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NEP: New Economics Papers
Agricultural Economics
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Edited by: Angelo Zago
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pza49.html
Universita degli Studi di Verona
Date: 2006-12-22
Papers: 3
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. Does Trade Liberalisation Lead to Poverty Alleviation? a CGE
Microsimulation Approach for Zimbabwe
Margaret Chitiga; Ramos Mabugu
2. Two-Part Tariffs versus Linear Pricing Between Manufacturers
and Retailers: Empirical Tests on Differentiated Products
Markets
Bonnet, Celine; Dubois, Pierre; Simioni, Michel
3. Uncertainty In Environmental Economics
Robert S. Pindyck
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1. Does Trade Liberalisation Lead to Poverty Alleviation? a CGE
Microsimulation Approach for Zimbabwe
Margaret Chitiga
Ramos Mabugu
A CGE microsimulation model is used to study the poverty impacts
of trade liberalization in Zimbabwe. A sample of 14006 households
from a 1995 household survey is individually modeled in a CGE
framework. The experiment performed is a 50 percent reduction in
all import tariffs. The sectors with the highest initial tariffs
are the non-export agriculture sectors and the most export-
intensive sectors are found in agriculture and in mining. The
halving of tariffs favors export-oriented sectors, mainly in
agriculture, whereas industrial sectors are hardest hit by the
increased import competition. As agriculture is intensive in
unskilled labor and industry is intensive in skilled labor,
unskilled wages rise relative to skilled wages. The consumer
prices fall and this, together with increased unskilled wages,
leads to a fall in poverty. The fall in the price of manufactured
food, which is consumed mainly in urban areas, coupled with the
large number of unskilled workers in these urban areas, explains
why poverty falls more here than in rural Zimbabwe.
Keywords: Computable General Equilibrium, Trade Liberalisation,
Microsimulation, Poverty
JEL: C68 D31 D58 I32
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:mpiacr:2006-18&r=agr
2. Two-Part Tariffs versus Linear Pricing Between Manufacturers
and Retailers: Empirical Tests on Differentiated Products
Markets
Bonnet, Celine
Dubois, Pierre
Simioni, Michel
We present a methodology allowing to introduce manufacturers and
retailers vertical contracting in their pricing strategies on a
differentiated product market. We consider in particular two
types of non linear pricing relationships, one where resale price
maintenance is used with two part tariffs contracts and one where
no resale price maintenance is allowed in two part tariffs
contracts. Our contribution allows to recover price-cost margins
from estimates of demand parameters both under linear pricing
models and two part tariffs. The methodology allows then to test
between different hypothesis on the contracting and pricing
relationships between manufacturers and retailers in the
supermarket industry using exogenous variables supposed to shift
the marginal costs of production and distribution. We apply
empirically this method to study the market for retailing bottled
water in France. Our empirical evidence shows that manufacturers
and retailers use non linear pricing contracts and in particular
two part tariffs contracts with resale price maintenance. At last,
thanks to the estimation of the our structural model, we present
some simulations of counterfactual policy experiments like the
change of ownership of some products between manufacturers.
Keywords: collusion; competition; differentiated products;
double marginalization; manufacturers; non nested tests.
retailers; two part tariffs; vertical contracts; water
JEL: C12 C33 L13 L81
Date: 2006-11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6016&r=agr
3. Uncertainty In Environmental Economics
Robert S. Pindyck
In a world of certainty, the design of environmental policy is
relatively straightforward, and boils down to maximizing the
present value of the flow of social benefits minus costs. But the
real world is one of considerable uncertainty -- over the
physical and ecological impact of pollution, over the economic
costs and benefits of reducing it, and over the discount rates
that should be used to compute present values. The implications
of uncertainty are complicated by the fact that most
environmental policy problems involve highly nonlinear damage
functions, important irreversibilities, and long time horizons.
Correctly incorporating uncertainty in policy design is therefore
one of the more interesting and important research areas in
environmental economics. This paper offers no easy formulas or
solutions for treating uncertainty -- to my knowledge, none exist.
Instead, I try to clarify the ways in which various kinds of
uncertainties will affect optimal policy design, and summarize
what we know and don't know about the problem.
JEL: D81 L51 Q28
Date: 2006-12
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12752&r=agr
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