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NEP: New Economics Papers
Caribbean Economics
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Edited by: Angelo Zago
Universita degli Studi di Verona
Date: 2005-02-06
Papers: 2
This document is in the public domain, feel free to circulate it.
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In this issue we have:
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1. Optimal location of new forests in a suburban area
Ellen Moons; Bert Saveyn; Stef Proost; Martin Hermy
2. Loan Deficiency Payments versus Countercyclical Payments: Do
We Need Both for a Price Safety Net?
Hart, Chad E.; Babcock, Bruce A.
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1. Optimal location of new forests in a suburban area
Ellen Moons (K.U.Leuven-Center for Economic Studies)
Bert Saveyn (K.U.Leuven-Center for Economic Studies)
Stef Proost (K.U.Leuven-Center for Economic Studies)
Martin Hermy (K.U.Leuven-Laboratory for Forest, Nature and
Landscape Research)
This paper looks for the optimal location of new forests in a
suburban area under area constraints. The GIS-based methodology
takes into account timber, hunting, carbon sequestration, non-use
and recreation benefits and opportunity costs of converting
agricultural land, as well as planting and management costs of
the new forest. The recreation benefits of new forest sites are
estimated using function transfer techniques. We show that the
net social benefit of new forest combinations respecting the area
constraints may differ up to a factor 21. The substitution effect
between forests, both new and existing, turned out to be the
dominant factor in the benefit estimation.
Keywords: Benefit transfer, travel cost analysis, cost-benefit
analysis, forest recreation, Geographical Information
Systems (GIS)
JEL: Q23 Q24 Q26 R14
Date: 2005-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:etewps:ete0502&r=agr
2. Loan Deficiency Payments versus Countercyclical Payments: Do
We Need Both for a Price Safety Net?
Hart, Chad E.
Babcock, Bruce A.
The federal government currently runs two major price support
programs in agriculture, the marketing loan and countercyclical
payment (CCP) programs. While these programs are both targeted at
providing producer price protection, they have different
political and financial costs associated with them. We outline
these costs and project the effects of various loan rate changes
on these programs for eight crops (barley, corn, cotton, oats,
rice, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat) for 2005. Loan rate changes
affect the price support programs by changing the payment rate
producers receive when payments are triggered. We find that the
crop?s relative price strength versus its loan rate and the
relationship between CCP base production and 2005 expected
production have the largest influence on how loan rate changes
affect outlays from the price support programs for the various
crops. Of these crops, cotton is the only one that would be
relatively unaffected by loan rate shifts. Corn and soybeans
would see the largest declines in overall expenditures from price
support programs if loan rates were decreased. Oats and soybeans
would experience the largest percentage losses. However, the
results also show that the federal government could maintain an
agricultural price support structure at a lower cost than it is
currently paying. The reduction in cost often comes in situations
where the current array of price support programs overcompensates
producers for price shortfalls. This shift would also likely find
greater acceptance under the World Trade Organization (WTO)
agriculture guidelines than would the current structure. For an
administration that is looking to rein in deficit spending while
at the same time negotiating new WTO guidelines, moving to lower
loan rates could be an answer.
Date: 2005-02-03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12240&r=agr
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