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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: 2006-06-10
Papers: 8
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In this issue we have:
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1. Understanding the Persistent Low Performance of African
Agriculture
Sylvain Dessy; Jacques Ewoudou; Isabelle Ouellet
2. Collective Marketing Arrangements for Geographically
Differentiated Agricultural Products: Welfare Impacts and
Policy Implications
Lence, Sergio H.; Marette, St?phan; Hayes, Dermot J.;
Foster, William
3. Increasing the Market Access for Agricultural Products from
Bangladesh to the EU
Jorge Nufiez Ferrer
4. Agriculture-sector Policies and Poverty in the Philippines: a
Computable General-Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis
Caesar B. Cororaton; Erwin L. Corong
5. Energy Production with Biomass: What are the Prospects
Gallagher, Paul W.
6. Empowering parents to improve education : evidence from rural
Mexico
Rubio-Codina, Marta; Patrinos, Harry; Gertler, Paul
7. How pro-poor are participatory watershed management projects?
An Indian case study
Mathew Kurian; Ton Dietz
8. Inequality in Land Ownership, the Emergence of Human Capital
Promoting Institutions, and Great Divergence
Oded Galor; Omer Moav; Dietrich Vollrath
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1. Understanding the Persistent Low Performance of African
Agriculture
Sylvain Dessy
Jacques Ewoudou
Isabelle Ouellet
We explain the persistence of low performances in African
agriculture by analyzing the determinants of farmers' decisions
to modernize their farming practices. Owing to sociocultural
factors specific to Sub-Saharan Africa, farmers' decisions on
farming practices are strategic complements. We demonstrate that
the modernization game these farmers play admits two pure-
strategy, Pareto-ranked, symmetric Nash-equilibria. The
equilibrium where all farmers choose to modernize their farming
methods is preferred to the one where all of them choose to stick
to a traditional method. We argue that scarcity and economic
opportunities put forward by neo-Boserupian theories of induced-
innovation as determinants of the onset agricultural innovations
are, in the context of African countries, only necessary, but not
sufficient to generate modernization of farming methods.
Deliberate action to enhance aadoption of agricultural
innovations must therefore take the African's sociocultural
context into consideration, or risk failure.
Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural modernization,
Fertilizer adoption, Supermodular games
JEL: O14 C72 O13 Q12
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0622&r=agr
2. Collective Marketing Arrangements for Geographically
Differentiated Agricultural Products: Welfare Impacts and
Policy Implications
Lence, Sergio H.
Marette, St?phan
Hayes, Dermot J.
Foster, William
This paper examines the incentive of atomistic agricultural
producers within a specific geographical region to differentiate
and collectively market products. We develop a model that allows
us to analyze the market and welfare effects of the main types of
real-world producer organizations, using it to derive economic
insights regarding the circumstances under which these
organizations will evolve, and describing implications of the
results obtained in the context of an ongoing debate between the
European Union and United States. As the anticipated fixed costs
of development and marketing increase and the anticipated size of
the market falls, it becomes essential to increase the ability of
the producer organization to control supply in order to ensure
the coverage of fixed costs. Whenever a collective organization
allows a market (with a new product) to exist that otherwise
would not have existed there is an increase in societal welfare.
Counterintuitively, stronger property right protection for
producer organizations may be welfare enhancing even after a
differentiated product has been developed. The reason for this
somewhat paradoxical result is that legislation aimed at
curtailing the market power of producer organizations may induce
large technological distortions.
Keywords: agricultural products, collective promotion,
geographic indications, supply control, quality.
Date: 2006-05-31
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12632&r=agr
3. Increasing the Market Access for Agricultural Products from
Bangladesh to the EU
Jorge Nufiez Ferrer
This paper analyses the present developments and future
prospects for increased agricultural trade for Bangladesh with
the EU. The trade relationship with the European Union (EU) is
seeing important changes in recent years. The EU has unilaterally
eliminated in 2001 tariff barriers for products originating in
Less Developed Countries through the Everything But Arms (EBA)
agreement, which includes the highly protected agricultural
products. This creates important export opportunities for
Bangladesh. The paper analyses in detail the export trends for
major agricultural products from Bangladesh and other countries
in the region to look for any evidence of an impact from the EBA.
Despite the short period analysed, there are indications of some
positive impacts. However, these are often rather weak and at
times there are none where expected. Analysing the trends of
regional competitors, the paper implies that even with EBA
Bangladesh lacks price competitiveness in some products, and most
importantly a lack of marketing strategy directed towards EU
consumers. For the future, the impact of the EBA will also depend
on a number of other factors, such as any progress in the farm
liberalisation negotiations at WTO, amendments in the Sanitary
and Phytosanitary rules and the reform of the EU?s Common
Agricultural Policy. All of these factors have the potential to
erode the benefits of the EBA considerably. The paper also
addresses some important strategic aspects to improve import
opportunities, from marketing to taking advantage of the trade
related assistance offered by the EU to the less developed
countries.
Keywords: Agriculture, Agricultural products, Market Access,
Export, Eu, Bangladesh
JEL: F1 F13 F14
Date: 2006-04
URL: http://d.repec.org/n
?u=RePEc:pdb:opaper:58&r=agr
4. Agriculture-sector Policies and Poverty in the Philippines: a
Computable General-Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis
Caesar B. Cororaton
Erwin L. Corong
The Philippines has undertaken substantial trade-policy reforms
since the 1980s. However, the poverty impact is not very clear
and has been the subject of intense debate, most crucial of which
is the likely poverty effects of liberalizing the highly
protected agricultural sector. A CGE micro-simulation model is
employed to estimate and explain these impacts. Tariff reduction
induces consumers to substitute cheaper imported agricultural
products for domestic goods, thereby resulting in a contraction
in agricultural output. In contrast, the prevalence of cheap,
imported inputs reduces the domestic cost of production,
benefiting the outward-oriented and import-dependent industrial
sector as their output and export increases. The national poverty
headcount decreases marginally as lower consumer prices outweigh
the income reduction experienced by the majority of households.
However, both the poverty gap and severity of poverty worsens,
implying that the poorest of the poor become even poorer.
Keywords: Agriculture, International trade, Poverty, Computable
general equilibrium, Micro-simulation, Philippines
JEL: D58 E27 F13 I32 O13 O15 O24 O53 Q10
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.
org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:mpiacr:2006-09&r=agr
5. Energy Production with Biomass: What are the Prospects
Gallagher, Paul W.
The advantages and limitations of the U.S. ethanol industry have
both become apparent during the current period of high petroleum
prices. One advantage is that ethanol is cost-reducing as a
gasoline additive and as a gasoline replacement using E85 (motor
fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent gasoline).
However, corn supply limits ethanol's role in energy markets;
ethanol-based corn demand will surpass exports when the 7.5
billion gallon Renewable Fuel Standard is fully implemented; and
even if the Midwest were to secede from The Union, the entire
Midwestern corn crop could only supply two-thirds of regional
gasoline demand with ethanol. Clearly, a broader resource base
and other processing technologies are needed if bioenergy is
going to expand its role in the national energy scene. There are
wide ranging assessments of biomass-energy's potential role in
expanding our national energy supplies. Those accustomed to
pumping liquid petroleum scoff at the idea that an energy
industry could be based on bulky crops or residues from farm land
or forest. Or biotechnologists sometimes multiply laboratory
processing yields times the physical intensity of biomass on land
times land area, resulting in an enormous estimate for biomass
energy potential. Somewhere in between zero and the enormous
estimates we should find reality. This paper examines the primary
factors that limit the potential size of a biomass-energy
industry in the United States. First, the fraction of the
existing biomass that can be economically harvested from farmland
is reviewed. Second, the current and potential processing
technologies and practices are discussed. And finally, the
unknowns and uncertainties of bioenergy supply that could be
shaped by public policy are also reviewed.
JEL: Q3
Date: 2006-03-30
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12559&r=agr
6. Empowering parents to improve education : evidence from rural
Mexico
Rubio-Codina, Marta
Patrinos, Harry
Gertler, Paul
Mexico ' s compensatory education program provides extra
resources to primary schools that enroll disadvantaged students
in highly disadvantaged rural communities. One of the most
important components of the program is the school-based
management intervention known as AGEs. The impact of the AGEs is
assessed on intermediate school quality indicators (failure,
repetition and dropout), controlling for the presence of the
conditional cash transfer program. Results prove that school-
based management is an effective measure for improving outcomes,
based on an over time difference-in-difference evaluation.
Complementary qualitative evidence corroborates the veracity of
such findings.
Keywords: Education For All,Primary Education,Teaching and
Learning,Secondary Education,Gender and Education
Date: 2006-06-01
URL: http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3935&r=agr
7. How pro-poor are participatory watershed management projects?
An Indian case study
Mathew Kurian
Ton Dietz (International Water Management Institute) (Dept
of Geography Univ of Amsterdam)
Keywords: Watershed management, Participatory management,
Poverty, Farm income, Labor, Households, Women, Forest
management, Dams, Irrigated farming, Case studies,
Date: 2005-06
URL: http://d.repec.
org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:worppr:h037220&r=agr
8. Inequality in Land Ownership, the Emergence of Human Capital
Promoting Institutions, and Great Divergence
Oded Galor
Omer Moav
Dietrich Vollrath
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.
org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2006-14&r=agr
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