Broiler production in South Africa: Is there space for smallholders in the commercial chicken coup?

It is agreed that agriculture provides avenues for impoverished households to produce and trade their way out of poverty. However, this requires market access and value chain integration of small-scale farmers. This paper explores the possibilities for integration of small-scale farmers into the mainstream commercial broiler value chain in South Africa. Production costs of small-scale producers are evaluated within the context of their commercial counterparts, with a case study approach. It revealed that small-scale producers pay more for inputs but also receive a substantial premium for sales of live birds in the informal market. This results in attractive gross margins for small-scale producers. There is, however, a production ceiling, due to demand and production considerations, associated with small-scale broiler production. This ultimately results in a dualistic industry with an informal (live sale) value chain at the one end of the spectrum and a sophisticated large-scale commercial value chain at the other. Given the salient production features and investment requirements associated with large-scale broiler production, organic growth from the small-scale value chain into the commercial value chain seems improbable. The dual nature of this industry should therefore be considered when developing policy geared towards development, poverty alleviation and value chain integration.     

Transaction costs and crop marketing in the communal areas of Impendle and Swayimana,KwaZulu-Natal

High transaction costs are detrimental to the efficient operation or existence of markets for inputs and outputs. The cost of information and the costs associated with the search for trade partners, the distance to formal markets and contract enforcement are likely to influence the marketing of food crops. This study hypothesises that the level of income generated from food-crop sales by small-scale farmers in the Impendle and Swayimana districts of KwaZuluNatal is influenced by transaction costs and certain household and farm characteristics. Regression analysis shows that the depth of marketing methods is significantly influenced by transaction cost proxies, such as cooperation with large commercial farmers and ownership of means of transport. Results from a block-recursive regression analysis show that the level of crop income generated is determined by the depth of marketing methods, the size of allocated arable land and off-farm income. Households with lower transaction costs, sizeable allocated land and off-farm income can be expected to generate higher income from food crops. Investment in public goods such as roads, telecommunications and an efficient legal system (to uphold commercial contracts), as well as farmer support services (input supply, extension, marketing information and research), would probably raise farm and non-farm income by reducing transaction costs. This would increase the effective demand for locally produced goods and services, thus contributing to rural employment and livelihoods within rural communal areas.     

农民专业合作经济组织的效益成本分析——以四川省仁寿县文宫枇杷协会为例

随着农业的进一步发展,家庭分散经营因土地规模过小而效益不高的问题日渐突出.在我国市场经济和农业比较效益低的情况下,分散经营的农户经营规模过小,很难有效地参与市场竞争.于是,从节约交易费用出发,寻求通过交易的联合,形成规模效益,使内部交易费用小于外部交易费用,便产生了各种专业合作经济组织(简称专合组织).专业合作经济组织,是市场化取向改革和农业弱质性特点的必然结果.通过专合组织可以实现小规模经营农户间的联合,从外部扩大农户的生产经营规模,降低交易成本,提高农产品的竞争力.本文以四川省仁寿县文宫枇杷协会为例,从降低交易成本的角度来研究专合组织对农民收入增加的贡献.     

Challenges and opportunities in El Salvador's financial sector

The formal financial sector has expanded rapidly in postwar El Salvador, encouraged by premature financial liberalization and a remittance windfall, exceeding commercial banks' capacities to lend prudently. The counterpart of this spurious financial deepening is a shallow financial market for smaller firms, which reflects both difficult real conditions for small urban and agricultural enterprises, and the unfortunate effects of the credit-channeling model characterizing development banks and most nongovernment organization projects. This model discourages the growth of small-scale institutions that can fund themselves from local resources, and limits the ability of small producers to accumulate financial savings.     

From Plantations to Smallholder Production: The Role of Policy in the Reorganization of the Sri Lankan Tea Sector

The Sri Lankan tea sector has changed from one dominated by vertically integrated plantations to one where independent processors of black tea purchase their input (green leaf tea) from small, independent growers. This paper provides a unifying conceptual framework to characterize three major factors affecting the changes in vertical coordination arrangements (transaction, production, and management costs). Regulation and government policy have altered these determinants of organizational change. Transaction costs have been reduced by state intervention into the price for green leaf which subsequently lowered the risk of processors re-negotiating prices downward. Production costs, which continue to be dominated by labor expenses due to the lack of technological developments for harvesting, have increased more for plantations than independent producers due to union pressures.     

新制度经济学中的产业组织理论探析

新制度经济学将产业组织理论研究重点深入到企业内部,认为企业的适度边界不单纯由技术因素决定,而是由技术、交易费用和组织费用等因素共同决定,从而将原有的企业和市场二层次分析框架提升为市场、中间性组织和企业的三层次分析框架。新制度经济学从企业“黑箱”内部的企业代理成本、产权结构、组织结构的变化来分析企业行为,以及它们对市场绩效的影响,深化了产业组织理论研究。     

科技进步与企业边界的关系

企业边界的界定一直是一个值得讨论的问题。古典经济学、企业战略理论、现代产权经济学都从不同的角度对企业边界的界定作出了解释。文章从科技进步的角度说明企业边界的界定问题。科技的进步,使企业的交易成本下降,促使了网络组织的产生,不确定性也导致了企业有限外部化,这就促使企业边界有所扩大,并且使小企业蓬勃发展。     

The Private Delivery of Public Crop Varieties: Rice in Andhra Pradesh

Although there has been a considerable growth of private seed enterprises in developing countries, there are few examples of the private delivery of seed of public crop varieties that are not hybrids. This paper discusses the example of rice in Andhra Pradesh, where private enterprise is supplying an increasing proportion of the seed used by farmers. The institutional conditions for private expansion into rice seed are examined. The paper discusses instances where low transaction costs allow for the emergence of a wide range of seed enterprises. But despite the success of private seed delivery, inadequate attention has been given to incentives for variety promotion, and to the importance of consumer education.     

Retail margins, price transmission and price asymmetry in urban food markets: the case of Kinshasa (Zaire)

Some African food markets can still seem to operate inefficientlyafter price liberalisation. This seems mainly due to the existenceof significant transaction costs because of small-scale operations,and is influenced by lack of grading, deficient infrastructureand information systems. It is shown in the case of retail marketsin Kinshasa that search, supervision and other difficult-to-measuretransactions costs are more important in the margin of foodproducts than the measurable marketing costs (e.g., storage,transport). It is also shown through time series analysis thatmost of the price transmission between wholesale and retailhappens in the same week and that price asymmetry, i.e., thedifferent transmission of price increases compared with pricedecreases, is present for most products. Products characterisedby relatively more standardisation and homogeneity are shownto have lower retail margins and to behave symmetrically. Amodel based on kinked demand curves and search costs might explainthis asymmetric price behaviour.     

东部沿海六省市商务成本水平结构比较

本文从要素成本和交易成本两方面构建区域商务成本评价指标体系,选取东部沿海上海、浙江、江苏、福建、广东和山东六省市为比较对象,结论是东部沿海六省市商业设施及土地成本和劳动力成本总体呈现出上升态势,但具体指标上升速度存在明显差异;政府运作效率、市场化和信息化程度、基础设施和研发能力明显提高,但少数指标却呈现逐年下降态势,如合同外资金额占GDP比重等。     

社会信用与企业韧性——基于社会信用体系改革试点的准自然实验

在当前全球经济环境不稳定的背景下,如何增强企业韧性是所有企业都要面临的重要问题。文章基于 2007-2021年我国 A股上市公司的平衡面板数据。测度了企业韧性水平,并以城市社会信用体系改革试点作为一项准自然实验,运用多时点 DID模型实证检验了社会信用对企业韧性的影响。结果表明:社会信用提升能够显著增强企业韧性:社会信用主要通过提高城市人力资本水平、降低企业交易成本和提升企业劳动生产率三个机制来增强企业韧性。异质性分析发现:社会信用对企业韧性的增强作用在内部治理水平较低企业、非国有企业、市场化程度较低地区中的效果更大。文章为研究企业韧性的影响因素提供了新的视角,对如何增强企业韧性、实现企业高质量发展具有一定的启示。     

中小企业融资困境与商业银行组织更新的关联

中小企业融资困难源于外生交易费用与分工好处的两难冲突.也有内生交易费用和分工好处的两难冲突。为降低信息不对称程度,减少交易费用,通过意会型知识的应用,以及大型商业银行的组织更新对缓解中小企业融资困难有较大的作用。     

Contract Engagement in the Small-Scale Tuna-Fishing Economies of East Java

We examine the informal contractual relationships formed by artisanal fishers (AFs) and intermediaries in the small-scale tuna-fishing economies of East Java, Indonesia, using data from a survey of 436 boat captains. Our exploration of the factors motivating AFs to engage in such contracts uses instrumental-variable probit regressions to control for endogeneity in our transaction-cost economics model. This model incorporates the importance of household characteristics, transaction characteristics, transaction costs, risk behaviour, and trust in the choice of contract between AFs and their intermediaries. These intermediaries play an important role in facilitating transactions and contractual relationships between AFs and processors in the marketing value chain. We find that social capital is a statistically significant instrumental variable in our model. We also find that risk behaviour and trust are not statistically significant in influencing the choice of governance structure.     

Gains and losses from trade when countries differ in public knowledge stock

Following the insight from endogenous growth theory, this paper assumes that countries with advanced production structures have high levels of public knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether a developing country should trade with countries that are more or less advanced than itself. It is argued that it is particularly harmful to trade with advanced countries if international transaction costs are high and capital is internationally immobile, in which case welfare may be higher in autarchy than with trade. For low levels of transaction costs, it may be more beneficial to trade with relatively advanced countries, particularly if capital is internationally mobile.     

中部四省商务成本水平结构比较研究

文章基于可量性原则从要素成本和交易成本两方面构建区域商务成本评价指标体系,选取中部安徽、河南、江西和广西为比较对象,依据各省市统计年鉴的指标数据进行水平间比较。主要结论是中部四省商业设施及土地成本和劳动力成本总体上呈现出上升态势,但具体指标上升速度存在明显差异性;政府运作效率、市场化和信息化程度、基础设施和研发能力等有所提高,但少数指标却呈现逐年下降态势,如第三产业占GDP等。文章主要贡献在于以详实的统计数据比较分析区域商务成本动态变化,并提出区域商务成本调控政策建议。     

Growth constraints on small-scale manufacturing in developing countries: a critical review

The question raised in this review is whether small-scale producers in developing countries can expand or whether they are up against constraints which stunt their growth. Most of the literature has been optimistic on this score; while internal constraints (e.g. lack of managerial ability) or external constraints (e.g. discrimination from government) are identified, expansion is seen as an open-ended process. In other contributions this view has been severely criticized; some allege that the small producers are exploited through various mechanisms, others suggest that their road to expansion is blocked as a result of factors such as the pre-existence of very advanced technology, the control of large firms over product markets, or difficulties in access to raw materials. In discussing the arguments put forward in the debate, an attempt is made to assess their theoretical bases and examine the extent to which they are supported empirically. While most studies express explicitly or implicitly a definite view on the growth potential of small producers, such judgement is rarely based on a comprehensive examination of the context which determines this potential.     

Economic calculation and transaction costs: The case of the airline oversales auction system

According to Nobel Laureate Edmund Phelps (2013, p. 123), Mises's critique of economic calculation under socialism renders him the originator of the economic analysis of property rights. This paper also suggests that implicit to Mises's impossibility theorem was also the origins of the theory of transaction costs. This raises the following question: what is the relationship, if any, between the process of economic calculation and the concept of transaction costs? Filtered through a Misesian lens, we argue that transaction costs are the costs of engaging in economic calculation. We illustrate our theoretical point utilizing the case of airline oversales auction system first proposed by Julian Simon (1968). In doing so, we reframe the problem of airline oversales from a transaction-cost approach, one in which property rights in airline seats are initially poorly defined. By doing so, we illustrate that resources expended to discover the valuable attributes of a good (in this case airline seats), the terms of exchange between potential trading partners, as well as enforcing the terms of an exchange, all of which are transaction costs, are also, by definition, the costs of calculating the exchange value of goods. Thus, the airlines oversales auction system is illustrative of an institutional solution to the problem of economic calculation via a reduction of transaction costs.     

从交易成本的视角看我国的大部制改革

国家目前推行的大部制改革是中国行政体制改革的一件大事,本文从交易成本的定义入手,指出大部制在中国推行的主要目的之一是为了降低交易成本;随后从产生交易成本的三个最重要的决定因素分别论述了大部制改革可以从不同方面制约交易成本的产生;并提出了对实施大部制的理性思考。     

中小企业融资现状、问题与创新

中小企业在我国国民经济中发挥着不可替代的作用,但恶劣的融资环境严重地制约甚至危及着中小企业的生存和发展。本文从分析我国现阶段中小企业融资的现状与问题入手,提出了中小企业融资创新的若干方式。     

Macroeconomic Consequences of Outsourcing: An Analysis of Growth, Welfare, and Product Variety

Outsourcing of non-core activities is nowadays a common business strategy. Declining transaction and transportation costs caused by the advent of Information and Communication Technology are a potentially important driving force behind this development. This paper provides a theoretical framework for analysing a firm's incentive to follow such a strategy of outsourcing and its consequences for macroeconomic variables like growth and product variety. We divide production activities into core and non-core activities. Non-core activities can be performed within the firm or can be mediated by the market. We derive conditions under which outsourcing occurs, and under which outsourcing is socially desirable. These conditions do not necessarily coincide. Outsourcing may hence be a profitable strategy for firms, while it is socially suboptimal. Crucial parameters in the model are the relative scale of core versus non-core activities, management costs, transaction costs and love for variety of consumers.