The potential impact of markets for irrigation water in Italy and Spain: a comparison of two study areas*

The viability of irrigated systems in Southern Europe is closely linked to efficient institutional settings and water‐allocation mechanisms. A significant, although not widely used, mechanism for water allocation is an intra‐sectorial water market. The objective of this paper is to evaluate to what extent water markets may contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of water allocation and to the profitability of irrigated agriculture. The related issues of water allocation among farm types and farm specialisation are also addressed. The analysis is based on a basin‐level linear programming model, comparing the situation with and without a market. It includes both fixed and variable transaction costs and estimates their combined effects on market performances. The model is applied in two areas in Southern Italy and Spain, and simulates the behaviour of different farm types, derived from cluster analysis on a sample of farms in each area. The paper confirms that water markets could potentially improve the economic efficiency of water use, in terms of higher profit per hectare, given limited water availability. The potential improvements are associated with a more intense specialisation of farms and are strongly differentiated among farmers, particularly where significant restrictions to water availability occur. This corroborates the expectations of institutional difficulties in implementing water markets. However, the exchanges, and consequently the potential effects of water markets, are heavily affected by the actual level of water availability, as well as the size and the structure (fixed vs. proportional) of transaction costs. The paper calls for a more in‐depth analysis of the connections between market performances and institutional settings, as related to the issue of water‐agriculture policy design and coordination.     

Distress rentals and the land rental market as a safety net: contract choice evidence from Tigray,Ethiopia

Rural households in the semiarid Northern Ethiopian highlands are net buyers of food. Crop failure due to erratic and unpredictable rainfall occurs frequently and leads to food shortages and income shocks. The renting out of land may be one of the coping responses of households exposed to shocks. We developed a theoretical household model for poor landlord households capturing their contract choice response to downside production shocks. We tested econometrically whether contract choice may depend on poverty, capital constraints, production risk and random shocks. The multinomial logit model estimates show that poor households experiencing random shocks are more likely to choose fixed‐rent contracts as a distress response to shocks, suggesting that fixed‐rent contracts may be used to meet immediate needs, but at the expense of future incomes. We also found that fixed‐rent contracts are preferred when ex ante production risk is low, while sharecropping is more likely where production risk is high. Finally, we found an indication that the choice of a fixed‐rent contract as a coping response to shocks comes as a last resort after all other means of coping are exhausted.     

Modelling Determinants of Participation,Number of Trips and Site Choice for Outdoor Recreation in Protected Areas

This is a study on demand for outdoor recreation in a national system of environmentally protected areas. The exercise is based on a nationwide survey carried out in 1996 from a stratified random sample of 5,574 Italian households. Data on socio‐economic characteristics and recreational choice behaviour of respondents were collected and this information was supplemented by a second data‐base containing information on 193 Italian EPAs in order to characterise the different outdoor destinations on the basis of their recreational attributes. These data sets are used here to model choices of outdoor recreation within environmentally protected areas, using a sequence of three different models: (i) a dichotomous choice logit model for the probability of participation conditional on household covariates; (ii) a count data Poisson model to estimate the household's expected number of trips per year; (iii) a conditional logit model to estimate the probability of site selection conditional on site attributes. We report the estimated per‐trip welfare changes derivable from an actual policy proposal which would extend the area under environmental protection by ten per cent.     

Factors Affecting Farmers’ Participation in Agri‐environmental Measures: A Northern Italian Perspective

Agri‐environmental measures play an important role in Italian rural areas, as shown by the financial commitment to the Rural Development programmes. However, in contrast with other European Union (EU) countries, policy‐makers still have limited experience on how farmers approach environmental incentive schemes. This paper casts new light on this issue from a northern Italian perspective. The rationale of the farmers’ decision‐making process is explored using two multinomial models. The first explains the probability of non‐participation or participation in one of three specific agri‐environmental measures. The model outcomes show that labour‐intensive farming types and high dependency of household income on farming activity constrain farmers’ participation, whereas previous experience, easy‐to‐implement environmentally friendly farm practices and adequate compensation of extra costs encourage participation. The second model explores the effect of farmers’ attitudes and beliefs on their predispositions towards participation in any of the schemes. The results highlight that, besides income factors, the farm's future in the business, and the relationship with neighbouring farmers and their opinions on environmentally friendly practices all have significant effects on adoption of agri‐environmental measures. The paper concludes by suggesting that farmers’ attitudes and beliefs, as well as the local behavioural influences, have to be taken into account when designing and communicating agri‐environmental measures.     

Evaluation of the Italian transport infrastructures: A technical and economic efficiency analysis

By applying a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) framework and Tobit analysis, this paper aims to measure 32 Italian airports’ technical efficiency and investigate how several characteristics impact on their productivity and sustainability. Our findings show that some Italian hubs are technically efficient, although smaller airports that are dominated by low-cost carriers prove to be not least productive. Another conclusion of this paper is that efficiency and environmental impact is independent of an airport’s size, although the size matters in determining an airport’s superior performance. This article highlights how the Italian public shareholder’s system became decisive to increase efficiency in small airports due to the lack of private financing.     

Feed use intensification and technical efficiency of dairy farms in New Zealand

In recent years, the traditionally pasture‐based dairy farms in New Zealand have become more intensive by using higher proportions of supplementary feed. This trend has been attributed to a range of factors, such as productivity enhancement, overcoming pasture deficits and the improvement of body condition scores. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how feed use intensification affects the technical efficiency of dairy farms in New Zealand. This paper addresses the research gap by estimating the impact of feed use intensification on the technical efficiency of New Zealand dairy farms, using a fixed effects stochastic production frontier model and a balanced panel of 257 farms from 2010 to 2013. The empirical results show that technical efficiency on New Zealand dairy farms is positively and significantly influenced by feed use intensification, herd size and milking frequency.     

Market Integration and Market Efficiency under Seasonal Tariff Rate Quotas

Switzerland applies seasonal tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for the import of many fruits and vegetables during the domestic harvest season. We examine how this system affects the relationship between Italian and Swiss tomato prices and test for physical market integration and spatial equilibrium conditions over time. We use detailed, transaction‐based data on trade flows and trade costs and estimate an extended parity bounds model, following Barrett and Li (2002). We confirm that in the summer season, when TRQs are in place, markets are inefficient. While quota holders receive positive rents, the marginal rents for importers without quota shares are negative. This inhibits trade flows above the in‐quota import quantity allowed by TRQs. Hence, despite leading to inefficiencies and creating rents for importers, seasonal TRQs are effective in protecting domestic production against competing imports.     

Contracting for Canola in the Great Plains States

Canola has become an important crop in the last decade in the United States. Production of canola is risky and competes with other crops that have varying risk reduction mechanisms. Processors develop and offer contracts with varying specifications that allow growers to reduce risk and attract canola production. In this study, preplant contracting strategies were evaluated in terms of risk and return for growers and processors. Alternative contracts include fixed‐price‐variety‐specific with and without act‐of‐God provisions, and an oil‐premium contract. Grower returns and processor gross margins were simulated and resulting distributions were evaluated using stochastic efficiency with respect to a function. In the dominant growing region, growers would prefer fixed‐price‐variety‐specific contracts versus contracts with oil premiums. The latter would only be preferred by crushers that are highly risk averse. The results vary regionally suggesting that contract types should vary by region to be acceptable to a broader range of growers and processors.     

Land Invasions,Insecure Property Rights and Production Decisions

This paper investigates empirically the effect of land invasions on farm production decisions. The main hypothesis is that more invasions in a region are associated with lower investment, and in particular a bias towards annual crops as opposed to long‐term crops. We use a county‐level dataset for the state of Paraná, Brazil, from 2003 to 2007, with 1,995 observations. The panel data structure allows us to control for fixed effects, such as the formalisation of land titles and land concentration, which might be correlated with the intensity of invasions. An instrumental variable fixed effects model was estimated to avoid other sources of bias. Our main finding is that land invasions are associated with lower long‐term crop production and a higher percentage of annual crops, which could accelerate land degradation, and undermine environmental sustainability.     

Melitz Meets Milk: The Impact of Quota Abolition on EU Dairy Export Competitiveness

Previous studies of EU milk quota abolition usually assume perfect competition (PC) in the dairy industry, despite evidence to the contrary. We use a global computable general equilibrium framework with an imperfectly competitive (IC) model variant, which offers insights into structural change (i.e. scale of output, firm entry/exit) and varietal diversity in the dairy industry. A heterogeneous‐firm Melitz extension enriches our analysis by endogenising the decision‐making process of domestic firms when exporting (or not) to specific foreign markets. The results from a PC CGE model variant are found to be consistent with respected market outlooks and official data. Furthermore, PC and IC variants generate broadly similar trends – a result corroborated in a previous study of Italian dairy firms. Our IC model prediction of a ‘shakeout’ among EU dairy firms is tentatively supported by actual observations. Finally, as an industry characterised by significant product innovation, increased extra‐EU export orientation by remaining dairy firms increases varietal choice, which further boosts EU dairy exports compared with the PC model variant.     

Yield and income effects of rice varieties with tolerance of multiple abiotic stresses: the case of green super rice (GSR) and flooding in the Philippines

With the increasing frequency of extreme climatic events, the new challenge is to develop rice varieties that are tolerant of drought, water submergence, and salinity. There are now new high‐yielding green super rice (GSR) cultivars developed at the International Rice Research Institute with increased tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses. But a clear understanding of the economic benefits of these varieties under farmers’ production environments is not yet fully understood. In this article, we assess the yield and income effects of GSR rice varieties using a two‐year panel data from one province. We use matched samples from a propensity score matching method and a fixed‐effects model within a difference‐in‐difference (DID) framework to estimate the yield effects. The income effects were evaluated using the parameter estimates from the yield/production function model. The results of the ordinary least squares and DID fixed‐effects regressions reveal significant and positive effects of GSR varieties on yield. The most important finding is that the benefits from these varieties are strongly felt when there is flooding. This evidence was not as robust when matched samples were used. However, it is clear that the yield benefits from GSR varieties could improve rice food security and help alleviate poverty in the country.     

Convergence and divergence in regional agricultural productivity growth: evidence from Italian regions, 1951–2002

This article analyzes long‐term agricultural Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth at regional level by testing its time‐series properties and identifying factors associated with divergence as opposed to convergence. The empirical application concerns Italian regions over the 1951–2002 time period. TFP growth decomposition ultimately attributes the observed productivity growth performance to these contrasting (convergence vs. divergence) forces. We find that technological spillovers are the key convergence force regardless of how the spillover effects are computed. At the same time, forces favoring convergence are almost offset by divergence forces (mainly scale or learning effects). This decomposition may explain the persistence of TFP growth rate differences in Italian agriculture, and could be applicable elsewhere.     

事业单位固定资产管理中存在的问题及对策

事业单位的固定资产管理工作一直受计划经济管理模式的影响,在实务中暴露出的弊端也日趋明显。主要表现在:对固定资产不计提折旧的核算体系和方法不能准确地反映事业单位真实财务运营状况;固定资产计价标准过低,分散了单位对重要固定资产的管理;购置固定资产的资金来源缺乏,一定程度地挤占了单位基本经费和国家专项经费;非经营性资产转为经营性资产的管理工作比较混乱;固定资产的有效配置和重新分配不到位;重购建、轻管理等反映出目前多数事业单位内部资产管理制度缺位、管理水平低下、资产运营效率不高等普遍性的问题。     

Do Nutrition Claims Matter to Consumers? An Empirical Analysis Considering European Requirements

EU Regulation 1924/2006 introduced a European legal framework for nutrition messages for food product labels. The study analyses consumer interest towards nutrition labelling and claims, and examines the information consumers consider important during their purchasing decisions, and the main characteristics of those consumers interested in nutrition claims and nutrition labelling use. A total of 1,025 northern Italian consumers were surveyed. We estimate one binary logit model to investigate the use of nutrition labelling, and seven other ordinal regression models to analyse consumer interest towards nutrition claims and labelling. Consumers who use nutrition labelling have characteristics different from those who use nutrition claims. Consumers using nutrition labelling show a marked interest in food safety concerns, use experts as their source of information and have specific dietary habits. For consumers concerned about nutrition claims, the survey shows significant links with attributes influencing purchasing behaviour, such as price, brand, certification, etc. Socio‐demographic characteristics are statistically significant and show a positive link with age, gender and a negative linkage with income.     

Small U.S. dairy farms: can they compete?

The U.S. dairy industry is undergoing rapid structural change, evolving from a structure including many small farmers in the Upper Midwest and Northeast to one that includes very large farms in new production regions. Small farms are struggling to retain competitiveness via improved management and low‐input systems. Using data from USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey, we determine the extent of U.S. conventional and pasture‐based milk production during 2003–2007, and estimate net returns, scale efficiency, and technical efficiency associated with the systems across different operation sizes. We compare the financial performance of small conventional and pasture‐based producers with one another and with large‐scale producers. A stochastic production frontier is used to analyze performance over the period for conventional and pasture technologies identified using a binomial logit model. Large conventional farms generally outperformed smaller farms using most economic measures—technical efficiency, various profitability measures, and returns to scale.     

Efficiency Effects of Access to Information on Small‐scale Agriculture: Empirical Evidence from Uganda using Stochastic Frontier and IRT Models

Low power home electrical items such as radios, mobile phones and televisions are an important source of agricultural information for small‐scale farmers in developing countries. To empirically test the effects of access to information from these items on efficiency in agriculture, we formulate a stochastic frontier model augmented with a technical efficiency model that controls for an index capturing farmers' ‘ability to access information’. The index is constructed with a 2‐parameter item response theory (IRT) model based on farmers' access to the electrical items. Using six rounds of panel data on small‐scale farmers in Uganda, we find empirical evidence of a significant and positive relationship between farmer ability to access information and farm efficiency. There is also evidence that the size of these effects is larger for more literate hence better educated farmers. Greater access to information also appears to be associated with increased variance of (in)efficiency and output although the form of the increased variances is underpinned by low risk of lower efficiency and output realisations and high likelihood of higher efficiency and output realisations. Our findings imply that access to limited quantities of electricity needed to power these electrical items can have positive farm efficiency effects, and hence the importance of off‐grid electricity (e.g. standalone solar panels) for small‐scale farmers in typically isolated communities in developing countries.     

Conservation tenders: linking theory and experiments for policy assessment*

Auction theory has mostly focussed on target‐constrained auctions and is less well developed for budget‐constrained tenders, which are the norm in environmental policy. This study assesses a theoretical model developed for budget‐constrained tenders in its capacity to predict tendering performance under information deficiencies typical of field applications. If complemented by laboratory experiments, the model is able to make the correct policy recommendation when comparing the tender to an equivalent fixed‐price scheme, even with poor predictive accuracy. This holds even if the policymaker has only limited information on the model’s key input variables.     

考虑非期望产出的工业水资源绿色效率研究——基于SBM-Tobit面板模型

中国水资源短缺、水环境污染等问题较为严重,工业消耗大量水资源,且工业废水对水体污染极为严重。以浙江省为研究区域,通过含非期望产出的DEA-SBM模型测度工业水资源绿色效率,并利用面板固定效应的Tobit回归模型对浙江省工业水资源绿色效率的影响因素进行研究分析,以寻求节约绿色水资源的途径。研究发现,对外开放水平对浙江省工业水资源绿色效率起到促进作用,而环境规制则起抑制作用。提出相应的政策建议,以提高浙江省节水能力和污染治理能力。     

Heterogeneity of Long‐run Technical Efficiency of German Dairy Farms: A Bayesian Approach*

In parametric efficiency studies, two alternative approaches exist to provide an estimate of the long‐run efficiency of firms: the dynamic stochastic frontier model and the generalised true random‐effects model. We extend the former in order to allow for heterogeneity in the long‐run technical efficiency of firms. This model is based on potential differences in firm‐specific characteristics and in firms’ inefficiency persistence. The model is applied to an unbalanced micro‐panel of German dairy farms over the period 1999 to 2009. Estimation of long‐run technical efficiency and inefficiency persistence is based on an output distance function representation of the production technology and estimated in a Bayesian framework. The results suggest that heterogeneity in long‐run technical efficiency of farms is mostly attributed to discrepancies in farm‐specific factors rather than differences in farms’ inefficiency persistence. Farm size is positively related to long‐run technical efficiency while subsidies exert a negative effect on the long‐run technical efficiency of farms. Inefficiency persistence is found to be very high, but heterogeneity in this persistence is low.     

Strategies for sustainable intensification in East African highlands: labor use and input efficiency

Strategies for poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resource management usually focus on land use options for improving yields. Increasing the returns to critical factors requires possibilities for input substitution. Inadequate timing of input applications or nonavailability of complementary factors can seriously hinder this substitution. Such constraints particularly apply in less‐favored areas where soil organic matter content is too low for enabling efficient nutrient uptake and soil structure limits water infiltration and moisture retention. This article focuses attention on the importance of labor for crop management activities and input applications that enhance input efficiency in highland area cropping systems of Northern Ethiopia. Given the inherent complementarities between labor and nutrient supply during critical phases of the plant growth process, input efficiency strongly depends on labor use. We present a semiparametric bioeconomic modeling approach to analyze the available options for improving input efficiency in agricultural production. Input response equations are used that consider the returns per unit of land and labor as a function of specific combinations of material inputs and management practices. Critical trade‐offs may arise when opportunity costs for labor are considered or when complementary factors appear as binding constraints. The model enables assessment of feasible pathways for enhancing sustainable intensification and poverty alleviation in typical settings of the East African highland region.