Impacts of Rising Energy Prices on Saskatchewan Agriculture: A Comment

In their recent article in this Journal [ CJAE 36(2): 239–60] Devi D. Tewari and Surendra N. Kulshreshtha analyzed the impacts of fuel and fertilizer price increases on Saskatchewan agriculture and concluded that energy price increases would reduce the level of production, product demand, energy use, consumer surplus and net returns over energy-related inputs.     

The path to European Monetary Union

The planned broadening of the common internal market into an economic and monetary union as proposed in the Delors Plan means a significant qualitative leap in the process of European integration, which should ultimately lead to political union in Europe. Is this objective realistic? In what ways could it be achieved?     

Dialectics, Functionalism, and Structuralism, in Economic Thought

A bstract . "Structuralism" and "functionalism" facilitate an analysis of the evolution oi economic thought as a series of cultural, institutional , and socioeconomic challenges and responses. The methodologies of "structuralism" and "functionalism," like Hegelian dialectics, ¹ to which they are closely related, do not consider thought systems or socioeconomic systems in terms of fixed and stable relationships but in the light of dynamic processes of change. They emphasize communication, feedback , and continuity. The aim of these methodologies is to facilitate the analyses of changes in interrelationships which constitute the processes of evolution. The economist is concerned with the theoretical analysis of socioeconomic processes. His task can be facilitated by describing and analyzing structural-functional relationships of the economy and its parts. However, the methodologies of structuralism and functionalism cannot be used to predict theoretical developments. At best they can be utilized to select from some set of possible alternatives.     

Home market development and self-finance as basic elements of development policy

At the close of the Second Development Decade, 1971–1980, the Third World was able to record significant achievements in industrialization and external trade. But the army of jobless has swollen further; the urban slums have grown larger; and famine has claimed more, not fewer victims. The current development trends make it imperative to keep the masses on the land and to prevent a grave situation growing even worse. Jobs have to be created in the countryside; those who till the land must ensure supplies for themselves and the population at large. This article shows how these objectives can be approached.     

North-South interdependence: The case of the Federal Republic of Germany

This study examines economic relations between West Germany and the developing countries in the fields of trade, capital flows and migration of labour. Activity in most fields has expanded enormously since the mid-1960s; in addition the traffic has become markedly less one-way. For the purposes of analysis the developing countries are differentiated according to their economic capacity; prospects for co-operation with West Germany appear to differ markedly according to their stage of development. So German development policy, for its part, needs to employ a variety of different strategies. The more highly developed the partner country, the more the field can be left to private initiative, supported by a liberal foreign trade regime.     

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Going Beyond Impact Factors: A Survey‐based Journal Ranking by Agricultural Economists

A consistent and comprehensive ranking of journals relevant for agricultural economists cannot rely on impact factors for at least two major reasons: (i) the scientific database by Thomson Reuters, on which the standard impact factor is based, includes only a very limited number of relevant journals; (ii) the standard impact factor cannot be compared across research fields of different sizes. Survey‐based journal rankings may overcome these problems. We report on such a survey‐based ranking initiated by the Agricultural Economics Associations of Germany and Austria. Results of the ranking and a classification of journals, i.e. a rating, are provided for 160 selected journals. Scientific quality is assessed by an index based on the researchers’ perception of the quality standards of each journal and of the quality of its published articles. The survey‐based ranking allows a much more comprehensive and consistent ranking than the impact factor, as specific agricultural economics journals can be directly compared with neighbouring economic and interdisciplinary journals to which agricultural economists submit their work. The low impact factors of core agricultural economics journals are put into perspective. The scientific quality of the top agricultural economics journals is assessed as being rather high and above most of the relevant interdisciplinary journals from agricultural and food sciences that are typically characterised by higher impact factors. Agricultural economists’ perceptions on the scientific quality of the journals vary more across journals than perceptions of their relevance.