RESEARCH ORIENTATIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS

Division of agricultural economics research into behavioural vs. policy alternatives is proposed to reduce ambiguities implied by a positive vs normative division. The thesis is argued with reference to growth of the farm firm. A specific model is proposed. Brief comparisons are provided with alternatives in behavioural and policy applications.     

A SYNTHETIC MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL SUPPLY

Over the past twenty-five years there have been important theoretical developments in the supply literature. Each has examined the likely impact on supply of introducing doses of realism into the standard neoclassical model. These have been administered for the most part independently, with the consequence that, though each has illuminated a single aspect of supply, no overall perspective has emerged. This essay seeks to provide a coherent and comprehensive framework of analysis and develops an estimatable model of supply within this framework.     

THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ITALIAN AGRICULTURE

The relative importance of Italian agriculture in the EC, both in terms of net value added and of employment, has never been matched by a comparable impact on the CAP policymaking process. Mediterranean agricultural products in particular have been less favoured by the overwhelming common policy instrument of product price support, which has also a negative impact on the economy as a whole. The most relevant effects of the CAP are reviewed: the impact on resource allocation, including international income transfers, and the effects on the environment, as well as the effects on interpersonal income distribution. An evaluation of CAP is then made from different points of view: the likely perspective of present Italian farmers, a national perspective and an overall perspective, including the interests of non EC countries and future generations. Lower and more balanced price support, together with higher concern for structural and environmental policies especially in less favoured areas, are advocated.     

A MODEL OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Several efforts have been made since 1980 to estimate the costs and benefits of the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This paper summarises the approach and method adopted in developing one such effort, which aims to provide results at country, commodity and interest group level both for the CAP as a whole, and for changes in it. Economic analysis of the effects of price changes in the CAP is carried out with the use of direct and crossprice elasticities of supply and demand for sixteen major commodities, using base levels of production, consumption, and gross trade flows in each member state, along with rest-of-world data. A number of CAP instruments, such as subsidies, levies, quotas and ‘green’ exchange rates, are built into the calculations and can be varied, along with support prices, to produce new situations in domestic markets and in world price levels. Both financial (budgetary) and welfare (economic surplus) effects of such exogenous price changes can be calculated. Certain policy changes, such as a move to ‘free’ markets, involve endogenous calculation of equilibrium prices. Trend projections subject to a priori constraints are used to produce results for years beyond the extent of data currently available. The types of model run commonly carried out are discussed, along with several strategic judgments that became necessary in carrying out the research. Finally, questions concerning the future development and use of the model are addressed.     

COMPROMISE-RISK PROGRAMMING FOR AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROBLEMS: AN ILLUSTRATION

This paper presents a novel approach for dealing with risk in agricultural resource allocation decisions by synthesising the conventional Markowitzean, or MOTAD, methods within a compromise programming model to generate ‘best-compromise’ solutions which come closest to an ideal point defined in terms of risk minimisation. This approach can be regarded as the compromise-risk programming model. The purpose here is to show how this ‘hybridisation’ of Markowitz/MOTAD and compromise programming approaches overcomes some of the weaknesses of the traditional approach to handling risk in resource allocation models.     

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS OF MARKET EFFICIENCY

Important agricultural marketing policies and decisions are constantly before industry and government. Much market research is being supported. There is a need to “bridge” research with policy. The core of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that spans the needed analysis of marketing efficiency. The basic point is that marketing policy must focus on both competition and physical operations. The analysis of this paper builds upon Clark's concept of workable competition and Sosnick's extension to the concept of effective competition. Market efficiency is separated into operational efficiency and exchange efficiency components; the determinants of each component are diagnosed and analyzed in terms of costs and pricing. While the agricultural marketing process produces increments of product form, space, and time utility, costs are incurred. Cost analysis is central to the notion of operational efficiency; cost levels depend upon market organization and the feasible set of market logistics. Exchange efficiency refers primarily to price; the effectiveness with which price reflects costs depends upon market structures and the applicable competitive strategies. The conceptual framework developed in this paper integrates the preceding relationships and formalizes an approach for decisions. Trade-offs often exist between operational efficiency and exchange efficiency components of market efficiency. When a trade-off relationship exists, market efficiency is maximized by equalizing the gain in one component with the opportunity-cost loss in the other component. Le gourvernement el I'industrie font continuellemeni face à?importante décisions dans le domaine des marchés el de la politique agricloe. Ces deux groupes subven-tionnenl les recherches dans ce domaine. II y a un besoin de Her la recherche avec la politique. ?essentiel de cet article est de développer un côdre qui comprend ?analyse nécessaire pour ?efficacité du marché, le point important est que le politique du marché doit se concentrer sur le concurrence et les operations. L'analyse de cet article travail sur le théorie de concurrence réalisable de Clark et sur celle Sosnick traitant de ?Extension de la concurrence effective. ?efficacité du marché est diversé en deux éléments: ?exploitation efftcace el ?echange éfficace, les facteurs déterminant de chaque élément sont soumis à un diagnostic et à une analyse en termes du coût et du prix     

TOWARD A FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH*

Agricultural economists need to evaluate their own research priorities. The main difficulty in doing so is to value the types of information generated by economic research. Bayesian decision theory provides a framework for valuing information, and the results of selected studies using this methodology are collated. Most of the other determinants of research priorities can be encapsulated in a target return ratio measure. How such a framework might be used is illustrated by three 'hypotheticals'.     

我国农业高质量发展的机遇、问题及对策研究

[目的]农业高质量发展对于促进农业全面升级、农村全面进步、农民全面发展具有重要意义。[方法]文章采用文献研究法发现,当前,我国农业高质量发展的基础更加坚实,农业高质量发展应更加注重资源节约、更加注重环境友好、更加注重农产品质量、更加注重增加农民收入。[结果]我国农业高质量发展既面临着政策环境更加优越、市场空间更加宽广、创新驱动更加有力、内生动力更加强劲的大好机遇,但也面临着资源条件和生态环境两个"紧箍咒"对农业约束趋紧、农业产业结构亟待优化、农产品结构不尽合理、农产品质量安全水平亟需提升、农业特色优势产业不明晰、农产品区域品牌建设缓慢、农业现代物流业建设滞后等问题。[结论]应从加强顶层设计、推进农业绿色发展、大力优化农业产业结构、加快调整农产品供给结构、着力提升农产品质量安全水平、加快培育特色优势产业、推进农产品区域品牌建设、打造现代农业物流体系等方面推动农业高质量发展,不断满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要。     

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.     

基于“互联网+”的农产品物流发展对策研究

农业已经成为新常态下的重要经济增长点,而"互联网+农业"又势必掀起农业新一轮发展的浪潮,在此新形势下鼓励电商推动农产品流通成为政策导向。文章从分析农产品物流的自身价值出发,介绍了农产品物流的全过程及其特点,指出目前我国农产品电子商务物流存在基础设施薄弱、信息化程度低、专业农产品物流设施缺失、农产品流通结构松散等一系列问题,针对性地提出加强网络基础设施与农产品流通信息化标准体系建设、加强农产品质量与信用认证体系建设、分类管理流通农产品、引进先进的物流技术与扁平化管理经验、流通体系多元化等基于"互联网+"背景下的农产品物流发展对策,以期对研究农产品物流未来发展态势形成补充。     

PROBLEMS OF CHANGE IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

There has been a low level of methodological controversy within the Australian agricultural economics profession. Johnson's 1963 paper is the most significant and in it he passed criticisms on agricultural production economists not unlike those currently being made by political economists of economics in general. These past criticisms have in the main been ignored by the Australian profession but it is suggested that they are now being pushed with renewed vigour and they can no longer be ignored. It is argued that our policy work has by and large been successful and effective except for significant areas where our methodology was of restricted usefulness. In farm management the Johnsonian strictures would seem to apply but a more charitable interpretation is provided which should meet the approval of the political economists. Our almost complete neglect of development economics must soon draw to an end and we will find that the methodologies which we have relied on heavily and fairly successfully must be augmented as we become more involved in this field. The political economics challenge should be recognized and accepted with relish because the nature of our work is changing and will continue to change in the future. We have adapted fairly well as adjustment and equity have become major policy concerns. Meeting the political economics challenge will help this process of adaptation.     

A QUARTERLY MODEL OF THE AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR*

Several farm sector econometric models are reviewed initially and the aggregation problem highlighted. A thirty-equation model of the Australian agricultural sector is specified in which farm output, stocks and exports and the domestic demand for farm products are endogenous, as well as farm, export and retail prices. Disaggregation is into food and non-food components of unprocessed output, and the processing of food is traced through to final demand. The model is estimated by a modified 2SLS procedure using quarterly data covering the period 1960-1970.     

MODELS OF RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN PUBLIC AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH: A SURVEY

The identification of research priorities in public agricultural research has been the focus of investigation for a broad range of analytical and empirical studies. Pressure on budgets has meant that efficient resource allocation has become increasingly important to guarantee the continued productivity of agricultural research. This paper provides an overview of the various approaches that have been used in these studies. Generalisations are drawn from the findings of this research programme.     

A QUARTERLY MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA*

The aims of this study were (a) to attempt to develop a quarterly model to explain aggregate farm investment in Australia, and (b) to examine the concept of the implicit rental price of capital services as a method of taking account of taxation concessions in an investment equation.     

ETHICS AND EXTERNALITIES: AGRICULTURAL STEWARDSHIP AND OTHER BEHAVIOUR: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Neo classical micro-economic theory of the firm and household rests on the foundations of profit maximising and utility maximising behaviour respectively. This paper explores the issue of whether market efficiency can be improved when economic agents' behaviour is motivated by ethical objectives such as fairness and altruism. In particular the paper examines agricultural stewardship as an ethically motivated form of behaviour, which is profit sacrificing, but which improves economic efficiency by reducing environmental externalities. The paper also reiterates the limitations of Pareto optimality as a criterion of economic welfare because its rejection of interpersonal welfare comparisons rules out ethical considerations of income and wealth distribution.     

农用地膜污染合作治理模式及其绩效损失研究

[目的]农用地膜污染防治是推动农业农村污染合作治理、实现农村人居环境持续改善的重要内容,因此系统研究不同主体在农用地膜回收利用工作中行为模式的差异及影响因素,可为全国农用地膜污染治理提供可借鉴的方法和经验。[方法]文章基于农用地膜生命周期污染防治的逻辑链条分析,系统研究了废旧地膜回收过程中的价值生成和绩效损失途径,提出地膜污染防治典型合作模式与治理路径。[结果]废旧地膜回收机制建立初期,政府通过产业政策导向培育环保意识和市场,通过补贴实现企业的规模扩大和持续发展,但会降低企业核心竞争力,造成政府在生产环节的绩效损失。[结论]在典型农用地膜污染治理模式中,政府主导型、混合型模式适合废旧地膜回收机制建立初期,有利于从宏观层面调动市场资源,建立起“生产—回收”的市场内循环机制;在市场内循环机制建立成熟后,一般由政府主导型转为混合型,并在混合型后期逐步过渡为生产者主导型,使得废旧地膜回收利用成为一个非政府主导行为。