The Effect of Cooperatives on Quality‐Enhancing Innovation

This paper develops game‐theoretic models of heterogeneous consumers to analyse the effect of cooperatives on quality‐enhancing product innovation activity, the pricing of food products and the welfare of the groups involved, in the context of a mixed duopoly where an open‐membership consumer co‐op competes with an investor‐owned firm in markets for horizontally differentiated products. Analytical results show that the involvement of the member welfare‐maximising co‐op in innovation activity can change the nature of product differentiation and the structure of the market, and be quality and welfare enhancing by increasing innovation activity and reducing the prices of food products. The effects of co‐operative involvement are shown to depend on the degree of consumer heterogeneity and the size of innovation costs.     

Disciplining exporting state trading enterprises under economies of scale and oligopoly

The paper develops a two-stage duopoly model to investigatethe effects of eliminating subsidies to state trading enterprises(STEs) as discussed in the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiationson agriculture. Unlike the STE, the private firm may chooseto integrate vertically in order to avoid transaction costsarising from dealing with downstream operators. The theoreticalmodel shows that eliminating subsidies to the STE may inducea change in market structure and not necessarily lead to increasedcompetition. In fact, if transaction costs are large enoughrelative to fixed costs, then the result may be a monopoly bythe private firm.     

The Procompetitive Effect of Demand-Enhancing Check-Off Programs

This article explores demand-enhancing check-off programs and how such programs may influence both private programs as well as industry market structure. Under duopoly, a firm may increase its sales through privately funding product quality improvements. However, such endogenous sunk costs may also be used to exclude a rival. Industry-funded check-off programs affect firms' strategies and can be procompetitive. The rationale lies not only in how the check-off enhancement is perceived by consumers but also in the way the check-off's crowding-out effect reduces the ability of a firm to use its private expenditures to bar a rival's market access.     

On the market risk of securitized timberlands

Over 10 million acres of timberlands in the United States have been securitized through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in recent years. Publicly traded timber REITs have better liquidity and tax efficiency than private ownership, but at the same time, they are exposed to higher market risk as public firms. In this study, copula modeling is employed to assess the joint distribution between daily returns of five timber REITs and a stock market index. Both constant and time-varying symmetrized Joe-Clayton copulas are estimated to evaluate the dependence of timber REITs on the equity market from 1994 to 2010. In most cases, there exist lower tail dependence for market stresses, upper tail dependence for market booms, and tail asymmetry between individual firms and the market. On average, the dependence measure becomes larger after a firm is converted into a REIT. Each firm has smaller volatility of tail dependence after the conversion, except for Plum Creek. These findings reveal that the REIT structure has introduced non-diversifiable market risk into its ownership, and thus the diversification benefit of publicly traded timber REITs in a portfolio may be limited.     

明晰产权 建设矿业市场主体

矿业企业市场主体的产权界定有其特殊性。国有矿业企业的产权界定可通过股份制公司制改革、国有资产的资本化改革、混合所有制经济改革等措施实现;通过推进探采一体,建设完整的市场主体。民营矿业企业也需要界定产权,实现体制转型升级,解决民营矿业企业发展的体制机制障碍,改善政策环境和社会环境,发展混合所有制经济,给民营矿业企业发展提供机遇。对于国有地勘单位要事企分开,明晰产权,使地勘企业成为商业性地勘市场主体;地勘行业事业单位分类改革要做好顶层设计,明确分类改革组建原则和操作方式,建议国家公益性地质工作队伍由中央统一组建,生产经营类地勘单位以省为单元重组。     

Price premiums,payment delays,and default risk: understanding developing country farmers’ decisions to market through a cooperative or a private trader

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face a competitive disadvantage in modern agricultural supply chains. Joint marketing through cooperatives is a potential tool to mitigate these disadvantages; yet cooperatives’ success in these settings is uneven at best. We develop an analytical model to study a farmer's choice of selling to a private trader who pays cash on delivery but may exercise market power or a cooperative that promises a price premium but delays payment and carries a concomitant risk of default. In the presence of impatient and risk‐averse farmers, we show that these factors can severely limit smallholder patronage of a cooperative, despite a promised price premium. We then construct and parameterize a simulation model to fit a profile of heterogeneous farmers within a prototype developing‐country village, and study the optimal decisions of farmers regarding marketing through a cooperative versus a private trader. Results suggest that modest improvements in either timeliness of payment or probability of default can induce a substantial increase in a cooperative's market share and economic viability. Extending the simulation analysis to a dynamic setting shows how implementing reasonable policies to improve a cooperative's payment timeliness and default probability can markedly improve its growth trajectory.     

Location equilibria in a mixed duopsony with a cooperative

This work analyses a two‐stage price–location game between a profit maximising firm and a primary producers' cooperative. According to the results, the location equilibria are not fixed but depend on the intrinsic competitiveness of the spatial market. As the intrinsic competitiveness rises, the cooperative tends to be located closer to the middle point of the market. The limited differentiation in location entails an efficiency loss which is nevertheless smaller than that associated with the competition of two profit maximising firms (pure duopsony) on exactly the same spatial market. The superiority of a mixed duopsony lies in the fact that the resulting equilibrium locations entail lower total transportation cost relative to those of a pure duopsony.     

Economies of scale and market structure in international grain trade

A large body of literature has examined international grain trade in imperfectly competitive models. The article develops a two-stage duopoly model that considers a private trader and a State Trading Enterprise (STE) competing on a foreign market. The key difference between the private trader and the STE is their international organization; while the STE makes use of external agents to export, the private firm may choose to internalize international transactions. The game is solved for different modes of competition and under both assumptions of homogeneous and differentiated products, in order to assess how these assumptions affect the outcome of the game. The results of the game are examined by using numerical examples. The analysis shows that external shocks on export markets may result in a change of market structure and, consequently, of market shares. These effects depend on the initial market structure. Furthermore, the degree of product differentiation and the assumed mode of competition significantly affect the relative values of transaction and fixed costs at which the market structure changes.     

Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology

This article examines new agricultural cooperative organizational models from an ownership rights perspective. The article adopts a definition of ownership rights comprising both residual claim and control rights. We argue that new cooperative organizational models differ in how ownership rights are assigned to the economic agents (members, patrons, and investors) tied contractually to the firm. The article proposes a typology of discrete organizational models, in which the traditional cooperative structure and the investor-oriented firm are characterized as polar forms. The typology also includes five nontraditional models that cooperatives may adopt to ameliorate perceived financial constraints.     

The growth and performance of the Northern Ireland housing market

Summary

The complexity of the housing process is discussed in realtion to home ownership levels, the rate of new residential development and the performance of the private market in Northern Ireland where public sector led initiatives have been instrumental in boosting owner occupation levels. The availability of a co‐ownership route to house purchase is one key aspect of housing policy in the province. This has had beneficial effects most notably through the encouragement of a high level of new residential development, however there are also negative impacts of over saturation and market distortion.     

Animal Welfare and Eggs – Cheap Talk or Money on the Counter?

Our estimate revealed willingness to pay for animal welfare using a panel mixed logit model. We utilise a unique household level panel, combining real purchases with survey data on perceived public and private good attributes of different types of eggs. We estimate willingness to pay for organic eggs controlling for trust in a positive connection between the public good animal welfare and the organic label and the private good food safety also connected to the label. Our results suggest that in the real world, animal welfare plays a minor role in the demand for agricultural products.     

Welfare Effects of Selected Food-grain Policies in India

Government'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.     

基于产权与利用视角的台中市土地变化分析

[目的]以我国台湾省台中市为研究对象,利用多源统计数据,对其2011—2015年土地产权变化及土地利用变化进行分析,以揭示台中市几年来土地产权变化和土地利用变化的主要特征。[方法]文章主要采用描述性分析和统计分析方法。[结果](1)2011—2014年台中市共计增加登记土地产权面积621 hm2,公私共有产权土地面积先减少后增加,至2014年达到643hm2。(2)已登记非都市土地总面积,从2011年起处于先减少、后增加的趋势,特别是2014年已登记非都市土地总面积增加较多,相对于2013年增加了1.4196万hm2。(3)都市发展区中的住宅用地、商业用地、文教用地、特定专用区的面积皆有增长,而工业用地、公共设施用地、其他区的面积有所下降;非都市发展区中的保护区面积比较稳定,而农业区、风景区和河川区的面积处在调整的状态。[结论](1)台中市私有土地面积占比处于下降趋势,但整体不是非常明显;土地所有制包括公有、私有和公私共有等多种形式完全可以共存;东南亚人取得的土地所有权数量在总体上增减变化不大;(2)台中市都市发展区用地虽有增长但增幅较小,而都市区土地、非都市区土地内部的用途竞争导致了各类用地功能区的面积此消彼长;土地所有制对城市用地扩展没有构成制约,即土地所有制不是城市发展的分歧所在;(3)非都市土地转换为都市土地,不仅取决于各类土地竞租能力的差异,还取决于都市发展计划与土地使用分区管制,土地用途转换应以经济高质量发展与居民社会福利增进为目标。最后,提出完善土地权利结构体系,增加公有土地面积占比来保障社会公共福利等政策建议。     

Marketing Practices and Distribution System of Rice in Punjab,India

Abstract

The study focuses on the marketing practices, market structures, and firms' motives for vertical co-ordination of the paddy-rice distribution system during the post green revolution period in the Punjab state of India. The study is based upon secondary data taken from several published sources and intensive interviews with the market agents in the entire distribution chain from growers to the retailers. Study highlighted the emergence of public sector as a giant player in the paddy (non-basmati) wholesale markets, unscrupulous practices for paddy/rice supplies, wide disparities in the issue prices for the below and above poverty line families, reduced off take from the public distribution system, launching of several schemes to off load excessive stocks, and improve market efficiency. Open market segment of the industry is highly fragmented wherein a large majority of the market agents have confined at the levels they can be best managed, vertical co-ordination plays a pivotal role to cope up with market imperfections and supply agents constitute a strategic link for rice sales. However, private milling gains momentum particularly during the downward phase of the industry due to increased profitability.     

Determinants of Fish Export Performance in Oman

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the key variables affecting export performance at the firm level and draw the policy implications necessary to enhance Oman fish exports. The methodology adopted is inspired from the international marketing literature, which postulates that export performance is determined by both internal factors, under the control of the firm, and external factors. Empirically, the study used an econometric model and a firm survey data to investigate the link between export intensity, defined as the proportion of export sale to total sale and 4 sets of firm-level specific factors: (1) firm size and competencies, (2) management characteristics, (3) management perceptions and attitude, and (4) marketing strategy. Results show that both the age and firm size, measured by the number of years in business and the number of employees, had no significant effect on export performance. Managers' education level, previous work experience, commitment to exporting activities, diversification, and availability of information on foreign markets are all significant variables, positively affecting export performance. These results underscore a role of the private sector in upgrading their human and physical capital and the role of a government as a public good provider in securing information and providing financial incentives to reduce risk associated with diversifying export     

Marketing cooperatives and financial structure: a transaction costs economics analysis

The relationship between the financial structure of a marketing cooperative (MC) and the requirement of the domination of control by the members is analysed from a transaction costs perspective. A MC receives less favourable terms on outside equity than a conventional firm because the decision power regarding new investments is not allocated to the providers of these funds. This is a serious threat to the survival of a MC in a market where efficient investments are characterised by an increasing level of asset specificity at the processing stage of production. A MC is predicted to be an efficient organisational form when the level of asset specificity at the processing stage of production is at a low or immediate level compared to the level of asset specificity at the farming stage of production.     

New marketing channels for food quality products in Norway

Marketing is an important and challenging competitive instrument for small-scale quality food producers. Traditional commercial channels may be unprofitable and small-scale food producers often lack access to a highly concentrated retail sector. In this situation a number of strategic alliances between farmers and between farmers and other public and private actors have emerged. The aim of this paper is to discuss and compare initiatives to develop alternative marketing channels for small-scale specialty food producers. The three examples of emerging channels we investigate are (i) the 'new' farmers markets, (ii) retail initiatives where local producers deliver their produce directly to shops, and (iii) companies founded by large cooperatives to market specialty products. Recent research has justified that such initiatives can be conceptualized as hybrid governance structures, i.e. complex structures that entail properties of both market and hierarchy. We pay particular attention to the problem of quality enforcement in emerging marketing channels.     

论土地制度的公私矛盾

研究目的：梳理土地制度的公私关系，探讨土地制度运行的内在规律。研究方法：归纳与演绎、文献研究法、比较分析法。研究结果：土地制度是人类进入文明社会（出现国家及法律）以后的基础性制度，并交替存在着公有制、私有制等制度形态；无论是实践中还是在理论上，土地公有制与私有制选择始终是一对矛盾，但产权是否清晰与土地公有私有无关，财产权神圣不可侵犯应同等保护公私财产，平等保护财产权并非追求财产平等。研究结论：土地作为自然资源的本质属性决定了其产权制度的基本特征，土地所有制度属于政治范畴，土地产权制度与财富分配机制属于经济问题，土地制度规则应遵循公权与私权均衡，公利与私利分野。     

Ownership Structure in Agrifood Chains: The Marketing Cooperative

Globalization, technological developments, and consumer concerns press farmers and food producers to enhance product innovation and to seek more efficient production and distribution structures. These changes in agrifood markets shift the relative importance of the investments by different chain partners. It may therefore be necessary to change the allocation of ownership of essential assets to induce agents to make those investments that generate the chain optimum. This article analyzes the impact of ownership structure on investments in a three-tier supply chain from an incomplete contracting perspective. Circumstances are determined in which a marketing cooperative is the unique first-best ownership structure.     

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's Transformation from Co-op to Public Corporation: The Farmers'Reaction

In 1996, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP), the largest grain handling and agricultural marketing cooperative in Canada, changed its ownership structure to become a new-generation co-op. Traditionally, co-ops sell shares to members, and the ownership structure provides one vote per member, regardless of how many shares the member owns. In 1996, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool issued to its farmer members one Class A voting, nontransferable share. They also issued to each member a number of nonvoting Class B shares equal to the value of their co-op equity, which could be traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The transition to a new-generation co-op has not been unopposed. There have been members who have suggested that SWP is no longer a real co-op and that it is no different from any other public corporation.
The study uses two surveys of SWP farmer members, one completed prior to going public and one after, to compare how the members felt about the changes. The October 1995 survey results indicate significant opposition to the change in SWP's ownership structure. A majority of farmer members wanted SWP to remain a traditional co-op and not to make the change to public corporation. SWP forged ahead with the change, indicating that it was necessary for the future competitiveness and well-being of the company. The November 1996 survey results indicate that many farmer members have changed their minds. These results show far greater support for the new Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.