smallholder market participation concepts and evidence from eastern and southern africa abstract this paper reviews the evidence on smallholder market participation with a focus on staple foodgrains i e cereals in eastern and southern africa in an effort to help better identify what interventions are most likely to break smallholders out of the semi subsistence poverty trap that appears to ensnare much of rural africa the conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that interventions aimed at facilitating smallholder organization at reducing the costs of intermarket commerce and perhaps especially at improving poorer households access to improved technologies and productive assets are central to stimulating smallholder market participation and escape from semi subsistence poverty traps macroeconomic and trade policy tools appear less useful in inducing market participation by poor smallholders in the region

prices institutions and determinants of supply in the malian cotton sector cotton both a source of livelihood for millions of poor rural households and a major source of export revenues is a vital commodity for the economic and social development of mali inefficiencies in the malian cotton system at the ginnery and producers cooperative levels e g late payment to farmers and poorly functioning credit schemes have recently led to an important decline in supply threatening the sustainability of the sector using regional data from 1998 1999 to 2008 2009 this study aims to quantitatively assess the contribution of key determinants such as cotton prices and timely payment toward the downward trend in cotton area a dynamic supply model based on adaptive expectations and partial adjustment is employed to estimate the effects of prices and institutional factors such as credit recovery rates and date of payment to farmers on the malian cotton supply results show that supply responds significantly to cotton prices relative to cereal and fertilizer prices date of payment varies across agricultural cycles and late payment negatively influences land devoted to cotton low credit repayment rates create disincentives to grow cotton therefore the revitalization of the malian cotton sector depends upon getting both prices and institutions right

value chain dynamics settlement trajectories and regional development fold n value chain dynamics settlement trajectories and regional development regional studies global value chain gvc analysis has little to say about the interaction between regions and global chain dynamics however recent calls to address broader development issues have resulted in efforts to incorporate a spatial dimension in gvc analysis addressing this issue the paper argues that gvc analysis needs to be combined with the examination of livelihoods at settlement level livelihood diversification or lack thereof indicates particular settlement trajectories that constitute regional development pathways it is also suggested that the understanding of how regions are shaped by value chain dynamics will improve by adding elements from global production network gpn theory to the combined methodology namely by an examination of territorial embeddedness and value creation enhancement capture distribution at settlement level

partial vertical integration risk shifting and product rejection in the high value export supply chain the ghana pineapple sector summary high value export supply chains hold potential to improve smallholders welfare but their relative production inefficiency and moral hazard problems can cause exporters to prefer vertically integrated plantation production however pineapple exporters in ghana produce both for their own account and purchase from smallholders we hypothesize that vertical integration is only partial because exporters face large market risks that smallholders surprisingly are better able to absorb we show empirically that exporters average rejection rate of export quality fruit is high and varies in response to unanticipated fluctuations in european demand these results support the hypothesis and are consistent with theories of partial vertical integration but not the standard principal agent paradigm

targeting capital a cultural economy approach to understanding the efficacy of two anti genetic engineering movements in the late 1990s the british anti genetic engineering ge movement effectively closed britain s market for genetically modified foods while the u s anti ge movement had a negligible impact in seeking to explain the different outcomes of these similar social movements the authors draw upon the global commodity chains gcc literature to extend the understanding of the economic and industry related openings and closures social movements face as they seek to promote social change this analysis not only illustrates the importance of economic structures and organization for movement outcomes but also shows how the economic sphere is culturally constituted in this fashion it broadens the social movement literature s understanding both of the way that political economy matters to movement efficacy and of the way that cultural processes infuse the economic sphere the study advances the gcc literature by showing how gccs are cultural as well as economic constructs

the economics of smallholder organic contract farming in tropical africa summary the paper examines the revenue effects of certified organic contract farming for smallholders and of adoption of organic agricultural farming methods in a tropical african context the comparison in both cases is with farming systems that are organic by default survey data from a large organic coffee contract farming scheme in uganda are reported and analyzed using a standard ols regression and a full information maximum likelihood fiml estimate of the heckman selection model the analysis finds that controlling for a range of factors there are positive revenue effects both from participation in the scheme and more modestly from applying organic farming techniques

do farmers benefit from participating in specialty markets and cooperatives the case of coffee marketing in costa rica1 historically low prices in the conventional coffee market have caused financial and social hardship among coffee farmers in the face of this crisis specialty markets have attracted the attention of the international donor community these market segments have shown consistent growth over the last decade and exhibit price premiums in international markets therefore if higher prices are passed on to farmers access to specialty markets could help to alleviate the crisis brought on by low prices in the conventional sector the present study attempts to identify the factors that determine farmers participation in specialized markets and whether participation in these markets leads to higher prices for farmers a two stage model is used to analyze farmers marketing decisions and their effect on the prices received this procedure allows us to control for the endogeneity bias introduced by the marketing choice our results indicate that farmers participating in the specialty coffee segment do in fact receive higher prices than those participating in conventional channels additionally we find that participation in cooperatives has a positive impact on the probability that a farmer chooses to grow specialty coffee and analogously on the prices that they receive based on these results it seems that efforts to increase participation in the specialty coffee segment and in cooperatives would help to lessen some of the hardships brought on by low prices in the conventional coffee sector

giving stated preference respondents time to think results from four countries previous studies have found that contingent valuation cv respondents who are given overnight to reflect on a cv scenario have 30 40 lower average willingness to pay wtp than respondents who are interviewed in a single session this time to think ttt effect could explain much of the gap between real and hypothetical wtp observed in experimental studies yet giving time to think is still rare in binary or multinomial discrete choice studies we review the literature on increasing survey respondents opportunities to reflect on their answers and synthesize results from parallel ttt studies on private vaccine demand in four countries across all four countries we find robust and consistent evidence from both raw data and multivariate models for a ttt effect giving respondents overnight to think reduced the probability that a respondent said he or she would buy the hypothetical vaccines average wtp fell approximately 40 respondents with time to think were also more certain of their answers and a majority said they used the opportunity to consult with their spouse or family we conclude with a discussion of why researchers might be hesitant to adopt the ttt methodology

upgrading primary production a global commodity chain approach abstract global commodity chain gcc analysis has been concerned mainly with examining power relations in global manufacturing industries although it has been preoccupied increasingly by the question of how developing country dc producers can upgrade this paper extends gcc analysis to traditional primary commodities where international traders exercise the driving role and suggests a new agenda for their upgrading in dcs based upon public action

the globalization of organic agro food networks summary this article analyzes the booming world trade in organic agro foods such as tropical products counterseasonal fresh produce and processed foods research focuses on expanding south north networks linking major us and european markets with major production regions particularly in latin america employing a commodity network approach i analyze organic production distribution and consumption patterns and the roles of social political and economic actors in consolidating international trade organic certification proves central to network governance shaping product specifications production parameters and enterprise participation my analysis identifies key contradictions between mainstream agro industrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks 2004 published by elsevier ltd

do the eu countries import at the same price the case of coffee the establishment of the economic and monetary union was expected to determine price convergence in the market of the european union leading to the equilibrium theorized by the law of one price this article investigates prices convergence in the coffee market among european importers coffee is not only a tradable and traded good but also one of the most valuable traded commodities we account for different qualities of coffee in a hedonic regression model which isolate and remove the effects of factors that might affect price dispersion adjusted import prices result to be significantly different between european member states and do not support the hypothesis of a deepening european market integration

coordination risk and cost impacts on economic development in poor rural areas this paper addresses issues relevant to a critical problem in economic development how to get rapid pro poor economic growth in poor rural areas in africa and south asia where most of the world s dollar a day poor live it examines constraints to the development of coordinated exchange systems in poor rural areas focusing on the core problem of thin markets and low density of economic activity in these areas transaction cost and risk analysis is integrated into a conventional neoclassical production economics framework to describe the existence of low level equilibrium traps in transactions and supply chains and to generate important insights for development policy

virtuous interactions in removing exclusion the link between foreign market access and access to education abstract we outline a methodology which aims to give an answer to the widespread demand of impact analyses by regulators or by funding agencies which need to evaluate the current and past performance of development projects and may lack time series evidence we devise a retrospective panel data approach to evaluate the dynamics of the effects of fair trade affiliation on the schooling decisions of a sample of thai organic rice producers across the past 20 years we find that the probability of school enrolment in families with more than two children is significantly affected by fair trade affiliation years we try to ascertain whether our finding is robust to endogeneity of producers choices of local cooperative affiliation and adoption of organic techniques the significant difference between pre and post fair trade affiliation performance documents that fair trade participation generates a significant break in the schooling decisions of affiliated households

confronting the coffee crisis can fair trade organic and specialty coffees reduce small scale farmer vulnerability in northern nicaragua summary this paper links changing global coffee markets to opportunities and vulnerabilities for sustaining small scale farmer livelihoods in northern nicaragua changing governance structures corporate concentration oversupply interchangeable commodity grade beans and low farm gate prices characterize the crisis in conventional coffee markets in contrast certified fair trade and organic are two alternative forms of specialty coffee trade and production that may offer opportunities for small scale producers a research team surveyed 228 farmers to measure the impact of sales on organic and fair trade markets the results suggest that participation in organic and fair trade networks reduces farmers livelihood vulnerability 2004 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

valuation on the frontier calibrating actual and hypothetical statements of value the lack of robust evidence showing that hypothetical behavior directly maps into real actions remains a major concern for proponents of stated preference nonmarket valuation techniques this article explores a new statistical approach to link actual and hypothetical statements using willingness topay field data on individual bids from sealed bid auctions for a 350 baseball card our results are quite promising estimating a stochastic frontier regression model that makes use of data that any contingent valuation survey would obtain we derive a bid function that is not statistically different from the bid function obtained from subjects in an actual auction if other data can be calibrated similarly this method holds significant promise since an appropriate calibration scheme ex ante or ex post can be invaluable to the policy maker that desires more accurate estimates of use and nonuse values for nonmarket goods and services benefit cost analysis remains the dominant paradigm used throughout the public sector yet a recurring issue in properly estimating the total benefits of nonmarket goods and services is whether hypothetical statements map into real behavior some recently published studies provide evidence that suggests important differences exist between responses from real and hypothetical valuation questions 1 this observation triggered a search for an ex ante and ex post procedure to correct the systematic bias between intentions and actions in valuation exercises recent technology using ex ante procedures has produced some strong evidence that hypothetical bias can be overcome by using a cheap talk scheme see e g cummings and taylor list ex post calibration has also shown some signs of promise as work due to blackburn harrison

trade and industrial policy on an uneven playing field the case of the deciduous fruit canning industry in south africa the deciduous fruit canning industry dfci is a resource and labor intensive industry with a high trade ratio it offers the prospect of being a significant source of employment and export earnings for a number of southern hemisphere countries which enjoy a considerable comparative advantage market distortions severely constrain this outcome however most importantly a combination of protection and subsidies in the industrially advanced countries in addition as in other sectors globalization is increasingly associated with processes in which value added activities are located in the major markets of the industrialized countries this paper examines the dfci in south africa and explores the consequences of market distortions and the shifting location of profitable activities for both industrial and trade policy in that country

the dynamics of fair trade as a mixed form market this article analyses the fair trade sector as a mixed form market i e a market in which different types of players in this case nonprofit co operative and for profit organizations coexist and compete the purposes of this article are 1 to understand the factors that have led fair trade to become a mixed form market and 2 to propose some trails to understand the market dynamics that result from the interactions between the different types of players we start by defining briefly fair trade its different dimensions including the fair quality of the products and its organizational landscape focusing on the distinction between the pioneer alternative trading organizations and the second mover companies then we recall the theoretical emergence factors for each type of organization nonprofit co operative and for profit and apply these emergence factors to the context of fair trade this analysis allows us to capture the specificities of each type of operator with regard to fair trade and thus to have a better understanding of the dynamics in the sector such dynamics includes competition but also conflict and partnership our analysis includes elements on ethical imitation consumers behaviors effects on welfare and the role of the government

developing agricultural markets in sub saharan africa organic cocoa in rural uganda abstract this article investigates the process of development in a traditional african export market focusing on a contract farming scheme for organic cocoa in rural uganda based on a repeated household survey we measure the impact of the scheme on the income of participants and the economic mechanisms behind these effects we find substantial benefits from the scheme driven primarily by the establishment of credible incentives for farmers to adopt technologies which improve cocoa quality there is also evidence of broader trends of market deepening and increased productivity probably due to positive spillovers

institutional adjustment and transaction costs product and inputs markets in the tanzanian coffee system abstract commodity market liberalization can improve incentives for production of export crops by reducing the total costs of transforming products through space form and time or by reducing the costs of arranging and completing transactions while liberalization often leads to reduced costs in output exchange it can remove opportunities for linked input output transactions that sometimes lowered the costs of providing finance in state controlled markets assessments of liberalization that focus on output exchange alone obscure the impact of rising transaction costs in finance this study of liberalization in the tanzanian coffee market documents declining costs in output marketing rising transaction costs for financing farm activities and differential but generally positive net impacts on growers

trade policy reform and the competitive response in kwazulu natal province south africa like many other formerly protected economies the liberalization of the external trade regime has placed new competitive pressures on south african enterprises detailed research in over 130 enterprises in the kwazulu natal kzn province of south africa shows the extent to which firms have been able to respond to these new competitive pressures and particularly on their ability to hear and to meet more demanding customers requirements inevitably the response has been varied but there are reasons to be concerned that the pace of adjustment has been suboptimal this reflects imperfections in information markets the challenges poses by the need for new social relations in production and the limited implementation of new supply sided policies designed to compensate firms for the reduction in protective barriers

competition and coordination in liberalized african cotton market systems abstract private operators now dominate input supply crop buying and ginning activities in many african cotton sectors varying levels of competition are observed but greater levels of competition are not necessarily associated with better system performance this paper explores this phenomenon drawing on the liberalization experience of ghana mozambique tanzania uganda zambia and zimbabwe while the capacity of the state to support markets remains weak there may be tradeoffs between the level of competition and the degree of coordination achieved between players within a sector different sectoral structures are observed with a different role for the state appropriate for each

estimating the private benefits of vaccination against cholera in beira mozambique a travel cost approach abstract this paper reports the results of the first study that estimates households private demand for cholera vaccines using the travel cost method we take advantage of an unusual natural experiment in january 2004 more than 41 000 residents from various locations in beira mozambique received two doses of oral cholera vaccine free of charge during the first vaccination trial to test its effectiveness in an endemic cholera zone of africa about 30 000 people participated from outside the target zone resulting in long queues and an average waiting time of about 85 min per dose we estimated travel cost models of the revealed demand for cholera vaccines among households informed of the trial using information collected in in person interviews conducted during the summer of 2005 to explore households participation in the trial we used standard and zero inflated household count models for all household members and dichotomous choice models for the head of the household our analysis shows that the quantity of vaccines obtained by households and the likelihood of participation decreased as travel cost in time and transport expenses rose our best estimates of per capita willingness to pay for the two required doses of cholera vaccine are about 0 85 usd these estimates are sensitive to the assumed value of time spent acquiring vaccines

the latte revolution regulation markets and consumption in the global coffee chain abstract coffee is a truly global commodity and a major foreign exchange earner in many developing countries the global coffee chain has changed dramatically as a result of deregulation new consumption patterns and evolving corporate strategies from a balanced contest between producing and consuming countries within the politics of international coffee agreements power relations shifted to the advantage of transnational corporations a relatively stable institutional environment where proportions of generated income were fairly distributed between producing and consuming countries turned into one that is more informal unstable and unequal through the lenses of global commodity chain analysis this paper examines how these transformations affect developing countries and what policy instruments are available to address the emerging imbalances

governance of global value chains in response to food safety and certification standards the case of shrimp from vietnam summary we use global value chain gvc theory to understand governance of vietnam s shrimp farming industry we describe this gvc as buyer driven with important food safety standards imposed by governments of importing countries and new certification systems promoted by nongovernmental organizations ngos governance relations are clear between governments in importing countries and vietnam and between importers and ngos governance relations become more fragmented further down the chain where large numbers of small scale producers and traders operate this fragmentation may adversely affect access to the most lucrative markets and have the unanticipated effect of marginalizing small scale farmers and traders

revisiting the cotton problem a comparative analysis of cotton reforms in sub saharan africa summary the cotton sector has been among the most regulated in sub saharan africa ssa and still largely is in west and central africa wca despite repeated reform recommendations by international donors on the other hand orthodox reforms in east and southern africa esa have not always yielded the expected results this paper uses a stylized contracting model to investigate the link between market structure and equity and efficiency in ssa cotton sectors explain the outcomes of reforms in esa and analyze the potential consequences of reforms in wca we illustrate our arguments with empirical observations on cotton sector performance

fair trade organic coffee production in nicaragua sustainable development or a poverty trap abstract this article assesses the impact of fair trade organic coffee production on the well being of small scale farmers in nicaragua studying the results of organic management is crucial for evaluating the advantages of fair trade because approximately half of all fair trade coffee is also organically certified a wide range of farmers representatives of cooperatives and export companies in nicaragua were interviewed during seven months of field work between 2005 and 2008 fair trade organic production raises farmer income when low intensity organic farming is an alternative to low intensity conventional farming however low intensity farming produces very little coffee in the case of the most marginalized farmers keeping these farmers in poverty with higher intensities of management the economic advantages of fair trade organic production largely depend on prices in the mainstream market

securitization and distressed loan renegotiation evidence from the subprime mortgage crisis abstract we examine whether securitization impacts renegotiation decisions of loan servicers focusing on their decision to foreclose a delinquent loan conditional on a loan becoming seriously delinquent we find a significantly lower foreclosure rate associated with bank held loans when compared to similar securitized loans across various specifications and origination vintages the foreclosure rate of delinquent bank held loans is 3 to 7 lower in absolute terms 13 to 32 in relative terms there is a substantial heterogeneity in these effects with large effects among borrowers with better credit quality and small effects among lower quality borrowers a quasi experiment that exploits a plausibly exogenous variation in securitization status of a delinquent loan confirms these results

how institutions mediate the impact of cash cropping on food crop intensification an application to cotton in sub saharan africa summary it is widely agreed that smallholder led agricultural growth would contribute most to improved food security and reduced poverty yet how to achieve broader and more sustainable access by smallholder farmers to productivity enhancing inputs for food crop production remains a largely unsolved riddle in light of the great institutional diversity across cotton sectors in sub saharan africa this study investigates whether cotton can be used to spur the intensification of smallholder food production first a conceptual framework linking cotton institutional structures to food crop intensification is developed then predictions from the conceptual framework are compared with empirical evidence from different countries

liar s loan effects of origination channel and information falsification on mortgage delinquency 1 this paper presents an analysis of mortgage delinquency between 2004 and 2008 using a loan level data set from a major national mortgage bank our analysis highlights two problems underlying the mortgage crisis a reliance on mortgage brokers who tend to originate lower quality loans and a prevalence of low documentation loans known in the industry as liar s loans that result in borrower information falsification while over three quarters of the difference in delinquency rates between bank and broker channels can be attributed to observable loan and borrower characteristics the delinquency difference between full and low documentation mortgages is due to unobservable heterogeneity about half of it potentially due to income falsification

economic impacts of el nino southern oscillation evidence from the colombian coffee market el nino southern oscillation enso is a naturally occurring phenomenon that affects weather around the world past enso episodes have had severe impacts on the economy of colombia we study the influence of enso on colombian coffee production exports and price our structural econometric specification is consistent with an economic model of the market for colombian coffee which in the short run is characterized by a downward sloping demand curve and by a vertical supply curve we show that el nino i e positive shocks to enso is beneficial for colombian production and exports and decreases the real price of colombian coffee on the contrary la nina i e negative shocks to enso depresses colombian coffee production and exports and increases price however the overall impact of enso shocks is small both in the short run and in the long run shocks to international demand for colombian coffee are more relevant than supply side shocks in colombia in explaining the dynamics of the price of colombian coffee our results suggest that a given coffee price shock can have beneficial detrimental or negligible effects on the colombian economy depending on its underlying cause as a consequence policy responses to coffee price shocks should be designed by looking at the causes of the shocks

the effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation abstract farm certification is rapidly becoming a sine qua non for access to specialty coffee markets at the centre of these changes are smallholder coffee producers responsible for 80 of global coffee production although rural households are known to depend on more than agricultural production alone the literature on specialty coffee and certification has rather narrowly focused on coffee income and production in this study broader impacts are explicitly taken into account household income was decomposed into categories corresponding to specific income generating activities and coffee income was broken down into price yield and area effects results show that coffee certification encourages farmers to specialise in coffee production increasing coffee income but not total household income at least not in the short run the time and effort required to attain the higher coffee income offered by certified production means farmers have to give up other activities this substitution effect cancels out the income effect such that there is no increase in total household income the lack of an effect on total household income suggests the return to the additional labour effort required for certified coffee production is not higher than in other activities questioning the benefits of certification for small scale producers

the demand for a malaria vaccine evidence from ethiopia this study measures the monetary value households place on preventing malaria in tigray ethiopia we estimate a household demand function for a hypothetical malaria vaccine and compute the value of preventing malaria as the household s maximum willingness to pay to provide vaccines for all family members this is contrasted with the traditional costs of illness medical costs and lost productivity our results indicate that the value of preventing malaria with vaccines is about us 36 per household per year or about 15 of imputed annual household income this is on average about twice the expected household cost of illness

the impact of the international coffee agreement on producing countries the main objective of this article is to analyze the impact of the international coffee agreement s export system on the world coffee market focusing on increases in real export revenues transfer benefits and reductions in income variability risk benefits in each exporting country over the recent period of operation of the international coffee agreement s export quota system the authors find that the quota system had a stabilizing effect on world coffee prices the quotas reduced real export revenues for most small exporting countries but large producers gained most small countries gained however in terms of risk reduction if a brief suspension of the quota occurs from time to time caused for example by adverse weather which results in a shortfall in world supply the quota system works like a buffer stock scheme on average producing countries as a whole lose transfer benefits but gain risk benefits

giving respondents time to think in contingent valuation studies a developing country application abstract this paper evaluates whether the time given people to think about their responses to cvm valuation questions influences their answers our study was conducted in nigeria as part of an evaluation of rural households willingness to pay for public taps and private connections to improved drinking water systems respondents who were allowed time to evaluate the proposed water system bid significantly less than those who did not have that time moreover this conclusion was upheld regardless of whether the water system was a public tap or a private connection

geographical indications public goods and sustainable development the roles of actors strategies and public policies summary the protection of geographical indications gis is being explored more and more worldwide as a tool for supporting local sustainable development focusing on wine and coffee value chains this paper will set out in what way gi protection schemes can contribute to the provision of public goods and illustrate how this contribution is being threatened by different failures that may occur within both valorization strategies and legal protection policies by examining how private collective and public interventions front these failures this paper will put forward economic arguments supporting a more comprehensive policy approach to ensure gis contribution to sustainable development

governance and trade in fresh vegetables the impact of uk supermarkets on the african horticulture industry production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries in sub saharan africa over the last decade this trade brings producers and exporters based in africa together with importers and retailers in europe large retailers in europe play a decisive role in structuring the production and processing of fresh vegetables exported from africa the requirements they specify for cost quality delivery product variety innovation food safety and quality systems help top determine what types of producers and processors are able to gain access to the fresh vegetables chain and the activities they must carry out the control over the fresh vegetables trade exercised by uk supermarkets has clear consequences for inclusion and exclusion of producers and exporters of differing types and for the long term prospects for the fresh vegetables industry in the two major exporting countries studied kenya and zimbabwe

the effects of fair trade on coffee growers a framework and analysis the world coffee market has undergone a significant transformation in the past couple of decades resulting in declining farm prices despite the fact that coffee demand has been strong and consumer prices have been soaring fair trade organizations have tried to address this price imbalance by providing an alternative method of trading aimed at increasing the prices received by coffee growers despite their noble objectives fair trade movements have had limited success in improving coffee growers welfare however this paper utilizes a novel framework of heterogeneous producers and relevant market information to provide insights on the market and welfare impacts of the fair trade regime when important idiosyncrasies of fair trade production and marketing are included in the analysis

contractual arrangements between farmer cooperatives and buyers in china the agrofood market in china is dominated by spot market exchanges of small farmers and various small traders with only minor penetration of the modern supply chain at the farmgate the emerging farmer professional cooperatives fpcs are expected to facilitate vertical coordination the overall goal of this study is to investigate the contractual arrangements between the fpcs and the buyers based on a national representative survey of 157 fpcs in china this study shows that 32 of fpcs introduced written contracts in the primary marketing channel contracts are more likely to be adopted in the livestock sector and are positively related to the scale of production while branding promotes contracts between fpcs and buyers public certification of quality and food safety often substitutes for contracts furthermore the membership heterogeneity of fpcs affects an fpc s decision to use contractual arrangements with the buyer

linking globalization to local land uses how eco consumers and gourmands are changing the colombian coffee landscapes market trends are becoming prominent forces shaping local landscapes the increasing demand for high quality and sus tainable coffees is driving land use decisions among colombian farmers a value chain analysis shows that farmers who sell to differen tiated markets significantly captured a larger portion of the value added and faced lower volatility than mainstream producers consequently regions apt for producing differentiated coffees experienced the greatest increase in area planted tracing the value chain reveals how land use decisions increasingly depend on the pressures and opportunities created by global markets with detectable impacts on livelihoods and landscapes

corporate investments in supply chain sustainability selecting instruments in the agri food industry abstract private investments to address environmental issues are perceived as a powerful engine of sustainability for the agri food sector multiple instruments have been developed to green supply chains yet little is known about the underlying process and conditions under which green sourcing concerns lead to the adoption of specific sustainability instruments among agri food companies this study i offers a synthesis of the most commonly used instruments agri food companies adopt to promote sustainability in their supply chains ii proposes an analytical framework to elucidate how those decisions are made based on the competitive environment in which firms operate with respect to location of their raw materials technologies available to their suppliers leverage over upstream suppliers and end markets characteristics and iii presents seven case studies illustrating the decision making process leading to the adoption of a specific instrument by a particular company companies that do not have sustainable technologies available to improve their environmental practices but operate in highly sensitive places are better off taking their operation somewhere else but companies with available cleaner technologies effective law enforcement and control over the supply chains as well as a brand to protect can capitalize on their environmental efforts by introducing strict standards such as third party certifications enforcement of social and environmental regulations at countries of origin is a key factor that deters companies form adopting very strict standards even if they have a brand value to enhance the multiplication of private labels and initiatives are in most cases not driven by a desire to disorient the consumer but rather by a careful consideration of the complex conditions under which agri food supply chains operate with minor adaptations the framework could be applied to other economic sectors that have environmental impacts from mining and energy generating industries to apparel and electronics

contingent valuation controversies and evidence contingent valuation cv has become one of the most widely used non market valuation techniques cv s prominence is due to its flexibility and ability to estimate total value including passive use value its use and the inclusion of passive use value in benefit cost analyses and environ mental litigation are the subject of a contentious debate this paper discusses key areas of the debate over cv and the validity of passive use value we conclude that many of the alleged problems with cv can be resolved by careful study design and implementation we further conclude that claims that empirical cv findings are theoretically inconsistent are not generally supported by the literature the debate over cv however has clarified several key issues related to nonmarket valuation and can provide useful guidance both to cv practitioners and the users of cv results

international commodity agreements an obituary notice abstract it is widely believed that international commodity agreements have lapsed because they have failed the reality is more complex the tin agreement did collapse but for sugar and cocoa adverse market conditions and lack of general support made stabilization impractical control of the coffee market ceased largely because of disagreements both between and within the producing countries on the division of the benefits resulting from higher prices overall commodity control fits uneasily in an increasingly globalized and competitive world and this perception has resulted in a diminished willingness to resolve the practical difficulties of price stabilization

market power and rents in global supply chains market power and competition policy in food supply chains has emerged as an important economic issue in economics and a highly sensitive item on the policy agenda consolidation is taking place in the food industry both in high income countries and in emerging economies but the impact of concentration in global food chains on efficiency and rent distribution is more nuanced and complex than often claimed we review the literature and extend it by developing a model which explicitly takes into account market imperfections and contract enforcement problems in supply chains increased competition benefits farms by improving contract conditions but contract enforcement becomes more complicated

why do small scale producers choose to produce under contract lessons from nontraditional vegetable exports from zimbabwe summary this article explores the motivations behind the decision of small scale producers to grow nontraditional vegetables under contract for export based on a survey of small scale producers in zimbabwe four factors are identified as motivating contracting namely market uncertainty indirect benefits e g knowledge acquisition income benefits and intangible benefits respondents are clustered according to the relative importance of these factors in their contracting decision four clusters are identified and related to the characteristics of these farmers including size of the farm amount of land devoted to export crops access to alternative markets and the proportion of family income derived from export crops the results suggest that there are systematic differences between farmers in their decisions to contract which needs to be recognized in contract design and management 2005 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

coffee market liberalisation and the implications for producers in brazil guatemala and india the standard approach to modelling the relationship between world and producer prices of coffee does not incorporate the effects of changing government policies and market structures these changes have led to large structural breaks in the relationship between the prices implying the standard estimates are biased we model coffee prices in brazil guatemala and india allowing for the structural breaks and show that the liberalisation of coffee markets has benefited producers substantially both in terms of a higher share of the world price of coffee and higher real prices this suggests that calls to re regulate coffee markets may be misplaced

free competition without sustainable development tanzanian cotton sector liberalisation 1994 95 to 1997 98 this article summarises the results of fieldwork carried out in 1997 8 season on post liberalisation changes in the tanzanian cotton sector developments in primary marketing ginning and the export trade are reviewed on the basis of survey material market entry by private companies has been high leading to considerable competition and slight increases in producers share of the world price but real producer price and cultivation increases have not been sustained following changes in the input supply system insecticide use has fallen sharply along with the quality and underlying international price of the cotton crop tanzania s place in the world market has been re defined as a producer for a specific time based market window this places a question mark over the sustainability of the sector s future and by inference over policy reforms whose main emphasis is to increase competition

the impact of coffee certification on small scale producers livelihoods a case study from the jimma zone ethiopia what is the impact of product certification on small scale farmers livelihoods to what extent does the participation of ethiopian small scale coffee farmers in certified local cooperative structures improve their socioeconomic situation to answer these questions this article employs household data of 249 coffee farmers from six different cooperatives collected in the jimma zone of southwestern ethiopia in 2009 findings show that the certification of coffee cooperatives has in total a low impact on small scale coffee producers livelihoods mainly due to 1 low productivity 2 insignificant price premium and 3 poor access to credit and information from the cooperative differences in production and organizational capacities between the local cooperatives are mirrored in the extent of the certification benefits for the smallholders good cooperatives have reaped the benefits of certification whereas bad ones did not fare well in this regard the cooperative effect overlies the certification effect

empowering coffee traders the coffee value chain from nicaraguan fair trade farmers to finnish consumers this article analyzes the distribution of benefits from fair trade between producing and consuming countries fair trade and conventional coffee production and trade were examined in nicaragua in 2005 2006 and 2008 consumption of the respective coffees was assessed in finland in 2006 2009 the results indicate that consumers paid considerably more for fair trade certified coffee than for the other alternatives available although fair trade provided price premiums to producer organizations a larger share of the retail prices remained in the consuming country relative to conventional coffee trade paradoxically along with the certified farmers and cooperatives fair trade empowers roasters and retailers

disentangling the effects of fair trade on the quality of malian cotton the increasing importance of premium segments and private labels raise skepticism about the ability of fair trade to help smallholders compete in high value added markets using panel data collected in mali this paper contributes to the debate by estimating the impact of fairtrade certification on the quality of malian cotton controlling for the nonrandom certification of producers results show a significant impact on the quality of cotton produced by both certified and geographically close noncertified growers via spillover effects the analysis suggests that contract farming enforced by third parties and demonstration effects foster the adoption of innovative agricultural practices

vertical integration in west africa s cotton industry are parastatals a second best solution this article provides a framework to compare market outcomes among vertically integrated monopsonies in the cotton sector of west africa and alternative more competitive market structures based on a principal agent framework in the presence of factor market constraints as well as capital market failure efficiently operated cotton parastatals increase sector welfare and efficiency by providing input credits in equilibrium outcomes with the principal agent model suggest growers receive the reservation income to participate in cotton production while the principal cotton company extracts the surplus above the reservation income competitive markets entail more equitable distribution of benefits than with parastatal vertical integration but credit and factor market constraints can still persist promotion of a competitive market system will not support cotton productivity growth unless stakeholders pursue complementary programs to develop credit markets and research and extension institutions in the presence of current market failures parastatals may be a second best solution

rethinking cholera and typhoid vaccination policies for the poor private demand in kolkata india summary the old familiar diseases of cholera and typhoid remain a serious health threat in many developing countries health policy analysts often argue that vaccination against cholera and typhoid should be provided free because poor people cannot afford to pay for such vaccines and because vaccination confers positive economic externalities on unvaccinated individuals in 2004 we conducted a contingent valuation cv survey of 835 randomly selected adults from two neighborhoods in kolkata india to provide information on private demand for cholera and typhoid vaccines for themselves and for household members to support more nuanced financial and economics analyses of such vaccination programs the median private economic benefits of providing a typhoid vaccine to a household with five members is about us 23 in a middle income neighborhood us 27 for a cholera vaccine and us 14 in a low income slum us 15 for a cholera vaccine our research raises an intriguing possibility if user charges were set at a level to recover the costs of a vaccination program there could be sufficient demand for the vaccine so that coverage of the vaccinated population might ensure that all the remaining unvaccinated individuals would be protected as well through indirect herd protection

managing quantity quality and timing in indian cane sugar production ex post marketing permits or ex ante production contracts private sugar processors in andhra pradesh india use an unusual form of vertical coordination they issue permits to selected cane growers a few weeks before harvest these permits specify the amount of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period this article investigates why processors create uncertainty among farmers using ex post permits instead of ex ante production contracts the theoretical model predicts that ex post permits are more profitable than ex ante contracts or the spot market under existing government regulations in the sugar sector which include a binding price floor for cane and the designation of a reserve area for each processor wherein it has a legal monopsony for cane the use of ex post permits creates competition among farmers to increase cane quality which increases processor profits and farmer costs empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that farmers operating in private factory areas have higher unit production costs than do their counterparts who patronize cooperatives

mainstreaming fair trade coffee from partnership to traceability summary this article analyzes the recent growth of fair trade and the mainstreaming of this previously alternative arena focusing on coffee i identify a continuum of buyers ranging from mission driven enterprises that uphold alternative ideas and practices based on social ecological and place based commitments to quality driven firms that selectively foster fair trade conventions to ensure reliable supplies of excellent coffee to market driven corporations that largely pursue commercial industrial conventions rooted in price competition and product regulation using a commodity network approach my analysis illuminates the impacts of diverse buyer relations on producer groups and how relations are in some cases shifting from partnership to traceability

reliability of stated preferences for cholera and typhoid vaccines with time to think in hue vietnam weexaminetheeffectofgivingrespondentstimetothinkabouttheirstatedchoices sc in a survey of cholera and typhoid vaccine preferences in hue vietnam because neither vaccine is widely available in vietnam we used the sc approach a stated preference technique and gave half of our respondents overnight to think about their choices to make the hypothetical valuation scenario as similar to a real life choice situation as possible respondents who were given extra time made fewer choices that violated internal validity tests of utility theory and had lower average willingness to pay wtp confirming a result found in similar studies in the contingent valuation literature jel d12 i18 c25

financial contracting and leverage induced over and under investment incentives this paper investigates the effects of seniority rules and restrictive dividend convenants on the over and under investment incentives associated with risky debt we show that increasing seniority of new debt decreases the incidence of under investment but increases over investment and vice versa under symmetric information the optimal seniority rule is to give new debtholders first claim on a new project without recourse to existing assets i e project financing under asymmetric information the optimal debt contract requires equating the expected return to new debtholders in the default state to the new project s cash flow in the same rate if this is not possible the optimal seniority rule calls for strict subordination of new debt if the expected cash flow in default is small and full seniority if it is large with regard to dividend convenants we show that their effect depends on whether or not dividend payments are conditioned on future investments when they are unconditioned allowing more dividends increases the under investment incentive in contrast conditional dividends decrease the underinvestment incentive and increase the over investment incentive

responding to the coffee crisis what can we learn from price dynamics an econometric model of coffee price dynamics is specified and estimated to capture the evolution of coffee prices at the farm wholesale and retail levels it investigates the historical influence of the international coffee agreement ica through its effects on yield and planting decisions in the short run the ica caused brazilian farm prices to become disconnected from international prices the ica helped coffee producers to better incorporate current world price information into planting decisions this created a price cycle that did not exist in non ica periods the low coffee prices experienced since the disintegration of the ica are consistent with low supply response to price information asymmetric price transmission at the retail level helped roasters and retailers benefit from upstream price interventions our results urge caution when considering future coffee price interventions

a direct test of agency theories of debt evidence from residential mortgage backed securities when a firm is facing default equity holders have incentives to engage in asset substitution underinvest or directly transfer wealth few papers document investment distortions on account of debt equity agency conflicts only that the threat of distortions influence ex ante financing costs a nonagency residential mortgage backed security deal represents an entity that is highly leveraged where ex ante equity holders know they will face default this provides an ideal laboratory for testing whether the threat of default creates any of the distortions predicted in theory we estimate a lower bound on agency costs associated with direct wealth transfers to be in the range of 018 per dollar the internet appendix is available at https doi org 10 1287 mnsc 2017 2853 this paper was accepted by amit seru finance

mapping research topics and theories in private regulation for sustainability in global value chains the globalization of production and trade has contributed to the rise in complex global value chains where the reach of state regulation is limited as an alternative private regulation developed and administered by companies industry associations and nongovernmental organizations has emerged to safeguard economic environmental and social sustainability in producer countries and along the value chain the academic literature on private regulation in global value chains has grown over the last decade but currently few major reviews of the research have been undertaken this paper examines peer reviewed research in the relevant disciplines published in academic journals up to december 2011 our goal is to identify and classify the topics and theories in the global value chain literature we conclude that the number of articles explicitly examining private regulation in a global value chain context is relatively small when considering the importance and growth of these chains in the world s economy we also conclude that agriculture forestry and apparel manufacturing are the most often studied economic sectors in contrast other sectors such as the information communication and technology with their complex global value chains and often problematic environmental and social conditions are understudied

demand for coffee in sweden the role of prices preferences and market power there is a widespread belief that consumer coffee prices are high relative to bean prices and that lower consumer prices would lead to substantial increases in bean exports from third world countries this issue is evaluated by analysing how retail prices preferences and market power influence coffee demand in sweden a demand function is estimated for the period 1968 2002 and used together with information on import prices of coffee beans to simulate an oligopoly model this approach gives estimates of the maximum average degree of market power and shows how coffee demand would react to reductions in marginal cost to its minimum level the maximum level of market power is found to be low but it generates large spreads between consumer and bean prices because the price elasticity has low absolute values moreover the impact of a price decrease would be small because long run coffee demand is dominated by changes in the population structure in combination with different preferences across age groups hence a change to perfect competition would only have a negligible effect on bean imports

productive efficiency of specialty and conventional coffee farmers in costa rica accounting for technological heterogeneity and self selection a steep decline in coffee prices at the producer level led to considerable pressure for farmers in costa rica and producer countries all over the world one possible reaction was moving to specialty markets where price pressure was perceived to be lower we use original survey data from 2002 2003 and 2003 2004 to analyze the factors influencing participation in specialty markets and to estimate separate production functions for specialty and conventional coffee farmers allowing for farm specific inefficiencies applying a sample selection framework we find significant selection bias in the sub sample of specialty farmers and evidence for the overestimation of efficiency if this bias is not adequately controlled for among the most important factors that influence farm specific efficiency levels in the two sub samples are the availability of additional income activities experience in coffee cultivation and membership in cooperatives based on the results we derive policy recommendations to improve farmers production performance and ability to cope with the effects of the coffee crisis these policy measures include the provision of extension services with respect to farm management skills the creation of income opportunities in rural areas and the support of farmer owned cooperatives

in the market but not of it fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification as market based social change summary this paper discusses two well known market based social change initiatives fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification which harness market forces to pursue social and environmental objectives a serious challenge for both is to operate in the conventional market without undermining their original objectives a global commodity chain analysis approach is combined with insights from economic sociology embeddedness theory to explore the social cultural and organizational factors shaping the initiatives governance structures both initiatives are seen to move along opposite organizational trajectories but face similar pressures from conventional market logics practices and dominant actors a preliminary framework is proposed for comparative assessment focusing on distribution of benefits how conventional market institutions may be questioned and how internal governance manages diverse stakeholder interests and influence

partnerships for sustainable change in cotton an institutional analysis of african cases this article examines intersectoral partnerships formed to promote sustainable cotton production and the extent to which such partnerships are facilitated or constrained by their institutional environment based on an analysis of five partnerships in sub saharan africa this article shows that institutional factors create both opportunities and obstacles for partnership implementation which are inextricably linked to their adoption of particular farming strategies and sustainability standards in general these institutional factors tend to facilitate the implementation of partnerships using contract farming and mainstream sustainability standards and hinder those adopting cooperative farming methods and organic standards

the future of small farms new directions for services institutions and intermediation summary efficient pre and post harvest services are essential if small farms in high potential areas are to intensify production contribute to economic growth and reduce poverty they also matter if small farms in marginal areas are to manage their natural resource base in the face of growing population pressure and climate change difficulties that smallholders face in accessing services are reviewed showing how incentives for commercial delivery of services to smallholders differ between staple food traditional cash crop and high value product supply chains the major challenge in service delivery to smallholders in much of africa concerns coordination of service development and delivery different forms of intermediary institution for achieving such coordination are examined

globalization and upgrading what can and cannot be learnt from international trade statistics in the wood furniture sector the measurement of innovation is a complex and ambiguous challenge two broad families of measures have been used those focusing on inputs and those focusing on outputs each has its strengths and weaknesses but neither is able to capture the growing importance of product innovation adequately in this paper we attempt to throw more light on the measurement of product innovation through the complementary use of data on unit price and market share the analysis is distinctive through its exclusive use of trade data these measures are applied to the global furniture industry through an analysis of imports into the eu between 1989 and 2001

competition in the swedish coffee market 1978 2002 abstract are multinationals exploiting their market power in national coffee markets by keeping consumer prices too high and thereby limiting demand for imports of coffee beans the purpose of this study is to address this issue by testing if there is market power in the swedish market for roasted coffee the market structure is typical of many consumer markets for coffee with four very large roasting companies two of which are multinationals plus many small ones to analyze the degree of market power an oligopoly model is estimated using market time series data the econometric approach is to first test for long run relationships between the variables with cointegration analysis and then to estimate a system of equations for demand and pricing behavior our key finding is that there is evidence of some market power in the short run but none in the long run

can africa industrialize by processing primary commodities the case of mozambican cashew nuts abstract industrialization strategies based on vertical diversification into processing of primary commodities have long been appealing to low income countries the performance of such strategies is mixed an aggregate level literature is divided on the advisability of low income countries processing commodities for export especially for countries relatively poor in human capital while this general literature usefully illuminates the policy debate over processing cashew nuts in mozambique commodity and country specific factors reveal the weaknesses of conducting debate at too aggregated a level it may be that the most significant constraints on processing industrialization are political rather than purely technical or economic

strategic ownership structure and the cost of debt we theoretically and empirically address the endogeneity of corporate ownership structure and the cost of debt with a novel emphasis on the role of control concentration in postdefault firm restructuring control concentration raises agency costs of debt and dominant shareholders trade off private benefits of control against higher borrowing costs in choosing their ownership stakes based on our theoretical predictions and using an international sample of syndicated loans and unique dynamic ownership structure data we present new evidence on the firm and macro level determinants of corporate control concentration and the cost of debt jel g21 g32

changing asset endowments and smallholder participation in higher value markets evidence from certified coffee producers in nicaragua this paper examines the capacities of smallholders in nicaragua to exploit new linkages to certified coffee markets following the coffee crisis data on livelihood assets were collected from 292 households which were clustered to test how differences in outcomes asset building reflect variations in initial asset endowments the results suggest that most households built particular elements of their asset base and increased their resilience to future shocks however households struggled to make effective use of the gains for intensifying their livelihoods of the least endowed households few made investments in the scale or productivity of coffee and most continued to depend heavily on subsistence production and seasonal off farm income for survival in conclusion improved market access alone even under relatively favorable market conditions and with considerable external support will have uncertain impacts on rural poverty if the underlying constraints on household assets and investments are not addressed concurrently