UNDERSTANDING MEMBER CHARACTERISTICS AND COOPERATIVE PRICE EFFECTS: THE CASE OF THE ARGENTINEAN DAIRY SECTOR

Since the 1990s, Argentinean dairy‐processing cooperatives have lost considerable amounts of members and market share. We analyse their current role by investigating the characteristics of farmers who continue delivering to them and price differentials between cooperatives and investor‐oriented firms (IOFs). A probit regression model applied to 917 farmers suggests that cooperative farmers are more disadvantaged than farmers delivering to IOFs in terms of education, farm size and productive technology. Moreover, t‐tests applied to data representing 70 per cent of national volume indicate that farmers delivering to cooperatives are between 11 per cent and 29 per cent smaller than those delivering to IOFs, depending on province. A hierarchical multilevel regression model applied to 9,720 transactions among farmers and processors shows that, after controlling for quantity and quality, cooperatives pay lower (3.5%) but more stable prices than IOFs. In a context of rapid structural change, we observe a market in which larger farmers deliver to IOFs and smaller farmers deliver to cooperatives and conclude that, at the expense of paying lower prices, cooperatives may act as buyers of last resort for otherwise disadvantaged farmers.     

Modinomics: Design,Implementation, Outcomes,and Prospects

This paper presents an analysis of the key elements of Modinomics, defined as “everyone's participation, everyone's progress.” It investigates the reasons why Modinomics was necessary, the key elements of Modinomics, and how this policy was implemented. It argues that India's economic policy has had continuity since the economic reform package of 1991, so Modinomics has involved a high component of better implementation. Nevertheless, there have been some major policy changes as well. The paper discusses the deep structural reforms of demonetization and a Goods and Services Tax as well the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act. The paper examines the record of economic growth under Modi as well as new welfare and employment programs to make economic growth more inclusive. Finally, the paper examines the medium and long‐term growth prospects for India.     

我国对外贸易制度寻租初探

对外贸易政策的制定和实施会产生大量的寻租机会和寻租活动,外贸关税壁垒和非关税壁垒寻租活动产生的垄断会对社会福利产生不同的影响。外贸制度寻租产生的原因有政府保护和"经济人"本质,克服对外贸易制度寻租的方法有创建有限政府、法制化和加强监督。     

“诺斯悖论”视野下的农民合作

在理解农民合作的内在机理中,政府的角色是不可或缺的,但政府的介入往往形成一个"悖论"。通过分析新中国成立以来农民的合作历史,展示了政府进退对农民合作的影响。结合目前农民合作的现状,分析由于政府缺位,制度资源供给不足,农民合作陷入困境。因此,由于农民自组织资源的局限性,政府介入农民合作是必要的,但要注意介入的尺度,要在公共决策与私人决策之间保持平衡。     

我国台湾地区儿童福利问题研究

儿童是社会的未来，是民族的希望。儿童福利是社会福利的重要组成部分，在经济高速发展的当今社会，福利体系的建设中儿童福利的发展与完善显得尤为迫切。笔者通过对儿童福利事业发展较为先进的台湾地区进行研究，从法律和政策、行政体系、发展趋势等几个方面进行剖析，最终分析台湾地区儿童福利发展对我国相关问题上的启发，以期对我国儿童福利体系建设起到积极作用。     

Tariffs and formation of free trade agreements networks

This paper examines the formation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) on the basis of country heterogeneity in the tariff level. We demonstrate that a country's unilateral incentive to form an FTA depends on the relative magnitudes of the (negative) market concession effect and the (positive) market expansion effect, both of which are determined by the tariff levels of the two FTA partner countries. Global welfare is maximised when all country pairs form FTAs. Two countries in equilibrium are more likely to form an FTA when their tariff gap is smaller or when their tariff levels are neither very high nor very low. This finding is robust to several extensions of the model. Our preliminary empirical analysis provides some evidence for the finding.     

Capital controls and the location of industry

This paper studies capital controls on the outflow of capital in a two-region new economic geography model. Capital controls are set in a non-cooperative or cooperative manner by social planners. Capital controls are relatively higher in the North in the non-cooperative equilibrium. This leads to relatively more firms located in the region where more consumers reside under the non-cooperative equilibrium. The locational bias towards the North in the non-cooperative equilibrium becomes larger as trade barriers are reduced. That is, firms locate to the North at a relatively higher rate in the non-cooperative equilibrium as trade is liberalised. Contrary to previous findings, it follows that global welfare is relatively higher in the non-cooperative equilibrium, although the social planner sets capital controls by maximising joint regional welfare in the cooperative equilibrium.     

Impacts of sustainability certification on farm income: Evidence from small-scale specialty green tea farmers in Vietnam

Sustainability certification for small-scale farms has gained considerable momentum in developing countries. However, evidence on the economic benefits of certification schemes in the context of domestically consumed foods and beverages is scarce. This paper addresses this gap by evaluating the impacts of sustainability standards on the selling prices, sales, costs and net income of small-scale specialty green tea farming in Vietnam. We analyze original survey data on 401 smallholder green tea farmers and employ propensity score matching to mitigate self-selection bias. Our estimates reveal that certified green tea producers are able to obtain a higher average selling price and sales value. In addition, although certification leads to a dramatic increase in the costs of hired labor, net farm income is still significantly improved.