The impact of transport-and transaction-cost reductions on food markets in developing countries: evidence for tempered expectations for Burkina Faso

Reductions in transport and transaction costs are expected to have a major effect on the functioning of food markets in developing countries. For Burkina Faso, this is a relevant issue as it may have important consequences for the food markets in urban and rural deficit areas. A partial equilibrium model is presented to analyze the short-term effects of reduced costs on price formation, inter-regional cereal trade, and farmers' and traders' storage strategies. Our results show that the high expectations with regard to the direct effects of cost reductions on food prices and food availability require some nuance. The effects of a reduction of transport costs will be small. Moreover, also the unintended negative consequences on the competitive position of farmers and traders in other regions that do not profit from road construction should be taken into account. Finally, it is concluded that only if transport and transaction costs are reduced simultaneously, will both the consumers and farmers benefit significantly.     

Estimating Policy Effects on Spatial Market Eff iciency: An Extension to the Parity Bounds Model

The standard parity bounds model (PBM) is extended to allow for dynamic shifts in regime probabilities in response to changes in marketing policy. The approach allows estimation of the length of the adjustment period and a statistical test for no policy effects. The extended PBM is applied to maize and wheat markets in Ethiopia. Evidence of a dynamic adjustment path is found and grain marketing reforms are found to have improved spatial efficiency in a few markets, worsened it in a few others, but generally to have had little effect on the spatial efficiency of Ethiopian grain markets.     

Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China

This study uses resource‐based measures to explore the evolution of China's demand and supply for food. China's dietary shift from plant to animal‐based foods, induced by its income growth, is likely to impose considerable pressure on agricultural resources. China's demand for food on this measure appears consistent with global trends, while China is an out‐performer on the supply side, producing much more food than its income level and land endowment would predict. China's current per capita income is in a range where consumption growth is high and in excess of production growth, but the gap between supply and demand is likely to diminish as population and per capita consumption growth decelerate. Continuing agricultural productivity growth and sustainable resource management will be important influences on the growth of China's future net import demand for food.     

中国天然橡胶供需矛盾及进口结构演变分析

对1998~2007年中国天然橡胶的产地分布、供需矛盾、进口市场及进口品种结构进行了实证分析,结果表明:中国天然橡胶存在产地数量少、自给率低、供需矛盾恶化、进口依存度和进口市场集中率高的问题;经济发展将刺激中国天然橡胶的进口需求继续增长,天然橡胶进口价格有可能继续上升,对国内相关产业影响是长期的,中国天然橡胶安全问题愈发紧迫。最后,提出中国天然橡胶进口弥补、战略储备、高级生产要素培育和海外投资等战略措施。     

团队多样性、认知需求与团队绩效--以林业企业管理团队为例

随着用人观念的转变,工作团队成员的背景也开始出现较大差异。团队多样性和团队绩效的关系一直是管理学研究的热点。从信息决策视角出发,通过研究对78个林业企业管理团队、302位受访者进行调查,探究多样化团队与团队绩效的关系,并对认知需求的调节作用和任务信息说明以及团队认同感的中介作用做深入分析,提出了对林业企业组建工作团队管理的建议。     

江苏省林业生产资金投入分析与政策研究

江苏林业已得到了相当大的发展并已初步呈现出其特色。江苏省林业生产还有相当大的发展空间,但资金不足是其发展的主要障碍之一,在现有融资渠道基础上进一步拓展,构建多元化的融资渠道是支持江苏省林业发展的关键。根据公益林和商品林的不同特性,应分别制定相应的政策以引导和鼓励多元投资。     

农地习俗元制度的共同性、多样性与差异性

习俗作为内生性元制度，具有极为丰富的内涵与外延，对于农地习俗元制度来讲，农地习俗元制度具有共同性、多样性与差异性特征。本文从财产继承制度、农地利用制度、农地流转制度等方面分析了农地习俗元制度的共同性、多样性与差异性，并从宗祧继嗣观念、财产祖有观念和习俗元制度变迁的路径依赖等说明了农地习俗元具有共同性、多样性与差异性的原因。     

植物品种权交易中的“囚徒困境”博弈分析

借助"囚徒困境"博弈模型分析植物品种权交易中普遍存在的道德风险问题。结果表明:在没有任何监督、惩罚措施的情况下,最终的博弈均衡只能是交易双方都选择不遵守策略,以实现各自利益的最大化;但通过对博弈模型进行适当的改进,就会发现只要监督和惩罚措施得当,提高其违约成本,交易双方就会为实现各自利益最大化而选择遵守策略,并据此得到实现植物品种权交易良性循环运作的有效条件,提高交易成功率。     

Industry Structure and Economic Performance in the Food Manufacturing Industries

The objective of this study is to develop a simultaneous equations model of profitability, concentration, advertising expenditures and research and development outlays for the food manufacturing indushies in the United States. The data used in the estimation are subjected to regression diagnostics in an effort to determine the importance to the estimation results of a subset of the data that can have a disproportionate influence. The estimation results, especially for the advertising expenditures relationship and the research and development outlays equation, do change when a truncated data sample (based on the omission of the outliers) is used. This serves partly to explain why there is some disagreement in the literature on market structure and economic performance with regard to the impact of several economic factors.     

云南马铃薯栽培历史、耕作制度和民族特色的地方品种资源

云南在1848年前就有马铃薯的栽培记载。在现代史中经历了三次较大发展。复杂的地理、生态和气候环境形成了多样性的耕作制度。在云南少数民族聚居的区域内还保留着丰富多彩的、内地早已难见的马铃薯地方品种。这些具有民族性的品种，是宝贵的种质资源。     

汾河灌区农田土壤墒情变化及用水对策分析

利用山西省汾河灌区1993—2002年有代表性测站的土壤墒情实际观测资料,对该灌区主要作物生育期农田土壤墒情的时空变化规律进行分析;简述汾河灌区在农业供水方面存在的主要问题,通过对汾河灌区水资源供需平衡分析及供水市场的分析预测,提出灌区今后的用水对策。     

Factors influencing hybrid rice adoption: a Bangladesh case

As rice constitutes the major share in cereal consumption in South and East Asian countries that ranges from as low as 40 per cent in India to 97 per cent in Myanmar, to ensure food security, governments in these countries are encouraging farmers to adopt hybrid rice. This is mainly because hybrid rice provides a yield gain of 15–20 per cent over conventionally bred varieties in general. Yet, despite strenuous government efforts, farmers’ adoption rates have remained low in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam compared with China. Although studies often claim that higher seed costs and inferior grain quality are the major factors limiting hybrid rice adoption, very few studies examine the importance of socio‐economic factors and infrastructure in the adoption of hybrid rice. Using Bangladesh as a case, a comparative analysis has been made on the adoption of hybrid and modern varieties relative to traditional rice varieties and land allocation to these varieties. Econometric results indicate that general land characteristics, loan facilities and general infrastructure, such as roads, irrigation facilities and the availability of government‐approved seed dealers, significantly influence the adoption of hybrid and modern rice varieties and land allocation to these varieties compared with traditional varieties.     

Rivalry in Price and Variety among Supermarket Retailers

Recent theoretical models of retail competition suggest that product heterogeneity is critical to retail price and variety strategies. This article provides empirical evidence on supermarket retailers' price and variety strategies using a nested constant elasticity of substitution (NCES) modeling framework. The model is estimated using chain-level scanner data for four major grocery chains in a large, urban West Coast market. The results show that retailers compete for market share using both price and variety. While they all tend to follow moderately cooperative pricing strategies, the extent to which they follow cooperative strategies in variety is less homogeneous.     

Cereal price shocks and volatility in sub‐Saharan Africa: what really matters for farmers’ welfare?

The lack of information as well as some misperceptions about the distinction between the welfare consequences of higher versus more volatile cereal prices has limited the effectiveness of policy interventions during the recent food crises in many developing countries. This article proposes an integrated empirical strategy to investigate and compare the different effects of these two phenomena and tests it using nationally representative household survey data from four sub‐Saharan countries. Results show that the negative impacts of a cereal price increase substantially outweigh the effects of price volatility on household welfare across the entire income distribution. The amplitude and the distribution of those effects depend heavily on specific factors, such as: the weight of food consumption over total expenditure; the budget share devoted to cereals; the substitution effect among food groups; and the relative number of net sellers versus net buyers accessing the market. We also show that volatility mainly harms the poorest quintile of the population.     

An Empirical Investigation into the Excessive-Choice Effect

Recent marketing and psychological studies have shown that more choice does not always benefit consumers. This excessive-choice effect (ECE) is examined empirically using food items in four experiments. The first experiment investigates whether people would voluntarily reduce their choice-set size. The second seeks to replicate previous experimental results. The third and fourth experiments employ nonhypothetical Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) soda auctions and hypothetical ground beef choice experiments to further detect the prevalence of the ECE in alternative settings and explore the role of personality in decision tasks. Results suggest the ECE exists, but is less prevalent than previous studies suggest.     

原木统计分类与中国进口品种结构分析

中国原木的增长需求主要通过进口来满足,进口品种结构中针叶原木进口数量明显大于阔叶原木进口数量,进口金额阔叶原木则大于针叶原木。应该密切关注俄罗斯关税政策对针叶材出口的限制及不利影响。长期来看,针叶原木和阔叶原木的进口需求有增无减,原材料成本上升将会促使价格增长,其对于国内相关产业的影响将是长期的。依赖于国际市场少数主要来源国的资源供给对于中国资源安全和整个林业产业安全是不利的。