Agricultural exports and economic growth in less developed countries

This article examines the contribution of agricultural exports to economic growth in less developed countries (LDCs). A sources‐of‐growth equation is developed from a dual economy model where agricultural and nonagricultural sectors are both divided into export and nonexport subsectors. This is then estimated using panel data for 62 LDCs for 1974–1995. Results provide evidence that there are significant structural differences in economic growth between low, lower‐middle, and upper‐income LDCs. Investment in the agricultural export subsector has a statistically identical impact on economic growth as investment in the nonagricultural export subsector. The marginal productivities in nonexport subsectors are over 30% lower than those in respective export subsectors. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that export‐promotion policies should be balanced.     

Land administration “best practice” providing the infrastructure for land policy implementation

Land administration systems, and particularly their core cadastral components, are an important infrastructure which facilitates the implementation of land use policies. While most land administration systems traditionally have a primary objective of supporting the operation of land markets, they are increasingly evolving into a broader land information infrastructure which supports economic development, environmental management and social stability in both developed and developing countries. While a great deal of attention is given to land use policies worldwide concerned with such areas as forest management, coastal zone management, environmental sustainability and managing the urban environment, less attention is given to the infrastructures which facilitate the implementation of the associated policies and programmes. Importantly, all these activities rely on some form of land administration infrastructure which permits the complex range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land to be identified, mapped and managed as a basis for policy formulation and implementation. As a result, there is an increasing interest in the concept of land administration infrastructures and their core cadastres, in the principles and policies concerned with establishing such infrastructures and in “best practices”. In addressing this need, this paper attempts to explain the evolving concept of land administration infrastructures, the concept of “best practice” and the concept of a land administration “tool box” of principles, policies, laws and technologies which are useful in reforming or re-engineering land administration systems in support of a broader land policy agenda.     

Applied Policy Analysis of the Rice Marketing Subsector of Guinea-Bissau

Simple analytical techniques are used to diagnose and demonstrate problems observed in the rice marketing subsector of Guinea-Bissau. The problems are typical of those encountered by liberalizing economics. The recommendations favor policies that enhance competition.     

Transport infrastructure equities in mixed-asset portfolios: estimating risk with a Garch-Copula CVaR model

Transport infrastructure is an important subsector within infrastructure, but knowledge of its equities in terms of risk-return characteristics and contribution to portfolio performance is still limited. This study assesses the subsector individually and in a multi-asset, index-based portfolio. In doing so, we apply a t-Copula-based Conditional Value-at-Risk model to simulate risk and returns. Our findings reveal that the subsector has a relatively low dependency on other equities, performs like other alternative asset classes such as general real estate, and does not grant significant risk diversification benefits for mainstream institutional investors such as pension funds. Investors aiming for higher target returns may however assign substantial weights to transport infrastructure, supporting our conjecture that it does not share the same asset class characteristics as general infrastructure. By contrasting Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) scores for both the mean-variance framework and the t-Copula simulation, we further document the limitations of traditional VaR approaches. Hence, this study’s results support the use of risk assessment tools that incorporate non-normal distributions to represent multivariate dependence structures.     

Interfuel substitution in Australia: a way forward to achieve environmental sustainability

This paper examines the possibilities for interfuel substitution in Australia in view of the need to shift towards a cleaner mix of fuels and technologies to meet future energy demand and environmental goals. The translog cost function is estimated for the aggregate economy, the manufacturing sector and its subsectors, and the electricity generation subsector. The advantages of this work over previous literature relating to the Australian case are that it uses relatively recent data, focuses on energy‐intensive subsectors and estimates the Morishima elasticities of substitution. The empirical evidence shown herein indicates weak‐form substitutability between different energy types, and higher possibilities for substitution at lower levels of aggregation, compared with the aggregate economy. For the electricity generation subsector, which is at the centre of the CO₂ emissions problem in Australia, significant but weak substitutability exists between coal and gas when the price of coal changes. A higher substitution possibility exists between coal and oil in this subsector. The evidence for the own‐ and cross‐price elasticities, together with the results for fuel efficiencies, indicates that a large increase in relative prices could be justified to further stimulate the market for low‐emission technologies.     

Priority setting for research on aquatic resources: an application of modified economic surplus analysis to natural resource systems

In contrast to research on farming systems, research on natural resource systems seldom applies rigorous priority setting techniques, mainly due to difficulties associated with estimating research impact ex ante for such systems. This article presents a replicable approach to priority setting that addresses these difficulties. Assessment is based on multiple criteria, combining economic surplus analysis with subjective scoring, based on information drawn from a cross‐country survey of expert opinion. The approach is applied to the WorldFish Center, a global agricultural research organization focusing on living aquatic resources, both farmed and wild. The exercise demonstrates the relevance of conventional evaluation techniques to fisheries research based on a practical application of its impact pathways.     

Sources and Measurement of Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency in Canadian Provinces: Crops and Livestock

This paper measures and assesses the variation in total factor productivity (TFP) growth among Canadian provinces in crops and livestock production over the period 1940–2009. It also determines if agricultural productivity growth in Canada has recently slowed down as indicated by earlier studies. The paper uses the stochastic frontier approach that incorporates inefficiency to decompose TFP growth into technical change (TC), scale effect (SE), and technical efficiency change. The results indicate that productivity changes were mainly driven by TCs for crops, while the productivity changes in livestock was mainly driven by SEs and technical progress. Though change in technical efficiency is mainly positive (except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia), its contribution to productivity growth was very little for the provinces. We also found that over the entire period, the productivity growth rates for the crop subsector are on average higher for the Prairie provinces than for the Eastern and Atlantic provinces. On the other hand, the productivity growth rates in the livestock subsector are on average higher in the Eastern and Atlantic provinces than in the Prairie region with the exception of Manitoba. Finally, we found that though there is some evidence of a recent decline in productivity growth for the crops subsector, there is no such evidence in the livestock subsector.     

What's driving innovation in small businesses in Australia? The case of the food industry

There is strong evidence that innovation is a primary driver of a nation's economic growth. As Australia continues to compete in the global economy, it is imperative that businesses should be innovative to improve their performance. In this paper, we evaluate the status and main drivers of innovation in small businesses in the food sector in Australia. Discrete choice modelling and bootstrapping procedures are applied to a panel of firm‐level data collected through the ABS Business Characteristics Survey (2006–2007 to 2010–2011 for the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Business Longitudinal Database Confidential Unit Record File) to investigate the factors affecting the likelihood of small food businesses to innovate. Results show that businesses are more likely to innovate if they collaborate, have higher information and communication technology intensity, and use science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills. We also found that small food businesses, even at the subsector level, do combine different types of innovation when innovating. The propensity to innovate also increases for small businesses that have flexible working arrangements, face moderate‐to‐strong market competition, operate overseas and seek finance through debt and equity. The relative importance of these factors was found to vary between agricultural and nonagricultural food subsectors.     

A study of the impact of direct trade on Taiwan's fishery sector with special reference to the effect of China's WTO accession

After Taiwan became a member of the WTO in 2002, its tariff rates for fishery products decreased by an average of 35.5% from the level in 2001. Direct imports of fishery products from China would be allowed in 2004. These tariff reductions and the relaxation of import restrictions will have a strong effect on Taiwan's fishery sector. In this paper, we present an analysis of how fishery production, prices, input usage, and welfare distribution might react to trade liberalization. In addition to evaluating the overall impact of tariff reduction on Taiwan's fishery sector, we assess the effects of China's WTO accession on the Taiwanese market. We use a fishery sector equilibrium model in which 40 products and 68 fishing activities are identified. The model also includes an import–export subsector, a factor input subsector, and a supply–demand equilibrium condition to analyze the distributions of social welfare due to trade liberalization. Three simulations are conducted to investigate the impact of tariff reductions in 2004, 2 years after Taiwan has jointed the WTO. The results indicate that Taiwan's fishery sector will be adversely affected when it encounters the extremely low import prices of certain fishery products from China. The total production of the fishery sector and its value are predicted to decrease by 4.03% and 9.96%, respectively, in 2004. Aquaculture would suffer the heaviest loss with a 7.48% reduction in the production and a 19.23% reduction in its value. The demand for labor will decrease by 8.71%. The effect is most pronounced in aquaculture in which the demand for labor will go down by 11.40% and the wage rate will decline by 14.28%. To meet the challenge of globalization, the Taiwanese fishery industry will have to diversify, and improve its operational efficiency as well as production and distribution structures for a sustainable development.     

Incentive Perception in Livestock Disease Control

The economic incentives facing people making decisions about infectious disease control have been given due theoretical consideration in the literature, based on principles of economic rationality. Such deductive models provide important tools for generating hypotheses. However, the application of such models in a predictive capacity has been criticised. Simultaneously, empirical studies aimed at quantitative exploration of farmer behaviour have relied heavily on social cognitive models, such as the theory of planned behaviour, without exploration of the epidemiological consequences of variability in behaviour within populations. Advances in other social sciences have revealed systematic biases in human reasoning which cast doubt on the validity of the rational economic model as a generalisation of human decision making. We review the characteristics of infectious disease and disease‐control interventions and the potential for bias in implementation decision making at primary producer level. Specific focus is given to the generation of externalities, both positive and negative; the perception of risk, relating to disease incidence, technology adoption and time preference; and finally uncertainty, and its potential to be moderated by trust in information sources. This information is then used to summarise supplemental psychological constructs which taken holistically may strengthen our ability to quantitatively explore human behaviour in this complex decision‐making environment.     

A Review of the Economics of Biological Natural Resources

The economics of renewable biological resources originated in the 1950s in fishery economics. The original models were static and linked simple population growth models to harvesting. In the 1970s the subject became more concerned with dynamic models and the stability of resource systems and this development continued in the 1980s. Now renewable resource economics is seen as a branch of capital theory which is distinct from mainstream capital theory because it must simultaneously represent the productivity of an ecosystem as well as the production functions of the firms which exploit it. Adding to this complex patterns of ownership over the resource itself and the dependence of production on the state of the ecosystem makes for a set of problems which economists have only started to address. Progress in renewable resource economics will come through closer collaboration with ecologists to give more realistic population models; the development of approaches for multi‐species ecosystems; and the use of modelling techniques and policies which can adapt as more information becomes available on the status of a resource. In the future renewable resource economics will continue to contribute to the sustainability debate by providing a clearer analysis of the trade‐off between ecosystem stability and the level of economic exploitation.     

Sustainability of fish pond culture in rural farming systems of Central and Western Cameroon

In Sub-Saharan Africa, fish ponds are often an integral part of farming systems but have suffered from a lack of viability and sustainability. The present study aims to understand the strategies used by fish farmers to overcome economic and environmental constraints. In 2008 and 2009, fish farmers were surveyed in Central and Western Cameroon, and the fish production systems were classified by cluster analysis. Four broad types were identified according to the complexity of household operations. The development of extensive systems (large-scale and low-input) in rural areas of central Cameroon is induced mainly by abundant available land. For semi-intensive systems in both regions (small-scale and high-input in the Western Region, large-scale and high-input in peri-urban areas of the Central Region), horizontal integration is not sufficient to make fish production profitable and sustainable. More intensive fish farms tend towards vertical integration, in which farmers establish close links with input suppliers. Main causes of low productivity of semi-intensive systems (1–2?t/ha/yr) are both lack of knowledge of fish farming principles by farmers and lack of technical improvement by extension agents and researchers which need to consider the local complexity of farming systems to develop and intensify fish production. The adaptation of development strategies to socio-economic and environmental contexts is a necessity to hope for an increase in fish pond aquaculture production in Africa.     

The Implications for Agricultural Statistics of Changes in the System of National Accounts

Recent changes to the internationally-agreed system of national accounts carry implications for the aggregate production accounts for agriculture in the EU, notably a shift away from using the ‘national farm’ concept. They have also encouraged the development, within the national accounts framework, of accounts for the agricultural households subsector. These changes not only impose new tasks on producers of agricultural statistics but also provide new material which is likely, in some instances, to challenge policy-makers, economists and other users to revise their thinking about the nature of this industry and the problems that are faced.     

Consumption of Economic Information in Agriculture

We develop a model of decision makers' demand for agricultural economic information services. This model treats choice of external decision-support services as a function of actors' assessment of how alternative investments in information complement their internal competencies. Data from a survey in four commodity systems are used to evaluate hypotheses as to how human capital, and functional role of actors in commodity systems affect demand for variously formatted information. By focusing on three axes of heterogeneity—diversity among decision makers, information service providers, and information—we are able to identify key structural and functional relationships in agricultural economic information systems.     

林业企业环境信息披露初探

环境信息披露在国际上获得了快速的发展,林业企业的生产经营活动与生态环境密切相关,林业企业环境信息披露是一个值得探讨的重要问题。本文分析了林业企业开展环境信息披露的必要性和可能性以及存在的问题,提出解决林业企业环境信息披露问题的对策,重点阐述了环境信息披露的原则、内容。     

地质信息产权与共享问题研究

地质信息共享问题已成为实现地矿工作信息化的关键,建立现代地质信息产权制度是实现地质信息共享的有效途径与方法.根据地矿工作的特点与需求,探讨了以现代地质信息产权制度为基础的地质信息共享保障体系,体现地质信息产权所有者利益的共享框架模式以及主题式点源数据库技术、地质信息元数据技术、WebGIS技术、OpenGIS与互操作技术等地质信息共享关键技术.     

Economics of diet and health: Research challenges

This paper explores some past, present, and future research challenges within the economics of diet and health policy. The discussion promotes the deep-rooted theme that integrating basic economic principles into the core of the biomedical disciplines can improve society's understanding of our choices over diet and food, and consequently health and well-being. From studying the past, we better understand the economic factors which counter the idea that biology is destiny; in the present, we see why accounting for endogenous health risks and private skill matters even if it is hidden information; and for the future, we can imagine identifying the economic and biomedical under which the presumption of rational choice works and fails to guide policy.     

Development of a multi-criteria spatial planning support system for growth potential modelling in the Western Cape,South Africa

Growth potential modelling is useful as it provides insight into which settlements in a region are likely to experience growth and which areas are likely to decline. However, growth potential modelling is an ill-structured problem as there is no universally-agreed set of criteria (parameters) that can be combined in a particular way (rules) to provide a definitive growth potential measure (solution). In this paper we address the ill-structured problem of growth potential modelling by combining multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), geographical information systems (GIS) and planning support systems (PPS) to generate a number of growth scenarios for settlements in Western Cape province of South Africa. A new framework and methodology for selecting, structuring and analysing multiple growth potential criteria is proposed. The framework, based on the principles of innovation potential and growth preconditions, was applied to demonstrate how it can be used to identify a series of candidate criteria relating to the growth potential of settlements. The criteria were subjected to a MCDM process involving criteria selection, weighting and normalisation. Two criteria sets, weighting schemes and normalisation methods were considered. Two different classification techniques were also evaluated. A total of 16 scenarios were generated using a newly-developed growth potential PPS (GPPSS). The paper shows how the GPPSS can be used to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the various scenarios and to select the most appropriate solution.