The political economy of quality measurement: a case study of the USA slaughter cattle market

As agricultural products move from being economic commodities to quality–differentiated goods, price dispersion within specific markets increases and implicit subsidies from high quality producers to low quality producers are removed. The present paper examines how these distributional effects can influence patterns of support and opposition to changes in marketing arrangements. The simple model developed is calibrated using data from the USA slaughter cattle market. Estimates of the impact on prices of measuring quality more accurately are found to be similar in size to previous estimates of market power price suppression in the market.     

土地的政治经济学

该文是汪丁丁先生的幻灯讲稿,它从土地的政治经济学原理和意义出发,提出并论述了我国的农用地征用程序。本刊在发表时删去了有关的英文资料和英文图表。     

Economic development, institutional change, and the political economy of agricultural protection An econometric study of Belgium since the 19th century

This empirical study uses 100 years of annual data on 11 agricultural commodities from Belgium to measure the impact of structural changes coinciding with economic development and changes in political institutions on agricultural protection. The analysis shows that changes in agricultural protection are caused by a combination of factors. Governments have increased protection and support to farmers when world market prices for their commodities fell, and vice versa, offsetting market effects on producer incomes. Other economic determinants were the share of the commodities in total consumer expenditures (negative effect) and in total output of the economy (positive effect). With Belgium a small economy, there was no impact of the trade position. Changes in political institutions have affected agricultural protection. Democratic reforms which induced a significant shift in the political balance towards agricultural interests, such as the introduction of the one‐man‐one‐vote system, led to an increase in agricultural protection. The integration of Belgian agricultural policies in the Common Agricultural Policy in 1968 coincided with an increase in protection, ceteris paribus. Both institutional factors, related to changes in access to and information about the decision‐making at the EU level, and structural changes in the agricultural and food economy may explain this effect.     

The political economy of public research investment and commodity policies in agriculture: an empirical study

The paper tests a political economy theory of simultaneous government decision‐making on income redistribution through commodity policies and on public research investment in agriculture. We use data from 37 countries on agricultural protection and public agricultural research expenditures (PARI). The empirical results are consistent with the political economy hypotheses. The analysis suggest that structural changes in the economy have important effects on the political incentives for governments not only to subsidize or tax farmers, but also to invest in public agricultural research. Furthermore, the analysis supports the hypotheses that the impact of such structural changes on government decision‐making on PARI is non‐linear and conditional on other factors. Regarding the impact of political institutions, the results suggest that more democracy neither leads to more distortionary transfers (agricultural protection), nor to lower investment in public goods (PARI). ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.     

Paying for ecological services in Ecuador: The political economy of structural inequality

Paying Indigenous communities to conserve land for carbon sequestration is a controversial way of tackling climate change. Critics argue that paying for ecological services (or ‘PES’) in the form of carbon offset programmes reduces land and social relations to an economic transaction that devalues Indigenous livelihoods and communities. At the same time, empirical studies have shown that Indigenous communities have accepted and even embraced the idea of being paid to conserve land for climate change mitigation. This paper explores this apparent contradiction by investigating the implementation of Programa Socio Bosque (PSB), a PES carbon sequestration programme in Ecuador. Drawing upon primary fieldwork in the highland province of Chimborazo, it makes the case that PES programmes need to be understood as form of state power that reconfigures and reinforces the ways in which Indigenous peoples engage with the state. Particularly important in this regard is the role of the state in reinforcing the agrarian conditions under which Indigenous communities use and interpret PES payments while at the same time reconfiguring new forms of land conservation. Empirically, the research reveals important complementarities between the goals of carbon sequestration PES programmes and Indigenous land-use practices. Methodologically, it highlights the importance of situating the study of PES programmes in a context of land struggles, community–state relations and agrarian change.     

Roads from Calabria: The Arrighian approach to agrarian political economy

Scholars of agrarian change have long debated the nature of capitalist transition in the countryside, including whether the deepened interlinking of local, national, and transnational economic activities make past trajectories of agrarian transformation unlikely to reoccur in the present. This essay makes the case that Giovanni Arrighi's work has much to add to our understanding of the agrarian question in global historical perspective. We focus in particular on Arrighi's research on trajectories of change in the Calabrian region of southern Italy, and his essay “Capitalist Development in Hostile Environments.” In this piece, Arrighi and co‐author Fortunata Piselli develop two key insights. The first is that the pathways to capitalism are diverse, non‐linear, and historically contingent such that within one country—or, in the case of Italy, a single subnational region—multiple trajectories can be found. The second is that the outcomes of capitalist transition vary based on a country's position in the international hierarchy of wealth, meaning that agrarian transformation is compatible with both economic development and underdevelopment. We describe the three methodological principles that enabled Arrighi to develop his analysis of capitalist transition and explain how the papers collected in this special issue reflect and extend the Arrighian approach to agrarian political economy.     

The political economy of farmland ownership regulations and land prices

One of the most ubiquitous forms of agricultural regulation is a restriction on farmland ownership. One Canadian example of a farmland ownership restriction is The Saskatchewan Farm Security Act (FSA), passed in 1974. The purpose of this article is to explain, using a political economy framework, why the FSA was implemented and to estimate the effect of the FSA on Saskatchewan farmland values. A Present Value (PV) model is used to estimate the relationship between land values, rents, and the regulation. The Hausman endogeneity test reveals that the regulation variable is endogenous with the land price. The sign of the regulation variable is negative, which fits with the theory, i.e., the more stringent the regulation the lower the land value. We estimate that the regulation lowered Saskatchewan farmland prices by an average of 4 to 34 US$/acre, depending on whether ordinary least squares (OLS) or two‐stage least squares (TSLS) is employed in the estimation, over the period of 1974–2001.     

Whose land? The political economy of land titling in transitional economies

During processes of economic reform and transition, decision-makers are facing questions with potential far-reaching consequences, such as what institutions should be established, how to determine the relationship between state and market, and in what time frame and order. Against this background, this special issue has brought together four articles that analyze the type of institutional arrangements that emerge over time in relation to one of the basic means of production: land. The various contributions pay particular attention to an often-contested institutional development, the registration of land holdings. By proceeding with land titling under conditions of low socio-economic development, the state risks creating what is here termed as an “empty institution” rather than a “credible institution.” In other words, the new institution remains nothing more than a paper agreement or a hollow shell with little or even a negative effect on the actions of social actors. It is what might be called the “collective trust” in the system. As land becomes increasingly marketized and commodified, the state should ensure that the emerging land market does not result in a rapid concentration of land in the hands of a mighty few. This implies the control of market forces through the restriction or prohibition of land sales or land rental. In this context, effecting institutional change through land titling should be done with the utmost care.     

The political economy of wine: How terroir and intra-sector dynamics affect land use in Spain

This paper provides a constructive critique of Corrine Cash's paper “Good governance and strong political will: Are they enough for transformation?”, published in volume 58 of Land Use Policy in 2016. By focusing on how intra-sector dynamics influence land use policies in conflicts revolving around urban sprawl, this paper aims to complement and, to some extent, widen the analytic lens deployed by Cash. The examination of the Spanish wine sector and its lack of zoning policies confirms Cash's argument about the need to go beyond discourses of ‘good governance’ and ‘strong political will’ to understand the dynamics underpinning real spatial processes. However, this exploration underscores the need to add layers of complexity to land use analyses, showing the relevance of intra-sector conflict and logics. In complicating any simplistic reduction of urban sprawl conflicts to rural–urban oppositions, the paper ultimately calls for a more dynamic and multiscalar planning theory to address complex governance issues.     

The microeconomics of the developmental paradox: on the political economy of food price policy

A longstanding puzzle in comparative economics is the ‘developmental paradox’, the tendency for government support for agriculture to increase with national income and to decrease with the proportion of economic activity and of the population in agriculture. This paper offers a microeconomic explanation for that puzzle. It establishes analytically the microeconomic basis for coalition alignments with respect to food price policy, then numerically simulates the comparative static effects of alternative food policies on coalition structure. A parsimonious household model applied to a heterogeneously endowed society demonstrates how variation in individual welfare effects might beget distinct coalitions in the debate over food price policy and how those policies are inextricably linked to land, population, and technology policies in food agriculture. Moreover, coalition alignments on particular policy debates are path-dependent. In particular, food price policy creates its own political support.     

The political economy of multidimensional child poverty measurement: a comparative analysis of Mexico and Uganda

ABSTRACT

As part of the 2030 Agenda, much effort has been exerted in comparing multidimensional child poverty measures both technically and conceptually. Yet, few countries have adopted and used any of these measures in policymaking. This paper explores the reasons for this absence from a political economy perspective. It develops an innovative political economy framework for poverty measurement and a hypothesis whereby a country will only produce and use reliable and sustainable multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) measures if and only if three conditions coalesce: consensus, capacity and polity. We explore this framework with two relevant case studies, Mexico and Uganda. Both countries satisfy the capacity condition required to measure MDCP but only Mexico satisfies the other two conditions. Our proposed political economy framework is normatively relevant because it identifies the conditions that need to change across multiple contexts before the effective adoption and use of an MDCP measure becomes more likely.     

Agricultural land protection in China: a case study of local governance in Zhejiang Province

China's rapid economic development following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. One consequence of this change has been the accentuation of an existing trend of agricultural land loss and degradation. Although the 1978 reforms and their impacts have been subjected to considerable scrutiny, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the evolution of local government structures and practices and the implementation of agricultural land protection policies. This paper presents an analysis of this relationship in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang Province is situated on the eastern seaboard and exhibited the highest average annual per capita growth in China between 1978 and 1995. Huzhou Municipality is a growth centre in the northern part of the province. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 40 key-informants suggests that despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for agricultural land protection, the interpretation of policy at local levels continues to permit the loss of agricultural land (and attendant environmental costs) to be traded-off against increased economic growth. This suggests a need to re-evaluate the role of local levels of government in China with respect to agricultural land protection issues; to look as much at the ways policies are implemented as at policies themselves. The devolution of administrative responsibility in China and the increasing influence of powerful local economic interests will provide an impetus for such a re-focussing of research at local levels.     

Unawareness in environmental protection: The case of light pollution from traffic

New information is often emphasized as a basis of effective and scientifically sound environmental policy and management. However, outdated or incorrect information is not automatically nor instantly replaced by new insights. This article focuses on the various ways environmental information can be unintentionally left with insufficient attention or purposefully neglected. Energy-related emissions caused by road traffic in Finland are used as an illustrative example and light pollution caused by artificial lighting is identified as an emerging issue that has gained especially low recognition in the environmental agenda. Four different reasons for this lack of recognition are discussed: recognized unawareness, false awareness, deliberate unawareness and concealed awareness. Paying attention to light pollution is important because of various ecological, socio-cultural and economic effects but also because implementing measures aimed for reducing light pollution create possibilities for alleviating other social and environmental problems in transport and land use policies.     

水务投入对国民经济增长的贡献——以南京市为例

以南京市1998-2008年间水务投入的数据为样本,研究水务投入与国民经济投入产出关系,以及水务投入对国民经济增长的综合贡献。结果表明,南京市水务投入的投资乘数为1.6667,即每投入1单位的水务投资,即可增长1.6667单位的国民经济;1998-2008年南京市水务投入对GDP的平均贡献率及带动的GDP分别为1.962 6%和29.1575亿元,而水务投入的年平均投资额为17.491亿元。最后提出提高水务投入效益的相关建议。     

Scenario farmland protection zoning based on production potential: A case study in China

Establishing farmland protection areas is an important measure for developing countries to protect limited farmland resources and guarantee food security. The general approaches lack the ability to simulate the farmlands’ production potential under different scenarios. This paper proposes a modified farmland protection zoning framework to demarcate farmland protection by coupling the Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ) model with a state-of-the-art farmland protection zoning framework. The modified zoning framework was applied to China, a typical fast developing country. The results indicated that the average potential production of the entire country would increase by 2.96 % in the coming decade if the irrigation efficiency criteria of 55 % established by the National Program for Agricultural Water Conservation (2012–2020) can be fulfilled. Furthermore, the farmland protection area could also be reduced by 2.91 % (2.96 million ha) while the total production potential of the protected areas would remain unchanged. This study contributes two main aspects: (1) The AEZ model was used as a replacement for the general land-use suitability analysis (LUSA) or multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) based farmland assessment models in a farmland zoning framework, which can accurately assess the production potential of the farmland protection demarcation. (2) This farmland protection zoning approach can analyze and simulate a wide range of scenarios on the effect of environmental factors (climate, soil, terrain, etc.) and human production factors (irrigation condition, cropping system, etc.).