Adivasi migrant labour and agrarian capitalism in southern India

This paper looks at a case of rural-to-rural movement of agrarian capital in southern India and the ways in which capital–labour relations are reworked to maintain oppressive forms of exploitation. Faced with an agrarian crisis, capitalist farmers from affluent communities of Wayanad, Kerala, take large tracts of land for lease in the neighbouring state of Karnataka and grow ginger based on price speculation. Landless Adivasis from Wayanad have served as labourers on these ginger farmlands for the past three decades. Recently, farmers have shifted to employing labourers from a Scheduled Caste (SC) from Karnataka. The change happened not just because of the lower wages the SC labourers were willing to work for but also because of the farmers' inclination to move away from Adivasis who have been resisting the poor working conditions on the farm. The story resonates with the broader dynamics of agrarian–labour relations amidst capitalist expansion and highlights the centrality of socio-political factors at play.     

Crisis and relief in the Niger Delta (2012–13): assessment of the effects of a flood on relational capabilities

In September 2012, the Niger Delta (Nigeria) experienced a severe flood. By conducting a differences-in-differences estimation (as well as qualitative interviews), this paper studies the effects of the flood and of relief aid provided by an oil company on relational capability, a concept which covers bonding, bridging, and linking aspects of social capital (SC). We find that the flood increased bonding SC, measured as trust in the community, but reduced bridging SC, measured as participation together with unknown people in common-interest projects. The aid distributed to some people, on the other hand, was associated with higher bridging SC. The aid was not distributed according to flood damages but mostly according to social status. Our findings emphasize how a disaster can affect the repartition of bonding and bridging SC in the short term. They also highlight the need to build social cohesion in vulnerable communities from a longer-term and institutional perspective.     

SAMPLING FRAMES FOR FARM SURVEYS IN THE U.K.: SOME ALTERNATIVES

The lack of a suitable sampling frame can be a major problem facing those who wish to gather information from farm surveys but who do not have access to comprehensive lists of agricultural holdings. This paper considers two alternatives. The feasibility and sampling efficiency of using the natural clusters of farms contained within parishes is first examined using information gained from a survey of farms in the Vale of the White Horse District of Oxfordshire. The same survey also provides an opportunity to evaluate the suitability of ‘Yellow Pages’ Telephone Directories as a sampling frame for farm surveys. It is concluded that surveys based on such a frame will provide estimates of the values of population parameters sufficiently accurate for most purposes.     

Chamberlin Meets Ciriacy‐Wantrup: Using Insights from Experimental Economics to Inform Stated Preference Research

Many studies that use stated preference (SP) surveys to estimate the demand for private or public goods can be characterized as experiments, although they are not routinely labeled as such. This paper draws from the broader experimental economics literature to provide insights for SP practitioners and researchers, particularly as it pertains to survey development, mechanism design, external validity, data analysis, and the dissemination of findings.     

Measurement Error in Recall Surveys and the Relationship between Household Size and Food Demand

Variation in household survey design and implementation is used to obtain evidence of nonrandom measurement error in recall surveys of household expenditure. These surveys, which are used especially in developing countries, appear to have measurement errors in food expenditures and in food budget shares that are correlated with household size. These correlated errors may be part of the explanation for a puzzling pattern of falling food demand with rising household size in poorer countries.     

水资源评价方法及其应用

水资源具有多种用途。其使用价值的评估对水资源的规划与利用至为重要;探讨不同水资源用途依其经济属性的评价方法及其应用范围和限制;所讨论的评价方法包括：旅行成本法、特征价格法、假设条件评估法、以及生产函数法等５种。     

Strategic response: A key to understand how cheap talk works

Experimental protocols testing the effectiveness of cheap talk are numerous but have generated conflicting results. The theoretical interpretation of hypothetical bias as a strategic response according to the perceived consequence could be the missing key to understand these opposite results from the literature. Increasing evidence suggests that this bias rises from subjects’ perception of how stated preferences surveys will be used; some subjects believing that stated valuations can impact the price of the good, while others that it will influence its provision. Subjects strategically respond by adjusting their declared values accordingly. This paper reports experimental findings supporting the presence of strategic response, showing that cheap talk operates by mitigating these behaviors and potentially explaining cheap talk's heterogeneous results.     

Online Survey Data Quality and Its Implication for Willingness‐to‐Pay: A Cross‐Country Comparison

Using online surveys to elicit consumer preference is gaining popularity because of several advantages offered by this method. Past research mainly focuses on the comparison between online surveys and other survey modes. Few have explored methods of using online survey tools to improve data quality for consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) estimates. This article determines the impact of using a validation question (VQ) approach that asked survey respondents to select a particular answer on improving online survey data quality across six countries. Results show that survey data quality is a common problem in online surveys across countries and the severity of this problem differs significantly. Using VQs might detect the respondents who are less careful in answering survey questions, thus providing less reliable answers. The econometric models for respondents who correctly answer VQs (pass VQs) perform significantly better than the models for respondents who incorrectly answer VQs (fail VQs). The WTP estimates for respondents who pass and fail VQs differ significantly; and in general the WTP estimates for respondents passing VQs have smaller variances than those for all respondents and for respondents failing VQs.     

Role of credence and health information in determining US consumers' willingness-to-pay for grass-finished beef

Consumer demand for forage- or grass-finished beef is rapidly emerging in the US. This research uses data elicited from consumer surveys and experimental auctions to provide insight on product attributes (taste/flavour, credence and nutritional characteristics) and socio-demographic factors that are most important in determining US consumers' preferences and willingness to pay premiums for grass-finished versus grain-finished beef. Information related to beef production processes increased the probability consumers would be willing to pay a premium for grass-fed beef. However, it appears that health-related messages are more important drivers of willingness-to-pay, on average, than the absence of antibiotics and supplemental hormones and traceability. Labelling information regarding grass-fed beef's nutritional content and related production processes is vital for maintaining and growing premium niche markets for grass-fed beef in the US. The relative size of the willingness to pay estimates compared to previous cost estimates suggest that the Australian beef industry may have a comparative advantage for finishing beef on forage and marketing premium grass-fed differentiated beef products in the US market.     

A thing of the past? Household surveys in a rapidly evolving (agricultural) data landscape: Insights from the LSMS‐ISA

Household surveys, a pivotal component of every country's national statistical system, continue to be criticized and praised in equal manner. While recognizing their limitations, it is clear that certain types of data must continue to be collected through household surveys, preferably in an integrated manner with other data sources. This is particularly true in the agricultural space for which household and farm surveys will be critical both to collect primary data as well as to validate alternative data sources. Recent methodological gains and technological innovations offer a unique opportunity to address many of the shortcomings of agricultural data. In this article, we briefly describe select examples of such methodological and technological changes, drawing from the Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture, a survey program aimed at improving the availability, quality, and relevance of agricultural data in multitopic, multipurpose household surveys.     

如何作好国土资源地质调查统计报表填报工作

国土资源地质调查统计对地质调查项目起着重要的信息、咨询和监督作用。文章阐述了国土资源地质调查统计报表的填报方法,并从加强统计基础建设,改革、完善统计指标体系和统计报表制度,加强统计信息自动化系统建设,积极培养统计人才、提高统计人员素质等方面提出加强基层统计管理的措施,以强化统计的管理决策参谋的职能,更好地为国土资源地质调查项目服务。     

国土“三调”后如何开展自然资源统一调查

长期以来,我国各类自然资源调查分属不同的管理部门,相互之间存在着内涵界定不统一、分类体系有交叉、调查标准不一致、数据成果有矛盾等问题,严重影响了自然资源管理与保护政策的制定.机构改革后,各类自然资源的调查监测评价职责统一到自然资源部。第三次全国国土调查工作将于2020年底结束,此后即将开启自然资源统一调查的新时期,如何从以土地利用现状调查为主的国土调查顺利过渡至包含土地、森林、草原、水和湿地等各类自然资源要素的统一调查,目前正是国内专家学者、各级管理人员关注的重点、难点和热点问题。文章认为,从管理层面上首先要尽快建立自然资源统一调查的管理体系和机制;从技术层面上要加快构建自然资源统一的分类体系,逐渐优化各类自然资源调查的技术方法和技术指标。管理层面和技术层面做足准备后,以国土"三调"成果为基础,在此"底板"上开展森林、草原、水、湿地等各类自然资源的专项调查,最终形成全国自然资源统一调查机制。     

Diversification choices in agriculture: a Choice Modelling case study of sugarcane growers

Growers in the sugarcane industry have been struggling under financial pressure for several years. One option to improve farm viability might be to diversify farm enterprise income. Choice Modelling, an economic valuation technique, was used to explore the trade-offs growers make between different attributes of diversification, and how their choices may be related to certain socio-economic characteristics. Application of the technique involved surveys of cane growers in three regions of Central Queensland. This is a novel approach to assessing grower intentions that has the potential to reveal detailed information about influences on grower choices.     

Forecasting the impacts of future development on water quantity and quality within the Reedy River Watershed

This study was initiated to gain a better understanding of how patterns of development within Greenville, SC and its surrounding metro area would affect the Reedy River's water quantity and quality. Grenville County is located in the Upstate of South Carolina and serves as an economic hub for this region. Greenville is located on the I-85 corridor halfway between Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC. A previously prepared watershed-scale model was modified to yield quantity and quality data that would result from projected growth in Greenville through year 2030 at three different growth scenarios.The major findings of the study showed water quality was degraded with higher nutrient loads and peak and average flows were consistently higher for sprawling as compared to compact development. As more land is developed in the sprawling scenario, the amount of stormwater increases while water quality decreases. At Boyd Millpond by 2030, for instance, change in peak flow and average flow percentages more than double for the sprawling scenario. Similar effects were also seen for both total phosphorus and total nitrogen levels. Results are similar by 2030 for the flow entering Lake Greenwood from the Reedy River Arm. At that location, change in peak and average flow percentages, and changes in total nitrogen and phosphorus percentages, more than double when comparing sprawling versus compact developments.While these results are based on the effects of predicted development along the Reedy River, in Greenville, SC, the overall implications of development on water quality applies to most any community faced with similar issues. These modeling results allow land use planners such as municipal boards to gain a better understanding of what impacts land use planning and zoning can have on a community as related to effects on water quality and quantity.     

Hybrid Surveys: A Method for the Effective Use of Open-Ended Questions in Quantitative Food Choice Surveys

Surveys are based on predetermined questions (PDQs), used in hypothesis testing. To validate surveys, an open-ended question (OEQs), probing for additional factors, is sometimes added. This approach could become more efficient by combining PDQs with OEQs in hybrid surveys. This study surveyed Japanese consumers on seafood quality (n?=?200). It started with three OEQs, asking participants to list the most important factors when evaluating packed mackerel fillets, before they assessed 26 PDQs on importance of different quality dimensions for the same products. The OEQs were grouped based on the PDQs and the answers were counted. The PDQs were rated on 7-point importance scales. The real-life relevance of PDQs was challenged based on the frequency counts of OEQs. The result revealed that the color, overall freshness, and price issues are the most important factors consumers consider in real life. The use of hybrid surveys led to increased validity of this study.     

Sense and sustainability revisited: the limits of total factor productivity measures of sustainable agricultural systems

Many economists have advocated and applied total social factor productivity (TSFP) (i.e., total factor productivity estimated with both market and non‐market inputs and externalities, and with all factors valued at social prices) as a single all‐embracing measure of agricultural sustainability. This paper reviews the conceptual and practical issues in measuring TSFP and shows that no one measure alone will be theoretically or empirically robust as an indicator of sustainability. TSFP is a conceptually flawed measure since inclusion of non‐market inputs and outputs and social price‐based valuation, in most cases, violates the theoretical basis underlying those estimates. Trends in TSFP also have limited value in diagnosing the nature of sustainability problems, unless changes in productivity are related to underlying changes in technology, human and physical infrastructure, and indicators of resource quality. More attention needs to be given to defining key indicators of agro‐ecosystem health and relating these measures to trends in productivity. This analysis must be sufficiently disaggregated and for a long enough time period to allow for spatial and temporal variability inherent in agricultural production. Secondary data at the district level on both conventional inputs and outputs and resource quality have recently allowed more quantitative estimates of sustainability and its causes. With limited data, yield growth decomposition analysis can often be used to provide valuable insights into sustainability problems. Meanwhile, there is a need to invest in long‐term experimental and panel surveys of farmers and their fields for key production systems in order to provide long‐term data that will allow full productivity accounting, using more formal statistical procedures. Regardless of the approach selected, the findings of this paper strongly suggest a need for economists, agronomists and soil scientists to collaborate in integrating approaches in order to provide more robust and informative measures of sustainability.     

Measuring the effect of risk attitude on marketing behavior

Despite extensive study, researchers continue to search for consistent and reliable measures of risk preferences to explain market behavior. We find that a measure, combining experiments rooted in expected utility theory and measures derived from surveys, explains spot and contractual sales, but does not exhibit substantially greater explanatory power than its underlying components. Survey‐based measures are generally more significant indicators of marketing choices, but experimental measures reveal how risk attitudes vary over a range of probable outcomes, which is important in light of increased commodity price volatility. Given recently identified limitations on the applicability of expected utility theory, we suggest that researchers include survey methods to obtain low‐cost supplemental measures.     

The use of surveys among wine growers in vineyards of the middle-Loire Valley (France), in relation to terroir studies

Studies of terroir have been increasingly developed during the last two decades, in different vineyards all around the world. The indigenous knowledge and the know-how of wine growers is an important part of the French terroir concept which must be taken into account in terroir studies. In the middle-Loire Valley (France) results of terroir studies were made readily accessible to all the wine growers through cartographic atlases, including maps of terroir units and their components as well as advisory maps. In this paper, the authors use different kinds of surveys among wine growers for the knowledge of terroir and show the interest of this approach.     

Export Barriers and Problems Associated With Exporting Icelandic Marine Products Under Conditions of Export or Die

We have examined perceived barriers to the export of Icelandic marine products and how they have changed over a period of nearly 20 years. We used qualitative and quantitative information from two different surveys conducted in 1993 and 2011. We identified nine main barriers to export that existed in both 1993 and 2011, plus an additional seven factors that prevailed only in 1993 or only in 2011. Further, we distinguished whether these factors were internal or external to the decision area of the Icelandic export firms. This report details the outcome of each survey, compares them quantitatively, and explains the patterns observed using the survey interviews of exporters.     

Patterns of age and coverage errors in Tropical African surveys

The concept of calculating averages of African age distributions is developed in an attempt to distinguish the effect of age and coverage errors in demographic surveys in Tropical Africa from real fluctuations in the age structure. The concept is also used to discern different patterns of age errors and omissions and to indicate the extent of these errors in African age data. The method described is applied to data from 50 surveys undertaken in Tropical Africa between 1950 and 1973.