Improving the participation of smallholder mango farmers in modern retail channels in Indonesia

Demand for fresh fruits and vegetables in Indonesia has been continuously growing as the result of increasing incomes, high growth of the urban population, and modern retail development. The growth of modern retail chains in Indonesia in the last few decades has intrigued some development experts and practitioners because it had been expected to provide greater opportunities for linking small farmers to high value globalized market chains. The modern private sector would, it was hoped, incorporate small producers with the goal of both securing supply and contributing to poverty reduction. However, in terms of mangoes, previous studies have indicated that only a very small proportion of local production is marketed to modern retail chains and/or exported. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors affecting farmers' participation in modernizing retail channels. The study randomly selected 636 mango farmers from the two main mango production zones in Indonesia, West Java and East Java provinces. The study shows that an expansion of the modernized retail segment has not always benefitted local producers, especially smallholder farmers. It is demonstrated that smallholder farmer participation could be higher when the level of commercialization in the market is high and/or retail procurement was already more modernized. Factors that increase farmer capacity to participate in the modern retail chain are irrigation, farm tools, and infrastructure. To increase smallholder farmer participation, the study suggests a policy of encouraging enforcement of quality standards at wholesale markets, technical assistance to farmers relating to value-adding postharvest activities, and improvements in rural infrastructure.     

First difference maximum likelihood and dynamic panel estimation

First difference maximum likelihood (FDML) seems an attractive estimation methodology in dynamic panel data modeling because differencing eliminates fixed effects and, in the case of a unit root, differencing transforms the data to stationarity, thereby addressing both incidental parameter problems and the possible effects of nonstationarity. This paper draws attention to certain pathologies that arise in the use of FDML that have gone unnoticed in the literature and that affect both finite sample performance and asymptotics. FDML uses the Gaussian likelihood function for first differenced data and parameter estimation is based on the whole domain over which the log-likelihood is defined. However, extending the domain of the likelihood beyond the stationary region has certain consequences that have a major effect on finite sample and asymptotic performance. First, the extended likelihood is not the true likelihood even in the Gaussian case and it has a finite upper bound of definition. Second, it is often bimodal, and one of its peaks can be so peculiar that numerical maximization of the extended likelihood frequently fails to locate the global maximum. As a result of these pathologies, the FDML estimator is a restricted estimator, numerical implementation is not straightforward and asymptotics are hard to derive in cases where the peculiarity occurs with non-negligible probabilities. The peculiarities in the likelihood are found to be particularly marked in time series with a unit root. In this case, the asymptotic distribution of the FDMLE has bounded support and its density is infinite at the upper bound when the time series sample size T→∞$T\to \infty$. As the panel width n→∞$n\to \infty$ the pathology is removed and the limit theory is normal. This result applies even for T$T$ fixed and we present an expression for the asymptotic distribution which does not depend on the time dimension. We also show how this limit theory depends on the form of the extended likelihood.     

The difficulties of supplying new technologies into highly regulated markets: the case of tissue engineering

This study provides an insight into the difficulties companies encounter in transposing basic science into commercially viable healthcare technologies, focusing on the issue of establishing a dominant supply model within a highly regulated market. The core issue is how to scale-up customised scientific processes into products able to supply wider and possibly mass markets. In tracing the development of approaches to scaling-up, the paper highlights the influence regulatory regimes have on high technology regulated products and services. The paper details the implications of two contrasting supply initiatives towards operationalising tissue engineering, based on differences in regulatory regimes between Europe and the USA.     

Modeling Accounting Workplace Interactions with Text‐to‐Video Animation

This article describes a new pedagogical tool, text‐to‐video animation software, that accounting instructors can adopt to easily generate quality videos that address a variety of accounting learning objectives. Although this tool can be used to enhance traditional pedagogical methods, such as case analysis and discussion, it can also be used to address accounting learning objectives not currently addressed by traditional pedagogical methods. This article outlines the benefits of adopting and using this tool in financial and managerial accounting courses, and encourages further study of its effectiveness.     

Female Earnings and Divorce Rates: Some Australian Evidence

The purpose of this article is to examine whether female earnings have influenced divorce rates in Australia, using state‐level data for the past four decades. Following a recent study by Ressler and Waters (2000), which concludes from comparable US data that female earnings and divorce rates may be jointly endogenous, initial testing is performed to identify whether female earnings can be treated as exogenous. A Hausman specification error test finds no evidence of a simultaneous relationship in the Australian data, in contrast to the findings of Ressler and Waters. The test result supports the hypothesis that other underlying factors affect female earnings, of which higher divorce rates are merely another symptom. A divorce rate equation is estimated. In accordance with much of the literature, the rise in female earnings over the past four decades is found to have increased Australian divorce rates.     

OPTIMAL STATIC–DYNAMIC HEDGES FOR BARRIER OPTIONS

We study optimal hedging of barrier options, using a combination of a static position in vanilla options and dynamic trading of the underlying asset. The problem reduces to computing the Fenchel–Legendre transform of the utility-indifference price as a function of the number of vanilla options used to hedge. Using the well-known duality between exponential utility and relative entropy, we provide a new characterization of the indifference price in terms of the minimal entropy measure, and give conditions guaranteeing differentiability and strict convexity in the hedging quantity, and hence a unique solution to the hedging problem. We discuss computational approaches within the context of Markovian stochastic volatility models.     

Ties that Unwind: Dynamism in Integrative Social Contracts Theory1

Social contract theory offers a powerful method and metaphor for the study of organizational ethics. This paper considers the variant of the social contract that has arguably gained the most attention among business ethicists: integrative social contracts theory or ISCT [Donaldson and Dunfee: 1999, Ties That Bind (Harvard Business School Press, Boston)]. A core precept of ISCT – that consent to membership in an organization entails obligations to follow the norms of that organization, subject to the moral minimums of basic human rights – is a reasonable and appealing notion. One potential challenge for those attempting to apply this idea, however, lies in the dynamic nature of social norms. Organizational norms evolve, often through the conscious efforts of community members and leaders. As currently formulated, ISCT offers a framework that under-appreciates the evolving nature of moral norms. In this paper, we extend ISCT by considering the circumstances under which the terms of and parties to social contracts change. We also consider a number of principles that should be considered as the terms and parties to organizational social contracts change.