A quantitative determination of the food security status of rural farming households in the Northern Province of South Africa

The majority of South Africans living in rural areas are food insecure despite high levels of national food self-sufficiency. The household food security position of two groups of rural farming households in the Venda region was evaluated quantitatively: one group produces vegetables that are sold or consumed locally, the other group produces cash crops – mangoes and other subtropical fruits. Using the collected data, food availability and energy, protein and fat requirements were calculated and balances derived. It was found that more than 80 per cent of the households had a negative balance of energy, protein and fat intake. The average energy, protein and fat coverage consumption was the same for both groups of farmers. A number of agricultural determinants were tested, but only non-agricultural determinants were found to be significant. These include household size, household (food) expenditure and proportion of the budget spent on food.     

Electoral systems and the effects of political events on the stock market: The Belgian case

Efficient stock markets react to news. News about future economic policies can be derived from political events such as elections, the formation of new governments, changes in the composition of governments, etc. However, the news content of these events depends on the electoral system. In the American electoral system, characterized as it is by majority representation and single–party governments, elections generate news to the extent that the results are unexpected. In countries with proportional representation, governments are frequently multi–party coalitions whose composition is difficult to predict from the election results. These results therefore contain much less information about future policies. Our results, obtained for the Brussels stock market, support this distinction. Furthermore, the ideological composition of the government also matters; these effects support a rational partisan approach.     

Modes of production in home maintenance: accounting for the choice between formality,off the books and self‐provisioning

Households depend on the existence of a home, and therefore, maintenance plays an important social and economic role. Formal outsourcing is often overestimated here and alternative modes, such as informal outsourcing and do‐it‐yourself (DIY), are overlooked. This paper estimates and accounts for the choice of one mode of production in Flemish households. First, the different modes of production are quantified according to two different methods. Further, an explanation of the choice made is constructed. The complexity of maintenance work has an impact as well as the dimensions of social and cultural capital. Factors such as dexterity, occupational acquaintance with maintenance work, social trust and social contacts play a role. Finally, a model of a sequence of decisions is tested. This ramification mechanism shows that the primary choice is formal commissioning or not, inspired by technical complexity. The second choice between off‐the‐books outsourcing and DIY is influenced by the capital resources of the households.     

Heterogeneity in frontier analysis: does it matter for benchmarking farms?

Journal of Productivity Analysis - Benchmarking farms, in order to advise farmers to cure inefficiency, may be biased if heterogeneity is not accounted for. Technological variability in agriculture...     

Do the OECD 24 month horizon growth forecasts for the G7–countries contain information?

The OECD produces two–year–ahead growth forecasts for the G7–countries since 1987; these forecasts have never been evaluated. A regression is developed that tests for the information content of the forecasts. The idea is that this content is the added value forecasters incorporate in their forecasts. The information content is defined relative to the forecast for the previous year. In the end, the added value contained in the current year forecast is calculated relative to the last observation. The test consists in checking whether the information content reduces the forecasts error.

The study begins with a calculation of the usual accuracy statistics. These indicate an extreme low quality for the forecasts. The regression tests support this conclusion although the forecasts for Japan do possess some information. Alarming for users of forecasts is that there are no obvious alternatives.