ESTIMATION OF BENEFITS FROM DEER AND MOOSE HUNTING IN MANITOBA

Wildlife production has been suggested as a socially beneficial alternative to agriculture on marginal land. Since most wildlife species are fugitive common property resources, the private sector is assumed to be incapable of generating optimum outputs. Therefore, public investments in habitat and game protection and management are assumed to be beneficial, provided that funds are appropriately allocated. Criteria are needed for optimizing such public investments, and the benefit cost approach is currently used. Benefit evaluation is one important aspect of this approach. In the present study the benefits of deer and moose hunting in a selected area of Manitoba have been estimated and projections made for 1975 and 1980. The benefit calculations are based on estimated demands for hunting, using a model in which distance and hunting site quality are independent variables. The demand and benefit estimates will be of interest to land use planners and wildlife managers. Data used in the study were obtained from surveys by the Manitoba Wildlife Branch and the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Manitoba II a été suggéré que la production du gibier serait une alternative qui apporterait des bénéfices sociaux où?on pratique ?agriculture à terres marginales. Elant donné que la plupart des espèces sauvages sont de caraclère fugilif ainsi qu'une proprieté commune, nous croyons qu'il est impossible pour le secleur privé de produire un rendement optimal. Par consequant, nous présumons que des investissements publics trail à la protection et la gestion du gibier et de son habitat offrenl des avantages, pourvu que les fonds soienl correctement distribués. On a besoin de critères pour optimaliser de tels investissements publics, et la méthode “benefit-cost” est ?usage couranl. ?évaluation des bénéfices est un aspect important de cette méthode. Dans la presente étude les bénéfices de la chasse aux chevreuils et aux orignaux dans une région sélectionnée du Manitoba ont été estimés et des projections onl été effectuées pour les années 1975 et 1980. Les calculs des bénéfices onl pour base des estimations des demandes pour la chasse, à parlir ?un modèle dans lequel les variables indépendantes sont la distance et la qualite des endroits de chasse. Les estimations des demandes el des benefices seront intérèssantes aux planificaieurs de ?utilisalion des terres et aux direcleurs de ?enlretien des terrains de chasse. Les données utilisées dans cette étude ont été oblenu à partir de questionnaires utilisés dans des enquêles menées par la Division de Chasse et Pêche du Manitoba et par le Département ?Economie Rurale de ?Université du Manitoba     

METHODS OF ASSESSING AGRICULTURAL DEMAND FOR WATER IN THE PRAIRIES*

It is vital that policy makers have good evluations of society's needs for water development and regulations. However, in order to make valid normative assessments, there must first be more adequate forecasts of attainable water use patterns. Conditional forecasting is suggested as being most appropriate. In this paper an outline of factors affecting agricultural water use is provided. A discussion is given of three approachs to conditional forecasting: extrapolation of production requirements, fitting production functions by regression, and programming. Advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed with attention to methodological details. Precautions are outlined for aggregation procedures and the evaluation of results. Recommendations are made on some basic issues affecting water researchers, and an attempt is made to identify iterhs needing priority attention. II est, essentiel que les planificateurs s'occupant de ?aménagement el de la règlementation d, es eaux aient unc bonne évaluation des besoins de la société. Cependant, afin de produire des évaluations valables nous devons avant tout oblenir des prévisions adèquales des systèmes accessibles de ?ulilisation des eaux. Les prévisions conditioners sont suggéreés comme étant les plus appropriées. Dans cetie étude, nous fournisons les données générates sur les différents facteurs affectant Ǐulilisation des eaux en agriculture. Ensuite, nous donnons une discussion de trois méthodes sur la calculation des pronostics condilionnels, lesquelles sont ?extrapolation des exigences de la production par régression el la programmation. Les avantages el désavantages de chaque méthode sont discutées avec attention aux détails méthodologiques. Des mises en garde sont données sur les procéd is ?assemblages el de ?évaluation des résultats. De plus, des recommandalions sont faites sur des issues fondamenlales qui affectent les chercheurs dans le domaine de ǐutilisation des eaux et un effort est fourni afin ?identifier les details demandant une attention prioritaire.     

MEASUREMENT OF FIRM-SPECIFIC TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY: A COMPARISON OF METHODS

Various procedures have been used for the measurement of firm-specific technical efficiency. Most commonly used methods are static and deterministic. Deterministic methods tend to yield biased estimates of technical efficiency and to overestimate the variability of technical efficiency over time. These conclusions are illustrated by applying stochastic frontier production function analysis and corrected ordinary least squares procedures to farm data from Sri Lanka.     

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY: A COMPARISON OF PRODUCTION FRONTIER METHODS

Recent differences in the measurement of farm efficiency may be related to the methods employed. Here, four alternative production frontiers are estimated using time-series, cross-section data for a sample of Illinois grain farms. Efficiency measures are found to be highly correlated between nonparametric methods, and between parametric methods. However, large differences are noted when efficiency measures are compared between nonparametric and parametric methods. An analysis of farms with large differences, which are efficient under the nonparametric method, indicates that correlations between efficiency measures are much higher when these firms are excluded.     

A COMPARISON OF TOBIT AND OLS ESTIMATES OF JAPANESE PEANUT IMPORT DEMAND

A Tobit analysis is applied to estimate Japanese peanut imports under quota restrictions for the period 1973–1988, and to assess the bias when the presence of quota is ignored by using OLS estimation. The results show that biased estimates are obtained by using OLS in the presence of quota restrictions.     

A COMPARISON OF DEPRECIATION METHODS UNDER CURRENT COST ACCOUNTING

In New Zealand the Richardson Report has recommended to government the adoption of a form of inflation accounting known as Current Cost Accounting (CCA). This paper reports research carried out to determine which of the traditional historical cost depreciation methods used in farm accounting might be most appropriate when adapted to a current cost basis. The current cost depreciation methods are compared on the basis of their ability to predict accurately actual replacement values for a survey sample of farm tractors and headers. The resultant measures of depreciation are compared with those currently allowable under New Zealand taxation laws, and the proposition that investment allowances on purchases of new machinery offset the inadequacies of historical cost depreciation is discussed.     

A COMPARISON OF RISK EFFICIENCY CRITERIA IN EVALUATING GROUNDNUT PERFORMANCE IN DROUGHT-PRONE AREAS

This paper contributes to an evaluation of the performance of ground nuts in drought-prone areas by estimating yield response functions to water from experimental data. They are combined with meteorological data to simulate yields by location. Efficient genotypes are identified by several risk criteria. Genotype rankings based on these risk criteria and simulated yields are different from those based on experimental data and plant scientists' traditional methods of evaluation.     

A MODEL OF THE DISAGGREGATED DEMAND FOR MEAT IN AUSTRALIA

The focus of this study is the estimation of the Australian demand for meat between 1967 and 1990, employing a demand systems approach which uses the linear approximate, almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) model. Two demand systems are estimated by maximum likelihood methods, one for aggregate types of meat and one for disaggregated meat products. After correcting for serial correlation in the two demand systems, restrictions from utility theory are imposed and tested for their appropriateness. By using a new data set on the Australian retail price and consumption offresh pork, ham and bacon, the results from the disaggregated model provide the first estimates of the own-price, cross-price and expenditure elasticities for these commodities.     

ANALYSIS OF EXPORT DEMAND FOR CANADIAN WHEAT

The objectives of this study are to identify the main factors affecting foreign countries' imports of wheat, and to interpret the implications for Candian wheat export policy. Analyses have been made if import demands of twelve countries, including four which have purchased approximately 60 percent of Canadian wheat exports during the last five years. The study focuses on methods of estimating the price elasticity of demand in the purchase of wheat by individual countries. Three models were applied: the direct, the substitution, and the market share model. The substitution model performed best and was judged to have the greatest potential for further research. Significant negative price elasticities considerably greater than unity (in absolute terms) were found for several countries, including some major importers. This suggests that there are large potential gains obtainable for Canada by decreasing price. However, unless the Wheat Board adopts multiple pricing, these gains would be at least partly offset by losses in markets which appear to be much less responsive to price. L'objectif de cette étude est ?identifier les principaux facteurs qui affectent les importations de blé aux pays étrangers et ?évaluer la portée de ses facteurs sur la politique canadienne ?exportalion du blé. On a analysé les demandes ?importation de 12 pays, dont quatre ont acheté prés de 60 pourcent des exportations canadiennes de blé au cours des cinq dernières années. Cette etude se concentre sur les méthodes ?estimation de I‘élasticite de demande des pays individuels. On a utilise trois modèles dit: “direct”, “substitution”, et “le portage du marché.” Le modèle “substitution” donna les meilleurs résultats et semble le plus prometteur pour de telles recherches dans I'avenir. Des élasticites négatives et significatives de prix, plus grand que ?unité (en termes absolus) ont été obtenues pour plusieurs pays incluant quelques-uns des plus gros importateurs. Ceci nous laisse croire qu'il y aurait des possibilityée de gains accrues si le Canada réduisait ses prix. Cependant, à moins que la Commission Canadienne du Blué n'adopte une systeme de prix différentiels, ces gains seraient au moins particllemcnt réduits par des pcrtes dans ?autres marchés qui paraissent être moins sensibles aux changements des prix.     

THE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND FOR THE EXPORTS OF A SINGLE COUNTRY — A RECONSIDERATION

One country's exports of a particular commodity are usually imperfect substitutes for similar exports from other countries. Consequently, the price elasticity of export demand involves unknown cross elasticities between sub-groups of the commodity. However, there are constraints on the relative magnitudes of all the sub-group elasticities. These make it possible to assess the degree to which the whole commodity elasticity divided by the market share is an over-estimate of the export elasticity.     

A COMPARISON OF INCOME AVERAGING PROCEDURES FOR INCOME TAX PURPOSES

A comparison is made of a number of income averaging procedures on the basis of selected performance criteria. The main conclusion which emerges is that the Australian income averaging procedure, currently applied to primary producers, has a number of defects. Several of the alternative income averaging procedures reviewed are judged to be superior to the current Australian system.     

论市场经济对财务专家的要求

现代市场经济条件下财务专家应具备高超的智能素质,全面的理财知识和卓越的工作才能.文章从基本素质、市场经济观念、理财原则三个方面论述了市场经济对财务专家的要求.     

DEMAND FOR FOOD IN GREECE: AN ALMOST IDEAL DEMAND SYSTEM ANALYSIS

This paper provides an analysis of food demand in Greece using the Almost Ideal Demand System and annual food expenditure data for the period 1950–1986. The focus is on the estimation of a complete matrix of price and income elasticities for the various food commodity groups for Greece. The empirical analysis points to the dominant position that meat and other livestock products have acquired in the diet of Greek consumers during a period of high income growth and rising living standards. Further increase in meat and milk demand is expected to take place as long as incomes keep rising.     

WEAK SEPARABILITY AND A TEST FOR THE SPECIFICATION OF INCOME IN DEMAND MODELS WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE DEMAND FOR MEAT IN AUSTRALIA*

Most studies of the demand for meat in Australia have used some measure of total income or expenditure, but two recent studies have assumed weak separability of a meat group and used expenditure on the meat group instead. These specification differences are of interest to the extent that they affect the economic interpretation, goodness-of-fit, elasticity estimates, predictive performance or hypothesis tests in empirical demand equations. In this paper, non-nested hypothesis testing procedures are used to test the alternative specifications of the income variable and the hypothesis of separability. The results favour the use of the expenditure variable implied by separability but are mixed concerning whether separability holds.