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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2008‒02‒02
sixteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Porto, Guido; Brambilla, Irene; Balat, Jorge |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of export costs in the process of poverty reduction in rural Africa. The authors claim that the marketing costs that emerge when the commercialization of export crops requires intermediaries can lead to lower participation into export cropping and, thus, to higher poverty . They test the model using data from the Uganda National Household Survey. The findings show that: i) farmers living in villages with fewer outlets for sales of agricultural exports are likely to be poorer than farmers residing in marketendowed villages; ii) market availability leads to increased household participation in export cropping (coffee, tea, cotton, fruits); and iii) households engaged in export cropping are less likely to be poor than subsistence-based households. The authors conclude that the availability of markets for agricultural export crops helps realize the gains from trade. This result uncovers the role of complementary factors that provide market access and reduce marketing costs as key building blocks in the link between the gains from export opportunities and the poor. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy & Planning,Markets and Market Access,Rural Poverty Reduction,Crops & Crop Management Systems |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4488&r=agr |
| By: | Seo, S. Niggol |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a new analysis to measure climate change impacts on livestock management taking into account the interactions between crops and livestock. A micro-econometric analysis on the choice of agricultural system and on the conditional income for each system is used. The paper used African data collected from 9000 farmers across 11 countries in Africa. The results indicate that when climate is hot, farmers prefer mixed farms over specialized farms on either crops or livestock. When climate is wet, they often choose crops over livestock. Half a century later, livestock only farms are predicted to decrease by 2% under CCC, 5% under CCSR, and 7% under PCM. On the other hand, livestock farms with also crops are predicted to increase by 5% under CCC and CCSR, and 11% under PCM. Livestock only farm profit also falls by 40% under CCC, 250% under CCSR, and 600% under PCM. The profit of livestock farm with crops, however, increases by 17% under PCM. Under the CCC, expected farm income falls by 12%. On the other hand, farm income increases by 13% under the PCM scenario. The damage estimate (benefit estimate) on agriculture as a whole with the transition to the best system is lower (higher) than that without system switch. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change; Livestock; Joint Analysis; Micro-econometrics |
| JEL: | Q1 Q5 |
| Date: | 2008–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6903&r=agr |
| By: | Bridget Williams |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2007-49&r=agr |
| By: | Minten, Bart; Jacoby, Hanan G. |
| Abstract: | Despite large amounts invested in rural roads in developing countries, little is known about their benefits. This paper derives an expression for the willingness-to-pay for a reduction in transport costs from the canonical agricultural household model and uses it to estimate the benefits of a hypothetical road project. Estimation is based on novel cross-sectional data collected in a small region of Madagascar with enormous, yet plausibly exogenous, variation in transport cost. A road that essentially eliminated transport costs in the study area would boost the incomes of the remotest households-those facing transport costs of about USD 75/ton-by nearly half, mostly by raising non-farm earnings. This benefit estimate is contrasted to one based on a hedonic approach. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy & Planning,Rural Roads & Transport,Economic Theory & Research,Rural Transport, |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4484&r=agr |
| By: | Gulumser, Aliye Ahu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Baycan Levent, Tuzin; Nijkamp, Peter |
| Abstract: | In recent years, several countries have emphasized the importance of employment in rural areas by setting up schemes for strategic priorities and financial resources for rural development. Currently, many countries regard self-employment in rural areas as the key element of rural development. This in contrast to the past, where agriculture was the only employment resource in rural areas; today’s rural areas have changed and offer different business opportunities not only in agriculture, but also in service sectors such as mass and small-scale tourism activities. Nevertheless, agriculture still keeps its importance in rural and national economy. Against this background, the aim of this study is to evaluate rural self-employment in the EU countries, while comparing Turkey’s self- employment with data on EU member states. The study focuses on self-employment trends in agriculture sector on the basis of changing motivations and participations of males and females. The data and information used for comparison and evaluation are based on Eurostat and Turkstat data. The results of our study show that agricultural employment and self-employment exhibit a slight decrease over time and that the impact of this decrease in male and female employment differs among countries in Europe. The results of our study show also that the motivation of Turkish women towards self-employment is higher than that of European women and of Turkish men. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2007-17&r=agr |
| By: | Hall, Andy (UNU-MERIT, LINK); Sulaiman, Rasheed (CRISP, LINK); Bezkorowajnyj, Peter (ILRI) |
| Abstract: | This is the second in a series of three papers that develop a conceptual framework for a project on livestock fodder innovation. The paper begins by reviewing the evolving paradigms of agricultural research and innovation over the last 30 years or so and explains the emergence and relevance of the innovation systems concept to agricultural development. The paper then presents a framework for exploring fodder innovation capacity. This framework gives particular emphasis to the patterns of interaction needed for innovation and the policy and institutional settings needed to enable these processes. The paper concludes with some comments on the difficulties of measuring institutional change and the desirability of tracking institutional change and its relationship to welfare outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change, Agricultural Technology, Livestock, Poverty Reduction, Institutional Change, Welfare Outcomes |
| JEL: | O33 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008003&r=agr |
| By: | Hu, Y.; Hendrikse, G.W.J. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | We empirically examine the determinants of the allocation of decision rights in the context of fruit and vegetable contracting. The main conclusion is that under contract farming, many decision rights are shifted from farmers to firms. Quality, reputation and specific investments by firms positively influence the number of decision rights allocated to agri-business firms under contract farming, while monopsony-oligopsony power and specific investments by farmers have no effect on the allocation of decision rights. |
| Keywords: | decision rights;contracts;china |
| Date: | 2007–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765010717&r=agr |
| By: | Andrew Godley (Department of Management, University of Reading); Bridget Williams |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2007-50&r=agr |
| By: | Porto, Guido |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impacts of world agricultural trade liberalization on wages, employment and unemployment in Argentina, a country with positive net agricultural exports and high unemployment rates. In the estimation of these wage and unemployment responses, the empirical model allows for individual labor supply responses and for adjustment costs in labor demand. The findings show that a 10 percent increase in the price of agricultural exports would cause an increase in the Argentine employment probability of 1.36 percentage points, matched by a decline in the unemployment probability of 0.75 percentage points and an increase in labor market participation of 0.61 percentage points. Further, the unemployment rate would decl ine by 1.23 percentage points (by almost 10 percent). Expected wages would increase by 10.3 percent, an effect that is mostly driven by higher employment probabilities. This indicates that the bulk of the impacts of trade reforms originates in household responses in the presence of adjustment costs, and that failure to account for them may lead to significant biases in the welfare evaluation of trade policy. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Economic Theory & Research,,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4489&r=agr |
| By: | Hall, Andy (UNU-MERIT, LINK); Sulaiman, Rasheed (CRISP, LINK); Dhamankar, Mona (LINK); Bezkorowajnyj, Peter (ILRI); Prasad, Leela (ILRI) |
| Abstract: | This is the first in a series of three papers that develop a conceptual framework for a project on livestock fodder innovation. Livestock is important to the livelihoods of poor people in many regions of the developing world. A generic problem found across this diverse range of production and marketing contexts is the shortage of fodder. This paper argues that to address this problem it is necessary to frame the question of fodder shortage not from the perspective of information and technological scarcity, but from the perspective of capacity scarcity in relation to fodder innovation. To support this position the paper presents case studies of experience from an earlier fodder innovation project. These cases suggest that while fodder technology is important, it is not enough. There is a large institutional dimension to bringing about innovation, particularly with respect to the effectiveness of networks and alliances needed to put technology into use. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change, Agricultural Technology, Livestock, Poverty Reduction, Partnerships, India, Nigeria |
| JEL: | O33 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008002&r=agr |
| By: | Andrew Godley (Department of Management, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | In 1950 poultry was a rare luxury in Britain, only one per cent of the total meat consumption. But over the next thirty years chicken consumption grew at the remarkable (compound) rate of 10 per cent per annum, while the overall consumption of meat remained stagnant from the 1950s to the 1980s. By then poultry had become the single most important source of meat, with a quarter of the total share of the market, replacing former favourites like beef, mutton and bacon in the British diet. This transformation was made possible by the emergence of intensive rearing in poultry farming. This was a dramatic change in production, dependent on technological innovations across several otherwise unrelated sectors: in pharmaceuticals and feedstuffs production, in refrigeration, slaughtering and packaging. The widespread distribution of cheap chicken led to its mass adoption throughout the country. But such a transformation in meat eating habits was not without its controversies. Contemporary concerns emerged from the late 1950s over the possible long term dangers to human health from the technological transformation inherent in intensive rearing regimes. The paper emphasises that it was the leading retailers, in particular J. Sainsbury, who acted as a key intermediary in this contested market, reconciling consumer uncertainty by attaching their own reputation to product quality, and then furthermore by intervening in the quality standards employed in its supply chain. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2007-54&r=agr |
| By: | Hall, Andy (UNU-MERIT, LINK); Sulaiman, Rasheed (CRISP, LINK); Bezkorowajnyj, Peter (ILRI) |
| Abstract: | The exploration of fodder innovation capacity requires tools to undertake the following tasks: (i) Diagnosis of fodder innovation capacity to identify project starting points, including micro and macro elements (ii) Socio-economic benchmarking, and follow-up studies (iii) Pilot innovation cloud process learning/ process-driven intervention correction (iv) Comparative analysis of institutional change processes (iv) Project team process learning And (iv) Project evaluation. There is a wide range of existing tools available to investigate institutional change. This paper reviews these and recommends that an eclectic approach of mixing and matching tools to the emerging circumstances of the research is the best way forward. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change, Agricultural Technology, Livestock, Poverty Reduction, Evaluation, Benchmarking |
| JEL: | O33 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008004&r=agr |
| By: | Mario Giampietro (ICREA Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Kozo Mayumi (University of Tokushima); Jesús Ramos-Martín (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an outline of rationale and theory of the MuSIASEM scheme (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism). First, three points of the rationale behind our MuSIASEM scheme are discussed: (i) endosomatic and exosomatic metabolism in relation to Georgescu-Roegen’s flow-fund scheme; (2) the bioeconomic analogy of hypercycle and dissipative parts in ecosystems; (3) the dramatic reallocation of human time and land use patterns in various sectors of modern economy. Next, a flow-fund representation of the MUSIASEM scheme on three levels (the whole national level, the paid work sectors level, and the agricultural sector level) is illustrated to look at the structure of the human economy in relation to two primary factors: (i) human time - a fund; and (ii) exosomatic energy - a flow. The three levels representation uses extensive and intensive variables simultaneously. Key conceptual tools of the MuSIASEM scheme - mosaic effects and impredicative loop analysis - are explained using the three level flow-fund representation. Finally, we claim that the MuSIASEM scheme can be seen as a multi-purpose grammar useful to deal with sustainability issues. |
| Keywords: | Energy, Flow-Fund Model, Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis, Mosaic Effects, Impredicative Loop, Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism, Hierarchy, Multi-Purpose |
| JEL: | O11 O13 Q01 Q57 Q58 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea0801&r=agr |
| By: | Carlo Carraro (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, CEPR, CEPS and CMCC); Alessandra Sgobbi (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and CMCC) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of non-cooperative bargaining theory for the analysis of negotiations on water allocation and management. We explore the impacts of different economic incentives, a stochastic environment and varying individual preferences on players’ strategies and equilibrium outcomes through numerical simulations of a multilateral, multiple issues, non-cooperative bargaining model of water allocation in the Piave River Basin, in the North East of Italy. Players negotiate in an alternating-offer manner over the sharing of water resources (quantity and quality). Exogenous uncertainty over the size of the negotiated amount of water is introduced to capture the fact that water availability is not known with certainty to negotiating players. We construct the players’ objective function with their direct input. We then test the applicability of our multiple players, multi-issues, stochastic framework to a specific water allocation problem and conduct comparative static analyses to assess sources of bargaining power. Finally, we explore the implications of different attitudes and beliefs over water availability. |
| Keywords: | Bargaining, non-cooperative game theory, simulation models, uncertainty |
| JEL: | C61 C71 C78 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:28_07&r=agr |
| By: | Timothy C. Haab; John C. Whitehead; George R. Parsons; Jammie Price |
| Abstract: | In this paper we consider the effects of negative and positive risk information on perceived seafood risks and seafood consumption by gender and race. The data is from a Mid-Atlantic survey of coastal seafood consumers. We elicit risk perceptions in three risk scenarios with a dichotomous choice with a follow-up question format. We elicit continuous revealed and stated preference seafood consumption in nine risk and price scenarios. Analysis in four gender and race categories indicates that demographic groups respond to the positive and negative information in different ways. Communication of risk information as risk mitigation policy is a challenge. Key Words: |
| JEL: | Q51 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:08-02&r=agr |
| By: | Marcel Boyer; Donatella Porrini |
| Abstract: | Using a structural model of the interactions between governments, firms and insurance companies, we characterise the distortions in environmental liability sharing between firms and insurance companies that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. These distortions stem from three factors: the presence of moral hazard, the non congruence between firms/insurers objectives and social welfare, and the courts’ imperfect assessment of safety care levels exerted by firms. We characterize cases where the efficient liability sharing factor is above or below its full information perfect implementation level. We derive comparative statics results indicating how sensitive the liability sharing factor is to changes in parameters (parameters that underlie the firm profit level and volatility, the cost of safety care, the monitoring cost, the social cost of public funds, the effectiveness of care in reducing the probability of accident) that are relevant for the characterization of optimal policies (liability sharing, safety care standards) toward environmental protection or the prevention of industrial accidents. We derive policy implications regarding environmental disaster insurance policies. <P>À l’aide d’un modèle structurel des interactions entre les gouvernements, les entreprises et les assureurs, nous caractérisons les distorsions dans le partage des responsabilités entre entreprises et assureurs qu’implique la mise en place imparfaite des politiques gouvernementales. Ces distorsions résultent de trois facteurs : la présence de risque moral, la non-congruence des objectifs des entreprises, des assureurs et de bien-être social, et l’observation imparfaite des efforts de prévention des entreprises par le système judiciaire. Nous dérivons des résultats de statique comparée montrant la sensibilité du facteur de partage des responsabilités à des changements dans les paramètres sous-jacents à la profitabilité, au coût des efforts de prévention, à l’efficacité de ces efforts dans la réduction de la probabilité d’accident, au coût de monitoring, au coût social des fonds publics, et qui sont pertinents à la caractérisation des politiques optimales (partage de responsabilité, standard légal du niveau de prévention) de protection environnementale et de prévention des accidents. Nous en déduisons certaines implications quant aux politiques relatives à l’assurance contre les désastres environnementaux. |
| Keywords: | Liability sharing, environmental insurance, safety care, moral hazard, principal-agent., Partage de responsabilité, assurance environnementale, effort de prévention, risque moral, principal-agent. |
| JEL: | D82 G32 K13 K32 Q28 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2008s-03&r=agr |