Criteria for contracting-out decisions when contractors can deceive

This paper presents a decision rule for contracting out that explicitly takes into account the possibility of contractor deception. In the model presented here, the contracting agency opts to contract out only when the production savings exceeds the sum of its optimal monitoring expenses, optimal fine collection costs, and the expected loss stemming from undetected cheating. Furthermore, in awarding contracts, the contracting agency explicitly takes into account the risk aversion of the contractor. The analysis suggests that effective contracts must consider the contractor's attitude toward risk and permit the contractor to retain some positive rent, conclusions that give rise to a number of nonintuitive policy implications.     

An empirical analysis of contracting by Chinese firms

Why do firms use formal contracts or relational contracts with their business partners? The paper uses survey data based on a large number of Chinese firms to uncover some important factors for why and when formal contracts or relational contracts are used. This study identifies geographical location as an important factor in affecting Chinese firms' contracting decisions. We find that a firm is more likely to use formal contracts with its clients and suppliers if they are located in a city different from the firm's main business location. We also find that larger (smaller) firms tend to adopt formal (relational) contracts. However, while the number of clients has a negative impact on a firm's adoption of formal contracts with its clients, the number of suppliers has a positive impact on its adoption of formal contracts with the suppliers.     

风险感知、认知偏差与激励合约的分选决策

基于行为经济学视角,通过现场实验观察了具有异质性偏好的代理人对不同激励合约的选择决策,旨在探讨风险感知、认知偏差与激励合约选择决策的关系.研究发现,在具有相同激励强度的两种可变激励合约下,个体生产力水平并没有显著差异,影响激励合约选择决策的重要因素是对风险的感知,激励合约用于调节不同主体间的主观感知风险配置.结果显示,感知自己是高生产力的代理人倾向于避免与搭便车者合作而带来的损失,而感知自己是低能力的代理人则倾向于选择与高能力者合作的激励合约而增加个体收益;而无论是高能力者还是低能力者,当面对环境的不确定性对收益的巨大扰动时,都不约而同的选择了团队激励合约,这种对合作的偏好会随着扰动的增大而增强.同时,实验进一步证明了,人们对搭便车风险的主观感知与真实的搭便车风险之间存在一定的认知偏差,且该对个人生产力抱持乐观态度的代理人更倾向于选择个体计件激励合约.当企业因面对绩效工具的准确性不高,或绩效结果不确定性较大而不得不采用团队计件时,可以通过调节认知偏差的方式来改变代理人的主观预期,从而强化激励合约的自选择.     

Global Retail Chains and Poor Farmers: Evidence from Madagascar

Global retail companies (“supermarkets”) have an increasing influence on developing countries, through foreign investments and/or through the imposition of their private standards. The impact on developing countries and poverty is often assessed as negative. In this paper we show the opposite, based on an analysis of primary data collected to measure the impact of supermarkets on small contract farmers in Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost 10,000 farmers in the Highlands of Madagascar produce vegetables for supermarkets in Europe. In this global supply chain, small farmers’ micro-contracts are combined with intensive farm assistance and supervision programs to fulfill complex quality requirements and phyto-sanitary standards of supermarkets. Small farmers that participate in these contracts have higher welfare, more income stability and shorter lean periods. We also find significant effects on improved technology adoption, better resource management and spillovers on the productivity of the staple crop rice. The small but emerging modern retail sector in Madagascar does not (yet) deliver these benefits as they do not (yet) request the same high standards for their supplies.     

元谋县蔬菜种植户绿色生产行为采纳及影响因素分析

在乡村振兴与绿色发展的战略背景下,农业绿色生产作为一种新型的生产方式,是促进农业绿色发展转型、加快实现农业农村现代化以及农业发展可持续化的一项首要任务,而实现农业绿色发展的关键在于农户对绿色生产行为的采纳程度。基于此,以元谋县167户蔬菜种植户的调研数据为基础,运用Multivariat Probit模型分析社会认同、预期效益感知、政策制度环境3个方面对农户绿色生产行为采纳的影响。结果表明：蔬菜种植户对5项绿色生产技术采纳程度都不高;社会认同中的角色示范和组织参与能够在一定程度上对蔬菜种植户绿色生产行为采纳产生影响;蔬菜种植户对绿色生产技术预期收入越高、环境影响越积极,绿色生产行为采纳意愿越强烈;政府技术推广与培训、补贴与鼓励都能显著提高蔬菜种植户绿色生产行为采纳积极性。鉴于此,建议充分发挥周围邻里的示范带动和组织参与的双重作用,提高农户绿色生产行为采纳预期经济、环境效益感知以及政府加强绿色生产技术的宣传和补贴力度,促使蔬菜种植户更好地融入元谋县产业绿色发展转型进程,促进元谋县在乡村振兴进程中蔬菜产业的绿色发展及菜品的提质增效。     

Farmers' Variety Attribute Preferences: Implications for Breeding Priority Setting and Agricultural Extension Policy in Ethiopia*

Abstract: Technological progress in Ethiopian agriculture is the slowest by any standard, with rather very poor capacity to address the nation's problems of low agricultural productivity, poverty, and resource degradation. This paper argues and attributes the low level of technology adoption and impact to the discrepancy between the farmers' needs and the attributes of technologies generated. The empirical evidences have been generated based on the analyses of coffee farmers' variety attribute preferences, taking coffee seedlings as production technologies. Attribute preferences of smallholder farmers are governed by their contextual household characteristics, institutional, and socioeconomic factors. According to the results, risk vulnerable farmers prefer seeds adaptable to their local conditions and varieties with stable yield attribute. On the contrary, farmers in more accessible areas and/or those who are less concerned in securing subsistence income levels opt for income maximizing attributes, namely, yield and marketability. The study results have also shown the mechanisms of how farmers' attribute preferences change with development‐oriented interventions. The paper demonstrates why and how policy‐makers should formulate context specific technology development and agricultural extension strategies.     

Adoption of fertiliser and hybrid seeds by smallholder maize farmers in Southern Malawi

Despite decades of agricultural policies that promoted the adoption of fertiliser and hybrid seed technologies as ways of improving productivity in maize farming, smallholder farmers in Malawi have been relatively slow to adopt the new technology. Using bivariate probit analysis and controlling for technology acquisition through grants, we found that fertiliser adoption was positively associated with higher levels of education, larger plot sizes and higher non-farm incomes, but negatively associated with households headed by women and distance from input markets. The adoption of hybrid seeds is positively associated with market-based land tenure systems and fertile soils, but negatively associated with age of the farmer and distance from input markets.     

Determinants of animal traction adoption in traditional agriculture: An application of the multivariate probit procedure to the case of Lesotho

This study identifies the socio-economic factors responsible for the adoption of animal traction in the Maseru district, Lesotho. Data for the study were obtained from a cross-section of farmers, using a two-stage random sampling technique to purposively select both adopters and nonadopters of animal traction technology. The probit model was employed to analyse the data, using the maximum likelihood estimation technique to identify quantifiably the effects of selected variables on animal traction adoption in the study area. The results of the study indicate that the adoption of animal traction in the area of study is equally sensitive to both sociological and economic factors, the most significant being the number of work animals and farm income, respectively. It is specifically recommended, among other things, that efforts be made to advance credit to poor farmers as a motivation towards increased animal traction adoption. This would increase farm output and income in the study area in particular, and in other areas with similar agro-ecological and institutional conditions that might be contemplating introducing this particular technology.     

Nonrecurring Items in Debt Contracts

Using a large sample of debt contracts, we study the determinants of excluding nonrecurring items from covenant calculations. We investigate this choice across firms, across items, and through time. We find that nonrecurring items are more likely to be excluded when the agency costs of debt are higher and less likely to be excluded when they predict borrowers' performance. Our evidence further suggests that the interplay between agency costs and nonrecurring items' predictive ability affects the decision to exclude these items from covenant computations. Finally, when examining the exclusion by different nonrecurring item types, we find confirmatory evidence that the probability of exclusion decreases with the predictive ability for borrowers' future performance of major nonrecurring item types. Overall, our research extends the literature on the determinants of contract design and improves understanding of the usefulness of accounting information in debt contracting.     

论房地产中介服务合同的性质与法律适用

司法实践及房地产交易实践中普遍存在的视房地产中介服务合同为居间合同的看法并不妥当。房地产中介服务合同并非合同法规定的有名契约,也非契约联立,而应为居间合同、委托代理合同、委托合同构成的混合契约。房地产中介服务合同在法律适用上应采取类推适用主义,分别类推适用居间合同、委托代理合同及委托合同的相关规则,但类推时应把握当事人缔约目的在于委托房地产中介完成房地产交易活动的意图,以寻求类推适用的和谐,避免类推结果的冲突。     

Transaction costs and crop marketing in the communal areas of Impendle and Swayimana,KwaZulu-Natal

High transaction costs are detrimental to the efficient operation or existence of markets for inputs and outputs. The cost of information and the costs associated with the search for trade partners, the distance to formal markets and contract enforcement are likely to influence the marketing of food crops. This study hypothesises that the level of income generated from food-crop sales by small-scale farmers in the Impendle and Swayimana districts of KwaZuluNatal is influenced by transaction costs and certain household and farm characteristics. Regression analysis shows that the depth of marketing methods is significantly influenced by transaction cost proxies, such as cooperation with large commercial farmers and ownership of means of transport. Results from a block-recursive regression analysis show that the level of crop income generated is determined by the depth of marketing methods, the size of allocated arable land and off-farm income. Households with lower transaction costs, sizeable allocated land and off-farm income can be expected to generate higher income from food crops. Investment in public goods such as roads, telecommunications and an efficient legal system (to uphold commercial contracts), as well as farmer support services (input supply, extension, marketing information and research), would probably raise farm and non-farm income by reducing transaction costs. This would increase the effective demand for locally produced goods and services, thus contributing to rural employment and livelihoods within rural communal areas.     

Contracting Out Solutions: Political Economy of Contract Farming in the Indian Punjab

This paper examines the rationale, practice, and problems of contract farming in vegetable crops in the agriculturally developed Indian Punjab which has faced the problem of sustainability of growth since the early 1980s. It is found that agribusiness firms deal with relatively large producers and their contracts, which are biased against the farmer, perpetuate the existing problems of the farm sector such as high chemical input intensity, and social differentiation. Contracting has however, led to higher farm incomes and more employment for labor. There seems to be an inherent contradiction in the objectives of the contracting parties and those of the local economy.     

Contract Farming,Smallholders, and Rural Development in Latin America: The Organization of Agroprocessing Firms and the Scale of Outgrower Production

This paper demonstrates how contract farming functions as an economic institution and explores the causes of the observed variation in the scale of outgrower production in Latin America. We outline how market imperfections and transaction costs influence the decision of agroprocessing firms to contract-out, vertically integrate, or use spot markets to obtain raw product. The paper demonstrates how market conditions are likely to be associated with particular outgrower characteristics under contract farming. An analysis of the Mexican frozen vegetable industry illustrates determinants of successful and unsuccessful small-scale contracting and suggests alternative policies to promote contract farming with smallholders.     

Empirical relevance of efficient contract theory: inter-firm contracts

Although there has been enormous development of the theory ofefficient contracts in the last 20 years, empirical tests wereslow to come. However, over the last 10 years, a considerablebody of evidence has accumulated, particularly in relation tocontracts between firms. This paper develops a simple, integratedtheoretical framework to illustrate 11 testable hypotheses.The contract theories covered include risk sharing, principal-agentincentive models, transaction cost and incomplete contract modelswith specific investment, and the theory of relational contracting.The problems associated with empirical work on contracts arediscussed before setting the hypotheses against a wide rangeof econometric and other empirical evidence (including workon franchising, sharecropping, subcontracting, contract duration,private institutions, experimental evidence, and a wide rangeof case studies).     

Wages for Wives: Renegotiating Gender and Production Relations in Contract Farming in the Dominican Republic

This study analyzes the intersection of gender and production relations in small-scale contracting in nontraditional agriculture. The case of the processing tomato industry in the Dominican Republic exemplifies patterns found throughout the region. Building on a critique of unitary household models, I analyze the gendered relations mobilizing resources for contract farming. As appears common, contracting has heightened demand for women's farm labor. Contracting has simultaneously provided women with openings for contesting the appropriation of their unpaid labor and many women are claiming payment for work in contract farming. This case demonstrates the importance of gender issues in informing contract farming debates and policy interventions.     

Comparative Economics of Maize and Rice Production among Resource-Poor Farmers in Anambra State of Nigeria

Abstract: Maize and Rice are some of the most important grains in Nigeria. Although Nigeria has the potential to become self-sufficient in their production, maize and rice production currently lags behind demand. This study has examined the characteristics of resource-poor maize and rice farmers, (defined in terms of land availability, estimated income per farmer, access to credit and capital) in Anambra State of Nigeria, the impact of these characteristics on yield, and the efficiency of use of stated inputs by the farmers. It was found that low income farmers (both maize and rice) had smaller farm size, smaller loan size (credit), adopted a smaller number of recommended production technologies, had lower levels of formal education, are younger, had a smaller household size, and less number of years of farming experience than high income farmers. The regression analysis result shows that farm size, credit, level of adoption of recommended production technologies, level of formal education of fanners, and age of farmers are significantly related to the maize farmers' output, but household size and number of years of farming experience account for less. In the case of rice farmers, the regression analysis result reveals that farm size, level of adoption of recommended production technologies and number of years of farming experience are significantly related to the farmers' output, but level of formal education of farmers, age of farmers, household size, and credit account for less. The results of gross margin analysis reveal that maize and rice production are not very profitable when the present value of the Naira in relation to cost of living in Nigeria is considered.     

劳动力转移、技术诱导及其实现条件:477个样本

以水稻生产中两种劳动节约技术(品种技术和机械技术)组合为例,利用川渝两地477家农户的调查数据,运用probit模型分析劳动力转移对农户采纳劳动节约技术的诱导效应,同时论证了该效应的实现条件。结果表明:如果不考虑农业要素市场完善程度等实现条件的差异,劳动力转移对农户采纳劳动节约技术没形成诱导,反而产生了负效应。而按照实现条件的满足与否进行分组回归发现:在实现条件满足的前提下,劳动力转移对农户采纳节约劳动技术的诱导效应才得以实现。     

双边道德风险条件下的收益激励与信息租金——基于有信息委托人的视角

文章特征化了一个在投资能力方面具有私人信息的委托人,和一个在努力水平上具有私人信息的代理人,在联合生产产品时所面临的双边道德风险问题。为研究结构性信息不对称对收益激励的影响,建立了双边道德风险奈件下的收益激励模型。研究结果表明,在风险中性的委托人和严格风险规避的代理人联合生产产品时,激励努力的次优契约可以达到,只是不能为代理人提供完全的保险;在双边道德风险条件下,隐藏信息不再是有信息的局中人的最优策略,而私人信息的交换与共享可以促成次优转移均衡的实现,这说明和单边的信息不对称造成的单边道德风险相比较,结构性的信息不对称并不一定使得双边道德风险问题更严重。     

农户地租契约选择的经济逻辑:预期效用抑或损失规避

随着收入水平和社会保障水平的提高,农户的经济决策动机逐渐从风险(成本)最低转变为收益最大。但是,地租契约的不完全性等因素,可能使农户在选择地租契约时,需要在收益(租金)的可靠性和收益最大化之间进行权衡。文章理论分析表明,农户在选择地租契约时,其经济逻辑是损失规避而非预期效用理论。进而,文章利用中国家庭金融2015年调查数据,通过probit、IVprobit和似无相关回归模型检验了这一理论假说。研究结果显示,租金水平越高,农户越倾向于选择固定地租契约;消除内生性后的边际效应显示,租金提高每万元,农户选择固定租金契约的概率提高28.3%。机制分析发现,土地流转契约期限的增加会强化租金对农地转出户选择固定租金契约的影响。运用工具变量估计、交叉项和费舍尔组合检验三种方法进行稳健性检验后,该结论仍然成立。进一步的异质性分析结果表明,租金对固定地租契约的促进效应,在低收入农户中相对更高;在低收入农户中,契约期限不具有调节作用。研究结果为地租领域农户财产性收入的增加与政策预期的不一致,提供了理论解释与经验证据。基于此,文章提出为使农户通过地租获得更多的财产性收入,需要进一步完善农地流转契约治理机制等政策建议。     

Designing Agricultural Technology for African Women Farmers: Lessons from 25 Years of Experience

African women farmers are less likely than men to adopt improved crop varieties and management systems. This paper addresses two issues: How does gender affect technology adoption among African farmers? How does the introduction of new technologies affect women's well-being? Three conclusions come out of an extensive and critical review of the literature. First, African households are complex and heterogeneous. Second, gender roles within African households and communities cannot be simply summarized. Third, gender roles and responsibilities are dynamic; they respond to changing economic circumstances. The paper demonstrates the complexity and importance of efforts to design interventions for African women.