IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES ON SMALLHOLDERS’ TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ETHIOPIA

Using household survey data from Ethiopia, this paper evaluates the impact of agricultural cooperatives on smallholders’ technical efficiency. We used propensity score matching to compare the average difference in technical efficiency between cooperative member farmers and similar independent farmers. The results show that agricultural cooperatives are effective in providing support services that significantly contribute to members’ technical efficiency. These results are found to be insensitive to hidden bias and consistent with the idea that agricultural cooperatives enhance members’ efficiency by easing access to productive inputs and facilitating extension linkages. According to the findings, increased participation in agricultural cooperatives should further enhance efficiency gains among smallholder farmers.     

Robust Small Area Estimation under Spatial Non‐stationarity

The effective use of spatial information in a regression‐based approach to small area estimation is an important practical issue. One approach to account for geographic information is by extending the linear mixed model to allow for spatially correlated random area effects. An alternative is to include the spatial information by a non‐parametric mixed models. Another option is geographic weighted regression where the model coefficients vary spatially across the geography of interest. Although these approaches are useful for estimating small area means efficiently under strict parametric assumptions, they can be sensitive to outliers. In this paper, we propose robust extensions of the geographically weighted empirical best linear unbiased predictor. In particular, we introduce robust projective and predictive estimators under spatial non‐stationarity. Mean squared error estimation is performed by two analytic approaches that account for the spatial structure in the data. Model‐based simulations show that the methodology proposed often leads to more efficient estimators. Furthermore, the analytic mean squared error estimators introduced have appealing properties in terms of stability and bias. Finally, we demonstrate in the application that the new methodology is a good choice for producing estimates for average rent prices of apartments in urban planning areas in Berlin.     

EXCHANGE RATE PASS‐THROUGH INTO RETAIL PRICES

We study exchange rate pass‐through and its determinants using scanner data on fast moving consumer goods sold by 1,041 outlets in the United Arab Emirates between 2006 and 2010. The data are augmented with country of origin information. Our main finding is that exchange rate pass‐through varies more across retailers within regions than across regions, and in particular that pass‐through increases with retailer market share. We also find that exchange rate pass‐through is negatively correlated with both product quality and the elasticity of substitution of the product category and positively correlated with the frequency of price adjustment.     

Out of Welfare: Functioning of Income Support in Torino

This paper explores the opportunities provided by a file of longitudinal data regarding income support benefits for able bodied poor in order to understand the functioning of the local social assistance system in Torino. The features of this system, its selective-categorized character and the differences from universalistic systems are analyzed. In this framework, the duration of the periods users receive benefits has been studied by means of event history analysis. The probability of exit from welfare is related to socio-demographic characteristics of recipients. In particular we observe a lower propensity to exit for female headed households and households with children. The probability of exit appears to be affected also by labour market conditions, being higher when these are more favourable. The exit rate does not decrease as time elapsed in welfare moves on. We observe the existence of different styles of assistance among the different social services within the city. Difficulties related to the interpretation of the empirical results, given the selective-categorized features of the social assistance system, are emphasized. Finally, we discuss some theoretical issues about evaluation of income support policies.All the sections of this paper are the result of the cooperation of the authors. Nicola Negri has coordinated the various steps of the work and has written Section 5 with Contini. Nicoletta Bosco has mainly worked with Nicola Negri to prepare the data archive and has written Sections 2 and 3. Dalit Contini has discussed with Negri and Bosco the model of empirical analysis and has implemented it; she has written Sections 4 and 6. All authors share Section 1 and 7.     

Spillovers of the Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policy from the US to South Africa

This paper assesses the effect of US monetary policy on South Africa during the period 1990–2018. We separately analyse and compare the effect of conventional monetary policy, before the Global Financial Crisis, and unconventional monetary policy, after the US monetary policy reached the zero-lower bound. Our impulse response function results indicate that monetary policy in South Africa responds mainly to local inflation, economic activity and financial conditions. While there is strong correlation between the global and South African financial cycle, the financial cycle is not transmitted to the real economy because of the sluggish response of industrial production and domestic credit, especially after the global financial crisis. We see this as an indication of the effects of structural issues to the real economy and constrained households’ balance sheet which has prevented the local economy to take advantage of low local interest rates and the global economic recovery after the crisis.     

On preferences for being self-employed

The concept of procedural utility assumes that agents not only receive utility from outcomes but also attach an independent value to the procedures that lead to these outcomes. This paper analyzes whether the preferences that underlie procedural utility are homogeneous using the case of independence at the workplace. I exploit the event of German reunification to assign preferences for independence to respondents without using data on occupational choice or directly reported procedural preferences. I find that the self-employed report higher job satisfaction than the employed, even after controlling for income and hours worked. However, there is a significant amount of heterogeneity in this effect: while “independent types” experience a large increase in job satisfaction from being self-employed, the most “hierarchical types” could even experience a decrease.     

Big push or big failure? On the effectiveness of industrialization policies for economic development

The role of the government in industrialization is heavily debated. Some claim that extensive government involvement is key to initiate a sustainable development process, others see the government as an obstacle to it, pointing to the importance of government failure. We formulate a model, which explains why even a highly inefficient industrial policy can successfully promote big-push development. Moreover, we show that extensive government intervention is more likely to be successful when the initial level of development is low.