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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: 2007-01-13
Papers: 29
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. Agricultural Intensification, Irrigation and the Environment
in South Asia: Issues and Policy Options
Mohammad Alauddin; John Quiggin
2. The impact of commodity price changes on rural households :
the case of coffee in Uganda
Bussolo, Maurizio; Godart, Olivier; Lay, Jann; Thiele,
Rainer
3. Labor markets and income generation in rural Argentina
Verner, Dorte
4. Strengthening Policy Coherence for Development in
Agricultural Policy: Policy Recommendations to Irish Aid
Alan Matthews; Hannah Chaplin; Thomas Giblin; Marian Mraz
5. Choosing the best forage species for a dairy farm: The Whole-
farm approach
Mark Neal; James Neal; Bill Fulkerson
6. Reducing distortions to agricultural incentives : progress,
pitfalls, and prospects
Anderson, Kym
7. Can voluntary product-labeling replace trade bans in the case
of GMOs?
Mads Greaker and Yuyu Chen
8. Finance and hunger : empirical evidence of the agricultural
productivity channel
Claessens, Stijn; Feijen, Erik
9. Recent International and Regulatory Decisions about
Geographical Indications, The
Marette, St?phan; Clemens, Roxanne; Babcock, Bruce A.
10. Rural poor in rich rural areas : poverty in rural Argentina
Verner, Dorte
11. Semiparametric hedonic price models : assessing the effects
of agricultural nonpoint source pollution
Bontemps, C.; Simioni, M.; Surry, Y.
12. The Utilisation of EU and US Trade Preferences for
Developing Countries in the Agri-Food Sector
Jean-Christophe Bureau; Raja Chakir; Jacques Gallezot
13. Transportation Costs, Agricultural Productivity and Cross-
Country Income Differences
Tasso Adamopoulos
14. Food Safety and Social Capital: A Double Side Connection
Valeria Sodano
15. Input Output Tables for the Management of Water Resources in
Islands. The Case of Terceira Island.
Tomaz Dentinho; Pedro Ferreira; Vasco Silva
16. Harnessing the Private Sector for Rural Development, Poverty
Alleviation and HIV/Aids Prevention
Steven Lim; Michael P. Cameron; Krailert Taweekui; John
Askwith
17. Economic assessment of odour emissions: an application of
Hedonic Price Method
Vinicio Vannucci; Loredana Torsello
18. From natural resources and environmental accounting to
construction of indicators for sustainable development
Knut H. Alfsen and Mads Greaker
19. Water allocation strategies for the Kat Basin in South
Africa : comparing negotiation tools and game theory models
Dinar, Ariel; Farolfi, Stefano; Patrone, Fioravante;
Rowntree, Kate
20. ?The worth of a wildflower? Precautionary perspectives
on the environmental risk of GMOs
Iulie Aslaksen and Anne Ingeborg Myhr
21. Detecting collusion in timber auctions : an application to
Romania
Saphores, Jean-Daniel; Vincent, Jeffrey R.; Marochko, Valy;
Abrudan, Ioan; Bouriaud, Laura; Zinnes, Clifford
22. To drink or not to drink (tap water) ? The impact of
environmental quality on consumer's choices
Bontemps, C.; Nauges, C.
23. Two-part tariffs versus linear pricing between manufacturers
and retailers : empirical tests on differentiated products
markets
Bonnet, C.; Dubois, P.; Simioni, M.
24. Utility in WTP Space: A Tool to Address Confounding Random
Scale Effects in Destination Choice to the Alps
Ricardo Scarpa; Mara Thiene; Kenneth Train
25. Are there lasting impacts of aid to poor areas ? Evidence
from rural China
Chen, Shaohua; Mu, Ren; Ravallion, Martin
26. Identifying the effect of unobserved quality and experts'
reviews in the pricing of experience goods : empirical
application on Bordeaux wine
Dubois, P.; Nauges, C.
27. Formal and informal risk sharing in LDCs : theory and
empirical evidence
Dubois, P.; Jullien, B.; Magnac, T.
28. Fisheries Management Under Cyclical Population Dynamics
Richard Carson; CLIVE GRANGER; Jeremy Jackson; Wolfram
Schlenker
29. Delineating Daily Activity Spaces in Rural Areas
Michael J Keane; John Lennon
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1. Agricultural Intensification, Irrigation and the Environment
in South Asia: Issues and Policy Options
Mohammad Alauddin (University of Queensland)
John Quiggin (Risk & Sustainable Management Group, School of
Economics, University of Queensland)
High population pressure and the rapid pace of human activity
including urbanization, industrialization and other economic
activities have led to a dwindling supply of arable land per
capita and a process of agricultural intensification in South
Asia. While this process has significantly increased food
production to feed the growing population, it has also entailed
considerable damage to the physical environment, including
degradation and depletion of natural resources and unsustainable
use of land and water resources. This paper employs the
analytical tools of economic theory, environmental and ecological
economics to model the impact of irrigation in South Asia. It
underscores the need for an eclectic approach to policy responses
stemming from private and common property rights theories,
externality theory and sustainability theory with a view to
environmentalizing agricultural development.
Keywords: Agricultural intensification, environmental
intensification, groundwater intensity.
JEL: O1 Q0 Q2
Date: 2006-04
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m06_4&r=agr
2. The impact of commodity price changes on rural households :
the case of coffee in Uganda
Bussolo, Maurizio
Godart, Olivier
Lay, Jann
Thiele, Rainer
Policies and external shocks affecting agriculture, the main
source of income for rural households, can be expected to have a
significant impact on poverty. The authors study the case of
Uganda. Throughout the 1990s, more than 90 percent of its poor
lived in rural areas and, during the same period, large
international price fluctuations as well as an extensive domestic
deregulation affected the coffee sector, its main source of
export revenues. Using data from three household surveys covering
the 1990s, the authors confirm a strong correlation between
changes in coffee prices (in a liberalized market) and poverty
reduction. This is highlighted by comparing the performance of
different households grouped according to their dependence on
coffee farming. Regression analysis (based on pooled data from
the three surveys) of consumption expenditure on coffee-related
variables, other controls, and time-fixed effects corroborates
that the mentioned correlation is not spurious. The authors also
find that while both poor and rich farmers enter the coffee
sector, the price boom benefits the poorer households relatively
more, whereas the liberalization seems to create more
opportunities for richer farmers. Finally, notwithstanding the
importance of the coffee price boom, the agricultural policy
framework and the thorough structural reforms in which the coffee
market liberalization was embedded have certainly played a role
in triggering overall agricultural growth. These factors appear
to matter especially in the second half of the 1990s when prices
went down but poverty reduction continued.
Keywords: Crops & Crop Management Systems,Markets and Market
Access,Rural Poverty Reduction,Access to Markets
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4088&r=agr
3. Labor markets and income generation in rural Argentina
Verner, Dorte
This paper addresses three areas of the rural labor market-
employment, labor wages, and agriculture producer incomes.
Findings show that the poor allocate a lower share of their labor
to farm sectors than the nonpoor do, but still around 70 percent
work in agriculture, and the vast majority of rural workers are
engaged in the informal sector. When examining nonfarm employment
in rural Argentina, findings suggest that key determinants of
access to employment and productivity in nonfarm activities are
education, skills, land access, location, and gender. Employment
analyses show that women have higher probability than men to
participate in rural nonfarm activities and they are not confined
to low-return employment. Moreover, workers living in poorer
regions with land access are less likely to be employed in the
nonfarm sector. There is strong evidence that educated people
have better prospects in both the farm and nonfarm sectors, and
that education is an important determinant of employment in the
better-paid nonfarm activities. Labor wage analyses reveal that
labor markets pay lower returns to poorer than to richer women
and returns to education are increasing with increased level of
completed education and income level. And nonfarm income and
employment are highly correlated with gender, skills, household
size, and education. This analysis also shows a rather
heterogeneous impact pattern of individual characteristics across
the income distribution, but education is important for all
levels of income. Agricultural producer income analyses reveal
that producers ' income monotonically increases with land size
and with completed education level, and positively correlates
with road access and use of electricity, fertilizer, and
irrigation. Finally, farms operated by women are slightly more
productive than farms operated by men.
Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction,Labor Markets,Population
Policies,Work & Working Conditions
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4095&r=agr
4. Strengthening Policy Coherence for Development in
Agricultural Policy: Policy Recommendations to Irish Aid
Alan Matthews
Hannah Chaplin
Thomas Giblin
Marian Mraz
The recent White Paper on Irish Aid made coherence one of the
guiding principles of Ireland 's development cooperation policy (
Government of Ireland, 2006). Agriculture is at the heart of much
of the debate about possible incoherence between trade and
development policy. This paper presents the policy
recommendations made to the Advisory Board for Irish Aid arising
from a research project it supported to examine the impact which
the EU's Common Agricultural Policy has on developing countries,
and the impact which CAP reform would have on global poverty, and
which was undertaken by a team based at the IIIS, Trinity College
Dublin. Concluding the Doha Round with an ambitious reduction in
agricultural trade barriers should remain the priority objective
from a policy coherence perspective . However, the research
recognised that Ireland 's partner countries in Sub-Saharan
Africa are not likely to benefit, if at all, from further
reductions in OECD country agricultural trade barriers, largely
because of their preferential access to these markets. We
recommend that Irish Aid should increase its efforts to
strengthen the supply-side capacity of these countries to take
advantage of existing market opportunities, through increased
assistance for agricultural and rural development and as well as
trade-related assistance. The paper also discusses how a
framework for policy coherence might be established within Irish
public administration.
Keywords: Policy coherence, agricultural development, aid,
Common Agricultural Policy
Date: 2007-01-05
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp188&r=agr
5. Choosing the best forage species for a dairy farm: The Whole-
farm approach
Mark Neal (Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University
of Queensland)
James Neal (New South Wales Department of Primary Industries)
Bill Fulkerson (Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of
Sydney)
Although a handful of forage species such as perennial ryegrass
are predominant, there are a wide range of forage species that
can be grown in sub tropical and temperate regions in Australia
as dairy pastures. These species have differing seasonal yields,
nutrient quality and water use efficiency characteristics, as
demonstrated in a large study evaluating 30 species University of
Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Some species can be grazed,
while others require mechanical harvesting that incurs a further
cost. Previous comparisons of species that relied on yields of
dry matter per unit of some input (typically land or water)
cannot simultaneously take into account the season in which
forage is produced, or other factors related to the costs of
production and delivery to the cows. To effectively compare the
profitability of individual species, or combinations of species,
requires the use of a whole-farm model. Linear programming was
used to find the most profitable mix of forage species for an
irrigated dairy farm in an irrigation region of New South Wales,
Australia. It was concluded that a typical farmer facing the
prevailing milk and purchased feed prices with average milk
production per cow would find a mix of species including large
proportions of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and prairie
grass (Bromus willdenowii) was most profitable. The result was
robust to changes in seasonal milk pricing and moving from year
round to seasonal calving patterns.
Keywords: Dairy, Forage, Whole-farm, Linear programming
JEL: Q12 Q52 C61
Date: 2006-11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsm:murray:m06_7&r=agr
6. Reducing distortions to agricultural incentives : progress,
pitfalls, and prospects
Anderson, Kym
Most of the world ' s poorest people depend on farming for their
livelihood. Earnings from farming in low-income countries are
depressed partly due to a pro-urban bias in own-country policies,
and partly because richer countries (including some developing
countries) favor their farmers with import barriers and subsidies.
Both sets of policies reduce national and global economic growth
and add to inequality and poverty in developing countries.
Acknowledgement of that since the 1980s has given rise to greater
pressures for reform, both internal and external. Over the past
two decades numerous developing country governments have reduced
their sectoral and trade policy distortions, while many high-
income countries continue with protectionist policies that harm
developing country exports of farm products. Recent research
suggests that the agricultural protectionist policies of high-
income countries reduce welfare in many developing countries.
Most of those studies also suggest that full global
liberalization of merchandise trade would raise value added in
agriculture in developing country regions, and that much of the
benefit from global reform would come not just from reform in
high-income countries but also from liberalization among
developing countries, including in many cases own-country reform.
These findings raise three key questions that are addressed in
this paper: To what extent have the reforms of the past two
decades succeeded in reducing distortions to agricultural
incentives? Do current policy distortions still discriminate
against farmers in low-income countries? And what are the
prospects for further reform in the next decade or so?
Keywords: Economic Theory & Research,Agribusiness,Free Trade,
Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems,Pro-
Poor Growth and Inequality
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4092&r=agr
7. Can voluntary product-labeling replace trade bans in the case
of GMOs?
Mads Greaker and Yuyu Chen (Statistics Norway)
Genetically modified (GM) food has raised both health-risk fears
and environmental concerns. This has led some countries to ban
the trade in such food triggering a great deal of controversy
among countries. In this paper we ask under what conditions will
voluntary labeling of GM-free food be at least as good as a trade
ban? And, under what conditions can providing labels for GM-free
food be protectionist? Our main finding is that the merits of a
product labeling policy depend crucially on the way food products
are differentiated. If they are poorly differentiated from the
beginning, a labeling policy will probably not function as good
as a trade ban does; while if they are already well
differentiated, a labeling policy is likely the optimal policy
for the importing country. Finally, as long as consumers'
willingness to pay to avoid GM-food is high, a labeling policy is
not protectionist. In fact, if products are poorly differentiated
from the beginning, foreign firms will probably increase their
profit even if they do not choose to label their products.
Keywords: Product-labeling; GMOs; protectionsim; trade policy
JEL: H2 H7 Q2 Q28
Date: 2006-10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:485&r=agr
8. Finance and hunger : empirical evidence of the agricultural
productivity channel
Claessens, Stijn
Feijen, Erik
Using cross-country and panel regressions, the authors show that
financial sector development significantly reduces
undernourishment (hunger), largely through gaining farmers and
others access to productivity-enhancing equipment, translating
into beneficial income and general effects. They show
specifically that a deeper financial sector leads to higher
agricultural productivity, including higher cereal yields,
through increased fertilizer and tractor use. Higher productivity
in turn leads to lower undernourishment. The results are robust
to various specifications and econometric tests and imply that a
1 percentage point increase in private credit to GDP reduces
undernourishment by 0.22-2.45 percentage points, or about one-
quarter the impact of GDP per capita.
Keywords: Economic Theory & Research,Rural Poverty Reduction,Pro-
Poor Growth and Inequality,Inequality
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4080&r=agr
9. Recent International and Regulatory Decisions about
Geographical Indications, The
Marette, St?phan
Clemens, Roxanne
Babcock, Bruce A.
As worldwide consumer demand for high-quality products and for
information about these products increases, labels and
geographical indications (GIs) can serve to signal quality traits
to consumers. However, GI systems among countries are not
homogeneous and can be used as trade barriers against competition.
Philosophical differences between the European Union and the
United States about how GIs should be registered and protected
led to the formation of a WTO dispute settlement panel. In this
paper we discuss the issues behind the dispute, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) panel decision, and the EU response to the
panel decision leading to the new Regulation 510/2006. Given the
potential for GI labels to supply consumer information, context
is provided for the discussion using recent literature on product
labeling. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of the
panel decision and the EU response relative to GI issues yet to
be negotiated under the Doha Round.
Keywords: geographical indications, product labels, trade
barriers.
Date: 2007-01-08
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12706&r=agr
10. Rural poor in rich rural areas : poverty in rural Argentina
Verner, Dorte
Rural poverty remains a crucial part of the poverty picture in
Argentina. This paper used a rural dataset collected by the World
Bank in 2003. Findings show that extreme income poverty in rural
areas reached 39 percent of the people or 200,000-250,000
indigent families. These families tend to: be large, and young,
and to escape from poverty as they mature and children leave the
household (life cycle); live largely in dispersed areas where
basic service provision is often weak and delivery is difficult (
in particular school attendance beyond 11 years of age falls off
very rapidly compared with grouped rural or urban areas); and be
more likely to be small landholders than landless laborers. The
structure of poverty in rural Argentina shows that larger
households are poorer than smaller households, female-headed
households are poorer than male-headed households, young
households/household heads are poorer than older
households/household heads, the poor tend to work more in the
informal sector, and a greater share of those engaged in
agriculture are poor. However, poverty is by no means strictly an
agricultural problem. Furthermore, the deepest poverty is among
the poorly educated and young household heads with children.
Without interventions to improve their opportunities and assets,
their plight is likely to worsen.
Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction,Population Policies,Pro-Poor
Growth and Inequality,Services & Transfers to Poor
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4096&r=agr
11. Semiparametric hedonic price models : assessing the effects
of agricultural nonpoint source pollution
Bontemps, C.
Simioni, M.
Surry, Y.
In the area of environmental analysis using hedonic price models,
we investigate the prerformance of various nonparametric and
semiparametric specifications. The proposed model specifications
are made up of two parts : a linear component for house
characteristics and a non(semi) parametric component representing
the nonlinear influence of environmental indications on house
prices. We adopt a general-to-specific search procedure, based on
recent specification tests comparing the proposed specifications
with a fully nonparametric benchmark model, to select the best
model specification. An application of these semiparametric
models to rural districs indicates that pollution resulting from
intensive livestock farming have a significant nonlinear impact
on house prices. ...French Abstract : L'objectif de cet article
est d'?valuer l'impact sur les prix des r?sidences de la
pollution d'origine agricole en utilisant diff?rentes
sp?cifications semi param?triques d'un mod?le de prix
h?doniques. Les sp?cifications propos?es se d?composent en
deux parties : une partie lin?aire dans les caract?ristiques
des maisons et une partie non ou semi param?trique capturant les
effets non lin?aires des indicateurs de pollution. Une
application a un ?chantillon de ventes de r?sidences dans les
communes rurales bretonnes montre que la pollution r?sultant de
pratiques intensives dans l'?levage influe de fa?on
significative et non lin?aire sur les prix des maisons.
Keywords: HEDONIC PRICING ; SEMIPARAMETRIC MODELS ;
SPECIFICATION TESTS ; NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION ;
POLLUTION AGRICOLE; AGRICULTURE INTENSIVE; PRIX; TEST
STATISTIQUE; ECONOMETRIE; MAISON INDIVIDUELLE ; BRETAGNE
JEL: C14 R21 R32 Q0
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200602&r=agr
12. The Utilisation of EU and US Trade Preferences for
Developing Countries in the Agri-Food Sector
Jean-Christophe Bureau
Raja Chakir
Jacques Gallezot
We calculate various indicators of the utilisation of
preferences granted to developing countries by the EU and the US
in the agricultural, food and fisheries sector. We conclude that
only a very small proportion of the imports eligible to these
preferences is actually exported outside a preferential regime.
The rate of utilisation is therefore high. However, the flow of
imports from poorest countries remains very limited in spite of
rather generous tariff preferences, which leads to question the
overall impact of the preferential agreements. In addition,
preferential regimes overlap, and in such cases some regimes are
systematically preferred to others. We use econometric estimates
of the (latent) cost of using a given preference in order to
explain why particular regimes are used. We focus on possible
explanations, such as the cumulation rules (that restrict the use
of materials originating from other countries), fixed
administrative costs, and differences in the preferential margin.
Keywords: Non Reciprocal Preferences, Trade and Development,
Rules of Origin
Date: 2007-01-05
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp193&r=agr
13. Transportation Costs, Agricultural Productivity and Cross-
Country Income Differences
Tasso Adamopoulos (Department of Economics York University)
There are large differences in transportation infrastructure
across nations. Constructing a measure of transportation
infrastructure density for a large set of countries, I show that
the disparity in this measure between the 5% income rich and the
5% income poor countries is a factor of 28. Are these differences
a source of productivity differences across nations? Using a
three-sector, two-region, general equilibrium model, I show that
high transport costs can distort the allocation of resources not
only across geographically dispersed production units within
sectors but also between agriculture and non-agriculture. Taking
as given the observed differences in transportation
infrastructure densities, I quantify the role of transportation
for cross-country income differences. The calibrated model
produces an income disparity of 10.9 between the 5% rich and 5%
poor countries. This corresponds to an improvement of 35%
relative to the disparity predicted by a two sector model of
agriculture and non-agriculture. Furthermore, the effects of
advancements in transportation are non-linear: the elasticity of
aggregate labor productivity with respect to the stock of
transportation infrastructure in the poorest nations is 15 times
higher than in the richest ones
Keywords: Productivity Differences, Sectoral Productivity,
Transportation Costs
JEL: O1 O4 Q10
Date: 2006-12-03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed006:663&r=agr
14. Food Safety and Social Capital: A Double Side Connection
Valeria Sodano
The globalisation of the agri-food system and the growing
variety of food products and technologies have made it
increasingly difficult for nation-states to regulate food safety
and quality practices, giving rise to a shift from public to
private governance, essentially in the form of private standards
and TPC. The paper suggests that the current shift from public to
private intervention calls for a different approach to the
analysis of food safety policy, on both descriptive and normative
ground. Two different concepts of social capital, one of trust
and the other of power, are used in order to assess the welfare
effects of the newest trends in food safety policy. Through the
lens of social capital it is clear that private standards and TPC
are not merely an impartial technical tool able to foster food
markets efficiency and safety. Rather they are the means by which
powerful actors in the chain discipline people and things in
order to accomplish their own objectives
JEL: L15 L66 K13
Date: 2006-10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:488&r=agr
15. Input Output Tables for the Management of Water Resources in
Islands. The Case of Terceira Island.
Tomaz Dentinho
Pedro Ferreira
Vasco Silva
Islands are attractive places for tourists and most islands can
be, sooner or later, requested by an increasing touristic demand.
But islands are also places where natural capital has very
defined limits. The aim of this paper is to assess the carrying
capacity of islands in terms of water in relation to the
touristic demand. We use an Input-Output Table Model and expand
it to include the use of water by the different sectors and by
the households. The model is estimated for the Azores islands
using cross entropy methods. The structure of the model is
obtained from the Input-Output Table of the Region. The data to
estimate the model for each island comes from the employment and
production of the companies in each island. Finally we simulate
the model for each island for different levels of water supply
accessible at different costs and discuss the competitiveness of
the islands' touristic sector and their sustainability.
Date: 2006-08
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p124&r=agr
16. Harnessing the Private Sector for Rural Development, Poverty
Alleviation and HIV/Aids Prevention
Steven Lim (University of Waikato)
Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato)
Krailert Taweekui (Khon Kaen University)
John Askwith
In resource-constrained developing countries, mobilizing
resources from outside sources may assist in overcoming many
development challenges. This paper examines the Thai Business
Initiative in Rural Development (TBIRD), an NGO-sponsored program
that brings together the comparative advantages and self-interest
of rural villages, private sector firms and a facilitating NGO,
to improve social and community health outcomes in rural areas.
We analyze key issues in the program with data from Northeast
Thailand. We find that the TBIRD program appears to improve the
income earning and other prospects of the TBIRD factory workers.
Further, TBIRD factory employment exhibits a pro-poor bias. A key
impact is to provide jobs for people who might otherwise be at
increased risk of HIV infection through poverty-induced decisions
to migrate to urban centres and participate in the commercial sex
industry. This program adds another important tool for
development planners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Keywords: rural development; poverty; HIV/AIDS; Thailand
JEL: O29 I38 L31
Date: 2007-01-15
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:07/01&r=agr
17. Economic assessment of odour emissions: an application of
Hedonic Price Method
Vinicio Vannucci
Loredana Torsello
Environmental economics suggests a number of techniques to
assess public goods. Such methods, surrogating traditional market
mechanism, allow estimations of willingness to pay for improving
environmental quality. In the case study proposed in this paper
an hedonic price method is implemented to assess the benefits
deriving by an improvement of environmental quality due to a
reduction in odor emissions. In fact, odor impacts are usually
the main pressure perceived by inhabitants living near sugar
production plants (localized in Tuscany, in the current case
study). The implementation of the hedonic price method allows to
exhibit that this kind of externalities affect the real estate
market in the nearby the area
Keywords: hedonic price method, economic assessment of natural
resources, odor nuissance
JEL: Q51
Date: 2006-07
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:485&r=agr
18. From natural resources and environmental accounting to
construction of indicators for sustainable development
Knut H. Alfsen and Mads Greaker (Statistics Norway)
Norway has a long history in trying to develop management tools
for sustainable development. From the early development of
natural resources accounts in the 1980?s, through discussions
of the usefulness of indices like ?green GDP? to efforts of
developing sustainable development indicators, experiences have
been gained. The paper seeks to both describe the landscape and
discussions associated with the key terms, and to communicate
some lessons drawn from the Norwegian experiences. The conclusion
focuses on the fact that whatever information is collected and
organised to support the relevant decision-making processes, the
final outcome should always be judged in terms of its impacts on
policy processes. Thus, we issue a warning against large-scale
development of information systems, without due regard to the
final utilisation of the output.
Keywords: Green accounting; Natural resource and environmental
accounting; sustainable development indicators; green
GDP; SEEA
JEL: N5 Q2 Q3
Date: 2006-10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:478&r=agr
19. Water allocation strategies for the Kat Basin in South
Africa : comparing negotiation tools and game theory models
Dinar, Ariel
Farolfi, Stefano
Patrone, Fioravante
Rowntree, Kate
Governments and developing agencies promote participatory
approaches in solving common pool resource problems, such as in
the water sector. Two main participatory approaches have been
applied separately, namely negotiation and mediation. In this
paper the authors apply the Role-Playing Game that is a component
of the Companion Modeling approach, a negotiation procedure, and
the Cooperative Game Theory (Shapley value and the Nucleolus
solution concepts) that can be mirrored as a mediated mechanism
to a water allocation problem in the Kat watershed in South
Africa. While the absolute results of the two approaches differ,
the negotiation and the cooperative game theory provide similar
shares of the benefit allocated to the players from various
cooperative arrangements. By evaluating the two approaches, the
authors provide useful tips for future extension for both the
Role-Playing Games and the Cooperative Game Theory applications.
Keywords: Water Supply and Systems,Water Supply and Sanitation
Governance and Institutions,Environmental Economics &
Policies,Water Conservation,Town Water Supply and
Sanitation
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4083&r=agr
20. ?The worth of a wildflower? Precautionary perspectives
on the environmental risk of GMOs
Iulie Aslaksen and Anne Ingeborg Myhr (Statistics Norway)
How much is a wildflower worth? Inspired by ?The worth of a
songbird? by Funtowicz and Ravetz (1994) we use the value of a
wildflower as symbol of the complexity of evaluating
environmental qualities and risks. We critically discuss the
application of cost-benefit analysis in evaluating environmental
impacts of adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We
argue that cost-benefit analysis should be supplemented with
other methods, such as processes for assessing uncertainty,
accommodation of scientific disagreements, and integration of
stakeholders? interests and perspectives. A more inclusive
perspective is to develop precautionary approaches that recognize
the multidimensional nature of environmental qualities and risks,
such as irreplaceability, irreversibility, uncertainty and
complexity. Precautionary approaches can contribute to develop a
stronger environmental responsibility within the framework of
rational self-interest.
Keywords: cost-benefit analysis; environmental risk;
environmental value; genetically modified organisms;
precautionary principle; scientific uncertainty
JEL: D81 Q20 Q50
Date: 2006-09
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:476&r=agr
21. Detecting collusion in timber auctions : an application to
Romania
Saphores, Jean-Daniel
Vincent, Jeffrey R.
Marochko, Valy
Abrudan, Ioan
Bouriaud, Laura
Zinnes, Clifford
Romania was one of the first transition countries in Europe to
introduce auctions for allocating standing timber (stumpage) in
public forests. In comparison with the former system in the
country-administrative allocation at set prices-timber auctions
offer several potential advantages: greater revenue generation
for the government, a higher probability that tracts will be
allocated to the firms that value them most highly, and stronger
incentives for technological change within industry and
efficiency gains in the public sector. Competition is the key to
realizing these advantages. Unfortunately, collusion among
bidders often limits competition in timber auctions, including in
well-established market economies such as the United States. The
result is that tracts sell below their fair market value, which
undermines the advantages of auctions. This paper examines the
Romanian auction system, with a focus on the use of econometric
methods to detect collusion. It begins by describing the
historical development of the system and the principal steps in
the auction process. It then discusses the qualitative impacts of
various economic and institutional factors, including collusion,
on winning bids in different regions of the country. This
discussion draws on information from a combination of sources,
including unstructured interviews conducted with government
officials and company representatives during 2003. Next, the
paper summarizes key findings from the broader research
literature on auctions, with an emphasis on empirical studies
that have developed econometric methods for detecting collusion.
It then presents an application of such methods to timber auction
data from two forest directorates in Romania, Neamt and Suceava.
This application confirms that data from Romanian timber auctions
can be used to determine the likelihood of collusion, and it
suggests that collusion reduced winning bids in Suceava in 2002
and perhaps also in Neamt. The paper concludes with a discussion
of actions that the government can take to reduce the incidence
of collusion and minimize its impact on auction outcomes.
Keywords: Forestry,Wildlife Resources,Markets and Market Access,
Access to Markets,Technology Industry
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4105&r=agr
22. To drink or not to drink (tap water) ? The impact of
environmental quality on consumer's choices
Bontemps, C.
Nauges, C.
Bottled water consumption has been steadily growing in the world
for the past 30 years, in spite of its excessively high price
compared to tap water. The Italian drink more bottled water than
anybody else in the world, followed by the French who drink about
130 liters per year per inhabitant. In this country, despite an
access to safe public drinking water, 42% of the population
regularly drink bottled water. Using scanner data on French
consumption combined with raw water quality and other
environmental data, we show that raw water bad quality is the
most important factor driving the dexision not to drink tap water.
The estimated effect is found to be stronger for low-income
households. We also confirm the significant direct impact of
socioeconomic and demographic households' characteristics, as
well as the role of cultural/regional factors. Overall, this
study shows that pollution of raw water implies indirect costs
for households who instead of drinking water from the tap spend
up to 100 times more for bottled water. ...French Abstract : On
propose dans cet article de mesurer, par une ?tude
?conom?trique appropri?e, l'impact des facteurs
environnementaux, socio?conomiques et culturels sur la d?cision
des m?nages de boire (ou non) l'eau du robinet. L'originalit?
de notre approche r?side d'une part, dans l'utilisation de
donn?es de consommation de m?nages (SECODIP) associ?es ? des
informations sur la qualit? de l'environnement dans la commune
de r?sidence de ces m?nages, en particulier la qualit? des
eaux brutes (IFEN-SCEES et DGS), et d'autre part dans
l'utilisation du prix de potabilisation de l'eau comme mesure de
la "mauvaise qualit?" des eaux brutes. L'estimation d'un mod?le
probit sur un ?chantillon de 4 758 m?nages montre que la
"mauvaise qualit?" des eaux brutes est le d?terminant le plus
important de la d?cision de (ne pas) boire l'eau du robinet. Le
r?le significatif des caract?ristiques des m?nages et les
effets r?gionaux sont ?galement confirm?s.
Keywords: TAP WATER; BOTTLED WATER; ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY;
HOUSEHOLDS' CONSUMPTION ; MODELE ECONOMETRIQUE; EAU
POTABLE; COMPORTEMENT DU CONSOMMATEUR; CONSOMMATION DES
MENAGES; QUALITE DES EAUX; POLLUTION DE L'EAU;
DISPARITE REGIONALE
JEL: Q53 D12 C25
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200601&r=agr
23. Two-part tariffs versus linear pricing between manufacturers
and retailers : empirical tests on differentiated products
markets
Bonnet, C.
Dubois, P.
Simioni, M.
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 distritution. 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 our structural model, we present
some simulations of counterfactual policy experiments like the
change of ownership of some products between manufacturers. ...
French Abstract : Dans cet article, les auteurs pr?sentent une
m?thodologie permettant de mod?liser des contrats dans les
strat?gies de fixation des prix des distributeurs et des
producteurs sur un march? o? les produits sont diff?renci?s.
Notamment, ils consid?rent deux types de contrats ? tarifs
bin?mes pour mod?liser les relations verticales : avec ou sans
prix de revente impos?s par les producteurs. Ce papier permet de
d?terminer les marges prix co?t ? partir de param?tres
estim?s de la demande ? la fois pour des mod?les de double
marginalisation et pour des mod?les ? tarifs bin?mes.
Diff?rentes hypoth?ses sur les relations entre producteurs et
distributeurs sont alors test?es en utilisant des variables
exog?nes suppos?es faire varier les co?ts marginaux de
production et de distribution. Les auteurs appliquent
empiriquement cette m?thode au march? de l'eau plate nature
embouteill?e en France. Les r?sultats empiriques montrent que
les producteurs et les distributeurs utilisent des contrats ?
tarifs bin?mes avec prix de revente impos?s. De plus, gr?ce
aux estimations du mod?le structurel, les auteurs simulent des
changements de propri?t? des produits entre producteurs et
distributeurs.
Keywords: VERTICAL CONTRACTS; TWO PART TARIFFS; MANUFACTURERS;
RETAILERS; DOUBLE MARGINALIZATION; COLLUSION;
COMPETITION; WATER; DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS; NON NESTED
TESTS ; CONTRAT; PRODUCTEUR; DISTRIBUTION; COUT
MARGINAL; CONCURRENCE ECONOMIQUE; DIFFERENCIATION DES
PRODUITS; PRIX; EAU MINERALE; MODELE
JEL: L13 L81 C12 C33
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200604&r=agr
24. Utility in WTP Space: A Tool to Address Confounding Random
Scale Effects in Destination Choice to the Alps
Ricardo Scarpa (University of Waikato)
Mara Thiene (University of Padua Viale dell?Universita`)
Kenneth Train (University of California at Berkeley)
Destination choice models with individual-specific taste
variation have become the presumptive analytical approach in
applied nonmarket valuation. Continuous mixtures of taste
distributions are often modeled using computationally convenient
distributions based on the multivariate normal. Though
conceptually appealing, empirically these often imply results
with untenable distributions of willingness-to-pay in the
population. Furthermore, interpersonal variation in the scale of
the error may confound variation in taste intensities thereby
producing biased WTP estimates. We compare estimates from random
utility models that use normal and log-normal distributions first
for taste intensities of destination attributes and then for WTPs.
Estimates from simulated maximum likelihood and hierarchical
Bayes approaches are compared. The results indicate that
specifications in WTP space produce more reasonable features of
implied WTP distributions for the population. This approach to
specification of utility is hence deemed promising in applied
nonmarket valuation.
Keywords: mixed logit random utility parameters; random
willingness to pay; travel cost method; destination
choice modeling
JEL: C15 C25 Q26
Date: 2006-12-15
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:06/15&r=agr
25. Are there lasting impacts of aid to poor areas ? Evidence
from rural China
Chen, Shaohua
Mu, Ren
Ravallion, Martin
The paper revisits the site of a large, World Bank-financed,
rural development program in China 10 years after it began and
four years after disbursements ended. The program emphasized
community participation in multi-sectoral interventions (
including farming, animal husbandry, infrastructure and social
services). Data were collected on 2,000 households in project and
nonproject areas, spanning 10 years. A double-difference
estimator of the program ' s impact (on top of pre-existing
governmental programs) reveals sizeable short-term income gains
that were mostly saved. Only modest gains to mean consumption
emerged in the longer term-in rough accord with the gain to
permanent income. Certain types of households gained more than
others. The educated poor were under-covered by the community-
based selection process-greatly reducing overall impact. The main
results are robust to corrections for various sources of
selection bias, including village targeting and interference due
to spillover effects generated by the response of local
governments to the external aid.
Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction,Poverty Monitoring & Analysis,
Economic Theory & Research,Poverty Impact Evaluation,
Social Accountability
Date: 2006-12-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4084&r=agr
26. Identifying the effect of unobserved quality and experts'
reviews in the pricing of experience goods : empirical
application on Bordeaux wine
Dubois, P.
Nauges, C.
We propose a structural empirical approach ? la Levinsohn and
Petrin (2003) to disentangle the effect of experts' grades from
the effect of unobserved quality on the pricing of experience
goods. Using a panel data set of 108 ch?teaux selling wine on
the Bordeaux "en primeur" market, we provide some empirical
validation for the theoretical result that the price set by wine
producers is used as a signal for wine quality. We confirm that
experts' grades affect producers' choice of "en primeur" price
above the effect of unobserved wine quality. Our empirical
results also show that failing to control for endogeneity caused
by the omission of unobserved quality leads to over-estimate the
influence of experts" grades on the "primeur" price. ...French
Abstract : Lorsqu'un bien d'exp?rience est d?livr? sur le
march?, l'opinion des experts est suppos?e donner de
l'information sur la qualit? du bien aux futurs consommateurs.
Cependant, savoir si l'opinion des experts affecte la formation
des prix par elle-m?me reste une question empirique difficile ?
r?pondre. En effet, la vraie qualit? inobserv?e du bien rend
l'opinion des experts n?cessairement endog?ne dans une
?quation de prix h?donique pour des biens d'exp?rience. En
utilisant un panel de donn?es sur les vins de Bordeaux, les
auteurs proposent une approche structurelle permettant de
s?parer la valeur de l'information sur la qualit? donn?e par
les experts de l'effet de la vraie qualit?.
Keywords: EXPERIENCE GOOD; EXPERTS' GRADES; QUALITY; WINE;
IDENTIFICATION; STRUCTURAL ECONOMETRICS ; ECONOMETRIE;
EXPERT; QUALITE DES PRODUITS; VIN DE BORDEAUX; PANEL ;
BIEN D'EXPERIENCE
JEL: D82 L15 Q11 C51
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200607&r=agr
27. Formal and informal risk sharing in LDCs : theory and
empirical evidence
Dubois, P.
Jullien, B.
Magnac, T.
We develop and estimate a model of dynamic interactions where
conmmitment is limited and contracts are incomplete to explain
the patterns of income and consumption in village economies of
less developped countries. Households can insure through both
formal contracts and informal agreements, that is, agreements
specifying voluntary transfers that need to be self-enforceable.
This theoretical setting nests the case of complete markets when
all riks can be insured by formal contracts and the case where
only informal agreements are available. We derive a non-linear
system of equations of interest for income and consumption. A key
prediction of our model is that income and consumption are
affected by lagged consumption as a consequence of the
coexistence of formal and informal contracting possibilities.
Using semi-parametric specifications, we prove identification,
derive testable restrictions and estimate the model using data
from Pakistan villages. Empirical results are consistent with the
economic arguments. Incentive constraints due to self-enforcement
bind with positive probability and formal contracts are used to
reduce this probability. ...French Abstract : Les auteurs
d?veloppent un mod?le d'interactions dynamiques avec engagement
limit? et contrats incomplets pour expliquer les profils de
revenu et de consommation dans les ?conomies villageoises des
pays en d?veloppement. Les m?nages peuvent s'assurer ? travers
des accords formels et informels, c'est-?-dire, des accords
sp?cifiant des transferts volontaires qui doivent ?tre auto-
ex?cutoire. Ils obtiennent un syst?me d'?quations non
lin?raires de revenu et de consommation. Une des pr?dictions
cl? du mod?le est que le revenu et la consommation sont
affect?s par la consommation retard?e ? cause de la
coexistence de contrats formels et informels. En utilisant une
sp?cification semi-param?trique, les auteurs prouvent
l'identification et ils d?rivent des restrictions testables
qu'ils estiment sur des donn?es du Pakistan. Les r?sultats
empiriques confirment leurs arguments ?conomiques.
Keywords: RISK SHARING; CONTRACTS; INCOMPLETE MARKETS; INFORMAL
TRANSFERS ; ECONOMETRIE; CONTRAT; RISQUE; PAYS EN
DEVELOPPEMENT; MENAGE ; PAKISTAN
JEL: C14 D13 D91 L14 O12 Q0
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200608&r=agr
28. Fisheries Management Under Cyclical Population Dynamics
Richard Carson (University of California, San Diego)
CLIVE GRANGER (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA)
Jeremy Jackson (Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
University of California, San Diego)
Wolfram Schlenker (Department of Economics and School of
International and Public Affairs, Columbia University)
Almost all fisher models assume time-invariant parameter values
of the underlying biological growth function except for an i.i.d.
error term. We examine the economic implications of cyclical
growth parameters in both single and multi-species models, which
are frequently observed in many real-world fisheries. Neither
optimal harvest rates nor optimal escapement (remaining fish
stock after fishing) remain constant as current models would
predict. The amplitude of the optimal escapement is incrasing in
the amplitude of the biological growth function. Moreover, the
optimal harvest rate lags the cycle of the biological growth
function, i.e., the highest harvest rate is observed after
biological conditionos have started to decline and the optimum
escapement level has alrady decreased. This is in sharp contrast
to current policies which are in phase with biological conditions
and hence imply and increasea/decrease in harvest quotas when the
biological system is improving/deteriorating. In our model,
harvest closures are only optimal during time periods when growth
parameters are improving most rapidly. We show that once the
periodicity of the biological growth function is incorporated,
many of the traditional policy prescriptions reverse.
Keywords: fisheries modeling, time varying growth rates,
Date: 2006-07-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:2006-06&r=agr
29. Delineating Daily Activity Spaces in Rural Areas
Michael J Keane
John Lennon
The new relational geography challenges notions of inherently
coherent integrated 'territory-based' systems of relations. This
paper uses network methods and correspondence analysis to try and
describe some of the spatial differentiation and relational
dynamics at different rural sites. The particular focus is on
delineating the daily activity spaces of households and to
describe the roles of local centres. The methods used do help us
capture some aspects of the diffferences that exist in work,
shoping and social relations and the spaces that these relations
fill. The implications of the findings for local planning and
admnistration are also discussed.
Date: 2006-08
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p106&r=agr
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