EFFICIENT COMPLIANCE WITH AGRICULTURAL NITRATE POLLUTION STANDARDS

Non-point pollutants such as nitrates are difficult to monitor and hence control. This paper considers nitrate abatement policies for the Tyne catchment in northern England. The analysis is based on an aggregate-level LP model which predicts producers' production decisions and estimates the resulting spatial distribution of nitrogen applications and nitrate emissions. The policy evaluation compares a catchment-level nitrate emission quota, a catchment-level nitrogen input quota and nitrogen input quotas targeted at individual land classes as alternative measures to achieve nitrate concentration standards. The results indicate that targeted nitrogen input quotas provide a feasible and relatively efficient abatement policy when a lack of information on individual farms prevents the use of the least cost emission tax.     

THE DEMAND FOR FERTILISER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Among the policy alternatives for limiting fertiliser use, a tax on chemical fertiliser is administratively the easiest option. Its efficacy depends partly on the responsiveness of fertiliser demand to price changes. This paper reviews the empirical methodologies available for estimating the price elasticity of a derived demand and presents the results of several econometric models. The econometric analysis shows that the response of UK fertiliser demand to own-price changes is greater than has been assumed on the basis of programming studies of arable farms. This result establishes a necessary but not a sufficient condition for an effective fertiliser tax. The full impact of a fertiliser tax over the longer term depends on the extent to which technical change is driven by trends in relative prices.     

THE ECONOMICS OF - WHEAT PRODUCTION IN MOROCCO

A representative farm policy impact model was developed using linear programming and primary survey data. The model was used to estimate farm-level effects of proposed national government policies aimed at increasing food security through greater bread wheat production. The four policy options analysed included the introduction of a bread wheat variety resistant to an insect pest, an increase in the official bread wheat support price, potentially unlimited availability of nitrogen fertiliser, and rationing of nitrogen fertiliser at 500 kg per farm. The various policies increased farm income between 2.45 and 18 percent, as farmers made trade-offs between the production of bread wheat and the more profitable durum wheat. Adjustments were made by farmers in the model to meet government-targeted levels of bread wheat production in order to support national food self-sufficiency at minimum cost. Simultaneously, the resources freed were used to produce more durum wheat. The results suggest a need to analyse interregional and international comparative advantages in wheat production prior to implementing proposed policies aimed at increasing bread wheat output.     

Controlling nitrate pollution: An integrated approach

The introduction of the EU Water Framework Directive requires policy to address non-point source pollution as part of an overall integrated strategy to improve the ecological status of water bodies. In this paper, we combine an economic optimisation framework with a dynamic simulation model of N transport in the Kennet Catchment to link decisions taken at the farm level to reductions in nitrate concentrations in the River Kennet. We examine a variety of policies targeted at reducing fertiliser use and changing the way in which farm land is used. We find that a tax on nitrogen emerges as the best policy both in terms of cost- and environmental effectiveness. Such a policy involves a considerable reduction in fertiliser use, as well as, a restructuring of land-use away from arable towards increased use of set-aside. Budgetary implications of such a radical move towards set-aside would be huge and hence unlikely to be politically palatable given the objective of reducing the EU budgetary allocation to agriculture. Additionally, the current rise in world demand for food may also mitigate calls for increasing the proportion of land taken out of agricultural production. Although the study succeeds in establishing a link between actions on the farm and nitrate concentrations in the stream water, further work is required to explore the effect of the retention of nitrates in the unsaturated zone and groundwater on this link.     

Tariff rate quotas: structural and stability impacts in growing markets

This paper examines several aspects of tariff rate quotas (TRQ) as adopted during tariffication of agricultural policies under the Uruguay Round of GAIT. Quota rents and non-tariff barrier effects may remain under TRQs, contrary to the objectives of the tariffication process. Further, price stability impacts of a TRQ are more complex than those for either tariffs or quotas, and under certain circumstances TRQs may be more stabilizing than either case, since TRQs truncate domestic production distributions much like price bands policies. This complexity results from the possibility of regime switching, and may reflect behavior under either a tariff, a quota, or a combination of cases. A TRQ policy may affect the timing of import decisions based on incentives created under quota allocation procedures envisioned for this institution. It may also allow increased imports as demand growth occurs because the quota is not necessarily a binding constraint. This means the above quota tariff is the critical policy instrument. An empirical study of Philippines port: imports illustrates these issues.     

企业准备金的所得税政策比较研究

如何采取有效的税收政策来保证企业既能及时足额地提取准备金增强其抵御风险能力,又不可能利用准备金政策进行利润操纵或避税,是企业所得税政策研究的核心问题。通过对不同性质企业和不同国家的准备金所得税政策以及税收政策与会计政策进行比较研究,提出要从5个方面对我国企业准备金所得税政策进行改革：建立专项准备金与一般准备金相配合的企业准备金税收待遇模式;制定统一而规范的企业准备金税收政策体系;企业准备金税收政策要与其会计政策相互协调配合;建立准备金信息披露机制,加强准备金外部审计和检查审核;改革企业呆账认定办法,简化呆账核销程序。     

Technical efficiency and CO2 abatement policies in the Dutch glasshouse industry

This paper develops a short-run microeconomic simulation model of the Dutch glasshouse industry in order to investigate the relation between technical efficiency and marginal abatement costs of CO₂ emission. The model is also used to determine the effects of an emission tax and systems of tradable and non-tradable quota for groups of firms with different rates of technical efficiency. The results show that marginal abatement costs are very responsive to changes in technical efficiency. Furthermore, it is found that firms with a low technical efficiency are faced with a higher profit reduction under different abatement policies than firms with a high technical efficiency.     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE TAX SUBSIDIES TO THE DAIRY SECTORS IN CANADA,GERMANY NEW ZEALAND AND THE UNITED STATES

Subsidies to agricultural producers through domestic tax and social programme policies are generally not included in producer subsidy equivalent (PSE) measures. This study examines the price induced distortions of domestic tax policy and social programmes on dairy trade between Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States. The degree of tax subsidisation and the price subsidies needed to offset the tax and social programme advantages enjoyed by each country are estimated using a simulation model. Study findings suggest that current German taxation policy provides a substantial subsidy to dairy producers. Canadian and US farmers also have some trade advantages because of tax policy and social programmes.     

地区重点企业水污染减排复合政策模拟研究

在水污染排放税和排放权交易市场并行的现实政策情景下,模拟复合政策对地区重点企业的排放权配置结构、产量、利润和社会福利的影响,并探索实现社会福利和企业创新减排利润同时最优的政策区间。研究发现:相比于排放税,企业利润对排放权价格变化更为敏感;企业最优的从市场取得的排放权相对于超排量的比例与利润之间呈倒U形关系;在排放税税率与排放权单价的价差较小,且排放税率略低于排放权价格时,可实现经济与环境的双赢。为了使复合政策的效率最大化,建议减排政策中应避免排放税和排放权同低或同高的情形。     

Optimal Production Tax and Quota under Time Consistent Trade Policies

This article investigates the policy active importers' incentives and welfare implications of using production and trade policies in a dynamic framework where production decisions occur before consumption decisions. We show that the equilibrium for production taxes and quotas are not equivalent, and that each equilibrium depends on whether the trade policy instruments are tariffs or quotas. Under import quotas, the equilibrium policy is to tax domestic production, whereas under a tariff either a production tax or subsidy may be optimal. We also show that a collective agreement to ban production policies is likely to be welfare-improving in many circumstances.     

Is fertiliser use inconsistent with expected profit maximization in sub‐Saharan Africa? “Evidence from Nigeria”

This article revisits a conventional wisdom that inorganic fertiliser use across sub‐Saharan Africa is too low. This expectation that more farmers should be using inorganic fertiliser, and at higher rates, implies it is profitable to use rates higher than observed if farmers are rational expected profit maximisers. We obtain consistent estimates of the effects of applied nitrogen on rice production. We find the yield response to applied nitrogen to be low in the main rice growing farming system. Farmer behaviour is not inconsistent with expected profitability which is limited by a low yield response to applied fertiliser, high transportation costs, and low selling prices for rice in rural areas. In particular, we do not find any farmers for whom applied nitrogen is profitable that are not using fertiliser in the study sample for each of our survey years (2010 and 2012).     

NONPOINT POLLUTION,WEEDS AND RISK

Nonpoint pollution from agricultural production continues to force regulators to rethink policies aimed at reducing input sources such as herbicides and fertilisers. This paper considers how a producer's choice of an input strategy defined by application rate or persistence affects input-use patterns, and consequently, nonpoint pollution. Working within an endogenous risk framework, we explore how input sets with herbicides defined either as self-insurance or self-protection are affected by increased risk of herbicide treatment failure. Our results suggest that increased risk will generally decrease both herbicide and fertiliser application rates, resulting in the use of less flexible and less persistent herbicides. In addition, a quantity constraint policy restricting the amount of herbicide applied will decrease the amount of fertiliser applied.     

Modeling the Effects of Input Market Reforms on Fertiliser Demand and Maize Production: A Case Study from Kenya

Kenya is one of the few countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa to experience an impressive rise in fertiliser use following a series of input market reforms in the early 1990s. Two major consequences of these reforms were declining fertiliser marketing margins and distances between farmers and fertiliser dealers. We quantify the effects of these changes on commercial fertiliser use and maize production in Kenya by estimating fertiliser demand and maize supply response functions using nationwide household survey data. Our results indicate that between 1997 and 2010, the estimated 27% reduction in real fertiliser prices that can be attributed to falling marketing margins associated with market reforms led to a 36% increase in nitrogen use on maize fields and a 9% increase in maize production resulting from both yield and acreage effects. On the other hand, decreasing distances to fertiliser retailers from the perspective of a given household did not appear to raise fertiliser use or maize supply, although a comparison across households using average distances over the panel indicate that those closer to retailers do apply more fertiliser on their maize fields.     

Farmers in a deregulated dairy regime: Insights from Ireland's New Entrants Scheme

While the impending review of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is set to have an impact on all farming sectors across Europe, particularly transformative change is sought by policies relating to dairy farmers. EU milk quota abolition in 2015 will fundamentally revise the terms of dairy production, transitioning from policies of subsidy and protection to a scenario where farmers will produce milk on the open market. Dairy quota abolition essentially represents an economic but also socio-cultural disruption for a sizeable cohort of farmers, requiring adaptation to more market-driven production strategies. Agricultural policy-makers in EU member states are demonstrably preparing for this imminent change and dairy farmers are considering and strategising their responses at farm-level. Our focus in this paper is the interplay between quota abolition and farm-level decision-making in the pre-abolition period. Drawing from a broader mixed-methodological and multi-disciplinary research project, this paper uses qualitative narrative analysis to identify the key determinants arising in dairy farmers’ decision-making processes. How are farmers currently strategising their responses to dairy quota deregulation? Using the qualitative Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), we examine the range of factors determining how a particular group of dairy farmers are strategising their positions on the impending open dairy market. Our analysis highlights how, in the advent of a deregulated dairy production regime, dairy farmers are carefully deliberating their responses at farm level, drawing from policy and market related information, their own personal speculations, and conventional wisdom shared with other members of the farming community. We find that the dairy farmers are influenced not only by motivations to increase productivity and scale but by a tenacious approach to farm sustainability and resilience that is informed by past experiences of farming and seeks to preserve and promote socio-cultural farming values. The paper is of particular interest to policy makers and academics interested in the interchange between policy and farmer behaviour, particularly in the context of current CAP reform.     

我国绿色矿山鼓励政策评析

现有绿色矿山鼓励政策有财政专项资金支持政策、资源配置倾斜政策、相关税费减免政策。财政专项支持与资源配置政策缺乏直接对责任行为和建设过程的激励;相关税费减免政策则存在增值税优惠范围较小,所得税优惠力度不大,对技术创新的鼓励方式较为单一,对矿山企业缺乏针对性等不足。推动绿色矿山建设的政策建议：⑴着力引导矿山企业主动履行资源环境责任;⑵建立履行资源环境责任的激励机制,激励政策要立足矿山企业生产实际,重点应由结果奖励转向过程激励,注重激励与约束并举;⑶制定绿色矿山税收优惠政策,要进一步加大增值税和所得税支持力度,扩大矿产资源补偿费和资源税减免优惠。     

Quota Transfer Assessments and Efficiency

In order to fund production/marketing quota redistributions or reduce the amount of quota outstanding, regulators often tax quota asset market trades. This assessment is shown to impede the transfer of quota to more efficient producers if rental markets are prohibited. Inefficient producers will produce too much, and the magnitude of cost inefficiencies will increase with the size of the assessment tax. Possible remedies to the problem are also discussed.     

Alternative Approaches to Compensation and Producer Rights

When policies are changed, it is not uncommon for losers to be compensated. Economic theory and quantitative analysis are useful in determining the efficiency gains/losses associated with a policy change, but are little help in deciding what the approach to compensation should be. The amount of compensation varies, depending on, in part, the political clout of the parties being negatively affected by a policy change—compensation is what politicians and the sector demanding compensation can agree on. We formulate four approaches to producer compensation within the context of the Ontario Tobacco Transition Program, where producers would have suffered losses in the absence of compensation. The approaches range from providing zero compensation to providing compensation based on the entire value of the tobacco quota. The Canadian government chose the latter and compensated producers for the termination of the tobacco quota program based on an approach that far exceeded other possible compensation approaches.     

中国农林生物质发电产业现行电价补贴效果研究

从生物质能源电价补贴政策视角出发,构建了政府、企业、中间人和农户为一体的农林生物质发电产业系统动力学模型,通过模拟、对比不同补贴政策组合下的实施效果,对现行补贴政策进行量化评价。结果表明:现行补贴额度无法扭转发电企业亏损状态,且现行的直接退出机制将导致企业出现更为严重的亏损,而适当调整补贴额度并实行逐减退出方式可提高各主体及产业整体利润。因此,为了促进中国农林生物质发电产业的快速发展,就要保障生物质补贴资金优先及时发放,同时推进可再生能源配额制度和绿证交易制度建设,以促进产业快速良序发展,实现生物质资源充分利用。     

ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OVER TIME OF WEST JAVANESE RICE FARMS

The high costs and effectiveness of Indonesia's current mix of policies aimed at maintaining rice self-sufficiency, for example fertiliser and other subsidies, has been questioned. Consequently, attention has turned to developing policies to increase farmers yields through efficiencies, for example as a result of better extension. The main issue investigated in this article is whether existing yields can be significantly improved through increasing the efficiency of individual farmers. Production frontiers are estimated and technical efficiencies/inefficiencies predicted from panel data and for one year at a time. Different results are explained in relation to a number of aspects, especially the rate of adoption of new technologies, and policy actions are recommended. The robustness of the analysis is examined as conclusions obtained from past analyses have often been inconsistent.     

An Economic Analysis of Groundwater Contamination from Agricultural Nitrate Emissions in Southern Ontario

This paper analyzes the costs and benefits of controlling groundwater pollution from agricultural use of nitrogen fertilizer in southwestern Ontario. The Village of Hensall, where nitrate concentrations have been observed above 10 mg/L in recent years, is selected as the study site.'The CREAMS simulation model is used to estimate the effect of reducing nitrogen fertilizer on nitrate leaching and consequently on nitrate groundwater pollution. Estimates of the value of groundwater are obtained from the literature and are used to calculate the off-farm cost of groundwater contamination. This procedure results in a wide range of values for the benefits of reducing nitrate pollution. Estimated annual benefits of improved ground-water quality range from less than $1,000 to more than $30,000 for the village. The off-farm benefits of nitrate groundwater pollution abatement outweigh the cost of using bottled water and also exceed the on-farm cost of reducing nitrogen fertilizer application rates. Placing a tax on nitrogen fertilizer would reduce the level of nitrogen applications, but the farm cost of compliance to a nitrogen tax policy is substantially higher than the compliance cost under a regulatory policy that imposes a quantitative ceiling on nitrogen application rates over the part of the aquifer from which the village draws its water supply.