Incorporating Generalized Marginal Budget Shares in a Mixed Demand System

This article extends a Rotterdam type of mixed demand system by replacing its constant marginal budget shares with the ones derived from originally defined and specified mixed Engel curves that take a generalized functional form using the Box-Cox transformation. An empirical illustration is given for Japanese demand for fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. The results show that the Rotterdam parameterization of marginal budget shares, which corresponds to those in linear mixed Engel curves, is preferred by the data, and that improper assumptions of the form of mixed Engel curves underlying a mixed demand system can bias its elasticities.     

The Development of Aquaculture in Central Thailand: Domestic Demand versus Export-Led Production

Expansion of aquaculture in Central Thailand since the 1970s is intimately linked to growth in other sectors of the local and national economy, and to participation in global trade. Thailand's agro-industrialization has led to the diversification of agriculture in the Central Region and the co-development of aquaculture. Production of domestic aqua-products is largely positive for consumers, farmers and the environment. By contrast, intensive production of shrimp for export has been characterized by periods of boom and bust resulting from disease outbreaks and international competition. At the farm level this has translated into surges of profit followed by overcapitalization, debt and environmental degradation.     

The Demand for Atlantic Salmon in Canada

This paper estimates values for a few important parameters related to the Atlantic salmon market in Canada. Included among the estimated parameters are income and price elasticities of demand. Many economists are currently engaged in the study of economic feasibility of farmed Atlantic salmon in Canada. In these studies forecasts of demand for Atlantic salmon play a crucial role. Since there are no serious studies on relevant elasticity estimates, the researchers have so far relied on extrapolations of historical time series data on demand (see, for example, Marine Science Research Laboratory (198O), Ridler (1983)). In this study we have formulated and estimated demand equations for Atlantic salmon using Canadian data covering the period between 1955 and 1981. We have found a very high value for both price and income elasticities of demand. High elasticity values have interesting implications for salmon farming. The domestic market can absorb additional supplies for Atlantic salmon. A high price elasticity guarantees that there is scope for salmon fishermen to increase their revenue by selling a higher volume in the Canadian market. The value of income elasticity suggests that Atlantic salmon is a strongly superior good. Various pressure groups in Canada and elsewhere have been claiming that Atlantic salmon is an endangered species and restrictions on catches must be imposed to save the species from total extinction. Implications of such controls have been analyzed in the light of the calculated value of the elasticities. Cet article fait une estimation de valeurs pour quelques paramètres importants reiatifs à la vente du saumon de l'Atlantique au Canada. Re-venus et élasticité des prix à la demands sont inclus parmi les paramétres étudiés. Un certain nombre d'économistes étudient en ce moment l'-aspect économique de I'implantation d'élevages de saumon de l'Atlantique au Canada. Dans ces études les previsions portant sur la demande jop-uent un rolê-clé. Etant donné qu'il n'y a pas d'études sérieuses sur les estimations d'élasticité, les chercheurs se sont appuyésA jusqu'ici sur des extrapolations à partir de séries de données historiques sur la demande. Dans cette étude nous avons formulé et estimé des équations de demande pour 1e saumon de l'Atlantique qui utilisent des données canadi-ennes entre 1955 et 1981, Nous avons trouvé une très naute valeur pour l'éasticitéà la fois des pris et des revenus. La haute élasticité des valeurs a des implications intáressantes pour l'élevage du saumon. Le marché domestique peut aisément absorber une quantité supplémentalre de saumons. Une élasticité dans la gamine élevée des prix permet de garan-tir aux éleveurs de saumon une augmentation de leurs revenus par la vente d'un volume accru sur le marché canadien. La valeur de l'élasticité du revenu suggère que le saumon de l'Atlantique est une denrée su-périeure et qu'avec une augmentation du revenu réél per capita, la demande domestique augmentera à un rythme plus rapide. Plusieurs groupes de pression au Canada et ailleurs soutiennent que le saumon atlantique est une espèce en danger et que des restrictions sur les prises doivent Ctre imposées pour sauver ces espèces d'une extinction totale. Les implications de ce genre de contrôle ont áté ana-lysées à la lumière de la valeur calculée ces élasticités.     

Imports versus Domestic Production: A Demand System Analysis of the U.S. Red Wine Market

The U.S. wine market experienced rapid growth in all facets—production, consumption, exports, and imports—over the past decade. Red wine imports more than tripled while consumption of domestically produced red wines doubled. This research estimates demand elasticities of U.S. red wine imports from five countries accounting for over 90% of imports—Italy, France, Spain, Australia, and Chile—using the first-difference version of the almost ideal demand system (AIDS). These elasticities are compared with those for domestically produced red wine. Results for conditional expenditure elasticities indicate that the U.S. red wine industry gains over imports when U.S. consumers' total expenditures on red wine increase. However, comparing own- and cross-price elasticities reveals an increase in the price of U.S. red wine results in a decline in quantity demanded six times greater than for French and Italian red wines and over 20 times greater than other import countries, thus harming the U.S. red wine industry. Empirical results suggest that U.S. red-wine producers could increase their total revenue by decreasing prices, while Italian and French producers can increase total revenues by increasing them.     

我国农村金融供求状况分析

目前,我国农村金融服务不能适应农村经济发展的需要,特别是农村的资金供给不能满足农村的资金需求。究其原因,既有经济性的,又有体制性的。对于经济性的原因,短期内很难从根本上改变,所以解决问题的对策应重点放在体制和机制上。     

水产品产品因素对市场需求的影响

影响水产品市场需求的因素有很多,产品因素是最主要的影响因素之一.本文论述了水产品产品因素诸如种类、质量、价格、包装、服务等对水产品市场需求的影响,并提出了如何围绕水产品产品因素扩大水产品市场需求的措施.     

The Demand for Food Quality in Rural China

Many studies of food demand do not use actual prices but unit values, obtained by dividing expenditures by the quantity consumed. This can bias empirical analyses because unit values are not exogenous market prices; they reflect household food quality choices within each food category. This article develops a framework for assessing the resulting bias in income and price elasticities of demand and applies the framework to data for rural China. Empirical results indicate that households in rural China tend to consume higher-quality food as income increases, with a greater sensitivity to income for basic foods than for luxury foods.     

No News Is Good News: Stochastic Parameters versus Media Coverage Indices in Demand Models after Food Scares

We develop a stochastic parameter approach to model the time-varying impacts of food scares on consumption, as an alternative to the inclusion of news coverage indices in the demand function. We empirically test the methodology on data from four food scares, the 1982 heptachlor milk contamination in Oahu, Hawaii and the bovine spongiform encephalopathy and two Escherichia coli scares on U.S. meat demand over the period 1993–9. Results show that the inclusion of time-varying parameters in demand models enables the capturing of the impact of food safety information and provides better short-term forecasts.     

The Demand and Allocation of Alaskan and Canadian Snow Crab

For over two decades the Alaskan snow crab industry has been an important component of the economic health of the Alaskan crab fisheries. This has been particularly true given the substantial historical stock declines in the Alaskan king and Tanner crab fisheries. However, dwindling local stocks, combined with substantial increases in snow (Queen) crab from Canada and other countries, has raised considerable concern over the sustained economic health from these fisheries. This paper reports on an econometric model of the Alaskan and Canadian snow crab fishery designed to both document the exvessel and wholesale price and revenue responses to harvest and market conditions, and to document the pre‐crab rationalization market performance of the Alaskan snow crab fishery on the eve of the historic implementation of both harvester and processor quotas. Pendant plus de deux décennies, l'industrie du crabe des neiges a constitué un élément important de la santééconomique de la pêche au crabe en Alaska. C'est particulièrement le cas en raison de la diminution substantielle des stocks historiques de crabe royal et de crabe des neiges du Pacifique. Cependant, la diminution des stocks locaux, combinée à des augmentations substantielles de crabe des neiges provenant du Canada et d'autres pays, a soulevé des inquiétudes considérables quant à la durabilité de la santééconomique de ces pêches. Le présent article présente un modèle économétrique de la pêche au crabe des neiges en Alaska et au Canada conçu pour documenter les prix au débarquement, les prix de gros et les revenus correspondants en fonction des conditions de récolte et de l'état du marché, et pour documenter la performance du marché avant que l'industrie du crabe des neiges en Alaska ne soit rationalisée par l'imposition historique de contingents aux pêcheurs et aux usines de transformation du poisson.     

The Demand for Hedging and the Value of Hedging Opportunities

Hedging strategies typically assume that hedging is costless and that only one futures market exists. When these assumptions are dropped, the demand for hedging is shown to depend on basis risk, price risk, and the hedger's risk preference. The marginal and incremental value of hedging opportunities are computed for the general cases of one and two markets and applied to the specific case of Pennsylvania dairy input hedging.     

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.     

《俄罗斯民法典》的借鉴意义

《俄罗斯民法典》是当今世界上最新的一部民法典。中国的法制建设,从孙中山的国民政府时期到共产党的苏维埃政权,从中华人民共和国建国初期一直到现在,都不同程度地受到前苏联法制建设的影响。今天的俄罗斯与今天的中国一样,都是从强大的集中统一的计划经济体制下走出来的,当年两国的政治构架和经济模式都有很大的相同之处。欣闻国内正在编纂《中国民法典》,这是中国法制建设的一个里程碑。我们海外学子都非常关心国内《民法典》的编纂工作。比较《俄罗斯民法典》,对编纂《中国民法典》,应该很有借鉴意义。土地权利,在古今中外都是一项基本…     

The Demand for Atlantic Salmon in Canada: Reply

In their comment on our paper, Bing-Hwan Lin and Nancy Williams have raised some interesting issues, but some of them are peripheral to the objective of our original study. The central objective of our original paper is to estimate income and price elasticities of demand for Atlantic salmon in Canada and then to use the parameter values to evaluate the market potential of farmed Atlantic salmon which are now being produced in Atlantic Canada. Accordingly, a demand equation has been estimated using annual data for the period 1955–1981. The inverted form has given a good fit and the results are reported in the paper.     

法律视角中的农业结构调整

一、农业结构调整与农民土地承包经营权农业结构调整在一定意义上说 ,是农村土地的调整。但现行法律和政策的有关规定 ,无疑已经对正在进行的结构调整构成障碍。《土地管理法》第十四条第一款规定 :“农民集体所有的土地由本集体经济组织的成员承包经营 ,从事种植业、林业、畜牧业和渔业生产。土地承包经营期限为三十年。发包方和承包方应当订立承包合同 ,约定双方的权利和义务。承包经营土地的农民有保护和按照承包合同约定的用途合理利用土地的义务。农民的土地承包经营权受法律保护。”而新一轮农业结构调整在大多数地区是第二轮承包的发…     

The Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem and Food Demand Estimation

This article reports tests of aggregation over consumer food products and estimates of aggregate food demand elasticities. Evidence that food demand variables follow unit root processes leads us to build on and simplify existing tests of the Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem. We compute food demand elasticities using a method of cointegration that is shown to apply to a convenient but nonlinear functional form. Estimates are based on consumer reported expenditure data rather than commercial disappearance data.     

Government Expenditures,Health Outcomes and Marginal Productivity of Agricultural Inputs: The Case of Tanzania

This paper examines the impact of health expenditures on agricultural labour productivity in order to inform the necessary policy decisions about targeting scarce public resources towards their most effective uses. We link health sector expenditures in rural Tanzania to health outcomes and agricultural labour productivity using data from the 2008 Household Budget Survey (10,975 households) and the 2007/08 Agricultural Census (52,594 households) across 113 districts in Tanzania. The results indicate that the marginal productivity of labour as well as land and fertilisers respond significantly to health expenditures. However, the magnitude of the response varies across types of disease, categories of expenditures and agricultural inputs. These findings suggest both the need and scope for targeting public expenditures in the health sector to achieve better agricultural growth outcomes.