|
on Agricultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2015‒05‒02
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Heisey, Paul; Day-Rubenstein, Kelly |
| Abstract: | Climate change poses significant risks to future crop productivity as temperatures rise, rainfall patterns become more variable, and pest and disease pressures increase. The use of crop genetic resources to develop varieties more tolerant to rapidly changing environmental conditions will be an important part of agricultural adaptation to climate change. Finding new genetic traits that can facilitate adaptation—and incorporating them into commercially successful varieties—is time-consuming, expensive, and technically difficult. The public-goods characteristics of genetic resources can create obstacles to rewards for private research and development. Because of insufficient private incentives, public-sector investment in the use of genetic resources will help determine the agricultural sector’s ability to maintain crop productivity, and for society as a whole, the potential benefits of public investment are large. The study authors find, however, that factors such as intellectual property rules for genetic resources and for research tools, or international agreements governing genetic resource exchange, have the potential both to promote and to hamper greater use of genetic resources for climate change adaptation. |
| Keywords: | Crop genetic resources, crop germplasm, climate change, plant breeding, agricultural resources, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersib:202351&r=agr |
| By: | Caroline Roussy; Aude Ridier; Karim Chaib |
| Abstract: | One way to reconcile the issues of productivity and environmental protection for field crops farmers is the implementation of systemic agroecological innovations. These innovations are complex combining traditional agricultural tools, such as the lengthening of rotations, with innovative production techniques such as precision agriculture. The adoption of these innovations creates additional uncertainty for farmers. Several studies have shown that risk aversion is a major break in the adoption of agricultural innovations. But others individual agronomic, economic and psychosocial determinants also affect the adoption decision process. However, among the determinants identified in the literature, few seem common and generalized to all production context. Other determinants, not directly observable, influence the adoption decision. This article presents a literature review to identify the role of observable and unobservable determinants, such as perceptions and preferences, in the adoption process of agroecological innovations. |
| Keywords: | adoption, agroecological innovation, stated preferences, perceptions, risk |
| JEL: | Q1 Q5 D8 D03 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rae:wpaper:201503&r=agr |
| By: | JosŽ L. Mart’nes-Gonz‡lez (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I analyze the ÔNitrogen ParadoxÕ stated by Robert Allen in his interpretation of the English Agricultural Revolution as an adaptive response to the agro-climatic impacts of the last phase of the Little Ice Age. The colder and more humid climate during the second half of the 17th century negatively affected the yield of the land, but it also accelerated change in the agrarian sector. The first evidence suggests that the efforts from farmers could begin to be felt in the cold period from 1660-70. Although the results were not very visible at first, this increased effort prevented a greater fall in production. This can be seen in the wheat series, where production rose slightly. As wheat demand stagnated due to a slowdown in the rise of the population, wheat prices fell, determining the evolution of relative prices and a diversification in production. In others words, the crucial driving forces of the transition from the crisis to the agrarian revolution were climate, population and the capacity of adaptation. In order to prove this hypothesis, I developed new intermediate tools, opening an interesting research field in economic history. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Agrarian Revolution, Adaptation |
| JEL: | N53 O13 Q10 Q24 Q54 Q55 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0075&r=agr |
| By: | Musaba, Emmanuel.; Pali-Shikhulu, J.; Matchaya, Greenwell.; Chilonda, Pius.; Nhlengethwa, Sibusiso. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural development; Agricultural trade; Agricultural production; Performance indexes; Monitoring; Investment; Expenditure; Economic growth; Indicators; Exports; Imports; Farmers; Food security; Poverty; Hunger; Maize; Livestock; Prices; Swaziland |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:rerpts:h046782&r=agr |
| By: | Filippo Randelli (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa); Benedetto Rocchi (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, an increasing number of studies have stressed the relevance of the consumer experience in the research of new trajectories towards sustainability. On the early stage of an innovation process the purchase continue to be strategic for the market creation although consumers should not be conceived only as selector of different commercial options. This paper argues for a broader application of Technological Innovation System (TIS) conceptual framework and proposes an analytical approach that explicitly considers consumers and producers as interacting and then coevolving actors. In this view the transition towards sustainability is not exclusively a production based innovation process and also the interactive relation between consumers and producers may foster the transition towards a new socio-technical regime. The conceptual framework will be introduced and exemplified with the case of Alternative Food Networks, a TIS in the food industry, based on a meta-analysis of the literature. |
| Keywords: | Technological Innovation Systems, Consumers, Alternative Food Networks, Agriculture |
| JEL: | D12 O31 Q55 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpmmos:wp2015_03.rdf&r=agr |
| By: | Matchaya, Greenwell Collins.; Phiri, A.C; Chilonda, Pius.; Musaba, Emmanuel. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural development; Agricultural policy; Agricultural budgets; Agricultural trade; Economic indicators; Performance indexes; Public investment; Expenditure; Exports; Imports; Food security; Poverty; Hunger; Nutrition; Public health; Households; Population structure; Labour productivity; Land productivity; Farmers; Livestock; Fisheries; Malawi |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:rerpts:h046781&r=agr |
| By: | Pushkar Maitra (Department of Economics, Monash University); Sandip Mitra (Sampling and Ocial Statistics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute); Dilip Mookherjee (Department of Economics, Boston University); Alberto Motta (School of Economics, University of New South Wales); Sujata Visaria (Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Recent evaluations of traditional microloans have not found significant impacts on borrower production or incomes. We examine whether this can be remedied by delegating selection of borrowers for individual liability loans to local trader-lender agents incentivized by repayment-based commissions. In a field experiment in West Bengal this design (called TRAIL) was offered in randomly selected villages. In remaining villages five-member groups self-formed and applied for joint liability loans (called GBL) with otherwise similar terms. TRAIL loans increased production of potato (a leading cash crop) and farm incomes by 27-37%, whereas GBL loans had insignificant and highly dispersed effects. Both schemes achieved equally high repayment rates, while TRAIL loans had higher take-up rates and lower administrative costs. We argue the results can be partly explained by differences in selection patterns with respect to borrower risk and productivity characteristics. |
| Keywords: | agricultural finance, agent based lending, group lending, selection, repayment |
| JEL: | D82 O16 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hku:wpaper:201523&r=agr |
| By: | Marie-Eve Yergeau; Dorothée Boccanfuso; Jonathan Goyette |
| Abstract: | The establishment of protected areas is a widespread practice designed to curb environmental degradation. However, it is often criticized as limiting the expansion of agriculture and natural resources extraction, especially in poor regions. Others maintain that conservation can increase welfare if the opportunity cost of conservation is less than the benefit generated by alternative uses of the land. In the economic literature, theoretical results on the relation between conservation and welfare diverge. The main objective of this paper is to reconcile the theoretical and the empirical results. We develop and test a theory explaining the relation between conservation, ecotourism and welfare. A distinctive feature of the model is that conservation allows to develop an ecotourism sector, which generates an alternative source of income at the local level. We also take into account the effect of geographical features in the land use decision-making process. The theoretical results are tested on Nepalese data. We find that conservation associated with ecotourism development is positively related to local welfare. Our theoretical results are consistent with the empirical evidence. |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lam:wpaper:15-07&r=agr |
| By: | Lykke E. Andersen; Eustáquio J. Reis |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model of deforestation and economic development in the Amazon. It is based on the determinants of demand for agricultural land, i.e. on the interactions between population dynamics, urbanization and the growth of local markets, land prices, and government policies. The model is estimated using a panel data set covering 316 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon during the period 1970/85. The model is used to evaluate the effects of different policy instruments. The trade-off between economic growth and deforestation is shown to be quite good for subsidized credit but very bad for new road building. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0069&r=agr |
| By: | Edward Perry; GianCarlo Moschini (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)); David A. Hennessy (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)) |
| Abstract: | Many decisions in agriculture are made over combinations of inputs and/or practices that may be complements. The presence of complementarity among producer decisions can have deep implications for market outcomes and for the effectiveness of policies intended to influence them. Identifying complementarity relations, however, is a challenging pursuit. Drawing on recent methodological advances, in this paper we propose a new test for complementarity between glyphosate tolerant soybeans and conservation tillage that overcomes limitations of previous studies. Specifically, we develop a structural discrete choice framework of joint soybean-tillage adoption that explicitly models both complementarity and unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated with a large dataset of farm-level choices that spans the 1998–2011 period and contains repeated observations for many of the sampled individuals. We find that glyphosate tolerant soybeans and conservation tillage are indeed complementary practices, a conclusion supported by several robustness checks. In addition, our estimation shows that farm operation scale promotes the adoption of both conservation tillage and glyphosate tolerant seed, and that all of higher fuel prices, more droughty conditions, and soil erodibility increase use of conservation tillage. We also apply our results to simulate annual adoption rates for conservation tillage in a scenario without glyphosate tolerant soybeans available as a choice. We find that the adoption of conservation tillage has been about ten percent higher due to the advent of glyphosate tolerant soybeans. Key Words: complementarity, conservation tillage, discrete choice models, genetically engineered crops, mixed multinomial logit, supermodularity, technology adoption, unobserved heterogeneity. JEL codes: C35, D22, Q12, Q55 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:15-wp555&r=agr |
| By: | G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of the role that forestry activities play in mitigating climate change. The emphasis is on a comparison of carbon offset credits and a carbon tax/subsidy scheme for incentivizing reductions in the release of CO2 emissions and increase in sequestration of atmospheric CO2 through forestry. In addition to traditional issues related to additionality, leakages, and the transaction costs of determining and verifying how many carbon offsets are created, we investigate the importance of good governance and contracts. There are three options available to a public or private forestland owner for creating carbon offsets once tree reach maturity: (1) avoid or delay harvest; (2) harvest timber and use sawmill, logging and other residuals to generate electricity; and (3) sustainably manage the forest and carbon fluxes (i.e., post-harvest wood product carbon pools and avoided emissions from substituting wood for non-wood in construction or wood bioenergy for fossil fuels) to maximize net revenues. Delaying harvests or avoiding deforestation are considered important but outside the domain of a tax/subsidy or cap-and-trade scheme. With respect to bioenergy, the analysis suggests that, if there is a carbon dividend, it is likely to be small even if the life cycle of carbon is appropriately taken into account. Further, if there is some urgency to mitigate climate change, the use of wood bioenergy is more likely to result in a carbon debt, even with respect to coal, because of the need to weight CO2 according to when it is released to and removed from the atmosphere. Only holistic commercial forest management that is sustainable and incentivizes sequestration of carbon assures efficient mitigation of climate change. We demonstrate this by investigating carbon fluxes derived from an integrated forest management model and confirm this result more generally on the basis of a Faustmann rotation age model thatexplicitly includes benefits of storing carbon. |
| Keywords: | climate change mitigation and forestry; carbon offsets and taxes; carbon life-cycle analysis; biomass energy; wood products versus cement and steel; discounting; governance and corruption |
| JEL: | H23 Q23 Q42 Q54 G15 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2015-04&r=agr |
| By: | Lee, GaSeul; Lim, Song Soo |
| Abstract: | While the trade effect of free trade agreements (FTAs) is a global issue, little research has examined the economic effects of trade liberalization on agricultural products with robust empirical methods. In this study, propensity score matching for controlling selection bias is used to examine and analyze the effect of FTAs on the trade of South Korea's agricultural products. To enhance the robustness of estimated results, differences between the FTA treatment effects in 2010 and 2012 are analyzed. The results reveal that the effect of FTAs on agricultural trade varies slightly, depending on the matching approach used; however, the signs of all estimated average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) values are positive, and more values are positive in 2012 than in 2010. Analysis of the difference between selection bias controlled through matching and uncontrolled selection bias shows the value of the average treatment effect (ATE) with uncontrolled bias is greater than the ATT estimate calculated through matching. This implies that controlled versus uncontrolled selection bias can result in different ATE and ATT estimates, and that prior studies on FTA trade effects have overestimated the effect, as selection bias was not addressed therein. |
| Keywords: | free trade agreements,agricultural trades,propensity score matching,selection bias |
| JEL: | C54 F15 Q17 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201525&r=agr |
| By: | Xiaodong Du; David A. Hennessy (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)); Hongli Feng |
| Abstract: | Rate setting procedures for United States crop yield and revenue insurance contracts employ methods that presume correlations to be state invariant. Whether this is true matters. If yield-yield correlations strengthen when crops are subject to widespread stress, then diversification opportunities for private insurers weaken when most needed, and an insurer's portfolio of retained business may not be as diversified as standard statistics would suggest. For government outlays, such tail dependence will increase the transactions and political costs of reallocations from the general fund. In this paper we propose a simple model of yield correlations according to interactions between a weather outcome and a land unit's yield resilience to adverse shocks, as might be measured by the United States Soil Conservation Service's land capability classification. Our model shows that yield-yield tail dependence is to be expected and, furthermore, should take a particular form. In better growing regions, yield correlations across units should be stronger in right tails than in left tails, whereas in marginal growing regions the reverse should apply. Using USDA Risk Management Agency unit level data and a variety of statistics, we find strong evidence in favor of this land yield resilience hypothesis. Our findings call into question the appropriateness of current USDA rate-setting methodologies, which posit constant state-conditional ordinal correlations by implicitly assuming that yields can be represented by a Gaussian copula. A goodness-of-fit test rejects the standard Gaussian copula model, implying that existing RMA rate-setting methods are deficient. |
| Keywords: | actuarial fairness; crop insurance; Gaussian copula; geography of yield distributions; reinsurance; systemic risk. JEL Codes: G12, Q18, C1. |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:15-wp556&r=agr |
| By: | Gervásio Castro de Rezende |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the question of the concentrated pattern of agricultural development in Brazil, as expressed in the predominance of large-scale production, high level of mechanization and low absorption of non-qualified labor. It is proposed, initially, the existence of two conflicting explanations for this fact: the first, that blames our historical heritage, characterized by the predominance of the latifúndio, with the implication that the solution requires a radical agrarian reform; and the second, that sees in this concentrated pattern of agricultural growth in Brazil a technological determinism, with the implication that lesser concentration in agriculture would imply a loss in economic efficiency. Diverging radically from these two lines of arguments, this paper attributes to the agricultural labor and to the land policies that were instituted in the 1960s, and to the agricultural credit policy, instituted by the same time, the major responsibility for this problem. As argued in the paper, these policies turned unviable in Brazil not only the agricultural temporary labor market, but also family farm, at the same time that stimulated agricultural mechanization and the predominance of large-scale production. The paper ends up proposing, in a manner consistent with the analysis presented, that the only way to initiate the deconcentration of our agricultural growth would be through a radical de-regulation both of agricultural labor and land markets, instituting in Brazil, at last, free contracting, the most basic capitalistic institution. Este trabalho procura discutir a questão do padrão concentrador do desenvolvimento agrícola brasileiro recente, expresso no predomínio da produção em grande escala, no elevado índice de mecanização e na baixa absorção de mão-de-obra não-qualificada. Propõe-se, inicialmente, a existência de duas posições antagônicas que procuram explicar esse fato: uma, que culpa a herança latifundiária de nossa agricultura, com a implicação de que a solução requereria uma reforma agrária radical; e a outra, que vê nisso um determinismo tecnológico, não havendo, assim, possibilidade de atuar sobre esse problema sem incorrer em uma perda em termos de eficiência econômica. Discordando radicalmente dessas duas posições, este trabalho atribui às políticas trabalhista agrícola, fundiária e de crédito agrícola, instituídas na década de 1960, a responsabilidade maior por esse problema. Conforme a análise apresentada, essas políticas inviabilizaram o mercado de trabalho agrícola temporário e a agricultura familiar, ao mesmo tempo em que fomentaram a mecanização agrícola e o predomínio da produção em grande escala. O trabalho termina propondo, de modo consistente com a análise apresentada, que a única maneira de iniciar a desconcentração de nosso crescimento agrícola é através de uma desregulamentação radical dos mercados de trabalho e de aluguel de terra, instituindo, no Brasil, enfim, a livre contratação, a característica maior do capitalismo. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0169&r=agr |
| By: | Biggs, E. M.; Boruff, B.; Bruce, E.; Duncan, J. M. A.; Haworth, B. J.; Duce, S.; Horsley, J.; Curnow, Jayne.; Neef, A.; McNeill, K.; Pauli, N.; Van Ogtrop, F.; Imanari, Y. |
| Keywords: | Environmental sustainability; Environmental management; Ecological factors; Biodiversity; Living standards; Water security; Energy conservation; Food security; Climate change; Temperature; Precipitation; Cyclones; Agriculture; Farmland; Demography; Urbanization; Sociocultural environment; Gender; Community management; Institutions; Political aspects; Remote sensing; Natural disasters; Monitoring; Sustainable development; Assessment; Southeast Asia; Oceania |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:rerpts:h046758&r=agr |
| By: | D. Dragone; N. R. Ziebarth |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a conceptual framework that can explain why economic development goes along with increases in body weight and obesity rates. We first introduce the concept of novelty consumption, which refers to an increase in food availability due to trade or innovation. Then we study how novel food products alter the optimal consumption bundle and welfare, and possibly lead to changes in body weight. We test our model employing the German reunification as a fast motion natural experiment of economic development. Our data elicit detailed information on East Germans’ food consumption, body mass, and diet-related health. After the fall of the Wall, East Germans permanently changed their diet by consuming novel western food products. A significant population share permanently gained weight. This is consistent with our theoretical framework where past affects current consumption, and where novel goods determine consumption changes over time with ambiguous effects on dietrelated health. |
| JEL: | D11 D12 I12 I15 L66 O10 O33 Q18 R22 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1002&r=agr |
| By: | Mendez Parra, Maximiliano |
| Abstract: | Monthly time-series data based on agricultural commodities tend to present strong and particular patterns of seasonality. The presence of zero values in some of the seasons is not explained by the absence of reporting but is the result of actual features of agricultural processes. Seasonal unit root tests have never been applied to data that exhibit these characteristics, with a consequent lack of critical values to be used in the inference. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to obtain critical values that can be used for this type of data. In addition, seasonal unit roots under the presence of unknown structural breaks have never been applied to any kind of monthly time series, with the associated absence of critical values to be used in the testing procedure. Monte Carlo simulations are also performed to tabulate these critical values. It is observed that the presence of zero values does not invalidate the critical values available, with or without unknown structural breaks; the values obtained here for the monthly seasonal unit root tests under unknown structural breaks can be used in any other kinds of exercise. A seasonal unit root test with more power is also considered and critical values are obtained to perform the inference. The capability of the seasonal unit root tests to select the right break date is analysed, with some divergent results with respect to previous findings. An application of these techniques on the monthly quantities of exports and domestic supply of three agricultural commodities in Argentina between 1994 and 2008, which observe the patterns of seasonality described, is presented. Although, some evidence of stochastic seasonality has been found in some of these series, in general a deterministic approach can adequately describe their seasonality |
| Keywords: | Monthly; Unit Root; seasonality; seasonal; Argentina; commodities; test; cointegration |
| JEL: | C12 C22 C4 Q13 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63831&r=agr |
| By: | Estelle Koussoubé (PSL, Université Paris Dauphine, LEDa, IRD, UMR DIAL); Nauges (University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | (english) This article explores the importance of fertilizer profitability in explaining the relative, apparent low use of chemical fertilizers by farmers in Burkina Faso. Using large-scale plot data, we estimate maize yield response to nitrogen to be 19 kg/ha on average and to vary with soil characteristics. Profitability, which we measure through the calculation of a marginal value cost ratio, is estimated at 1.41 on those plots which received fertilizers, with significant variations across regions. For those plots on which fertilizers were not applied, we predict that fertilizers should have been profitable in most cases under the current level of subsidized fertilizer prices. These findings suggest that the low uptake of chemical fertilizers might have been driven by factors other than profitability, including insufficient supply of subsidized fertilizers to farmers in need. Our results also call for increasing the availability of credit to farmers in order to encourage adoption of chemical fertilizers. Finally, our results also show that not taking into account the endogeneity of nitrogen use in the yield equation may produce biased estimates of the maize yield response to nitrogen. _________________________________ (français) Cet article explore l’importance de la rentabilité de l’utilisation des engrais chimiques comme facteur explicatif de leur relative faible adoption par les agriculteurs au Burkina Faso. En utilisant des données détaillées au niveau parcelle, nous estimons la productivité marginale des engrais à 19kg/ha en moyenne. Cette dernière varie considérablement en fonction des caractéristiques des sols. La rentabilité des engrais, mesurée par le rapport valeur-coût, est estimée à 1.41 sur les parcelles qui ont reçu des engrais et varie d’une région à l’autre. Concernant les parcelles sur lesquelles l’engrais n’est pas utilisé, nous trouvons que l’utilisation d’engrais serait profitable sur une grande majorité de ces parcelles au prix actuel subventionné de l’engrais. Ces résultats suggèrent que des facteurs autres que la rentabilité sont potentiellement responsables de la faible adoption des engrais. Ces facteurs incluent notamment les difficultés d’accès aux engrais subventionnés par les agriculteurs. Notre analyse suggère également qu’une augmentation de l’accès au crédit par les agriculteurs permettrait de favoriser l’adoption des engrais chimiques. Enfin, nos résultats montrent également la nécessité de corriger du biais d’endogénéité de l’utilisation des engrais dans l’équation des rendements de maïs. |
| Keywords: | Burkina Faso; fertilizers; maize yield; subsidization program; technology adoption. |
| JEL: | Q13 Q33 Q12 Q16 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201507&r=agr |
| By: | Claudio Ferraz |
| Abstract: | The extent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon grew significantly in the last 20 years. Approximately 400,000 km2 of tropical forest were cleared from 1978 to 1998. Land conversion to pasture and crop areas were the main sources of deforestation, though the contribution of logging increased significantly in the nineties. This paper uses panel data for eight states of the Brazilian Amazon, from 1980 to 1998, to estimate a model of the determinants of crop area and cattle herd expansion within the region. Results show that the expansion of crop area is determined by changes in land prices, government agriculture credit and roads while the growth of cattle herd is mainly driven by the decrease in the price of cattle head and the expansion of the road network. O desflorestamento na Amazônia aumentou significativamente durante os últimos 20 anos. Aproximadamente 400.000 km2 de florestas tropicais foram devastados entre 1978 e 1998, sendo a sua maioria convertida em pastagens e lavouras. Este trabalho usa dados de painel de oito estados da Amazônia, de 1980 a 1998, para estimar um modelo dos determinantes da expansão da área plantada e de cabeças de gado na região. Os resultados mostram que a expansão da área plantada está associada a variações de preços da terra, crédito agrícola e estradas, enquanto o aumento do número de cabeças de gado está determinado principalmente pela redução do preço do boi e pela expansão da malha rodoviária. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0106&r=agr |
| By: | Klaus Eisenack (University of Oldenburg, Deparment of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies institutional change as a response to anticipated changes in the natural environment. Power plants occasionally need to be curtailed during heat waves, causing economic losses and putting electricity supply at risk. This problem likely exacerbates due to global warming, so that institutional arrangements<br>for cooling water management may require adaptation. The papers compares different arrangements with a transaction cost analysis. If heat waves only increase in intensity, long-term and site specific temperature caps perform comparatively best. Otherwise, total costs can be reduced by a specific contract between the environmental<br>regulator and electricity producers (the minimum power plant concept), or a dynamic heat load plan. The paper highlights economies of scale in transaction costs, and shows how institutional change can depend on the speed of exogenous changes. The general considerations are illustrated by taking the German Rhine<br>catchment as an example. |
| Keywords: | cascading externalities, electricity, environmental regulation, institutional<br>change, transaction costs, water use conflict |
| JEL: | D23 Q25 Q41 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:377&r=agr |
| By: | Halkos, George; Matsiori, Steriani |
| Abstract: | This study explores people’s environmental attitudes and motives for putting economic values to marine biodiversity and its protection. Primary data were collected from a sample of 359 people living in two important Greek coastal port cities: Thessaloniki and Volos. Respondents’ environmental attitude was measured with the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, and economic values were derived from a referendum, contingent valuation method (CVM) survey for protecting marine biodiversity. Use of appropriate statistical methods revealed three factors of environmental attitudes; namely, man dominate to nature, anti-anthropocentrism and limits to growth. Significant relationships are found between NEP scale factors and socio-economic characteristics and individuals’ opinions about marine biodiversity utility. Pro-environmental behavior or attitudes are associated with higher NEP scale scores. At a second stage and in a logistic regression setup the relation between people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for marine biodiversity protection with their socio-economic characteristics and the PCA extracted results are explored. Pro-environmental attitudes influence the estimates of mean WTP. Significant relationships are found between environmental attitudes and non-use motivations and WTP and ethical motives for species protection. Finally individuals’ mean WTP for marine biodiversity protection was calculated approximately equal to € 29 per person. |
| Keywords: | Environmental attitudes; NEP scale; CVM; WTP; biodiversity. |
| JEL: | C10 C52 Q20 Q51 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63947&r=agr |
| By: | Steven M. Helfand; Gervásio Castro de Rezende |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the changes in economic policies and in macroeconomic conditions in the 1990s and analyses their impact on the agricultural sector in Brazil. We emphasize four aspects of the reform period that were either unexpected or not given sufficient attention by authors writing in the period prior to the reforms. The first issue relates to the importance that events outside of the agricultural sector, specially the stabilization problems, have not only for the performance of the sector but also for the timing and sequence of policy reform. A second issue that we emphasize is that policy reform involved far more than trade liberalization. Deregulation and the reform of rural credit and support price policy have been central as well. A third issue that was not given sufficient attention by the pre-reform analyses that focused on agricultural prices is the impact of policy reform on input markets and productivity. We identify changes in input markets as one of the key components of the adjustment process. A fourth and final issue that we address is that policy reform had a highly differentiated impact on the sector. Reform was neither uniformly beneficial, nor entirely prejudicial. Thus, our analysis seeks to distinguish between different groups of products, such as importables and exportables, geographic regions, farm sizes, and sub-periods. The paper emphasizes also that, since not all reforms were introduced simultaneously, the 1990s should be treated as a decade of transition in which the old model was replaced, but not all of the features of the new model were firmly established. Este trabalho descreve de modo sintético as mudanças de política econômica e de condições macroeconômicas nos anos 90 e analisa o impacto dessas mudanças sobre o setor agrícola. Procura-se enfatizar quatro aspectos que foram ignorados ou que não receberam a atenção devida pelos autores que trataram do assunto no período anterior às reformas. A primeira questão relaciona-se com a importância dos fatores macroeconômicos, sobretudo as políticas de estabilização, para a análise do tema. A segunda questão reside na importância de mudanças em outras políticas que não a mera abertura externa, como a desregulamentação dos mercados domésticos e as mudanças nas políticas de crédito rural e de preços mínimos.Um terceiro aspecto que também não recebeu a devida atenção das análises pré-reforma é o impacto das novas políticas econômicas sobre o mercado de insumos e sobre a produtividade. A quarta e última questão enfatizada neste trabalho é que os efeitos das reformas foram muito diferenciados segundo produtos, regiões ou tipos de agricultores. O trabalho sugere, ainda, que, como nem todas as reformas foram introduzidas simultaneamente, os anos 90 devem ser tratados como uma década de transição em que o velho modelo foi substituído, porém nem todas as etapas do novo modelo foram firmemente estabelecidas. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0098&r=agr |
| By: | Christoph Böhringer (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre & ZenTra); Brita Bye (Statistics Norway, Research Department); Taran Fæhn (Statistics Norway, Research Department); Knut Einar Rosendahl (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Climate effects of unilateral carbon policies are undermined by carbon leakage. To counteract leakage and increase global cost-effectiveness carbon tariffs can be imposed on the emissions embodied in imports from non-regulating regions. We present a theoretical analysis on the economic incentives for emission abatement of producers subjected to carbon tariffs. We quantify the impacts of different carbon tariff designs by an empirically based multi-sector, multi-region CGE model of the global economy. We find that firm-targeted tariffs can deliver much stronger leakage reduction and higher efficiency gains than tariff designs operated at the industry level. In particular, because the exporters are able to reduce their carbon tariffs by adjusting emissions, their competitiveness and the overall welfare of their economies will be less randomly and less adversely affected than in previously studied carbon tariff regimes. This beneficial distributional impact could facilitate a higher degree of legitimacy and legality of carbon tariffs. |
| Keywords: | carbon leakage, border carbon adjustment, carbon tariffs, computable general equilibrium (CGE) |
| JEL: | Q43 Q54 H2 D61 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:51&r=agr |
| By: | Goeschl, Timo; Perino, Grischa |
| Abstract: | The success of global climate policies over the coming decades depends on the diffusion of 'green' technologies. This requires that international environmental agreements (IEAs) and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) interact productively.Using a simple and tractable model, we highlight the strategic reduction in abatement commitments on account of a hold-up effect. In anticipation of rent extraction by the innovator signatories might abate less than non-signatories turning the IEA 'brown'. Self-enforcing IEAs have fewer signatories and diffusion can reduce global abatement under TRIPs. Countries hosting patent holders extract rents from TRIPs, but may be better off without them. |
| Keywords: | International climate policy; diffusion of innovations; intellectual property rights; hold-up problem. |
| Date: | 2015–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0591&r=agr |
| By: | Antonio Salazar Pessoa Brandão; Gervásio Castro de Rezende; Roberta Wanderley da Costa Marques |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the Brazilian agricultural growth since January 1999, when a new exchange rate policy was adopted by the country. The analysis focuses on the behavior of the exchange rate and international commodity prices throughout the period 1999-2004. It is also analysed the behavior of cropped area in this recent period, with the conclusion that there has been a fast increase in area planted with grains in the agricultural years 2001/2002, 2002/2003 and 2003/2004, due almost entirely to the growth of soybeans area. The paper proposes that this expansion of area planted with soybeans was based preponderantly on the conversion of pastures. It is also suggested that expansion of soybeans should not be seen as antagonistic to the environmental policy, specially in what respects the protection of the Amazon forest. Este trabalho analisa o crescimento agrícola brasileiro após a mudança da política cambial, em janeiro de 1999. Toma como base, para isso, o comportamento da taxa de câmbio e dos preços internacionais das commodities ao longo do período 1999-2004. Discute, também, o comportamento da área cultivada nesse período recente, mostrando que ocorreu um aumento muito grande da área plantada com grãos nos anos agrícolas 2001/2002, 2002/2003 e 2003/2004, em grande parte devido à expansão da soja. O trabalho propõe que essa expansão tão rápida da área plantada com soja deu-se preponderantemente com base em conversão de pastagens. Sugere, ainda, que a expansão da soja não deve ser vista como antagônica à política ambiental, especialmente no que se refere à proteção da floresta amazônica. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0150&r=agr |
| By: | Philipp M. Richter; Roman Mendelevitch; Frank Jotzo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the introduction of an export tax on steam coal levied by an individual country (Australia), or a group of major exporting countries. The policy motivation would be twofold: generating tax revenues against the background of improved terms-of-trade, while CO2 emissions are reduced. We construct and numerically apply a two-level game consisting of an optimal policy problem at the upper level, and an equilibrium model of the international steam coal market (based on COALMOD-World) at the lower level. We find that a unilaterally introduced Australian export tax on steam coal has little impact on global emissions and may be welfare reducing. On the contrary, a tax jointly levied by a "climate coalition" of major coal exporters may well leave these better off while significantly reducing global CO2 emissions from steam coal by up to 200 Mt CO2 per year. Comparable production-based tax scenarios consistently yield higher tax revenues but may be hard to implement against the opposition of disproportionally affected local stakeholders depending on low domestic coal prices. |
| Keywords: | Export tax, steam coal, supply-side climate policy, carbon leakage, Australia, Mathematical Program with Equilibrium Constraints (MPEC) |
| JEL: | Q48 F13 Q58 Q41 C61 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1471&r=agr |
| By: | Paul J. Burke; Md Shahiduzzaman; David I. Stern |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the short-run effects of economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement for 189 countries over the period 1961–2010. Contrary to what has previously been reported, we conclude that there is no strong evidence that the emissions-income elasticity is larger during individual years of economic expansion as compared to recession. Significant evidence of asymmetry emerges when effects over longer periods are considered. We find that economic growth tends to increase emissions not only in the same year, but also in subsequent years. Delayed effects – especially noticeable in the road transport sector – mean that emissions tend to grow more quickly after booms and more slowly after recessions. Emissions are more sensitive to fluctuations in industrial value-added than agricultural value-added, with services being an intermediate case. On the expenditure side, growth in consumption and in investment have similar implications for national emissions. External shocks have a relatively large emissions impact, and the short-run emissions-income elasticity does not appear to decline as incomes increase. Economic growth and emissions have been more tightly linked in fossil-fuel rich countries. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, emissions, pollution, business cycle, asymmetry, sector |
| JEL: | Q56 O44 E32 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2015-12&r=agr |
| By: | Diergarten, Yorck; Krieger, Tim |
| Abstract: | Poorly developed countries with weak institutions often face severe commitment problems. International investors are reluctant to invest in these countries because their property rights are insufficiently protected. We argue that in order to overcome the commitment problem countries may subject investors' rights protection to independent investment tribunals. These tribunals are known to strictly support property rights protection and to be reluctant to honor human rights considerations, although they might be applicable. This may explain why human rights of the local smallholders in large-scale land acquisitions are hardly protected in the Global South. |
| Keywords: | large-scale land acquisitions,land grabbing,law & economics,international law,property rights,commitment problems,foreign investors,weak institutions |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wgspdp:201502&r=agr |