bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Structural Change and its Impact on Traditional Agricultural Sectors of Rapidly Developing Countries: The Case of Natural Rubber
Authors: Barlow Colin , Jayasuriya S.K. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractRapid structural change is now a major feature of several Southeast Asian economies. It generally involves greatly expanded exports of certain commodities and manufactures accompanied by a large growth in services, and poses serious difficulties for traditional labour‐intensive sectors. One important sector affected in this way is that producing natural rubber in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.The difficulties mentioned occur through both “resource pull” effects ‐ which are especially important in raising real wages, and “spending” effects ‐ which tend to lead to an appreciation of the real exchange rate. These effects, and the problems arising from them, are examined and compared for each of the rubber sectors above.While changes of this nature call for diminution in the size of traditional sectors, there is also a need to improve economic efficiency, notably by adopting new technology more appropriate to the emerging resource price configuration, and by moving to an agriculture where off‐farm employment and other linkages are increasingly significant. Such adjustment may be both helped and constrained by institutional factors and official policies, which accordingly require careful review.These crucial policy issues, and the degree to which necessary adjustments have been made, are investigated for the rather different contexts in each of the three natural rubber‐producing countries. The analysis is thought to have wider relevance for other developing countries with traditional agricultural sectors.
Macroeconomic Policy Impacts on United States Agriculture: A Simulation Analysis
Authors: Barclay Tom , Tweeten Luther 
Published: January 2020

AbstractUnited States monetary and fiscal policies influence the domestic agricultural economy directly and, through international linkages, indirectly. This study estimates the magnitude and statistical influence of coefficients relating U.S. macroeconomic policy to the U.S. agricultural economy through domestic and foreign markets. Specific objectives are to specify and estimate a general equilibrium quarterly econometric model of the U.S. macroeconomy and simulate the impact of federal deficit spending on real interest rates, real exchange rates, and net exports of agricultural products. Three hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis that an increase in federal deficit spending increases the real interest rate could not be rejected; a $100 billion reduction in the U.S. deficit was estimated to reduce real interest rates by two percentage points or more. The second hypothesis that an increase in real interest rate increases the real value of the U.S. dollar in foreign exchange markets had strong support and could not be rejected. A third hypothesis that a rise in the real value of the dollar reduces net exports of U.S. farm products also could not be rejected. Results indicate that the U.S. agriculture would benefit from the lower exchange value associated with an ‘optimal’ macroeconomic policy. That policy initially made the overall U.S. economy perform less satisfactorily but that performance improves over time.
Labour on the Family Farm: a Theory under Uncertainty
Authors: Dawson P.J. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper develops a theory of the family farm in conditions of uncertainty where attention is focussed on the labour‐input decisions. Specifically, the farm family is faced with two labour decisions, namely with respect to hired labour and to family labour. The framework for analysis is expected utility maximisation. The analysis has implications for agricultural policy since policy pronouncements of economists are typically based on models which assume perfect certainty. These pronouncements do not survive the incorporation of uncertainty.
On the Reform of Rural Supply and Marketing Cooperatives in China
Authors: Wan Guang H. , Zhou Zhang Y. , Dillon John L. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAs a bridge between city and countryside, industry and agriculture, producer and consumer, Rural Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (RSMCs) play a key role in distributing commodities and purchasing rural products for some 800 million people in China. While overall national economic reform started in 1978, the reform of RSMCs began 4 years later in 1982 with greater emphasis on recovery rather than reform. This paper reviews the development of RSMCs, describes their operation and appraises the reform underway since 1982. It concludes with some policy suggestions relative to further reform of the RSMC system.
Examining the Leontief Paradox in U.S. Agricultural Trade
Authors: Lee Chinkook , Wills Darryl , Schluter Gerald 
Published: January 2020

AbstractFactor intensity of United States agricultural trade is examined in the context of Leontief's classic paradox using Leontief's method as well as methods developed recently by Leamer and others. Findings indicate that factor endowments are important determinants of U.S. agriculture's comparative advantage in trade as suggested by the Heckscher‐Ohlin theory.
Crop Selection and Implications for Profits and Wind Erosion in a Semi‐Arid Environment
Authors: Lee John G. , Ellis John R. , Lacewell Ronald D. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractA daily crop growth simulation model was applied to four dryland cropping systems to estimate the profit distributions for each of four price series under stochastic weather conditions on the Southern High Plains of Texas. Stochastic dominance with respect to a function was utilized to rank each crop rotation for different risk‐averse intervals. Solutions from the model indicate that long‐term average annual soil loss due to wind erosion was a function of the producer's risk aversion, price expectation, and discount rate which affect the optimal crop rotation selection.
Welfare Implications of a Preferential Tariff Reduction for Agricultural Exports from Less Developed Countries vs. a Generalized Tariff Reduction
Authors: Anania Giovanni 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe paper presents the results of a theoretical study focusing on a comparative evaluation of the welfare effects of a preferential tariff reduction for agricultural exports from less developed countries versus a generalized tariff reduction. The results are derived using a diagrammatic approach. The analysis is developed within a partial equilibrium framework with one commodity, three large countries (importing developed country, exporting developed country, developing country), fixed exchange rates and zero transportation costs. The theoretical model makes provisions for a country to switch from being an exporter to being an importer, or vice versa, as the equilibrium price changes. Three alternative policy scenarios are analyzed: the imposition of a non‐discriminatory tariff, a preferential tariff reduction, and a generalized tariff reduction. Two alternative definitions of the welfare functions are used. One is based on consumers' and producers' surplus, the other adds domestic income and changes in foreign exchange earnings/expenditure. Some methodological implications of the specific model used are discussed, along with the impact, in terms of welfare, of the policy scenarios considered.
Expected Economic Effects of BST in The Netherlands
Authors: Giesen G.W.J. , Oskam A.J. , Berentsen P.B.M. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe calculated profitability of using Bovine Somatotropin (BST) on typical dairy farms in The Netherlands ranges from Dfl.160 to 300 per cow per year, assuming 1985 prices and circumstances, and ignoring the costs of BST. A 20% increase in milk production and no change of the feed/milk relation were used for the calculations. BST is more profitable on intensive farms or on farms with more opportunities for alternative uses of land, buildings and labour. The quota system, however, leads to a considerable reduction of profitability.At a national level, and with an unchanged milk price, a 28% adoption rate of BST would increase national income about Dfl.120 million. However, the cost of BST or any decrease in milk price could reduce this amount, even to below zero. It is apparent that some dairy farmers who apply BST will earn more income whereas others will lose income.
Agricultural Research Problems in Small Developing Countries: Case Studies from the South Pacific Island Nations
Authors: Hardaker J. Brian , Fleming Euan M. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractWhile research‐based technological improvements are an important part of a successful agricultural development strategy, the small South Pacific Island Nations face special difficulties in attaining such innovations because of their particular agricultural production and marketing circumstances and because of diseconomies of small size in research. There is a need to sharpen the focus of national agricultural research efforts on adaptive work, implying both increased international and regional collaboration and the reorientation of national programs to be more receptive to outside ideas and information. It is particularly important to seek a parsimonious research paradigm, involving a broadening of the range of people who contribute to the research process.
Agricultural Technology and Farm–Nonfarm Growth Linkages
Authors: Haggblade Steven , Hazell Peter 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAgricultural growth stimulates rural nonfarm activity by boosting demand for production inputs and consumer goods. But different kinds of agricultural technology promote different patterns of nonfarm linkages. To explore how key features of agricultural technology affect growth in the rural nonfarm economy, this paper reviews an array of cross‐section and time‐series evidence bearing on the dynamics of the rural nonfarm economy. Then, using consumption and production parameters associated with different agricultural technologies, it introduces a simple model which isolates the effects of different technologies on nonfarm growth linkages.
Risk‐Efficient Irrigation Strategies for Wheat
Authors: Pandey Sushil 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAgricultural production is risky. When farmers are risk‐averse, they are likely to put a premium on production methods that reduce perceived risks. Irrigation is generally believed to be a risk‐reducing input. By using the concept of stochastic dominance, risk‐efficient irrigation policies for wheat grown in central India are identified and quantitative estimates of benefits due to risk reduction are obtained. Such benefits were found to be of a large order of magnitude. The more common methods such as mean variance analysis tended to over‐estimate the benefits.
Analysis of Uncertainty as Opposed to Risk: An Experimental Approach
Authors: Anand Paul 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe paper illustrates the scope for enhancing the conceptual apparatus used by agricultural economists to analyse decision‐making under conditions of uncertainty. Selected empirical results from experiments on student subjects from three universities are reported. Three issues are considered. First, the reasons for choice and the understanding of a choice problem are examined. Second, attitudes towards different levels of uncertainty are measured. Third, the possibility that apparently non‐normative psychological factors influence choice is explored. The paper serves to illustrate and support a number of methodological points. The major points are that a risk‐uncertainty distinction is useful (contrary to the aging conventional wisdom of economic theory), that laboratory experiments can potentially provide data of use to agricultural economists, and that predictive models of choice under uncertainty may be more accurate if they take account of psychological variables which influence the decision‐making processes of human subjects.
Welfare Effects of Selected Food‐grain Policies in India
Authors: Chetty V.K. , Srinivasan P.V. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractGovernment's policy interventions in the market for food‐grains affect supply as well as demand. In this paper, the welfare effects of certain food‐grain policies are analysed while taking into account the interdependence of the various sectors in the economy. Adequate structure is built into the model in order to study the effects of a dual price structure on farmers' supply response, and also the effects of public distribution schemes on the aggregate demand for food‐grains. Policy implications are derived by computing the market clearing prices and their movement under alternative assumptions regarding the nature of the market.
Transfer of sustainable technology in dryland agriculture: Lessons from the Sahel in the 1980's
Authors: Deuson Robert R. , Day John C. 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTDryland agriculture in the Sahel must become more productive if human conditions in the region are to improve. Constraints impeding increased productivity are examined. The harsh natural environment of the Sahel means that technologies, institutions and economic policies must be tailored to meet the special challenges of that environment.
Modern rice technology and regional wage differentials in the Philippines
Authors: Otsuka Keijiro , Cordova Violeta G. , David Cristina C. 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTFear has been widely expressed that the modern rice varieties have created large disparities in regional income distribution, as the productivity gap between favorable and unfavorable rice‐production environments widened due to differential technology adoption throughout South and Southeast Asia over the last two decades.Technology affects the income of farm population directly through its effects on productivity and factor use, and indirectly through its effect on factor prices. In particular, the ultimate distributional impact of modern varieties will critically depend on the interregional labor‐market adjustments through migration in response to regional wage differentials created by the differential technology adoption, since labor is the main resource of the majority of the rural population.We studied favorable and unfavorable rice‐growing villages in the Philippines, and found that adoption of modern varieties during the 1970s was positively related to population growth rate. Contrary to popular belief, no association was observed between wage rates and adoption of modern varieties as of 1986. These findings support the hypothesis that the differential adoption of modern rice varieties induced interregional labor migration toward equalization of wage income across different production environments.
The Calculation of returns to research in distorted markets: Comment
Authors: Voon Jan P. , Edwards Geoff W. 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTIn a recent article, Oehmke reported that a high internal rate of return for investment in research when the interaction between research and price policy costs was disregarded could become very low or even negative when the effects of research on the costs of price policy were considered. In this paper, the social returns from research in the presence of the price policies considered by Oehmke are reexamined using a simple geometric approach. The analysis suggests that an output subsidy in a small importing economy, an output subsidy in a closed economy, and a target price in a large exporting economy will on Oehmke's assumptions ‐ cause only small reductions in the internal rate of return from investment in research. This implies that the apparent underinvestment by governments in agricultural research cannot be explained away by a large upward bias, known to governments, in measured rates of return due to failure to account for interactions between research and the costs of price policy measures.
Price and quantity adjustment in a dual character market The case of the Greek poultry sector
Authors: Alogoskoufis George , Baltas Nicholas 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTIn this paper we set up, estimate and test a short‐run model for the poultry sector in Greece. The model allows for the simultaneous existence of a monopolistically competitive and a competitive segment, and determines producer and consumer prices, and the quantity consumed. We provide evidence on steady‐state parameters such as demand and supply elasticities, as well as on speeds of adjustment of prices and quantities. The evidence suggests that adjustment is very rapid, although quantities appear to be adjusting more quickly than prices. The model is used to examine the dynamics of adjustment to demand and supply‐side disturbances.
Rural banking in Nigeria: Empirical evidence of indicative policy variables from Anambra State
Authors: Okorie Aja 
Published: January 2020

AbstractTen years after the establishment of the Rural Banking Scheme (RBS) in Nigeria, there are clear indications that the problems and issues which led to the scheme are still prevalent. These include a low level of rural savings mobilization, inadequate use of banking services, and lack of credit for rural people.The central assumptions of the scheme were that increasing the physical proximity of banks to rural people enhances rural savings mobilization and, in turn, increases the flow of funds to the rural sector. Consequently, Nigeria established a quasi‐commercial bank type of rural banking system, by means of legislation requiring commercial banks to open branches in rural areas. This study questions the validity of the underlying assumptions, and sets out to investigate the appropriate mix of policy variables necessary for establishing an effective rural banking system in Nigeria and other developing countries.Rural residents were surveyed to find out which variables are important in determining rural bank use. Discriminant analysis showed that four variables were significant in discriminating between rural bank users and non‐users. These variables were household income, years of formal education, gender of respondent, and the awareness of the existence of the rural bank branch. The proximity of the bank to the respondent's residence was not a significant determining variable.These findings have important implications for rural bank designers and implementors in Nigeria and other developing countries. They suggest that the current emphasis on the physical distance, as a critical factor in rural bank development, should be replaced by a broader and a more comprehensive strategy which would incorporate and utilize an appropriate mix of policy variables to enhance the effectiveness of the rural banks in Nigeria.
Principles of stochastic dynamic optimization in resource management: the continuous‐time case
Authors: Larson Bruce A. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractA wide range of problems in economics, agriculture, and natural resource management have been analyzed using continuous‐time optimal control models, where the state variables change over time in a stochastic manner. Using a firm‐level investment model and a model of environmental degradation, this paper provides a concise introduction to continuous‐time stochastic control techniques. The process used to derive the differential of a stochastic process is stressed and, in turn, is used to explain Ito's lemma, Bellman's equation, the Hamilton‐Jacobi equation, the maximum principle, and the expected dynamics of choice variables. A basic extension of the dynamic duality literature is also provided, where the Hamilton‐Jacobi equation is used to derive a stochastic and dynamic analogue of Hotelling's lemma.
Effect of modern rice varieties and irrigation on household income distribution in Nepalese villages
Authors: Thapa Ganesh , Otsuka Keijiro , Barker Randolph 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTSince high‐yielding modern rice varieties (MVs) are adopted only in favorable production environments, significant regional productivity differentials have emerged in Nepal. This study explores the distributional consequences of such differential MV adoption based on an intensive survey of favorable and unfavorable villages. We found that MV adoption increased returns to land but decreased family labor earnings from rice production, as it facilitated the substitution of hired for family labor. As a result, the differential MV adoption did not significantly worsen the household income distribution according to the results of the counterfactual Gini decomposition analysis.
Cost structure and technical change in rural banking
Authors: Obben James 
Published: January 2020

ABSTRACTUsing the multi‐product translog cost function, this paper examines the cost structure and technical change occurring within the novel Ghanaian rural banks. The results of the seemingly unrelated error components model indicate substantial unexploited economies of scale in individual products as well as in overall intermediation. There is presence of pairwise complementarity between loans and government securities and between deposits and government securities, but absence of pairwise complementarity between loans and deposits. Overall, capital‐using and labour‐saving technical change has occurred but efficiency loss in deposit mobilization outweighs the efficiency gains in government securities and lending activities; operation of agencies reinforces the overall efficiency loss. The rural banks must not be hindered from expanding, but in any growth strategy deposit mobilization should take a central position and the cost of operating agencies watched closely.