Welfare Effects of Technological Convergence in Processed Food Industries

We develop a monopolistic competition model to investigate effects of international technological convergence on factor rewards, output composition, and welfare. Comparative static analysis indicates technological convergence improves the follower's—but impairs the leader's—international competitiveness. The leader's welfare improves unambiguously; the follower's welfare depends on the relative strength of convergence's income and terms-of-trade effects. We use data from seventeen food industries in thirty countries, 1993–2001, to test these analytical predictions. Evidence of convergence is found in thirteen of seventeen industries. Convergence lifts followers' relative wages and global value-added shares. Followers benefit from convergence's positive income effect. Leaders benefit from higher terms of trade.     

Market Power in the Philippine Retail and Processed Food Industry

Various models have been employed to analyze market power in the food industry but none has explored combining these models to reinforce their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. This article illustrates an application of these models in a multistage framework using the case of the Philippine retail and processed food industry. Price transmission is examined in the first stage of analysis using cointegration and price asymmetry models. Conjectural variation and bargaining models are employed in the second and third stages of analysis. Results indicate that market power exists in industries where price transmission is asymmetric.     

基于随机前沿分析的中国城市土地利用效率时空分异研究

研究目的:测度并探索城市土地利用效率的时空分异,促进城市土地集约高效利用。研究方法:"一步法"随机前沿生产函数模型、核密度估计、空间自相关分析。研究结果:2009—2016年中国城市土地利用效率整体提升,但仍处于中低水平;城市土地利用效率在空间上由东向西递减,效率越低的区域其内部不均衡性越明显;城市土地利用效率空间集聚态势显著,集聚程度趋于加强;高效率均质区域集中于东部地区,并出现向中西部延伸的趋势,低—高关联类型主要分布在东、中部交界地区,高—低关联类型在空间上表现为沿交通干线的带状分布,低效率均质区域集中在中西部地区。研究结论:应注重土地利用投入产出的技术效率,通过投入要素优化和技术能力提升实现城市土地利用的报酬递增,同时要制定区域差别化的效率提升策略。     

Institutional Environment and Technical Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Cotton Producers in West Africa

This paper examines the effects of the institutional environment on West African cotton farmers’ technical efficiency (TE). First, key aspects of the cotton sector institutional environment are discussed, including input and credit access, and producers’ organisations. Then, a stochastic frontier production function, which incorporates technical inefficiency effects, is applied to farm level data collected in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. The survey includes farmers’ evaluations of the cotton sector institutional environment. Results suggest that institutional level features influence producers’ TE, besides farm‐level characteristics. Cotton growers who report a negative experience with the joint liability programme, who identify the cotton price mechanism or access to credit as the main constraints to performance, and who cultivate more hectares of cereals are technically more inefficient in producing cotton. Findings suggest that cotton farmers in Mali are less technically efficient in producing cotton than in Burkina Faso and Benin. Agricultural development policies focusing on reducing farmers’ financial stress, particularly through the establishment of adequate price mechanisms (i.e. higher farm‐gate prices and timely payments to farmers) and improvement in the input–credit markets should be encouraged to improve TE in West Africa.     

Technological Innovation Drivers in Rural Small Food Industries in Iran

The first step in devising the best incentives to support innovation is to investigate factors that affect the development of innovations. This article contributes to exploring such factors in small food industries in the rural areas of Tehran province, Iran. Using a census sampling method, 111 managers of 60 active firms were interviewed. The results showed that in general the level of technological innovation is low in the studied firms. The managers do not find the technological changes successful in bringing benefit to their firms. Even though correlation analysis indicated a complex association matrix between independent variables, only the firm's capacity of production was associated with technological innovation as a dependent variable. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that factors which influence technological innovation are the firm's age, formal research and development, fixed capital, and capacity of production. The results of this study were used to derive practical suggestions for managers and policymakers to increase technological innovation in the studied industry.     

中国农地租赁市场交易双方议价能力及影响因素研究 ——来自中国家庭追踪调查数据

研究目的：探讨农地租赁双方在信息不对称条件下的讨价还价能力,并揭示其异质性问题及背后原因。研究方法：利用信息博弈的双边随机前沿模型（SFA2tier）对不同阶段和不同地区下中国农地租赁市场交易双方议价能力及影响因素进行分析。研究结果：（1）从总体样本看,承租户比出租户具有更强的议价能力,出租户利用自身议价能力将租金抬高28.64%,承租户利用自身议价能力将租金降低34.25%,使得实际租金低于基准租金5.61%。（2）中国农地租赁双方的议价能力差距随时间呈现出不断扩大的趋势,但这种议价能力差距并不是由地区经济水平的差异性引起的,而是由地理区位条件和粮食主产区差异所决定,即承租户与出租户议价能力的差距在东、中、西部地区均为5.50%左右,而在南方地区和北方地区各为7.94%和3.67%,在非粮食主产区和粮食主产区却分别为7.20%和3.64%。（3）城乡因素、受教育程度、户口类型、性别、健康状况、年龄、经营规模等因素均是导致议价能力差距的根本原因,而居住在农村、受过高等教育、农业户口、男性、身体不健康、中老年、小经营规模农户都能够有效降低这种差距。研究结论：应当从实行农地租赁价格补贴、制定差别化的基准租金、完善农地租赁信息服务中心等方面来促进农地流转效率。     

Valuation on the Frontier: Calibrating Actual and Hypothetical Statements of Value

The lack of robust evidence showing that hypothetical behavior directly maps into real actions remains a major concern for proponents of stated preference nonmarket valuation techniques. This article explores a new statistical approach to link actual and hypothetical statements. Using willingness-to-pay field data on individual bids from sealed-bid auctions for a $350 baseball card, our results are quite promising. Estimating a stochastic frontier regression model that makes use of data that any contingent valuation survey would obtain, we derive a bid function that is not statistically different from the bid function obtained from subjects in an actual auction. If other data can be calibrated similarly, this method holds significant promise since an appropriate calibration scheme, ex ante or ex post , can be invaluable to the policy maker that desires more accurate estimates of use and nonuse values for nonmarket goods and services.     

The Effects of Direct Payments on Technical Efficiency of Irish Beef Farms: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

The 2003 Mid‐Term Review of the CAP sought to refocus the EU's farm support policy to foster a more competitive and market‐orientated agricultural sector. The foundation of this reform comprised the introduction of decoupled payments to farmers, replacing the EU's previous system of supports that were directly linked to production of designated crops and livestock. This paper explores the effect of coupled payments and their subsequent replacement by decoupled support, on the technical efficiency of specialist beef farms in Ireland. Given the high reliance of beef farmers in Ireland on CAP payments, the decoupling of payments has been especially important for the sector. A stochastic production frontier is estimated using a panel dataset comprising detailed accountancy data for Irish beef farms between the years 2000 and 2013. Our results indicate that technical efficiency in the beef farming sector has been consistently poor, with an average efficiency score of only 0.53 during the period analysed. However, we found that direct income received in the form of coupled payments had a positive impact on farm efficiency, and that this positive effect was maintained after their replacement with decoupled income support.     

Distinguishing the Source of Market Power

Structural models used to measure market power, though widely employed, continue to be criticized. We compare alternative market power tests, including nonparametric and Solow residual-based (SRB) tests. We develop SRB methods that permit nested testing for both monopolistic and monopsonistic market power by the same firm. These tests and a set of nonparametric tests are implemented to examine market power exertion by U.S. cigarette manufacturers from 1977 to 1993. All tests indicate that cigarette manufacturers exerted monopsonistic power in the upstream tobacco market. They are mixed on whether monopolistic power exertion was exerted in the downstream market.     

新形势下食品企业经济管理的市场竞争力优化与对策分析

社会主义市场经济体制的确立,激活了我国企业的发展活力,逐步形成了以市场为导向的企业竞争模式.但是新形势下市场经济政策的变化,改变了企业参与市场的方式,由之前的劳动力为主转变为新思维、新理念为主,价值市场竞争日益激烈也导致传统的经济管理模式已经不能适应企业创新经营与发展的需求.在这种背景下,以食品企业为代表的传统企业应综...     

Books Reviewed

Books reviewed in this article:
Crissman, Charles C., John M. Antle, and Susan M. Capalbo, eds. Economic, Environmental and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production.
Deaton, Angus. The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy.
Graham, Edward M., and J. David Richardson, eds. Global Competition Policy.
O'Rourke, Kevin H., and Jeffrey G. Williamson. Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth Century Atlantic Economy.     

Estimating Market Power by Retailers in a Dynamic Framework: the Italian PDO Cheese Market

In this article, we evaluate the role of market power by retailers within the supply chain of Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) and Grana Padano (GP), the two most famous Italian quality cheeses. Market power is analysed in the context of a dynamic imperfect competition model of the supply chain, in which retailers are allowed to exert market power both downstream and upstream. We jointly estimate market‐power parameters together with supply and demand elasticities, by means of a structural system of demand, supply and price‐transmission equations, estimated using the generalised method of moments. We find evidence of downstream market power by retailers (toward final consumers) for PR and GP, but no evidence of upstream market power (toward processors/ripeners). These results may be explained by the structure of the supply chain and by the peculiar characteristics of the two cheeses.     

Segmentation of the Industrial Market for Food Commodities- A Conjoint Study of Purchase of Vegetable Oils in the Mayonnaise and Margarine Industries

Abstract

The purpose of the study presented in this article is to examine whether the concepts developed in the area of industrial buying behavior can add to the understanding of commodity purchasing behavior, and segmentation of commodity markets. The industrial market for vegetable oil was chosen as the outset of the study, because it is characterized by the appearance of changing demands and technological opportunities, which potentially can lead to differentiation possibilities.

The article describes a framework for the study of industrial buying of food commodities and the results of a conjoint study based on interviews with oil purchasers in the margarine and mayonnaise industries in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The main result of the study is that the price is an omnipotent decision criterion, when vegetable fats and mayonnaise producers buy vegetable oil, but also that product and supplier criteria can be used to segment the market, if the price premium is held within limits.     

The Persistence of Profitability among Firms in the Food Economy

The persistence of industry, firm-specific, and corporate-parent effects on firm profitability in the food economy are calculated and further analyzed within its four major sectors: food processing, wholesale grocery, retail supermarket, and restaurant. Profits are more persistent within an industry than within a corporation. The retail supermarket sector has had stable profits as has individual retail supermarket firms relative to the other three sectors.     

Demand Estimation in the Presence of Stochastic Trend and Seasonality: The Case of Meat Demand in the United Kingdom

If budget shares have stochastic trend or seasonality or both, then demand equations based on the assumption of deterministic trend and deterministic seasonality will be mis-specified. We test this proposition by estimating a Linearized Almost Ideal (LAI) demand system for meat demand in the United Kingdom using Harvey's structural time series methodology. We demonstrate that the model specification allowing for stochastic trend and deterministic seasonality performs best in terms of diagnostic tests and goodness of fit measures. It is also shown that the model with stochastic trend is better at out-of-sample forecasting.     

Market Power and World Price: The Role of Asian Rice Exporters

An attempt has been made in this study to assess the market power of major Asian exporters in world rice market using standard oligopoly models. Quantity has been used as the strategic variable based on previous literature. Structural and reduced form approaches have been used. Results indicate that the major Asian rice exporters like Thailand, China, and India face a downward sloping demand curve whereas the United States does not appear to possess market power. However, the results are inconclusive about the precise market structure. The results, in the backdrop of the history of world rice markets, indicate a need for Asian exporters to rely more on trade than on domestic stocks in order to reduce the thinness of world rice market.     

中国林工产业纵向一体化结构:理论与现实选择

林工纵向一体化行为不仅表现为以企业边界延伸为代表的绝对纵向一体化,也可以是以长期契约为纽带的相对纵向一体化。林工纵向一体化的效果在于弥补林木市场失灵的缺陷,在林工纵向一体化过程中,应当在尊重市场的前提下,合理选择一体化方式,以实现资源效用最大化,促进相关产业的平衡发展和利益的合理分配。     

Price and Volatility Transmission and Market Power in the German Fresh Pork Supply Chain

We investigate the relationship between the transmission of price volatility and market power in the German fresh pork supply chain. We use a theoretical model underpinning this relationship followed by an empirical application that uses monthly farm, slaughterhouse and retail pork price data for the period 2000–2011. We examine both the relationships of market power with price level transmission and price volatility transmission in the chain. We use a vector error correction model and least squares regressions to analyse price transmission and price volatility transmissions, respectively. Results show that retail market power limited both types of transmissions. Competition inducing policy measures coupled with measures that support price risk management initiatives of chain actors are suggested.     

Inserting GM Products into the Food Chain: The Market and Welfare Effects of Different Labeling and Regulatory Regimes

The purpose of this article is to examine the system-wide effects of the introduction of genetically modified (GM) products with and without labeling and to compare these two regimes to a third regime where GM products are not present either because they have not yet been developed or because they have been banned. For each regime, the decisions and welfare of consumers, producers, and life science companies are examined. The article explicitly incorporates the consumer response to the introduction of GM technology and considers different market structures of the life science sector.