Sharecropping was sometimes efficient: sharecropping with compensation for improvements in European viticulture†

There is no consensus among specialists in agricultural contracts over whether the long‐term inefficiencies that classical economists attributed to sharecropping actually exist. This article maintains that they do exist and are partly caused by the fact that sharecropping is hardly compatible with the tenant being compensated for improvements, viticulture being the main historical exception. In line with recent contributions to the sharecropping literature, the article contends that the widely held belief among scholars of agricultural contracts that sharecropping was very frequent in Europe's vineyards is incorrect. However, it also provides evidence of an issue whose importance has gone largely unnoticed: prior to the twentieth century, many of the European vineyards worked by sharecroppers had been created by the sharecroppers themselves, through contracts which entitled them to compensation. Those contracts abounded while viticulture depended basically on two inputs, land and labour. When viticulture became a heavy consumer of capital, they were rapidly abandoned, but not in Catalonia, with a paradoxical result: the Catalan rabassa morta contract, which for centuries had made it possible to eliminate both the long‐ and short‐term inefficiencies of sharecropping, ended up becoming an obstacle to overcoming the short‐term inefficiencies. The article discusses why that happened.     

Productivity and distribution under cropsharing tenancy

This paper develops a model of sharecropping assuming tenant autonomy, competitive behavior of landlords and laborers and endogenously determined wage and share-rental rates. The coexistence of wage labor and sharecropping is explained in terms of their incentive, labor process and risk-sharing characteristics. Sharecropping serves as a surrogate for the direct supervision of the labor process. Its incidence is shown to rise in the presence of unemployment at a subsistence wage. The model implies that the abolition of tenancy will raise output, raise labor income and reduce land income.     

The Efficiency of Sharecropping: Evidence from the Postbellum South

In this article, we investigate why sharecropping rose sharply in the postbellum South. Our hypothesis is that sharecropping was desirable because sharecropped farms could be more productive than owner-operated farms and perhaps more productive than rented farms. Using the data from the postbellum South, we find strong empirical support for this hypothesis. Our results show that the output elasticity of sharecropped farms is higher than that of owner-operated farms on all occasions and that of rented farms on some occasions. The differences in productivity are statistically significant, and the results are very robust. These empirical results refute the long-held notion that sharecropping is inefficient. Contrary to the view that, like a tax, sharecropping produces disincentives to work, the results in this article suggest that sharecropping might have created an incentive among farmers for its rapid and widespread use in the postbellum South.     

基于债性合约与分成制合约的教育金融产品设计

教育金融合约从性质上分为债性合约与分成制合约两类。然而,单类教育金融合约存在着一定的局限性与缺陷,也可能无法有效满足投融资双方的特定需求。复合型教育金融合约则可以做到取长补短,在突出两类合约优势的同时,弥补了单类合约效率的不足,从而有利于教育金融合约的订立。其复合类型既包括债股相加的“混合性”复合,也包括债股互转的“化合性”复合,还包括教育金融合约中估值调整协议的引入。     

分成制教育金融投资基金：机制及效应

分成制教育金融制度创新的本质是资金供求双方合作性质的创新，但单个供资方会面临非系统性风险、甄别能力、增值服务能力等诸多方面的问题。股权投资基金制度具有解决这些难题的功能，将该制度引入分成制教育金融制度是更为深刻的金融制度创新。一方面，基金特征可以放大分成制下教育金融的优势功能；另一方面，投资对象由企业转化为人力资本积累者，表明基金现金流回报基础的变化。这表明基金经理人应当具有基于现金流回报的特定的尽职调查能力。     

人才培养效率提升的机理——基于分成制教育金融机制的分工与整合效应

人的培养效率有赖于通过“培养链”的完整、高效来提高。在分成制教育金融制度产生之前,人的相关培养环节要么缺失、要么低效,或者呈现没有内在联系的散乱状态。分成制所具有利益捆绑机制,通过投资者对教育供求双方的分工与整合效应来提高教育效率。投资方对教育需求方的分工与整合,表现为投资方代替教育需求方对教育做出决策,并对教育供给机构进行评价和筛选;投资方对教育供给方的分工与整合,主要表现为促成散乱的教育机构形成有机的链式结构,并根据现代经济学的“边际原则”进行资源配置。     

Explaining contract choice: vertical coordination,sharecropping, and wine in Europe, 1850–19501

Recent literature on sharecropping has emphasized its importance in reducing problems associated with moral hazard in cultivation (in Tuscany), or providing a crucial ‘rung’ on the farm ladder (in the US south). Yet despite these and other important features, sharecropping was surprisingly absent in most regions. Using case studies associated with French wine production, this article argues that a number of factors have often been overlooked in the literature, the first of which is the need for landowners to be able to offer farms that were sufficiently large both to employ the sharecropper's family on a full‐time basis, and to allow them to produce a variety of products to minimize risk. Second, measurement problems exist with the division of the harvest, especially when quality was an important factor in determining price. Finally, the nature of vertical cooperation and integration associated with the production and marketing arrangements of individual crops suggests that landowners were not indifferent to receiving payment in cash or kind, and this affected contract choice. This article incorporates these ideas to explain not just the presence and absence of sharecropping in different geographical localities, but also the wide variety of different forms of the contract that existed in France.     

Corruption and development

Corruption is studied as a form of decision-taking under uncertainty and separate reaction functions are derived for the briber and bribee that shed light on the determination of the bribe. A typology of corruption is established drawing the distinction between extortionary, subversive and benign corruption and their effects on allocative efficiency are explored. It is argued that while the economic effects of corruption are likely to be unfavourable there may be circumstances where the converse holds. The discussion does not extend to the moral and social aspects of corruption.     

待积累型人力资本估值方法——基于分成制教育金融合约中供资方的视角

分成制教育金融合约订立的前提是人力资本积累投融资双方对积累者未来价值的估算。由于待积累型人力资本估值要牵涉到“积累”和“实现”两个阶段，期间要面对积累当事人是否努力、客观能力，以及市场对人才的认可等几方面的风险。其复杂性和不确定性有甚于现存的“物型”资产估值、“混合型资产”估值，以及传统的“成品型人力资本”估值。寻找目标估值方法的法门在于比较前后两者内在规定性的异同。并对具有相类似估值基础所采用的基因性估值方法加以恰当吸收。在估值研究的初级阶段，剔除不确定性太强的估值因素，尽力借助能够量化的指标进行模拟，有利于尽快展示“待积累型人力资本”估值问题的独特性。     

城市土地出让中的问题与对策探讨

现代拍卖理论的研究表明,市场环境因素会对不同拍卖方式的效率产生影响。本文根据拍卖理论的一些研究成果,从受让人对土地估价的价值类型,招标拍卖中存在的“赢者诅咒”、“合谋”现象,以及事后土地交易合同的可执行性等方面,对不同的土地出让方式进行了比较分析。分析结果表明,在选择最有效率的开发商以及最大化收入等方面,市场环境因素对不同的交易方式产生不同的影响,因此,提高土地交易效率和效益,还必须进一步完善土地出让市场。     

Antebellum southern rental contracts

Evidence from antebellum Southern rental and sharecrop leases is presented that shows that tenancy was not new to the postbellum South, but had been carried on during the 40 years preceding the Civil War. This evidence shows that antebellum tenancy, like postbellum tenancy, was governed by written contracts that detailed the rights and obligations of tenant and landlord alike. Landlords closely negotiated and continuously administered these contracts. This evidence further discredits the traditional judgment of tenancy, and especially of sharecropping, as inherently inefficient. It sheds little light, however, on why one tenure was chosen over another.     

塔城市土地利用经济效益评价

依据塔城市的社会经济发展情况及土地利用现状,建立土地利用经济效益评价指标体系,并运用因子分析法来反映研究区土地利用的经济效益水平,结果显示:塔城市近9年来的土地利用经济效益呈现先下降后上升的趋势,揭示土地利用过程中存在的问题和矛盾,从而可以有针对性的对土地利用结构进行调整和优化,进而实现土地利用效益的最大化,为以后塔城市的决策和发展提供借鉴和参考。     

Land Transport for Export: The Effects of Cost, Time, and Uncertainty in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), inland export transport costs and time delays are much higher for landlocked countries, vary substantially between different geographic corridors, and exhibit substantial uncertainty. Unit costs and costs of time for land transport of exports are high for many agricultural products relative to metals and other high-value products. We illustrate systemic uncertainty in land and maritime transport for exporting by use of simulation. Relationships among uncertainty, infrastructure quality, and other features of logistics systems are highly non-linear, and can be potentially used to identify priorities for trade facilitation.     

Facilitating the Provision of Farm Credit: The Role of Interlocking Transactions Between Traders and Zamindars in Crop Marketing Systems in Sindh

Formal credit institutions in Pakistan have largely failed to provide access to farm credit to small and medium-scale landowners, or zamindars. This paper examines interlocked transactions between traders and landowners in the cotton and wheat markets in Sindh that facilitate the provision of credit by traders. It is concluded that the case examined provides an example where traders lend to landowners in a segment of the credit market that approximates competitive behavior, without surplus extraction by traders. Key conditions resulting in this favorable outcome are the existence of both competition for market share and information sharing on borrowers between traders. Whether this outcome is also beneficial for other rural groups who may borrow from landowners, in particular sharecropping tenants, is independent of market relations between landowners and traders and is not determined here.     

异地有偿补充耕地——土地发展权交易的浙江模式及政策启示

浙江省为了克服现行耕地保护制度所存在的问题,进行了"异地补充耕地"的土地发展权交易改革。文章从制度起源、市场价格变动、市场特点和交易过程等方面分析了"异地补充耕地"市场的兴起、发展与绩效,提出这一制度创新有助于改进现行耕地保护制度的经济效率和新增耕地的整体质量,并建议在总结"异地补充耕地"制度的经验与教训基础上在全国范围内推广,并实行土地发展权的跨省转移与交易。     

Effectiveness and risk of initial carbon quota allocation principle under the uncertainty of the Chinese electricity market

The carbon market's effectiveness in deep decarburization and energy transition has been widely proven. However, as other industries join the carbon market in China, the uncertainty and impact of it on the power industry are still under explored. Here, we define the industry-wide scenarios which power industry might confront in the carbon market. Then, we compare its economic output, market activity and environmental impact under initial carbon quota allocation principles based on efficiency and grandfather methods by the comprehensive evaluation model of energy and carbon markets combined with inverse DEA method. Our results show that when the power industry is in an advantageous position, the efficiency method is fairer and more efficient than the grandfather method. The potential economic output rate has more than doubled compared to that of the grandfather method. Market activity and emission reduction potential are 7% and 25% more than that in the grandfather principle, respectively. Nevertheless, when the power industry is in a disadvantageous position, the efficiency method leads to an imbalance between power supply and demand in the market and power shortages in 19 regions. Then the trading activity of the power market drops by 12%, resulting in serious economic loss, especially in China's eastern region (−7.29%). The economic risk caused by the grandfather method has been significantly reduced than that of the efficiency method. And there may be greater potential risks under the efficiency method. This study identifies the potential challenges and obstacles of future carbon market and addresses the urgency of policy to tackle this issue to facilitate a carbon market that operates robustly under uncertainty.     

Does Security of Land Operational Rights Matter for the Improvement of Agricultural Production Efficiency under the Collective Ownership in China?

Under the “separation of three rights” policy, the impact of security of land operational rights on agricultural production efficiency has attracted much attention in recent years. Data envelopment analysis and mediation effect analysis were applied to 888 family farms run by new‐type agricultural operators from Songjiang to identify the mechanism of the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural production efficiency through long‐term investment. The results show that greater security of land operational rights generally increased agricultural production efficiency. Approximately 37.94 percent of the impact could be explained by long‐term investment. The results also indicate that significant heterogeneity exists in the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural production efficiency at various levels of the family farms’ efficiency distributions. It is suggested that government should legalize land operational rights and give them a status equal to those of households’ contractual rights and land ownership rights in China's future land tenure reform.     

Transmigrasi Bedol Desa: inter-island village resettlement from Wonogiri to Bengkulu

Under Indonesia's massive transmigration program, 490,000 families were moved in 1950-86. While the resettlement program initially sought to alleviate population pressure in overpopulated areas by sending families to the less populated regions of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, it later placed greater emphasis on regional development and cultural assimilation. The Bedol Desa resettlement scheme, in operation from 1976-81, was the largest of its type and organized the move of 12,500 families from Wonogiri to Bengkulu. The project was motivated by deteriorating environmental conditions in Wonogiri, including extreme drought and flooding from dam waters. To help evaluate this project, which was the most costly transmigration effort to date, 119 of the 286 couples who chose to remain behind in the relocated village of Kedungrejo in Wonogiri and 57 of the 91 couples who resettled in Bengkulu in southern Sumatra were interviewed. Those remaining at Kedungrejo received compensation grants for flooded land and property; 44% used their grants to buy nonflooded land, 21% bought housing, 17% began livestock or poultry enterprises, and 12% invested in gold. Income opportunities outside of agriculture were sought by the majority, and an estimated 50% of families who remained in the area improved their socioeconomic status due to greater access to white-collar jobs and formal education. Those who moved to Bengkulu tended to be couples with little land in Wonogiri and few sources of income aside from trading and sharecropping. Settlers were able to produce adequate subsistence from the 2 hectare land parcels they were given in Bengkulu, but faced difficulties generating cash incomes. Settlers also faced inadequate health and educational services. Despite these problems, only 3% of respondents indicated regret in terms of joining the scheme and the labor-scarce conditions led to organized collective labor practices that promoted solidarity.     

The puzzle of sharecropping: A survey of theories

The geographically pervasive and historically tenacious institution of sharecropping has always been a fruitful source of great economic controversies. While the earlier writings were almost universal in their disapproval of sharecropping (and seemed to ascribe little or no rationale for the persistence of it), an important characteristic of recent writings has been to uphold a plurality of views regarding the virtues of this institution. Not only have the recent papers been quite successful in highlighting the basic rationale behind the continuance of this somewhat enigmatic institution, they have addressed themselves to a number of important issues hitherto unexplored. Many strands of recent theoretical analyses have been brought to bear on the analysis of these problems, ranging from the simple competitive model to the esoteric theory of core, from the tricky Coase theorem of property rights to the intricate theory of portfolio behaviour, the principal-agent formulation and recent advances from the economics of information. Based on the present survey of theories, it seems fair to conclude that these recent sophisticated models have been quite illuminating and hold promise of further insights in future.     

The Land Tenure System and its Saving and Investment Mechanism: The Case of Modern China*

The new land tenure system represents a compromise between efficiency and equality. On the one hand, the privatization of land use rights has eliminated the type of free-rider problem observed under the commune system; on the other hand, egalitarianism reduced the transaction costs when land was first allocated to farmers after the dismantling of the commune system. However, this study shows that the main challenge to the efficiency and sustainability of the system is the task of developing a voluntary savings and investment mechanism to fill the vacuum left by the compulsory one that the commune system once had. The frequent reallocation or readjustment of village land, as is required by the system in response to the relative population changes among households, makes farmers feel insecure in their land use rights and agricultural investment, and leads to distortion in their investment and consumption.