Measuring the effects of preservation on farm profits in a continuous treatment setting

Despite billions of dollars of public appropriations to state purchase of development rights (PDR) programmes, there has been limited evaluation of the effects of these investments on the economic performance of preserved farms. This article estimates dose-response functions to evaluate the effects of enrolment in New Jersey’s PDR programme on farm profitability. The generalized propensity score method in a continuous treatment setting is used to address selection bias arising from voluntary programme participation. Treatment effects are measured across treatment levels to determine whether farm profitability is affected differently across levels of programme participation. Our findings reveal that, relative to unpreserved farms, profit per acre tends to increase along lower treatment levels. The profit per acre of preserved farms in the 1–40% treatment range is, on average, $407 higher than that of unpreserved farms in the full sample. Positive profit differentials averaging between $317 and $472 per acre are also observed in the 1–20%, 1–40% and 1–60% treatment quintiles in the farming occupation sample. We do not observe statistically significant profitability differentials when treatment effects are averaged across all positive treatment values.     

Does the Decoupling Reform Affect Agricultural Employment in Sweden? Evidence from an Exogenous Change

This study uses aggregated municipality data, for the years 2001–2009, to explore whether direct payments to farmers affect agricultural employment in Swedish municipalities. The decoupling reform in 2005 included a new grassland support payment accompanied by management obligations that had unexpectedly high redistributive consequences as it greatly increased common agricultural policy payments to municipalities with large areas of grassland. In some municipalities, total payments more than doubled. Thus, since the reform seems exogenous to the behaviour of farmers and the regional economy, the reform can be used to identify a subsidy effect. We find that a permanent increase in agricultural employment can be attributed to the new grassland support. Our results indicate that the grassland support generates an additional job at a cost of SEK 250,000, relative to the average agricultural wage of SEK 333,000. However, the subsidy effect is largely keeping jobs in agriculture, i.e. the grassland support may be slowing down the process of structural change in grassland regions.     

How training and innovation link to farm performance: a structural equation analysis

The complexity of modern farm management places great demands on the skill, knowledge and capability of farm managers and their families. Keeping abreast of emerging technologies and innovations that can affect each key farm enterprise, and knowing how best to marshal the resources required for profitable farm production, are key tasks of farm management. This study draws on a longitudinal data set of 240 broadacre farmers to compare and analyse their farm performance over a decade. Using structural equation modelling, we examine relationships between the farm family's involvement in training, their human capital, their use of various innovations and ultimately the linkages of these factors to farm financial and productivity performance. Several statistically significant inter‐relationships are found, and some factors are shown to have significant positive links to farm performance. We find that training undertaken by the farm family, the farm family's human capital and their use of innovations, particularly key cropping innovations, have significant beneficial impacts on farm performance. The farmer's skills in time and organisational management, their engagement in business planning and the unique environmental characteristics of the farm also significantly and positively influence farm performance.     

Factors influencing theme park visitor brand-switching behaviour as based on visitor perception

With the development of theme parks, which represent a multi-million-pound industry worldwide, research investigating the factors affecting theme park visitor brand-switching behaviour is an important method for improving theme park competitiveness. In the present work, models and research hypothesis are constructed based on visitor perception, and the survey data are collected and analysed to assess the hypothesis and to revise the conceptual model in this paper. The results indicate that there are seven factors influencing visitor brand-switching behaviour: ‘visitor variety-seeking', ‘visitor satisfaction', ‘switching cost', ‘perceived value', ‘competitor attraction', ‘theme park image' and ‘visitor involvement'. The perceived value and visitor satisfaction strongly influence brand-switching behaviour as intermediate variables. Visitor variety-seeking and competitor attraction are positively related to visitor brand switching behaviour, whereas the other five factors are negatively related to visitor brand-switching behaviour.     

Adding Value to Applied Policy Models： The Case of the WTO and OECD Support Classification Systems

Both the OECD and the WTO have accumulated systematic data on the magnitude of support going to farmers as a result of farm policies. The datasets are collected for different purposes, but both give a detailed picture of the evolution of these policies. This paper extends recent work on the compatibility or otherwise of the two attempts at policy monitoring by considering the categorization of individual policy instruments in Norway, Switzerland, the US, and the EU. The results show how the OECD dataset, particularly with respect to the link between direct payments and production requirements, complements that of the WTO. Many payments classified in the WTO Green Box require production, raising the possibility that they may distort production and trade. Though the issue of correct notifications to the WTO is the province of lawyers, the implications for modeling and policy analysis are of interest to economists, and the broader question of improving the consistency of the two datasets is of importance in the quest for transparency in the interpretation of changes in farm policies.     

落实科学发展观 构建和谐新农场

文章介绍了广西国有良丰农场的基本情况,分析了影响农场经济社会发展的主要问题,提出了推动农场科学发展的有效措施。     

影视主题公园旅游体验质量研究——以无锡影视主题公园为例

旅游体验质量在很大程度上决定着影视主题公园的发展,但如何运用指标进行综合评价却一直处于探讨之中。在调研数据与Ryan的"期望-满足"模型基础上,本文应用spss统计软件,提取了涵盖25个关键指标的8个主因子,分别命名并按重要程度排序为文化氛围、旅游条件、规划、服务、展演、活动、整体感知和其他关联。通过这一指标体系,对无锡影视主题公园的旅游体验质量进行综合评价,得出体验度和分析结果,并指出需通过增强文化氛围,完善管理体系,变换表现形式,积极沟通顾客才能提升体验度。     

金紫山风电场一期工程风机基础设计

风电场的风力发电机组基础形式主要有扩展基础、桩基础和岩石锚杆基础,具体采用哪种基础应根据建设场地地基条件和风力发电机组上部结构对基础的要求确定。文章以广西资源县金紫山风电场一期工程为例,介绍山区风力发电机组基础的设计。     

“桂林板路”主题园对桂林老城文化传承的启示

通过收集整理老桂林文化的文献资料,积累第一手数据,并借鉴国内外主题园更新、改造和规划设计的理念,以＂桂林板路＂主题园为例,分析其文化设计理念的文脉传承,提出＂桂林板路＂主题园对桂林日渐消失的传统文化的传承具有重要意义,应重传统文化成果的实际应用价值和开发思路的创新性。