农业补贴政策对农民收入的影响与对策——以湖南为例

分析2007年和2009年湖南省统计年鉴中主要农业产品产量,以及农业收入在GDP中的比重,得出制约湖南省农业增长率的主要原因是农业补贴政策重点不突出,力度不够,没有形成农民增加收入的长效机制。于是提出了引入黄箱和绿箱多项农业补贴政策,调整和优化农业结构,加快农村劳动力转移,加快农村小城镇化建设等政策措施。     

Tenure and output

A key tenet of the theory of human capital is that investment in skills results in higher productivity. The previous literature has estimated the degree of investment in human capital for individuals by looking at individual wage growth as a proxy for productivity growth. In this paper, we have both wage and personal productivity data, and thus are able to measure of the increase in workers' output with tenure as evidence of the degree of learning on the job. The data is from an autoglass company. Most of production occurs at the individual level so measures of output are clear. We find a very steep learning curve in the first eight months on the job: output is 53 percent higher after eight months than it is initially. Our data show that these output gains with tenure are not reflected in equal percentage pay gains: pay profiles are much flatter than output profiles in the first year and a half on the job. For these data, using wage profiles significantly underestimates the amount of investment compared to the gains evident in output-tenure profiles. The pattern of productivity rising more rapidly than pay reverses after two years of tenure, although our evidence on this point is less reliable. Worker selection is also important. Workers who stay longer have higher output levels and faster early learning.     

The U.S.A.'s Land Data Legacy from the 19th Century: A Message from the Henry George-Francis A. Walker Controversy over Farm Land Distribution

A bstract . Today's perception of land problems stems in part from agriculturally-oriented data developed in the late 19th Century and continued in present day series. Henry George criticized the agricultural statistics of his time but he was as much a captive of the data as his antagonist, Francis A. Walker. The historical identity of farm with farm operator in agricultural statistics is a basis for current concerns about the structure of agriculture. Landownership issues now transcend agriculture. The distribution of wealth, control of use, incidence of taxes and subsidies require land data not tied to a particular firm, industry or program.     

耕种规模与农机具的使用状况探析

本文主要研究了各地的耕地类型与农机具的使用情况,中国与其他国家的农业机械化水平状况,各地区农机具的使用差异,以及农机具的使用对农业产值的作用。认为农业的机械化、现代化发展对其他产业发展具有带动效应,由于耕地类型与耕种规模的差异较大,农业机械化与农机具的使用要因地制宜,不能一概而论。     

The relative importance of campaign expenditures: An application of production theory

In an election campaign a politician attempts to combine the resources at his disposal so as to maximize the percent of the votes he receives. This behavior is consistent with an economic model of production where the producer combines inputs in order to maximize output. In this paper the concept of an election campaign as a production process is applied to elections to the U.S. House of Representatives. The three inputs were campaign expenditures, years of tenure in office, and the percent of registered voters in candidate's party. Cobb-Douglas and CES versions of the production function are estimated. Each estimation indicated that the marginal productivity of campaign expenditures was very low. Further, the CES estimation indicated low elasticity of substitution between campaign expenditures and other inputs. This means that it is difficult for a candidate who faces a disadvantage—either because his opponent is an incumbent with several years experience, or because he belongs to a minority party—to overcome this disadvantage by simply spending more money.     

Product diversification,production systems,and economic performance in U.S. agricultural production

The U.S. agricultural sector is experiencing significant structural change. Farm size is rising and activities are broadening, including more off-farm employment, implying economic incentives for larger and more diversified farms, and complementarities among agricultural netputs. We quantify such patterns for farms in the corn belt, by measuring scale economies, and output and input contributions and jointness. We estimate the multi-output and -input production technology by stochastic frontier techniques applied to output and input distance functions. We find that both scope and scale economies have important economic performance implications, and that an input-oriented framework including off-farm income best characterizes agricultural production.     

AGRICULTURAL POLICY AS A SOCIAL ENGINEERING TOOL: A NEW JERSEY CASE STUDY

This study uses logistic regression to examine the preferences for social engineering policies in the agricultural sector in a New Jersey case study. It finds that farm operators are unlikely to support a policy allowing countries to restrict trade to pursue domestic economic and social policy goals if the policies affect international trade. In particular, it suggests that farm operators with annual gross sales including government payments between $500 000 and $999 999 are 80 percent less likely to indicate such a preference. Farm operators with advanced degrees, some college education, and a high school diploma are also unlikely to indicate such a preference. In contrast, farm operators who receive no income from farming or ranching and those who receive a percentage of family income from farming or ranching indicate that countries should be allowed to restrict trade to pursue domestic economic and social policy goals even if the policies affect international trade.     

Institutional versus non-institutional credit to agricultural households in India: Evidence on impact from a national farmers’ survey

A goal of agricultural policy in India has been to reduce farmers’ dependence on informal credit. To that end, recent initiatives are focused explicitly on rural areas and have a positive impact on the flow of agricultural credit. Despite the significance of the above initiatives in enhancing the flow of institutional credit to agriculture, the links between institutional credit and net farm income and consumption expenditures in India are not very well documented. Using large, national farm household level data and IV 2SLS estimation methods, we investigate the role of institutional farm credit on farm income and farm household consumption expenditures. Findings show that, in India, formal credit does indeed play a critical role in increasing both net farm income and per capita monthly household expenditures of Indian farm families. Finally, we find that, in the presence of formal credit, social safety net programs like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) may have unintended consequences. In particular, MGNREGA reduces both net farm income and per capita monthly household consumption expenditures. On the other hand, in the presence of formal credit, the Public Distribution System may increase both net farm income and per capita monthly household consumption expenditures.     

Sources of growth in Indonesian agriculture

Indonesia sustained an average increase in agricultural output of 3.6% per year between 1961 and 2006, resulting in a more than fivefold increase in real output. This paper constructs Tornqvist-Thiel indices of agricultural outputs, inputs and total factor productivity (TFP) to examine the sources of growth in Indonesian agriculture over this period. The paper extends previous work on measuring productivity change in Indonesian agriculture by assembling more complete data on cropland and expanding the commodity coverage to include cultured fisheries in addition to crops and livestock. It also accounts for the contribution of the spread of rural education and literacy to agricultural growth. Results show that Indonesia pursued both agricultural intensification to raise yield, especially for food crops, and extensification to expand crop area and absorb more labor. Productivity growth accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s but stagnated in the 1990s once “Green Revolution” food crop varieties had become widely adopted. TFP growth resumed in the early 2000s led by diversification into non-staple commodities such as tropical perennials, horticulture, livestock and aquaculture. Agricultural extensification continued to be an important source of growth in many of parts of the archipelago where previously forested areas were converted to cropland. Human capital deepening, in the form of the spread of literacy and education in the farm labor force, made a modest but sustained contribution to agricultural productivity growth.     

The impact of vocational education on productivity

This study looks at the impact that vocational education has had on output via the production function in the United States over the period 1947–1970. The results suggest that each one percent increase in the number of students enrolled in vocational education programs eventually leads to a 0.31% increase in output.     

Sources of Sectoral Growth in an Economy Wide Context: The Case of U.S. Agriculture

Growth in U.S. agriculture is linked to the non-farm economy through domestic terms of trade and factor market adjustments. With almost stable input growth, the relatively large contributions from growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) are passed on to intermediate and final consumers in the form of declining real prices for primary farm products. The resulting net growth in the real value of farm output (GDP) is relatively low (0.25% per annum). The decomposition of TFP suggests that public agricultural stock of knowledge and infrastructure are robustly associated with TFP growth, while spill-overs from private agricultural and economy wide research and development (R and D) are positive but, relatively small.     

Influence measurement of rapid urbanization on agricultural production factors based on provincial panel data

The proportion of agricultural output value is continuously decreasing because of the process of rapid urbanization, but it is still the basis of economic development and urban construction. Agricultural production factors are at the core of agriculture, and have an important influence on the agricultural output value. In the period of rapid urbanization, high technical and capital investment improved agricultural production efficiency and increased the income of farmers. However, in recent years it also introduced serious problems for agricultural production, including aging farmers and weakening labor markets, farmland conversion, and soil pollution. In this study, we estimated the elasticity coefficients of agricultural production factors, including labor, capital and technique, using the improved Cobb–Douglas production function and provincial panel data from 2000 to 2015, and measured the effects of urbanization on elasticity coefficients using the Euclidean metric and gravity model. The results were as follows. (1) In time, the elasticity coefficient of labor was stable, and with a low increase from 0.238 to 0.304. However, the elasticity coefficients of land and capital had been increasing since 2000, by 1.125 and 0.140, respectively. The higher elasticity coefficient of agricultural production factors was gradual from labor to capital, with the growth of urbanization level. (2) In space, the elasticity coefficients were the space distribution, as urbanization divided into east, central and west: the elasticity coefficients of labor and land in the eastern regions were higher, and the elasticity coefficient of capital in the central regions was higher. (3) Economic urbanization had a larger positive influence on the elasticity coefficient of capital, and the population had a larger negative influence on elasticity coefficients of labor. The quantitative results were similar to the development status, but there were different influences on elasticity coefficients in different provinces. (4) Finally, the study put forward suggestions for agricultural sustainable development according to the function mechanism of urbanization on agricultural production factors, including increasing the attention paid agriculture, ensuring a stable market environment, and optimizing the industrial structure, with reference to scientific, green and healthy agriculture.     

Productivity,efficiency and technical change: measuring the performance of China’s transforming agriculture

As China enters the twenty-first century the health of the agricultural economy will increasingly rely, not on the growth of inputs, but on the growth of total factor productivity (TFP). However, the tremendous changes in the sector—sometimes back and sometimes forwards—as well as evolving institutions make it difficult to gauge from casual observation if the sector is healthy or not. Research spending has waxed and waned. Policies to encourage the import of foreign technologies have been applied unevenly. Structural adjustment policies also triggered wrenching changes in the sector. Horticulture and livestock production has boomed; while the output of other crops, such as rice, wheat and soybeans, has stagnated or fallen. At a time when China’s millions of producers are faced with complex decisions, the extension system is crumbling and farmer professional associations remain in their infancy. In short, there are just as many reasons to be optimistic about the productivity trends in agriculture as to be pessimistic. In this paper, we pursue one overall goal: to better understand the productivity trends in China’s agricultural sector during the reform era—with an emphasis on the 1990–2004 period. To do so, we pursue three specific objectives. First, relying on the National Cost of Production Data Set—China’s most complete set of farm input and output data—we chart the input and output trends for 23 of China’s main farm commodities. Second, using a stochastic production frontier function approach we estimate the rate of change in TFP for each commodity. Finally, we decompose the changes in TFP into two components: changes in efficiency and changes in technical change. Our findings—especially after the early 1990s are remarkably consistent. China’s agricultural TFP has grown at a healthy rate for all 23 commodities. TFP growth for the staple commodities generally rose around 2% annually; TFP growth for most horticulture and livestock commodities was even higher (between 3 and 5%). Equally consistent, we find that most of the change is accounted for by technical change. The analysis is consistent with the conclusion that new technologies have pushed out the production functions, since technical change accounts for most of the rise in TFP. In the case of many of the commodities, however, the efficiency of producers—that is, the average distance of producers from the production frontier—has fallen. In other words, China’s TFP growth would have been even higher had the efficiency of production not eroded the gains of technical change. Although we do not pinpoint the source of rising inefficiency, the results are consistent with a story that there is considerable disequilibrium in the farm economy during this period of rapid structural change and farmers are getting little help in making these adjustments from the extension system.     

Eisenhower and Agricultural Reform:

A bstract The federal government began to manage American agriculture in the 1930s as a way of alleviating the economic plight of farmers during the Great Depression The various programs of the New Deal set up the mechanism for both curtailing production and storing agricultural surpluses During World War II, these same mechanisms were used to increase the supply of food and fiber Before 1948, the Truman administration sought to cut back federal subsidies , but reversed this policy due to campaign promises The Eisenhower administration initiated a change m farm policy aimed at promoting a free market orientation Subsequent Republican presidents have built upon this by seeking the free trade of agricultural commodities on a world scale     

The adoption,diffusion, and evolution of organizational form: insights from the agrifood sector

The adoption and diffusion of contract farming and vertical integration in modern agriculture has varied widely across regions, commodities, or farm types. This paper lays out a framework for understanding the evolution of organizational practices in U.S. agriculture by drawing on theories of the diffusion of technology and organizational complementarities. Using recent trends as stylized facts, with case studies from various agricultural industries, we argue that research identifying complementarities within specific sectors of the agrifood system will greatly improve our understanding of the organizational structure of agricultural production, and we identify several specific lines of inquiry. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agricultural Subsidies and Farm Consolidation

Although agricultural subsidies were begun during the New Deal to provide enough income to enable farmers to continue operating, their net effect has been to raise the price of farmland and to squeeze many owner‐operated farms out of existence, leaving mostly large‐scale operations that are often tied to agribusiness. Numerous efforts have been made, with limited success, to mitigate this problem by limiting the subsidy to small or mid‐size farm operations. The 2014 farm bill, adopted by the U.S. Congress, made the situation worse. Rather than imposing stricter limits on subsidies to the largest farms, the legislation removed existing limits, ended direct payments, and increased subsidies for insurance against crop losses and income risk. The new law not only provides a windfall to owners of very large farms, it also encourages plowing of fragile soils, since the risks of crop failure are now borne primarily by taxpayers. The article concludes by offering recommendations about how to correct these problems     

CAPITALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT IN AGRICULTURAL LAND PRICES: WHAT DO WE KNOW?

Abstract.  The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of existing literature, both theoretically and empirically, on the extent to which agricultural subsidies do translate into higher land values and rents and finally benefit landowners instead of agricultural producers. Our review shows that agricultural support policy instruments contribute to increasing the rental price of farmland, and that the extent of this increase closely depends on the level of the supply price elasticity of farmland relative to those of other factors/inputs on the one hand, and on the range of the possibilities of factor/input substitution in agricultural production on the other hand. The empirical literature shows that land prices and rents have in general a significant positive and inelastic response to government support. Such inelastic response is thought to reflect the uncertain future of the farm programmes. And in general, studies have indicated that land prices are more responsive to government-based returns than to market-based returns.     

陕西省发展农产品网络营销的制约因素和对策探讨

随着农业科技化和产业化经营的普及,陕西省农产品产量逐年提高,如果不能及时销售,就会造成农民"增产不增收"。农产品网络营销作为我国近几年出现的新生事物,在发展过程中面临着农民意识落后、物流配送困难等诸多制约因素。因此,陕西省应引导供需双方尽快转变观念,加快农村网络基础设施建设、完善农产品物流配送体系、提高农产品标准化程度,促进我省农产品网络营销的良性发展。     

Technical efficiency and region The U.S. manufacturing sector 1972–1977

In this paper we estimate the extent of technological bias in an interregional context for U.S. manufacturing during the period 1972–1977 using a factor augmenting production function approach. We present estimates of the elasticity of factor substitution for each of the 48 states in the sample using a variable elasticity of substitution production function. Next, we use these estimates to generate estimates of the rates of change in the efficiencies of capital and labor inputs and compare these estimates across states and census regions. We also examine and compare estimates of total factor productivity across states and regions. We ,find that the average annual rates of growth of capital efficiency during the period are 5.5 percent in the Northeast, 5.3 percent in the Northcentral, 5.6 percent in the West and 3.1 percent in the South. The rates of change of the efficiencies of labor are found to be negative across all regions except the South. The rates of change of total factor productivity are found to be 1.7 percent in the Northeast, 2.3 percent in the Northcentral, 2.4 percent in the West and 1.7 percent in the South. We also find that between 33 percent and 56 percent of the growth of output across regions is due to technical progress.     

Wages and the City. Evidence from Italy

We analyze empirically the impact of urban agglomeration on Italian wages. Using micro-data from the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth for the years 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2002 on more than 22,000 employees distributed in 242 randomly drawn local labor markets, we test whether the structure of wages varies with urban scale. We find that every additional 100,000 inhabitants in the local labor market raises earnings by 0.1 percent. The use of a geographical approach enables us to state that this effect decays very rapidly with distance, losing significance beyond approximately 12 kilometers. We also find that urbanization does not affect returns to experience and that it reduces returns to education and to tenure with current firm, while providing a premium to worker supervisors.