我国林权问题的经济学分析

对我国林权问题研究现状进行总结,指出森林资源具有经济效益和生态效益的双重效益属性,政府和林农对这两种效益有着不同的追求。实施限额采伐制度使林农对林木的处置权受限,而且我国尚未建立完善的生态效益补偿机制,林农经营森林的正外部性没有得到合理补偿,因此政府与林农对不同效益的追求成了林权问题的症结所在。通过构造博弈模型,分别分析存在生态效益补偿机制和不存在生态效益补偿机制的两种情况下,政府和林农的博弈过程,从理论上证明在建立完善的生态效益补偿机制下,政府实施自由采伐的政策,落实林农的处置权可以使政府和林农双方的利益达到最大化。     

Asymmetric Information,Externalities and Incentives in Animal Disease Prevention and Control

Incentives influence behaviour while an understanding of farmer behaviour facilitates the control and prevention of infectious livestock disease. This paper lays out several perspectives on how information problems and other externalities affect biosecurity incentives. We use the principal–agent framework to examine livestock disease management in the presence of potential moral hazard and adverse selection. Moral hazard may apply to biosecurity decisions while adverse selection may apply to disease reporting. The example of compensation policies illustrates the importance of creating appropriate incentives: compensation must be sufficient to ensure early reporting but not so large as to discourage appropriate levels of biosecurity effort. Other cases of externalities are more diffuse than those modelled using principal–agent analysis, placing emphasis on third‐party effects and coordination problems. Three examples are provided. One concerns free‐riding when facing an endemic disease pool that can be managed by limiting sources and flows. Another regards coordination failure when securing against an exotic disease where farmer efforts complement and communicating actions are important. The last arises from absence of a risk market where an adverse infrastructural support externality could be managed by disease outbreak insurance.     

Optimal Drug Control under Risk of Drug Resistance – The Case of African Animal Trypanosomosis

We examine two widely used treatment strategies for African animal trypanosomosis in West Africa: preventive drug control ex‐ante trypanosomosis infection and curative drug control ex‐post trypanosomosis infection. We investigate which combination of these alternative strategies is economically optimal for cattle farmers. We apply a dynamic optimisation framework to consider both the negative externality of drug resistance development and human behaviour. We develop a bio‐economic model to simulate the economic consequences of treatment strategies in a dynamic scenario that takes into account the interactions among the vector, host and livestock farmers. This model allows for the evolution of drug‐resistant trypanosomes through trypanocide misuse and simulates the observed behaviours of cattle farmers based on the elicited risk and time preferences of a sample of 202 cattle farmers in Mali and Burkina Faso. The results show that the private optimal mix of treatment strategies for a risk averse and patient farmer involves preventive treatment for susceptible cattle, supported by a small number of curative treatments for infected cattle. Compared with the treatment strategies observed in the field, this optimal mix of treatment strategies would save approximately 5% of the annual income of a livestock farmer in the study area and would reduce the prevalence of trypanosomosis. In addition, we demonstrate that a reduction in a farmer's risk aversion is associated with higher treatment rates that can avoid additional losses. By contrast, a decrease in a farmer's patience is related to lower treatment rates that thwart additional benefits. Our results suggest that individual risk and time preferences need to be considered in the development process of disease control interventions.     

Perceived economic pressures and farmer ethics

We hypothesize that an increase in the economic pressures a farmer feels could result in that farmer being more tolerant of unethical conduct than farmers not experiencing economic pressures. To test this hypothesis, we use data from a survey of 3,000 Missouri farmers with farm sales in excess of $10,000 in 2005 in which farmers were asked how acceptable they considered various unethical or questionable farming practices. The survey also contained questions designed to measure perceived economic pressures. We find evidence that economic pressures result in a greater willingness of farmers to tolerate unethical conduct, particularly in the case of actions that have the potential of causing harm or that are influenced by law or contract. We also find that the more frequently a farmer reports observing an unethical action, the more accepting he is of it.     

Does IPM Have Staying Power? Revisiting a Potato‐producing Area Years After Formal Training Ended

Integrated pest management (IPM) potentially reduces pesticide use and costs of agricultural production. However, IPM is knowledge intensive and its spread may dissipate over time due to knowledge required for its effective implementation and to competing messages about pest control. We examine IPM spread and adoption several years after formal intensive IPM outreach efforts ceased in a potato‐producing region in Ecuador. We describe adoption patterns and sources of IPM knowledge in 2012 and compare them with patterns that existed when outreach ceased in 2003. Results show that IPM adoption continues in the area but with a lower proportion of farmers fully adopting all practices and a higher proportion adopting low to moderate levels as compared to 2003. Almost all potato farmers in the area use some IPM practices, reflecting a major increase in IPM use. Farmer‐to‐farmer spread has supplanted formal training and outreach mechanisms. IPM adoption significantly lowers pesticide use and saves production costs for adopters.     

Is late really better than never? The farmer welfare effects of pineapple adoption in Ghana

Export agriculture offers potentially high returns to smallholder farmers in developing countries, but also carries substantial market risk. In this article we examine the intertemporal welfare impact of the timing of a farmer's entry into the export pineapple market in southern Ghana. We examine whether farmers who never cultivated pineapple are better or worse off than farmers who decided to adopt pineapple earlier or later relative to their peers and experienced a significant adverse market shock several years prior to our endline survey. We use a two‐stage least squares model to estimate the causal effect of duration of pineapple farming on farmer welfare. Consistent with economic theory, we find that earlier adoption of the new crop brings greater welfare gains than does later uptake. But we find that the gains to later uptake of pineapple—just before the market shock—are small in magnitude, just 0.1 standard deviations of a comprehensive asset index, indicating that the gains to adoption may be precarious and depend on the context, in particular on the severity of prospective market shocks.     

The pioneer market for forest law compliance in Paragominas,Eastern Brazilian Amazon

This paper explores farmers’ motivations to participate in a market mechanism to come into compliance with the forest laws in Brazil. As of July 2008, farmers with deforestation beyond what is legally permitted can choose between compensating for illegal deforestation at another property or restoring this environmental debt in situ. The study analyzes the first real case of such a compensation market in the Amazonia, started in 2014 in the municipality of Paragominas, Pará. I explore the main features of the Paragominas compensation market in order to understand why farmers with forest deficits would opt for such a mechanism. In particular, the main question explored in this study is: what economic and environmental factors influence the choice to compensate rather than restore in properties with a legal reserve deficit in Paragominas? Results show that an increase in the percentage of illegal deforestation that occurred up to 2008 on a property is associated with an increase in the predicted probability of choosing compensation, when keeping agriculture as a land use, the property size, and the number of land uses in the property unchanged. The study also reveals that farmers with forest deficits may prefer to buy a forest area instead of renting for compensation if they have enough capital to invest.     

Hog producer income losses under contagious animal disease restrictions

Eradication measures of a contagious animal disease may force farmers to keep ready-to-slaughter animals on the farm. As feeding heavy animals may reduce carcass quality and farmer income, farmers can adjust their feeding policy in order to decrease losses from delayed slaughter. The problem is interesting also from society's point of view because eradication measures can affect a large number of farms when a single farm is infected. A dynamic programming model is developed to study optimal hog feeding strategies when the timing of slaughter is restricted. The model takes into account carcass quality, its effects on timing of slaughter under given prices, and animal density on the farm. The results show that farmers suffer substantial losses due to delayed slaughter, and can minimize the losses by reducing energy feeding. The results give information on designing compensation schemes so that all farmers have economic incentives to implement preferred eradication policy.     

茶产业发达地区茶农选择茶叶销售渠道的影响因素分析——基于福建安溪实证

以福建省安溪县茶农问卷调查数据为基础,利用二项Logistic模型对茶农选择茶叶销售渠道的影响因素进行计量分析。研究表明,茶农户主特征的年龄对茶农选择渠道的影响不显著;茶农户主是否是村干部对茶农自家开茶叶店有显著影响;茶农是否参加茶业合作组织对茶农选择茶业合作组织影响显著;茶叶收入占家庭收入的比重0~25%、26%~50%对茶农自家开茶叶店有显著影响,51%~75%对茶农选择茶叶经销商影响显著;农户到最近茶叶交易市场的距离≤3 km,对茶农选择茶叶经销商和茶叶批发市场这2个渠道影响显著。     

耕地保护及其必要性:不同兼业程度农户的认知与意愿——基于珠三角的调查与实证

[目的]探究不同兼业程度的农户对耕地、耕地保护、耕地保护补偿的认知差异,并通过回归方程探究不同兼业程度的农户对实行耕地保护政策必要性认知的影响因素,以期为激发农户的耕地保护积极性,优化耕地保护政策的实施绩效提供依据。[方法]运用农户调查问卷和二元Logistic回归模型,以农户认为实行耕地保护政策是否必要为因变量,以反映农户特征、耕作情况、耕地认知情况、耕地保护态度的13个变量为自变量,对农户认为是否有必要实行耕地保护政策及其影响因素进行分析。[结果]农户类型在1%的水平上显著,纯农户认为实行耕地保护政策的必要性低于两类兼业农户;性别因素在5%的水平上显著,女性农户更认为实行耕地保护政策是必要的;家庭农业年收入在1%的显著水平上呈正向影响;耕地质量和耕地保护行为认知程度这两个多分类变量均只有个别哑变量显著。[结论]加大农户层面耕地保护必要性和重要性的宣传教育;国家级耕地保护补偿统一化,各省、市可实行差异化的耕地保护补偿政策;尽可能满足农户的真实诉求,给农户选择耕地保护方式的自由;鼓励耕地流转和托管,创新和完善相关制度设计。     

On-site economic evaluation of soil conservation practices in Honduras

Factors affecting the cost to the farmer of employing soil erosion reduction strategics are examined for the steep hillsides near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Linear programming and MOTAD are used to examine these factors. Results indicate that some modest reductions in erosion can be achieved at little cost to the farmer by reorganizing production, switching rotations, and using contour plowing. These modest reductions still lead to extremely high rates of erosion. Sharper reductions may be achieved at progressively higher costs as erosion control structures are constructed and acreage is left fallow. There is a high cost to the farmer of reducing erosion to ‘sustainable’ levels. A consistent tradeoff emerges between levels of soil conservation, income, and risk; erosion reduction efforts lead to lower incomes and higher risk. The analysis of likely benefits to farmers for erosion reduction shows that even under assumptions of very high yield losses from soil erosion, optimal farm plans still lead to high rates of soil loss, implying a need for policies that internalize externalities if off-farm damages are to be minimized.     

Worth the Risk? The Behavioural Path to Well‐Being

There is increasing interest in the ‘economics of happiness’, reflected in the volume of articles appearing in mainstream economics journals exploring the major determinants of self‐reported well‐being. We contribute by exploring the factors influencing how satisfied farmers are with their quality of life. We find that farm income, subjective perceptions relating to the adequacy of household income, debt, health and personal characteristics such as age and relationship status are significantly associated with farmers’ self‐reported life satisfaction. While significantly associated with farm income, farm structural variables such as farm size, farm type and the presence of a farm successor were not found to be significantly related with life satisfaction. Our results also suggest that farmers who are more risk averse enjoy significantly lower levels of both life satisfaction and farm income than their more risk seeking or risk neutral counterparts. We suggest that, in the same way that risk aversion inhibits farmers from making choices that could lead to an increase in their income, it may also constrain farmers (and the wider public at large) from engaging in certain types of behaviours that could lead to an increase in their self‐reported quality of life. Finally, we find that while farm income is significantly related to self‐reported life satisfaction, the direct correlation between these variables is weak, suggesting that farmer life satisfaction can be distinct from business success.     

基于忠县农户调查的耕地保护经济补偿机制需求分析

研究目的:从意愿角度揭示农户对耕地保护经济补偿机制需求的影响因素,为构建耕地保护经济补偿机制提供建议。研究方法:农户调查法,多项Logistic回归模型分析法。研究结果:农户经济补偿需求意愿存在较大差异;耕地利用比较效益、家庭人口数、家庭年人均纯收入、耕地保护意愿指数、经济补偿期望值、经济发展水平对农户耕地保护经济补偿机制需求影响显著。研究结论:构建重在保障农户权益的经济补偿机制势在必行,必须从补偿区域、补偿对象、补偿运作、补偿来源等方面创新耕地保护经济补偿机制。     

Innovation and networks in New Zealand farming

The New Zealand government seeks to dramatically increase the value of agricultural exports while concurrently protecting the natural environment. Thus, farmers are expected to adopt pro‐environmental management practices and novel farm technologies. We show that farmers are more likely to adopt new practices and technologies after seeing them demonstrated, but earlier evidence indicates that demonstration is most effectively undertaken within farmer networks. We use multivariate regression to identify the traits of livestock farmers who are innovative by focusing on adoption of pro‐environmental management practices (managing nutrients, soils and pugging) and novel farm technologies (e.g., windmills, computer‐based management systems, automatic sensors and specialised grasses), considering both numbers adopted and timing. We find that dairy farmers are more innovative than other livestock farmers and that higher education levels and stronger environmental norms within the family are strongly associated with innovativeness. In addition, we find that innovators and early adopters have larger networks than other farmers. Moreover, the composition of these networks is much more varied than the networks of less innovative farmers. These findings imply that innovative farmers in New Zealand may also act as connectors for the diffusion of new ideas in farming.     

Better Technology, Better Plots, or Better Farmers? Identifying Changes in Productivity and Risk among Malagasy Rice Farmers

We introduce a method for properly attributing observed productivity and risk changes among new production methods, farmers, and plots by controlling for farmer and plot heterogeneity. Results from Madagascar show that the new system of rice intensification (SRI) is indeed a superior technology. Although about half of the observed productivity gains appear due to farmer characteristics rather than SRI itself, the technology generates the estimated average output gains of more than 84%. The increased estimated yield risk associated with SRI would nonetheless make it unattractive to many farmers within the standard range of relative risk aversion.     

More reasons why farmers have so little interest in futures markets

The use by farmers of futures contracts and other hedging instruments has been observed to be low in many situations, and this has sometimes seemed to be considered surprising or even mysterious. We propose that it is, in fact, readily understandable and consistent with rational decision making. Standard models of the decision about optimal hedging show that it is negatively related to basis risk, to quantity risk, and to transaction costs. Farmers who have less uncertainty about prices and those with a diversified portfolio of investments have lower optimal levels of hedging. If a farmer has optimistic price expectations relative to the futures market, the incentive to hedge can be greatly reduced. And finally, farmers who have low levels of risk aversion have little to gain from hedging in terms of risk reduction, in that the certainty‐equivalent payoff at their optimal hedge may be little different than the certainty equivalent under zero hedging. These reasons are additional to the argument of Simmons (2002) who showed that, if capital markets are efficient, farmers can manage their risk exposure through adjusting their leverage, obviating the need for hedging instruments.     

The (in)stability of farmer risk preferences

We test and quantify the (in)stability of farmer risk preferences, accounting for both the instability across elicitation methods and instability over time. We use repeated measurements (N = 1530) with Swiss fruit and grapevine producers over 3 years, using different risk preference elicitation methods (domain-specific self-assessment and incentivised lotteries). We find that farmers' risk preferences change considerably when measured using different methods. For example, self-reported risk preference and findings from a Holt and Laury lottery correlate only weakly (correlation coefficients range from 0.06 to 0.23). Moreover, we also find that risk preferences vary considerably over time, that is, applying the same elicitation method to the same farmer in a different point in time results in different risk preference estimates. Our results show self-reported risk preferences are moderately correlated (correlation coefficients range from 0.42 to 0.55) from one year to another. Finally, we find experiencing crop damages due to climate extremes and pests is associated with farmers becoming more risk tolerant over time in specific domains.     

Agricultural extension,trust, and learning: results from economic experiments in Ecuador

Using an artefactual economic experiment and a randomized training intervention in Ecuador we test if trust conditions a farmer’s decision to learn during an agricultural training. We present a simple model of farmer behavior during the agricultural training in order to link play in the laboratory to behavior in the field. We find evidence that farmers who trust agricultural technicians relatively more than community farmers in the trust game learn more during training. The results provide insight into the design of agricultural extension services in Ecuador.     

基于成本内涵的农田防护林生态补偿标准分析

农田防护林生态系统的存在不仅关乎平原地区粮食安全、农民增收问题,更关系社会主义新农村建设及农业生态文明。本研究在阐述农田防护林现状及问题的基础上,运用外部性理论对其进行解释,认为直接成本、机会成本和生态服务功能效益是生态补偿的主要部分,尝试运用外部性理论对生态补偿标准的核算问题进行分析。