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on Agricultural Economics |
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Issue of 2015‒04‒25
forty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Singh, K.M. |
| Abstract: | Agricultural growth has been largely responsible for India’s desire for long term food security for its rapidly growing population and making food affordable by price stabilization. It is therefore a big challenge for the policy makers to make policies which enable farmers to efficiently adjust to a less regulated production and marketing environment. Lack of an effective competition policy regime in India, has constrained the farm sector gains from trade reforms, and farmer’s capacity to adopt new technologies. Thus, well thought agricultural policy reforms are essential to enhance the agricultural sectoral productivity in India. The current paper is an attempt to understand the various regulatory provisions and subsidies which affect the production and trade of rice the most important food crop in India and the world. |
| Keywords: | Rice, Policies, Regulations, Subsidies, India |
| JEL: | O24 O38 Q13 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2015–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63396&r=agr |
| By: | Esther Boere; G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the potential impact on producers’ land-use decisions in moving from support payments based on entitlements to a single farm payment (SFP). Further, we then consider a single farm payment with a greening component as part of the 2013 CAP reform. Using data for representative crop farms of different sizes in the Netherlands, we develop a farm-level crop allocation model that is calibrated using positive mathematical programming. We use a two-step calibration method to determine a nonlinear cost function and farm-specific risk aversion coefficients. Not unexpectedly, we find that the 2013 CAP reforms will cause farmers to shift away from crops previously eligible for payments, with the initial shift under the SFP enhanced by the move towards SFP combined with green payment. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural policy and CAP reform; mathematical programming; agricultural business risk management |
| JEL: | Q14 Q18 Q17 G22 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2015-01&r=agr |
| By: | Xuan Liu; Jun Duan; G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the impacts of changes in Canada’s AgriStability program on crop allocation, particularly the change in the payment trigger associated with the shift from Growing Forward (GF) to Growing Forward 2 (GF2). To examine whether this change could affect production decisions, and thereby potentially violate the WTO’s ‘green box’ criteria, we construct farm management models for representative farms in six different Alberta regions. To incorporate risk and uncertainty into the farm model, we assume that, instead of maximizing overall gross margin, a farmer varies her crop activities to maximize expected utility subject to technological and market constraints. The models are calibrated using positive mathematical programming (PMP), which then facilitates their use for policy analysis; however, PMP is not straightforward in the case of expected utility maximization because a risk parameter also needs to be calibrated. Possible ways to address this issue are examined. Results indicate that the initial introduction of the AgriStability program tilted farmers’ planting decisions towards crops with higher returns and greater risk, but that a change in the AgriStability payout trigger (going from GF to GF2) would not further alter land-use decisions. However, the latter shift does reduce indemnities and farmers’ expected profits; increases in farmers’ aversion to risk will lead to changes in crop allocations, although it is not clear to what extent it impacts trade. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural business risk management; AgriStability program; positive mathematical programming and risk aversion |
| JEL: | Q14 Q17 Q18 C61 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2015-02&r=agr |
| By: | Eric de Noronha Vaz (Ryerson University, Department of Geography, Toronto, Canada, and University of the Algarve, CIEO, Faro, Portugal); Teresa de Noronha (University of the Algarve, CIEO, Faro, Portugal); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Socio-economic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers in recent decades. Led by the creation of new infrastructures to support economic activity, peri-urban areas have mostly become adversely affected and the consequences for the ecological but also the rural landscape have become a lasting concern. The monitoring and mapping of land-use change, especially in areas where urban change has been high, is crucial. The collision between traditional economic activities related to agriculture in tourist areas such as the Algarve and current demand for tourism infrastructures in urban regions is also leading to loss of economic activity. This paper uses a combined Geographical Information System approach with remote- sensing imagery and land cover databases to perform a Markov analysis for the purpose of quantifying changes in agricultural areas. The paper then expands on the nature of the agricultural changes observed, and offers a multi-temporal assessment by means of landscape metrics in order to understand the shifting land-use patterns for the Algarve in land use planning and regional economic equilibrium: (1) forest regions become transformed into agricultural areas and agricultural areas become urban; (2) areas which are initially agricultural become scattered residential regions created by economic investors; and (3) changes in the land-use have a cyclical nature in which in the course of the economic recession we may witness a shift in this effect brought about a decrease in tourism and focus on traditional sectors. |
| Keywords: | land use change, markov transition matrix, landscape metrics, agricultural land loss |
| JEL: | O13 Q1 |
| Date: | 2013–09–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20130140&r=agr |
| By: | Alan Matthews (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Whether the UK should hold a referendum on continued membership of the European Union (EU) is one of the issues in its general election to be held in May 2015. A possible British withdrawal, or Brexit, would have profound implications for Ireland and particularly for its agri-food sector, given the extensive trade links between the two economies and the role played by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. This paper examines the consequences of a possible Brexit for the Irish agri-food sector. Much would depend on the nature of the trade arrangements that would be put in place between the UK and the EU following Brexit, and the paper contains an extensive discussion of the various options. The paper concludes that Brexit would be unambiguously negative from the perspective of both Irish producers and consumers, and recommends various ways in which the inevitable disruption might be minimised. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, Ireland, UK withdrawal, agri-food sector, EU single market |
| JEL: | F15 Q17 |
| Date: | 2015–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0215&r=agr |
| By: | Larson,Donald F.; Savastano,Sara; Murray,Siobhan; Palacios-Lopez,Amparo |
| Abstract: | African governments and international development groups see boosting productivity on smallholder farms as key to reducing rural poverty and safeguarding the food security of farming and non-farming households. Prompting smallholder farmers to use more fertilizer has been a key tactic. Closing the productivity gap between male and female farmers has been another avenue toward achieving the same goal. The results in this paper suggest the two are related. Fertilizer use and maize yields among smallholder farmers in Uganda are increased by improved access to markets and extension services, and reduced by ex ante risk-mitigating production decisions. Standard ordinary least squares regression results indicate that gender matters as well; however, the measured productivity gap between male and female farmers disappears when gender is included in a list of determinants meant to capture the indirect effects of market and extension access. |
| Date: | 2015–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7241&r=agr |
| By: | Wouter Zant (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Transaction costs play a key role in the behaviour of smallholders in developing countries. We exploit the introduction of an additional tobacco auction floor in Malawi to investigate the impact of a reduction in transaction costs and improved market access on production per hectare and the underlying smallholder’s decisions on production and cultivated area of tobacco, the major cash crop in Malawi. Given the non-experimental nature of the data we use matching and potential outcome models to identify impact. Estimations are based on annual data by Extension Planning Area, 198 in total, fully covering Malawi, for the period 2003-04 to 2009-10. The estimation results support a statistically significant positive impact of the introduction of a new auction floor on smallholders’ behaviour: production per hectare, production and area of tobacco has increased in the long run with respectively 20-25%, 36-38% and 15-21%. This outcome, and the increase in cultivated area in articular, suggests that lower transaction costs trigger smallholder farmers to shift to commercial agriculture. |
| Keywords: | transaction costs, market access, subsistence, food & cash crops, Malawi, Africa |
| JEL: | D23 O13 O55 Q11 Q13 |
| Date: | 2012–09–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20120088&r=agr |
| By: | Jayanthi Thennakoon; Kym Anderson |
| Abstract: | This paper offers an empirical analysis of the proposal by some developing countries for an agricultural Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) in the World Trade Organization. It draws on political economy and market theory to demonstrate that the loss-averting domestic producer benefits that proponents believe the SSM would offer agricultural-importing developing countries may be illusory, insofar as agricultural-exporting countries also seek to avert producer losses. By way of illustration, the paper then uses time series data to analyse past government responses to fluctuations in the world's rice markets. The results suggest that the proposed SSM would deliver at most only a small fraction of the loss-averting benefits that have been advertised by the proponents of the SSM. Since the analysis applies to upward as well as downward spikes in international prices, it underscores the importance of strengthening multilateral disciplines on both import and export trade interventions to reduce beggar-thy-neighbor unilateral trade policy responses to food price fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | WTO safeguards, SSM, food security, rice market volatility |
| JEL: | F13 F15 F17 Q17 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2014-23&r=agr |
| By: | Baojing Sun; G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | Weather derivatives based on heating degree days or cooling degree days have been traded in financial markets for more than 10 years. Although used by the energy sector, agricultural producers have been slow to adopt this technology even though agriculture is particularly vulnerable to weather uncertainty. In agriculture, few studies have focused on the pricing of weather derivatives for hedging weather risks for crop production. In this study, we employ data from an earlier study of climate on corn yields in northern China to compare different methods for pricing weather options based on growing degree days (GDDs). For pricing weather options, we investigate the use of weather indexes based on an econometric approach, a mean reverting stochastic process, and simple historical averages (burn analysis). For the econometric model, we use a sine function to estimate expected GDDs. The stochastic model is also based on the sine function, but employs Monte Carlo simulation with mean-reversion parameters to predict daily average temperatures; the reversion parameters are estimated using three alternative methods. For the historical approach, a 10-year moving average of GDDs is used. Results for the period 2001-2011 indicate that the historical average method fits actual GDDs best, followed in order by the stochastic process with a high mean reversion speed (0.9763), the econometrically estimated sine function, and the stochastic processes with medium (0.2698) and low (0.02399) mean reversion speeds. Depending on the method used, premiums for weather derivative options vary from $21.27 to $24.39 per standard deviation in GDD. |
| Keywords: | Stochastic process for pricing weather options; growing degree days; agricultural finance |
| JEL: | Q14 G11 G12 G32 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2014-03&r=agr |
| By: | Dudin, Mikhail (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship); Frolova, Evgenia (Far Eastern Federal University); Gryzunova, Natalie (Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI)); Shuvalova, Elena (Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI)) |
| Abstract: | Task statement: This article is an attempt to study the issues of quality management of business processes and production with respect to companies operating in the agricultural sector. The global agribusiness is a special sphere of production, which is aimed at meeting the most important physiological needs of people. Therefore, the quality of the products, and thus the quality of the business processes are crucial for preservation and enhancement of the health of the world's population. The approach of this article is based on the cross-disciplinary concept of quality management with regard to the specifics of the operation and development of agro-industrial companies. Results: the study of theoretical, methodological, and empirical aspects shows that, in recent decades, the dynamics of the global agribusiness has changed significantly, and it is caused by multiple objective factors. At the same time, forecasts say the world food production will fall short of the real need of the world population in this products, so further stimulation of sustainable development of the world's agribusiness can be performed through total quality management as well. For agricultural companies, quality management should be based on the Deming Cycle concept; this approach orients all business processes to implementation of the eight core principles of total quality management. Conclusion / recommendations: materials contained in this article show the special role of the global agribusiness in social and economic processes. The proposed scheme of quality management is recommended for use in the agricultural companies of the complete production cycle. For companies of the non-complete cycle, the scheme can be adapted by eliminating unused links. |
| Keywords: | agribusiness, food industry, agriculture, total quality management, quality management system |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:dud14&r=agr |
| By: | Mengistu Assefa Wendimu (Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Natural Resources and Development; Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Arne Henningsen (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Peter Gibbon (Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Global Transformations) |
| Abstract: | Contract farming is often seen as a panacea to many of the challenges faced by agricultural production in developing countries. Given the large heterogeneity of contract farming arrangements, it is debatable whether all kinds of contract farming arrangements offer benefits to participating smallholders. We apply matching methods to analyze the effects of a public sugarcane outgrower scheme in Ethiopia. Participation in the outgrower scheme significantly reduces the income and asset stocks of outgrowers who contributed irrigated land to the outgrower scheme, while the effect was insignificant for outgrowers who contributed rain-fed land. We provide several explanations and discuss policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, Outgrower scheme, contract farming, sugarcane, propensity score, genetic matching, Ethiopia |
| JEL: | Q12 Q13 O13 I31 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2015_06&r=agr |
| By: | Crost, Benjamin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Duquennois, Claire (University of Colorado Denver); Felter, Joseph (Stanford University); Rees, Daniel I. (University of Colorado Denver) |
| Abstract: | Climate change is predicted to affect global rainfall patterns, but there is mixed evidence with regard to the effect of rainfall on civil conflict. Even among researchers who argue that rainfall reduces civil conflict, there is disagreement as to the underlying mechanism. Using data from the Philippines for the period 2001-2009, we exploit seasonal variation in the relationship between rainfall and agricultural production to explore the connection between rainfall and civil conflict. In the Philippines, above-average rainfall during the wet season is harmful to agricultural production, while above-average rainfall during the dry season is beneficial. We show that the relationship between rainfall and civil conflict also exhibits seasonality, but in the opposite direction and with a one-year lag. Consistent with the hypothesis that rebel groups gain strength after a bad harvest, there is evidence that lagged rainfall affects the number of violent incidents initiated by insurgents but not the number of incidents initiated by government forces. Our results suggest that policies aimed at mitigating the effect of climate change on agricultural production could weaken the link between climate change and civil conflict. |
| Keywords: | climate change, civil conflict, rainfall |
| JEL: | H56 O13 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8965&r=agr |
| By: | Dudin, Mikhail (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship); Balabanov, Vladimir (Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship); Balabanova, Anna (Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship) |
| Abstract: | This study aims to determine the key trends in, as well as focus areas in and ways of, ensuring the proper level of global food security – both at the global level and in specific countries of the Asia-Pacific region. What needs to be used as the basis for the food security of particular countries is the sustainable development of their national agro-industrial complexes, while taking account of the experience of and statistical data for other, more developed, countries and regions in Western Europe and the US. Among the major inferences drawn from this study, the author would like to highlight the following: - the state of food security varies significantly by countries and regions. For particular countries within the Asia-Pacific region (above all, India, China, and Russia), ensuring the proper level of food security is a most topical objective to be resolved using a systemic approach; - resolving the objective of ensuring food security in Asian regions ought to be based on the innovation-oriented sustainable development of the national agro-industrial complex using special organizational/economic mechanisms, which should be predicated on a novel understanding of the specificity of the interaction between the state, agro-industrial business, and science; - resolving the objective of ensuring the proper level of food security serves the achievement of common humanistic goals in the development of modern human civilization and is viewed as one of the key obligations of modern socially-oriented states. |
| Keywords: | agro-industrial complex, sustainable development, food security, triple helix model, institualization, innovations |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:dud13&r=agr |
| By: | Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano; Shabnam, Nadia |
| Abstract: | Food security and nutrition have become central to the policy agendas of governmental and non-governmental organizations due to their consequences on health and economic development. Changes in consumption patterns in response to price and income changes could impact on nutrient intake with related positive or negative consequences. This article aims to systematically review the elasticity of calories, macronutrients and micronutrients to income in developing and developed countries. We consider a large set of estimates on income elasticity for calories, protein, fat, zinc, iron and vitamin A. This is one of the few reviews that examines the estimates for income elasticity of calories, micronutrients, and micronutrients on a comparative basis. Moreover, we investigate the determinants of the heterogeneity in estimates by means of a rigorous and popular approach of meta-analysis. We found a substantial publication bias, and, in particular, we found that the quality of data is very important as it is able to influence estimates. |
| Keywords: | Calorie; Food Security; Income Elasticity; Meta-Analysis; Nutrient |
| JEL: | O1 O13 Q1 Q18 |
| Date: | 2015–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63754&r=agr |
| By: | Hansen, Bjørn Gunnar (TINE SA, Oslo, Norway); Li, Yushu (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Both the world milk price and the world feed price have become more volatile during the last 7-8 years. The ability of dairy farmers to adapt quickly to these changing circumstances will be a key driver for future success, considering that feed is the major cost component in milk production and that the milk market is highly volatile. This development has increased the need for research on price dynamics and price forecasting. The first aim of this paper is to apply the wavelet multi-resolution analysis (MRA) to investigate the cyclical dynamics embedded in and between the world milk and feed prices. Second, the aim is to explore both the long and short interactions and the impulse response functions (IRF) between the two price series in the system of a vector error correction model (VECM). Third, the aim is to produce reliable forecasts for both the milk and the feed price applying a SARIMA model, a VECM model and wavelet MRA. We collected the world milk price and the world feed price series from 2002 to 2015 from the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN). The analysis revealed that the two price series contain business cycles of approximately 32 months. Further, the two series share a long-run relationship, they are co-integrated, with the feed price as the leading variable. The results also revealed that a combination of different forecasting models can provide reasonably good forecasts of both prices for a period of one year ahead. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural economics; forecast; wavelet MRA; VECM |
| JEL: | C02 C12 C22 Q13 |
| Date: | 2015–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2015_017&r=agr |
| By: | Ali,Daniel Ayalew |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a stochastic dynamic programming model to characterize the optimal savings-consumption decisions and the role of livestock inventories as a buffer stock in rural Ethiopia. The results show that relatively land-rich households use accumulation and liquidation of cattle and other animal inventories for partial consumption smoothing, while low-income households appear not to do so. The results highlight the need for improvement in livestock markets, which are often affected by high transaction costs and price risk, and for investigation of other approaches to risk management. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Rural Poverty Reduction,Debt Markets,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Livestock and Animal Husbandry |
| Date: | 2015–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7244&r=agr |
| By: | Athula Naranpanawa |
| Keywords: | Agricultural productivity, Regional economic growth, Pro-poor growth, Computable general equilibrium model, South Asia, India |
| JEL: | C68 Q16 R11 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gri:epaper:economics:201503&r=agr |
| By: | Kenneth W Clements (Business School, University of Western Australia); Jiawei Si (Business School, University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | Cornelsen et al. (2014) and Green et al. (2013) provide a comprehensive review/summary of a large number of recent estimates of the price responsiveness of food consumption using a meta-regression approach. For seven food items, they present uncompensated elasticities that include both the income and substitution effects of price changes. As for some policy purposes, the substitution effects need to be isolated, in this note we introduce a way of recovering these in the form of the compensated elasticities from their uncompensated counterparts. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:15-03&r=agr |
| By: | Dudin, Mikhail (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship); Ljasnikov, Nikolaj (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship); Sekerin, Vladimir (Moscow state university of mechanical engineering); Gorohova, Anna (Moscow state university of mechanical engineering) |
| Abstract: | Problem statement: to investigate changes of public and economic space inextricably connected with transformation of engineering thought which is the basis of the scientific and technological progress both in industry and agriculture. It is necessary to note that development of engineering thought in the agricultural sector involves not only creation of new machinery and equipment designed for processing and development of rural areas. First of all, it involves biotechnologies and gene technologies allowing to bring crop raising and livestock farming to a new evolutionary level. Development of engineering thought and its quality transformation determine both the rate of changes in society and economics and sequence of changes in the technological modes. The approach of this article involves investigation of historical aspects indicating the interrelation between engineering thought evolution and change in technological modes. Results: the technological mode characterizes the specific character of the stage of the scientific and technological progress as well as provides the general idea of the technical level of development of the industrial, agricultural and service and trade sectors of economic sectors. It is commonly known that the technological mode has been dominating in economics for the period from 40 to 60 years, at that, the faster the innovations are implemented (primary those of the technological nature) the higher the rate of the scientific and technological progress is and the higher the quality of social and economic changes is. Conclusion / recommendations: materials contained in the article have allowed to prove once again the fact that change in technological modes and change in scientific and technological progress are of common nature, at that, the key factor of development of social and economic relations is considered by the authors as quintessence of the engineering thought implemented in innovations. This presentation is a continuum of sustainable development of global social and economic relations. |
| Keywords: | engineering thought, engineering activity, scientific and technological progress, technological mode, economic cycles, socio-economic development |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:dud10&r=agr |
| By: | Giorgia Giovannetti (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa); Enrico Marvasi (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a firm level perspective of global value chain participation in the food industry. Exploiting a very rich and original dataset, based on a 2011 survey of 25,090 Italian firms operating in manufacturing and related services, we characterize the food industry, describing its main strengths and weaknesses, and analyze the links between the probability to export and the value chain participation. Stylized facts on food global value chains and the Italian food industry are singled out. Italian food processing firms offer an ideal setting to study whether entering a value chain helps the internationalization of small, often high quality, firms. Italy is well known for gourmet food, but is despecialized, since it has a substantial trade deficit in the sector. Food processing firms are very small, on average with less than seven workers, and when in value chain, their distribution is skewed towards downstream activities, with a much lower share of subcontractors than of own-branded and final firms. After having described and characterized the sector, we estimate the probability to export of food processing firms and the role of value chains. Our results show that participating in a value chain significantly increases the probability to export. This is particularly true for small firms in the industrial food value chain and for firms positioned downstream. Participating in distribution chains, for instance being able to sell products through large supermarkets, also significantly contributes to internationalization. Our results have important implications in terms of trade policy: tariffs and other protection measures are cumulative when intermediate inputs are traded across borders multiple times. Hence, protection can end up in a significantly higher cost of the finished good. This shows the importance to “think value chain” when discussing trade policy. |
| Keywords: | Global Value Chain, Heterogeneous firms, Export, Internationalization, Food |
| JEL: | F12 F14 F21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2015_04.rdf&r=agr |
| By: | Amrita Chatterjee (Madras School of Economics); Arpita Ghose (Jadavpur University) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to model the positive role of cultivation of Genetically Modified (GM) crop with its soil-anchoring root-characteristic and use of conservation-tillage technology, in saving organic matter contents in the topsoil and reducing soil erosion. In a dynamic optimization framework the farmer produces an optimal combination of a GM and a Non-GM variety of the same crop at the steady state, though the steady state is approached most rapidly by producing a single crop. The improvement in the capacity to anchor the soil and an increase in organic matter content in top-soil will raise the long run soil stock under certain conditions. However, the policies to increase R&D investment in genetic modification and imposition of an input subsidy on GM sector will lead to an increment in area under GM cultivation though their effect on long run soil stock is uncertain. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Optimization, Genetically Modified crops, soil erosion, soil conservation, steady state. |
| JEL: | C61 C62 Q2 Q16 Q28 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2015-096&r=agr |
| By: | World Bank |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates country-specific costs and benefits of scaling up key nutrition investments in Nigeria. Building on the methodology established in the global report scaling up nutrition: what will it cost? Authors first estimate the costs and benefits of a nationwide scale up of ten effective nutrition-specific interventions. This will require an annual public investment of $837 million and would yield enormous benefits: over 8.7 million DALYs and 183,000 lives would be saved annually, while more than 3 million cases of stunting among children under five will be averted. As it is unlikely that the Government of Nigeria or its partners will find the $837 million necessary to reach full national coverage, authors also consider five potential scale-up scenarios based on considerations of burden of stunting, potential for impact, resource requirements and capacity for implementation in Nigeria. Using cost-benefit analyses authors propose scale-up scenarios that represent a compromise between the need to move to full coverage and the constraints imposed by limited resources and capacities. This analysis takes an innovative approach to nutrition costing by not only estimating the costs and benefits of nutrition-specific interventions, but also exploring costs for a selected number of nutrition-sensitive interventions implemented outside of the health sector. We identify and cost four candidate nutrition-sensitive interventions with impact potential in Nigeria, including bio-fortification of cassava, aflatoxin control, school-based deworming, and school-based promotion of good hygiene. Overall, these findings point to a candidate list of nutrition-sensitive approaches that represent a cost-effective approach to reducing child malnutrition in Nigeria. Moving forward, these results are intended to help guide decision makers as they plan future efforts to scale-up action against malnutrition in Nigeria and develop nutrition financing plans that bring to bear resources from the health, social protection, education, and agriculture sectors. |
| Keywords: | access to food, Acute Malnutrition, Acute Respiratory Infections, aged, agricultural sector, anemia, antenatal care, ARI, basic health, basic health services, blindness ... See More + breastfeeding, calcium, capacity constraints, capacity-building, child care, child care programs, child feeding, child feeding practices, Child Growth, child health, child malnutrition, child mortality, child nutrition, child nutrition outcomes, child stunting, childhood diseases, Childhood Illnesses, chronic undernutrition, classroom, Clinics, cognitive development, cognitive outcomes, cognitive skills, Community Management, Community Nutrition, community programs, complementary feeding, complementary foods, Conditional Cash Transfers, COST EFFECTIVENESS, cost-effectiveness, determinants of malnutrition, diarrhea, diarrheal diseases, Disability Adjusted Life Years, early years of life, economic productivity, education sector, enrollment, families, families with children, family members, farmer, farmers, flour, Folic Acid, Food Basket, food intakes, food supplies, geographic region, Global Child Survival, Global Partnership, groundnuts, Growth monitoring, growth promotion, health policy, health services, health status, HIV/AIDS, human capital, Human Development, Human Development Index, hunger, hygiene, hygiene practices, IMCI, infant mortality, infant mortality rate, infection, infectious diseases, Intervention, Iodine, iodine supplementation, Iron, iron deficiency, leadership, learning, life expectancy, live births, liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, malaria, malnourished children, malnutrition in children, malnutrition rates, maternal mortality, measles, micronutrient deficiencies, micronutrient deficiency, micronutrient supplementation, mineral, minerals, moderate malnutrition, morbidity, mortality, NTDs, nutrient, nutrients, NUTRITION, nutrition indicators, nutrition interventions, nutrition outcomes, nutrition policy, Nutrition Programs, nutrition services, nutrition status, nutritional outcomes, NUTRITIONAL STATUS, parasites, physical development, poor health, poor households, poverty analysis, poverty estimates, poverty line, Poverty map, poverty rate, poverty rates, poverty reduction, poverty reduction programs, pregnancy, pregnant women, Primary health care, primary schools, regional average, regional variation, Respiratory Infections, rice, risk factors, safety nets, salt iodization, Sanitation, school attendance, school health, school readiness, school teachers, school-age children, schooling, social protection, staple foods, stunted children, stunting, sugar, sweet potato, target populations, teachers, teaching, training materials, undernutrition, Vitamin, Vitamin A, vitamin A deficiencies, Vitamin A deficiency, Vitamin A supplementation, vitamin A supplements, vitamins, Wasting, workers, young child, youth |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:hnpdps:95674&r=agr |
| By: | Craig Johnston; G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | This paper serves to document the REPA Forest Trade Model – a global model of forest trade that consists of ten products across two horizontal layers in a vertical chain. The model includes 20 regions: Five Canadian regions (Atlantic Canada, Central Canada, Alberta, BC Interior and BC Coast), three U.S. regions (South, North and West), China, Japan, Rest of Asia, Chile, Rest of Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Rest of Europe, and the Rest of the World. The underlying economic theory upon which the model is built is discussed in detail; we demonstrate that changes in region-level forest management policies (e.g., related to harvests) and/or trade policies have a larger impact on income transfers among regions and agents than they have on global welfare. The objective function and constraints to the quadratic programming implementation of the model are developed, and the method used to calibrate the model to existing bilateral trade flows via positive mathematical programming is discussed. Finally, the data sources and actual data are provided, as are the corrections to shipping and handling costs needed to calibrate the model. |
| Keywords: | Forest trade modeling; vertical chains; welfare measurement; mathematical programming; model calibration |
| JEL: | C61 D60 F17 Q23 Q27 Q42 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2014-04&r=agr |
| By: | Brian Blankespoor (Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington DC, United States of America); Alan Basist (Weather Predict Consulting, Asheville, North Carolina, United States of America); Ariel Dinar (University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America); Shlomi Dinar (Florida International University, Miami, Florida, United States of America); Harold Houba (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Neil Thomas (Resource Data Incorporated, Asheville, North Carolina, United States of America) |
| Abstract: | Many river basins will likely face higher hydrologic variability, including extreme floods and droughts, due to climate change, with economic and political consequences. Water treaties that govern international basins could face non-compliance among riparians and inter-state tensions as hydrologic variability increases. Accurate monitoring of water resources is essential to cope with these fluctuations in flow. This paper demonstrates a simple yet robust procedure—the Basist Wetness Index—to predict gauge station (actual water resources) measurements of surface wetness values derived from satellite data (for 1988-2013) and empirically derived flow distributions in two international river basins: Zambezi and Mekong. The paper further undertakes an economic analysis (applied to the Mekong), which identifies not only the economic costs and losses due to extreme fl ow events, but likewise showcases the benefits countries could potentially reap should they be able to make use of such flow data in real time. An illustrative application, using the wetness data and socio-political data, is also performed to highlight the utility of the procedure for research in the field of conflict and cooperation over water. The paper concludes that satellite data modeled with gauge station flow can help reduce the uncertainty inherent in negotiating international water issues. Moreover, the satellite observations can provide near real time monitoring of water resources, and provide valuable lead time for impending droughts and floods. Thus, the approach presented in the article can assist policy makers to devise more efficient and cooperative institutional apparatus. |
| Keywords: | runoff; remote sensing; surface wetness, hydrological variability; international relations; microwaves, economic optimization, international river basins; Mekong; Zambezi |
| JEL: | C53 F51 F53 Q54 |
| Date: | 2014–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140005&r=agr |
| By: | Christian D. Mina (Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the Philippines); Katsushi S. Imai (School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester (UK) and RIEB, Kobe University (Japan)) |
| Abstract: | This study estimates household vulnerability in the Philippines using a three-level and longitudinal linear random-coefficient model whereby vulnerability is decomposed into idiosyncratic and covariate components. Our three-wave panel data covering the period 2003-2009 allow us to analyse poverty situations in both vulnerability and poverty persistence dimensions. A majority of the poor and a third of the non-poor are found to be vulnerable to unobservable shocks, while more susceptible to unobservable idiosyncratic shocks than to covariate shocks. Adequate safety nets should be provided for vulnerable households with less-educated and agriculturally-engaged or jobless heads, rural dwellers, or with more members and/or dependents. |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2015-16&r=agr |
| By: | Mesbah J. Motamed (United States Department of Agriculture, United States); Raymond J.G.M. Florax (Purdue University, United States; and VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands); William A. Masters (Tufts University, United States) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the timing of a location's historical transition from rural to urban activity. We test whether urbanization occurs sooner in places with higher agricultural potential and comparatively lower transport costs, using worldwide data that divide the earth's surface at half-degree intervals into 62,290 cells. From an independent estimate of each cell's rural and urban population history over the last 2,000 years, we identify the date at which each cell achieves various thresholds of urbanization. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across countries through fixed effects and using a variety of spatial econometric techniques, we find a robust association between earlier urbanization and agro-climatic suitability for cultivation, having seasonal frosts, better access to the ocean or navigable rivers, and lower elevation. These geographic correlations become smaller in magnitude as urbanization proceeds, and there is some variance in effect sizes across continents. Aggregating cells into countries, we show that an earlier urbanization date is associated with higher per capita income today. "Agriculture, Transportation and the Timing of Urbanization: Global Analysis at the Grid Cell Level" has been published in the "Journal of Economic Growth" (DOI 10.1007/s10887-014-9104-x). |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, economic geography, urbanization, agriculture, transportation |
| JEL: | C21 N50 O11 O18 R1 |
| Date: | 2014–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140002&r=agr |
| By: | Dragone, Davide (University of Bologna); Ziebarth, Nicolas R. (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a conceptual framework that can explain why economic development goes along with increases in body weight and obesity rates. We first introduce the concept of novelty consumption, which refers to an increase in food availability due to trade or innovation. Then we study how novel food products alter the optimal consumption bundle and welfare, and possibly lead to changes in body weight. We test our model employing the German reunification as a fast motion natural experiment of economic development. Our data elicit detailed information on East Germans' food consumption, body mass, and diet-related health. After the fall of the Wall, East Germans permanently changed their diet by consuming novel western food products. A significant population share permanently gained weight. This is consistent with our theoretical framework where past affects current consumption, and where novel goods determine consumption changes over time with ambiguous effects on diet-related health. |
| Keywords: | economic development, food consumption, habit formation, learning, novel goods, obesity, nutrition-related health, German reunification |
| JEL: | D11 D12 I12 I15 L66 O10 O33 Q18 R22 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8967&r=agr |
| By: | Harold Houba (VU University Amsterdam); Erik Ansink (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Many water allocation agreements in transboundary river basins are inherently unstable. Due to stochastic river flow, agreements may be broken in case of drought. The objective of this paper is to analyze whether water allocation agreements can be self-enforcing, or sustainable. We do so using an infinitely-repeated sequential game that we apply to several classes of agreements.To derive our main results we apply the Folk Theorem to the river sharing problem using the equilibrium concepts of subgame-perfect equilibrium and renegotiation-proof equilibrium. We show that, given the upstream-downstream asymmetry, sustainable agreements allow downstream agents to reap the larger share of the benefits of cooperation. |
| Keywords: | river sharing, sustainable agreements, repeated sequential game, Folk Theorem, water allocation, renegotiation-proofness |
| JEL: | C73 D74 F53 Q25 |
| Date: | 2013–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20130182&r=agr |
| By: | Erik Ansink (VU University Amsterdam); Harold Houba (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We survey the economics of transboundary river water allocation, which emerged in the 1960s and has matured over the last decade due to increasing concerns over water scarcity and pollution. We outline the major approaches and pay specific attention to the strategic aspects of transboundary river water allocation. These strategic aspects are captured by employing game theory to assess the economics of transboundary river water allocation in a simple model of river sharing. This model allows us to show how conflict and cooperation over transboundary water resources may occur. It also allows us to pay specific attention to the efficiency, sustainability, and fairness of solutions to this model. We compare and contrast both cooperative and non-cooperative approaches and we relate their solutions to illustrative examples. |
| Keywords: | River sharing problem, River claims problem, Fairness, Efficiency, Sustainability, Water allocation agreement, Bargaining, Water trade, Sharing rules, Axiomatic approach |
| JEL: | C71 C73 D63 D74 F53 Q25 |
| Date: | 2014–10–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140132&r=agr |
| By: | Marin A.; Stubrin L.I. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, using the case of seeds, we explore the existence of both new opportunities and new challenges for innovation in Natural Resource Based Industries NRBIs in developing countries. Conventional views construe NRBIs as low tech, with low technological dynamism, little innovation, and little capacity to create linkages towards other sectors. However, these views are being increasingly questioned. Some authors argue that although NRs have always provided opportunities for innovation and growth; substantial changes in international institutions, markets and technologies during the last two decades or so have created new and a more diverse set of opportunities for a larger number of developing countries to take advantage of their NRs. We contribute to this literature by providing new empirical evidence that helps to better understand these new opportunities. In addition, we suggest that as new opportunities are being created, new challenges also emerge, and countries which do not comprehend fully both of these might lose the opportunity opened by this historical moment of change to become world leader innovators in NRs and related industries. Empirically we study the case of seeds innovation in Argentina - a world agricultural leader with a strong and advanced domestic seed industry. Based on firms interviews and secondary data we show how the new opportunities created for innovation in seeds have been taken by some companies in the developing world and how some new challenges are questioning the capacity to pursue further some of the new opportunities |
| Keywords: | Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; Technological Change: Government Policy; |
| JEL: | O13 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2015015&r=agr |
| By: | Erik Ansink (VU University Amsterdam); Hans-Peter Weikard (Wageningen University) |
| Abstract: | In a river claims problem, agents are ordered linearly, and they have both an initial water endowment as well as a claim to the total water resource. We provide characterizations of two solutions to this problem, using Composition properties which have particularly relevant interpretations for the river claims problem. Specifically, these properties relate to situations where river flow is uncertain or highly variable, possibly due to climate change impacts. The only solution that satisfies all Composition properties is the 'Harmon rule' induced by the Harmon Doctrine, which says that agents are free to use any water available on their territory, without concern for downstream impacts. The other solution that we assess is the 'No-harm rule', an extreme interpretation of the "no-harm" principle from international water law, which implies that water is allocated with p riority to downstream needs. In addition to characterizing both solutions, we show their relation to priority rules and sequential sharing rules. |
| Keywords: | river claims problem, sharing rule, Harmon Doctrine, composition axioms, water allocation |
| JEL: | D63 C71 Q25 |
| Date: | 2013–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20130199&r=agr |
| By: | Hale Koç (Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Hans van Kippersluis (Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Higher educated individuals are healthier and live longer than their lower educated peers. One reason is that lower educated individuals engage more in unhealthy behaviours including consumption of a poor diet, but it is not clear why they do so. In this paper we develop an economic theory of unhealthy food choice, and use a Discrete Choice Experiment to discriminate between the theoretical parameters. Differences in health knowledge appear to be responsible for the greatest part of the education disparity in diet. However, when faced with the most explicit health information regarding diet, lower educated individuals still state choices that imply a lower concern for negative health consequences. This is consistent with a theoretical prediction that part of the education differences across health behaviours is driven by the "marginal value of health" rising with education. |
| Keywords: | Health, Education, Diet, Discrete Choice Experiment |
| JEL: | C25 I12 I24 |
| Date: | 2015–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20150034&r=agr |
| By: | Brunt, Liam (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Cannon, Edmund (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | Interpretation of historic grain price data may be hazardous owing to systematic grain quality variation – both cross sectionally and over varying time horizons (intra-year, inter-year, long run). We use the English wheat market, 1750-1914, as an example to quantify this issue. First, we show that bushel weight approximates grain quality. Then we show that cross sectional and intra-year variation are substantial and problematic, generating erroneous inference regarding market integration. Long run variation is significant, due to sharply declining international quality differentials, and this impacts estimated cost of living changes. By contrast, inter-year variation is smaller and controlled for more easily. |
| Keywords: | Grain quality; markets; cost of living. |
| JEL: | N01 N50 Q13 |
| Date: | 2015–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2015_006&r=agr |
| By: | BONNEFOND Céline; CLEMENT Matthieu |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to analyse the influence of social class on nutrition knowledge and food preferences among Chinese urban adults with an emphasis on the middle class. The empirical investigations conducted as part of this research are based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey for 2009. First, we propose a multidimensional definition of social class that combines income, occupation and education to highlight the heterogeneity of the Chinese middle class. We identify four distinct groups: the elderly and inactive middle class, the old middle class, the lower middle class and the new middle class. In a second step, we assess the influence of social class on nutrition knowledge and food preference indices. Our results show that adults belonging to the elderly and inactive middle class and to the new middle class have better nutrition knowledge and healthier food preferences than their poorer counterparts. |
| Keywords: | nutrition knowledge, food preferences, social stratification, middle class, China |
| JEL: | I12 O53 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2015-08&r=agr |
| By: | Ebel Berghuis (Windesheim Business School, Zwolle, The Netherlands); Frank A.G. den Butter (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This era of globalisation is characterized by an ongoing international fragmentation of production where the supply chain is split up in more and more parts. The traditional Ricardian theory of trade in products governed by comparative advantages is replaced by a modern theory of trade in tasks. This trend requires new entrepreneurial skills in the organisation of production. Tasks are outsourced to those places in the world where the lower production costs outweigh the additional transaction costs associated with the fragmentation of production. This managing of transaction costs, which we label transaction management, has become a major entrepreneurial skill in transaction economies like the Netherlands. It is determinant for the "make or buy" and location decisions. This paper investigates the practice of transaction management by using data from in-depth interviews with seven companies in the Netherlands which are actually engaged in this modern way of org anising production. It shows that the various ways of coping with transaction costs in the organisation of production play an important role in the strategic decision making of the internationally operating entrepreneurs. However, transaction costs are only intuitively dealt with in organising production. Therefore it seems that support from more formal argumentation, based on the theories of transaction cost economics and new institutional economics, is warranted. |
| Keywords: | Fragmentation of production, outsourcing, managing transaction costs, new institutional economics |
| JEL: | F14 L23 L24 M11 M16 |
| Date: | 2013–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20130135&r=agr |
| By: | Bibek Ray Chaudhuri (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India); Shubhasree Bhadra (Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta) |
| Abstract: | The present study attempts to empirically examine the total factor productivity change (TFPG) of Indian microfinance institutions, using balanced panel data set of 55 MFIs in India between 2008 and 2010. A non parametric Malmquist Productivity Index has been used for this purpose. Efficiency of Indian MFIs has been calculated based on production approach. It was found that technological change has played a significant role in increase of TFPG in the terminal year considered. Further, significant change of scale efficiency in terms of women borrowers also enhances TFPG. Moreover, it was found that operational self sufficiency, return on asset and lagged capital-asset ratio, are significant determinants of TFPG. PAR>30 was also found to be positively related to TFPG. |
| Keywords: | Productivity change, efficiency, microfinance institution, index number |
| JEL: | D24 G21 C43 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ift:wpaper:1527&r=agr |
| By: | Christoph Böhringer; Brita Bye; Taran Fæhn; Knut Einar Rosendahl (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Climate effects of unilateral carbon policies are undermined by carbon leakage. To counteract leakage and increase global cost-effectiveness carbon tariffs can be imposed on the emissions embodied in imports from non-regulating regions. We present a theoretical analysis on the economic incentives for emission abatement of producers subjected to carbon tariffs. We quantify the impacts of different carbon tariff designs by an empirically based multi-sector, multi-region CGE model of the global economy. We find that firm-targeted tariffs can deliver much stronger leakage reduction and higher efficiency gains than tariff designs operated at the industry level. In particular, because the exporters are able to reduce their carbon tariffs by adjusting emissions, their competitiveness and the overall welfare of their economies will be less randomly and less adversely affected than in previously studied carbon tariff regimes. This beneficial distributional impact could facilitate a higher degree of legitimacy and legality of carbon tariffs. |
| Keywords: | carbon leakage; border carbon adjustment; carbon tariffs; computable general equilibrium (CGE) |
| JEL: | Q43 Q54 H2 D61 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:805&r=agr |
| By: | Martijn J. Burger (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Mark Thissen (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), The Hague, the Netherlands); Frank G. van Oort (Utrecht University); Dario Diodato (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Using a newly assembled, consistent and disaggregated dataset (12 goods and 7 services) on internal and bilateral trade for 25 European countries, we analyse the difference between trade in goods and services. The measurement of both trade in goods and trade in services is improved over earlier research, allowing us to compare trade in goods and services in a coherent and systematic way. First, our dataset is made consistent with the domestic demand and production and the total exports and imports at the sector and product level. Second, we explicitly control for re-exports. We find that, although goods are more often bilaterally traded than services, the volume of bilateral trade in services does not attenuate less with distance than the volume of bilateral trade in goods. Published in <A href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17421772.2014.930166#.VC6OZhafhhg">Spatial Economic Analysis</A>. |
| Keywords: | services, goods, trade costs, Europe |
| JEL: | F10 F14 |
| Date: | 2014–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140031&r=agr |
| By: | Berge, Erling (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Haugset, Anne Sigrid (Trøndelag R&D Institute,) |
| Abstract: | More than 200 years after the King sold one of the “King’s commons” of Follafoss (located in the current Verran municipality) to urban timber merchants, local people in some ways still behave as if the area is a kind of commons. The paper will outline the history of the transformation of the area from an 18th century King’s commons to a 21th century battleground for ideas about ancient access and use rights of community members facing rights of a commercial forest owner and the local consequences of national legislation. The right of common to fish and to hunt small game without dog in Follafoss private commons was confirmed in a judgement of the Supreme Court in 1937 and in legislation on hunting in 1899 and 1951. In the Government’s proposal for new legislation on fishing in 1964 the right to fish was removed. And in 1981 the right to hunt was removed without saying a word about it, and it was never commented on in parliament during the legislative process. To explain what we observe it is suggested that a new layer of legislation on commons from 1857 and 1863 created a structural amnesia about private commons making it easy to remove them from legislation without anyone noticing. |
| Keywords: | King’s commons; private forest; rights of common; customary rights; national legislation; loss of customary rights |
| JEL: | P48 Q15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2015_002&r=agr |
| By: | CISSE Abdoul; SANZ Nicolas; BLANCHARD Fabien; DOYEN Luc; PEREAU Jean-Christophe |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role played by cooperation for the sustainable harvesting of an ecosystem. To achieve this, a bio-economic model based on a multi-species Gompertz dynamics with interspecific relationships and multi-agent catches is considered. A comparison between the non cooperative and cooperative optimal strategies is carried out. Revisiting the tragedy of open-access and over exploitation issues, it is first proved how harvesting pressure is larger in the non cooperative case for every species. Then it is examined to what extent gains of cooperation can also be derived for the state of the ecosystem. It turns out that cooperation clearly promotes the biodiversity when the number of agents is high. By contrast, when the number of agents remains limited, results are more ambiguous especially if a species by species viewpoint is adopted. However, an indicator is proposed at the ecosystem scale to highlight the gain of cooperation in the general case. Numerical examples illustrate the analytical findings. |
| Keywords: | Fish war, Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Optimization, Nash equilibrium. |
| JEL: | Q20 Q22 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2015-02&r=agr |
| By: | Craig M.T. Johnston; G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | The carbon flux from burning biomass for energy is often legislated, or simply assumed, to be carbon neutral as subsequent forest growth sequesters carbon lost during energy production. In this sense, there may be no net contributions to atmospheric carbon flux associated with biomass energy. However, trees may take decades to recover the CO2 released by burning, so assumed neutrality hinges on the fact that we count CO2 removals equally independent of when they occur. If dealing with climate change is an urgent matter, we may give higher weight to current CO2 emissions over those that occur in the decades to come. If there is no urgency in dealing with climate change, then all types of biomass will eventually return to carbon neutrality. Yet, if climate change is deemed an urgent matter, biomass never returns to carbon neutrality as we give future CO2 removals less weight. If urgency is high enough, biomass may be more emissions intensive than coal, as the discounted future removals are not enough to offset the relatively higher emissions intensity experience by burning biomass for energy. The race to adopt aggressive renewable energy targets implies climate change mitigation is an urgent matter. Yet, the increasing reliance on biomass for energy production suggests there is no time preference. In the end, the potential benefits of substituting biomass for coal to produce energy might be greatly exaggerated. |
| Keywords: | Bioenergy, Climate Change, Forestry |
| JEL: | Q23 Q42 Q50 C63 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2014-06&r=agr |