Weather Risk, Wages in Kind, and the Off-Farm Labor Supply of Agricultural Households in a Developing Country

This article investigates the effects of weather risk on the off-farm labor supply of agricultural households in a developing country, distinguishing different types of off-farm labor markets. A multivariate two-limit tobit model is applied to data from India. The regression results show that the share of the off-farm labor supply increases with weather risk, the increase is much larger in the case of nonagricultural work than in the case of agricultural wage work, and the increase is much larger in the case of agricultural wages paid in kind than in the cash wage case, suggesting farmers' considerations of food security.     

Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off-Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain-for-Green Program on Rural Households in China

This study evaluates the labor response of rural households participating in the Grain-for-Green program in China, the largest payments for ecosystem services program in the developing world. Using a panel data set that we designed and implemented, we find that the participating households are increasingly shifting their labor endowment from on-farm work to the off-farm labor market. However, the effects vary depending on the initial level of human and physical capital. The results support the view that one reason why the participants are more likely to find off-farm employment is because the program is relaxing households' liquidity constraints.     

The Impact of Coupled and Decoupled Government Subsidies on Off-Farm Labor Participation of U.S. Farm Operators

With the 1996 Farm Act, the United States introduced payments that were designed to be "decoupled." Labor allocation choices are likely to be affected by receipt of payments, and income from off-farm jobs has been the major source of income for most farm households for sometime. This article examines whether the 1996 change has affected the off-farm labor participation of farm households. We conclude that the observed increase in off-farm participation of farm operators who received payments was not the result of the 1996 policy change. Government payments, whether coupled or decoupled, have a negative effect on off-farm labor participation.     

Parametric and Semiparametric Modeling of the Off-Farm Labor Supply of Agrarian Households in Transition Bulgaria

The reaction of labor markets to economic reforms is an important indicator of the progress of transition. Because of diminished government support and the breakup of state and collective enterprises, labor market adjustments in the transition economies have been particularly severe in the agricultural sector. This article evaluates the off-farm labor market for a sample of agrarian households in transition Bulgaria. We give particular attention to the distributional assumptions that underlie standard approaches to the evaluation of labor supply. A variety of specification tests are considered and support for standard maximum likelihood estimates which rely on normality as a maintained hypothesis is mixed. Alternative semiparametric (distribution-free) estimators are also considered. The empirical results indicate that, five years after the initiation of the transition, off-farm labor supply patterns for Bulgarian agricultural households are similar to what is commonly observed in developed market economies. Labor supply is positively affected by factors such as education and work experience which are hypothesized to increase off-farm wages. Social benefit programs providing monetary or in-kind support payments are shown to significantly decrease off-farm work.     

Oligopsonistic Landlords, Segmented Labor Markets, and the Persistence of Tied-Labor Contracts

This article examines contractual labor arrangements in agrarian economies that persist as a consequence of market power on the part of landlords faced with output uncertainty. We show that a segmented labor market characterized by tied-labor contracts and involuntary unemployment in the lean season are optimal as compared to a labor hiring arrangement that guarantees full employment of labor in both seasons. Government intervention in the form of a specific subsidy targeted toward the hiring of permanent laborers may raise the welfare of all laborers while a specific subsidy directed toward the hiring of casual laborers or the institution of relief programs that absorb the rural unemployed in the lean season leads to the casual laborers in the economy being worse off.     

Risk, Wealth, and Sectoral Choice in Rural Credit Markets

We model the role of the informal credit sector in developing countries. The informational advantage of informal lenders is portrayed as the ability to monitor borrowers. Monitoring reduces the incentive problem and allows for contracts with lower collateral. This enables informal lenders to serve both individuals who cannot post the collateral required by the formal sector and those who are able but do not want to post collateral. The model is consistent with the conventional view of the informal sector as recipient of spillover demand from the formal sector. It also shows that the informal sector may provide partial insurance as the lower collateral requirement implies greater consumption smoothing for borrowers.     

Modeling Farm Households' Price Responses in the Presence of Transaction Costs and Heterogeneity in Labor Markets

We develop a farm household model to analyze price responses of farm households. This model incorporates various types of transaction costs as well as labor heterogeneity. Nonproportional variable transaction costs or labor heterogeneity imply that production and consumption decisions become nonseparable, even when the household buys or sells labor. An empirical model is estimated using data from Midwest Poland. The results show that nonproportional variable transaction costs and labor heterogeneity significantly influence household behavior. Not all price elasticities, however, change significantly if these are neglected.     

不同经济区农村劳动力转移对耕地利用的影响

以2009年北碚区集真村、綦江县石坪村、忠县普乐村社会经济统计资料和农户抽样调查数据为基础,采用定性与定量相结合的方法,对不同经济区的农村劳动力转移及其对耕地利用的影响进行了研究,结果表明:劳动力转移在转移规模、转移时间、转移距离、文化结构、性别结构、年龄结构等方面存在一定的差异性;经济发达地区相对次发达地区和落后地区其劳动力转移对耕地利用程度、产出效益、种植结构、利用方式的影响更为强烈,复种指数和粮食作物比例的变化程度同地区经济发展程度正相关,劳动力转移对各地区粮食单产的影响不明显,劳动力转移比例高的地区农户土地流转的意愿更为强烈。     

Government Spending, Growth and Poverty in Rural India

Using state-level data for 1970–93, a simultaneous equation model was developed to estimate the direct and indirect effects of different types of government expenditure on rural poverty and productivity growth in India. The results show that in order to reduce rural poverty, the Indian government should give highest priority to additional investments in rural roads and agricultural research. These types of investment not only have much larger poverty impacts per rupee spent than any other government investment, but also generate higher productivity growth. Apart from government spending on education, which has the third largest marginal impact on rural poverty and productivity growth, other investments (including irrigation, soil and water conservation, health, and rural and community development) have only modest impacts on growth and poverty per additional rupee spent.     

Determinants of Income Growth in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Labor Markets

This article analyzes determinants of growth across labor markets in the United States, using a production function approach based on four inputs: labor, manufacturing investment, human capital investment, and public capital investment. We find little role for public capital investment in growth, but that manufacturing investment spurred growth in nonmetropolitan areas, in contrast to metropolitan areas. We also find that human capital investment mattered more for metropolitan areas than for nonmetropolitan areas. Further, the presence of more colleges and universities, more household amenities, and lower tax rates are all found to have encouraged human capital accumulation in U.S. labor markets.     

Mobilizing Against GM Crops in India, South Africa and Brazil

This paper explores the national and transnational character of mobilization against GM crops in India, South Africa and Brazil in the ten-year period to 2005. By examining the contexts and practices of mobilization across the three countries, and in particular the complex, often fraught, local and global connections, the paper examines the diverse mobilizations that have occurred. The paper argues that to understand these processes, particular national political and economic contexts must be appreciated, alongside how the GM debates articulate with other foci for activism and the complex and often fragile nature of alliances that make up activist networks. The paper shows how the debate about GM crops has become a much wider one: about the future of agriculture and small-scale farmers, about corporate control and property rights and about the rules of global trade. In sum, a debate not just about the pros and cons of a particular set of technologies, but about politics and values and the future of agrarian society.     

Tree Diversity and Carbon Sinks: Role of Village Agro-ecosystems in the Western Ghats,Karnataka, India

Tree species richness, diversity index, standing biomass and biomass carbon stocks were estimated in six villages located under three agro-ecological zones, namely, coastal, hill and plains of Uttara Kannada district, Western Ghats, Peninsular India. The study showed that land use categories other than forest support higher tree species diversity. High basal area, standing biomass and carbon stock in non-forest land categories indicates their potential as carbon sinks and for promotion of species diversity. Inclusion of other non-forest land use categories in afforestation programmes for promotion of multipurpose tree species for conservation of diversity and for enhancing carbon sinks is suggested. There is a need to promote synergy between biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration under carbon mitigation projects.     

Specification and Estimation of Production Risk, Risk Preferences and Technical Efficiency

This article deals with specification and estimation of risk preferences, production risk, and technical inefficiency. It makes contribution in three separate areas of production economics. First, we model producers' attitude toward risk and derive risk preference functions (without assuming any parametric form of the utility function and any distribution of the error term representing production risk) when risk arises from production uncertainty and technical inefficiency. Second, the standard production risk model is extended to accommodate technical inefficiency and producers' attitude toward risk. Finally, the technical efficiency model is generalized to accommodate production risk and producers' attitude toward risk.     

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。     

Tests for the Role of Risk Aversion on Input Use

For risk-averting agents, risks alter production decisions while the existence of institutions to insure against adverse states of nature will likely restore decisions toward levels under risk neutrality. In this article, conditions are identified on a stochastic technology to test   H^rn _0,≤  : that risk averters choose smaller input levels than risk neutral agents, and   H^ra _0,≤  : that an increase in risk aversion reduces input use. A robust statistical method to test for dominance is adapted to stochastic production relations. It is found that   H^rn _0,≤  is likely true for nitrogen application on Iowa corn. Weaker evidence is found in favor of   H^ra _0,≤  .     

劳动负效用视角下的退耕农户决策行为分析

本研究在劳动负效用视角下,通过构建退耕农户决策模型研究退耕还林成果的可持续性问题。引入劳动负效用概念构建农户决策的基本模型,并通过拓展的模型分析农户的生态林管护概率、林产品的市场化程度以及家庭成员劳动就业结构与真实劳动报酬的关系。研究表明:退耕还林成果能否持续,主要取决于退耕农户参与工程的真实劳动报酬。     

试析我国农村剩余劳动力转移难题

农村剩余劳动力转移是我国经济社会发展的重要瓶颈和难题。本文主要从我国农村剩余劳动力的基本情况分析入手 ,对农村剩余劳动力转移的实质进行了重新定位 ,并重点分析了其制约因素 ,提出了相应的解决办法。如加速小城镇建设 ,引导乡镇企业发展 ,促进农业开发 ,适度向大城市和境外转移劳动力等。     

Risk Perceptions, Risk Preference, and Acceptance of Risky Food

Consumers' risk preferences are often overlooked in studies of consumer demand for risky food. We find that risk preferences elicited through context-less lottery choices are significantly related to consumers' stated preferences for genetically modified (GM) food. These results suggest risk preferences elicited in the laboratory are not artificial in the sense that they appear to be related to the same risk preferences that govern other individual decisions such as food choice. Consistent with theoretical expectations, risk perceptions and risk preferences were found to be significant determinants of acceptance of GM food, which has important implications for explaining consumer behavior.     

劳工标准之争的博弈分析及应对策略

随着发展中国家经济的迅速崛起,发达国家正极力寻找各种形式的非关税壁垒。其中，发展中国家的劳工标准问题受到发达国家的广泛重视。在概述劳工标准的基础上，阐述了发达国家和发展中国家对于劳工标准的两种态度,并从短期和长期的角度分别进行了博弈分析，提出了发展中国家在劳工标准问题方面的应对策略。     

基于土地利用变化的 三江平原景观生态风险研究

利用ArcGIS 10.2和Fragstats 4.2软件,通过土地利用转移矩阵、景观格局指数和景观风险指数等,分析了2000～2015年三江平原土地利用变化和景观生态风险.结果表明,(1)2000～2015年,三江平原的土地利用类型发生了明显变化,耕地、水体、建设用地面积增加,林地、草地、未利用地面积减少,土地利用效...