Profiles in Management and Performance for Assessment of Information Needs

This study determines farmer profiles, each unique in technical, managerial and conceptual skills, level of risk acceptance and level of business performance (measured by levels of quasi-fixed resources and indicators of profitability and efficiency). The profiles are used to assess the extent to which current management information sources and recommended practices meet the needs of farmers for strategy planning and deci s ion making. he study results demonstrated that technology of the farm production systems and production per technical unit are statistically valid clas-sificatory proxies for determining managerial profiles. The quasi-fixed resources and indicators of profitability and efficiency rose with improvements in skills and greater willingness to accept risks. Thus, the profiles were indicative of economies of size and scale and needs for information. he use frequency of current information sources and recommended practices differed across profiles with only the modal to upper profiles making substantial use of them. An overemphasis on technical production to the apparent neglect of management and long-term planning was identified in the highest profile. he profiles in management and performance by commodity grouping are helpful guidelines for processing and organizing information which would reduce the guesswork (both educated and uneducated) in adjusting farm level coefficients, and increasing the accuracy and explanatory power of sectoral supply response models and forecasts. Cette étude détermine les profiIs de fermier. Chaque fermier a ses propres aptitudes techniques, conceptuelles et de gestion, niveaux d'ac-ceptation de risque et niveaux de performance en affaires (measurés par les niveaux de ressources quasi-fixes et des indicateurs de rentabilité et d'efficacité. Les profils sont utilisés pour évaluer dans quelle mesure les sources courantes d'information de gestion et de pratiques recommandées satisfont les besoins des fermiers dans leur planification de stratégie et de prise de décision. Les résul tats de l'étude démontrent que la technologie des systémes de production agricole et la production par unité technique sont des ap- proximations de classification statistiquement valides pour déterminer des profils de gestion. Les profils sont homogènes à I'intérieur d'une classe et hétérogénes entre classes. Les ressources quasi-fixes et les indicateurs de rentabilité et d'efficacité augmentent avec I'amélioration des aptitudes et un plus grand desir d'accepter dés risques. Par conséquent. les profils sont indicatifs des économies de taille et d'échelle et des besoins d'information. La fréquence d'utilisation des sources courantes d'information et de pratiques recommandées différe entre les profils avec seulement les profils modaux à supérieurs utilisant de faSon significative ces sources. Un accent particulier sur la production technique au détriment apparent de la gestion et de la planification de long terme est identifié dans le profile plus élevé. Les profils de gestion et de performance par groupe de produits sont des guides utiles pour traitement et l'orqanisation de l'information qui réduiraient le degré de conjecture (fondée ou nonfondée) dans l'ajustement des coefficients au niveau de la ferme, et augmenteraient le degré de précision et le pouvoir d'explication des prévisions et des modéles de réponse d'offre sectorielle.     

Systematic and Nonsystematic Risks in Agriculture

A Farm Sector Capital Asset Pricing Model (FSCAPM) is developed to examine systematic agricultural risks. Beta coefficients are derived for various agricultural activities and portfolios. The results reveal that for many agricultural commodities and crop mixes the amount of systematic risk is high. Moreover, for the majority of commodities and crop mixes examined, farmers are being undercompensated for the level of systematic risk they are accepting. It is suggested that off-farm investment might be a feasible approach to reducing systematic risk within agriculture.
Un modèle simulant le processus de détermination de la valeur de l'actif dans le secteur agricole est développé pour permettre l'étude des risques systématiques dans ce secteur. Les coefficients mesurant le niveau relatif de risque systématique sont ensuite calculés pour différents produits et plans de productions. Les résultats montrent que pour plusieurs pro-duits agricoles et plans de production, les niveaux de risque systtmatique sont Clevés. De plus, pour la majoritt des produits et plans de production étudiés, les producteurs agricoles ne sont pas rémunérés adéquatement pour prendre ces risques. Finalement, l'investissement de capitaux à l'exttrieur du secteur agricole est présenté comme un moyen pouvant permettre de réduire le niveau de risque systématique dans ce secteur.     

Transforming Qualitative Survey Data: Performance Comparisons for the UK*

This paper assesses different ways of converting qualitative data obtained in surveys into quantitative indices for a number of economic variables. The research reported here focuses on the main UK employers’ business survey for manufacturing – the CBI industrial trends survey. Six response variables are investigated – plant and machinery investment, output, employment, exports, price and cost. We find that the balance statistic is a satisfactory method of transforming three of the variables: investment, output and exports.     

Beyond the Stalemate of Economics versus Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Discourse of the Organizational Self

The purpose of this paper is to advance research on CSR beyond the stalemate of economic versus ethical models by providing an alternative perspective integrating existing views and allowing for more shared dialog and research in the field. It is suggested that we move beyond making a normative case for ethical models and practices of CSR by moving beyond the question of how to manage organizational self-interest toward the question of how accurate current conceptions of the organizational self seem to be. Specifically, it is proposed that CSR is not a question of how self-interested the corporation should be, but how this self is defined. Economic and ethical models of CSR are not models of opposition but exist on a continuum between egoic and post-egoic, illusory and authentic conceptions of the organizational self. This means that moving from one to the other is not a question of adopting different paradigms but rather of moving from illusion and dysfunction to authenticity and functionality, from pathology to health.     

RISKY PRODUCTION WITH EX-ANTE PRICES UNDER MONOPOLY ANALYTICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS

This paper concerns the case of a monopolist facing multiplicative uncertainty in demand. Karlin and Carr (1962), henceforth KC, show that, when price and production are both chosen ex ante , the uncertainty price exceeds the certainty price. They also give a sufficient condition under which the firm locates above the certainty demand curve, but they do not consider the effect on the output level. In this note we replicate the KC results and then go further. In the special case that the price elasticity of certainty demand is constant, and the probability distribution for the uncertainty parameter in the demand function is uniform, output is unambiguously lower under uncertainty, and KC's condition for the firm to locate above the certainty demand curve can be strengthened to one that is both necessary and sufficient. The robustness of these results is tested under less stringent assumptions on demand, abandoning symmetry for a lognormal distribution of the uncertainty parameter. Simulation confirms that the results hold up, and also determines the effects upon the firm's decisions of an increase in demand uncertainty.     

Testing the Gershuny hypothesis

This article tests the Gershuny hypothesis using UK input-output data. Gershuny has suggested that in many countries the share of consumer expenditure devoted to private or marketed services has not risen over time. Rather, consumers have tended to substitute durable goods and their own labour for purchased services. The UK data do provide support for this argument.     

The effects of accelerated capital scrapping: one-off or ongoing?

It is commonly supposed that the effects of accelerated capital scrapping on labour productivity occur only at the time at which the capital equipment is scrapped. This paper shows that under plausible assumptions there is also an effect on productivity growth which is longer-lasting. The latter effect arises because scrapping opens up an investment gap which manifests itself as soon as output recovers from the recession that occasioned the accelerated scrapping. The increased amount of new and best-practice capital stock that is occasioned by the extra scrapping raises the growth of productivity for as long as the quality of the capital stock reflects the transitory effects of accelerated scrapping.