|
on Agricultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2021‒02‒22
eighteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Bandara, S.; Ignaciuk, S.; Hewage, A.; Kwon, J.; Munaweera, T.; Scognamillo, A.; Sitko, N. |
| Abstract: | Increased incidences of drought and water scarcity due to climate change is an important challenge facing Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector. Identifying farm practices that can reduce its adverse impacts on agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods is a key policy objective in Sri Lanka. This paper makes use of household survey data collected in Anurādhapura District to evaluate the impacts of 11 drought adaptation practices adopted by farmers in the district. The impacts of the practices are estimated simultaneously along two dimensions: 1) impact on sensitivity to water stress (measured in terms of the probability of experiencing crop loss due to wilting) and 2) impact on household livelihood (measured in terms of total value of crops harvested and total gross household income). After accounting for a wide range of confounding factors, five practices are found to be associated with a reduced sensitivity to water stress. However, only two of these are simultaneously associated with a higher gross value of crops harvested, while none is associated with significant differences in household income relative to non-adopters. The reasons for this vary by practice, but are linked to opportunity costs of household labour and market weaknesses for crops other than rice. Making climate adaptation practices profitable is a key challenge faced by policy-makers and will require a holistic research and extension approach that is bundled with complementary support to market institutions, such as appropriate mechanization services, value chain support for other field crops and input supply systems. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2021–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:faoaes:309363&r=all |
| By: | Abay, Kibrom A.; El-Enbaby, Hoda; Abdelfattah, Lina; Breisinger, Clemens |
| Abstract: | Increasing population pressure and population density in many African countries are inducing land scarcity and land constraints. These increasing land constraints are expected to trigger various responses and adaptation strategies, including agricultural intensification induced by land scarcity, as postulated by the Boserup hypothesis. However, most empirical evaluations of the Boserup hypothesis come from rainfed agriculture and mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where application of improved agricultural inputs remains historically low. Agricultural intensification practices as well as the relevance of the Boserup hypothesis in irrigated agriculture and in contexts where application of improved inputs is high remains unexplored. Furthermore, while much of the debate on the topic in Africa has focused on how to boost agricultural intensification, there is scant evidence on whether evolving agricultural intensification practices in some parts of Africa are sustainable, yield-enhancing, and optimal. In this paper we investigate the implication of land scarcity on agricultural intensification and the relevance of the Boserup hypothesis in the context of Egypt, where agriculture is dominated by irrigation and input application rates are much higher than SSA. We also examine whether evolving agricultural intensification practices induced by land scarcity are agronomically appropriate and yield-enhancing. We find that land scarcity induces higher application of agricultural inputs, mainly nitrogen fertilizers, sometimes beyond the level that is agronomically recommended. More importantly, land scarcity increases overapplication of nitrogen fertilizer relative to crop-specific agronomic recommendations. This implies that land constraints remain as important challenges for sustainable agricultural intensification. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that such overapplication of nitrogen fertilizers is not yield-enhancing, but, rather, yield-reducing. We also document that land scarcity impedes mechanization of agriculture. Our findings have important implications to inform appropriate farm management and sustainable intensification practices. Furthermore, our results can inform long-term policy responses to land scarcity. |
| Keywords: | EGYPT, ARAB COUNTRIES, MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA, land resources, sustainability, smallholders, irrigated farming, agriculture, farming systems, intensification, land scarcity |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:menawp:31&r=all |
| By: | Ignaciuk, A.; Maggio, G.; Mastrorillo, M.; Sitko, N. |
| Abstract: | Rising temperatures due to climate change pose a significant threat to agricultural systems and the livelihoods of farmers across the globe. Identifying farm management strategies that reduce sensitivity to high temperatures is, therefore, critical for moderating the adverse effects of climate change. In this paper, we use spatially granular climate data merged with four waves of household survey data in Uganda to examine empirically the relationships between high temperatures, agricultural production outcomes, and the adoption (including its duration) of three sustainable agricultural practices (organic fertilizer adoption, banana-coffee intercropping and cereal-legume intercropping). We do this using a fixed-effect model, with instrumental variables to address potential endogeneity issues. Our findings indicate that, while exposure to high temperature does reduce farmers’ crop income, the adoption of these practices can offset the negative impact of high temperatures on such income. Indeed, we show that the benefits of adopting these practices on the total value of crop production increases monotonically astemperatures increase from their long-term averages. Moreover, the number of years a farmer adopts a practice is associated with higher total value of crop production, and this relationship holds across the full distribution of observed high temperature deviations. Taken together, the results suggest that organic fertilizer adoption, banana-coffee intercropping and cereal-legume intercropping are effective options to adapt to rising temperatures in Uganda, and these benefits increase with the duration of adoption. Adaptation policies and programmes must therefore be designed in ways that help farmers overcome initial barriers to adoption of these practices, as well as to support farmers to sustain adoption over time. This may require longer term funding horizons for adaptation programmes, and innovative support mechanisms to incentivize sustained adoption. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2021–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:faoaes:309364&r=all |
| By: | Belton, Ben; Cho, Ame; Filipski, Mateusz J.; Goeb, Joseph; Lambrecht, Isabel; Mather, David; Win, Myat Thida |
| Abstract: | This working paper synthesizes findings from four large household and community surveys in Myanmar, each covering a major agro-ecological zone, to evaluate inter-regional variations in the composition of agriculture, livelihoods, and the rural economy, and prospects for production and income growth. |
| Keywords: | MYANMAR, BURMA, SOUTHEAST ASIA, ASIA, households, surveys, agriculture, crops, grain, diversification, agricultural production, rural areas, livelihoods, migration, arid zones, farmland, agricultural land, land ownership, income growth, dry zone |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:myanwp:7&r=all |
| By: | Comola, Margherita (Paris School of Economics); Inguaggiato, Carla (University of Bern); Mendola, Mariapia (University of Milan Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of social learning in the diffusion of cash crops in a resettled village economy in northeastern Brazil. We combine detailed geo-coded data on farming plots with dyadic data on social ties among settlers, and we leverage natural exogenous variation in network formation induced by the land occupation movement and the agrarian reform. By using longitudinal data on farming decisions over 15 years we find consistent evidence of significant peer effects in the decision to farm new cash fruits (pineapple and passion fruit). Our results suggest that social diffusion is heterogeneous along observed plot and crop characteristics, i.e. farmers growing water-sensitive crop are more likely to respond to the actions of peers with similar water access conditions. |
| Keywords: | technology adoption, agrarian reform, social networks, peer effects, Brazil |
| JEL: | C45 D85 J15 O33 Q15 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14092&r=all |
| By: | Pavel Ciaian; Edoardo Baldoni; d'Artis Kancs; Dusan Drabik |
| Abstract: | We review the recent theoretical and empirical literature on the capitalization of agricultural subsidies into land prices. The theoretical literature predicts that agricultural subsidies are capitalized into land prices when land supply is inelastic and land markets function well. The share of capitalized subsidies significantly depends on the implementation of farm subsidies, local land-market institutions, rural market imperfections, and spatial effects. Most empirical studies have shown that agricultural subsidies are only partially capitalized into land prices, estimating that decoupled payments and land-based subsidies exhibit higher capitalization than coupled payments and non-land-based subsidies, respectively. However, estimated capitalization rates vary widely across studies largely because of data availability and identification challenges. |
| Keywords: | agricultural subsidies, capitalization, land prices, land rents, land values, land market, coupled and decoupled payments |
| JEL: | O13 Q16 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2020–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2020_09&r=all |
| By: | Springmann, M. |
| Abstract: | Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 – The health and environmental consequences of our dietary choices impose costs on society that are currently not reflected in the price of those foods or diets that contribute to these detrimental impacts. This paper provides updated estimates of two major cost items: the healthcare-related costs associated with unhealthy diets, and the climate-change costs associated with the emissions attributable to diets and food production. Results suggest that the health and climate-change costs of current diets are substantial and projected to increase up to 1.3-1.7 trillion USD annually by 2030. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2020–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:faoaes:309361&r=all |
| By: | Koen Deconinck (OECD) |
| Abstract: | Concerns about market power and competition in the agri-food sector are widespread, with commentators regularly suggesting that farmers are in a structurally weaker position than other actors, who therefore benefit at their expense. The evidence reviewed in this paper indicates that downstream segments of agri-food chains are indeed typically more concentrated than farm-level production. Nevertheless, while competition problems were found in some instances, the current evidence does not support the claim that stronger actors in the chain systematically abuse their stronger position at the expense of farmers. An in-depth understanding of how value chains are organised is essential, as many widely used indicators provide little relevant information. In many areas, further research would be welcome, as current evidence does not cover all countries and sectors equally well. |
| Keywords: | Buyer power, Competition, Profit margins, Unfair trading practices |
| JEL: | L1 L2 L66 Q13 |
| Date: | 2021–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:151-en&r=all |
| By: | Eeshita Gupta (Indian Statistical Institute and KPMG); Bharat Ramaswami (Ashoka University); E. Somanathan (Indian Statistical Institute) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of agricultural productivity losses stemming from climate change in an economy without frictions. The first-order GDP impacts are expected to be small. But the poor have higher food budget shares and food prices will rise. How do distributional impacts diverge from the GDP impact? This is the question that is addressed. The paper considers two major sets of comparative statics: the effect of trade and the effect of economic growth. The model is calibrated to Indian data of 2009 and projections for 2030. The percentage loss of income for the landless is six times the GDP impact in a closed economy. Trade halves this effect and economic growth moderates it substantially. Despite the food price rise, nearly all farmers lose from climate change. The model is simple enough for impact channels to be transparent. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, distribution, food prices, general equilibrium, India |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:50&r=all |
| By: | Till Feier; Jan Gogoll; Matthias Uhl |
| Abstract: | The transfer of tasks with sometimes far-reaching moral implications to autonomous systems raises a number of ethical questions. In addition to fundamental questions about the moral agency of these systems, behavioral issues arise. This article focuses on the responsibility of agents who decide on our behalf. We investigate the empirically accessible question of whether the production of moral outcomes by an agent is systematically judged differently when the agent is artificial and not human. The results of a laboratory experiment suggest that decision-makers can actually rid themselves of guilt more easily by delegating to machines than by delegating to other people. Our results imply that the availability of artificial agents could provide stronger incentives for decision makers to delegate morally sensitive decisions. |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2101.11465&r=all |
| By: | Michael Greenstone; Guojun He; Shanjun Li; Eric Zou |
| Abstract: | The decade from 2010 to 2019 marked a significant turning point in China’s history of environmental regulation and pollution. This article describes the recent trends in air and water quality, with a focus on the five years since China declared a “war on pollution” in 2014. It summarizes the emerging literature that has taken advantage of accompanying improvements in data availability and accuracy to document sharp improvements in environmental quality, especially local air pollution, and understand their social, economic, and health consequences. |
| JEL: | Q50 Q53 Q56 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28467&r=all |
| By: | Chaoran Chen; Diego Restuccia; Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis |
| Abstract: | We assess the effects of land markets on misallocation and productivity both empirically and quantitatively. Exploiting variation from a land certification reform across time and space in Ethiopia, we find that certification facilitates rentals and improves agricultural productivity. We calibrate a quantitative macroeconomic model with heterogeneous household farms facing institutional costs to land markets using the micro panel data. The effect of a counterfactual reallocation from no rentals to efficient rentals increases zone-level agricultural productivity by 43 percent on average. While our estimated institutional costs are strongly associated with land certification across zones, there are nontrivial residual frictions to rental market activity, implying that land certification only partially captures the overall effects of rentals. A full certification reform accounts for just one-fourth of the overall productivity gains from land rentals. This result highlights the importance of comprehensive reforms alleviating frictions to land transactions beyond the granting of certificates. |
| Keywords: | Land, Markets, Rentals, Misallocation, Productivity, Inequality, Panel Data. |
| JEL: | E02 O10 O11 O13 O43 O55 Q15 Q18 Q24 |
| Date: | 2021–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-688&r=all |
| By: | Isabelle Chort; Maëlys de la Rupelle (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | While there is a growing literature on the impact of climate and weather-related events on migration, little is known about the mitigating effect of different policies directed to the agricultural sector, or aimed at insuring against environmental disasters. This paper uses state-level data on migration ows between Mexico and the U.S. from 1999 to 2012 to investigate the migration response to weather shocks and the mitigating impact of an agricultural cash-transfer program (PROCAMPO) and a disaster fund (Fonden). We find that Fonden decreases migration in response to heavy rainfall, hurricanes and droughts. Increases in PROCAMPO amounts paid to small producers are found to play an additional, though more limited, role in limiting the migration response to shocks. Changes in the distribution of PROCAMPO favoring more vulnerable producers in the non irrigated ejido sector also seem to mitigate the impact of droughts on migration. |
| Keywords: | International migration, Weather shocks, Public policies, Weather variability, Natural disasters, Mexico-U.S. migration, Inequality |
| JEL: | F22 Q54 Q18 J61 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2021-07&r=all |
| By: | Di Foggia, Giacomo; Beccarello, Massimo |
| Abstract: | After having divided waste management cost in its cost items, we focus on how well-known exogenous and endogenous drivers impact on such cost items. To this end, we collected empirical data of 6,616 Italian municipalities for a two-year period. We develop four regression-based models to analyze the data according to cost items. Models are also reiterated using different data normalization: cost per ton of waste or waste per capita. Besides exogenous determiners of cost, such as altitude, population density, and coastal zone, results refer to both unsorted and sorted waste management cost items. In this respect economies of scale are confirmed along with the critical role of adequate waste facilities that play a remarkable role in cost minimization. Policymakers and regulators may benefit from such results when it comes to define allowed revenues and design the scope of municipal solid waste regulation. |
| Date: | 2021–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:s6q3m&r=all |
| By: | Paola Bertolini; Enrico Giovannetti |
| Abstract: | The paper outlines the main changes that have occurred in the local system of the Filière Parmesan Cheese (FPR) in the last fifteen years, especially focusing on the dairy enterprises and their related networks. The paper stresses the complexity of the production system in its evolution, given the constraints arisen by the compliance of the common quality rules, combined with the research of effectiveness, both requiring a significant action of coordination. The role of the producers' coordination institutions is examined with regard production rules and quality control, underlining the crucial role in defining new common rules to assure clear quality standard along the food chain, where a growing division of labour engendered new activities of processing. New coordination tools are also examined with regard the implementation of an original allocation of right to produce able to respect the competition rules. The very relevant role of cooperation is highlighted, analysing the adaptation of cooperatives to the different markets but also the role of cooperation in supporting the activity in the most fragile areas of production such as those of the mountain. |
| Keywords: | cooperation, local economic systems, SMEs, territorial quality productions, parmesan cheese |
| JEL: | L11 L14 P13 R11 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:dembwp:0178&r=all |
| By: | Jérémie Gignoux (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Karen Macours (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Daniel Stein (IDinsight); Kelsey Wright (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of a subsidy program in Haiti which provided smallholders subsidies for modern inputs (rice seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and specific labor tasks) through a randomized control trial. The program led to lower input use and lower yields in the year subsidies were received, and the decline in input use and yields persisted through the following year. Using data from a complementary information intervention in which randomly selected farmers were provided clarifications regarding their status in the program, we find evidence suggesting that incorrect expectations of future transfers help explain the disappointing outcomes. In addition, instead of increasing input use, subsidies seem to have led farmers to pay off their loans and take fewer new ones. In a complex postemergency environment as the one in which this program took place, input subsidies may need to be avoided, as they require considerable information to optimally design and careful coordination by many actors to achieve the expected gains. |
| Keywords: | Smallholders,Input subsidies,Yields,Impacts,Agricultural development Smallholders,Agricultural development |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03131411&r=all |
| By: | Jose Luis Cruz Alvarez; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | Global warming is a worldwide and protracted phenomenon with heterogeneous local economic effects. In order to evaluate the aggregate and local economic consequences of higher temperatures, we propose a dynamic economic assessment model of the world economy with high spatial resolution. Our model features a number of mechanisms through which individuals can adapt to global warming, including costly trade and migration, and local technological innovations and natality rates. We quantify the model at a 1° × 1° resolution and estimate damage functions that determine the impact of temperature changes on a region’s fundamental productivity and amenities depending on local temperatures. Our baseline results show welfare losses as large as 15% in parts of Africa and Latin America but also high heterogeneity across locations, with northern regions in Siberia, Canada, and Alaska experiencing gains. Our results indicate large uncertainty about average welfare effects and point to migration and, to a lesser extent, innovation as important adaptation mechanisms. We use the model to assess the impact of carbon taxes, abatement technologies, and clean energy subsidies. Carbon taxes delay consumption of fossil fuels and help flatten the temperature curve but are much more effective when an abatement technology is forthcoming. |
| JEL: | F63 F64 Q51 Q54 Q56 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28466&r=all |
| By: | Holleman, C.; Conti, V. |
| Abstract: | Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 – Despite relatively high economic growth rates in many developing countries in the last two decades, income inequality has remained high and even increased. This has important policy implications as high-income inequality undercuts the benefits of economic growth in reducing food insecurity. This paper uses the 2014 Gallup World Poll (GWP) dataset of individual food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) and employs a three-level linear probability model to assess the macro-economic effects of economic growth and income inequality on individual food insecurity. Results show that increases in the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita are concurrent with declines in individual food insecurity. The findings suggest that by tackling income inequality, economic growth can become a force for reducing food insecurity, especially in low- and middle-income countries. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2020–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:faoaes:309362&r=all |