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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Moon, Wanki |
| Abstract: | The notion of multifunctional agriculture has been actively researched from diverse disciplines including economics, ecology, sociology, and geography since emerged out of the Uruguay Round in the 1990s. In particular, the economics approach represents an attempt to tailor the concept of multifunctional agriculture to market-oriented WTO trade regime. The economics approach has been fundamentally troubled by the lack of concord among WTO member countries on the question of what constitutes multifunctional agriculture. Upon examining how differently the notion of multifunctional agriculture is perceived across the US, the EU, the Cairns group, the LDCs, and the developed food-importing countries (the G10), this article theorizes that multifunctional agriculture connotes different contents in different countries/regions that are determined by their particular agricultural problems, which are in turn shaped by the cultural, ecological and economic characteristics unique to each country. The theorizing undertakes to overcome the Euro-centrism that has dictated the discourse of multifunctional agriculture since the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). This article fills an important gap in the literature of social sciences concerning the concept of multifunctional agriculture by explicitly recognizing the wide diversity of contemporary agricultural problems across countries. |
| Keywords: | multifunctional agriculture, global governance of agriculture, WTO, agricultural trade, International Development, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2012–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119751&r=cwa |
| By: | Lee, Jaehyuk; Nadolnyak, Denis; Hartarska, Valentina |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of climate change on agricultural production in 13 Asian countries for 1998-2007 estimating country-level FE panel model using climate variables. Higher summer temperature and rainfall increase production, higher fall temperature decreases it in Southeast Asia, and increase in annual temperature decreases agricultural production in Asian countries. |
| Keywords: | climate change, production, food security, Asia, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119808&r=cwa |
| By: | Shen, Xuan; Hartarska, Valentina |
| Abstract: | Using data between 1995 and 2010, we find that agricultural banks are benefiting from the derivatives activities by reducing total risk without hurting their profit. In nonagricultural banks, both profitability and total risk are adversely affected, possibly due to speculative derivatives positions. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Banks, Financial Derivatives, Profitability, Risk Management, Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119789&r=cwa |
| By: | Yeboah, Osei; Appiah-Danquah, Gloria |
| Abstract: | China was admitted into the WTO in December 2001 and this raised the hopes of the US that China will open up to agricultural trade with the US. However, this potential has not been realized. The goal of this study is to determine the impacts of trade impediments and barriers of the market access of US oilseeds and grains in China. A market access variable that was obtained by dividing the total value of U.S soybean and corn exports to China by U.S agricultural G.D.P was regressed on Chinaâs per capita income, exchange rate of the yuan to the dollar, arable land to labor ratio in the U.S and a dummy variable representing Chinaâs WTO accession. The result found per capita income to have a positive impact on market access of U.S oilseeds and grains in China. Exchange rate of the yuan to the dollar was found to be significant and has a negative impact on market access. However, Chinaâs WTO accession and the arable land to labor ratio in the U.S did not have any significance on the market access of U.S oilseeds and grains. |
| Keywords: | Market Access, Market Access Barriers, U.S Oil seeds and Grains, Import, International Development, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119794&r=cwa |
| By: | Brandt, Loren; Ma, Debin; Rawski, Thomas G. |
| Abstract: | China’s long-term economic dynamics pose a formidable challenge to economic historians. The Qing Empire (1644-1911), the world’s largest national economy prior to the 19th century, experienced a tripling of population during the 17th and 18th centuries with no signs of diminishing per capita income. In some regions, the standard of living may have matched levels recorded in advanced regions of Western Europe. However, with the Industrial Revolution a vast gap emerged between newly rich industrial nations and China’s lagging economy. Only with an unprecedented growth spurt beginning in the late 1970s has the gap separating China from the global leaders been substantially diminished, and China regained its former standing among the world’s largest economies. This essay develops an integrated framework for understanding this entire history, including both the long period of divergence and the more recent convergent trend. The analysis sets out to explain how deeply embedded political and economic institutions that had contributed to a long process of extensive growth subsequently prevented China from capturing the benefits associated with new technologies and information arising from the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, the gradual erosion of these historic constraints and of new obstacles created by socialist planning eventually opened the door to China’s current boom. Our analysis links China’s recent economic development to important elements of its past, while using the success of the last three decades to provide fresh perspectives on the critical obstacles undermining earlier modernization efforts, and their removal over the last century and a half. |
| JEL: | B1 O53 N0 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:41660&r=cwa |
| By: | Arthur, Bruno; Katchova, Ani L. |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the stock prices of the US agriculture industries with regard to anomalous abnormal returns. Do the Accrual Anomaly documented for the entire US stock market less the financial institutions persists in the US Agriculture Industries? Using the risk-free trading strategy of Sloan (1996), which takes a long position on firms with low accruals and a short position on firms with high accruals, we compare ten portfolios formed by sorting the firms on increasing magnitude of accruals for each main component of the US agriculture. We use the SIC and NAICS codes on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) classification of the six agricultural industries to merge the balance sheet and income statement data from Standard & Poorâs COMPUSTAT with the farms and farm related firms stock prices from the Center for research in Security Prices (CRSP). We find no convincing evidence of positive abnormal returns for the stocks of US farm and farm related firms, agricultural input firms, food supply chain firms and indirect agribusiness firms. This result suggests that more scrutiny of the stock prices for the US agriculture related firms with regards to the |
| Keywords: | stock returns, financial assets in agriculture, accrual anomaly, Agricultural Finance, Q14, G11, |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119822&r=cwa |
| By: | Nicolas Véron |
| Abstract: | This paper takes stock of global efforts towards financial reform since the start of the financial crisis in 2007-08, and provides a synthetic (if simplified) picture of their status as of January 2012. Underlying dynamics are described and analysed both at the global level (particularly G-20, International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board) and in individual jurisdictions, together with the impact the crisis has had on them. The possible next steps of financial reform are then reviewed along several dimensions including ongoing crisis management in Europe, the new emphasis on macroprudential approaches, the challenges posed by globally integrated financial firms, the implementation of harmonised global standards and the links between financial systems and growth. This text is forthcoming in: Barry Eichengreen and Bokyeong Park (eds) (2012), The global economy after the financial crisis, World Scientific Publishing. Financial support from the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) is gratefully acknowledged. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:wpaper:680&r=cwa |
| By: | Subhash Ray (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Although dominated by public sector banks, India already had a significant presence of private domestic banks and foreign banks. What the banking reforms have done is to create a more level playing field where banks of different ownership types compete within a new set of broad (and far more relaxed) regulations. Data on the performance of the three different categories of banks over the past two decades offer an opportunity to assess to what extent the regulatory changes have improved the productive efficiency of the banking sector in India. Apart from analyzing the standard descriptive measures of performance, this paper uses the nonparametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis to measure total factor productivity growth and its components to assess the impact of liberalization on different ownership categories of banks in India. The broad conclusion is that it is possible to promote financial soundness by introducing proper prudential norms and to improve operational efficiency without wholesale privatization by allowing competition between public, private and foreign banks. This can be a valuable lesson for other developing countries. JEL Classification: G21, C61 Key words: Banking Reforms, Data Envelopment Analysis, Efficiency Analysis |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2012-02&r=cwa |
| By: | Michael Donadelli (LUISS Guido Carli University); Lorenzo Prosperi (Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of the Equity Risk Premium (ERP) and the research efforts aimed at solving the Equity Premium Puzzle (Mehra and Prescott 1985), are still widely discussed in the economic and financial literature. The purpose of this paper is to show that differences in the ERP between developed and emerging markets lead to many empirical asset pricing issues. Using data from both markets, we first provide an ex-post simple time series analysis on the ERP. Compared to developed markets, and in line with existing literature, we find that emerging markets compensate investors with higher returns. We observe that the time varying nature of the ERP in emerging economies, relates mainly to economic cycles, shocks and other macro phenomena (i.e. global financial market integration). Basic statistics also show that during the last decade the ERP shrunk, especially in advanced economies. To improve investigations on the higher emerging marketsÕ equity premium, a standard global asset pricing model is adopted. On one hand, we mainly find that the one-factor model does not fully predict emerging marketsÕ equity premia. On the other hand, we discover that the inclusion of liquidity conditions and time-varying components provides reasonable explainations for the behaviour of equity premia in these ÒyoungÓ markets. Our final findings mainly suggests that global business cycle and financial integration process are crucial in determining the risk associated to emerging marketsÕ investments. |
| Keywords: | Stock markets returns, equity premium puzzle, Equity risk premium. |
| JEL: | C13 G12 G15 E44 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lui:casmef:1201&r=cwa |
| By: | Bove, Vincenzo (University of Essex); Sekeris, Petros (University of Namur) |
| Abstract: | Our paper explores the economic conditions that lead third parties to intervene in ongoing internal wars. We develop a formal model that ties together some of the main forces driving the decision to interfere in a civil war, including the economic benefits accruing from the intervention and the potential costs associated with such choice. We predict that third party interventions are most likely in civil conflicts where the country at war harbors a profitable industry as a consequence of its high levels of peace-time production and state strength, while the opposition forces’ strength reduces the likelihood of intervention. We also present novel empirical results on the role of valuable goods, i.e. oil, in prompting third party military intervention in contexts of high state stability, by using a dataset on intrastate conflicts on the period 1960-1999. |
| Keywords: | Intrastate Conflict; Third party intervention |
| JEL: | D74 D82 H56 |
| Date: | 2011–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nepswp:2011_004&r=cwa |
| By: | Kuperman, Ranan (University of Haifa) |
| Abstract: | This research investigates how students of political science playing the role of a state leader cope with structural and dynamic complexities of international conflict. This was studied with the aid of an interactive microworld simulator of a fishing dispute, which was designed according to principles of system dynamics. The research question was what type of decision-making patterns characterized subjects who adapted successfully to the challenges posed by the opponent in comparison to subjects who pursued policies that produced suboptimal payoffs. The results of this research suggest two reasons for poor adaptation. First, rather than exploring the consequences of all possible policy options, most subjects had very strong pre-existing policy preferences and were reluctant to abandon them in favor of alternative policies. Second, many subjects did not adequately analyze the statistical data that were required in order to estimate the payoffs. A third possibility that was explored but not sufficiently supported is that decisions were based on satisficing rather than comparing utilities associated with alternative policies. |
| Keywords: | policy preferences; decision making; international conflicts |
| JEL: | D74 |
| Date: | 2011–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nepswp:2011_003&r=cwa |
| By: | Sylvain Dessy; Stéphane Pallage; Désiré Vencatachellum |
| Abstract: | We build a political economy model of state policy choice highlighting the challenges to breaking barriers to the adoption of inclusive policies in Africa. We highlight necessary and sufficient conditions for a political leader to gain from implementing exclusive policies: (i) Implementing inclusive policies must be risky; (ii) the political leader must have adequate access to an overseas’ financial safe haven as a technology for protecting the spoils from implementing exclusive policies, or investing the looted funds in the domestic economy must sufficiently contribute to mitigate the risk of a revolution. Our results suggest that breaking barriers to inclusive policies in Africa is not an easy task. Bans on international money-laundering schemes may not be sufficient if domestic money laundering is easy and sufficiently discrete. |
| Keywords: | Inclusive policies, social exclusion, rebellion, financial safe havens, development |
| JEL: | D70 D74 H50 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1202&r=cwa |
| By: | Esiyok, Bulent; Ugur, Mehmet |
| Abstract: | Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into Vietnam have increased significantly in recent years, with unequal distribution between provinces and regions. We aim to contribute to the literature on locational determinants of FDI by accounting for spatial interdependence between 62 Vietnamese provinces from 2006-2009. For this purpose, we estimate a spatial lag model using maximum likelihood estimation method. We report existence of spatial dependence between provinces as well as spatial spill-over effects. The results are robust to different specifications for weight matrices and inclusion of different explanatory variables and/or proxies. We also report that conventional determinants of FDI such as market size, domestic investment, openness to trade, labour cost, education and governance, etc. are significant and remain robust to inclusion of spatial interdependence. The sign of the spatial dependence suggests that the distribution of FDI between provinces is subject to conglomeration effects. |
| Keywords: | Foreign direct investment; spatial dependence; conglomeration; Vietnam |
| JEL: | R12 F21 C31 |
| Date: | 2011–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:36145&r=cwa |
| By: | Wright, Andrew P; Hudson, Darren |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119819&r=cwa |
| By: | Claude Ménard (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Public-Private Partnership has been high on the agenda of public decision makers since the 1990's. Primarily a contractual approach to the delivery of infrastructures, goods and services traditionally provided by the public sector or by private operators submitted to tight regulation, PPP is also a very special contractual practice as it seeks to introduce market-type relationships in a context in which non-market forces play a major role. An important consequence is the overlapping of decision rights as well as property rights, which exposes PPP to a double alignment problem, organizational and institutional. Away from the ideological controversies about the legitimacy of PPP in provisioning public goods, this chapter focuses on problems rooted in the very nature of PPPs and the actual design of their supportive contracts, as well as in the institutions in which they are embedded and that define the capacity to implement and monitor these arrangements properly. |
| Keywords: | Public-Private Partnership; transaction costs; organization; infrastructures; misalignment |
| Date: | 2011–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00653090&r=cwa |
| By: | Williams, Ryan Blake |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119821&r=cwa |
| By: | Elena Stancanelli (Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques); Arthur Van Soest (Tilburg University, Netspar) |
| Abstract: | Existing studies show that individuals who retire replace some private consumption by home production, but do not consider joint behaviour of couples. Here we analyze the causal effect of retirement of each partner on hours of home production of both partners in a couple. Our identification strategy exploits the earliest age retirement laws in France, enabling a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach. We find that own retirement significantly increases own hours of home production and the effect is larger for men than for women. Moreover, retirement of the female partner significantly reduces male hours of home production but not vice versa. |
| Keywords: | House work, Ageing,Retirement,Regression Discontinuity |
| JEL: | D13 J22 J14 C1 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fce:doctra:1128&r=cwa |
| By: | Espey, Molly; Boys, Kathryn A. |
| Keywords: | Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea12:119816&r=cwa |