Securing land and property rights in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of local institutions

Central governments have neither the capacity nor the local knowledge to implement a just, large-scale national land registration system. Support to local institutions to undertake intermediate forms of land registration has been shown to be far more effective in many places—although these need careful checks on abuses by powerful local (and external) interests, measures to limit disputes (too many of which can overwhelm any institution) and measures to ensure that the needs of those with the least power – typically women, migrants, tenants and pastoralists – are given due weight. These locally grounded systems can also provide the foundation for more formal registration systems, as needs and government capacities develop. Even if there are the funds and the institutional capacity to provide formal land title registration to everyone in ways that are fair and that recognize local diversity and complexity, and could manage disputes, this may often not be needed. For the vast majority of people, cheaper, simpler, locally grounded systems of rights registration can better meet their needs for secure tenure.     

Economic policy for rural and regional Australia

The efficiency and equity effects of economic policies affecting the quarter of Australians who live in rural and regional Australia (RARA) are reviewed. For the most part it is argued that economy-wide policies, rather than region or industry specific policies, are appropriate. Progressive income taxation, means-tested social security payments and government funded education, health and other services directly and efficiently redistribute to support equity. Subsidies for particular industries in RARA, such as dairy, and input subsidies targeted at RARA, such as community service obligations, misallocate resources and are ineffective in meeting equity goals. Better property rights and procedures for allocating most natural resources, especially water, are necessary.     

Remittances,monetary institutions,and autocracies

ABSTRACT

How do remittances affect the choice of exchange rate regimes? Previous research shows that remittances, by easing the ‘impossible trinity’, increase the probability of governments adopting fixed exchange rates. However, that research overlooks the conditioning effect of monetary and political institutions. We argue that remittances, by altering recipient governments’ incentives to use monetary policy counter-cyclically, make central bank independence a credible anti-inflationary tool in less credible regimes; that is, autocracies. Thus, autocracies that receive remittances do not need to rely on fixed exchange rates. In this way, remittances open policy alternatives for developing autocracies. Statistical tests on a sample of 87 developing and transitional countries between 1980 and 2010 support our argument.     

Agricultural and afforestation controls: Conservation and ideology

Agriculture and upland afforestation have caused major changes to the landscapes of the UK as well as severe damage to nature conservation interests since the second world war. The major task now is to secure greater influence over the activities of farmers and foresters. This article reviews the calls that have been made over the last 25 years by national environmental bodies for the extension of planning controls to agricultural operations and to afforestation. The advocacy of controls is now a party political issue and the implications of this are considered.     

R＆D提升下的澳大利亚葡萄酒产业发展分析

本文首先概括了澳大利亚葡萄酒产业的发展现状，之后，重点探讨了澳大利亚葡萄酒产业研发机构对澳大利亚葡萄酒产业的技术提升及重点，在此基础上，尝试着从微观经济学和城市经济学视角剖析了研发对澳大利亚葡萄酒产业提升的相关内涵，最后对我国葡萄酒产业今后的发展提出了一些建议。     

Donning Coase‐coloured glasses: a property rights view of natural resource economics*

Economic analysis of natural resource and environmental issues inappropriately places too much emphasis on Pigouvian externalities and too little on Coasean property rights and transaction costs. The crucial questions are who has what property rights and what are the transaction costs associated with these property rights. Asserting an externality implicitly assumes a set of property rights and hence a distribution of the social costs, but it is precisely a lack of property rights that allows decision makers to ignore social costs. By viewing natural resource and environmental problems through a Coasean lens, we better focus our attention on how property rights evolve, how they influence transaction costs, and how those transaction costs affect the potential for bargaining to minimise social costs.     

Credibility of institutions: Forestry, social conflict and titling in China

In the reform of a forestry sector governed by centralist, socialist principles towards a sector suited to the challenges of the market economy, the Chinese government needs to establish institutions that can be perceived as credible by social actors. In other words, the creation of institutions that rally sufficient social and political support in order to be effective. Against this backdrop, this article consciously opts to refer to institutional “credibility” instead of the more fashionable concept of institutional “trust”. Whereas scholarly discussions about trust focus more on the relation of trust between social actors, credibility puts more emphasis on the institution itself, and the role of government in its successful creation or failure. Failure to effectively undertake institutional reform might put the social acceptability or credibility of institutions at risk, and can lead to the emergence of “empty institutions” with little, or even, a negative effect on social and political actors. Applying this concept to China's forestry sector, this article identifies three critical areas that call for careful rethinking how to “get institutions right”: the titling of forest holdings; the restructuring of the forest administration; and the design of forest laws and policies with particular reference to lease and ownership.     

Aggregation of Price Risk over Commodities: An Economic Index Number Approach

This article extends the economic theory of index numbers to the aggregation of price risk over commodities in production. Superlative indexes of aggregate price risk are related to Tornqvist and Fisher−type output quantity indexes. An application to major crops in Manitoba illustrates the empirical importance of the analysis.     

Economic Guidelines for Land and Water Resource use in Agriculture*

This paper presents conceptual and some empirical information concerning natural resource use and demand for natural resources in Canada. The framework for land and water use establishes the predominance of a varying array of factors in decisions on land as compared with water use. In both cases, however, a need is seen for new efforts in studying recreational demands for natural resources and for further study and efforts devoted to preserving and improving the natural environment. LIGNES ÉCONOMIQUES DIRECTRICES SUR L'EMPLOI DES TERRES ET DE L'EAU EN AGRICULTURE–Ce mémoire présente des renseignements conceptuels et parfois empiriques sur l'utilisation et la demande des ressources naturelles au Canada. La structure pour l'emploi dés terres et de l'eau établit la prédominance d'une gamme variée de facteurs dans les décisions concernant l'utilisation des terres par rapport à l'emploi de l'eau. Dans les deux cas, toutefois, on prévoit un besoin de nouveaux efforts vers létude des demandes récréative en ressources naturelles et d'etudes et d'efforts plus approfondis consacrés à la préservation et l'amélioration de Vambiance naturelle.     

Housing development in Australia: The implications of production and approval processes for availability and choice

Summary

This paper focuses on the housing production and development approval processes: the agencies involved and the implications for the product, housing, in terms of costs and design. Changing household structure, expansion of metropolitan areas and rising costs (financial and social) mean that the traditional style of single storey detached homes no longer provides adequate choice. An investigation into housing costs in 1978, found that the land development process and approval procedures were major contributors to both inefficiencies in production and conservative attitudes inhibiting the diffusion of new ideas and alternative dwelling choices. The paper reviews changes which have taken place during the 1980s especially in the role of the states in land development, changes in approval processes (planning, subdivision and titling) and more effective use of land by improved design and layout. These are examined against a background of the uniqueness of the Australian housing system with its emphasis on owner‐occupation and which in common with Britain has an increasing affordability problem. The roles of landowners, speculators, developers (including the state land authorities), housebuilders and house‐owners are examined together with some of the factors affecting availability and choice.     

Economic Guidelines for Present and Future Capital use in Canadian Agriculture*

Capital requirements for typical farms are expected to be $200,000 to $300,000 by 1980. This will necessitate substantial increases in credit and provide conditions more attractive to private investors than in the past for all types of credit as well as equity capital. Form operators' equity in the farm business is expected to decline substantially. Incorporated farm statistics are presented as well as an estimate of the aggregate farm capital and credit structure in 1981. A number of policy questions are examined in the light of the changed financial structure envisaged. GUIDES ÉCONOM1QUES CONCERNANT L'USAGE ACTUEL ET FU-TUR DU CAPITAL DANS L'AGRICULTURE CANADIENNE–On estime que la mise de fonds en capital d'une ferme typique sera de l'ordre de $200,000 à$300,000 vers 1980. Cette situation entraînera des accroissements sensibles au chapitre du crédit et créera des conditions plus attrayantes que par le passé pour les investisseurs privés, les amenant à offrir tous les genres de credit et mime a participer au capital effectif de mise de fonds. On estime que Vavoir des exploitants agricoles dans leurs ferme diminuera sensiblement. On présente des statistiques agricoles incorporees de même qu'une estimation de la structure d'ensemble du crédit et du capital des fermes en 1981. Un certain nombre de questions de politiques sont etudiees a la lumiire des changements prevus a la structure financiere.     

The emergence of urban agriculture: Sydney,Australia

Across the world the phenomenon of urban agriculture (UA) is defining itself after emerging from a mainly grass-roots response, evidenced in the Sydney Metropolitan Region by the Hawkesbury Harvest phenomenon and the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance, to powerful global forces which are negatively and paradoxically impacting on the quality of life of urban and farming communities. In the developed world these major forces include: (1) urban sprawl and its progressive sterilization of agricultural lands; (2) the supermarket dominance of food chains; (3) the fast food industry and associated health problems such as obesity; (4) globalization. The community-based promotion and marketing of local agriculture is causing some governments and public and private organizations throughout the world to recognize UA as a strategic mechanism to enable urban communities to deal with food security in the context of neo-liberalism, climate change, pandemics, natural disasters, human and environmental health, carbon footprint, biosecurity/terrorism, peak oil, waste management, and landscape and natural resource management. This paper explores the history of UA in the Sydney region. It is a narrative that allows for UA in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area to draw on the experiences of other developed countries where UA is establishing its position.     

经济增长与缓解贫困:趋势、差异与作用

本文利用1993-2004年分省的经济增长和贫困数据分析了全国和不同地区经济增长和贫困人口变化的趋势，计算了总的经济增长和部门经济增长对不同地区贫困人口减少的弹性。结果表明，经济增长对贫困人口的减少起到了重要的作用，但缓解贫困不仅要靠经济增长，更重要的是要提高经济增长的减贫弹性，使穷人更多地从经济增长中受益，而农业部门的增长具有更高的减贫弹性。     

A game theory approach to the analysis of land and property development processes

Land and property development processes obviously can be seen as a social situation in which the interaction of individuals or groups of individuals is one of the essential elements. To study and understand social situations, it is important to analyse how the decisions of actors are interrelated and how those decisions result in outcomes. In this paper, we propose a game theoretical modelling approach to analyse it. Hence, the objective of the paper is to investigate the usefulness as well as the limitations of game theoretical modelling for analysing and predicting the behaviour of actors in decision-making processes with respect to the development of land and property. For that purpose, we have developed game models for the case study of the development of a greenfield residential location in the Netherlands with respect to the implementation of new Dutch legislation on cost recovery.