Farmer participation in a climate-smart future: Evidence from the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project

Smallholder agricultural carbon market projects have potential to achieve climate-smart agriculture (CSA), a “triple-win” for food security, climate change mitigation, and adaptation. Farmer participation is critical for achieving widespread impact, yet their adoption of sustainable land management practices is constrained by eligibility, willingness, and ability to participate. This research examines how the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project enabled smallholder participation, with results emphasizing the importance of institutional conditions and farmers’ perceptions. Findings highlight the necessity of international collaborations and high levels of synergistic coordination. Building social capital and adopting participatory learning approaches are strategies that can increase participation and create inclusive climate-smart agriculture projects.     

The Local Impacts of Agricultural Subsidies: Evidence from the Canadian Prairies

We estimate the impact of removing an export subsidy on the local economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, exploiting the large regional variation of a 1995 reform. We find that the loss of the subsidy resulted in significantly lower farm value‐added, farm asset values and local non‐farm employment. The results suggest that the subsidy removal had detrimental spillover effects on the local non‐agricultural economy that varied spatially across the Prairies. The point estimates suggest that the marginal effect of the subsidy loss on non‐agricultural employment was five times as large as those obtained from traditional estimates of the multiplier effect.     

An Ordered Tobit Model of Market Participation: Evidence from Kenya and Ethiopia

Do rural households in developing countries make market participation and volume decisions simultaneously or sequentially? This article develops a two-stage econometric method to test between these two competing hypotheses regarding household-level marketing behavior. The first stage models the household's choice of whether to be a net buyer, autarkic, or a net seller in the market. The second stage models the quantity bought (sold) for net buyers (sellers) based on observable household characteristics. Using household data from Kenyan and Ethiopian livestock markets, we find evidence in favor of sequential decision making, the welfare implications of which we discuss.     

Effect of the housing purchase restriction policy on the Real Estate Market: Evidence from a typical suburb of Beijing,China

To curb excessive rises in housing prices, the government has instituted a series of macro-control measures in the real estate market. The housing purchase restriction (HPR) policy, one of the most severe policies, aims to curb a rapid rise in housing prices by excluding investment demand for housing. The real estate market of Langfang City was a particularly pertinent case because it is adjacent to Beijing, the capital of China. This study collected 11,597 sets of second-hand housing transaction data from five counties around Beijing in Langfang. A regression discontinuity design was then used to indicate that the HPR policy of Langfang did not significantly reduce the price of second-hand houses in the study area. In addition, the effect of the HPR policy on housing prices had an obvious spatial heterogeneity. Within 500 m of the buffer zone around Beijing, the implementation of the HPR policy significantly increased the price by 8.07 %. Within 1000 m of the buffer zone, the implementation of the policy increased the price by an average of 6.70 %. Although the HPR policy played a role in reducing the price further than 1000 m, it was not robust. Finally, the paper highlighted that the policy makers should pay attention to the heterogeneity and connection of different cities, balance the relationship between multiple stakeholders, and improve and implement relevant systems, including a real estate tax regime and land spatial planning regime.