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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2017‒01‒08
39 papers chosen by |
| By: | Laurence Roudart; Benoît Dave |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to analyze: 1) the policy conditions under which family farms in the Office du Niger area could invest in land; 2) the impacts of various scenarios of land and other policies; 3) the opportunity costs of allocating land and irrigation water to players other than family farmers. A thorough field survey, based on the concept of farming system and combining quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and processing, was carried out in 2011 involving 380 family farm managers. Models were elaborated from the numerical data. Results indicate that family farmers could invest in land under the following conditions: that they possess an animal-drawn or a motorized piece of equipment, engage in at least one dry-season crop, obtain relatively high yields and have access to irrigated areas more extensive than in 2010. To meet these conditions, proactive policies, pertaining to land, irrigation, credit and inputs are required. Allotting new irrigated land to family farmers could, according to one policy scenario, lead to the creation of tens of thousands of farm jobs and livelihoods. This could, according to another scenario, lead to hundreds of thousands of additional tonnes of rice, thereby exceeding the threshold of grain self-sufficiency. Thus, the opportunity costs of allocating land and irrigation water to investors other than farming families are particularly high. |
| Keywords: | Farming system; Food production; Land grabbing; Mali; Policy scenarios; Smallholder land investment |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/242230&r=agr |
| By: | Md. Jahangir Kabir (School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland); Mohammad Alauddin (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Steven Crimp (CSIRO, Agriculture) |
| Abstract: | Using long-term district-level climate data and a case study from a drought-prone village in western Bangladesh, this research explores trends in climate change, and analyses farmers’ adaptation dynamics, profitability and risks. This is the first study of its kind for drought-prone areas in Bangladesh. District-level temperature trended upwards across all seasons except in winter, while rainfall patterns were more episodic with persistent dry periods. Farmers’ adaptation measures included changes in cropping systems, cropping calendar, crop varieties, agronomic practices, crop diversification and improved animal husbandry. Reducing environmental stress, ensuring self-sufficiency in staple crops (mainly rice) and other crop production practices, and enhancing economic viability of farm enterprises underpinned these adaptations. Off-farm and non-farm wage employment, temporary migration, self-employment and educating children, constituted core non-farm adaptation strategies. Emerging cropping systems like maize/cucumber and maize/stem amaranth/rice were economically more viable than the traditional rice/rice and rice/maize systems. Despite some uncertainties, farming was preferred to off-farm work, generating higher returns to labour for all cropping systems. Limited access to stress-tolerant varieties, extension services and affordable agricultural credit, combined with high production costs, variability in crop yields and output prices constituted man barriers to adaptation. Stronger agricultural research and support services, affordable credit, community-focussed farming education and training are critically important for effective adaptation to climate change. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, Drought severity, Farm budgeting, Risk analysis, Adaptation dynamics, Sustainability |
| JEL: | O1 Q0 Q2 Q12 Q25 |
| Date: | 2016–12–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:576&r=agr |
| By: | Ek, Kristina (Luleå University of Technology, Economics unit); Persson, Lars (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This paper elicits local and semi-local citizens’ preferences for water quality attributes explicitly related to the water framework directive. A river basin in southeast of Sweden is used as a case study. The sample consists of 502 respondents living in the municipalities through which the river passes, or neighboring municipalities. By the use of a choice experiment tailored to the specific case study area, the paper analyzes public attitudes and willingness to pay for selected attributes related to water quality management. The attributes and their corresponding levels are based on real criteria for ecological water status, used in the implementation of the WFD in the river basin. Although participants live in or close to the catchment area, the results reveal a general lack of knowledge and interest in matters related to the environmental quality of the river. All attributes included in the choice experiment proved to have a statistically significant impact on the choice probabilities. There was however no significant evidence that the preferences differ between respondents with regard to self reported previous experience or knowledge about the water body, nor with regard to differences in recreational habits in the area. The results can potentially be used as inputs in practical policy making with its inevitable trade offs and priorities. |
| Keywords: | choice experiment; Water framework directive; water quality; willingness to pay |
| JEL: | Q25 Q50 Q53 Q57 |
| Date: | 2016–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2016_018&r=agr |
| By: | Marion Dupoux (University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, EconomiX) |
| Abstract: | Land use change (LUC) is the second human-induced source of greenhouse gases (GHG). This paper warns about the LUC time-accounting failure in internalizing GHG impacts in economic appraisal (within policies). This emerges from (i) relative carbon prices commonly following the Hotelling rule as if climate change were regarded as an exhaustible resource problem and (ii) a uniform annualization (i.e. constant flows over time) of LUC impacts supported by most energy policies. First, carbon prices time evolution should account for the climate change framework specificities (natural carbon absorption, uncertainty), which makes a departure from the Hotelling rule necessary. Second, there is a carbon dynamic after land conversion: GHG impact flows are strictly decreasing over time. With a theoretical framework, I show that the employment of the uniform annualization, within a benefit-cost analysis, enhances both the discounting overwhelming effect and the carbon price increase, whatever the type of impact (emissions or sequestrations). It results in skewed values of LUC-related projects as long as relative carbon prices deviate from the Hotelling rule. I apply this framework to global warming impacts of bioethanol in France and quantify this bias. In particular, carbon profitability payback periods under the uniform approach do not reflect the LUC effective carbon investment. This potentially modifies the conclusions regarding a project’s achievement of imposed environmental criteria. |
| Keywords: | benefit-cost analysis, land use change, relative carbon price, discounting, global warming |
| JEL: | D61 H43 Q15 Q48 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:ppaper:2016.07&r=agr |
| By: | Bonan, Jacopo; Pagani, Laura |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of a junior farmer field school project in Northern Uganda on students’ agricultural knowledge and practices. We also test for the presence of intergenerational learning spillover within households. We use differences-in-differences estimators with ex-ante matching. We find that the program had positive effects on students’ agricultural knowledge and adoption of good practices and that it produced some spillover effects in terms of improvements of household agricultural knowledge and food security. Overall, our results point to the importance of adapting the basic principles of farmer field schools to children. |
| Keywords: | Junior Farmer Field Schools, Agricultural Extension, Intergenerational Learning Spillover, Uganda, Agricultural and Food Policy, O13, O22, O55, C93, |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:250257&r=agr |
| By: | Tasso Adamopoulos; Loren Brandt; Jessica Leight; Diego Restuccia |
| Abstract: | We use household-level panel data from China and a quantitative framework to document the extent and consequences of factor misallocation in agriculture. We find that there are substantial frictions in both the land and capital markets linked to land institutions in rural China that disproportionately constrain the more productive farmers. These frictions reduce aggregate agricultural productivity in China by affecting two key margins: (1) the allocation of resources across farmers (misallocation) and (2) the allocation of workers across sectors, in particular the type of farmers who operate in agriculture (selection). We show that selection can substantially amplify the static misallocation effect of distortionary policies by affecting occupational choices that worsen the distribution of productive units in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | agriculture, misallocation, selection, productivity, China. |
| JEL: | O11 O14 O4 |
| Date: | 2017–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-574&r=agr |
| By: | Stefano Aragona |
| Abstract: | Objectives The purpose of the paper is to consider the natural and cultural resources as key elements in the planning and design of the territory and the city. That is to think the local conditions as guidelines in the transformations both of the space and the social environment. So overturning the logic that in most cases has guided the formation of the modern city: i.e. to build everywhere without caring the sustainability of the areas and thinking the land as an infinite resource. The chances and opportunities possible thank to smart city must be used by a ?cultured technology? (Del Nord, 1991) to build ?local Communities inclusive and sustainable, either materially and socially? (Smart City, 2010), that is ?ecological". Methods A multidisciplinary vision, thus multicriteria, is the base of the proposed methodology. It requires an integrated approach of material and immaterial elements. With the overall vision that characterizes the Leipzig Charter (2007) where it are required ??planning strategies that connect rural and not rural areas, small, medium, big towns, metropolitan areas?. And the focus that Smart City gives to the flows of things and energy, with the goals of Horizon 2020. The starting point consists in considering the city as common good characterized by a number of physical and social local resources. Remembering that the mission of the modern town planners, from the Athena Chart 1931, is the wellbeing of the inhabitants. Renewable resources and interactive communications may help to better the design. But all that must be done having as goal construct local communities and not only to reinforce individual power. Flows of energy and flows of communications characterize the contemporaneous city: the immaterial city (Aragona, 1993, 2000). The town, its shape, its economical structure and the functional one, are changing. For the most the town planners accept these changes without trying to address them. In the countries where the city as common good is less felt these changes for bettering wellbeing and social sustainability are not caught or left to the ?free market? alone. while Ecolonia ( 1989-1993) or Sustainable Copenhagen (2009) are examples of what can be done. All this leads to redevelop the territory and the cits using indicators of life quality, going beyond GDP as the 134 of the Fair and Equitable Wellbeing and (BES) proposed by ISTAT alongside those suggested by the Charter of Quality by AUDIs since 2007. Conclusions The current crisis, can be a turning point - the meanings of the originary Greek word ?????? - of the model based on the industrial paradigm (Kuhn, 1962) whose limits were declared in "The Limits of Growth" (1972). This paper suggests to replace the industrial model of ?making the city? with the ecological approach that starts from the local conditions such as indications of plan/project/construction for the transformation of the anthropocosmo. That is to relate the ?????, discourse, analyses, with the ?????, the environment (www.ekistics.org): finally the purpose of Smart City. |
| Keywords: | Ecologica approach; Integrated town planning; Crisis as opportunity |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p830&r=agr |
| By: | Panagiotou, Dimitrios; Stavrakoudis, Athanassios |
| Abstract: | The present article offers an empirical assessment of the degree and the structure of price dependence between wholesale and retail market levels in the U.S. beef industry, while accounting for product differentiation. This is pursued using the statistical tool of copulas and monthly rates of price changes for different cuts and quality grades of the beef product for the time period 2002–2016. Six wholesale–retail pairs were formed based on different cuts and quality grades. The empirical results suggest that prices at retail level respond differently to extreme negative and positive wholesale price shocks. More specifically, extreme price increases at the wholesale level are transmitted to the retail level in five out of six pairs whereas extreme price decreases are not passed from the wholesale to the retail market level in five out of six pairs. Based on these findings, there is evidence of asymmetric price relationships between wholesale–retail market levels in the U.S. beef marketing channel, when quality differences in cuts and grades is considered. |
| Keywords: | Price relationships; Beef cuts; Wholesale-Retail; Asymmetries; Copulas |
| JEL: | C14 L66 Q13 |
| Date: | 2017–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75989&r=agr |
| By: | Bosello, Francesco; Orecchia, Carlo; Raitzer, David A. |
| Abstract: | Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, the region is also following a trajectory that could make it a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the future. Understanding the economic implications of policy options for low carbon growth is essential to formulate instruments that achieve the greatest emissions reductions at lowest cost. This study focuses on five developing countries of Southeast Asia that collectively account for 90% of regional emissions in recent years—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The analyses are based on the CGE economy-energy-environment model ICES under an array of scenarios reflecting business as usual, fragmented climate policies, an approximately 2.4°C post 2020 global climate stabilization target, termed 650 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (eq), and an approximately 2°C global target (termed 500 ppm CO2 eq). Averted deforestation through reducing emissions from forest degradation and deforestation (REDD) is included in some scenarios. The study shows that global and coordinated action is found to be critical to the cost effectiveness of emissions stabilization policies. A 650ppm stabilization scenario (below 3°C in 2100) has a similar cost to the region to current fragmented targets, but achieves much higher levels of emissions reductions. However, only some of the countries have short-term emissions targets that are consistent with a stabilization scenario at 650ppm: these are Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam. None of the countries’ mid-term targets are coherent with more ambitious stabilization scenario at 500ppm. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation, Asian Economies, Computable General Equilibrium Models, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q54, Q58, C68, |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:250260&r=agr |
| By: | Lajos Barath (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Heinrich Hockmann (Department Agricultural Markets - Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)) |
| Abstract: | Existing studies of agricultural production largely neglect technology heterogeneity. However, the assumption of homogeneous production may result in inadequate policy implications. There is a growing literature on this issue. In this paper we contribute to this literature by modelling the effect of heterogeneous technologies and its impact on technological parameters and technical efficiency using a reformulated Random parameter Model. Our approach is based on the model developed by Alvarez et al. (2004). However, the original version of this model faces one crucial econometric problem: the assumption of independence of technical inefficiency and input variables does not, hence the estimated results are not necessarily consistent. Therefore we reformulate the model to allow for a more consistent estimation. Additionally, we examine the importance of the fulfilment of theoretical consistency: monotonicity and quasi-concavity. In order to fulfil these criteria we apply constrained maximum likelihood estimation, more specifically we build linear and non-linear constraints into the model and force it to yield theoretically consistent results, not only in the mean but also in different approximation points. For the empirical analysis we use farm level data from the Hungarian FADN Database. The results showed that considering technological differences is important. According to model selection criteria the modified Alvarez model with constraints was the preferred specification. Additionally, the results imply that the consideration of the effect of heterogeneous technologies on production potential and efficiency crucial in order to get adequate policy implication. |
| Keywords: | technical efficiency, technological heterogeneity, Random Parameter Model, theoretical consistency, monotonicity, quasi-concavity, Hungarian agriculture |
| JEL: | C5 D24 Q12 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1636&r=agr |
| By: | William D. Nordhaus |
| Abstract: | Climate change remains one of the major international environmental challenges facing nations. Yet nations have to date taken minimal policies to slow climate change. Moreover, there has been no major improvement in emissions trends as of the latest data. The current study uses the updated DICE model to present new projections and the impacts of alternative climate policies. It also presents a new set of estimates of the uncertainties about future climate change and compares the results will those of other integrated assessment models. The study confirms past estimates of likely rapid climate change over the next century if there are not major climate-change policies. It suggests that it will be extremely difficult to achieve the 2°C target of international agreements even if ambitious policies are introduced in the near term. The required carbon price needed to achieve current targets has risen over time as policies have been delayed. |
| JEL: | C15 F6 Q5 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22933&r=agr |
| By: | Zhu, Drew |
| Abstract: | The law of demand might have no exception and the Giffen behavior should be one of the standard forms of the law. According to the new attribute theory and semi-empirical simulation method, Giffen behavior is verified in a general equilibrium framework using the data of food consumption in rural China. The superior food and the wealthy households with high preference for taste have higher possibility than the inferior food and low income households in exhibiting Giffen property. Therefore, to find empirical Giffen behavior, we should focus on the superior food and wealthy households with high preference for taste. |
| Keywords: | Law of demand, New attribute theory, Giffen behavior |
| JEL: | C61 D01 D11 D12 |
| Date: | 2016–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75707&r=agr |
| By: | Alexander Blandon Lopez; Janeth Gonzalez Rubio |
| Abstract: | Relationship between value chain governance and value chain integration (as an outcome of a public private partnership to promote value chain competiveness at the regional level). The case of the rice value chain in Tolima (Colombia) Alexander Blandón López PhD. Lecturer Universidad del Tolima Janeth González Rubio MA Lecturer Universidad del Tolima This paper focuses on the study of the relationship between value chain governance and value chain integration (as an outcome of a public private partnership to promote value chain competiveness at the regional level). The study expands and disaggregates Gereffi?s Global Commodity Chain framework and applies some of its analytical categories (input output structure and governance amongst others) to the study of regional value chains. The governance structure embodies the ?authority and power relations that determine how financial, material, and human resources are allocated and flow within the chain? (Gereffi 1994: 97). In this sense, the concept relates to the ?power relations in the chain and the institutions which mould and wield this power? (Kaplinsky and Morris 2000). There is a directed network form of coordination of the rice value chain. Historically there had been developed systems of formal and informal agreements between producers and rice threshing entrepreneurs on subjects such as payments, rice varieties and quantities. Other forms of coordination such as support strategies for rice producers, supply of packing inputs, financing and technical assistance have also been developed (Corpoica 2000: 54). These practices provided a basic common ground for the discussion and signing of the competitiveness agreement as an instrument of coordination for the value chain rice threshing in Tolima (Colombia). From a governance point of view, it can be stated that a domestic oligopsony of an agricultural raw material protected by the national government reduces the likelihood of success for the expected developmental outcomes of a competitiveness agreement. A domestic market protected from imports introduces as a main contention point between agro-producers and industrialists in a competitiveness agreement the issue of price determination. At the end, the government has to arbitrate. Finally, a competitiveness agreement embodies for a regional government a potential instrument for social and economic policy interventions. First, governments can participate in this scheme, having in mind the promotion of social policies (employment generation and smallholder income improvements), particularly in depressed areas with a tradition or a potential for raw material production. Second, competitiveness agreements offer to the public sector a scope of action to deal with regional economic restructuring processes and to promote endogenous development policies with active involvement and contribution of several regional stakeholders Blandon, L.A (2012) Economic restructuring and value chains. The search for regional competitiveness in Colombia. PHD thesis. Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| Keywords: | Governance; value chain; rice; Competitiveness agreement |
| JEL: | O25 O38 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p977&r=agr |
| By: | Pierre-Benoit Joly; Laurence Colinet; Ariane Gaunand; Stéphane Lemarié; Mireille Matt |
| Abstract: | The Research Impact Assessment (RIA) is expected to increase the efficiency with which public funds are used, and to improve more broadly the functioning of the research and innovation system and its contribution to address a wide range of socio-economic and environmental issues. Both standard economic approaches, which aim to estimate the economic benefits of research investments, and case-study approaches, which aim to analyse the processes of impact generation, have been applied to agricultural research in practice. Standard economic approaches generally focus on public research as information on private efforts in agricultural research is limited, and on economic impacts such as productivity growth. Case studies provide richer information, through a narrative, and highlight the complex relationships among the various variables, events and actors, but it is difficult to standardise results and scale them up. The challenge for RIA is to take into account broader impacts that go beyond science and economic impacts, and to improve knowledge on impact-generating mechanisms. This has become more difficult as agricultural research and innovation systems are increasingly open and complex, and changing quickly. Observation of practices applied to agricultural research in five selected organisations confirms the difference found in RIA between academic research and in practice. In both, the assessment systems pursue the same objectives: 1) Learning: enhance the know-how to produce an environment conducive to socio-economic impact; 2) Capacity building: spread the culture of socio-economic impact to its researchers; and 3) Reporting to stakeholders: from accountability purposes to advocacy targeted to various audiences. The accountability objective, including estimating returns on the financial investment, poses complex challenges and is in tension with the learning and capacity building objectives. The future of RIA will depend on the capacity to improve estimation methods and gather quality information (which also takes into account non-economic impacts) and the sharing of good practices. |
| Keywords: | agricultural research, research impact evaluation |
| JEL: | O31 O38 Q16 |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:98-en&r=agr |
| By: | James Mabli; David Jones; Phillip Kaufman |
| Abstract: | This study provides a more comprehensive depiction of the environment in which low-income households and other vulnerable populations acquire and purchase food by considering access to emergency food pantries in areas lacking supermarkets. |
| Keywords: | food access, food pantries, low-income, supermarkets, poverty, GIS, spatial analysis |
| JEL: | I0 I1 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:d1964301c84145879471b7cb2c03b72d&r=agr |
| By: | Rabi Mohtar |
| Abstract: | In September 2015, Heads of State met at the United Nations General Assembly to announce the end of the term of “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) and commit to a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs were written by disciplinary teams, and as they are formulated now, they recognize the interlinkages between well-being, economic prosperity and a healthy environment. The SDGs include a wide spectrum of topics and issues: food security, poverty, gender inequality, economic development, climate change, and health, among others. Under each of the Goals is a list of quantifiable targets to be achieved in the coming 10-15 years. Progress toward 12 of these SDGs is directly related to the sustainable use of resources such as land, food, water, energy and materials. The commitment of the Nations to adopt and achieve the SDGs, eradicate poverty, and achieve sustained development that will impact more and more populations, represents an unprecedented opportunity to enter a new era of policy making and resource management. One that can make the integration of social, economic and environmental issues a reality. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:ppaper:pb-16/30&r=agr |
| By: | Stavrakoudis, Athanassios; Panagiotou, Dimitrios |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to assess the degree and the structure of price dependence between different coffee qualities of the Arabica and Robusta varieties. This is pursued using the statistical tool of copulas and monthly price data for the period 1990:1{2014:12. Our results reveal evidence of asymmetric price dependence between the pairs Brazilian-Robusta, Brazilian-Others and Robusta-Others, since price booms and price crashes are transmitted with different probabilities between these pairs of coffee qualities. For the pairs Brazilian-Colombian, Colombian-Robusta and Colombian-Others there is no evidence of asymmetric price dependence. The empirical findings of this article indicate that the probability that fairtrade coffee producers will see a price crash in the Robusta variety being transmitted to the coffee qualities of the Arabica variety is either zero or much lower than the probability of the transmission of a price boom. |
| Keywords: | coffee qualities; price dependence; copula; fairtrade |
| JEL: | C14 F15 Q13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75994&r=agr |
| By: | Paulo Santos; Christopher B. Barrett |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the causal mechanisms behind persistent poverty. Using original data on Boran pastoralists of southern Ethiopia, we find that heterogeneous and nonlinear wealth dynamics arise purely in adverse states of nature. In favorable states, expected herd grow is quasi-linear and universal. We further show that those with lower herding ability, as reflected in past herd growth data, converge to a unique equilibrium at a small herd size while those with higher ability exhibit multiple stable dynamic wealth equilibria. |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2016-36&r=agr |
| By: | Partha Deb; Christian A. Gregory |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of SNAP participation on food insecurity and food spending using finite mixture models that allow for a priori unspecified heterogeneous effects. We identify a low food security subgroup comprising a third of the population for whom SNAP participation increases the probability of high food security by 20-30 percentage points. There is no affect of SNAP on the remaining two-thirds of the population. SNAP increases food spending in the previous week by $50-$65 for a low modal spending subgroup comprising two-thirds of the population, with no effect for the remaining third of the population. |
| JEL: | D12 I38 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22977&r=agr |
| By: | José Flávio Motta; Luciana Suarez Lopes |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the proceedings of the two Agricultural Meetings that took place in 1878: in July in Rio de Janeiro, and in October in Recife. We compare the two different call processes of the events. Then we focus our attention on the discussions about the availability of capital for the plantations, and on the suggestions about stimulating the supply of credit to the farmers. For each meeting, we analyse separately some of the aspects that stood up in those discussions. In our closing remarks, we resume the comparison of the two events, and consider the eventual existence of a segmentation among the farmers at the Rio de Janeiro Meeting. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Meeting of 1878; credit policy in the Second Empire; Money and banks in the Second Empire; sugar economy; coffee economy. |
| JEL: | N56 N26 N46 |
| Date: | 2016–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2016wpecon33&r=agr |
| By: | Spash, Clive L.; Theine, Hendrik |
| Abstract: | In recent years, the search for regulatory regimes in order to effectively address human induced climate change have become a prominent political and academic issue. Emission trading schemes have risen in popularity and are widely believed to be an effective, as well as economically efficient, measure and have become a favoured government strategy. On the individual level, many individuals in the industrialised nations now undertake actions to offset their personal direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by voluntarily purchasing carbon credits, normally in association with product or service purchase. While this is a fast growing market, advertised as creating a carbon neutral consumer society, the voluntary carbon credit sector raises fundamental problems with respect to verification and credibility of the claimed offsets and associated projects. Lack of regulation and legal oversight leads to the impossibility of actually obtaining or verifying information on the consequences of voluntary credit purchases. Providers of offset credits who are driven by greed and easy profits will underfunded emissions abatement projects and pay little attention to quality standards. Corporate "green washing" is also likely through voluntary offsets marketed as going carbon neutral. This paper connects voluntary offsets to psychological and behavioural impacts on the individual. We identify three specific issues: the psychology of marketing and purchasing of voluntary offsets, commodification and crowding out of intrinsic motivations and the implicit ethics with its own psychological implications. We also discuss the political economy of voluntary carbon markets and their geo-political implications in terms of the global North- South divide and ethical responsibility for action on human induced climate change. This raises serious concerns over the individualisation of a collective problem, what can and should be expected of individuals as ethical consumers and how markets operate in practice. Such aspects place individual behaviour within a broader social and institutional context that questions the trend in market environmentalism and its impacts on the capability of humans to relate to nature. (authors' abstract) |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus009:5206&r=agr |
| By: | Jean-Francois Maystadt; Giuseppe Migali |
| Abstract: | We study the intergenerational transmission of health using linked registered data from China between 1789 and 1906. We first document the intergenerational correlations across 7 generations. We then identify intergenerational causal associations comparing children born from twin mothers or fathers. In particular, we find a strong and persistent intergenerational elasticity between mothers and children of about 0.52. The intergenerational association from fathers is much weaker and seems to be largely driven by genetic factors. The estimates remain relatively stable up to generation 5 and are robust to different checks. Overall, our results highlight the nurturing role of women in explaining the intergenerational transmission of health, stressing the key role played by women in affecting children's health outcomes in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational correlations, causal effects, long-term health outcomes |
| JEL: | I14 I29 I3 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:147116320&r=agr |
| By: | Bonnet, Céline; Richards, Timothy |
| Abstract: | Advances in available data, econometric methods, and computing power have created a revolution in demand modeling over the past two decades. Highly granular data on household choices means that we can model very specific decisions regarding purchase choices for differentiated products at the retail level. In this chapter, we review the recent methods in modeling consumer demand, and their application to problems in industrial organization and strategic marketing. |
| Keywords: | consumer demand, discrete choice, discrete-continuous choice, shopping basket models, machine learning. |
| JEL: | D43 L13 L81 M31 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:31257&r=agr |
| By: | Carlén, Ola (CERE and the Department of Forest Economics, SLU); Bostedt, Göran (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Persson, Lars (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Brännlund, Runar (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This report is made on assignment from the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. The purpose is to conduct an analysis of recreational fishing in Sweden based on a nationwide survey on the Swedish people's recreational fishing habits with respect to the year 2013. |
| Keywords: | Recreational fishing; Travel cost method; Zero-inflated Poisson |
| JEL: | Q22 Q51 |
| Date: | 2016–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2016_020&r=agr |
| By: | Mussa, Richard |
| Abstract: | The paper assesses the effects of maize yields just prior to birth (in utero), in the first and the second years of life on adult life productivity and efficiency of maize farmers born between 1984 and 1995 in rural Malawi. To ensure that early life maize yields are not confounded by omitted local chacteristics, they are transformed into relative maize yields by using a cumulative gamma distribution. I find that maize yield just prior to birth significantly increases maize output in a farmer's adult life. However, relative maize yields in the first and second years of life have no long-term effects on maize production. Furthermore, there is no long-term impact of early life maize yields on the technical efficiency of maize production. These findings survive a number of robustness checks including alternative definitions of early life maize yields, controlling for migration and allowing for serial correlation. Furthermore, the results are not driven by sample selection originating from survival induced by maize yields in early life. Thus, low maize productivity in early-life begets low maize productivity in adult life. The paper finds that the impact of inputs under the farm input subsidy programme (FISP) on maize productivity is almost of the same order of magnitude as the long-term impact of maize yield in utero. |
| Keywords: | Productivity; In utero; Malawi |
| JEL: | Q12 |
| Date: | 2017–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75975&r=agr |
| By: | John Finch; Susi Geiger; Emma Reid |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how environmental regulation is made operational when it legislates for modifications rather than the banning of products or substances. The continued circulation of such products draws attention to the heterogeneous conditions of their use and allows industry actors to accumulate evidence of the products' polluting effects over time. We find that this agentic quality of materials – including products and sites of application – is a vital and so far largely ignored dimension in the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation. This is captured in a process we term interactive stabilization, which describes how material agency becomes a focus for interactions between regulatory and industry actors. We develop our argument through an in-depth case study of the environmental regulation of production chemistry and identify three interactive processes: formulating regulatory principles; operationalizing these principles through technical documentation and calculation; and incremental innovation as used by chemists to address clients’ varied material problems in production. We trace stabilizing and destabilizing effects across these three processes and draw particular attention to the role of uncertainty in the operationalization of precaution as a regulatory principle. We argue that this uncertainty may lead to a form of regulatory capture that we frame as technological capture. This refers to how industry actors are able to test the limits of regulatory principles and calculations and on occasion contest these through their applied science capabilities. |
| Keywords: | Regulation; Technology marketing; Regulatory capture; Sales |
| JEL: | O38 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rru:oapubs:10197/8184&r=agr |
| By: | Costinot, Arnaud; Donaldson, Dave |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a new approach to measuring the gains from economic integration based on a generalization of the Ricardian model in which heterogeneous factors of production are allocated to multiple sectors in multiple local markets based on comparative advantage. We implement this approach using data on crop markets in approximately 2,600 U.S. counties from 1880 to 1997. Central to our empirical analysis is the use of a novel agronomic data source on predicted output by crop for small spatial units. Crucially, this dataset contains information about the productivity of all units for all crops, not just those that are actually being grown - an essential input for measuring the gains from trade. Using this new approach we find substantial long-run gains from economic integration among US agricultural markets, benefits that are similar in magnitude to those due to productivity improvements over that same period. |
| Keywords: | Gains from Economic; Ricardian Model; U.S. Agriculture |
| JEL: | F1 F10 F11 F14 F15 F17 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11712&r=agr |
| By: | Tamayo, Adrian; Tagalo, Romulo |
| Abstract: | The study aims to quantify the economic value of the sand and gravel which is deemed as a non-renewable resource. A survey was conducted to extract the consumer surplus of the households, also construct the demand equation for the resource. With the demand equation for sand and gravel at , the consumer surplus was estimated at P8271. Using the economic valuation technique, the economic value of sand and gravel was estimated at P729,568,368. Thus, a very high value imputed on the environmental resource. The survey showed that 82% of the population in Davao del Norte is amenable for a policy to regulate sand and gravel extraction. With the new valuation measure of the sand and gravel, a new price may be introduced at price range between P125-P225 per cubic meter. The new price is set to be used as payment for environmental services and compensation projects at the quarry sites. Also, the cost structures of permitees in Davao del Norte are too low compared to the operators in Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental and Davao City. The cost of operation in Davao del Norte is approximately 18% of the cost in Davao Oriental and 20% of the cost of Compostela Valley. The cost differences are largely due to the permit cost which is cheaper in Panabo and Tagum than in other areas. This is suggestive that the permitees may likely absorb the cost rather than transfer operation given their high producer surplus value. |
| Keywords: | Non-renewable natural resource, willingness to pay |
| JEL: | Q3 Q31 Q5 Q51 |
| Date: | 2016–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75969&r=agr |
| By: | Alberini, Anna; Ščasný, Milan; Bigano, Andrea |
| Abstract: | The implementation of decarbonization policies depends crucially on the public’s willingness to pay for them. We use stated preference methods to investigate the public’s preferences for such policies. We ask three research questions. First, does the willingness to pay (WTP) for each ton of CO2 emissions reductions depend on the policies and on individual characteristics of the respondents? Second, how extensive is the variation associated with these factors? Third, what factors affect support for or opposition to a carbon tax? Based on the responses to discrete choice experiments from a sample of Italians, we find that the WTP per ton of CO2 ranges between € 6 and 130, depending on whether the public program is based on taxes, incentives, information-based approaches or standards. Further allowing for individual characteristics of the respondents, such as gender or education, and knowledge of climate change, results in a 300% change in WTP, holding the policy instrument the same. We conclude that the variation associated with the policy instrument is approximately of the same order of magnitude as that associated with individual characteristics of the respondents. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation, WTP per ton of CO2 Emissions Reduced, Choice Experiments, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q41, Q48, Q54, Q51, |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:251814&r=agr |
| By: | Kostrova, Alisa; Britz, Wolfgang; Djanibekov, Utkur; Finger, Robert |
| Keywords: | Scenario Tree Reduction, Compound Option, American Option, Farming Investment Decision, Bioenergy, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, C61, C63, G32, Q12, Q42, |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubfred:250253&r=agr |
| By: | Arnaud Costinot; Dave Donaldson |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a new approach to measuring the gains from economic integration based on a generalization of the Ricardian model in which heterogeneous factors of production are allocated to multiple sectors in multiple local markets based on comparative advantage. We implement this approach using data on crop markets in approximately 2,600 U.S. counties from 1880 to 1997. Central to our empirical analysis is the use of a novel agronomic data source on predicted output by crop for small spatial units. Crucially, this dataset contains information about the productivity of all units for all crops, not just those that are actually being grown—an essential input for measuring the gains from trade. Using this new approach we find substantial long-run gains from economic integration among US agricultural markets, benefits that are similar in magnitude to those due to productivity improvements over that same period. |
| JEL: | F0 F1 F11 F15 F17 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22946&r=agr |
| By: | BIMONTE, Giovanna (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy); SENATORE, Luigi (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a new index that is able to point out the important relationship between environmental protection and investments in innovation processes. We identify the index with the acronym EICI (Environmental Innovation Comparative Index). This new empirical tool can help to explain how the level of innovation can determine different levels of air pollution in the world. We use OLS models to investigate how this new index impacts the variations in greenhouse gas emissions, and we underline some fundamental policy implications. Considering the levels of the EICI and the empirical analysis of the role of this index then we conclude that enforcing new environmental agreements with some fundamental rules, as the incentive to reduce the technological gaps among the countries, is crucial to protect the environment and at same time stimulate the investment for innovation in all countries of the world. |
| Keywords: | Kyoto Agreement; Environmental Index; OLS model; Environmental Policy; |
| JEL: | O33 Q50 Q52 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:0141&r=agr |
| By: | Marco Battaglini; Bård Harstad |
| Abstract: | In recent decades, democratic countries have signed hundreds of international environmental agreements (IEAs). Most of these agreements, however, are weak: they generally do not include effective enforcement or monitoring mechanisms. This is a puzzle in standard economic models. To study this phenomenon, we propose a positive theory of IEAs in which the political incumbents negotiate them in the shadow of reelection concerns. We show that, in these environments, incumbents are prone to negotiate treaties that are simultaneously overambitious (larger than what they would be without electoral concerns) and weak (might not be implemented in full). The theory also provides a new perspective for understanding investments in green technologies, highlighting a channel through which countries are tempted to rely too much on technology instead of sanctions to make compliance credible. We present preliminary evidence consistent with these predictions. |
| JEL: | D72 F55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22968&r=agr |
| By: | Bostedt, Göran (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Brännlund, Runar (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Carlén, Ola (CERE and the Department of Forest Economics, SLU); Gisselman, Fredrik (Enetjärn Natur AB); Persson, Lars (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This report is an economic cost-benefit analysis for each of the five no-take zones for fishing set up in Sweden, namely, Gålö south of Stockholm, Storjungfrun-Kalvhararna outside Söderhamn, Havstensfjord, Vinga and southern Kattegat. The aim has been to the extent possible, quantify the benefits and costs associated with these no-take areas. Some benefits and costs have not currently been possible to quantifying and those have been given a qualitative description. The introduction of no-take zones for fishing focuses primarily on managing fish stocks for recreation and commercial fishing, where the focus is on the management of specific target, but the introduction can also affect economic benefits and costs that are not directly linked to fishing, for example positive impacts on biodiversity and the improvement of the ability to generate ecosystem services. Therefore the report presents an analysis of ecosystem services and focus on the socio-economic benefits of these potential improvements to bring to the community at large and for specific interest groups. In the report, it is easy to focus interest on the benefits and costs that can, with varying accuracy, be quantified monetarily. This may create a false sense of precision in net results for the various fishing areas. For example, the value of ecosystem values mentioned above can be significant, while they can only be expressed qualitatively. Further, there is significant uncertainty in the biological basis and the economic estimates. To take this into account to some extent this analysis has been made in the form of a scenario analysis with four scenarios for each area. To this has been added a sensitivity analysis for certain key parameters. One significant uncertainty in the economic estimates relate to the spatial population effects, i.e. how far the substitutional effects of a no-fishing zone extends. An extreme case would be they recreational fishermen who used to fish in the closed area will not increase their fishing in other areas. Another extreme case would mean that the reduction of fishing days as a consequence of the no-take zone is not matched by equally large increases in related areas. The real impact we have in this study not been able to analyze. |
| Keywords: | No-take zones; Fishing; Cost-Benefit Analysis |
| JEL: | D61 Q22 |
| Date: | 2016–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2016_017&r=agr |
| By: | Elsasser, Peter; Meyerhoff, Jürgen; Weller, Priska |
| Abstract: | This collection presents an updated bibliography of those empirical forest ecosystem service valuation studies in the German speaking countries which relate to demand oriented measures of the utility of public goods. The associated database (which is provided as a separately downloadable Excel-file) contains 77 data sets by October 2016. These data sets are characterised by about 40 descriptors (the exact number depending on the specific valuation method used in the respective study) which present details of the valuation object, the statistical and economic methods applied, the results of the valuation exercise, some other descriptors for study quality, and the associated publications. The structure of the database is explained in detail here. |
| Keywords: | forest,non-market valuation,ecosystem services,Austria,Germany,Switzerland,meta-database,bibliography,Wald,Umweltbewertung,Monetarisierung,Ökosystemleistungen,Österreich,Schweiz,Deutschland,Metadatenbank,Bibliografie |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:jhtiwp:65&r=agr |
| By: | Mussa, Richard |
| Abstract: | One of the key deficiencies of household survey data for measuring poverty and inequality is that survey nonresponse depends on the income of the respondent, whereby rich people are less likely to cooperate with household surveys than poor people. This nonrandom nonresponse may hide the true level of poverty and inequality. Another potential problem with household survey data which has received scant attention in the literature is the quality of food conversion factors. Nonrandom errors and inconsistencies in food conversion factors can potentially have a nontrivial impact on measured poverty and inequality.The paper looks at the impact of errors and inconsistencies in food conversion factors on measured consumption inequality. Malawi has been used as case study with data from the Second and the Third Integrated Household Surveys (IHS2 and IHS3). Two consumption aggregates are used; an official aggregate which is contaminated by errors and inconsistencies in food conversion factors and a new aggregate which cleans out these problems. The paper finds that the inconsistencies and errors in the conversion factors were not random in that they affected the richest households more than the poorest households. Consequently, the official aggregate understates the level of inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. Inequality is underestimated by 4.4 and 2.3 Gini points for 2004/5 and 2010/11 respectively. The disparities are not only sizable but they are also statistically significant. I also find that the official aggregate progressively underestimates the share accruing to higher percentiles. Nonparametric tests for Lorenz dominance confirm that these differences in measured inequality are robust. Using the new aggregate, the paper also finds that inequality is not worsening overtime as the official aggregate suggests. All this implies that the quality of food conversion factors is critical for the accurate measurement of levels of and trends in inequality. |
| Keywords: | Conversion factors; inequality; Malawi |
| JEL: | D3 D30 |
| Date: | 2017–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75981&r=agr |
| By: | Stavrakoudis, Athanassios; Panagiotou, Dimitrios |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to measure the amount of market power exercised by the U.S. red meatpacking industry using the recently developed stochastic frontier estimator of market power. The aggregate degree of market power in both the input market (cattle and hogs) and the output market (beef and pork) is estimated using annual time series data for the period 1970- 2009. The empirical results reveal that the farm-to-wholesale price spread is 4.91% and 4.16% above the marginal processing costs, in the beef and pork packing industries, respectively. These findings indicate that rather a small percentage of the farm-to-wholesale price spread can be attributed to market power in both U.S. meat packing sectors. |
| Keywords: | beef; pork; stochastic frontier analysis; market power |
| JEL: | C13 L66 Q11 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75997&r=agr |
| By: | Wieland, Hanspeter; Giljum, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Politics' demand for informative consumption-based emission assessments based on multi-regional input output (MRIO) databases is steadily increasing. Based on the MRIO database EXIOBASE 3, we exemplify the utility of a range of analytical tools and discus their potential insights for consumption-based policies. The analysis decomposes the overall EU carbon footprint into product groups as well as into emitting regions. Subsequently, we illustrate the potential of applying production layer decomposition (PLD) and structural path analysis (SPA) for the assessment of global supply-chains related to the EU carbon footprint and their structural changes over time. We close with some policy ecommendations on reducing carbon footprint hot spots. |
| Keywords: | Carbon footprint, multi-regional input-output analysis, analytical tools, supply chains, production layer decomposition, structural path analysis |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus045:5310&r=agr |
| By: | Kostakis, Ioannis; Lolos, Sarantis; Sardianou, Eleni |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses empirically the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on environmental quality, measured by CO2 emissions. The cases of Brazil and Singapore are taken as examples for our empirical investigation, on the grounds of their specific similarities and differences. The empirical analysis is carried out in a multivariate setting, using a variety of models (ARDL, FMOLS, OLS) for the early 1970s to 2010. The results indicate that FDI inflows have lead to environmental degradation in Brazil but not in Singapore. Our findings point to the importance of the sectoral composition of FDI as a determinant of its impact on environmental quality. The analysis is supplemented with an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), our results showing that the EKC hypothesis holds for the case of Singapore but its validity is marginal in Brazil. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment; environmental degradation; kuznets curve |
| JEL: | Q43 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75643&r=agr |