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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2014‒04‒29
twenty papers chosen by |
| By: | Kabwe, Stephen; Grabowski, Philip P.; Haggblade, Steven; Tembo, Gelson |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcpb:165885&r=agr |
| By: | Hichaambwa, Munguzwe; Sitko, Nicholas; Chamberlin, Jordan |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcpb:165883&r=agr |
| By: | Oliveira, Victor |
| Abstract: | This report uses preliminary administrative data from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), the agency responsible for managing the programs, to examine trends in the food and nutrition assistance programs through fi scal 2013 (October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013). The report uses ERS data to examine trends in the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity in the United States through 2012 and summarizes two recent ERS reports that examine the food security of two subpopulations of particular concern: (1) adults with disabilities and (2) households with children. The report also looks at trends in some of the indicators of economic and social conditions that affect participation in and spending on food and nutrition assistance programs. |
| Keywords: | food assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, school lunch, school breakfast, WIC, food insecurity, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersib:165650&r=agr |
| By: | Ngoma, Hambulo; Mulenga, Brian P.; Jayne, T.S. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcwp:165886&r=agr |
| By: | Ole Boysen (Agricultural and Food Policy, University of Hohenheim; Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin); Ana Corina Miller (Department of Agriculture and Food Economics, Agri-Food and Bioscience Institute, Belfast; Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin); Alan Matthews (Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Over the period 2005-2020, the Irish agri-food sector is confronted with three major policy changes: the decoupling of the single farm payment, the elimination of the dairy quota and potential multilateral trade liberalisation as part of an agreement in the Doha Development Round. This paper studies these reforms and their impacts on the economy and income distribution using a CGE model particularly rich in detail on agri-food sectors, differentiated household groups, and agricultural policy instruments including their links to productive factors and households. This allows customising the model to appropriately represent the specific policy instruments and their actual or potential changes. The results suggest that the past and projected changes in the policy environment have, in sum, a small positive impact on GDP and household income. But, the gains and losses are unequally distributed across sectors and household groups due to the highly differentiated distribution of support and protection. While all households generally gain from the sequence of policy reforms in the long run, some experience strong adverse effects from particular reforms and in the medium run. |
| Keywords: | Single Farm Payment; Doha Round; milk quota; Ireland; income distribution; computable general equilibrium |
| JEL: | D58 F13 O52 Q18 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp445&r=agr |
| By: | McGee Schiavoni, C. |
| Abstract: | This study provides a preliminary theoretical and empirical exploration into how ‘competing sovereignties’ are shaping the political construction of food sovereignty—broadly defined as ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.’ This study was motivated by a lack of clarity on the ‘sovereignty’ of food sovereignty that had been noted by numerous scholars. Earlier on, questions focused on who was the sovereign of food sovereignty—was it the state? Was it communities? More recently, as there is a growing consensus that there are in fact ‘multiple sovereignties’ of food sovereignty that cut across jurisdictions and scales, the question has become how these ‘multiple sovereignties’ are competing with each other in the attempted construction of food sovereignty. This question is becoming all the more relevant as food sovereignty is increasingly getting adopted into state policy at various levels, calling for state and societal actors to redefine their terms of engagement. This study has attempted to explore questions of competing sovereignties, first by developing an analytical framework using the lenses of scale, geography, and institutions, then by applying that framework to Venezuela, where for the past fifteen years a food sovereignty experiment has been underway in the context of a dynamic, complex, and contested shift in state-society relations. |
| Keywords: | food sovereignty, competing sovereignties, Venezuela |
| Date: | 2014–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:51089&r=agr |
| By: | Ifft, Jennifer; Patrick, Kevin; Novini, Amirdara |
| Abstract: | This report is a primer on the use of debt by U.S. farm businesses for policymakers, researchers, and others interested in the financial well-being of U.S. agriculture. It presents data on basic debt-use patterns by farm businesses (in 2011, over 900,000 farms operated as farm businesses based on their size, organizational structure, or the occupation of their principal operator) and explores key trends over 20 years. U.S. farm debt use varies widely by farm size, specialization, operator age, and other farm characteristics. Largescale farm businesses, farm businesses with younger operators, and dairy and poultry farm businesses all have higher levels of debt use. Both average debt-to-asset ratios and the share of farm businesses with high debt-to-asset ratios have declined over time. |
| Keywords: | Farms, debt, debt-to-asset ratios, commodities, Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersib:165912&r=agr |
| By: | Jean-Louis Combes (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Philippe Delacote (Laboratoire d'économie forestière - Laboratoire d'économie forestière - INRA); Pascale Motel Combes (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | Improving access to capital through credit and public spendings is an important step toward development and poverty alleviation. At the same time, deforestation-related activities, like agricultural expansion, can be seen as relying on natural capital, through the depletion of forest resources and the use of land in an extensive way. It is then important to better understand how a better access to capital influences the use of land as a natural capital. This paper assesses the relationship between financial development, public spendings and deforestation. Are they substitute or complement? Our econometric analysis shows that deforestation is positively correlated to access to credit and public spendings, which gives some evidence that natural capital is a complement to credit and public spendings. |
| Keywords: | deforestation;development;credit;public spendings |
| Date: | 2014–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00979191&r=agr |
| By: | Samuel Kobina Annim; Katsushi S. Imai |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:1404&r=agr |
| By: | Zavelberg, Yvonne; Wieck, Christine; Heckelei, Thomas |
| Abstract: | In 2010, the European (EU) High Level Expert Group on milk proposed the introduction of standard contracts between raw milk producers and processors to improve the bargaining position of producers and to stabilize the market by balancing dairy supply and demand. However, contracts may distort competition and deter market entry of rival dairies. We analyze competitive effects of contracts between dairy producers and processors by constructing a game theoretic model. We show that an incumbent dairy can deter a rival dairy’s market entry by offering an exclusive contract to a risk averse producer. |
| Keywords: | entry deterrence, imperfect competition, buyer power, delivery contracts, dairy processing, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, Risk and Uncertainty, L13, L14, L41, |
| Date: | 2014–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubfred:165088&r=agr |
| By: | Andersson, Henrik; Hole, Arne Risa; Svensson, Mikael |
| Abstract: | This study elicits individual preferences for reducing morbidity and mortality risk in the context of an infectious disease (campylobacter) using choice experiments. Respondents are in the survey asked to choose between different policies that, in addition to the two health risks, also vary with respect to source of disease being targeted (food or water), when the policy takes place (in time), and the monetary cost. Our results in our baseline model are in line with expectations; respondents prefer the benefits of the program sooner than later, programs that reduce both the mortality and morbidity risk, and less costly programs. Moreover, our results suggest that respondents prefer water- compared with food-safety programs. However, a main objective of this study is to examine scope sensitivity of mortality risk reductions using a novel approach. Our results from a split-sample design suggest that the value of the mortality risk reduction, defined as the value of a statistical life, is SEK 3 177 (USD 483 million) and SEK 50 million (USD 8 million), respectively, in our two sub-samples. This result cast doubt on the standard scope sensitivity tests in choice experiments, and the results also cast doubt on the validity and reliability of VSL estimates based on stated preference (and revealed preference) studies in general. This is important due to the large empirical literature on non-market evaluation and the elicited values’ central role in policy making, such as benefit-cost analysis. |
| Keywords: | Choice experiments; Morbidity risk; Mortality risk; Scope sensitivity; Willingness to pay |
| JEL: | D61 H41 I18 Q51 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:27900&r=agr |
| By: | Irz, Xavier; Leroy, Pascal; Réquillart, Vincent; Soler, Louis-Georges |
| Abstract: | The effect of consumers’ compliance with nutritional recommendations is uncertain because of potentially complex substitutions. To lift this uncertainty, we adapt a model of consumer behaviour under rationing to the case of linear nutritional constraints. Dietary adjustments are thus derived from information on consumer preferences, consumption levels, and nutritional contents of foods. A calibration exercise simulates, for different income groups, how the French diet would respond to various nutrition recommendations, and those behavioural adjustments are translated into health outcomes through the DIETRON epidemiological model. This allows for the ex-ante comparison of the efficiency, equity and health effects of ten nutritional recommendations. Although most recommendations impose significant taste costs on consumers, they are highly cost-effective, with the recommendations targeting salt, saturated fat, and fruits and vegetables (F&V) ranking highest in terms of efficiency. A five percent change in consumption of any of those nutrients or food would reduce premature mortality in excess of 2100 lives annually. By contrast, urging consumers to modify their consumption of fibers, sugar-fat products and dietary cholesterol is unlikely to be socially desirable, often due to large unintended adjustments in some dimensions of dietary quality. Most recommendations are economically progressive, with the exception of that targeting F&V. |
| Keywords: | food choice; diet; rationing; norms; healthy |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:27927&r=agr |
| By: | Nordquist, Dale W.; Nitchie, Donald L.; Paulson, Garen J.; Kurtz, James N.; Woodford, John L.; Sandager, Ian V.; Knorr, Tonya L.; Froslan, Janet M. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:umaesp:165761&r=agr |
| By: | Meade, Birgit; Regmi, Anita; Seale, James L. Jr; Muhammad, Andrew |
| Abstract: | Cross-price elasticities are updated in this report, using the World Bank’s 2005 International Comparison Program (ICP) data for 9 major consumption categories across 144 countries. The 2005 ICP offers the most recent consistent data set for such a large number of countries. The consumption categories are: food, beverage and tobacco; clothing and footwear; gross rent, fuel, and power; house furnishings and operations; medical and health; transport and communications; recreation; education; and “other.” Cross-price elasticities also are calculated and reported for a two-good demand system based on food and nonfood items. To our knowledge, the cross-country cross-price elasticity estimates in this report represent the only available consistent elasticity estimates for this large a number of countries and consumption categories, updated from earlier estimates based on 1996 ICP data. |
| Keywords: | Cross-country demand analysis, cross-price elasticities, 2005 International Comparison Program data, ICP, Florida model, Frisch elasticity, complete demand analysis, food demand, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uerstb:165687&r=agr |
| By: | Maria Osipenko; Zhiwei Shen; Martin Odening; |
| Abstract: | In this paper we adapt a dynamic discrete choice model to examine the aggregated demand for single- and multi-year crop insurance contracts. We show that in a competitive insurance market with heterogeneous risk averse farmers, there is simultaneous demand for both insurance contracts. Moreover, the introduction of multi-year contracts enhances the market penetration of insurance products. Using U.S. corn yield data, we empirically assess the potential of multi-year crop insurance. |
| Keywords: | multi-year insurance, index-based crop insurance, dynamic discrete choice model |
| JEL: | D81 G22 Q14 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-025&r=agr |
| By: | Amaya Vega (Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit (SEMRU) School of Business and Economics Room 338, JE Cairnes Building, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland); Ana Corina Miller (Department of Agriculture and Food Economics, Agri-Food and Bioscience Institute, Belfast; Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin); Cathal O'Donoghue (Rural Economy Research Centre, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the potential economic impact of the Irish government strategy for the development of the seafood sector in Ireland, Food Harvest 2020 (FH2020). The seafood industry accounts for a large proportion of income and employment in peripheral coastal areas. Many of these regions are predominantly rural and they are largely dependent on the primary fisheries sector. Moreover, the services and retail businesses in these areas are heavily dependent on direct spending from the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors. A social accounting matrix (SAM) approach with (1) set to zero purchase coefficients for all directly impacted industries and (2) changes in output converted to final demand shocks is used to calculate the economic and employment impact on the rest of the economy from an increase in the output in the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors in Ireland. The results suggest fisheries sectors have strong links with the rest of the economy hence an important economic impact from a policy perspective. |
| Keywords: | Economic impact, social accounting matrix, Irish seafood sector, employment multiplier |
| JEL: | D58 F13 O52 Q18 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp447&r=agr |
| By: | Nicola Brandt |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature and policy discussions about the role of the property tax for land use. Various externalities of the development of land, such as new infrastructure needs, the loss of open space or air pollution due to longer commutes as people locate far from city centres, are not internalised fully by property taxes or other policy instruments and this is often thought to contribute to excessive land use and urban sprawl. The impact of property taxes on land use intensity and sprawl is ambiguous in theory, however, and it depends on tax design, as well as land use regulation policies and other taxes that can influence municipalities’ incentives to convert land for development. Yet, there is some evidence suggesting that higher property taxes can limit urban sprawl, in particular when the tax on land is higher than on structures, although effects are small given relatively given a limited price elasticity of land use. Various property tax design options are discussed that may help to better internalise land use related externalities. |
| Keywords: | land use, fiscal zoning, property tax, urban sprawl |
| JEL: | R14 R38 R51 R52 |
| Date: | 2014–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ctpaab:17-en&r=agr |
| By: | Timo Kaphengst; Eike Karola Velten |
| Abstract: | The overall aim of this study is to investigate energy transition processes in rural areas by paying particular attention to the role of energy cooperatives in these processes. The study should mainly uncover, if and under which conditions energy cooperatives provide favourable structures for initialising transition processes in rural areas and involving relevant stakeholders. A particular focus will be on the question of agency in energy transition processes and the internal drivers and motivations of the people to become involved in energy cooperatives. The theoretical background of the study is the transition theory and transition management (TM) concept, which we complement by drawing on Practice Theory and social learning in order to explain behavioural changes. The study mainly builds on an empirical case study in the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Northern Bavaria (Germany). Several energy cooperatives were formed there recently through the support and promotion a small rural consultancy. In addition, the results from the case study will be complemented by and compared with other case studies from Denmark and Spain taken from the literature. One of the main research question will be, to what extent energy cooperatives can be considered a good practice example for participatory involvement in transition processes and to what extent does this have an influence on the inner drivers/motivations of actors in this transition, possibly leading to behavioural changes. |
| Keywords: | Academic research, Behavioural economics, Post-industrialisation, Social development, Social innovation, Socio-ecological transition, Transition research |
| JEL: | D83 Q01 Q28 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2014:m:4:d:0:i:60&r=agr |
| By: | Dubois, Pierre; Griffith, Rachel; O'Connell, Martin |
| Abstract: | Restricting advertising is one way governments seek to reduce consumption of potentially harmful goods. There have been increasing calls to apply a similar policy to the junk food market. The effect will depend on how brand advertising influences consumer demand, and on the strategic pricing response of oligopolistic firms. We develop a model of consumer demand and dynamic oligopoly supply in which multi-product firms compete in prices and advertising budgets. We model the impact of advertising on demand in a exible way, that allows for the possibility that advertising is predatory or cooperative, and we consider how market equilibria would be impacted by an advertising ban. In our application we apply the model to the potato chip market using transaction level data. The implications of an advertising ban for consumer welfare depend on the view one takes about advertising. In the potato chip market advertising has little informational content. The advertising may be a characteristic valued by consumers, or it may act to distort decision-making. We quantify the welfare impacts of an advertising ban under alternative views of advertising, and show that welfare conclusions depend on which view of advertising the policymaker adopts. |
| Keywords: | advertising, demand estimation, welfare, dynamic oligopoly |
| JEL: | L13 M37 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:28116&r=agr |
| By: | Andersson, Henrik; Tago, Damian; Treich, Nicolas |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:27994&r=agr |