Analyzing the welfare‐improving potential of land in the former homelands of South Africa

This article contributes to the debate on the role of land in reducing poverty in rural South Africa. It uses the year of arrival in the former homelands as an instrument for land access and size. This identification strategy is based on the fact that African households were forcibly relocated to the homelands during the apartheid. Due to increasing population pressure, later arrivals were less likely to be assigned land. The results show that land has a large positive effect on household welfare. Because the homelands are relatively disadvantaged areas, these results provide a lower bound for the positive effects of land on household welfare.     

河南省农民消费支出地区差异的实证分析

据2011年河南省统计年鉴调查数据表明,河南省各地区农民支出差异较大,且呈现出进一步扩大的趋势。文章从河南省农民消费支出地区差异的现状着手,对河南省农民消费支出地区差异进行实证分析,找出影响河南省各地区农民消费支出的主要影响因素,并提出解决河南省农民消费支出差异较大问题方案的模型,为合理调整河南省农民消费结构,尽快消除消费支出地区差异较大并继续扩大的现象,实现各地区经济均衡发展提供一定的科学依据。     

新疆西北部农户种植决策的Logistic模型分析*——以伊犁河谷察布查尔县为例

[目的]农户种植决策是诱发农业结构调整的微观基础,研究农户种植决策的影响因素,不仅有利于了解农业种植结构,也对该区域推进和深化农业结构调整,实现农业产业化、现代化具有重要的意义。[方法]文章基于新疆察布查尔县21个行政村228户农户的问卷调查数据,应用Logistic模型,从农户家庭特征、个体特征、生产特征及收入特征等4个方面实证分析了影响农户种植决策的主要因素。[结果]对农户种植决策行为影响显著的因素有家庭总人口、耕地面积、地形部位、总收入等,其中,耕地面积和地形部位对农户种植意愿有显著正向影响,而家庭总人口和总收入对农户种植意愿有显著负向影响;常年从事农业劳动人数、户主文化水平、地块位置、地块总数以及对于农业技术服务态度没有通过检验,无法得出这几个变量与农户种植决策之间的关系。[结论]影响农户种植决策的因素除耕地面积、总收入、家庭总人口及地形部位外,还会受到政策、农户自身种植习惯、农业技术等影响,农户对农业技术知识的匮乏是影响该县农业结构调整的主要原因     

Food fraud: economic insights into the dark side of incentives

In this review, we contextualise the articles in this special issue, relating them to existing food fraud research, and identify food fraud research trends, challenges and priorities for the near term. We accomplish these aims through a comprehensive review of research by food scientists, economists, other social scientists, legal experts, government research groups and international trade organisations. Existing food fraud research is heavily weighted towards food science, packaging and labelling, and legal areas of knowledge discovery. Moving forward, research is needed pertaining to general economic welfare outcomes from food fraud incidences, economic incentives to deter frauds, economic spillovers from fraud incidences to other food products and markets (domestic and international) and further delineation of the effect of different types of food fraud on consumer and producer welfare. The articles in this special issue make significant contributions to understanding of the role of food fraud in consumer decisions, measuring consumer welfare losses from fraud, food fraud spillover effects to other markets and new frameworks for fraud analysis.     

土地流转：弱转入土地意愿的博弈分析

[目的]我国土地制度的施行使得农户拥有较多小块土地,家庭农场实现连片规模经营的前提是获得规模连片土地,家庭农场与农户进行土地流转协商时,农户将土地流转给家庭农场的意愿如何值得探讨。因此本文研究目的是对家庭农场实现规模连片生产提出建议,期望家庭农场实现规模化经营。[方法]博弈分析法。[结果]家庭农场存在从农户手中转入土地困难,转入土地意愿不强的现象,家庭农场弱转入土地意愿的根源在于土地租金过低、农户转出土地净利润过低、实际转入土地意愿过低。[结论]由此文章提出了3点建议:(1)尝试"确权不确地,确地不确人"的确权政策(2)创建农村土地经营权流转信息平台,建立农村土地流转交易所(3)工商资本下乡租田的做法需谨慎。     

发达国家住房福利政策的演变及启示——我国公租房领域供给侧结构性改革探析

我国公租房领域存在投资主体单一、政府财政压力大、市场参与度不够、配置低效、供需失衡及错配、贫富分区程度加大等问题，需通过推进供给侧结构性改革来予以解决。发达国家住房福利政策的演变表明，住房政策应与住房市场供需状况相适应，政府所扮演的角色须从“公共住房的直接供给者”走向“市场化供给的环境营造者”，即从“补砖头”到“补人头”是住房福利政策演进的必然趋势。我国公租房领域供给侧结构性改革应与住房供求情况相匹配。一方面，要转变政府职能，从政府实物配给逐步过渡到市场化供给；另一方面，要积极打造健康的住宅租赁投资市场以促进公租房供给市场化，并通过开发配建和货币化补贴等措施促成公租房“隐形化”混合居住模式。     

普惠型社会福利的中国理解

普惠型社会福利来自于对社会福利模式的最初划分。在社会福利由"补缺型"到"普惠型"转变的过程中,在学界和各级政府层面,无论是顶层设计还是政策实践,我们都在探索有中国特色的普惠型社会福利模式。普惠型社会福利从提出、引入到本土化经历了一个漫长的时期,在我国经济高速发展但人均经济发展水平还很低的情况下,构建怎样的社会福利发展模式并有效地付诸实践成为我国社会福利发展的突出问题。在建立覆盖城乡和全民共享的社会福利体系的背景下,适度普惠型社会福利模式在中国应运而生。     

基于投影寻踪方法的粮食主产区农民用水合作组织绩效研究——基于湖北、湖南、黑龙江3省的调查

[目的]农民用水合作组织是我国灌溉管理制度改革的产物,农民用水合作组织的建立改进了农村水利管理的方式,提高了灌溉管理过程中水资源的利用率。[方法]通过构建粮食主产区农民用水合作组织绩效评价指标体系,建立基于实数编码加速遗传算法的投影寻踪分类模型,对湖北、湖南、黑龙江等3省61家农民用水合作组织的绩效进行了实证分析。[结果]粮食主产区农民用水合作组织绩效水平总体较好,在所调查的61家农民用水合作组织中,27.1%的农民用水合作组织绩效为优秀,28.8%绩效良好,13.6%绩效一般,30.5%绩效较差。[结论]总体上来看,湖南、湖北等2省农民用水合作组织的绩效高于黑龙江。是否有产权、农户参与率、是否民主决策、培训次数、农户满意度、单位面积灌水量和水费收取率等指标对农民用水合作组织绩效影响最大。因此,政府适当放权,选取恰当的扶持方式,提升农户的认识,推广好的农民用水合作组织发展模式是提高农民用水合作组织绩效的有效途径。     

The role of dairy company policies in support of farm green infrastructure in the absence of government stewardship payments

Intensive dairy farming has substantial impacts on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Determining how to mitigate them while increasing production is driving the quest for sustainable milk production internationally. Green infrastructure (G.I.) provides private and public ecosystem services, including mitigation of farming environmental impacts. However, there are implementation barriers among farmers. New Zealand government supports farmer self-regulation as long as farmers meet environmental targets. Farmers are neither compensated for reducing environmental impacts, nor for setting aside G.I. in support of nature conservation. Dairy companies are under increasing pressure to ensure socially acceptable milk production practices among farmer suppliers. They may play a role in encouraging farmers to implement G.I. as a way of helping farmers meet regulatory compliance, and best farming practice. Using a content analysis of company policies, the role of dairy companies in encouraging G.I. among farmers is explored. Results indicate companies are concerned about the effects, and perception, of poor environmental farming practices on their profitability, and have developed some riparian G.I. policies, with government and farmer support. However, policies are farm-focused and are limited to one year, and thus lack the capacity to encourage G.I. in support of key ecosystem services, such as water cleansing and support for indigenous biodiversity that require landscape scaled networks and longer periods. Even at the farm scale, a majority of companies lack policies that encourage significant G.I. networks. Policies suggest companies, and by extension farmers, lack sufficient motivation to protect or restore them voluntarily. Under these conditions, significant G.I. is unlikely to develop under self-regulation, unless supplemented through motivating government stewardship payments.