on return co-movements with equities. |
| Keywords: | International topics; Recent economic and financial developments |
| JEL: | Q11 Q13 G12 G13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:13-39&r=agr |
| By: | Masha Maslianskaia-Pautrel |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the hedonic equilibrium is modified when discrete consumer heterogeneity with horizontal differentiated housing supply is assumed. Our results are threefold. First, discrete consumer heterogeneity leads to a segmentation of the hedonic price function at equilibrium and the discontinuity of the implicit price of environmental quality on the borders of the segments. Second, we demonstrate that horizontal differentiation can lead to a partial sorting of consumer demand for housing attributes at hedonic equilibrium. Finally, we show that according to model specification, the groupwise heterogeneity with horizontal differentiation can lead to modification of welfare assessment related to changes in environmental quality. |
| Keywords: | Hedonic model, Discrete consumer heterogeneity, Horizontal differentiation, Locational choice |
| JEL: | R21 R31 Q51 |
| Date: | 2013–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eus:ce3swp:0313&r=agr |
| By: | Börjesson, Maria (KTH); Jonsson, Daniel (KTH); Lundberg , Mattias (KTH) |
| Abstract: | This paper performs an ex-post cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the Metro system in Stockholm built in the 1950s. We find that the Metro was socially beneficial and that the largest benefit of the Metro is its capacity, making it possible for many people to travel to and from the city center. We also assess the significance of the wider economic impacts due to labor market distortions and the land-use effects in the case of the Stockholm Metro. The wider economic impacts increase the consumer surplus with 48%, and the yearly income in the county with 3.7%. A land-use model is used to analyze how the land-use has been influenced by the Metro over the years 1956-2006. The land-use model indicates that the historical centralized planning of housing along transit corridors has developed the region into a more dispersed region than if it had been planned according to the present inhabitants’ preferences. Moreover, we find that the land-use impacts from the investment itself seem to be small, but the land-use impacts from planning accompanying the decision to build the metro have been substantial. |
| Keywords: | Ex-post evaluation; Cost-benefit analysis; CBA; Appraisal; Land-Use modeling; Metro; Wider economic impacts; Rail investments |
| JEL: | C25 D61 J22 R41 R42 |
| Date: | 2013–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2013_034&r=agr |
| By: | Berge, Erling (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Sigrid Haugset, Anne (Trøndelag R&D Institute) |
| Abstract: | More than 200 years after the King sold one of the “King’s commons” (Follafoss, located in the current Verran municipality) to urban timber merchants, local people in some ways still behave as if the area is a kind of commons. The paper will outline the history of the transformation of the area from an 18th century King’s commons to a 21th century battleground for ideas about ancient access and use rights of community members facing rights of a commercial forest owner and the local consequences of national legislation. This battleground will be illuminated by the answers that current users provide to questions about what they believe their rights of access and use are. We shall in particular look for differences between what people believe and what the law seems to say about rights and duties in the Follafoss area. |
| Keywords: | King’s commons; private forest; rights of common; customary rights; national legislation; loss of customary rights; |
| JEL: | P48 Q15 |
| Date: | 2013–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_013&r=agr |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (IWMI). |
| Keywords: | Climate change; Policy; Rain; Water harvesting |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:bosers:h045803&r=agr |
| By: | Mohiburrahman Iqbal |
| Abstract: | This paper measures vulnerability to expected poverty (VEP) an ex-anti measure of well-being for Afghanistan using a single cross-section data. We measure VEP using household consumption expenditure during 2007/08 to predict probability of future consumption being lower than a specific probability threshold. Our results show that 66 per cent of Afghan population is vulnerable to poverty in near future compared to 42 per cent of the population who currently live under the poverty line. Our results show that poverty and vulnerability vary across geography and seasons and interestingly, areas most exposed to war have the lowest levels of poverty. The results further indicate that household head education, household head being male, housing condition, and ownership of irrigated agriculture land have a positive effect on consumption. In contrast, the fact that the household is rural or nomadic and proportion of family members under 15 and over 50 years of age have a negative effect on household consumption. |
| Keywords: | Vulnerability, Poverty, Afghanistan |
| JEL: | C23 C25 C31 I32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2013-14&r=agr |
| By: | Johane Dikgang and Edwin Muchapondwa |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the visitation demand function for Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) in order to determine the conservation fee to charge international tourists to maximise park revenue. International tourists account for approximately 20 percent of total number of visitors to South African national parks, with domestic visitors making-up the remaining portion. Though small, the South African international tourism market is mature, and accounts for a disproportionately large share of net revenue. The random effects Tobit model is used to estimate visitation demand at the KTP and three other national parks. Using the estimated elasticities, the revenue-maximizing daily conservation fees are computed to be R1 131.94 (US$144.20) for KTP, R575.67 (US$73.33) for Kruger National Park (KNP), R722.95 (US$92.10) for Augrabies Falls National Park (AFNP) and R634.11 (US$80.78) for Pilanesberg National Park (PNP). Our findings therefore imply that the conservation fees of R180 (US$22.93) for KTP and KNP, R100 (US$12.74) for AFNP, and R45 (US$5.73) for PNP currently charged to international visitors are significantly lower. This indicates that international park fees could be raised. |
| Keywords: | conservation fee, demand, land claim, national park |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:393&r=agr |
| By: | Sophia Du Plessis, Ada Jansen and Dieter von Fintel |
| Abstract: | The question about the productivity of slavery is a strongly debated issue, for example in the USA the seminal work by Engerman and Fogel (1974), “Time on the Crossâ€, sparked a flurry of publications debating the issue from different angles. The debate about the economic worth of slaves in the Cape of Good Hope already started with Pasques de Chavonnes (the only member of the Council of Policy who opposed the principle of using slave labour) who in 1717 remarked that slavery would inhibit economic development since ‘the money spent on slavery is dead money’. In this paper we provide an overview of slave prices and the value of their marginal productivity in the Cape Colony and ultimately we ask whether Cape slavery was “dead moneyâ€. Our approach is to estimate a hedonic price function for slaves in the Cape Colony for the time period 1700-1725 using the Changing Hands database, and comparing these with slave productivity estimates from the opgaafrollen. The initial price paid for a slave is, by conjecture, constituted by current marginal productivity of slaves plus the expected net present value of slave characteristics (which by implication will yield productivity returns in the future). These productive characteristics include gender, age and origin. We furthermore investigate whether the gradual increase in slave prices was driven by overall price levels in the economy, by the importation of “better quality†slaves over time or by the policy induced change in demand for labour away from European wage labour to slave labour. Lastly, we investigate whether slave prices matched the value of their marginal product by comparing estimates of the hedonic price series with estimates of marginal productivity. Real prices track marginal productivity closely, suggesting that slavery was profitable over most of the period. However, this effect is heterogeneous, with small farmers showing no signs of profitability and the opposite for large farmers. Small farmers attempted to mimic the production process of large farmers unsuccessfully, and consequently many impoverished farmers had made over-investments in slavery. |
| Keywords: | Slave prices, productivity |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:385&r=agr |
| By: | Cinnirella, Francesco (Ifo Institute, CESifo and CEPR); Hornung, Erik (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Financez) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of landownership concentration on school enrollment for nineteenth century Prussia. Prussia is an interesting laboratory given its decentralized educational system and the presence of heterogeneous agricultural institutions. We find that landownership concentration, a proxy for the institution of serfdom, has a negative effect on schooling. This effect diminishes substantially towards the end of the century. Causality of this relationship is confirmed by introducing soil texture to identify exogenous farm-size variation. Panel estimates further rule out unobserved heterogeneity. We present several robustness checks which shed some light on possible mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Land concentration, Institutions, Serfdom, Peasants' emancipation, Education, Prussian economic history |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:174&r=agr |
| By: | Jonathan Pickering; Frank Jotzo; Peter J. Wood |
| Abstract: | International funding for climate change action in developing countries may enhance the legitimacy of global climate governance. However, by allowing for a fragmented approach to mobilizing funds, current multilateral commitments raise further legitimacy challenges. We analyze the potential for unilateral and coordinated approaches to advance “output” and “input” legitimacy respectively by raising adequate funds and representing interests in contributing and recipient countries that are affected by funding decisions. Achieving legitimacy will require coordinated approaches to goal-setting, oversight and effort-sharing. Vesting contributing countries with substantial discretion over funding sources may enhance taxpayers’ support and boost funding more rapidly. However, multilateral coordination will be necessary to maximize opportunities for raising revenue from carbon pricing and to minimize adverse impacts of funding choices on developing countries. Our analysis provides a principled justification for the degree of fragmentation compatible with achieving legitimacy. These insights may inform future evaluation of legitimacy requirements in other spheres of environmental governance. |
| Keywords: | Climate policy, climate finance, legitimacy, fragmentation, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, development assistance |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1308&r=agr |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (IWMI). |
| Keywords: | Urban agriculture; Water use; Policy |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:bosers:h045640&r=agr |
| By: | Disdier, Anne-Celia; Fontagne, Lionel; Cadot, Olivier |
| Abstract: | Recent years have seen a surge in economic integration agreements (EIAs) and the development of non-tariff measures (NTMs). As a consequence, a growing number of EIAs include provisions on NTMs. However, little attention has been given in the literature to the effects of NTM liberalization in the context of EIAs. In this paper, we focus on provisions for technical regulations and analyze whether the North-South harmonization of technical barriers affects international trade. Using a gravity equation, it tests whether, as a result of the deep integration associated with standards provisions included in the EIA, the Southern partners'trade expands with the North, but at the expense of their trade with non-bloc Southern partners. Empirical results provide strong support for this conjecture. Moreover, harmonization on the basis of regional standards negatively impacts the exports of developing countries to the North. |
| Keywords: | Free Trade,Trade Law,Emerging Markets,Trade and Regional Integration,Trade Policy |
| Date: | 2013–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6710&r=agr |
| By: | Ing-Haw Cheng; Wei Xiong |
| Abstract: | Futures positions of commercial hedgers in wheat, corn, soybeans and cotton fluctuate much more than expected output. Hedgers’ short positions are positively correlated with price changes. Together, these observations raise doubt about the common practice of categorically classifying trading by hedgers as hedging while trading by speculators as speculation, as hedgers frequently change their futures positions over time for reasons unrelated to output fluctuations, arguably a form of speculation. |
| JEL: | G1 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19670&r=agr |
| By: | Ingmar Schumacher |
| Abstract: | This model provides a mechanism explaining the surge in environmental culture across the globe. We discuss empirical evidence on the determinants of environmental culture and preferences. Based upon this empirical evidence, we develop an overlapping generations model with environmental quality and endogenous environmental culture. The model predicts that for low wealth levels, society is unable to free resources for environmental culture. In this case, society will only invest in environmental maintenance if environmental quality is suffciently low. Once society has reached a certain level of economic development, then it may optimally invest a part of its wealth in developing an environmental culture. Environmental culture has not only a positive impact on environmental quality through lower levels of consumption, but it improves the environment through maintenance expenditure for wealth-environment combinations at which, in a restricted model without environmental culture, no maintenance would be undertaken. Environmental culture leads to a society with a higher indirect utility at steady state in comparison to the restricted model. Our model leads us to the conclusion that, for societies trapped in a situation with low environmental quality, investments in culture may induce positive feedback loops, where more culture raises environmental quality which in turn raises environmental culture. We also discuss how environmental culture may lead to an Environmental Kuznets Curve. |
| Keywords: | environmental culture; overlapping generations model; environment; endogenous preferences. |
| JEL: | Z1 Q56 D90 |
| Date: | 2013–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eus:ce3swp:0413&r=agr |
| By: | Yegor Lazarev (Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Studies, Higher School of Economics and Carnegie Visiting Scholar at the Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan;) |
| Abstract: | How do insecure property rights over land affect electoral competition and the level of violence? To answer this question, I explore original empirical evidence from Dagestan, Russia’s most turbulent North Caucasian republic. The exploration is based on a statistical analysis of district-level data with special emphasis on chronological validity. Studying the relationship between land titles of the Soviet period and post-Soviet amounts of tenured land, the research demonstrates that the amount of unregistered land in each district has a profound effect on local electoral competition and indices of violence. A higher percentage of untenured land at the district level leads to less electoral competition and more intense violence. Consequently, the study finds that the insecurity of property rights creates an opportunity structure for electoral patronage and violent expression of conflicts and grievances. In theoretical perspective this study sheds light upon a relatively unexplored institutional factor that drives electoral process and violence in predominantly agrarian societies |
| Keywords: | Dagestan, insecure property rights, electoral competition, level of violence. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:01/soc/2013&r=agr |
| By: | Stefano Bosi; David Desmarchelier; Lionel Ragot |
| Abstract: | Some recent empirical contributions have pointed out a significant negative impact of pollution on labor supply. These impacts have been largely ignored in the theoretical literature, which, instead, focused on the case of pollution effects on consumption demand. In this paper, we study the short and long-run effects of pollution in a Ramsey model where pollution and labor supply are nonseparable arguments in households’ preferences. We determine sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of a longterm equilibrium and we show how large (negative) effects of pollution on labor supply may promotes macroeconomic volatility (deterministic cycles near the steady state) through a flip bifurcation. |
| Keywords: | pollution, endogenous labor supply, Ramsey model. |
| JEL: | E32 O44 |
| Date: | 2013–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eus:ce3swp:0513&r=agr |
| By: | Ben Jebli, Mehdi; Ben Youssef, Slim; Ozturk, Ilhan |
| Abstract: | We use panel cointegration techniques to investigate the causal relationship between CO2 emissions, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, and trade openness in three different models for a panel of twenty five OECD countries over the period 1980-2009. Also the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis has been tested for these countries. Short-run Granger causality tests show the existence of a unidirectional causality running from the square of per capita output to per capita CO2 emissions and per capita non-renewable energy consumption and a unidirectional causality running from per capita real exports to per capita CO2 emissions. There is an indirect short-run causality running from per capita output to per capita non-renewable energy consumption. In the long-run, the FMOLS and DOLS estimates suggest that per capita GDP and per capita non-renewable energy consumption have a positive impact on per capita CO2 emissions. The long-run estimates suggest that the square of per capita GDP, per capita renewable energy consumption, and per capita real exports and imports have a negative impact on per capita CO2 emissions. Therefore, more trade openness and more use of renewable energy are efficient strategies to combat global warming. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Kuznets curve; Renewable energy; Non-renewable energy; Trade openness; CO2 emissions; Panel cointegration techniques. |
| JEL: | C33 F18 Q42 Q43 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:51672&r=agr |