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.     

The iLUC dilemma: How to deal with indirect land use changes when governing energy crops?

Due to land use effects, bioenergy use may cause adverse effects on biodiversity, soil and water and may even fail to guarantee a GHG emissions reduction compared to fossil fuel use. Accounting methodologies and policy instruments were elaborated to prevent these effects, but there is still no sound and consensual methodology to take into account indirect land use change that substantially contributes to GHG emissions as well as a loss of biodiversity. While the iLUC hypothesis, that is the potentiality of adverse effects arising from indirect land use change related to biomass cultivation, is hardly subject to dispute, the quantification of these effects and especially their policy implications are however contentious. Hence, bioenergy policies worldwide face a dilemma: Neglecting iLUC effects that do in fact exist or taking them into account although no sound methodology is available? The article covers the current state of the discussion and also analyses the approaches developed for taking indirect land use change into account. Assessment criteria for coping with the iLUC dilemma are developed and policy recommendations are derived from that.     

Prioritising land to be preserved for agriculture: A context-specific value tree

In Belgium as in many other countries, agricultural land is under pressure for development of other land uses. This paper presents a method for setting priorities for preservation of land for agriculture. The method is based on a participatory approach through which a value tree is formulated. This results in a list of criteria to define farmland value, which is explicitly linked to the objectives for farmland preservation. The value tree allows the list of criteria to be determined in a structured and consistent way. The participatory process contributes to the development of a shared vision on farmland preservation. The approach also incorporates context specificity, as shown by its application for farmland preservation in Flanders.     

第二次土地调查数据更新维护对策探讨

第二次土地调查数据是今后国土资源管理最基础的数据,与第一次土地调查数据相比具有数据量大、数据类型复杂、数据格式多样、数字化程度及信息化程度高等特点,采用传统地籍变更办法已不能适应第二次土地调查数据及时动态更新。为促进地籍成果在国土资源管理工作中的应用,保证地籍数据现势性,在传统地籍变更办法的基础上提出城乡一体化的地籍管理信息系统建设、城乡一体化地籍数据更新机制、基于现代测量技术内外业一体化地籍变更模式,与传统变更办法相比大大提高了工作效率。     

基于熵权—模糊模型的开发区土地集约利用评价研究

为科学评价开发区土地集约利用情况,针对传统模糊综合评价的权重难以确定的问题,构建了开发区土地评价的熵权-模糊评价模型,并在考虑开发区相关因素的基础上,构建评价指标体系。通过上海市洋山区保税港的实例应用,得出上海洋山保税港区的土地集约利用水平处于中等偏上,在土地开发程度、土地利用强度、土地利用监管绩效三个方面表现较差,应采取相应政策措施来提高其土地集约利用效率。     

我国农村土地征用过程中的土地补偿矛盾与制度改革——以广东西北K村为例

当前农村土地征用补偿费出现的矛盾纠纷主要在于,以集体行动的逻辑起点进行制度设计造成的土地产权混乱问题。应当在制度设计上把土地集体所有权与农户个人权益有效地结合起来,完善土地集体所有制,建立土地保障体系,改进土地流转制度。     

浅析低碳型土地利用规划

世界多个城市政府以及诸多国际组织都在积极推进低碳城市的建设,本文主要从土地利用规划的角度提出如何应对气候变化,发展低碳经济。建议通过科学的计算方法制定各地区不同的碳排放指标,将碳排放量严格控制在各指标范围之内,并从土地利用战略研究、土地利用结构调整、土地利用布局优化及环境影响评价等方面,提出将碳排放量放入规划体系之中,实现碳减排与土地利用规划的一体化,进而达到节约资源能源、绿色可持续发展的目的。     

“Been-heres vs. come-heres” and other identities and ideologies along the rural–urban interface: A comparative case study in Calaveras County,California

The rural–urban interface is the place of transition between that which we call “urban” and that which we call “rural.” The interface is situated between two places perceived to be different, but which are indelibly linked. Although the functional differences between “rural” and “urban” people (or those seen as “been-heres” versus “come-heres”) seem to be diminishing, differing perspectives and preferences persist along the rural–urban edge. Such differences influence the way that land users, decision makers, and the community manage the environment and react to landscape change. Using a comparative case study in Calaveras County, California, I examine the differences and similarities between “been-heres” and “come-heres” along several lines: basic demographic characteristics, political party affiliations and ideologies, and conceptions of private property rights, concluding that the dichotomy is false but instructive. The been-here/come-here divide, rather than being a definitive means for characterizing stakeholders or predicting their behavior or perspectives, serves as a heuristic for understanding the starting places of certain actors. Furthermore, this kind of analysis reveals not only where and how people and perspectives contrast but also the ways that they converge. Improving our understandings differing people and perspectives is especially important as decision-makers struggle to plan for and manage livable places and sustainable environments among groups with varying preferences which may sometimes conflict.     

Socioeconomic determinants of farmland value in India

Developing countries have achieved remarkable overall economic diversification and growth during the last few decades, but farmland has remained a prime pillar of the livelihood support system of resource poor people in the rural areas of these countries. For these people, land is still the most important resource as it has multiple utilities such as a symbol of social standing, collateral value and a reserve capital asset for emergencies. Agricultural land assumes different values for different owners. This study establishes the criticality of age, education level, size of family workforce, dependency on agricultural income, productivity of land and location of farmland in influencing perception of value of farmland. Ignoring these factors creates a gap in the value of farmland as perceived by the farmland owner and the government. Knowledge of these factors may help in making appropriate adjustments in government declared prices of farmland for determining appropriate land compensation rate for a specific location.     

Better cross hedges with composite hedging? Hedging equity portfolios using financial and commodity futures

Unless a direct hedge is available, cross hedging must be used. In such circumstances portfolio theory implies that a composite hedge (the use of two or more hedging instruments to hedge a single spot position) will be beneficial. The study and use of composite hedging has been neglected; possibly because it requires the estimation of two or more hedge ratios. This paper demonstrates a statistically significant increase in out-of-sample effectiveness from the composite hedging of the Amex Oil Index using S&P500 and New York Mercantile Exchange crude oil futures. This conclusion is robust to the technique used to estimate the hedge ratios, and to allowance for transactions costs, dividends and the maturity of the futures contracts.