bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A SYSTEM APPROACH TO MODELLING SUPPLY EQUATIONS IN AGRICULTURE
Authors: Bewley Ronald , Young Trevor , Colman David
Published: November 2008

A multinomial logit model is a useful approach in the study of the allocation of a fixed resource between alternative uses. Here a geometric mean form of the system is presented and a number of theoretical and empirical issues are explored. In particular, its performance is compared with the use of double logarithmic equations estimated separately. As an illustration of the methodology, an allocation model of UK cereals area is specified and estimated in both static and dynamic forms.
A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING THE DEMAND FOR AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN THE UK
Authors: Prior M.J.
Published: November 2008

In this paper an investment demand function is estimated, making use of some particular characteristics of data on the sales of agricultural equipment in the UK. The characteristics are that, first, much of agricultural equipment is deliverable quickly from stock and does not appear to be supply‐constrained, thus allowing equality of actual and desired capital stocks as a working hypothesis. Second, frequent replacement of machinery leads to depreciation rates which are high and variable. A method is presented to calculate a variable depreciation rate for each period and the resulting estimates are superior to the same model with a conventional, fixed depreciation rate.
ESTIMATING SOCIAL COSTS OF ALTERNATIVE SUGAR POLICIES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Authors: Ortmann G. F. , Nieuwoudt W. L.
Published: November 2008

Social costs of a single‐price policy, a two‐tier price scheme and of ethanol production in the South African Sugar Industry are estimated. Results indicate that lower social costs are associated with the recently introduced two‐tier price scheme compared with the single‐price scheme which it replaced. Making quotas transferable under the two‐tier price scheme would reduce social costs even further. Ethanol production at present would add to social costs as its replacement value as fuel is less than the cost of production including opportunity costs. Results are obtained from a regional linear programming model that incorporates negative sloping demand functions for products, positive labour supply functions and variance‐covariance risk matrices. A limited substitution in the demand specification is also included.
INTERPERSONAL VARIATION IN FARM WORKERS‘ EARNINGS: ANALYSIS OF WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT ENQUIRY DATA
Authors: Philpott John C. , Tyler Godfrey J.
Published: November 2008

Most econometric analyses of the agricultural labour market in Britain have been concerned with explaining the general level of agricultural earnings and changes over time. This study complements such analyses by attempting to explain the variation in earnings between workers at any one time. The study uses multiple‐regression analysis of cross‐sectional data taken from the Wages and Employment Enquiry. Significant explanatory variables are age, grade and occupation of the worker, farm size, overtime hours and region.

There is evidence of (a) an age‐earnings profile with peak earnings at 45–54 years, (b) grade differentials which do not follow those expected from the official Agricultural Wages Board wages structure, (c) occupational differentials, (d) earnings rising with farm size, (e) the importance of overtime hours. Unexpected results occur with some of the regional coefficients.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES IN AGRICULTURE
Authors: Harvey D. R.
Published: November 2008

Following brief presentation of the post‐war pattern of agricultural R and D expenditure and productivity changes, the major theoretical issues associated with the evaluation and assessment of R and D spending are discussed. It is argued that emphasis on ex post evaluations of R and D, particularly through rate of return calculations, is misplaced. The economist's tool‐box contains many more instruments than internal rates of return and simplified cost/benefit analyses which are relevant to the difficult decisions of R and D allocation and management. A supply/demand perspective of the R and D system and its interaction with the rest of the social economy is suggested as being more useful in the examination of R and D questions than the traditional view of R and D as a linear progression from pure science through applied research and development to adoption, which is implicit in investment analysis. Some implications of the supply/demand view are identified.
IRREVERSIBLE SUPPLY FUNCTIONS REVISITED
Authors: Burton M. P.
Published: November 2008

This paper presents a successful application of an irreversible supply model to the UK egg sector. The model has been developed to overcome the problems that the conventional approaches to irreversible supply modelling face when used with a partial adjustment framework. The results indicate that the supply response to price changes under excess capacity is less than a third of that under non‐excess capacity, but that the long‐run response is symmetric, as required by the underlying theory. Furthermore, the long‐run elasticity from a conventional, symmetric, partial‐adjustment model is some 40% larger than that of the asymmetric model, implying that the importance of the asymmetric specification extends beyond an interest in the short‐run adjustment path.
ECONOMIES OF SIZE REVISITED
Authors: Stefanou S. E. , Madden J. P.
Published: November 2008

Empirical and theoretical investigations as to how firms evolve in size have been of interest to economists, agricultural economists and policymakers for decades. While returns to size have been frequently estimated, measurement has been carried out using a wide range of methodological approaches. This paper offers a critique and discussion of the conceptual and methodological issues surrounding the measurement of size economies.
IMPACTS OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY ON INTERNATIONAL WHEAT PRICES
Authors: Meilke K. D. , de Gorter H.
Published: November 2008

The emergence of the EC as a major exporter of cereals in the 1980s and the escalation of international agricultural trade confrontations emphasize the importance of understanding the effects of EC policy actions. Several important features of the EC wheat market are incorporated in an analytical and empirical model including imperfect substitutability in demand between imports and domestic supplies, the simultaneous import and export of wheat by the EC, the distinct impact of threshold versus intervention policy prices, MCAs, and the imperfect transmission between market and intervention prices. Results indicate that EC policies have a smaller impact on world price than found in previous studies.
A REASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF COUNTY COUNCIL SMALLHOLDINGS
Authors: Hodge I. D.
Published: November 2008

County Council smallholding estates were established early this century, reaching a peak in terms of numbers of tenants and area of land at about the time of the Second World War. Since then there has been a gradual reduction in their area and a rapid decline in the numbers of tenants. Debate about their role is concentrated on the inevitable conflict embodied in a policy which operates to resist market forces and yet which expects smallholders to achieve an adequate income within a market context. The declining numbers of tenants and the escalating land costs of providing smallholdings, especially where further output price reductions are anticipated, reemphasises the need to examine the position and prospects for smallholdings. A potential future role is outlined in relation to the wider issues of rural land use.
COMPROMISE‐RISK PROGRAMMING FOR AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROBLEMS: AN ILLUSTRATION
Authors: Romero C. , Rehman T. , Domingo J.
Published: November 2008

This paper presents a novel approach for dealing with risk in agricultural resource allocation decisions by synthesising the conventional Markowitzean, or MOTAD, methods within a compromise programming model to generate ‘best‐compromise’ solutions which come closest to an ideal point defined in terms of risk minimisation. This approach can be regarded as the compromise‐risk programming model. The purpose here is to show how this ‘hybridisation’ of Markowitz/MOTAD and compromise programming approaches overcomes some of the weaknesses of the traditional approach to handling risk in resource allocation models.
CONSERVATION THROUGH LAND DIVERSION: A SURVEY OF FARMERS‘ ATTITUDES
Authors: Gasson R. , Potter C.
Published: November 2008

The need to take land out of intensive arable production offers possibilities for conservation. Assuming that such schemes will operate on a voluntary basis, farmers' reactions to incentives encouraging them to divert land to other uses must be crucial. Samples of farmers in three areas of England were presented with hypothetical schemes to divert cereal land to fallow, permanent pasture and woodland. They were asked for a money ‘bid’ equivalent to the minimum sum to persuade them to enrol land in the scheme an the acreage they would enrol at that level of payment. On average the 147 farmers wanted £348/ha to fallow cereal land, £336/ha to divert arable land to permanent pasture and £437/ha to grow trees. The hypothesis that farmers' response to land diversion initiatives would depend on interaction of conservation attitudes and structural/financial constraints received some support, a result with implications for the design of future land diversion schemes.
STANDARDS VERSUS PRICES REVISITED: THE CASE OF AGRICULTURAL NON‐POINT SOURCE POLLUTION
Authors: Miltz D. , Braden J. B. , Johnson G. V.
Published: November 2008

This paper demonstrates that the conventional neoclassical arguments for recommending a uniform discharge tax in preference to a uniform discharge standard are founded on highly restrictive and unrealistic abstractions of the pollution process. Relaxation of the assumptions reveals that the uniform standard outperforms the uniform tax in controlling ambient pollution levels over a potentially wide range of parameter values. The results of a study on agricultural sediment control are reported. It is argued that this pollution process is predisposed to the conditions that favour the ‘cross‐over’ in efficiency ranking between the two policies. These conditions are a high correlation between discharge abatement costs and pollution transport coefficients, and high variability in pollution transport coefficients relative to the interfirm abatement costs.
PROPERTY INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT
Authors: Hodge I. D.
Published: November 2008

Pressures to limit levels of agricultural production create opportunities for the provision of new environmental benefits from rural land. However, the public good characteristics of these benefits mean that they are unlikely to be provided by conventional profit‐maximising firms. This paper examines the role of land ownership by public interest demand groups in the form of Conservation Amenity and Recreation Trusts. This form of ownership can establish incentives for the consideration of the external benefits of land use in land management decisions.
GRANT‐AIDED AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY IN NATIONAL PARKS
Authors: Brotherton D. I.
Published: November 2008

This note records the extent to which agricultural operations were proposed for grant aid in the ten National Parks of England and Wales over the three‐year period 1 April 1963 — 31 March 1986. The responses made by the National Park Authorities to the various types of proposal are noted. It is shown that the Park Authorities regarded no more than about 10% of all proposals as in any way damaging and that, in the great majority of cases, any changes they sought were readily agreed.
DYNAMIC FARM—LEVEL PLANNING MODEL FOR BEEF FEEDLOT PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
Authors: Feinerman E. , Siegel P. B.
Published: November 2008

The study is aimed at formulating and empirically applying a dynamic farm‐level model for the planning of optimal beef feedlot production and marketing strategies. A dynamic programming (DP) model is used to calculate the optimal feeding schedule (i.e. liveweight gain sequence), market liveweight and stock replacement for a single bull calf over a one‐year planning period, taking into account seasonal fluctuations of planning parameters such as beef prices, feeding costs, nutritional requirements, and stock replacement costs and obtainability. The DP model includes a linear programming (LP) subroutine for calculating least‐cost feed rations. The planning model is empirically applied using data and assumptions representative offeedlots in the Coastal Plain region of Israel where most feedlot production and marketing decisions are made by ‘rule‐of‐thumb’ using set liveweight gain sequences, market standards and stock replacement decisions. The empirical findings indicate that the profitability of feedlot production and marketing could be increased by an average of 10% over that obtained from ‘rule‐of‐thumb’ decision rules.
THE ECONOMIC OPTIMISATION OF SOW REPLACEMENT DECISIONS BY STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING
Authors: Huirne R. B. M. , Hendriks Th. H. B. , Dijkhuizen A. A. , Giesen G. W. J.
Published: November 2008

A stochastic dynamic programming model is designed to determine the economic optimal replacement policy in swine breeding herds. This optimal policy maximises the present value of net revenues from sows present in the herd and from subsequent replacement gilts over a given planning horizon. The model also calculates the total extra profit to be expected from trying to retain an individual sow until her optimal lifespan and not replacing her immediately. This total extra profit is an economic index which makes it possible to rank sows within the herd on future profitability and, therefore, can be used as a management guide in culling decisions. For typical Dutch values the optimal replacement decisions result in an average herd life of 3.43 parities. The maximum economic life of sows of average productivity turns out to be 10 parities. All data can easily be adjusted to represent a specific herd or a different region of the world.
MEASURING VALUES FOR IMPROVED AIR QUALITY FROM DISCRETE RESPONSE DATA: TWO EXPERIMENTS
Authors: Johansson P. O. , Kriström B.
Published: November 2008

This paper derives and estimates two different measures of the value of an elimination of sulphur emissions in Sweden. One measure is a usual willingness‐to‐pay measure, while the other measure yields the willingness to offer jobs in the industry in order to secure an improvement in air quality. According to both approaches, the average willingness to pay for an improvement in air quality is surprisingly high: 4 to 5 per cent of disposable income and 3 to 4 per cent of the total number of jobs in Sweden, respectively. These figures suggest that it is socially profitable to undertake further measures to reduce air pollution in Sweden given existing estimates of cleaning costs.
RISK DECISIONS FOR BEEF PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN THE COLOMBIAN SAVANNAS
Authors: Thornton P. K.
Published: November 2008

A beef simulation model was used to examine a range of production possibilities for increasing the output of extensive ranching systems in the tropical savannas of eastern Colombia through the use of sown grass‐legume pastures of higher inherent digestibility than that of the native species. Generalised stochastic dominance was used to compare some promising alternatives with the unimproved savanna‐based production system and with each other. As the planning horizon of the decision maker was reduced, so variability, measured as the coefficient of variation of output, increased significantly. The impact of risk on the long‐term acceptability of a complete investment was limited.
AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ESTIMATES OF INCOME AND PRICE ELASTICITIES OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY
Authors: Islam N. , Subramanian A.
Published: November 2008

This paper provides new evidence on income and price elasticities of demand and supply of agricultural exports from developing countries, on the basis of (a) a consistent and fully specified supply and demand model, and (b) statistical estimation procedures not frequently used in the estimation of agricultural export functions. Estimates of price and income elasticities of demand for aggregate agricultural exports for all developing countries taken together — as distinct from individual exporting countries — are found to be low; moreover, export price as distinguished from non‐price factors plays a relatively insignificant role in increasing export supply. Hence, an attempt by all developing countries to expand traditional agricultural exports with low price elasticity of demand may not yield rising earnings for all; but in fact may result in falling export revenues. Insofar as individual exports of all developing countries (not individual countries) are concerned, income and price elasticities of demand for such tropical commodities as tea, coffee, cocoa and bananas are also found to be low, except for new, non‐traditional exports like pineapples. This indicates the importance of diversification of agricultural exports as a vehicle for their future growth.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE EC SET‐ASIDE PROGRAMME
Authors: Koester U.
Published: November 2008

The EC set‐aside programme is supposed to reduce the EC cereal surplus and, thus, expenditure. The main objective of this paper is to investigate whether these financial expectations will materialise. It may well be that the European taxpayer and the EC Commission will save money, but probably all EC member states will lose. The outcome depends on the level of world market prices and the specifics of implementation.

The premiums paid per hectare of idled land will be higher than necessary if high administrative costs preclude their direct relation to income actually foregone (overcompensation effect). Moreover, idled acreage will have below‐average yields, thus increasing the yield per ha on the hectares remaining under cultivation (structure effect). Finally, agricultural production per ha will increase if the set‐aside programme induces higher use of variable input (intensification effect). Given the export restitutions for wheat prevailing in Jan./Feb. 1988 all national governments will have to bear an additional financial burden. However, they can use the latitude granted by the EC regulations to minimise this burden.
TRADE AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF EC ACCESSION ON THE UK AGRICULTURAL SUPPLY INDUSTRIES
Authors: McCorriston S. , Sheldon I. M.
Published: November 2008

The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of accession to the EC on the UK agricultural input industries using a technique commonly applied to examining the effects of accession on the manufacturing sector, the main emphasis being on trade patterns. Some attempt is made to differentiate between the effects of market‐widening and of the CAP, and an assessment of the welfare implications is given. The results indicate that the effect of market‐widening on the input industries was more important than the effect of the CAP and that the net loss of trade diversion was slightly outweighed by the benefits of export expansion
AGRICULTURE IN THE URUGUAY ROUND: FROM THE PUNTA DEL ESTE DECLARATION TO THE GENEVA ACCORD
Authors: Hine R. C. , Ingersent K. A. , Rayner A. J.
Published: November 2008

This paper traces the progress of the agricultural negotiations in the current GATT round from the Ministerial Declaration at Punte del Este, Uruguay, in September 1986 to the Geneva ‘Accord’ in April 1989. It summarises the initial position papers of the major participants, discusses the impasse at the Mid‐Term Review (Montreal, December 1988) and relates the Geneva Accord to the groundwork laid down in the preceding negotiations. Finally, the paper comments on some of the implications of the accord and on the prospects for a successful conclusion for the negotiations.
HERD SIZE AND UNIT COSTS OF PRODUCTION IN THE ENGLAND AND WALES DAIRY SECTOR
Authors: Mukhtar S. M. , Dawson P. J.
Published: November 2008

This paper examines the relationship between herd size and unit costs of production in the England and Wales dairy sector. Following the two‐stage estimation procedure of Dawson & Hubbard (1987), longrun average cost (LAC) functions are estimated from cross‐section data for five separate years between 1976/7 and 1986/7. Results show that the LAC curves are U‐shaped but highly skewed, implying that considerable economies of size are present at low output levels but diseconomies at larger levels are much less marked. Over time, technological change in particular has been shifting the LAC curves downward and to the right and away from the sector's long‐run equilibrium. The differential shift of cost curves, depending on the size of production, implies that technological change has been biased in favour of larger herds.
RELATIVE VARIABILITY IN WHEAT YIELDS ACROSS COUNTRIES AND OVER TIME
Authors: Singh A. J. , Byerlee D.
Published: November 2008

Wheat yield variability is analysed in light of recent concern that rapid technological change has caused increased instability in world cereal production. The coefficient of variation of wheat yields is estimated for 57 countries from detrended data for various periods between 1951 and 1986. The coefficient of variation in wheat yields is shown to be determined by country size, moisture regime and temperature. Technological variables, such as level of adoption of high‐yielding varieties and fertiliser dose, had no effect on differences in yield variability across countries. Analysis of yield variability for the same set of countries for three periods from 1951 to 1986 shows a general decline in yield variability since 1975 in developing countries. Analysis of wheat yield variability in India at the state and district levels confirms the analysis of country level data. The coefficient of variability of wheat yields in India in the period 1976‐85 has fallen to less than half the level in the 1950s and this decline is statistically significant.
FARML AND AS A BUSINESS ASSET
Authors: Johnson Christopher
Published: November 2008

This paper looks at the market value of farmland in the UK, and the problems of measuring it. The recent movement in farmland values is examined along with the variables which determine these values. Changing patterns of farmland ownership are surveyed in the context of the total balance sheet of British agriculture. Balance sheet values are related to each other and to the income returns on them, and farmland is discussed in terms of opportunity costs, or alternative economic uses to which it may be put.
LABOUR INPUT DECISIONS OF SUBSISTENCE FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN SOUTHERN MALAWI
Authors: Becker H.
Published: November 2008

The objective of the paper is the presentation of a farm‐household model which allows an analysis of labour input decisions of rural households in an environment with risky agricultural technologies and off‐farm employment opportunities. Labour input decisions are condensed into a stochastic linear programming framework, and applied to a typical rural household in Southern Malawi. Weak adoption of yield‐increasing technologies is explained by different opportunity costs of time of family members and by the risky nature of income generated using traditional or yield‐increasing agricultural technologies. The view that land‐saving innovations will increase agricultural production is revised. Special extension programmes for family members with low off‐farm employment opportunities are proposed to increase the adoption of those technologies. These programmes have the purpose of reducing anticipated subjective income deviations for yield‐increasing innovations.
STOCHASTIC TECHNOLOGY IN A PROGRAMMING FRAMEWORK: A GENERALISED MEAN‐VARIANCE FARM MODEL
Authors: Hassan R. M. , Hallam A.
Published: November 2008

Production uncertainty is important in studying behaviour of risk‐averse firms and developing successful agricultural policies. A model that extends the standard Mean‐Variance (E‐V) method to incorporate stochastic technology in a proscriptive programming framework is developed, and risk effects of factor inputs are measured for the irrigated multi‐crop farming system in the Sudan. Hired labour is found to be risk increasing in cotton and sorghum but risk reducing in groundnuts. Operator labour is found to be risk reducing in cotton and sorghum but risk increasing in groundnuts. Supply responses are derived from a nonlinear programming model of agricultural producer decisions and it is found that supply responses are more elastic when labour choices are allowed to influence production risks.
GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUTION
Authors: Diakosavvas D.
Published: November 2008

In recent years, new prominence has been assigned to the effects of non‐price measures on the performance of the agricultural sector in developing countries. Nevertheless, the contribution of government expenditure to agricultural output growth has not received its due attention. This paper endeavours to estimate the impact of government expenditure (on agriculture) on the performance of the agricultural sector. An inter‐country production function is estimated for a sample of thirty‐five developing countries, pooling cross‐section and time‐series data over the 1974‐84 period. The influence of instability in government expenditure on agriculture and on agricultural growth is also assessed. The results show that government expenditure policies are of vital importance in influencing the performance of the agricultural sector. It was also found that instability in government expenditure is a deterrent to agricultural output growth.
ECONOMETRIC MODELLING OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY COMPOUND FEED SECTOR: AN APPLICATION TO FRANCE
Authors: Surry Y.
Published: November 2008

This paper develops a model of the European Community compound feed sector capable of explaining demand for feed ingredients, and the output demand and prices for compound feeds. The adopted framework rests upon the use of duality theory to represent the optimising production decisions of compound feed firms. In addition, an appropriate methodology is suggested to capture the rapid expansion in the consumption of compound feeds in the European Community and their adoption by livestock producers. The model is then applied to the French compound‐feed sector using annual time‐series data stretching over the period 1962–1980.
PRICE‐SUPPORT EFFECTS ON EC PRODUCERS
Authors: Fraser R.W.
Published: November 2008

This paper presents a new approach to assessing the impact of price‐support policies on producer behaviour. This approach takes explicit account of the impact of such policies on a producer's uncertain production environment and includes a numerical procedure for calculating ex ante price variability from ex post producer price data. The method is applied to European Community agricultural industries in which intervention purchasing schemes operate. The results show the extent to which price support‐policies distort the signals producers receive from world markets.
STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS IN UK STORE LIVESTOCK MARKETS
Authors: Brookfield D.
Published: November 2008

This paper examines the economic trading relationships underlying store livestock markets in the UK for beef steers, pigs and sheep. Economic decisions relating to store sales and purchases are set within the context of a dynamic, multi‐period, market‐clearing framework. A new approach to modelling store markets is introduced in which the rational‐expectations methodology to forming model‐consistent expectations is central. The results suggest how the store markets form part of a vertically integrated production system and reveal to what extent the beef steer, pig and sheep sectors exhibit econometrically identifiable relations.
AN INDIVIDUAL TRAVEL‐COST METHOD OF EVALUATING FOREST RECREATION
Authors: Willis K. G. , Garrod G. D.
Published: November 2008

Consumer surplus for outdoor recreation has traditionally been estimated by a Clawson‐Knetsch travel‐cost method. This paper presents zonal consumer‐surplus estimates for visitors to a number of forests and compares these estimates to those derived from individual visitor observations. Both travel‐cost procedures are used to assess the magnitude of recreational benefits and are found to produce widely different consumer‐surplus estimates. This raises questions about research methodology and has implications for the value of recreation associated with forestry and its contribution to the rate of return on forest investment.
STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE UK FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRIES
Authors: Balasubramanyam V. N. , Nguyen D. T.
Published: November 2008

This paper analyses the structural characteristics of the food and drink industries and assesses their recent economic performance. Although classified among the less technologically intensive group of British manufacturing industries, the food and drink industries are found to share many of the features of the more technologically intensive group, such as product differentiation, product diversification and advertising intensity. They are also found to have achieved above‐average growth in labour and total factor productivity through expansion in size, capital accumulation and shedding of labour.
THE PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY OF US MILK PROCESSING CO‐OPERATIVES
Authors: Ferrier G. D. , Porter P. K.
Published: November 2008

While co‐operative organisations fare well in agricultural markets in the United States, this paper argues that co‐operatives are theoretically an inherently inferior form of organisation. Empirically, we apply a nonparametric frontier production model to a sample of co‐operative and non‐co‐operative US fluid‐milk processors to determine the relative productive efficiency of these two forms of organisation. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that US milk processing co‐operatives are less efficient than their proprietary counterparts.
WATER MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: VILLAGE DAMS IN SRI LANKA
Authors: Mahendrarajah S. , Warr P. G.
Published: November 2008

This paper studies the intertemporal allocation of monsoonal water storage in village dam‐based irrigation systems in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. The traditional water management practices observed in these villages are based on common property access and serve to minimise social conflict over water rights. They are also acceptably efficient in economic terms, given the water demands of the traditional rice production technology. Adoption of high‐yielding variety (HYV) rice technology produces a dramatic increase in rice output, but the traditional water‐management practices then become less efficient. The paper demonstrates a method for determining the nature of an efficient water‐management system and for estimating the economic magnitude of the inefficiency arising from the traditional practices. In the case study, efficient water management increases the gains available from HYV adoption by a further one fourth.
RESPONSES TO RISK IN WEED CONTROL DECISIONS UNDER EXPECTED PROFIT MAXIMISATION: COMMENT
Authors: Swinton S. M.
Published: November 2008

Pannell's finding that risk reduces the optimal rate of herbicide use and raises the economic threshold for weed control is found to depend upon the form of the yield function. Pannell's results apply only to convex yield functions. For sigmoidal functions, such as the logistic, risk has the opposite effect over the concave portion of the function's range.
THE EFFECT OF PRICE REDUCTION AND DIRECT INCOME SUPPORT POLICIES ON AGRICULTURAL INPUT MARKETS IN AUSTRIA
Authors: Weiss Chr. R.
Published: November 2008

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the effects of a shift from price support to direct income policy on agricultural factor markets and aggregate output. By utilising an econometric model for the Austrian agricultural sector, it is argued that the main purpose of this policy change, which is to move producers away from making production decisions in response to income support policies and to facilitate their response to market signals (‘decoupling’), is only partially realised. Switching from price to direct income support would result in little reduction in output, but some positive secondary effects can be observed. Ecological goals could be realised by lessening the degree of industrialisation due to lowering the capital‐labour and intermediate input‐labour ratios.
FINANCIAL STRESS AND CONSUMPTION EXPECTATIONS AMONG FARM HOUSEHOLDS: NEW ZEALAND'S EXPERIENCE WITH ECONOMIC LIBERALISATION
Authors: Frengley G. A. G. , Johnston W. E.
Published: November 2008

A review of New Zealand's experience with assistance to agriculture through the 1960s and 1970s and the subsequent deregulation of the sector in the mid‐1980s provides background to this study. Data for sheep and beef farmers are used to elaborate the variety of financial changes in the boom and bust cycles that followed the policy changes. Changes in farm business stress are examined using some conventional financial ratios. New measures which partition household expenditure between consumption and investment are then developed. These better explain the stress experienced among farm households as a consequence of the readjustment process and provide insight to the impact of the legacy of debt, encouraged by government intervention, on farmers' current and expected household consumption over recent years. New Zealand's experience reveals that farm household consumption stress has been unevenly distributed. This suggests that policy concern, following the removal of government assistance to agriculture, should focus principally on the mitigation of the household distress caused by ongoing farm debt commitments.
A COMPARISON OF TOBIT AND OLS ESTIMATES OF JAPANESE PEANUT IMPORT DEMAND
Authors: Wu X. L.
Published: November 2008

A Tobit analysis is applied to estimate Japanese peanut imports under quota restrictions for the period 1973–1988, and to assess the bias when the presence of quota is ignored by using OLS estimation. The results show that biased estimates are obtained by using OLS in the presence of quota restrictions.
FARM SIZE STRUCTURE IN ENGLAND AND WALES 1939‐89
Authors: Allanson P.
Published: November 2008

Distributional issues are central to the political economy of agriculture, yet empirical research into structural change is comparatively limited. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the evolution of the size distribution of agricultural holdings in England and Wales based on the fitting of a lognormal density function to the size distribution in each year. The empirical results point to the continued survival of large numbers of small farms in spite of the increasing concentration of land on larger units over the post‐war period. Consideration is also given to the implications of the methodology for the direction of further research into structural and related distributional issues.
THE EGYPTIAN STATE AND AGRICULTURAL LAND MARKET 1810–1986
Authors: El‐Ghonemy M. R.
Published: November 2008

The paper examines the economic effects of state policy on land transactions in Egyptian agriculture since 1810, with special reference to the post‐1952 government intervention in the land market. Following a combination of historical and econometric approaches, the analysis shows that: (i) under conditions of market forces, factor prices responded to changes in land‐labour ratio, cotton price and output value, and landlords' monopoly power was dominant; (ii) while the inequality was sharply reduced after equity‐directed intervention, value productivity of the scarce factor, land, has lost its significance in determining rental values and the effective supply of land has, since 1970, declined together with agricultural growth rates; and (iii) there has been a trade‐off between equity and agricultural growth during periods of non‐intervention and relaxation of tight State control of the land market. Proposals for policy adjustment are presented.
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND AGRICULTURAL SUPPLY RESPONSE: PADDY IN SRI LANKA
Authors: Gunawardana P. J. , Oczkowski E. A.
Published: November 2008

An aggregate analysis of supply response in the paddy (rice) sector of Sri Lanka during 1952‐87 is conducted to identify the impact of pricing policy, irrigation programmes, institutional credit and concessional sales on area, yield and overall supply. The focus of the estimation procedure is the selection of an appropriate functional form for regressions and on the price variable that best represents the price to which producers respond in making area and yield decisions. In the case of both area and yield, the econometric criteria favour the acceptance of log‐linear equations with the ratio of the guaranteed price of paddy to fertiliser price. On the basis of overall supply elasticity estimates, it is concluded that while pricing policy, irrigation programmes and institutional credit provide incentives to the expansion of paddy production, concessional sales of rice act as a disincentive.
TWO‐TIER PRICING FOR MILK: A RE‐EXAMINATION
Authors: Hubbard L. J.
Published: November 2008

Principal objections to two‐tier pricing have centred on administrative complexities and the ‘transparent’ nature of its cost. However, the credibility of two‐tier pricing for milk within the European Community is now enhanced by the existence of a quota scheme and by recent levels of budgetary expenditure. Potential features of two‐tier pricing are that farm support can be more readily directed at selected recipients and that lowering of market prices for milk relieves consumers from some of the burden of this support. A major attraction is that the existing quota system allows for an immediate ready‐made transition. In this paper, two applications are developed. Both allow varying combinations of quota level and support price, but differ in their impact on producers' incomes. Some degree of national flexibility within the Community is also explored.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY REFORM IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND AUSTRALIA
Authors: MacLaren D.
Published: November 2008

A political‐economy framework is used to explore the differences which have been observed in the pace of agricultural policy reform in the European Community and in Australia. In this framework, policy‐making is endogenous in comparison with its exogenous position in applied welfare economics. It is shown that the institutional aspects of the policy process, the power of the farming lobby, and the economic philosophy of governments are important determinants of the extent of income re‐distribution and of moves towards the use of more efficient instruments of income redistribution. It is argued that the degree to which politicians are captured by the farming lobby, and the extent to which they support transparency in policy‐making, determine whether fundamental reforms are feasible. From this analysis, it is concluded that the pace of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy will continue to lag behind that in Australia.
EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE CHINESE POLICIES ON THE WORLD GRAINS MARKET
Authors: Gunasekera H. D. B. H. , Rodriguez G. , Andrews N.
Published: November 2008

The implications for the world grains market of a reduction in China's domestic absorption, and of the removal of its key manufacturing protection, are analysed in this paper. These policy changes are modelled both alone and together with grain self‐sufficiency in China and with reduction in farm support in the US and EC. In themselves, the reduction in absorption and removal of manufacturing protection in China would have only marginal effects on the world grains market. If, however, China were to achieve grain self‐sufficiency while adopting these macroeconomic and trade policies, world grain prices and trade would fall considerably. In contrast, even a partial removal of protection in the US and EC, simultaneously with the above Chinese macroeconomic and trade policy changes, could substantially increase world grain prices and trade. These positive effects would be considerably reduced if at the same time China were to become self‐sufficient in grain.
DISCRETE‐CHOICE VALUATION OF RECREATIONAL ANGLING IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Authors: Davis J. , O'Neill C.
Published: November 2008

A discrete‐choice Contingent Valuation approach, whose benefits in reducing certain forms of bias are briefly reviewed, was used to estimate the consumer value ascribed by recreational anglers in Northern Ireland to the access to angling sites afforded by game‐season permits and licences. A survey of 700 anglers was carried out during the 1988 season. Respondents were differentiated according to whether or not they had experience of purchasing permits. Those with experience of purchasing game‐season permits revealed a median willingness to pay 26 per cent above the prevailing price. The median willingness to pay for licences revealed by anglers who had experience of purchasing licences was 61 per cent above the prevailing price. Some evidence was uncovered that those without experience of purchase were less able to relate to price levels in a consistent manner.
CONTINGENT VALUATION FOR HOUSEHOLD WATER IN RURAL GHANA
Authors: Boadu F. O.
Published: November 2008

This study uses an iterative bidding approach to examine the relationship between selected socioeconomic characteristics of households and their willingness to pay for water. The study uses survey data from selected villages in Ghana. The results show that household income is the principal factor influencing the willingness to pay for water. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between households' history of water‐related illness and their willingness to pay for water. The effect of most of the other socioeconomic factors in the study did not follow any consistent pattern and broad generalisations are not possible.
THE FUTURE OF MILK MARKETING
Authors: Williams R. E.
Published: November 2008

Current pressures for change to the Milk Marketing Scheme arise from the difficulties of reconciling the activities of the Milk Marketing Boards and the private dairy companies in the United Kingdom with the common organisation of the European Community's milk market. Community legislation to achieve this in 1978 (Regulations (EEC) 1421/78 and 1422/78) has come under increasing attack. The paper discusses the challenges by producer‐retailers and contract processors, the returns from liquid and manufacturing milk, the problems of pricing in the EC framework and current proposals for changing both pricing arrangements and the form of the producers' organisation itself.
CONSTANT‐QUALITY PRICE INDICES FOR AGRICULTURAL INPUTS: TRACTORS AND FERTILISERS REVISITED
Authors: Cooper D. , Rayner A. J. , Greenaway D.
Published: November 2008

This paper employs the hedonic regression technique to construct constant‐quality price indices and quality change indices for two agricultural inputs ‐ tractors and fertilisers ‐ over the period since World War II in the UK. The technique is described and related to productivity measurement in order to show its relevance for measuring price changes for inputs subject to technological improvement. Problems of application are discussed with reference to the two inputs. The constant‐quality price indices derived for tractors and fertilisers are briefly compared with available ‘official’ price series
THE CONTINGENT VALUATION OF FOREST CHARACTERISTICS: TWO EXPERIMENTS
Authors: Hanley N. D. , Ruffell R. J.
Published: November 2008

Most work on valuing the recreational benefits of public forests has concentrated on estimating consumers' surplus per visit. We use two contingent valuation approaches to try to place a value on the physical characteristics of British forests, and hence to explain the variation in consumers' surplus across different forest types. Our two approaches are, first, to obtain incremental willingness‐to‐pay to access forests with different levels of a number of characteristics by showing visitors pairs of photographs; and second, to use characteristic levels as explanatory variables in a bid curve. We find that forest characteristics are in general poor predictors of willingness to pay.
ISLAMIC CREDIT: THE IRANIAN EXPERIENCE
Authors: Yazdani S. , Hill G. P.
Published: November 2008

The replacement of the Shah's regime by an Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran resulted in the outlawing of interest‐bearing credit and its replacement with a credit system which accords with the teachings of the Koran. Two forms of credit are acceptable: interest‐free loans, and profit‐and‐loss‐sharing loans. Although the latter have assumed only a small proportion of lending by the Agricultural Bank, they are potentially attractive to small risk‐averse farmers because of their risk‐sharing characteristics. In particular, they pass part of the business risk (e.g. due to uncertainty in yields and prices) back to the lender and avoid creating any financial risk for the borrower. A model is developed to explore the impact of Islamic credit on borrower behaviour and a numerical illustration is also provided. Results of a farm survey are reported, and indicate that small risk‐averse farmers prefer the Islamic credit system, whilst medium and large‐scale farmers prefer interest‐based credit. Some of the obstacles to more widespread uptake of the Islamic credit system in Iranian agriculture are identified.
SET‐ASIDE PREMIUMS AND THE MAY 1992 CAP REFORMS
Authors: Fraser R.
Published: November 2008

This paper considers the linking of participation in the set‐aside programme to the receipt of a compensatory payment for proposed reductions in European Community price support announced in May 1992. It is shown that in this situation set‐aside premiums should lie between a lower bound sufficient to deter opting‐out in favour of full cropping, and an upper bound approximately equal to a level sufficient to induce voluntary participation in the programme. The initial level of Community price support and the extent of reductions from this level are shown to be the main factors determining the gap between the upper‐ and lower‐bound premiums. The impact of removing the compensatory payment system is also examined.
IMPACTS OF TAXES TO REDUCE AGRICHEMICAL USE WHEN FARM POLICY IS ENDOGENOUS
Authors: Shortle James S. , Laughland Andrew
Published: November 2008

The economic impacts of policies to reduce water pollution from agriculture have been explored in a number of studies. A standard assumption in this literature is that farm income support policies are given. However, the modern public choice view of agricultural policy suggests that significant environmental initiatives in agriculture would likely be accompanied by changes in farm income policies to protect those with a significant stake in agriculture. We explore the potential effects of such compensating adjustments on the costs and effectiveness of taxes on polluting chemical inputs in US corn production. We find that compensating farm policy adjustments can greatly increase the costs and reduce the effectiveness of the environmental protection measure. The results also indicate the potentially high costs of poor policy co‐ordination.
EFFICIENT COMPLIANCE WITH AGRICULTURAL NITRATE POLLUTION STANDARDS
Authors: Moxey Andrew , White Ben
Published: November 2008

Non‐point pollutants such as nitrates are difficult to monitor and hence control. This paper considers nitrate abatement policies for the Tyne catchment in northern England. The analysis is based on an aggregate‐level LP model which predicts producers' production decisions and estimates the resulting spatial distribution of nitrogen applications and nitrate emissions. The policy evaluation compares a catchment‐level nitrate emission quota, a catchment‐level nitrogen input quota and nitrogen input quotas targeted at individual land classes as alternative measures to achieve nitrate concentration standards. The results indicate that targeted nitrogen input quotas provide a feasible and relatively efficient abatement policy when a lack of information on individual farms prevents the use of the least cost emission tax.