voluntary governance mechanisms in global supply chains beyond csr to a stakeholder utility perspective poor working conditions remain a serious problem in supplier facilities in developing countries while previous research has explored this from the developed buyers side we examine this phenomenon from the perspective of developing countries suppliers and subcontractors utilizing qualitative data from a major knitwear exporting cluster in india and a stakeholder management lens we develop a framework that shows how the assumptions of conventional buyer driven voluntary governance break down in the dilution of buyer power and in the web of factors rooted in suppliers traditions beliefs local demands and resource dependency we reveal out how success in governing collaborative global supply chains often falls short within the subcontracting stage where a stakeholder management mindset is elusive to most participants we suggest that success in governing collaborative global supply chains is dependent on concepts of stakeholder utility and the presence of shared value that is often at odds with the realities of power information asymmetry and compliance reward systems inherent in the non market coordination of global supply chains our findings offer important insights for delineating the concepts of value creation from csr concepts and practices and for modifying the basic assumptions of conventional supply chain governance

a nonequilibrium analysis of unanimity rule majority rule and pareto i introduction voting theory is important for understanding economics as well as politics international organizations vote on trade regulations legislatures vote on minimum wage and governments vote on the provision of public goods voting also affects industrial organization for instance limited partnerships may vote on the allocation of resources to various units and shareholders may vote on investment decisions carrera and richmond 1988 what voting rule best achieves pareto optimal outcomes in such cases in the absence of transactions costs it is widely believed that unanimity rule is the best voting rule for promoting pareto efficiency berggren 1996 buchanan and tullock 1962 mueller 2003 buchanan 1967 writes it is evident that unanimous consent is the political counterpart of the pareto criterion for optimality p 285 traditionally viewed unanimity rule guarantees more efficient outcomes than majority rule because unanimity rule only passes proposals that make everyone better off other voting rules like majority rule can pass proposals that make some individuals worse off one of the assumptions that is either explicit or implicit in the these studies is the assumption of rational proposals we define a proposal as rational if it helps maximize the proposer s utility at the end of the game in our analysis proposals are not rational instead they are generated either randomly or sincerely in a single dimensional voting model and evaluated by the pareto criterion or pareto optimality this produces two striking results with regard to pareto optimality first if proposal generation is random then majority rule is usually more likely to select a pareto optimal outcome than unanimity rule second if individuals propose their ideal points then majority rule always selects pareto optimal outcomes at least as well as unanimity rule considering all possible proposals as done in our random generation models has a long tradition in social choice literature arrow 1951 caplin and nalebuff 1988 niemi and weisberg 1968 riker 1982 sen 1979 it also has the advantage of modeling certain types of incomplete information modeling votes where bills are introduced for reasons other than making them pass see stewart 2001 pp 338 41 modeling exogenously generated proposals and for allowing mistakes by the proposer such foundational work should be of interest to those who relate unanimity rule to pareto principles in the study of public goods cornes and sandler 1996 lindahl 1967 political parties aldrich 1995 and legislative institutions colomer 2001 niou and ordeshook 1985 tsebelis 2002 to name a few ii previous studies perhaps the first in depth study of the relationship between unanimity rule and a pareto principle was buchanan and tullock s calculus of consent 1962 buchanan and tullock argued that if decision making costs were negligible unanimity rule would always be the most desirable k majority rule simply because it preserved the pareto principle p 88 although the exact pareto principle they had in mind is not entirely clear it seems that buchanan and tullock were arguing for the criteria of accepting a change from the status quo only if it lead to a pareto improvement otherwise the status quo should be preferred pp 92 93 sen 1979 p 25 1 mueller 2003 pp 138 and 140 41 further compared unanimity rule to majority rule and concluded that unanimity rule typically performs better in terms of the pareto criterion to illustrate his reasoning mueller describes a community voting on both the purchase of a new firehouse and the taxes needed to pay for it in a single bill if the decision was made under unanimity rule the distribution of taxes would be redefined until the firehouse benefited all otherwise the bill would not pass if the decision was made under majority rule a majority might distribute the taxes on a minority such that members of the majority would be net gainers and members of the minority would be net losers

the multinational corporation and global governance modelling global public policy networks globalization has increased the economic power of the multinational corporation mnc engendering calls for greater corporate social responsibility csr from these companies however the current mechanisms of global governance are inadequate to codify and enforce recognized csr standards one method by which companies can impact positively on global governance is through the mechanism of global public policy networks gppn these networks build on the individual strength of mncs domestic governments and non governmental organizations to create expected standards of behaviour in such areas as labour rights environmental standards and working conditions this article models gppn in the issue area of csr the potential benefits of gppn include better overall coordination among industry and government in establishing what social expectations the modern mnc will be expected to fill

women s work and economic development using a cross country dataset and microdata from india and thailand we examine how women s work status changes with economic development several clear patterns emerge women s labor force participation first declines and then rises with development women move from work in family enterprises to work as paid employees fertility declines and gender gaps in education narrow women s education levels and those of their spouses appear to be important determinants of women s labor market activities broad welfare indicators such as mortality rates and education levels indicate that women s well being improves on average with development both in absolute terms and relative to men

firm level determinants of political csr in emerging economies evidence from india multinational companies mncs frequently adopt corporate social responsibility csr activities that are aimed at providing public goods and influencing the government in policymaking such political csr pcsr activities have been determined to increase mncs socio political legitimacy and to be useful in building relationships with the state and other key external stakeholders although research on mncs pcsr within the context of emerging economies is gaining momentum only a limited number of studies have examined the firm level variables that affect the extent to which mncs subsidiaries in emerging economies pursue pcsr using insights from resource dependence theory institutional theory and the social capital literature we argue that mncs subsidiaries that are critically dependent on local resources have greater ties to managers of related businesses and to policymakers and that those that are interdependent on the mncs headquarters and other foreign subsidiaries are more likely to be involved in pcsr we obtain support for our hypotheses using a sample of 105 subsidiaries of foreign firms that operate in india our findings enhance our understanding of the factors that determine mncs political csr in emerging economies

agricultural household models extensions applications and policy this book presents the basic model of an agricultural household that underlies most of the case studies undertaken so far the model assumes that households are price takers and is therefore recursive the decisions modeled include those affecting production and the demand for inputs and those affecting consumption and the supply of labor comparative results on selected elasticities are presented for a number of economies the empirical significance of the approach is demonstrated in a comparison of models that treat production and consumption decisions separately and those in which the decisionmaking process is recursive the book summarizes the implications of agricultural pricing policy for the welfare of farm households marketed surplus the demand for nonagricultural goods and services the rural labor market budget revenues and foreign exchange earnings in addition it is shown that the basic model can be extended in order to explore the effects of government policy on crop composition nutritional status health saving and investment and to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the effects on budget revenues and foreign exchange earnings methodological topics primarily the data requirements of the basic model and its extensions along with aggregation market interaction uncertainty and market imperfections are discussed the most important methodological issues the question of the recursive property of these models is also discussed

nutritional status during an economic crisis evidence from russia between 1996 and 1998 russia experienced a spectacular decline in economic activity which was followed by a dramatic rebound between 1998 and 2000 we use panel data to examine the impact of variation in household resources on six dimensions of nutritional status distinguishing longer run from short term fluctuations in resources nutritional status is very resilient to short term variation in household resources gross energy intake adult weight and child stature change very little as expenditure deviates from its long run average longer run resources have a substantively large positive and significant effect on energy intake diet quality adult weight and child stature the evidence indicates that individuals and households are able to weather short term fluctuations in economic resources at least in terms of maintaining body mass and energy intake increased globalisation has resulted in many less developed countries becoming more integrated into world markets this integration carries both benefits and costs for the populations of those countries an oft cited cost is elevated risk of exposure to economic fluctuations which has been manifest in several spectacular economic crises across the globe in the last few decades there is however little evidence on the extent to which individuals and families are able to mitigate deleterious effects of these economic upheavals on their well being in spite of its importance for understanding the consequences of globalisation this article provides new evidence on this issue specifically we examine the relationship between several dimensions of nutritional well being and variation in household resources during the russian economic crisis in the late 1990s the economies of the former soviet bloc have been especially volatile since the transition to market based economies which began in the early 1990s nowhere has this been more true than in russia where in the last half of 1998 real gdp collapsed by around 30 and then rapid growth brought the economy back to its pre crisis level by 2000 the time path of changes in gdp is closely mimicked by changes in the incomes and expenditures of russian households using extremely rich longitudinal household survey data from the russian longitudinal monitoring survey rlms we examine the impact of these large fluctuations in household resources on nutrient intake and on anthropometric markers of nutritional status at the individual level in so doing we address an important issue in the literature regarding the extent to which households in low income settings are able

seeking legitimacy through csr institutional pressures and corporate responses of multinationals in sri lanka arguably the corporate social responsibility csr practices of multinational enterprises mnes are influenced by a wide range of both internal and external factors perhaps most critical among the exogenous forces operating on mnes are those exerted by state and other key institutional actors in host countries crucially academic research conducted to date offers little data about how mnes use their csr activities to strategically manage their relationship with those actors in order to gain legitimisation advantages in host countries this paper addresses that gap by exploring interactions between external institutional pressures and firm level csr activities which take the form of community initiatives to examine how mnes develop their legitimacy seeking policies and practices in focusing on a developing country sri lanka this paper provides valuable insights into how mnes instrumentally utilise community initiatives in a country where relationship building with governmental and other powerful non governmental actors can be vitally important for the long term viability of the business drawing on neo institutional theory and csr literature this paper examines and contributes to the embryonic but emerging debate about the instrumental and political implications of csr the evidence presented and discussed here reveals the extent to which and the reasons why mnes engage in complex legitimacy seeking relationships with sri lankan host institutions

a farm household model for agri food policy analysis in developing countries application to smallholder farmers in sierra leone this paper presents a generic farm household model for use in the context of developing countries to gain knowledge on food security and rural poverty alleviation under different policy options it is a static positive programming model which simultaneously solves a set of microeconomic farm models reproducing the behaviour of representative individual farm households this model is designed to capture key features of developing countries agriculture such as the non separability of production and consumption decisions due to market imperfections the inter linkage between transaction costs and market participation decisions the interaction among farm households for factor markets and the seasonality of resource use model use is illustrated in this paper by simulating the impact of rice seed policy on the livelihood of representative smallholder farmers in sierra leone results show that the seed policy would improve farm productivity and boost household income but that it is not sufficient to fight poverty since 90 of the surveyed farm households would continue to live below the extreme poverty line of 1 usd equivalent per person per day

the effect of nonfarm income on investment in bulgarian family farming this article documents a relationship between nonfarm income primarily earnings and pensions and agricultural investment in bulgaria specifically expenditures on working capital variable inputs such as feed seed and herbicides and investment in livestock among those with positive spending on farm inputs the estimated elasticity of these expenditures with respect to nonfarm income is 0 14 nonfarm income also has an effect on the number of households that purchase farm animals with an estimated elasticity of 0 35 the use of nonfarm income for farm investment is consistent with the presence of credit constraints as is the fact that less than one percent of farmers report outstanding debts for agricultural purposes yet many farm households take out large unsecured loans for other purposes primarily to cover consumption expenditures implying that credit is available but that farmers prefer not to use borrowed funds to finance agricultural investment this would suggest that increases in the availability of agricultural credit may have little effect on farm outcomes whereas increases in nondebt financed sources of liquidity such as subsidies or transfers may better stimulate investment

ethical issues in outsourcing the case of contract medical research and the global pharmaceutical industry the outsourcing of medical research has become a strategic imperative in the global pharmaceutical industry spurred by the challenges of competition the need for speed in drug development and increasing domestic costs pharmaceutical companies across the globe continue to outsource critical parts of their value chain activities namely contract clinical research and drug testing to sponsors across the globe typically into emerging markets while it is clear that important ethical issues arise with this practice unraveling moral responsibility and the allocation of responsibility is not so clear considering that contracts by their very definition transfer responsibility from the principal to the agent this research provides a framework for exploring some of the ethical issues including attributions of moral responsibility associated with contract medical research using a theory of strategic and moral behavior the research shows that both clients and sponsors in contract research have individual and collective responsibility to ensure that due care and diligence is exercised in the performance of clinical research the research suggests some guidelines for stakeholder action

gender and policy roles in farm household diversification in zambia summary many african governments faced with low rural incomes and food security challenges have developed input subsidy programs in order to enhance agricultural productivity this paper adds to recent literature analyzing the effects of input subsidy programs and gender on crop diversification in sub saharan africa we investigate the effect of zambia s input subsidy program on crop allocation patterns by gender in relatively land abundant zambia we test both single equation crop diversification index models and multivariate regression models of cropland allocation our study finds that input subsidies reduce crop diversification more in male headed households than in female headed households further multivariate regression results confirm that this occurs because female headed households expand maize acreage less in response to the input subsidy these findings suggest that greater cropland diversification will be maintained if input subsidy programs are accompanied by loan programs and other assistance which support leadership roles for women in farm households

crop diversity household welfare and consumption smoothing under risk evidence from rural uganda abstract in the wake of climate change there is now a resurgence of interest in the promotion of crop diversification as a climate smart agricultural practice in sub saharan africa the development economics literature suggests that increasing crop diversity is an effective risk management and consumption smoothing strategy in a context characterized by repeated exposure to shocks but weak institutional innovations using panel survey data from rural uganda merged with historical weather data this paper sheds light on the household welfare and consumption smoothing effects of crop diversity we employ instrumental variables methods to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential reverse causality our study finds that crop diversification is a welfare enhancing strategy that increases consumption and aggregate household diets instrumental variables quantile regression results show that crop diversification generates higher consumption benefits for poorest households in the lower quantile of the consumption distribution than for relatively richer households crop diversification also improves consumption smoothing through reducing households reliance on less effective strategies such as informal insurance and involuntary diet changes as risk coping mechanisms overall the findings suggest that transforming agriculture towards a more diversified cropping system is a viable pathway for improving diets welfare risk management and the resilience of rural households

subsistence and semi subsistence farming in selected eu new member states factor and cluster analysis are used to analyse the attitudes and perceptions of agricultural households in five eu new member states towards farming commercialisation and barriers to and drivers for an increased integration in agricultural markets the contribution of unsold output to the total household income is valued a stepwise linear regression is employed to detect important variables explaining the degree of agricultural market integration of farm households the analysis indicates that subsistence farming is of utmost importance for the rural poor and particularly in bulgaria and romania the proportion of consumption from own production manual cultivation techniques and distance to an urban centre negatively affect output sales rural development policies targeted at rural physical and market infrastructure might relieve some of these constraints

price policy poverty and power within rural west african households abstract this paper explores the impact of agricultural price policy on poverty in west africa a region in which prices are an important tool for raising rural household incomes a game theoretic collective model of household income generation and resource allocation is developed that incorporates three features typical of west african rural households preference heterogeneity among women and men individual resource control and power mediated bargaining over resource control in the face of changes in households economic environments to explore price effects the model is used to simulate the income impacts of large increases in cotton prices accompanying fast paced agricultural liberalisation in burkina faso in the 1980s the paper shows that where resources are controlled individually by household members rather than pooled pareto efficiency in income generation does not hold the impact of agricultural price policy on poverty is mediated by bargaining over resource control within households bo

the population problem theory and evidence this study is concerned with the relationships among population growth poverty and environmental degradation with particular focus on the situation in developing countries the author rejects the concept of a general theory of fertility behavior in favor of an interpretation of these relationships which might be applicable to certain situations in the poorest parts of the indian subcontinent and sub saharan africa such situations include unacceptable risks of maternal death for poor illiterate women and a condemnation to extreme poverty in conditions of the deterioration of local resources and of the environment the author concludes that population growth rates are too high in certain specific areas and that an appropriate policy reaction to such conditions would be to try to change the options that men and women face so that their reasoned choice would be to lower their fertility

social influence and collective action effects on farm level soil conservation effort in rural kenya abstract this paper analyzes the effects of social influence and participation in collective action initiatives on soil conservation effort among smallholder farmers in lake naivasha basin kenya we apply binary and ordered probit models in a two stage regression procedure to cross sectional data collected through a household survey among randomly selected smallholder farmers smallholder farming systems in the research area are associated with practices that render farmlands susceptible to soil erosion causing negative impacts on land and the environment therefore strategies that encourage soil conservation are likely to also offer solutions for dealing with agri environmental challenges and poverty alleviation results indicate that social capital facilitates participation in collective action initiatives which then influence individual soil conservation efforts neighborhood social influences subjective norms gender education level farm size access to credit and livestock ownership also emerge as key determinants of soil conservation effort policy implications drawn by this study encourage strategies to increase participation and effectiveness in collective action initiatives as a boost to soil conservation implementation of soil conservation practices could also be encouraged through awareness increasing instruments facilitating access to agricultural micro credit and paying attention to gender related challenges on knowledge access and rights over land and other natural resources

inefficiency of male and female labor supply in agricultural households evidence from uganda this article analyzes the efficiency of the intra household allocation of female and male labor inputs in agricultural production in a collective household model spouses optimal on farm labor supply is such that the marginal rate of technical substitution between male and female labor is equated over different crops using the uganda national household survey 2005 06 we test whether this condition holds by estimating production functions and controlling for endogeneity using a method proposed by gandhi navarro and rivers 2009 we find that women are less productive than men that there is more female labor input on low productivity parcels and that men are relatively more productive on female controlled plots compared with male controlled plots total farm output could be higher and pareto improvements could be possible if male labor was reallocated to female controlled plots and or female labor was reallocated to male controlled plots

determinants and effects of income diversification amongst farm households in burkina faso using four years of household data from three agroecological zones in burkina faso sahelian sudanian and guinean the article examines the determinants and effects of household income diversification harvest shortfalls and terms of trade are found to drive diversification but land constraints do not income diversification is associated with higher incomes and food consumption and more stable income and consumption over years

subsidies and crowding out a double hurdle model of fertilizer demand in malawi this article uses a double hurdle model with panel data from malawi to investigate how fertilizer subsidies affect farmer demand for commercial fertilizer the article controls for potential endogeneity caused by the nonrandom targeting of fertilizer subsidy recipients results show that on average 1 additional kilogram of subsidized fertilizer crowds out 0 22 kg of commercial fertilizer but crowding out ranges from 0 18 among the poorest farmers to 0 30 among relatively nonpoor farmers this indicates that targeting fertilizer subsidies to the rural poor is likely to maximize the contribution of the subsidy program to total fertilizer use

zambia s input subsidy programs over the last decade subsidies for fertilizer and hybrid maize seed have re emerged as a cornerstone of the government of the republic of zambia s grz s agricultural development and poverty reduction strategies this article reviews the farmer input support programme fisp and other grz input subsidy programs since structural adjustment it then synthesizes existing and presents new empirical evidence on the programs targeting outcomes and effects results suggest that although 73 of smallholder households cultivate less than 2 hectares of land and that these households constitute 78 of the smallholder farms below the us 1 25 capita day poverty line the majority 55 of fisp fertilizer goes to households that cultivate larger areas other factors constant wealthier households receive more subsidized inputs subsidized fertilizer promotes maize intensification and extensification at the expense of fallow land but an additional kg of subsidized fertilizer only raises maize output by 1 88 kg on average as a result of low maize fertilizer response rates poor targeting crowding out and diversion of fertilizer intended for the program financial benefit cost ratios for fisp fertilizer are well below one the article concludes with recommended reforms to fisp including that it be downsized and the savings invested in known drivers of pro poor agricultural growth

agricultural commercialization impacts on income and nutrition and implications for policy abstract agricultural technology and commercialization are complementary stimulators of the rural economic growth process specialization and commercialization of farming households within a more diversified economy is part of the development process but there are concerns that the process by passes the poor this article discusses the evidence on poverty and nutritional impacts of agricultural commercialization and examines how policies can affect the outcome of the commercialization process principle driving forces of the commercialization process include a conducive macroeconomic environment non distortive trade policies and infrastructure development as well as a legal and contractual environment in which farmers and processors may operate efficiently policies related to these driving forces will very much influence the nature and speed of the agricultural commercialization process these in turn will largely determine the impacts of the process on farm household income and nutritional status

household composition labor markets and labor demand testing for separation in agricultural household models this paper tests the separation of farm labor supply and labor demand decisions using the observation that household composition is an important determinant of farm labor use with nonseparation after assessing the conditions under which the test has power against several alternatives an empirical model is developed to test the proposition that farm employment is independent of family composition the model is estimated on a data set from rural java the null hypothesis that farm labor allocation decisions are independent of household structure is not rejected the results are robust to different specifications of the labor demand function copyright 1992 by the econometric society

disrupting demand for commercial seed input subsidies in malawi and zambia summary this study uses nationally representative household level panel data from malawi and zambia to identify the determinants of subsidized maize seed and fertilizer receipt and to estimate how input subsidies affect households commercial purchases of improved maize seed varieties in both countries we find that households in areas where the ruling party won the last presidential election acquire significantly more subsidized inputs than other households results also indicate that each additional kilogram of subsidized maize seed acquired by a household reduces its commercial improved maize seed purchases by 0 58 kg in malawi and by 0 49 kg in zambia on average

how do fertilizer subsidy programs affect total fertilizer use in sub saharan africa crowding out diversion and benefit cost assessments a major determinant of input subsidy programs effects on the achievement of national policy goals is the extent to which they raise total fertilizer use this study synthesizes recent literature on how the new generation of targeted input subsidy programs has affected national fertilizer use after accounting for crowding effects and derives benefit cost bc estimates of the fertilizer subsidy programs for kenya malawi and zambia after accounting for crowding out and diversion we highlight two major findings first accounting for the illicit diversion of program fertilizer can profoundly influence estimates of how fertilizer subsidy programs affect total fertilizer use and program impacts given recent evidence that 33 or more of total program fertilizer may be diverted before being received by intended beneficiary farmers the failure to account for program diversion is shown to overestimate the contribution of the subsidy programs to national fertilizer use by 67 3 in the case of malawi by 61 6 for zambia and by 138 0 for kenya the second major finding is that the incremental value of maize output produced from these subsidy programs is considerably less than their costs in most years except under unusually high maize price assumptions conventional bc analyses that do not account for crowding out and diversion may seriously overestimate the benefits of input subsidy programs greater attention to program design and implementation details to reduce problems of crowding out and diversion can substantially raise the returns to such programs

an experimental study of the efficiency of unanimity rule and majority rule scholars traditionally claim that unanimity rule is more capable of producing pareto optimal outcomes than majority rule dougherty and edward public choice 151 3 655 678 2012 make the opposite claim assuming proposals are either random sincere or strategic we test these competing hypotheses in a two dimensional framework using laboratory experiments our primary results suggest 1 majority rule enters the pareto set more quickly than unanimity rule 2 majority rule leaves the pareto set at the same rate as unanimity rule and 3 majority rule is more likely to select a pareto optimal outcome than unanimity rule at the end of the game

meso economic filters along the policy chain understanding the links between policy reforms and rural poverty in latin america abstract the paper clarifies the meso economy concept by defining it as comprising both the market mechanisms and administrative procedures through which policy decisions and market signals trickle down to the household level three main bodies of literature are reviewed the policy oriented literature in which the meso economy was initially considered the transaction cost approach analyzing market and policy failures and the micro economy level of agricultural household models the paper develops a synthesis of macro meso and micro economic perspectives which focuses on the roles played by three levels of filters intervening along the policy chain implications for policy and research are drawn

modeling farm households price responses in the presence of transaction costs and heterogeneity in labor markets we develop a farm household model to analyze price responses of farm households this model incorporates various types of transaction costs as well as labor heterogeneity nonproportional variable transaction costs or labor heterogeneity imply that production and consumption decisions become nonseparable even when the household buys or sells labor an empirical model is estimated using data from midwest poland the results show that nonproportional variable transaction costs and labor heterogeneity significantly influence household behavior not all price elasticities however change significantly if these are neglected

what are the effects of input subsidy programs on maize prices evidence from malawi and zambia an important hypothesized benefit of large scale input subsidy programs in africa is that by raising maize production the subsidies should put downward pressure on retail maize prices to the benefit of urban consumers and the rural poor who tend to be net food buyers to inform debates related to this rationale for input subsidies this study estimates the effects of fertilizer subsidies on retail maize prices in malawi and zambia using market or district level panel data covering the 2000 2001 to 2011 2012 maize marketing years results indicate that roughly doubling the size of malawi s subsidy program reduces maize prices by 1 2 2 5 on average in zambia roughly doubling the scale of the country s subsidy program reduces maize prices by 1 8 2 8 on average the results are robust across countries and model specifications and indicate that the fertilizer subsidy programs in malawi and zambia have had a minimal effect on retail maize prices

do input subsidy programs crowd in or crowd out commercial market development modeling fertilizer demand in a two channel marketing system many governments in developing countries distribute fertilizer at subsidized prices in an effort to stimulate small farmers agricultural productivity and food security prior fertilizer demand studies have largely failed to account for the effects of government programs on farmers commercial purchases using a double hurdle model and nationally representative rural household panel data in zambia we distinguish between these sources and measure the contemporaneous crowding in and crowding out effects of government input programs on commercial fertilizer sales where the private sector is relatively active and average wealth is higher areas seemingly more likely to be targeted by government programs results indicate that subsidies have substantially crowded out the private sector in some cases to the point that such programs could actually lower overall fertilizer use on the other hand in poorer areas where the private sector is relatively inactive subsidies help to generate demand and crowd in private sector retailers empirical studies explicitly modeling farmers fertilizer purchase behavior within a dual marketing framework can provide important insights for agricultural policy discussions in developing countries

land pressures the evolution of farming systems and development strategies in africa a synthesis abstract evidence assembled in this special issue of food policy shows that rising rural population densities in parts of africa are profoundly affecting farming systems and the region s economies in ways that are underappreciated in current discourse on african development issues this study synthesizes how people markets and governments are responding to rising land pressures in africa drawing on key findings from the various contributions in this special issue the papers herein revisit the issue of boserupian agricultural intensification as an important response to land constraints but they also go further than boserup and her followers to explore broader responses to land constraints including non farm diversification migration and reduced fertility rates agricultural and rural development strategies in the region will need to more fully anticipate the implications of africa s rapidly changing land and demographic situation and the immense challenges that mounting land pressures pose in the context of current evidence of unsustainable agricultural intensification a rapidly rising labor force associated with the region s current demographic conditions and limited nonfarm job creation these challenges are manageable but will require explicit policy actions to address the unique development challenges in densely populated rural areas

do fertilizer subsidies crowd out organic manures the case of malawi we assess the impacts of the malawian farm input subsidy program on manure use at the farm plot level using more than 3 000 farm plot observations from six districts in central and southern malawi over three years 2006 2007 and 2009 the probabilities and intensities of manure use were investigated with the correlated random effects cre probit and tobit models the endogeneity of access to fertilizer subsidies and fertilizer use intensity was controlled for with a control function approach both the probability of manure use and intensity of manure use were positively correlated with the intensity of fertilizer use a 1 increase in fertilizer use intensity is associated with a 1 94 1 96 increase in the intensity of manure use outside the subsidy program and a 0 62 1 66 increase in manure use with the subsidy program a 1 increase in average fertilizer price was associated with a 0 43 0 76 increase in the probability of manure use and a 3 5 5 3 increase in the intensity of manure use

between free trade and protectionism strategic trade policy and a theory of corporate trade demands conventional theories of the political economy of trade argue that industries in import competing businesses favor protectionism while multinational firms and export dependent corporations advocate unconditional free trade however many multinational industries have recently advocated strategic trade policies that is they are willing to support free trade at home only if foreign markets are opened or foreign governments reduce subsidies to their firms if demands for strategic trade policy were adopted by the united states they could represent a threat to the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt and the multilateral trading system this article seeks to explain the emergence of these new corporate trade demands and thereby broaden theories of the political economy of trade the article begins with the widely supported position that multinational and export oriented firms prefer unconditional free trade building on concepts from theories of industrial organization and international trade the article then hypothesizes that rising economies of scale and steep learning curves will necessitate that these firms have access to global markets via exports if growing dependence on world markets is combined with foreign government subsidies or protection the trade preferences of firms will shift from unconditional free trade to demands that openness at home be contingent on openness overseas the manner in which firm demands then get translated into industry demands will vary with the industry s structure if the industry consists of firms with symmetric strategies it will seek strategic trade policy but if the industry is highly segmented it will turn toward protectionism the article concludes with a preliminary test of these hypotheses in four brief studies of the politics of trade in the semiconductor commercial aircraft telecommunications equipment and machine tool industries

voting for pareto optimality a multidimensional analysis we compare unanimity rule and majority rule in their abilities to produce pareto superior and pareto optimal alternatives in fixed number of rounds of voting using a two dimensional spatial voting model with random proposals sincere proposals and strategic proposals our findings show that for random or sincere proposals majority rule is at least as likely to select a pareto optimal outcome as unanimity rule for strategic proposals the subgame perfect equilibrium under unanimity rule is pareto optimal for other k majority rules the outcome is pareto optimal or very close to it for outcomes that are both pareto optimal and pareto superior unanimity rule outperforms majority rule

cropland allocation effects of agricultural input subsidies in malawi summary we measure the impacts of malawi s farm input subsidy program on the cropland allocation decisions of farmers in kasungu and machinga districts in central and southern malawi using a two step regression strategy to control for endogenous selection into the program we find positive correlations between participation in the program and the amount of land planted with maize and tobacco furthermore results suggest that participating households simplified crop production by allocating less land to other crops e g groundnuts soybeans and dry beans our findings have implications for policies aimed at promoting both food self sufficiency and crop diversification in low income settings 2011 elsevier ltd all rights reserved