Do Global Trade Distortions Still Harm Developing Country Farmers?

We estimate the impact of global merchandise trade distortions and services regulations on agricultural value added in various countries. Using the latest versions of the GTAP database and the GTAP-AGR model of the global economy, our results suggest real net farm incomes would rise in developing countries with a move to free trade, thereby alleviating rural poverty—despite a terms of trade deterioration for some developing countries that are net food importers or are enjoying preferential access to agricultural markets of high-income countries. We also show, for several large developing countries, the contribution of their own versus other countries’ trade policies. JEL no. C68, D58, F17, Q17     

Agricultural trade reform under the Doha Agenda: some key issues*

A successful agreement on agriculture is essential for an overall agreement under the WTO's Doha trade negotiations. Reaching agreement has been difficult, and as of August 2007, much still remains to be done if a successful agreement is to be reached. We consider three of the most controversial areas of the agricultural negotiations: the relative importance of domestic support, market access and export subsidies; three market access issues of sensitive‐product exceptions sought for all countries and, the additional special product exceptions sought for developing countries, the proposed special safeguard mechanism; and the domestic support issue. We show that decisions made on reform in these areas will have a critical influence on whether the negotiations achieve their objectives of promoting trade reform and reducing poverty.     

New challenges in professional cleaning: hygiene quality and monitoring of surfaces in private domestic homes

In many countries, changes in the pattern of working lives and ageing of the population increases the need for professional cleaning in private domestic homes. The objective of this study was to obtain basic knowledge concerning professional home cleaning. The study consisted of two parts. First, cleanability of surfaces contaminated with microbiological and organic soils was examined in the laboratory using cleaning cloths, detergents and rapid detection methods with potential for use in conjunction with professional cleaning in private homes. Second, hygienic conditions in three households were screened using the same rapid detection methods as in the laboratory experiments. According to the laboratory study, the cleaning efficiency of the non‐woven cloth was clearly poorer than that of the cleaning cloths containing microfibers. There were differences between the efficacy of the cleaning agents in removal of protein and microbiological soils. Despite the differences between surface topography observed with scanning electron microscopy, differences between the cleanability of the three examined surface materials (steel and two plastic surfaces) were small. In hygiene monitoring, the highest levels of total aerobic bacterial counts were detected in the plughole of the sink, on the eating table in kitchens and along the edge of the toilet washbowl and the cover of toilet seats. Low amounts of Enterobacteriaceae indicating faecal contamination were detected in the toilet and bathroom after cleaning. Moulds were not detected in any of the three households, and the amounts of yeasts were low. Detection methods, microbiological dipslides and the protein test, were well suited to the laboratory study. Furthermore, they complemented each other in the hygiene monitoring. The information obtained will be used for development of better practices in professional home cleaning. Good quality management in professional home cleaning and the cleanliness of surfaces in homes are important factors affecting comfort and safety.     

Global Distortions to Agricultural Markets: Indicators of Trade and Welfare Impacts, 1960 to 2007

Despite recent reforms, world agricultural markets remain highly distorted by government policies. Traditional indicators of those price distortions such as producer and consumer support estimates (PSEs and CSEs) can be poor guides to the policies' economic effects. Recent theoretical literature provides scalar index numbers of trade‐ and welfare‐reducing effects of price and trade policies which this paper builds on to develop more‐satisfactory indexes that can be generated using no more than the data used to generate PSEs and CSEs. We then exploit a new Agricultural Distortion database to provide time‐series estimates of index numbers for 75 developing and high‐income countries over the past half‐century.     

RANKING ECONOMICS DEPARTMENTS IN TERMS OF RESIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY: NEW ZEALAND ECONOMICS DEPARTMENTS, 2000–2006*

This paper utilises a human‐capital approach for ranking the research productivity of academic departments. Our approach provides rankings in terms of residual research output after controlling for the key characteristics of each department's academic staff. More specifically, we estimate residual research output rankings for all of New Zealand's economics departments based on their publication performance over the 2000 to 2006 period. We do so after taking into account the following characteristics of each department's academic staff: gender, experience, seniority, academic credentials and academic rank. The paper demonstrates that the rankings generated by the residual research approach and those generated by traditional approaches to research rankings may be significantly different for some departments. These differences are important in determining the likely efficiency impact of research assessment exercises.     

Agriculture and the WTO: Next Steps

The potential welfare gains from further liberalizing agricultural markets are shown in this paper to be huge, both absolutely and relative to gains from liberalizing textiles or other manufacturing, according to new simulation results of the Global Trade Analysis Project. The probability of the WTO delivering sizeable farm protection cuts in the next round of multilateral trade negotiations would be greater if industrial and service sector negotiations were undertaken simultaneously as part of a comprehensive new round. The immediate challenge for analysts and negotiators is to identify and assess feasible policy packages that facilitate genuine agricultural reform rather than encourage inefficient re-instrumentation of farm support measures. Such assessment will require significant improvements in both analytical tools and databases.     

Advertising for New and Existing Brands: The Impact of Media Context and Type of Advertisement

The effects of advertisement and context type on the responses to advertisements for different brands of new and existing products were tested. In the first experiment (243 graduate students) a positive emotional advertisement and a non‐emotional advertisement for a well‐known and a new brand of printer were tested in a positive emotional context and a non‐emotional media context. In the second experiment (206 graduate students) positive emotional and non‐emotional advertisements for new brands of watches and healthy drinks were tested in an emotional and a non‐emotional context. The type of context moderated the responses to advertisements for the well‐known and new products: a positive emotional context led to a more positive attitude towards the advertisement and the brand and purchase intention for the well‐known brand than for the new brand. A non‐emotional context led to more positive responses for the new brand than for the well‐known brand. In general, emotional advertisements led to more positive affective reactions and non‐emotional advertisements led to more positive cognitive reactions. However, the type of advertisement did not have a moderating effect on the responses to advertising for the new or well‐known brands or different product types. The studies illustrated the relevance of media context for advertising new versus existing products.