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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2017‒08‒13
fourteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Cammelli, Federico (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Angelsen, Arild (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Despite a fall in deforestation, frequency and severity of fires in the Brazilian Amazon are rising, causing huge carbon emissions, biodiversity losses and local economic costs. The ignition sources are anthropogenic and mostly related to the accidental spread of agricultural fires. Fire risk mitigation is a coordination problem with strategic complementarities: a farmer’s benefit of mitigation depends on complementary action of other farmers. We experimentally assess ex-ante the impact of two different policies under varying exogenous drought risk scenarios. Command and control is more effective than payments for environmental services in promoting coordination, possibly because of participants’ risk aversion (to the fine) and a local demand for justice and law enforcement. We also find evidence of a human-mediated self-reinforcing loop of drought and fires: droughts increase the exogenous component of fire risk, giving farmers less incentives to mitigate fire risk coming from their own farms. |
| Keywords: | Brazilian Amazon; forest fires; climate change; framed field experiment; coordination games |
| JEL: | C93 Q23 Q54 |
| Date: | 2017–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2017_004&r=agr |
| By: | Annelies Deuss (OECD) |
| Abstract: | During the commodity price spikes in 2007-08 and 2010-11, several countries implemented temporary export restrictions on staple foods in an attempt to protect domestic consumers from rising and volatile prices. The impacts of these policies, however, are not limited to the countries that are instituting them; they can also influence consumer prices in their trading partners. This study analyses whether the impact of export restrictions was different in countries that were traditionally more dependent on imports from the restricting country than in countries that imported a smaller share. Four export bans are considered: the maize ban in Argentina, the rice bans in India and Viet Nam, and the wheat ban in the Russian Federation. Using an error correction model in a panel framework, the study identifies the long-run impacts of export bans by showing whether the introduction of these bans caused a structural break in the long-term relationship between prices in international markets and consumer prices in domestic markets. The analysis demonstrates that the effects of an export ban were more pronounced in the group of countries that traditionally imported a higher share from the restricting countries than in countries with a lower import dependency. The results show that, even though export bans are temporary in nature, they can have long lasting effects. |
| Keywords: | error correction model, export bans, Food prices, price transmission |
| JEL: | C23 F13 Q11 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2017–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:105-en&r=agr |
| By: | Yalew, Amsalu W.; Hirte, Georg; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Tscharaktschiew, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Quantifying the economic effects of climate change is a crucial step for planning adaptation in developing countries. This study assesses the economy-wide and regional effects of climate change induced productivity and labor supply shocks in agriculture in Ethiopia. The study shows, in worst case scenario, the effects on national GDP may add up to -8% with uneven regional effects ranging from -10% in agrarian regions (e.g. Amhara) to +2.5% in urbanized regions (e.g. Addis Ababa). Cost-free exogenous structural change scenarios in labor markets and transaction costs may offset about 20-30% of the ripple effects of climate change. Therefore, the ongoing structural transformation in the country may underpin the resilience of the economy to climate change. Nevertheless, given the role of agriculture in the current economic structure of the country and the potency of biophysical impacts of climate change, adaptation in the sector is indispensable. Otherwise, climate change may hamper economic progress of the country, and make rural livelihood unpredictable. |
| Keywords: | climate change,agriculture,migration,CGE model,Ethiopia |
| JEL: | C68 D58 J21 J43 J62 O55 Q54 Q56 R11 R13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tudcep:1017&r=agr |
| By: | Dacuycuy, Connie B.; Baje, Lora Kryz |
| Abstract: | Weather is an integral part of our life and weather shocks can have severe implications on income and household consumption. Given evidence that points to altered patterns of weather parameters resulting from climate change, this paper aims to contribute to poverty studies in the Philippines by analyzing the effects of geographic attributes, like weather variability, on chronic and transient poverty. Based on the estimates of the generalized linear model, higher than normal rainfall contributes to a modest increase in chronic total and chronic food poverty in both urban and rural areas. In addition, asset ownership and college education have the most impact on the reduction of both types of poverty. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, weather variability, poverty dynamics, components approach, chronic poverty, transient poverty, food poverty |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2017-24&r=agr |
| By: | Schöttker, Oliver; Wätzold, Frank |
| Abstract: | Cost-effective implementation of measures to conserve biodiversity is often a major target of conservation organisations, and choosing the correct mode of governance can be important in this context. Nature conservation organisations can, in principle, choose between two distinct modes of governance to implement conservation activities: they can (1) buy desired areas of interest and implement conservation measures themselves (buy option), or (2) offer payments to landowners to incentivize them to voluntarily preserve or create habitat on their land (compensation option). In this paper we analyse the cost-effectiveness of these two modes of governance in a case study on a conservation project in a Natura 2000 area in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The actual costs of the buying option are compared with the potential costs of implementing the compensation option. We developed a costing framework to compare the costs of both options over time, given they generate the same ecological results on an identical project area. We find that the cost-effective solution depends, among other things, on the conservation timeframe considered and on cost components such as transaction costs, leasehold rent and land prices. |
| Keywords: | agri-environment scheme; biodiversity; conservation payments; grassland; make-or-buy decision; mode of governance; payments for ecosystem services; conservation costs |
| JEL: | Q15 Q24 Q57 Q58 R14 |
| Date: | 2017–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80661&r=agr |
| By: | Yalew, Amsalu W.; Hirte, Georg; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Tscharaktschiew, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. This is because its important economic sector, agriculture, is virtually rain-fed. The role of the sector in the current economic structure and the potency of the anticipated biophysical impacts of climate change necessitates proactive adaptation in agriculture. This, however, breeds questions of adaptation costs and adaptation finance. This study attempts to derive plausible range of planned adaptation costs in agriculture along with their economy-wide and regional effects in Ethiopia. It also assess the economy-wide and regional effects of the likely options available to a government of a least-developed country to finance adaptation in agriculture. The results show that planned public adaptation in agriculture puts pressure on government surplus, impedes on manufacturing and private services, and GDP of urbanized regions. As such, it may strain the current macroeconomic endeavors of the country which puts government driven structural transformation and reducing fiscal deficit relative to GDP at the center. Government of Ethiopia may reconcile this by laying out incentives to urban agriculture and private investment in agriculture. Besides, foreign support in the form of biotechnology transfer and debt-relief may help to control the side effects of grants on foreign exchange market and trade balance. |
| Keywords: | climate change,agriculture,public adaptation,CGE model,Ethiopia |
| JEL: | C68 D58 H50 H60 O55 Q16 Q28 Q54 Q56 Q58 R11 R13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tudcep:1117&r=agr |
| By: | Hiren Nisar (Abt Associates) |
| Abstract: | We provide examples of how one can use satellite or other remote sensing data in Stata, with a variety of analysis methods, including examples of measuring economic disadvantage using satellite imagery. |
| Date: | 2017–08–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:scon17:22&r=agr |
| By: | Bakari, Sayef |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes the impact of agricultural exports on economic growth in Tunisia. Econometrical specifications are based on a neoclassical production function to explain this goal and the data cover the period 1988-2014. Empirical results show that agricultural exports have a positive effect on economic growth. The causality test proves the existence of a causal relationship from economic growth to agricultural exports. These results favor in particular a police economy promoting investment in the Tunisian agricultural sector. |
| Keywords: | agricultural exports, economic growth, the causality test, Tunisia. |
| JEL: | F1 F11 F13 F14 Q17 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80655&r=agr |
| By: | Benito Arruñada |
| Abstract: | Substantial variety exists among systems of land and business formalization both over time and across countries. For instance, England relied on private titling and delayed land registration for centuries. In contrast, early on, its American colonies imported land recordation and its Australian colonies land registration. Similarly, in most of the world, governments used to allow voluntary land titling, in which owners decide whether they register their land. Recently, however, governments and international agencies have more often opted for universal titling, aiming to register all the land in a certain region. This paper critically examines these strategies, analyzing the costs and benefits of the two main decisions: whether to create a public titling system or to rely exclusively on private titling, and the choice between voluntary and universal titling. It concludes that universal titling is seldom optimal. In particular, it argues that lack of titling is more a consequence than a cause of poverty. |
| Keywords: | Property rights, land policy, land titling, registries, transaction costs, impersonal exchange |
| JEL: | D23 K11 K12 L85 G38 H41 O17 P48 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1575&r=agr |
| By: | AfDB AfDB |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:2393&r=agr |
| By: | AfDB AfDB |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:2399&r=agr |
| By: | Lauren Steinbaum; Sammy M. Njenga; Jimmy Kihara; Alexandria B. Boehm; Jennifer Davis; Clair Null; Amy J. Pickering |
| Abstract: | Almost one-quarter of the world’s population is infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STH). We conducted a study to determine the prevalence and location of STH—Ascaris, Trichuris, and hookworm spp.—egg contamination in soil within rural household plots in Kenya. |
| Keywords: | soil-transmitted helminths, Kenya |
| JEL: | F Z |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:21c6bc9cb8854240aa3b87611762d6c4&r=agr |
| By: | Christiaensen, Luc; De Weerdt, Joachim; Ingelaere, Bert; Kanbur, Ravi |
| Abstract: | This paper develops the concept of "action space" as the range of possible destinations a migrant can realistically move to at a given point in time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible livelihoods at destination. We show how this space expands and contracts over time through cumulative causation. Such a dynamic framework allows us to appreciate the role of secondary towns in rural-urban migration and poverty reduction. Secondary towns occupy a unique middle ground between semi-subsistence agriculture and the capitalistic city; between what is close-by and familiar and what is much further away and unknown. By opening up the horizons of the (poorer) rural population and facilitating navigation of the non-farm economy, secondary towns allow a broader base of the poor population to become physically, economically and socially mobile. Secondary towns therefore have great potential as vehicles for inclusive growth and poverty reduction in urbanizing developing countries. These are the insights emerging from in-depth life history accounts of 75 purposively selected rural-urban migrants from rural Kagera, in Tanzania. |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12193&r=agr |
| By: | Bakari, Sayef |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the long run term and the short run term impacts of vegetables exports on economic growth of Tunisia. In order, to achieve this purpose, annual data were collected from the reports of World Bank for the periods between 1970 and 2015, was tested by using Correlation Analysis, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillip-Perron (PP) stationary test, co integration analysis of Vector Error Correction Model. According to the result of the analysis, vegetables exports have a positive effect on economic growth in the long run term and in the short run term. These results provide on evidence that vegetables exports, thus, are seen as source of economic growth in Tunisia. For this reason, it is very important to refine investment in this sector. |
| Keywords: | Vegetables Exports, Economic Growth, Cointegration, VECM, Tunisia |
| JEL: | F0 F1 F11 F13 F14 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80722&r=agr |