AGRICULTURAL REFORMS IN CHILE AND NEW ZEALAND: A REVIEW*

Chile and New Zealand are both small countries for which agricultural exports are important: both undertook comprehensive economic reforms during the 1970s and 1980s respectively. Comparison of the experiences shows that macroeconomic policy, above all the resulting movements in the real exchange rate and in interest rates, has a critical impact on agriculture. In both cases, rolling back the state has encouraged private responses. In Chile the challenges ahead lie in continuing productivity improvements, and in raising the welfare of smallholders in marginal areas. Six years after the initiation of reforms, New Zealand agriculture shows a healthy recovery. Once committed to economy-wide reforms – stabilisation, adjustment, and trade liberalisation – and companion reforms of institutions, how do governments best proceed? With what reforms and in what mix, sequence, strength, and speed? For agriculture, specifically, this paper takes a close look at which reforms, or aspects of their implementation, can accelerate or slow down private investment and aggregate supply response.     

农业区划理论和实践研究文献综述

对国内外农业区划理论和实践的研究进展进行了梳理。美国、法国、日本等国外发达国家的农业区划工作经历了相当长的发展过程,已经形成了一套相对成熟的理论方法体系和具体的经验做法。20世纪 50年代以来,我国农业区划的内涵、研究对象、学科性质与特点、依据与理论基础、研究方法、研究内容与创新思路等核心问题引起了众多学者的关注和探讨,并初步形成了相对完整的理论体系。在实践方面,我国农业区划工作成效初显,农业区域布局得到优化,优势农产品产区进一步集中,特色农产品产业带初步形成。但农业区域结构雷同、区域发展不平衡、产业化程度低等问题依然存在。未来,我国农业区划工作要围绕"三农"问题的解决,运用定性与定量相结合的动态方法,进一步发挥农业区划在农业多功能拓展以及工业与农业、城市与农村、市民与农民之间统筹协调发展中的重要地位与作用。     

TOWARDS AN AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE CLASSIFICATION

In 1981 Agricultural Co-operatives in the UK had total sales of £1.9 billion yet the behaviour of firms entitled ‘co-operative’ remains little understood. The paper presents a system for classifying agricultural co-operatives based on their financial structure and the means by which corporate financing is pursued. It is argued that differing co-operatives, irrespective of their function, adopt quite separate and distinct capitalisation philosophies. Two basic types of co-operative are identified—Capital Accumulative Co-operatives and Capital Specific Co-operatives. The latter type can be sub-divided into Capital Extensive Co-operatives and Capital Intensive Co-operatives depending on the level of assets and finance controlled by the organisation. The paper details a number of organisational and operational differences between the co-operative types and suggests that these have important implications where co-operatives become instruments of Government policy.     

RURAL SOCIOLOGY AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIST: A REVIEW*

Following a discussion of the relationship between agricultural economics and rural sociology, the current status of the latter is discussed, including the differences between European and American approaches. The background to an emerging ‘sociology of agriculture’ is described and recent developments in the sociological analysis of some of its constituent components are considered. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between landholding and the social structure and to the development of ‘agribusiness’ as a vertically-integrated food-production complex. The impact of these on labour relations in agriculture and on the rural community are outlined. The article concludes with an assessment of future trends in rural sociology, concentrating on themes of rural development, the sociology of agriculture and the sociology of natural resources.     

PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY AND AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL POLICY REFORM*

Recent discussion of the process of policy reform has tended to focus on public and private interest theories of public choice as alternative models. The analysis of Australian agricultural policy presented in this paper draws on several extensions of the private interest model including the contractarian framework, extra-rational considerations such as moral attitudes and the desire to participate. Recent agricultural policy reforms in Australia are examined in the light of those theories. This examination highlights the importance of ideas and changes in the rules for policy formulation in influencing policy outcomes. In some cases the private interest theory appears to offer an adequate explanation while, in others, it provides only a partial explanation of policy change, and requires extension if policy choice is to be influenced, or even understood. An important independent role for economists and policy makers is seen both in the formulation of policies and in the design of rules for policy choice.     

A REVIEW OF THREE RESEARCH PROGRAMS IN QUANTITATIVE MODELLING IN THE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS*

Elements of three of the BAE's research programs in economic modelling of the rural sector, namely, the modelling of agricultural production systems, rural commodity markets and agriculture within a general equilibrium framework, are reviewed with emphasis on the use of such models in policy work. Suggestions are made for further modelling in these areas.     

国外农业面源污染控制政策的研究进展及启示

我国水污染严重,富营养化问题突出,农业面源污染已成为水体富营养化的主要原因。该文对国外农业面源污染控制政策领域中的主要研究进行了疏理,简要回顾与评论了基于投入的政策和基于水质的政策,认为农业面源污染排放的分散性和随机性决定了其控制政策不能以排放量为设计基础。由于设计与执行政策的信息成本过高,基于水质的政策只停留在理论研究层面。基于投入的政策具有更强的现实可行性。     

农业生产效率及增长方式转变研究述评

［目的］2018年中共中央、国务院《关于实施乡村振兴战略的意见》（2018年“中央一号文件”）指出要提升农业发展质量,提高农业的创新力、竞争力和全要素生产率,加快实现由农业大国向农业强国转变。重视农业生产效率提升、重视农业生产方式转变的问题研究是构建现代化农业强国的重中之重。［方法］通过梳理国内外相关文献和比较分析。［结果］发现国内外相关研究主要包括农业生产效率的概念、测算、要素禀赋、影响因素、收敛性分析、国际比较、内部分解、农业生产状况、农业经济增长方式转变的必然性,以及农业生产效率与农业经济增长方式转变的关系研究。［结论］文章基于对现有文献的评析,对今后研究重点进行了展望：（1）重视农业生产效率内部要素禀赋上的研究; （2）加强农业生产效率与农业经济增长方式转变的关联性研究和两者之间作用机制的研究; （3）乡村旅游与农业经济增长方式转变的研究。     

THE THEORY OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH BENEFITS

This paper describes a new approach to the theory of agricultural research benefits based on component benefits rather than, as is customary, on surpluses. The surplus concept nevertheless emerges when the distribution of the national benefit is considered. Various published methods (Grossfield-Heath, Lindner-Jarrett, Akino-Hayami, Griliches I and II) are derived as special cases of the theory and numerically compared. Applications are briefly considered; Griliches II is used for the variability of crop yields and some typical results for the distribution of benefits are given.     

THE LOW EARNINGS OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH*

This paper shows that agricultural economists have tended to account for the low incomes of agricultural workers by utilising the economic model which explains low returns to agriculture as a whole. This aproach is called low returns to agriculture as a whole. This approach is called into question by referring to regional data on workers' earnings and farmers' incomes. A sociological approach is outlined which takes account of the degree of choice open to agricultural workers to accept the earnings and conditions of agriculture.     

中国农业水费：现存问题与研究评论

农村税费改革以后,农业水费成为了农村唯一的政府性收费项目。如今农业水费相关问题已成为影响农村稳定、"三农问题"与农业水价综合改革等工作顺利开展的阻碍因素之一,破除这些问题将是研究和实践的重点任务。现有研究未对这些现存的关键问题进行专门分析和评论。文章首次对我国农业水费在水价、支付、补贴与实施等4个方面的现存问题进行剖析,并分别就每个问题的现有研究进行梳理和评论。研究表明这些现存问题如下:①水价方面:水价太低且变化不大,改革陷入两难境地;②支付方面:农民支付意愿较低,抵触、拒缴与消极情绪明显;③补贴方面:补贴方式不能对农民行为调节和意识塑造起到积极作用;④实施方面:水费管理执行不力、公平性不足与水利设施不完善等。该文分别就每个问题给出了后续的研究与实践方案,并认为在农村经济日渐趋好和支农惠农等政策力度不断加大的条件下,目前农业水费问题已不再只是一个资金投入、技术改造与制度改革的问题,同时也成为了一个还需侧重强调农民行为响应的综合性问题,但这在现有研究和实践中有所忽略。因此,下一步研究与实践应在资金投入、技术改造和制度设计等方面继续加大研究和实践的力度,并和每个问题提出的解决方案结合起来,以农民行为响应作为切入点,探索解决这些问题的综合性配套策略。     

A QUARTERLY MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA*

The aims of this study were (a) to attempt to develop a quarterly model to explain aggregate farm investment in Australia, and (b) to examine the concept of the implicit rental price of capital services as a method of taking account of taxation concessions in an investment equation.     

TOWARD A FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH*

Agricultural economists need to evaluate their own research priorities. The main difficulty in doing so is to value the types of information generated by economic research. Bayesian decision theory provides a framework for valuing information, and the results of selected studies using this methodology are collated. Most of the other determinants of research priorities can be encapsulated in a target return ratio measure. How such a framework might be used is illustrated by three 'hypotheticals'.