Agricultural planning,pricing policy and co-operatives in Vietnam

In the competition between national government and local co-operatives, a central contradiction in socialist rural development, the price system, market control and terms of trade are crucially related to the relative power and capacity of the central government to control ratios of accumulation and consumption. In Vietnam there is a dynamic interaction between government and agricultural producers over pricing policy and paradoxically, it is the co-operative, primarily viewed by the state as a means of providing cheap food, which has strengthened the collective bargaining position of agricultural producers. The government has had to introduce material incentives to expand agricultural production beyond subsistence levels and bow to pressure to alter the previous accumulation/consumption ratios in favour of consumption.     

Economic tactics: Commercial policy and the socialization of African agriculture

Commercial policies in some African countries have come under considerable criticism in recent years and it has become necessary to resolve the problems of existing agricultural marketing forms. An alternative approach to the market liberalization commonly recommended is to intervene in the market so as to achieve its regulation and control and a pricing system which can and will support the socialization of agricultural production in collective farms, maintain incentives for individual producers and encourage state procurement of basic crops. Such market control cannot be achieved without an active commercial policy based on the transformation of marketing institutions, effective forms of market intervention and the devolution of considerable power over pricing and marketing from the national to the local levels.     

Dynamic price discovery in Chinese agricultural futures markets

Research has not fully explored how Chinese agricultural futures markets perform their price discovery function over time. Our paper examines the role of Chinese agricultural futures markets in the price discovery process based on three well-established measurements of average price discovery contribution, and more importantly, the dynamic price discovery measurement. Using daily futures and spot prices from fourteen agricultural commodities, we find eleven contracts are efficient in price discovery. Besides, market-oriented changes in policies strengthen the price discovery performance of most futures markets, except for commodities that rely heavily on imports from other countries. Our results also suggest that trading activity is particularly important in determining whether thinly traded contracts are efficient in price discovery. Our paper provides a comprehensive judgment involving both average and dynamic price discovery contribution measurements on assessing the efficiency of Chinese agricultural futures markets. Our results might also serve as a reminder that market-oriented reforms in the spot markets of commodities might be useful to intensify the pricing power of the futures markets.     

A supply‐response analysis of Botswana's livestock and sorghum: An error‐correction approach

This article is a supply‐response analysis of Botswana's livestock and sorghum relative to agricultural/non‐agricultural prices (terms of trade), and of capital‐labour ratio, using an error‐correction method. Aggregate capital‐labour ratio is included to measure the importance of resource endowment in particular sectors. There has been, on average, a small progressive increase in livestock terms of trade and a decline in that of sorghum. Improvements in livestock price terms of trade encourage increased livestock (cattle) supply whereas declining terms of trade reduce sorghum production. The current arable pricing policy of the government is therefore of limited potential in transforming the sub‐sector. Increases in capital‐labour ratio tend to reduce agricultural production in the Botswana economy.     

Agricultural price policy in Tanzania

This paper examines agricultural price policy implementation and its strategic impact in Tanzania over the period 1969–1980. Trends in producer prices and the rural—urban terms of trade are analysed by constructing weighted price and income indices for major categories of crops marketed through official channels. The results indicate a substantial deterioration of real prices and incomes from crop sales during the 1970s. When taken in conjunction with a concomitant deterioration in the efficiency of agricultural marketing the analysis suggests that price policy has had a major adverse impact both on peasant living standards and on the economic performance of Tanzania since the mid-1960s.     

GROWTH ACCOUNTING FOR SRI LANKA'S AGRICULTURE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FERTILIZER AND NONAGRICULTURAL PRICES: DO POLICY REFORMS AFFECT AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT?

The agricultural sector of Sri Lanka reacted sharply to the highly contentious policy reforms called Structural Adjustment Programs. We used a four‐sector general equilibrium model under a growth accounting approach to find out the effect of the policy (exogenous) variable on the target (endogenous) variable. Here, we considered only the most important variables, and the overall results indicate that policy changes are favorable to overall agricultural development, although their effect on the domestic food sector is negative. The most serious negative determinant under the policy changes relates to fertilizer, and our study indicates that fertilizer prices considerably affect agricultural production; it especially has a negative effect on domestic food production. Second, this paper analyzes the impact of nonagricultural price, finding that it positively helped the development of overall agriculture. Third, agricultural exports increased under the new policy reforms and made large contributions to agricultural production.     

国外碳定价机制经验对中国实现双碳目标的启示

当前碳排放管理工作处于发展初期，碳定价机制运行效果尚不明显。通过分析全球碳定价机制运行情况，对比发现中国碳定价机制存在价格低、覆盖范围窄、配套政策不完善等问题。最后借鉴发达国家经验，从提高碳价、增加覆盖范围、完善配套措施等方面提出中国碳定价机制发展的政策建议。     

Food policy conflicts in Bangladesh

The objective of this paper is to show that the reality of a food policy aim of self-sufficiency is very complex and full of internal inconsistencies. In particular, the author stresses the conflicts of interest between the consumers and producers of foodgrains in Bangladesh, which create obstacles to the success of their recently devised development goals. He sets the scene by providing details of foodgrain production, food availability per capita and levels of malnutrition, and then introduces the policy conflicts in increasing food production. The author then discusses several attempts to resolve the conflict through price control, consumer subsidies, and direct aid to producers through encouraging the use of fertilizers and irrigation. This leads to the conclusion that government policy and outside aid must aim at both the production and the consumption of food in order for increased food supplies to reach those who need them most.     

Changes in Chinese Competitiveness in Major Food Products: Implications for WTO Membership

Chinese entry to the WTO in December 2001 marks a new phase in agricultural trade, both nationally and globally. After a context review of Chinese agriculture and WTO-related policy issues, this paper first uses a Balassa index approach to examine China's relative competitiveness in some major food products over the period since 1985, followed by an analysis of price-cost ratios and production cost structures for these products. It is found that China has revealed comparative advantages in meat products but disadvantages in cereals. With limited land resources, its production and trade competitiveness has declined despite rapid substitution of capital for labour, due to a marked rise in relative labour price in agriculture. In the long run, it is expected that WTO membership will boost Chinese agricultural trade, but its impact on competitiveness will probably depend more on production costs, and will differ between crops and animal products.     

Indonesia's Transition to a Net Oil Importing Country: Critical Issues in the Downstream Oil Sector

Given its limited oil reserves and increasing petroleum product consumption, Indonesia will become a net oil importer in the near future, facing increasing petroleum product imports while continuing to export still available but diminishing crude oil This paper examines the implications of that prospect for Indonesia's terms of trade, assessing the future supply and demand balance in the domestic market The assessment includes a petroleum price forecast vis-à-vis the international market, in which Indonesia imports more valuable products while exporting less valuable crude oils To meet this challenge, the key policy issue in the downstream oil sector is the need to bring private participation into the refining and retailing business, by means of a freer market pricing policy and private access to the domestic market.     

巴基斯坦风电发展现状及其政策研究

巴基斯坦政府十分重视可再生能源的利用与开发,制定了多种优惠政策,鼓励私人投资风电,促进风电产业的发展。尽管巴基斯坦目前还没有成规模的风电场,但其风电政策优惠,电价透明合理,内部收益率高,对独立发电商有较大吸引力。本文介绍了当前巴基斯坦发展风电的现状、政策,其电价政策对我国的风电市场具有一定的参考意义。     

Blue Box Policy Reform in the Doha Round Negotiations： Effects and China＇s Position

This paper uses an agricultural trade policy simulation model to quantitatively evaluate the effects of Blue Box policy reform on agricultural production and trade, and further provides specific proposals regarding China ＇ s reform position. The results indicate that, if the reform could achieve a reduction in distorting supports in more developed countries, China＇ s total agricultural production would increase, accompanied by a decrease in agricultural imports and a slight increase in exports. In terms of social welfare, producers would gain significantly, consumers would lose and government would not suffer greatly, which is in accordance with current agricultural policies in China. As a core member of G20, China should approve a subsidy level as low as possible required by Blue Box to achieve ＂substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic supports＂.     

Vehicle currency pricing and its positive welfare consequences under optimal monetary policy

Using a two-country general equilibrium model, this paper analytically derives the possibility of positive welfare consequences of vehicle currency use in invoicing international trades. Such vehicle currency use is prominent in the data. The literature points out welfare loss under optimal monetary policy due to vehicle currency pricing relative to the flexible price equilibrium outcome, modeling only tradable goods. By introducing nontradable goods and their sector-specific productivity shocks, this paper provides a closed-form condition under which one country's welfare is higher under optimal monetary policy if its exports are invoiced with the other country's currency than if invoiced with its own currency, given that the other country's exports are invoiced with the producer's currency. That is, this paper derives a condition under which vehicle currency pricing is preferred by the nonvehicle currency country to producer currency pricing.     

Flexibility in input substitution: A case study of South African agriculture

Differences in elasticities of substitution between agricultural inputs over time in South African agricultural production were measured. The translog functional specification was used for empirical estimation of factor share equations derived from cost data. This was done by using duality that exists between the production function and the cost function along the expansion path. South African agriculture exhibits less flexibility in dealing with input price variation, especially machinery, than US agriculture. The relative rigidity of the South African agricultural production process may at least partially be attributed to present competitive structures, and has important implications for development policy, especially with regard to the success obtained with policy measures favouring relative input subsidisation over the short term.     

成品油定价机制完善前后政策变化的实证考察

2013年3月国家发改委发布了新的成品油价格形成机制完善调整办法,新机制政策指向性明显,即在缩短调价周期的同时降低定价办法执行过程中的人为影响和随意性,保证机制和规则自身效用的最大化发挥。为考察成品油定价机制完善前后政策执行上的变化和差异,从实证角度出发,针对成品油定价机制调整以后在价格响应滞后性、规则透明度以及政策执行严谨性三个方面进行分析。分析结果表明,成品油定价机制调整后,国内成品油价格调整对于国际原油价格变化响应的滞后性明显缩短,定价政策执行的严谨性得到加强,价格调整触发和调价幅度计算的规则透明性有所下降。     

Empirical information on beef production in regions of Namibia as an aid to restructuring the livestock farming industry along equitable lines

The paper considers the regional influence of prices and access to markets on beef numbers in Namibia, given the present inequalities, by using econometric analysis of time‐series data. This is relevant because Namibia is in a process of structural adjustment following independence in 1990. and in view of the livestock industry's importance in the Namibian economy. The results accentuate the role of access to markets in beef production in Namibia. Where access is severely restricted due to lack of infrastructure, such as processing facilities and adequate transport for example in the communal regions, beef producers do not act on price incentives, or cltmatological and ecological variables. However, beef producers with limited access to markets, mainly due to high transport costs, do react to environmental changes, but not to price incentives. Only producers with easy access to markets react to both environmental changes and price incentives. The major conclusion is that the present production and marketing structure in Namibia with respect to beef is probably not optimal. The results highlight the need for an overall policy which accounts for all related industries, producers, consumers and other relevant factors simultaneously.     

The First World War and the origins of the dual policy of development in Kenya 1914–1922

This article examines the impact of the First World War and its aftermath on decisions relating to the economic development of Kenya. The rather incoherent and inconsistent pre-war policy towards development was transformed by the coming of the war into a concentrated and exclusive concern for the future of European settler agriculture. The labour and taxation aspects of post-war policy in Kenya aroused much opposition. The Colonial Office in the face of challenges from the settlers, the Indian population and from rioting Africans and of a financial crisis in Kenya declared itself in favour of a dual policy of development.     

What Determines China's Grain Imports and Self‐sufficiency? The Role of Rising Domestic Costs and Varying World Market Prices

China's grain sectors have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years as the ever‐increasing and historically high level of grain output has failed to reduce grain imports. On the contrary, high grain imports and high domestic stock have accompanied historically high domestic output, a situation dubbed the “triple high” phenomenon in current policy discussion. This paper explores the role of widening domestic–world market price gaps in determining the triple high phenomenon. Unlike earlier studies that relied on production capacities, this paper argues that domestic production and demand (hence imports) are functions of domestic and world market prices and proposes an analytical framework to explicitly capture such price gaps under restricted trade linkages in general equilibrium. Following this approach, a set of price scenarios for the 2011–2020 period are constructed and simulated in a computable general equilibrium model. Results from the core scenarios, in which recent domestic and world market price trends are assumed to continue, suggest that further widening price gaps would substantially increase grain imports and reduce domestic output (by 60 million tons) and self‐sufficiency ratios from base levels. In the alternative scenarios with larger (smaller) price gaps, we find higher (lower) imports and larger (smaller) decreases in domestic output and self‐sufficiency ratios. Such results provide important policy implications as China's agricultural policy undergoes significant adjustment.     

Existence and uniqueness of marginal cost pricing equilibrium

This paper considers a regulated monopoly that is subject to a marginal cost pricing policy. A marginal cost pricing equilibrium is a price-subsidy combination for which price equals marginal production cost and any losses are offset by the lump-sum subsidy. Employing basic degree theoretic results, conditions are established under which a marginal cost pricing equilibrium exists and is unique.     

The Price of Electricity in Indonesia

Persistent shortages of electric power and of capital to fund power system expansion have recently prompted the Indonesian government to allow the private sector to supply electricity. Price has become a controversial issue—both the retail price private producers would charge the public, and the wholesale price at which they would seil in bulk to the state utility, PLN The government has traditionally kept the retail price below cost to support economic development objectives, and subsidies have covered PLN's losses. Opponents of private power argue that without subsidies private suppliers would have to raise the retail price to unacceptable levels—according to PLN, almost 50% more per kilowatt-hour than its own price. The paper assesses PLN's claim by quantifying hidden subsidies, and demonstrates that, if these were properly taken into account, the average retail price per kilowatt-hour for 1980–93 should have been 46% higher than it was.