PRIVATISING THE PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE: PROMISE AND PITFALLS FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION

In the absence of some form of government intervention, knowledge is a classic public good which will be under-produced because of lack of price excludability. Government intervention may take the form of establishing intellectual property rights, or other means of shielding knowledge-based innovations from imitation or copying. Such intervention offers the prospect of 'privatising' the production of knowledge in the sense that a certain level of private knowledge production may become profitable if producers can appropriate at least part of the benefits of R&D. However, publicly funded R&D or extension still can 'crowd out' private knowledge production by charging lower prices. The principal finding of this study is that such 'crowding out' behaviour may be efficient in the sense of being potentially Pareto superior even if it is at the expense of public funding for so called 'orphan' areas of knowledge production which are privately unprofitable. The reason why conventional conclusions about privatisation and 'crowding out' of private goods need not apply to rural research and extension is that private goods are both rival in consumption and price excludable, while knowledge is intrinsically non rival in consumption even if it can be made price excludable.     

Market and welfare implications of the reservation price strategy for forest harvest decisions

Previous studies have reported significant gains from adopting the adaptive harvest strategy under conditions of timber price uncertainty. For the final harvest decision in even-aged stand management, the adaptive strategy typically means that a stand is harvested when the timber price is sufficiently high, whereas low prices are avoided by postponing the harvest. Such a harvest behavior may have significant impacts on the future price process, which in turn affects the landowner's profits. Moreover, it would certainly affect the timber-based industry and consumers. This paper assesses these impacts in a hypothetical timber market, using the Faustmann rule (FR) as a benchmark. The results show that changing from the FR to the reservation price strategy (RPS) reduces the supply of timber, thereby pushes up the price level. The RPS significantly reduces the short-run random variation of timber price. In the long run, both the mean and the variance of the timber price tend to stabilize. Depending on the anticipated price variation underlying the RPS, the expected timber price may be close to, or much higher than, the benchmark level, and the variance of price can be very large or very small. The welfare effect of the RPS is small if the anticipated variance of timber price used to optimize the RPS is small. If the anticipated variance of price is large, then the RSP leads to significant increase in the landowners’ profits and at the same time reduces the consumer surplus by a much larger amount.     

Joint estimation using revealed and stated preference data: An application using a national forest

We combine contingent behaviour with travel cost data to estimate the change in the recreational use value of a National Forest due to quality and price changes. Instead of the usual improvement scenario, a hypothetical deterioration in the conditions of the forest due to a fire is considered. A dataset containing five observations for each respondent enabled the estimation of three models for which the number of scenarios differed. The results show that visitors are sensitive to price and quality changes and that in the forest fire scenario the intended number of trips would be reduced and that respondents would experience a welfare loss. Signs of inconsistency between preferences expressed by revealed and intended behaviour were found. This research also provides some indications that strategic bias affects answers to price changes.     

The nature of the research-induced supply shift

Differences among firms in a competitive industry can affect the shape of the industry supply curve. It is necessary to know how both production costs and rents are affected by research. Industry response to research will be different depending upon whether entry occurs. If the effect of entry is ignored, then the price decline from research will be overstated. Industry marginal returns can be positive with purely yield-increasing research, even when industry demand is inelastic. Standard formulas for calculating producer surplus based on linear industry supply and demand curves are strictly valid only if the analysis is restricted to short-run equilibrium behaviour.     

Price Discrimination in Russian Wheat Exports: Evidence from Firm‐level Data

Russia emerged as an important wheat exporter in recent years raising the question of how this will affect international wheat markets. In particular developing countries – the main destination of Russian wheat exports – could be harmed by aggressive pricing behaviour. This article analyses the exertion of price discrimination by Russian wheat exporting firms based on Krugman's pricing‐to‐market hypothesis. We apply Knetter's panel model to a firm‐level dataset and find evidence for price‐discriminating behaviour by Russian firms in 25 out of 61 destination countries over the period 2002–2011.     

用材林林地资产动态评估模型构建研究

以福建省西北部用材林为研究对象,在林地期望价修正法的基础上,考虑随着时间推移和社会经济变异所引起的林地质量差异、地区差异和物价变异,构建出由林地标准地租、立地差异系数、集材费用、运输费用、地区差异系数和物价变动指数所组成林地资产动态评估模型。研究结果表明,该模型是符合福建省西北部当地的地租水平的,可方便、快捷地对用材林林地资产进行评定估。     

Middlemen behaviour and generic advertising rents in competitive interrelated industries

This article focuses on the role of middlemen in determining the returns to generic advertising in a competitive industry where supply is uncontrolled, the price of marketing inputs is endogenous, and retail markets are interrelated through consumer preferences. Theoretical analysis suggests farm-gate returns (quasi-rents) are overstated when input substitution at middlemen level is ignored, a result confirmed in the empirical application. As for mark-up behaviour, represented by the farm-retail price transmission elasticity, a general result is that farm-gate returns to generic advertising always increase as the transmission elasticity decreases, provided retail demand is more elastic than input substitution. Endogenising the price of marketing inputs has little effect on advertising rents.     

MARKETING MARGINS IN THE MEAT SECTOR,ENGLAND AND WALES 1978–1987

The paper presents a basic analysis of price spread data for beef, lamb and pork over the period 1978 to 1987. The results are reviewed in the light of existing margin theory in order to assess how far the characteristics of price and margin behaviour today differ from those highlighted in earlier work. It is concluded that while short run behaviour is well explained, further research is required if we are to fully understand the factors influencing the longer term development of margins in the meat sector.     

A REGRESSION TEST OF THE PRESENT VALUE MODEL OF US FARMLAND PRICES

Regression methods previously employed to study stock price movements are used to test how well the present value model under rational expectations explains farmland price movements. Based on data on farmland prices and rents (returns to landownership) covering the period 1921-89 from three agricultural regions in the United States, the empirical results reject the present value model under rational expectations. These results suggest that farmers may be well-characterised as displaying satisficing rather than profit-maximising behaviour.     

中国粮食价格支持的政策优化与未来走向*——基于美国指控中国粮食价格支持过度的分析

[目的]分析2015年美国DTB联合公司(DTB Associates,LLP)针对中国粮食(仅包括小麦、大米和玉米)的价格支持力度过度的指控是否合理,并明确我国实际的粮食市场价格支持情况。[方法]文章根据市场价格支持水平的基本计算公式以及我国向WTO的通报文件和公开资料,对2013/2014年度我国小麦、大米和玉米的实际市场价格支持水平进行了重新测算,并将测算结果与指控内容进行了对比分析和讨论。[结果]测算结果表明,2013/2014年度,我国对小麦、大米和玉米的实际市场价格支持水平分别为168亿元、-221亿元和36亿元,远远低于DTB联合公司的公布结果。[结论]美国DTB联合公司对我国粮食市场价格支持过度的指控不实,主要是指标选取有误和数据选取不合理导致了其对我国粮食价格支持力度过高的判断。为从容应对以后可能面临的国际指控和调查,我国需要在支持手段、支持领域等方面进一步优化粮食市场价格支持政策。     

PRICING EFFICIENCY IN THE RETAIL MEAT MARKET*

The degree of pricing efficiency achieved in the retail meat market is reconsidered in this paper. The approach adopted is to develop an economic model of the pricing behaviour of retail butchers, to postulate a behavioural model consistent with the economic model, and to test this model using the data supplied by three retail butchers. The results indicate that the deleterious effects of price levelling and averaging practices on pricing efficiency may have been understated in earlier studies. It is concluded that further research is required to re-assess the extent of the problem of pricing efficiency in the retail meat market.     

A Hedonic Analysis of Nutrition and Health Claims on Fruit Beverage Products

This paper investigates the effects on prices of nutrition and health claims for foodstuffs, in addition to other attributes, using fruit beverages as a case study. The model estimation is based on revealed purchasing behaviour for fruit beverages in the north‐east of Italy. Applying an hedonic price model, the price of a product is explained as a function of product attributes. The model estimate identifies the implicit retail‐market‐level price of specific attributes such as nutrition and health claims, ceteris paribus. Nutrition and health claims significantly affect retail prices. Our findings suggest that retail price response to nutrition and health claims differs in relation to other product attributes, showing a strong reduction of price variation among flavours when such benefits are claimed on the label.     

TRADITIONAL MARGINS AND THE IMPACT OF A COST-SAVING INNOVATION

Retailers tend to have a traditional level of mark-up and to charge the same mark-up even if the product is improved so that waste is reduced. Under these circumstances the result of improving a product is that producers sell less at a lower price, consumers buy more at a lower price and retailers obtain a larger percentage margin. The producers suffer as a result of their innovation. Excess capacity at retail may be caused.     

Price or politics? An investigation of the causes of expropriation*

Expropriations of foreign direct investment in developing countries are typically blamed on political and economic crises in those countries. Developing a new database of expropriations in the minerals sectors of developing country exporters, I show that expropriations were correlated with mineral price booms and that democratic governments were more likely to expropriate. No link is found between expropriations and political or economic crises, except at independence. A better explanation of expropriation would be opportunistic behaviour by host governments when profits of investments are high. In two developed countries, Australia and Canada, expropri‐ations are also found to occur during price booms.     

我国粮食市场风险的度量与评估  ———基于风险价值法的实证分析

该文利用风险价值法,以我国小麦、玉米、粳稻、早籼稻、晚籼稻、大豆的市场价格为研究对象,度量了我国粮食市场的风险大小,评估了我国粮食市场风险的发生程度。结果表明:我国粮食市场是一个风险发生频率较高的市场,并且还是一个高风险市场;不同品种粮食市场风险的发生大小有所不同,其中大豆的市场风险值最大,其次为玉米、粳稻、早籼稻、晚籼稻,小麦的市场风险值最小;粮食市场价格下跌风险与市场价格上涨风险的发生频率基本相当,两者同等重要,在重点关注粮食价格上涨风险的同时,更应重视粮食价格下跌所产生的风险。     

地价与房价的因果关系——全国和城市层面的计量研究

研究目的:系统地探讨地价与房价的因果关系。研究方法:计量经济学方法和比较法。研究结果:从全国层面而言,作为房价与地价一般性代表的房屋销售价格指数和土地交易价格指数之间互为长期和短期Granger因,但房价的变动对地价变动的影响力更大些。而对23个大中城市的计量研究表明,各城市地价与房价的关系不是唯一而确定的,房价的增长更多地受自身因素而不是地价的影响。研究结论:地价与房价的关系是复杂且因地而异的,以一个案例的分析结果来断定两者的关系是有失偏颇的。     

Stumpage prices in Sweden 1909–2012: Testing for non-stationarity

The price of timber stumpage is one of the few natural-resource rents that can be directly observed as a market price. Rules for optimal timber harvesting under uncertainty have been found to depend on whether the timber rent price is non-stationary or stationary. In this study we extend previous research by Hultkrantz (1995) that tested for unit-root with an exogenous break point in Swedish stumpage prices from 1909 to 1990, employing data up to 2012, hence for 104 years, and unit-root tests with endogenously selected break points. We find support for a structural level break at the end of WW2 and that non-stationarity can be rejected. We show that this is a robust conclusion. There is thus no sign of a new break in the extended recent time period and no signal of a secular increase of timber resource scarcity.     

Gender differences in marketing styles

Recent research has found that men trade stocks more frequently than women and receive a lower price as a result. The behavioral finance literature attributes this greater trading activity to men's overconfidence. Women's lack of overconfidence and past agricultural economics research suggest the possibility that women may be better at marketing grain than men. This article uses actual transactions of farmers marketing wheat and also finds that men trade more often than women. Women also sell two weeks later in the marketing year. There is no direct effect of gender on price received, but by storing longer women receive 1.4 cents/bushel less than men, on average. In contrast to the arguments in previous research, we argue that men's greater number of trades can be better explained by men enjoying trading rather than by overconfidence.     

A practical method for evaluating parking area level of service

In recent years, some of the commonly used indicators in parking management have changed. Maximizing the supply and minimizing the price were the main objectives before, but today, optimizing the parking supply and price is the major objective. This research introduces a parking area level of service, which has not been previously addressed, to evaluate the new objectives of sustainable development with the existing parking areas. For the purpose of this research, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was selected as a case study to implement this method in an academic context. This method may also be utilized for other land uses, but some adjustments should be applied. In addition, based on the existing failures, some improvements are proposed to enhance parking efficiency.     

Short-Run Output Response in the Western Canadian Cattle Industry

This paper present the results of recent empirical work on the short-run producetion flexibility of cow-calf producers in Western Canada. Several aspects of firm behaviour may be inferred from the econometric estimates, including short-run elasticities of supply and factor demand, and the total elasticity of cattle supply. The principal empirical findings are that many of the shourt-run supply and factor demand responses of firms, are elastic with respect to within-season price variability. The evidence does not support a vertical or negatively-sloped short-run supply curve for cattle, where one previously has been hypothesized in the theoretical literature.