Apparent Gains,Hidden Costs: Examining Adoption Drivers,Yield, and Profitability Outcomes of Rotavator Tillage in Wheat Systems in Nepal

The ‘high speed’ rotavator is used for shallow tillage to create a fine tilth and incorporate crop residues, often with a single tractor pass. Rotavator tillage has spread quickly in many parts of South Asia, despite short-term experimental trials suggesting deteriorating soil quality and crop yield penalties. Evidence of rotavator impacts on farmer fields across soil gradients and time is largely absent. From a farm household survey conducted among wheat farmers in Nepal, we estimate wheat yield and profitability outcomes for rotavator adopters and non-adopters using propensity score matching. We find that rotavator adoption leads to inferior outcomes, despite significant cost savings for land preparation (US$ 11–15 per hectare). With rotavator adoption, farmers lose about 284–309 kg of wheat grain and about US$ 93–101 of profits on average per hectare per season, and these penalties increase with longer-term use of the technology. Adoption of rotavator appears to be driven by the cost and time savings for land preparation. Against this backdrop, new policy and extension efforts are required that discourage rotavator use and favour more sustainable tillage technologies.     

Paying for a Name? Comparing the Performance of Franchised Real Estate Brokerage Firms

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper compares the relative performance of franchised and independent real estate brokerage firms. One problem that arises when comparing the...     

Estimating the adoption of Bt eggplant in India: Who Benefits from public–private partnership?

The study analyzes ex ante the adoption of insect-resistant Bt eggplant technology in India. Farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) is estimated using the contingent valuation method. Given the economic importance of insect pests in eggplant cultivation, the average WTP for Bt hybrids is more than four times the current price of conventional hybrid seeds. Since the private innovating firm has also shared its technology with the public sector, proprietary hybrids will likely get competition through public open-pollinated Bt varieties after a small time lag. This will reduce farmers’ WTP for Bt hybrids by about 35%, thus decreasing the scope for corporate pricing policies. Nonetheless, ample private profit potential remains. Analysis of factors influencing farmers’ adoption decisions demonstrates that public Bt varieties will particularly improve technology access for resource-poor eggplant producers. The results suggest that public–private partnership can be beneficial for all parties involved.     

Information and Communication Technology Adoption and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Growth in New Zealand

This paper reports on an investigation of the potential to use the financial ratios of New Zealand small businesses to discriminate their location as an aid in the accurate targeting of regional economic development programs. To the extent that there are clearly identifiable differences in performance and financial structure of urban and nonurban firms, this could be significant for small business policy development and the efficient implementation of strategies.     

Firm behaviour and market access in a Free Trade Area with rules of origin

Abstract.  We study a Free Trade Area with Rules of Origin and show that there are two distinct regimes. Comparative statics results for the two regimes are exact opposites and a regime switch occurs when ROO become restrictive enough. Consequently, imports into the FTA of the intermediate good first fall and then rise while the opposite pattern occurs for imports of the final good and for the price of the domestic input. We also show that tighter ROO have opposite effects on the well‐being of final versus intermediate good producers and producers inside versus outside the FTA . JEL classification: F13, F15.     

Forecasting,development and innovation in the field of chemicals

A perusal of the United Kingdom's National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) bulletin Inventions for Industry, September 1971, will reveal:     

Is Group Affiliation Profitable in Emerging Markets? An Analysis of Diversified Indian Business Groups

Emerging markets like India have poorly functioning institutions, leading to severe agency and information problems. Business groups in these markets have the potential both to offer benefits to member firms, and to destroy value. We analyze the performance of affiliates of diversified Indian business groups relative to unaffiliated firms. We find that accounting and stock market measures of firm performance initially decline with group diversification and subsequently increase once group diversification exceeds a certain level. Unlike U.S. conglomerates' lines of business, and similar to the affiliates of U.S. LBO associations, affiliates of the most diversified business groups outperform unaffiliated firms.     

Unveiling Contemporaneous Relations Between Jump Risk and Cross Section of Stock Returns

This study analyzes the impact of time varying jump risk on aggregate returns. We, in particular, examine the pricing of jump size and intensity components in the cross section of stock returns for four Asian markets. We use stochastic volatility model with jumps to estimate jump size and intensity. Fama–MacBeth regression results indicate that both jump size and intensity have statistically significant effect on expected returns. A one standard deviation increase in jump intensity beta lowers the expected annual returns by 1% for Japan, 2% for China, 5% for India, and 7% for South Korea. The results are consistent even after controlling for the Fama and French three factors, firm size, and liquidity proxies.