Analysing the Agricultural Costs and Non‐market Benefits of Implementing the Water Framework Directive

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents a fundamental change in the management of water in Europe with a requirement that member states ensure ‘good ecological status’ for all water bodies by 2015. Agriculture is expected to bear a major share of WFD implementation costs as it is compelled to reduce the emission of diffuse water pollutants. The research outlined here comprises interdisciplinary modelling of agricultural land use, hydrology and consequent water quality effects to consider both agricultural costs and the non‐market recreational use (and potentially non‐use) values that implementation of the Directive may generate. A theme throughout the research is the spatial distribution of the costs and benefits of WFD implementation, which is addressed through the use of GIS techniques in the modelling of agricultural land use, the integration of land use and hydrological models, and the estimation, aggregation and transfer of the economic value of the benefits.     

On the Role of Risk Versus Economies of Scope in Farm Diversification With an Application to Ethiopian Farms

This article investigates the economics of farm diversification. The analysis assesses economies of diversification using a certainty equivalent measure. It identifies two components: one associated with expected income, and one associated with risk exposure. This integrates two lines of research explored in previous literature: economies of scope and risk management. We examine the roles played by complementarity, scale and concavity effects in economies of diversification. The approach is applied to diversification decisions made on Ethiopian farms, with a focus on production uncertainty. The econometric analysis finds large complementarity benefits, providing incentives to diversify. But this is tempered by (non)‐concavity effects that provide incentives to specialise. The analysis also documents how risk affects diversification, including both variance and skewness effects. It provides new insights on economic tradeoffs between farm diversification and specialisation.     

Peer effects and the choice of adaptation strategies

This paper analyzes the impact of peer choices on the decision to adapt to climate change in rural Ethiopia. Two IVs are employed (peer-of-peer choices and peer-of-peer information sources) in order to tackle the issue of endogeneity. Through the use of a 3-year panel of farmers in the Nile Basin region, we find that peer choices positively affect the uptake of different adaptation strategies. A 10 percentage point increase in the share of peers using a specific strategy translates to an increase in the likelihood of adaptation between approximately 7% and 14%. This emphasizes the importance of social networks to achieve adaptation to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.     

The value of information in cross-listing

Until 2004, the London Stock Exchange allowed firms to be traded in the specialized SEAQ-I platform without the firm's involvement. Trading only required an application by one LSE trading member firm. Such an institutional arrangement, which made cross-listings possible without a firms' approval, allows for a direct test of different theories of foreign listing. In particular, we can differentiate between market segmentation and liquidity hypotheses, which rely on a firm trading in a foreign exchange and informational hypotheses, which assume that a firm makes the decision to trade in a foreign exchange. We identify a sample of international firms that are admitted to trading on London's SEAQ-I platform without their involvement. We estimate the valuation effects of this multi-market trading event and compare them to those enjoyed by firms that pursue a standard London Stock Exchange cross-listing. A cross-sectional abnormal returns analysis documents significant evidence in support of information-related hypotheses of cross-listing. An analysis of the firms' home market price volatility corroborates the results.     

Consumer Associations with the “All Natural” Food Label

“All natural” food labels have become increasingly popular in recent decades. Labels may communicate to consumers a level of food quality above that of unlabeled products. In April 2011, a nationally representative survey was conducted asking respondents to estimate the likelihood that they will increase purchasing in response to an “all natural” label on food products. The sample totaled 1,000 respondents, with 49% being male and 35% between the ages of 45 and 64. Demographic information includes gender, age, income, region, and education. Ordered logit models were used to estimate the likelihood of changes in purchasing based on the “all natural” label. This stated that intended behavior change was evaluated using the ordered logit estimates for nine products: beef, pork, poultry, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, milk, soft dairy products, and bread and bakery products. For all products, being male and having too little information at grocery stores decreased the likelihood of purchase. Conversely, those respondents, who associate the “all natural” label with no preservatives, perceived such products to have improved taste, improved nutritional value, and improved food safety increased the likelihood of purchase.     

Negotiating without a net. A conversation with the NYPD's Dominick J. Misino

In some languages, the word for "business" is the same as the word for "negotiation." That's not really surprising: Every interaction--with customers, suppliers, and even partners and investors--entails negotiation. And some involve very high stakes: The breakdown in negotiations between Hewlett-Packard's management and its founding families, for instance, put the company's future in doubt. Dominick Misino is a man who knows about negotiating when the stakes are at their very highest. As a hostage negotiator for the New York Police Department, Misino successfully persuaded the hijacker of Lufthansa Flight 592 to lay down his gun and turn himself in. Misino spent the last six years of his career as a primary negotiator, handling more than 200 incidents and never losing a life. Since his retirement in 1995, he has taught negotiating skills to law enforcement officials, military personnel, and business executives. Anyone can become a crisis negotiator, Misino contends. It takes what he calls "applied common sense." Be polite. Listen. Acknowledge the other guy's point of view (no matter what it is). But it's clear that in dealing with hijackers, kidnappers, and child molesters, Misino is far from passive. Negotiation, he says, is really a series of small agreements, and he is adept at orchestrating those agreements from the start so that his adversary learns to trust him and come around to his point of view. In vivid and sometimes hair-raising detail, Misino demonstrates how he gets criminals to trust police officers enough to refrain from harming innocent parties and give themselves up. Many of the techniques he describes are surprisingly applicable to business negotiations, where the parties may seem equally intractable and failure is not an option.     

Oil import costs and domestic inflation in industrial countries

Zusammenfassung Kosten der ?limporte und heimische Inflation in Industriel?ndern.- In diesem Aufsatz wird das monet?re Modell erweitert, um zu untersuchen, welche Bedeutung der kr?ftige Anstieg der Preise und Ausgaben für importiertes Erd?l in den Industriestaaten von Herbst 1973 bis heute hatte und über welche Kan?le er sich auswirkte. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ die Inflation vorwiegend durch die Abwertung der W?hrung des Einfuhrlandes “importiert” wurde, die sich aus den stark gestiegenen Einfuhrrechnungen für Erd?l ergab, und weniger durch die Erh?hung der Erd?lpreise selbst, der L?hne oder Haushaltsdefizite. Die Zunahme der Geldversorgung und inflation?ren Erwartungen sind für die Erkl?rung der heimischen Inflation weit wichtiger, wenn es sich um Entwicklungsl?nder und nicht um Industriel?nder handelt. Das Gegenteil gilt hinsichtlich der Ausweitung der heimischen Produktion und Preiserh?hung für importiertes Erd?l.

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Résumé Co?ts de pétrole importé et l’inflation locale dans les pays industriels. - Dans cet article l’auteur étend le modèle monétaire pour examiner le mécanisme et l’effet de l’augmentation forte du prix et des dépenses pour le pétrole importé sur l’inflation dans les pays industriels à partir de la fin 1973 jusqu’aujourd’hui. Les résultats empiriques démontrent que l’inflation apparamment fut importée particulièrement par les dévaluations des monnaies des pays d’importation résultant de leurs dépenses fortement accrues pour le pétrole importé au lieu de directement par l’augmentation des prix pétroliers eux-mêmes ou par l’augmentation des salaires industriels et des déficits budgétaires. L’ augmentation de la masse monétaire et les expectatives inflationnistes sont beaucoup plus importantes comme explication de l’inflation locale dans les pays en voie de développement que pour les pays industriels pendant que le contraire est vrai pour l’expansion de la production locale et l’augmentation du prix de pétrole importé.

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Resumen El costo del petróleo importado y la inflación interna en los países industrializados.- En este trabajo se extiende el modelo monetario para examinar el impacto de las manifestaciones y la importancia relativa del aumento del precio del petróleo y del gasto para importarlo sobre la inflación en los países industrializados a partir del oto?o de 1973. Los resultados empíricos demuestran que la inflación pareciera haber sido importada através de las devaluaciones de las monedas de los países importadores, debido más al importante aumento de las importaciones que al aumento de los precios mismos del petróleo, o que a aumentos de los salarios industriales o del déficit fiscal. Los aumentos de la oferta monetaria y de las expectativas inflacionarias tienen mayor importancia para explicar la inflación interna en los países en desarrollo que en los países industrializados, mientras que sucede lo contrario con la expansión de la producción nacional y con el aumento del precio del petróleo importado.