The Cotton Influence Index: An Examination of U.S. Cotton Subsidies

Given the lack of a bill or amendment specific to cotton, we introduce a Cotton Influence Index to capture legislators' influence in championing the cause of the cotton growers during the hearings of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Regression analyses reveal a relationship between Cotton Influence Index and campaign contributions, cotton farmland, party affiliation, and ideology. Tobit analysis indicates a significant relationship between different "actions and participations" by representatives to advance the interest of cotton—that is, components of this index and their future cotton political action committees' (PACs) contributions to them.     

The Political Economy of Agricultural Statistics and Input Subsidies: Evidence from India,Nigeria and Malawi

The political economy of agricultural policies – why certain interventions may be preferred by political leaders rather than others – is well recognized. This paper explores a perspective that has previously been neglected: the political economy of the agricultural statistics. In developing economies, the data on agricultural production are weak. Because these data are assembled using competing methods and assumptions, the final series are subject to political pressure, particularly when the government is subsidizing agricultural inputs. This paper draws on debates on the evidence of a Green Revolution in India and the arguments on the effect of withdrawing fertilizer subsidies during structural adjustment in Nigeria, and finally the paper presents new data on the effect of crop data subsidies in Malawi. The recent agricultural census (2006/7) indicates a maize output of 2.1 million metric tonnes, compared to the previously widely circulated figures of 3.4 million metric tonnes. The paper suggests that ‘data’ are themselves a product of agricultural policies.     

The Effect of Investment,LFA and Agri-environmental Subsidies on the Components of Total Factor Productivity: The Case of Slovenian Farms

The effect of subsidies on the performance of farms has received a great deal of attention in the literature, although results are inconclusive. Furthermore, much of the related literature examines the effect of subsidies only on technical efficiency (TE). We examine the effect of different types of subsidies on the different components of total factor productivity (TFP) in Slovenian agriculture over the period 2006–2013. We first estimate a Random Parameter Stochastic production frontier model. Then, based on the estimates of this model, we calculate and decompose the TFP index into TE, scale efficiency and technological change. Third, we apply combined difference-in-difference and a matching estimator to examine the effect of investment, less favoured area (LFA) and agri-environmental (AE) subsidies on the different components of TFP. In our case, these subsidies are found to have no significant effect on either TFP or on its components.     

Market Incentives for Safe Foods: An Examination of Shareholder Losses from Meat and Poultry Recalls

Meat and poultry recalls, while voluntary, are carried out under governmental oversight. If firms have financial incentives to avoid being implicated in a recall situation, governmental involvement in recalls may cause firms to internalize social costs when making investment decisions concerning food safety controls. To examine these incentives, we analyze federally supervised meat and poultry recalls from 1982 to 1998 within an event study. Results show significant shareholder losses when publicly traded food companies are implicated in a recall involving serious food safety hazards. We find no evidence that the stock market reacts negatively when recalls involve less severe hazards.     

劳动 补偿 剩余—关于地勘单位市场化取向的学习与思考

地勘单位市场化取向具有不可逆性 ,在发展多种经营 ,寻求新的劳动对象 ,置办劳动手段 ,安置人员 ,实现改革和发展目标的过程中 ,靠借贷资金发展 ,投资主体错位 ,造成经营上的非正常压力 ,以至处于不景气窘境 ;同时 ,把按劳分配的对象 ,应该延展到剩余劳动的价值M ,劳动力作为资本进入分配领域 ,使劳动者在社会主义市场经济中的主人地位 ,从分配制度上进一步体现。     

新型农村合作医疗财政补助问题研究——政策评价、补助需求与政策优化

本文从财政补助责任、补助资金总量和财政补助资金来源三方面对现行新型农村合作医疗财政补助政策进行评价,从静态和动态的角度对不同建设目标下的财政补助需求和未来年度财政补助水平进行推算,并以此为基础对现行财政补助政策优化提出相关建议,即深度细化与明晰财政补助责任,适时与适度调整财政补助目标,以兼顾平衡和发展的理念确定财政补助方向,开拓新主体以补充资金来源。     

渔业补贴、捕捞努力量与渔业总成本

本文探讨了一些有关渔业补贴的议题,考察了全球渔业补贴总量及其变动趋势,并运用模型分析了补贴对捕捞努力量和渔业总成本的影响.     

Modeling the Effects of Input Market Reforms on Fertiliser Demand and Maize Production: A Case Study from Kenya

Kenya is one of the few countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa to experience an impressive rise in fertiliser use following a series of input market reforms in the early 1990s. Two major consequences of these reforms were declining fertiliser marketing margins and distances between farmers and fertiliser dealers. We quantify the effects of these changes on commercial fertiliser use and maize production in Kenya by estimating fertiliser demand and maize supply response functions using nationwide household survey data. Our results indicate that between 1997 and 2010, the estimated 27% reduction in real fertiliser prices that can be attributed to falling marketing margins associated with market reforms led to a 36% increase in nitrogen use on maize fields and a 9% increase in maize production resulting from both yield and acreage effects. On the other hand, decreasing distances to fertiliser retailers from the perspective of a given household did not appear to raise fertiliser use or maize supply, although a comparison across households using average distances over the panel indicate that those closer to retailers do apply more fertiliser on their maize fields.     

公益林补偿标准研究:一个超边际经济学框架

介绍了中国公益林补偿标准的研究现状,并且新构建了一个超边际经济学框架用于分析公益林补偿问题。文章通过设定分工模型,对林农的个人决策模式和均衡结构进行分析,最后提出结论:在一定前提条件下:补偿标准和人口总数成正比;和转移支付效率成反比(存在层层截留补偿款);和公益林总面积成反比。并根据以上的比较静态研究推测指出补偿公益林的标准应该是介于"完全自给自足的林业经济结构U(Ayz)"和"完全专业化的生产公益林的结构U(B1)"之间。这个分析框架可以用来帮助分析公益林补偿的诸多问题,为政府合理制定补偿标准提供理论依据。     

Insurance for Technology Adoption: An Experimental Evaluation of Schemes and Subsidies with Maize Farmers in Mexico

For farmers in developing countries, the combination of both risk aversion and the lack of insurance is often a major impediment to adoption of productivity‐enhancing technologies, such as higher yielding hybrid seed. In a framed field experiment with Mexican maize farmers, we investigate whether bundling hybrid seed with an insurance scheme can increase its adoption, while also controlling for risk aversion. We test insurance schemes with different levels of risk coverage and premium subsidies and find that (1) all schemes significantly increase the degree of adoption of the higher yielding seed, (2) partial insurance schemes perform worse than full insurance, (3) weather index insurance with geographical basis risk performs no worse than indemnity insurance, and (4) premium subsidies significantly increase the adoption effect of indemnity insurance, but not that of index insurance.     

世贸组织渔业补贴谈判--主要提案立场评析

近年来,渔业补贴一直都是有关国际论坛中的一个热点议题.自世贸组织<多哈部长宣言>将渔业补贴纪律列为谈判议题以来,其规则谈判小组为此展开了系列辩论,但目前尚未达成共识.本文分析及评述了有关各方在世贸组织规则谈判小组的讨论中所形成的主要立场.     

The Local Impacts of Agricultural Subsidies: Evidence from the Canadian Prairies

We estimate the impact of removing an export subsidy on the local economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, exploiting the large regional variation of a 1995 reform. We find that the loss of the subsidy resulted in significantly lower farm value‐added, farm asset values and local non‐farm employment. The results suggest that the subsidy removal had detrimental spillover effects on the local non‐agricultural economy that varied spatially across the Prairies. The point estimates suggest that the marginal effect of the subsidy loss on non‐agricultural employment was five times as large as those obtained from traditional estimates of the multiplier effect.     

Testing for Dynamic Misspecification of Input Demand Functions: An Application to Canadian Agriculture

Previous applications of the inter-temporal quadratic adjustment cost model in agriculture have failed to consider information gained from pre-testing in choosing an appropriate specification for dynamic demand of quasi-fixed inputs. A test strategy is outlined taking account of this information in order to consistently estimate adjustment cost and discount rate parameters. Canadian agricultural data are used in the empirical analysis. Test results suggest that the intertemporal quadratic adjustment cost model is inappropriate for modeling dynamic demand for land, labor and machinery.     

论制约我国农村消费市场发展的因素及其对策

开发农村消费市场是当前我国宏观经济发展的主基调,增加农民收入是新时期农村工作的中心任务。农村消费市场难以发展的关键,是农民消费需求不足。本文就制约我国农村消费市场发展的因素进行了简要分析,并就相应的制约因素对启动农村消费市场、发展农民消费行为的对策进行了探讨。     

中国玉米市场经济分析--内蒙古玉米市场案例分析

本文从西方经济学的需求函数出发，结合内蒙古的实际案例进行实证分析，找出影响玉米需求量的八个主要影响因素。运用相关性分析影响因素之间的相互关系，通过主成分筛选变量法剔除自变量之间的多重共线性，确立了玉米市场影响的主要因子。根据所选定的主要因子，建立线性回归模型，并且进一步分析了内蒙古玉米市场供求不均衡的原因及实现玉米市场供求均衡的三种可能途径，指出各种途径实现的现实可能性。最后就如何实现内蒙古玉米市场供求均衡提出了对策建议。