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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: 2006-03-05
Papers: 12
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. ?One size fits all?? ? The relationship between the value
of genetic traits and the farm system
Mark Neal; Bill Fulkerson
2. Investigating distance effects on environmental values: A
choice modelling approach
Giovanni B. Concu
3. Urban water supply in Australia: the option of diverting
water from irrigation
John Quiggin
4. The Willingness to Pay to Remove Billboards and Improve
Mountain Views
Peter A. Groothuis; Jana D. Groothuis; John C. Whitehead
5. Are non-use values distance-independent? Identifying the
market area using a choice modelling experiment
Giovanni B. Concu
6. The state-contingent approach to production under uncertainty
John Quiggin; Robert G. Chambers
7. The Rise and Fall of Cooperative Credit in Colonial Burma
Sean Turnell
8. Sustainable food consumption, involvement, certainty and
values: an application of the theory of Planned Behaviour
I. VERMEIR; W. VERBEKE
9. Comparative Risk Aversion for State-Dependent Preferences
Robert G. Chambers; John Quiggin
10. Participation in Environmental Organizations: An Empirical
Analysis
Benno Torgler; Maria A.Garcia-Valinas
11. The risk premium for equity: implications for resource
allocation, welfare and policy
Simon Grant; John Quiggin
12. Economists and uncertainty
John Quiggin; Robert G. Chambers
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1. ?One size fits all?? ? The relationship between the value
of genetic traits and the farm system
Mark Neal (Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University
of Queensland)
Bill Fulkerson (University of Queensland)
The wide use of artificial insemination by dairy farmers has
facilitated the development of a multi-billion dollar
international market in animal genetics. In the major western
dairy producing nations, each country has developed a single
index to rank bulls, based on the value of traits they are
expected to pass on to their offspring. One of the assumptions
behind these indexes is that there is a positive linear
relationship between profit (and welfare) with increases in a
particular trait, regardless of the farm system. In this paper,
it is shown, with examples, that the assumption of linearity is
false. More importantly, it is shown that for a combination of
reasons, including risk aversion, constraints and other issues,
the optimal direction of genetic improvement for New Zealand
dairy farmers on an individual and industry level could be quite
different. Alternatives to the ?one size fits all? index are
described.
JEL: O32 D81 Q16
Date: 2006-02
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m06_1&r=agr
2. Investigating distance effects on environmental values: A
choice modelling approach
Giovanni B. Concu (Risk and Sustainable Management Group,
University of Queensland)
This paper describes a Choice Modelling experiment set up to
investigate the relationship between distance and willingness to
pay for environmental quality changes. The issue is important for
the estimation and transfer of benefits. So far the problem has
been analysed through the use of Contingent Valuation-type of
experiments, producing mixed results. The Choice Modelling
experiment allows testing distance effects on parameters of
environmental attributes that imply different trade-offs between
use and non-use values. The sampling procedure is designed to
provide a ?geographically balanced? sample. Several
specifications of the distance covariate are compared and
distance effects are shown to take complex shapes. Welfare
analysis also shows that disregarding distance produces under-
estimation of individual and aggregated benefits and losses,
seriously hindering the reliability of costbenefit analyses.
Keywords: choice Modelling techniques, distance, aggregation,
sampling, functional forms.
JEL: Q51 Q58
Date: 2005-12
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m05_7&r=agr
3. Urban water supply in Australia: the option of diverting
water from irrigation
John Quiggin (Risk & Sustainable Management Group, School of
Economics, University of Queensland)
Most urban areas in Australia are facing the prospect of
increasing scarcity of water. Further pressure arises from
evidence that existing levels of water use in many catchments are
environmentally unsustainable. One option, feasible for some but
not all Australian cities is the diversion to urban areas of
water currently used for irrigated agriculture. Such diversions
are currently constrained by a range of government policies.
However, plans for the creation of a national water market raise
the possibility that water rights may be purchased from
irrigators and used to increase the supply of water for
residential use. A number of policy concerns, notably relating to
stranded assets and environmental externalities must be addressed
in the consideration of such purchases.
JEL: Q25
Date: 2006-02
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m06_3&r=agr
4. The Willingness to Pay to Remove Billboards and Improve
Mountain Views
Peter A. Groothuis
Jana D. Groothuis
John C. Whitehead
We use the contingent valuation method to measure the amount
citizens are willing to pay to improve mountain-view aesthetics
through the removal of billboards. Our approach addresses both
the perceived property rights as well as the perceptions of the
status quo in the southern Appalachian Mountains. We find that
individuals who retire to the mountains have different
preferences for land use and mountain views than individuals who
have ancestors who lived in Watauga County. In the aggregate, we
find that citizens are willing to pay up almost one-half million
dollars to remove billboards from Watauga County roadsides. This
study provides insights to the debate surrounding land use in the
mountains.
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:06-04&r=agr
5. Are non-use values distance-independent? Identifying the
market area using a choice modelling experiment
Giovanni B. Concu (Risk and Sustainable Management Group,
University of Queensland)
This article tests for the effect of distance on non-use values
using a Choice Modelling (CM) experiment. Estimating a distance
decay relationship for non-use values (NUVs) is important because
it would define the market area for an environmental good, i.e.
identify the limits for aggregating individual benefit estimates.
In contrast to the common definition of NUVs as non-users?
values, the CM experiment designs the environmental attributes so
that NUV changes can be disentangled from Use Value (UV) changes.
The experiment also allows for testing different specification of
the distance covariates. Data are obtained from a geographically
representative sample. Results show that NUVs do not depend on
distance. Aggregation of NUVs is based on income and
individuals? environmental attitudes.
Keywords: choice modelling, non-use values, aggregation,
distance, geographical sampling.
JEL: Q51 Q58
Date: 2005-12
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m05_6&r=agr
6. The state-contingent approach to production under uncertainty
John Quiggin (Department of Economics, University of
Queensland)
Robert G. Chambers (Dept of Agricultural and Resource
Economics, University of Maryland, College Park)
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:riskun:r05_1&r=agr
7. The Rise and Fall of Cooperative Credit in Colonial Burma
Sean Turnell (Department of Economics, Macquarie University)
Cooperative credit was the British Empire's all-purpose answer
to problems of rural poverty and indebtedness, usury, and land
alienation. Originating in the idealism of the 'Rochedale
Pioneers' and in schemes from rural Germany, cooperative credit
was imported into India with an evangelical zeal to solve all
manner of perceived economic and social ills. With only slightly
less moral fervour it was transplanted from India into Burma in
the first decade of the Twentieth Century, and by 1920 several
thousand cooperative credit societies had mushroomed across the
country. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of
cooperative credit in Burma from these promising beginnings,
until the near collapse of the movement on the eve of the Great
Depression. The paper explores the way in which cooperative
credit was seen by the imperial authorities as a device to limit
the role of Indian money-lenders in Burma, and as the basis for
the establishment of formal rural credit markets. The paper
concludes that poor implementation, on top of official myopia as
to the cultural, historical and economic differences between
India, Burma and Europe, brought about the demise of a movement
that promised much.
JEL: Q14 Q13 O16 N25
Date: 2005-06
URL: http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:mac:wpaper:0509&r=agr
8. Sustainable food consumption, involvement, certainty and
values: an application of the theory of Planned Behaviour
I. VERMEIR
W. VERBEKE
This study investigates determinants of sustainable consumption
behaviour in Belgium. To gain a better insight in sustainable
consumption, we conducted a study where sustainable attitudes and
behaviour as well as some individual characteristics like
involvement, certainty and values related to sustainable products
are scrutinized. We explore if determinants as hypothesised by
the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) ? attitudes, perceived
behavioural control, social norms - influence sustainable
consumption intention in general and according to different
levels of involvement, certainty and values. The empirical
research builds on a survey with a sample of 456 young consumers,
using a questionnaire and an experimental design with
manipulation of key constructs through showing advertisements for
sustainable dairy. The stepwise multiple regression showed that
50% of the variance in intention to consume or purchase
sustainable dairy was explained by the combination of attitudes,
perceived social influences, perceived consumer effectiveness and
perceived availability. In addition, different levels of
involvement, certainty and value orientation entail different
strengths of the determinants. The findings yield public policy
and marketing recommendations for stimulating sustainable food
consumption among the young.
Keywords: sustainable consumption, attitudes, behavioural
intention, involvement, certainty, values
Date: 2005-12
URL: http://d.repec.o
rg/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/352&r=agr
9. Comparative Risk Aversion for State-Dependent Preferences
Robert G. Chambers (Dept of Agricultural and Resource
Economics, University of Maryland, College Park)
John Quiggin (Department of Economics, University of
Queensland)
The idea that preferences may be state-dependent fits naturally
with an analysis of uncertainty based on explicit representation
of random variables as state-contingent consumption or production
bundles. In this paper we show how these concepts of risk-
aversion may be extended to the case of state-dependent
preferences, whether or not these preferences are autocomparable
in the sense of Karni. We characterize autocomparability as a
special case. We show how standard comparative static results,
originally derived for the state-independent expected utility
model, may be extended to general state-dependent preferences,
without the requirement for additive separability.
Date: 2005-06
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:riskun:r05_5&r=agr
10. Participation in Environmental Organizations: An Empirical
Analysis
Benno Torgler
Maria A.Garcia-Valinas
The literature on volunteering has strongly increased in the
last few years. However, there is still a lack of substantial
empirical evidence about the determinants of environmental
participation. This empirical study analyses a cross-section of
individuals using micro-data of the World Values Survey wave III (
1995-1997), covering 38 countries, to investigate this question.
The results suggest that not only socio-demographic and socio-
economic factors have an impact on individuals? active
participation in environmental organizations, but also political
attitudes. Furthermore, regional differences are observed.
Keywords: Environment; Environmental Participation;
International Perspective; Political Interest; Social
Capital
JEL: Q26 R22 Z13 I21
Date: 2006-02
URL: http://d.repec.
org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2006-06&r=agr
11. The risk premium for equity: implications for resource
allocation, welfare and policy
Simon Grant (Department of Economics, Rice University)
John Quiggin (Department of Economics, University of
Queensland)
This paper describes experiences in the development and testing
of three distinct financial models to support farm forestry
decisions involving non-traditional tree species in northern
Australia and in the Philippines. A variety of options were
examined with respect to model design, yield prediction,
computing platform, forestry performance criteria and other
features. Two of the models focus on the forestry enterprise in
isolation, while the third evaluates forestry within the context
of the overall farm business. It is found that choice of model
design depends on the particular type of application intended and
availability of financial data for this application. Some
complementarities were gained in replicating features when
progressing from one model to the next. Model construction and
testing were challenging tasks requiring considerable funds and
for two of the models proceeding over a number of years.
Validation involved the gradual gaining of confidence in a model
as it progressed through various versions. For the more complex
models, greater effort in development of the user interface was
found to be warranted. The models have proved more suitable for
use by extension agents than individual landholders. Even with
major resource inputs into model development, a number of
desirable additional features can be identified.
Keywords: equity premium puzzle, public investment
JEL: G12 H1
Date: 2004-08
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:riskun:r04_8&r=agr
12. Economists and uncertainty
John Quiggin (Department of Economics, University of
Queensland)
Robert G. Chambers (Dept of Agricultural and Resource
Economics, University of Maryland, College Park)
Date: 2005-04
URL: http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:rsm:riskun:r05_2&r=agr
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