Does indigenous and campesino traditional agriculture have anything to contribute to food sovereignty in Latin America? Evidence from Chile,Peru, Ecuador,Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico

The current challenge for world agriculture is to provide food for a growing population, within a context of environmental degradation and economic inequality. The challenge is how to produce accessible, healthy, diverse, nutritious, safe and abundant food in a way that is sustainable, allowing farmers to exert food sovereignty while at the same time addressing ecosystem conservation. The aim of this study is to explore the potential contribution of traditional agriculture to food sovereignty and also to understand the challenges that indigenous communities are facing today. Our case studies are from six Latin-American countries: Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, where we carried out semi-structured, guided visits and field observations. Our results shed light on how traditional agricultural knowledge, techniques and practices can contribute to these issues, but also to the need of protecting and recovering the cultural and ecological heritage. There is a need to resolve public management issues, related to development investment, technological packages, cultural loss and gender. If these are not addressed, the potential contribution of ancient agricultural knowledge will fail to contribute to strengthen food sovereignty and maintain the local markets, which are also places for seed exchange, knowledge sharing and social networking.     

On the Opportunity Cost of Crop Diversification

Distance functions are increasingly being augmented, with environmental goods treated as conventional outputs. A common approach to evaluate the opportunity cost of providing an environmental good is the exploitation of the distance function's dual relationship to the value function. This implies that the opportunity cost is assumed to be non‐negative. This approach also requires a convex technology set. Focusing on crop diversification for a balanced sample of 44 cereal farms in the East of England for the years 2007–2013, this paper develops a novel opportunity cost measure that does not depend on these strong assumptions. We find that the opportunity cost of crop diversification is negative for most farms.     

A synthesis of the Heckscher-Ohlin and the neoclassical models of international trade

In this paper we provide a synthesis between the neoclassical and the Heckscher-Ohlin models of international trade by developing the properties of a two-sector, three-factor model. The neoclassical model, where one or more factors are specific to one or both industries, and the Heckscher-Ohlin model, where two (or all factors) are nonspecific, then can be analyzed as special cases of our model. The theorems by Rybczynski, Stolper and Samuelson, Jones and Chipman, among others, are reexamined in terms of our generalized model.     

Stock Market Mean Reversion and the Optimal Equity Allocation of a Long-Lived Investor

This paper solves numerically the intertemporalconsumption and portfolio choiceproblem of an infinitely-lived investor whofaces a time-varying equity premium.The solutions we obtain are very similarto the approximate analytical solutionsof Campbell and Viceira (1999), except atthe upper extreme of the state spacewhere both the numerical consumption andportfolio rules flatten out.We also consider a constrained version ofthe problem in which the investor facesborrowing and short-sales restrictions.These constraints bind when the equitypremium moves away from its mean in eitherdirection, and are particularly severe forrisk-tolerant investors. The constraints havesubstantial effects on optimalconsumption, but much more modest effects onoptimal portfolio choice in theregion of the state space where they are notbinding.     

Promotion and Coevolutionary Dynamics in Contemporary Capitalism

We characterize the dynamics of contemporary capitalist societies as emerging from the coevolution of five different subsystems: the intimate realm of individuals, the market, the state, civil society, and nature. We highlight a specific coevolution mechanism between some of these subsystems, which we call promotion. The insights from this coevolution approach are twofold. On one hand, from the ontological and heuristic perspectives, we argue that our proposal opens the possibility for constructing a general, interpretative framework in evolutionary economics. On the other hand, from a theoretical-explanatory perspective, we detect certain coevolution paths that may engender global pathologies in capitalist societies. We also suggest that future research may explore some normative implications of this approach, as well as alternative methodological strategies to develop it.     

Europe's income convergence and the latest global financial crisis

This paper examines the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on economic growth and convergence across European countries from 1973 to 2012. Employing cross-sectional and dynamic panel data techniques, the results show that the global financial crisis has brought a greater absolute convergence rate rather than divergence, affected richer members more heavily and, presumably, allowed less developed members to recover more quickly. We find evidence that creating the European Union has contributed toward economic growth and convergence; meanwhile, no similar evidence is found concerning the European Monetary Union. Moreover, we present evidence that both the average output per capita and the rate of convergence during the financial crisis fell around 7%.     

Social norms and recognition in social fundraising campaigns: The moderating role of self-construal

Developing effective solicitation campaigns has become a priority for nonprofit organizations to raise funds. To do so, they have begun to introduce social information and recognition mechanisms in their campaigns to encourage donations, yet our current understanding of the effectiveness of these interventions is limited. This study intends to contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of these campaigns by investigating the role played by social norms, recognition, and their interplay in charitable giving. In addition, the study also investigates the extent to which these effects are moderated by self-construal, an important individual psychological trait. This empirical investigation conducted an experimental design between subjects on a sample of 261 participants. A two-stage correction approach was used to estimate two dependent variables. The effectiveness of social norms and recognition varies depending on the decision in play (whether to donate, or how much to donate) as well as on an individual's self-construal (independent or interdependent). Strategies that combine several of these mechanisms should take into account their objective, that is, whether it is focused on boosting symbolic support or on incentivizing significant contributions. This article contributes by demonstrating that the type of social norm and the type of recognition matter, as they produce significant different effects on both the donation decision and the donation amount.     

Improving the estimation of total factor productivity growth: capital operating time in a latent variable approach

Measuring labor and capital services accurately is essential to obtaining reliable estimates of production functions and total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Using data on the operating time of capital, a series that exists for the French business sector, greatly improves the measurement of effective capital services in production. The ensuing estimation results are consistent with Cobb–Douglas technology under constant returns to scale, with the factor elasticities not statistically different from their income shares. In the same framework, TFP growth is estimated as a latent variable and found to be less volatile than accounting residuals, negatively correlated with employment, and free of cyclicality. It is statistically best estimated as a first-order autoregressive process, with an autoregressive coefficient of 0.95. Total factor productivity growth was estimated to have declined steadily between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, but the rate of decline has diminished since then.     

An institutional approach to national development planning

The increasingly turbulent and unstable international environment requires new approaches to development planning. Current methods need to be reformulated, perhaps by employing an “institutional approach.” Three possible directions are discussed: the need to enlarge the scope of anticipatory decisions covered by the planning process; the need to reinterpret and redefine the concept of the planning horizon, transcending the limitations of the distinctions between short-, medium-, and long-term planning; and the imperative of dispersing planning capabilities throughout society.     

Social entrepreneurship orientation and performance in non-profit organizations

With the downturn in the global socioeconomic panorama, the social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO) and the social performance of non-profit organizations (NPOs) have become subject to growing levels of attention. The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of SEO on the performance of NPOs. To this end, we deployed a quantitative methodology based on the application of a survey of NPOs, which received a total of 135 valid responses. Our results demonstrate a positive effect for the dimensions of social innovation and social proactivity even while reporting no effect for the acceptance of social risks on performance. These results hold important implications across two different levels: in terms of the NPOs and policy-makers.