Dynamic Use of Closures and Imperfectly Enforced Quotas in a Metapopulation

The dynamic efficiency of closures in bioeconomic systems depends upon stock levels and in situ values that evolve over time, and on relative costs of implementation. A model of a harvested metapopulation is presented in which second-best reduction of harvest from open-access levels using input quotas balances monitoring costs against dynamic benefits of mitigating overharvesting. Temporary or permanent closures—though generally still second best—are preferable to quotas under certain conditions, as demonstrated for a representative patch and time period. Interactions between patches are discussed. Numerical solutions illustrate comparative dynamics of closure use, and show their potential benefits in a dynamic regulatory path.     

Foreign direct investment,institutional quality,economic freedom and entrepreneurship in emerging markets

This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment, institutional quality, economic freedom, and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The research compares the capacity and appetite for business creation among high-income, low-income and emerging countries. The results are based on a panel study of data, from 2004 to 2009 for 87 countries, using as its source “The World Bank Entrepreneurship Snapshots” to look at the connection between business creation, institutional quality, market freedom and foreign direct investment (FDI). The findings reveal a strong positive relationship between institutional quality and business generation in all three of the above categories. The freedom to create businesses and invest has an impact on business generation in emerging countries, while the influence of international trade appears more important as a spur to the genesis of business in low-income countries. Finally, there is a direct and significant relationship between FDI and business development in emerging countries. This result is consistent with “the spillover theory of entrepreneurship” (,  and ).     

Does Conservation Agriculture Change Labour Requirements? Evidence of Sustainable Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa

Population growth, increasing wealth and changing diets require agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa to intensify to meet future food demand and ensure food security in the region. Conservation agriculture can increase yields in the long run and reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive farming. In changing the mix of resources used and how they are managed, the adoption of conservation agriculture can have a direct impact on farm labour. We study the relationship between conservation agriculture and labour input requirements as observed in five Sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on the amount of work required and the source of the work employed (household or hired, by gender, by children and by production stage). We apply multinomial endogenous switching regression models on a panel of household and farm data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. We find that conservation agriculture increases farms’ labour input requirements. Higher demand is driven by more work during the harvesting and threshing stages. Increases in labour requirements are usually met by household labour, not paid work. The workload change is also higher for women than for men, and, in certain cases, is met by children.     

Bio-economic modelling of soil erosion externalities and policy options: a Tunisian case study

Soil erosion is one of the most important of today’s environmental externalities and a major threat to sustainability of agricultural system. It constitutes the most widespread forms of land degradation throughout the world. The aim of this paper is to estimate the amount of soil erosion generated by the current cropping systems in Tunisia and to assess the economic and ecological impacts of policy instruments designed to handle this problem. The analysed policy options are based on soil conservation practices and direct incentive farming anti-erosive measures. The selected measures are the reduction of tillage, the avoidance of bare fallow and the use of legume-based crop rotation. A bio-economic modelling framework coupling the biophysical model EPIC to a non-linear dynamic programming farm model was used for this impact analysis. It was performed in a set of representative farms belonging to a region in North-Eastern Tunisia (Zaghouan) strongly affected by this phenomenon. The main finding of this research is the non-convexity of the crop yield—soil erosion space. That is, the use of more intensive techniques to increase productivity (i.e. crop yield) may be accompanied by rough changes in soil erosion (damage) curves, manifested either by non-monotony or non-convexity. In term of policy options and because of giving up convexity assumptions, incentive anti-erosive measures appear more efficient than conventional environmental policies such as Pigouvian taxes or quota systems. The implementation of soil conservation practices would leads to a net decrease in soil erosion and an increase in farm income. However, with the current interest rate of 7% the possible rise in income is not enough to stimulate farmers to invest on these practices. A maximum rate of 4% would be necessary to make this policy option more effective.     

Dynamics of the evolution of the strategy concept 1962–2008: a co‐word analysis

The aim of this paper is to extend recent reflection on the evolution of strategic management by analyzing the field's object of study: strategy. We show how the concept of strategy has formed the backbone of the development of strategic management as an academic field and how consensus regarding it has evolved in the academic community during the stages of its historical development. We also address changes in the structure of the definition as it evolved through the growth of internal consistency, the centrality degree of the key terms that have shaped it, and how this evolution fostered the emergence of new research topics during the development of the discipline. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stagflationary Effects of Stabilization Programs in Reforming Socialist Countries: Enterprise-Side and Household-Side Factors

Dismantling subsidies could give rise to serious macroeconomicdifficulties in the short run. This article explores a viewbased on the enterprise sector as a central source and mainchannel of the stagflation phenomenon, using as an example thestagflation that followed the 1990 stabilization program inPoland. The stagflation phenomenon is linked to features ofthe financial market that are somewhat peculiar to reformingsocialist economies: the weak credit links between householdsand enterprises, and the existence of large interenterprisedebt. The policy implications of the enterprise-side view includemore explicit consideration of initial conditions in the creditmarket, implementation of privatization schemes, and the developmentof a domestic banking system.     

Inequality in Pre-Income Survey Times: A Methodological Proposal

We propose different alternatives of inequality estimation for economies with a big agricultural sector where land is a decisive factor in income generation and where we do not have enough information about personal earnings. To this end, we use the Uruguayan case to test our methodology. We propose six analytical exercises where Gini indexes are calculated, and as reference we choose the estimation that better adjusts to some theoretical and empirical conditions. Finally, we check the historical accuracy of the series by looking at income distribution explicative variables and the shape of the Inequality possibility frontier. Our results are consistent with the economic and social events of the period (1870–1912) and with previous estimates which reveal worsening trends in income distribution. However, our annual data allow capturing the dynamics of the process where breaks in the series are observed and improvements and declines alternate in the evolution of income distribution.     

Home Automation—A Fast - Expanding Market

In recent years, a host of companies have tried to bridge the technology gap between home automation systems. This collective effort has led to the development of technologies that have triggered the beginning of device interoperability. A seamless ecosystem is being created that aims to improve comfort for dwellers, improve efficiency of homes, and, as an additional result, will create a massive market for home automation devices. Our research revealed that the home automation market has been growing at an enormous pace and additional integration of technologies would continue to stimulate demand even more, further diminishing costs and thereby reducing the exclusivity of the market by bringing them to the masses. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Goal Programming: Potential and Limitations for Agricultural Economics

Recently, goal programming (GP) has been discussed in the literature as an alternative to linear programming, particularly in decision-making environments involving multiple objectives. In this paper we present an overview of the different GP formulations, their assumptions, limitations, and implications for agricultural decision making. Furthermore, a new insight into the interpretation of duality in GP is discussed. The concept of "standardized dual variables" which provides a more meaningful interpretation of shadow prices in GP is introduced. A simple but realistic farm agricultural planning example is used to illustrate the analysis.
Récemment, la technique de programmation appellée "goal programming" ou "GP" a été presentée dans la literature comme une alternative à la programmation Iinéaire, particulièrement dans les situations òu le procés de décision est basé sur plusieurs objectifs simultanés. Dans cet article nous présentons une vue génerale des différentes formes de la "GP;" leurs hypothèses de base. Ieurs limitations, et leurs implications pour le procés de decision agricole, une nouvelle intérpretation de la dualité en "GP" est proposée. En particulier, le concept de "variables duales standardisées" est introduit, ce qui permet une interpretation plus significative des prix de reference en "GP." Finalement. un exemple simple mais réaliste de planification agrcole a l' échelle d' une ferme est pour élucider utilisé l' analyse.     

Traffic exposure near the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex: using GPS-enhanced tracking to assess the implications of unreported travel and locations

Traffic exposure assessments could misclassify the extent and locations of exposure if traditional recall surveys and self-reported travel diaries do not record all participant activities. The Harbor Communities Time Location Study (HCTLS) examines the nature, extent and implications of underreported locations/trips in a case study which used portable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices to track the diurnal patterns and traffic exposure of 47 residents of communities near the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex. Participants were similar to adults nationwide in time spent indoors, in-vehicle, and outdoors, but spent more time indoors at home (78% vs. 66%). Overall, participants did not report nearly half (49%) of the locations and trips identified in GPS-enhanced data on their activity diaries, resulting in about 3 h/day in unreported locations and 0.6 h/day in unreported trips. The probability of a location/trip being underreported was systematically correlated with participant and location/trip characteristics. Self-reported data missed about 50 min of heightened air pollution exposures during the 5 h/day on average participants spent in high-traffic areas and about 30 min during the 4 h/day near truck routes. GPS-enhanced methods provide opportunities to more precisely characterize exposure periods and tools to identify facility, roadway, and land use types of the greatest concern for mitigation efforts.