Economies of scale and mechanization in Chinese corn and wheat production

ABSTRACT

As the growth in Chinese farm productivity slowed down between 2000 and 2010, modernizing agriculture has become a priority of the Chinese government. Given the important role of mechanization and land reform policies in that context, this study investigates farm production in China with a specific emphasis on the potential role of mechanization as well as land and farm consolidation. A production function is estimated using farm household data on corn and wheat production in the Shandong and Hebei provinces. The results allowed us to explore the potential economies of scale across a range of farm size, the impact of land fragmentation, and assess the impact of machinery usage. Our findings suggest that, taken in isolation, the prospect for efficiency gains from mechanization and land reforms appears limited.     

Property rights, labour markets, and efficiency in a transition economy: the case of rural China

We investigate the consequences of imperfect factor market development for farm efficiency in North China. We estimate the extent to which an inverse relationship in farm productivity can be attributed to the administrative (as opposed to market) allocation of land, combined with unevenly developed off–farm opportunities. Using a new household survey, we find considerable inefficiency in the use of labour. This inefficiency is alleviated by external labour markets and, to a limited degree, by administrative reallocations. The reallocations do not go far enough, however, which raises important questions about constraints on rental activity and property rights formation more generally. JEL Classification: Q15, O12 Droits de propriété, marchés du travail et efficacité dans une économie en transition : le cas de la Chine rurale. Ce mémoire analyse les conséquences du développement de marchés imparfaits des facteurs de production sur l’efficacité des fermes dans le nord de la Chine. On examine jusqu’à quel point la relation inverse entre la productivité des fermes et leur taille est attribuable à l’allocation administrative de la terre (par opposition à l’allocation par le marché), en combinaison avec le développement inégal des opportunités en dehors de la ferme. Les auteurs utilisent une nouvelle enquête sur les ménages qui révèle une grande inefficacité dans l’utilisation du travail. Cette inefficacité est atténuée par des marchés de travail externes, et, à un moindre degré, par des ré–allocations administratives. Les ré–allocations ne vont pas assez loin cependant. Voilà qui soulève des questions importantes à propos des contraintes sur les activités de location et la formation des droits de propriété en général.     

INDUSTRIAL UPGRADE,EMPLOYMENT SHOCK,AND LAND CENTRALIZATION IN CHINA

After 30 years of agricultural reform started in 1978, peasant workers in China are experiencing new changes in their employment, land security, and income inequalities. This article theoretically investigates the relationships among industrial upgrading, mid‐aged peasant nonfarm employment, and land conversion systems. We prove that China's efforts to upgrade its industries generate a negative employment shock on mid‐aged peasant workers, forcing some of them to return to their home villages. The current lump‐sum land acquisition system, however, will neither help peasant workers deal with the adverse employment shock nor promote land centralization for industrial and urban uses. On the contrary, land cooperation, an emerging land centralization system, will help peasant workers mitigate the adverse employment shock and centralize rural land for nonagricultural purposes. (JEL Q15, J43)     

WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SURPLUS SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES

Sugar supply is managed in the United States to support minimum prices set by law. The 2008 farm bill contains the sugar‐to‐ethanol program to sell surplus sugar to ethanol producers and a program that allows bids from sugar processors. The sugar program is required to run at no net cost to taxpayers. Bids for surplus sugar are analyzed under various scenarios. Sugar processors will outbid ethanol producers given current ethanol prices. At present, surplus sugar bids will not exceed the minimum prices, and the sugar‐to‐ethanol program will not be able to help the government achieve no net program costs. (JEL Q18, Q42, Q48)     

DETERMINANTS AND EFFECTS ON PROPERTY VALUES OF PARTICIPATION IN VOLUNTARY CLEANUP PROGRAMS: THE CASE OF COLORADO

State voluntary cleanup programs (VCPs) were established in the 1990s to encourage cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties. I ask three questions: First, what properties are attracted to VCPs? Second, is there an interaction between VCP incentives and enterprise or brownfield zone incentives? Third, does participation in VCPs affect property values? Data from Colorado’s VCP suggest that (a) the main determinants of participation are the size of the parcel and the surrounding land use, (b) other incentives have little effect, (c) properties with confirmed contamination sell at a 43%–56% discount, and (d) participation does tend to raise the property price. (JEL R14, Q58, K32)     

THE COST OF LAND USE REGULATION VERSUS THE VALUE OF INDIVIDUAL EXEMPTION: OREGON BALLOT MEASURES 37 AND 49

This article presents an exploratory analysis of the effects of land use regulations on land values and land use patterns in a landscape near Eugene, Oregon. All land use regulations considered in this study, including exclusive farm use zoning, forest zoning, urban growth boundary designation, residential density zoning, commercial zoning, and industrial zoning, are found to affect land values and land use patterns both inside and outside of the designated zones. The framework is applied to measure the costs of the regulations versus the value of individual exemptions at the parcel level to illuminate the controversy surrounding Oregon Measures 37 and 49, which were passed to provide “just compensation” for “unfair regulatory burdens.” The cost of regulation is found to be lower than the value of an individual exemption for most regulations contested in the Measure 37 claims. However, governments tend to overregulate from the perspective of landowners. Although some land gained value under the six regulations and some lost value, the aggregate loss of land value was estimated to be several times larger than the gain. This does not necessarily mean that the governments overregulate from the perspective of society because land use regulations also generate public goods such as wildlife habitat and water quality protection. (JEL K11, R15, R52)     

The inequality–growth nexus in the short and long run: Empirical evidence from China

This paper argues that the conventional approach of data averaging is problematic for exploring the growth–inequality nexus. It introduces the polynomial inverse lag (PIL) framework so that the impacts of inequality on investment, education, and ultimately on growth can be measured at precisely defined time lags. Combining PIL with simultaneous systems of equations, we analyze the growth–inequality relationship in postreform China, finding that this relationship is nonlinear and is negative irrespective of time horizons. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 654–667.     

Financing constraints on the size distribution of industrial firms: the Chinese experience

We investigate whether financing constraints affect the size distribution of Chinese industrial firms from 1998 to 2007. Although the firm size distribution does not follow Zipf distribution in China, it is approaching Zipf distribution over time. In general, financing constraints have a robustly negative effect on the size distribution of firms. Furthermore, firms in Western China grow significantly more equally after controlling for financing constraints. However, the effect of financing constraints in Central China is significantly negative, and the effect of financing constraints on firm size distribution in Eastern China is insignificant. We thus expect a non-linear relationship between financing constraints and firm size distribution.     

FISCAL EXPENDITURE AND INDUSTRIAL LAND PRICE IN CHINA: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

This paper aims to discover the mechanism behind the positive correlation between local fiscal expenditure and industrial land price in China, a stylized fact discovered by bivariate and regression analyses. The model shows that if the positive externality of government expenditure on growth is sufficiently high, the local government has an incentive to increase public spending in exchange for the reduced demand for industrial land by charging a higher markup and driving up the industrial land price. Therefore, we observe a positive correlation between the local fiscal expenditure and industrial land price. (JEL D42, H72, R51)     

DID THE GREAT RECESSION REDUCE VISITOR SPENDING AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR NATURE‐BASED RECREATION? EVIDENCE FROM 2006 AND 2009

Outdoor recreation is a large industry that can diversify public land‐based economies that have traditionally relied upon resource extraction. However, what happens to nature‐based recreation visitor spending and benefits during times of national economic recession? To address this question, we replicate a 2006 high mountain recreation study in the same region 3 years later during the 2009 recession. Results indicate that nature‐based public land recreation in this area did not experience reductions in most categories of visitor spending or total number of visits during the recession. These results imply that nature‐based recreation may represent an economically stable industry in public land mountain economies. Total benefits to the visitors are also quite stable, only dropping from $129 per person per trip in 2006 to $120 in 2009. This 7% drop in willingness to pay is not statistically significant at conventional levels. (JEL Q26)     

Asymmetric Causality Between Inflation and Uncertainty: Evidences from 33 Developed and Developing Countries

Empirical studies have provided conflicting findings about the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty. Thus, the direction of the causality is still questionable. The present paper is aimed to extend the existing literature using non-linearity models and asymmetric causality tests. For this purpose, the data for 33 developed and developing countries during 1988Q4-2016Q3 is used. The results showed an asymmetry in the inflation behavior which is specified by smooth transition process, as well as separating positive and negative shocks observed in causality test. The asymmetric causality between inflation and inflation uncertainty is confirmed in most countries, although the empirical evidence in favor of Cukierman-Meltzer hypothesis is found to be weaker than Friedman-Ball hypothesis.

     

农地使用权流转的需求分析

随着经济发展和产业结构的优化调整,农地流转问题越来越突出和重要。加快农地使用权的流转有助于农业的规模化经营和农业效益的提高,但是目前农地使用权的流转受到多种因素的制约,文章从需求角度分析并找到影响农地使用权流转的主要因素,并针对这一因素提出了促进农地使用权流转的有效途径。     

An Analysis of the Performance of Commercially Oriented Farms in Hungary

As a result of the economic restructuring and political reforms undertaken during the 1990s, Hungary has a varied set of farm types that encompass a wide array of different sizes, degrees of capital intensity and forms of ownership. This article explores the performance of Hungarian farms and concludes that, in contrast to other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the majority of commercially oriented farms are profitable. However, estimates are sensitive to the valuation of own land and labour inputs. From the application of factor and cluster analysis, eight clusters of farms are profiled and the most competitive group identified. While the most profitable cluster also has the highest mean farm size, farm consolidation should not be treated as a panacea for dealing with low agricultural returns in the region.     

Scoring rules: an alternative parameterization

This note presents an alternative parameterization of any scoring rule that satisfies the score-expansion property. This parameterization is based on the vector that specifies, for every number of alternatives k, k ≥ 3, the minimal size of a coalition that can veto an alternative which is preferred by everybody outside the coalition. Our result sheds new light on the commonly used plurality and Borda rules, as well as the inverse plurality rule and any “vote for t alternatives rule”.     

城乡二元体制视阙下的粮食安全问题探析

世界粮食市场危机使粮食安全问题再次成为人们关注的焦点,也给我国的粮食安全体系敲响了警钟,城乡二元体制的存在严重影响了我国粮食安全体系的构建。我国粮食安全的长期发展战略应与解决"三农"问题统一起来,在消除城乡二元体制障碍的基础上实现城乡统筹发展,为国家粮食安全体系的构建提供制度保障。     

RETURNS TO DEBT AND EQUITY IN FARM PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS

While the capital structure irrelevance proposition is the point of departure in corporate finance, it is unknown if debt‐or‐equity decisions matter to farm producer organizations. To inform decisions of capital acquisition, a panel study is conducted to estimate the relationships of different types of debt (current, long‐term) and equity (allocated, unallocated) to the financial performance of 707 farm producer organizations in the United States during the 2005–2011 period. Using 3,120 observations, the panel analysis indicates net sales in period t is increased by $1.97, $9.59, and $4.01 with an addition of $1 in current debt, allocated equity, or unallocated equity in period t_‐1. Furthermore, the magnitude of the positive relationship of an additional dollar of allocated (unallocated) equity to net income is estimated at $0.32 ($0.14). We thus reject the notion managers and directors of farm producer organizations should decide to use debt or equity with a coin toss.     

Land use rights,market transitions,and labour policy change in China (1980–84)

This paper provides a systematic analysis of the way shifts in property utilization rights in China induced another sequence of institutional changes that led to the rise of rural–urban labour migration from 1980 to 1984, a critical period in the country’s market transition. The paper shows that the 1980s’ Household Responsibility System (HRS), which brought family farming back from the communal system, endowed rural households not only with land use rights, but also with de facto labour allocation rights. These shifts in property relations promoted a growth in agricultural market size as well as the emergence of intraprovincial non‐hukou rural–urban migration, which may have made labour retention policies such as the small township strategy ineffective, and may have given the government an incentive to deregulate its subsequent labour market policy.     

HOW GREEN IS YOUR CAMPUS? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS THAT DRIVE UNIVERSITIES TO EMBRACE SUSTAINABILITY

I examine the factors that influence the adoption of sustainable practices by institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States. Using data from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, I conduct an ordered probit analysis on 180 IHEs. The results show that size and wealth are significant factors in the adoption of sustainable practices and that stakeholders such as faculty, alumni, and the surrounding community also play an important role. I find no evidence that institutions adopt sustainability to attract students. Also, in contrast to the findings of similar studies on for‐profit entities, there is no evidence that regulatory pressures encourage campus sustainability. I also examine the factors that affect the institutions' decision to sign the Presidents Climate Commitment (PCC), a largely symbolic gesture. The results for the PCC are quite different than those for overall sustainability. Most importantly, neither wealth nor size are significant factors in that decision. (JEL Q2, L3)     

EFFECTS OF HEALTH RISK INFORMATION ON ADDICTIVE GOODS CONSUMPTION: A CASE OF TOBACCO,ALCOHOL, AND BETEL NUTS IN TAIWAN

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between the dissemination of information about the health risks of tobacco, alcohol, and betel nuts and their consumption in Taiwan. To estimate cross‐elasticities, the paper uses the Central Bureau of Statistics demand system model. Empirical results indicate that an increase in the dissemination of information on the health risks of tobacco, alcohol, and betel nuts substantially reduces real consumption. Empirical evidence from the cross‐elasticity of price also confirms that a complementary relationship exists in Taiwan among these three addictive products. (JEL D12, Q11, H26)     

Size and information revelation in securities trading

We examine differences in information content between order submission sizes and trade sizes by U.S. equity traders. Increasing (decreasing) order submission (trade) size is reflective of information. The result suggests that better-informed traders want to trade in a large size, but that they engage in stealth trading practices or break larger orders into smaller sizes in order to conceal information. While prior studies tend to narrowly focus on trade executions at the market-centre level, our findings indicate that order submission size varies significantly from trade size and that both sizes are informative about future prices, albeit in an inverse manner.