How drought affects the financial characteristics of Australian farm businesses

The financial performance of 240 farms in a drought‐affected agricultural region of Australia is analysed. The decadal study period included some years of widespread drought, as well as years with only subregional droughts or no drought. Some droughts created larger adverse financial impacts than others. Mostly, the more droughts farms experienced, the worse was their financial performance relative to farms within the same quantile of farm performance. Despite the incidence of drought, by the end of the decade, almost all the farm businesses were wealthier from increasing their farm size and becoming more crop dominant. Unexpectedly, consecutive years of drought had a significant positive effect on the operating profit per hectare and retained profit per hectare of farms in a majority of their respective quantiles. Many farms that experienced consecutive drought were forced to make structural changes, shifting away from livestock production towards additional cropping. These structural changes boosted farm performance over the decade. The incidence of drought affected some measures of farm performance differently whilst others were affected similarly. Understanding these metrics of farm performance and the structural changes underway in an agricultural region helps form a more complete view of drought impacts.     

基于分位回归模型的西部上市公司资本结构研究

利用我国西部上市公司的数据,运用分位回归模型研究资本结构的各类影响因素,与OLS回归结果相对照,可以发现公司规模、股本结构、资产担保价值、非债务税盾和收益性等因素对处于资本结构不同分位的公司的非对称性影响,从而丰富了对资本结构影响因素的理解。     

Testing for uniform wage trends in West-Germany: A cohort analysis using quantile regressions for censored data

The rise of unemployment in West Germany is often attributed to an inflexibility of the wage structure in the face of a skill bias in labor demand trends. In addition, there is concern in Germany that during the 70s and 80s unions were pursuing a too egalitarian wage policy. In a cohort analysis, we estimate quantile regressions of wages taking account of the censoring in the data. We present a new framework to describe trends in the entire wage distribution across education and age groups in a parsimonious way. We explore whether wage trends are uniform across cohorts, thus defining a macroeconomic wage trend. Our findings are that wages of workers with intermediate education levels, among them especially those of young workers, deteriorated slightly relative to both high and low education levels. Wage inequality within age-education groups stayed fairly constant. Nevertheless, the German wage structure was fairly stable, especially in international comparison. The results appear consistent with a skill bias in labor demand trends, recognizing that union wages are only likely to be binding floors for low-wage earners.     

北京“百万亩造林”对浅山区生物多样性的影响评价

[目的]人工造林对生物多样性恢复和城市森林功能发挥的影响深远,科学评估人工造林对生态系统恢复速度及稳定性的影响是实现生物多样性保护的基础。[方法]采用格网法获取北京浅山区276个样本单元,根据2010年、2015年和2018年土地利用类型数据,选择多样性、丰富度、均匀度和优势度4个测算指标,分别测算各期生物多样性指数及时空格局,运用OLS回归和分位点回归评价"百万亩"造林对浅山区生物多样性的影响方向和程度。[结果](1)2018年北京市浅山区林地覆盖率达到51.66%,林地面积较2015年增加了3 400hm~2,且林地二级类型间变化较大;(2)2018年北京市浅山区多样性指数、丰富度指数、均匀度指数和优势度指数均值分别为0.432、0.544、0.504和0.276,多样性和均匀度有小幅度降低,但丰富度和优势度提升明显。(3)不同分位水平下,人工造林对浅山区生物多样性的影响方向和程度并不一致,在10%分位水平下,样本单元内林地面积的快速增加均对各项生物多样性指数有显著的促进作用,但影响程度不同。[结论]人工造林应综合考虑源地物种分布状况、造林类型和优势林种等多方面因素,才能最大程度发挥其对生物多样性的修复和保护作用。     

农民合作社减贫、增收效应与异质性分析基于中国西部贫困地区农户调研数据

目的 在脱贫攻坚视域中,农民合作社作为产业扶贫的重要载体,为乡村经济和社会发展提供动力,是农村地区反贫困合意、有效的组织化形态,对农民合作社减贫问题进行研究,具有重要的理论价值和现实意义。方法 文章利用2018年云南、贵州、陕西和甘肃4省7县1 393户农户的微观调研数据,采用分位数回归和倾向得分匹配法对农户参加农民合作社的增收效应进行了实证检验。结果 农民合作社可以有效改善农户家庭收入水平,参加农民合作社可以使农户家庭总收入平均提高38.04%;农民合作社对中高收入水平农户、非贫困农户、低学历农户的增收促进作用更为明显;另外,户主受教育年限、是否建档立卡、土地面积、村里面是否有农民合作社、人情往来支出对数、政府补贴津贴对数、是否参加专业培训等7个因素均提高了农户参加农民合作社的意愿,而户主年龄、学生数量、是否有外出务工人员等3个因素会降低农户参加农民合作社的意愿。结论 据此,应继续培育和发展农民合作社,提升农户参与农民合作社的意愿,强化农民合作社与贫困农户的利益联结,注重扶贫资源对于贫困农户获得的便利性。     

基于籽棉交易价格分析的新疆棉花目标价格试点工作改进研究

[目的]已有研究对目标价格政策的分析具有较强的启发意义,但对籽棉交易价格方面的研究较少。文章通过实证数据分析影响籽棉交易价格的相关因素,试图找到植棉农户交易风险的重要变量。[方法]分区间统计新疆28个县市1 140份交易数据,使用分位数回归模型对整个数据样本进行解析,并采用bootstrap方法对籽棉交易价格进行分位数回归,进一步解释各因素对籽棉交易价格的影响。[结果](1)随着分位点的提高,籽棉交易数量对籽棉交易价格的影响程度呈现出先下降后上升的"U型"趋势,交易规模扩大对籽棉交易价格提升的作用较为明显;(2)在0.7分位点以前,有中介对籽棉交易价格的影响程度较为稳定;(3)随着分位点的提高,南疆对籽棉交易价格的影响程度越来越大;(4)在低分位点籽棉交易等级对籽棉交易价格的影响具有不确定性;(5)随着籽棉交易的进行,籽棉交易价格与籽棉交易时间呈现出显著的负相关关系。[结论]籽棉交易价格会因各种因素影响而发生变化,其中单个农户籽棉交易数量的提高会有利于单笔籽棉交易价格的提高,交易时间与籽棉交易价格具有明显负向关系;南北疆籽棉交易价格因地域不同而出现差别;棉花交易等级对籽棉交易价格形成具有显著影响,但同一长度不同等级籽棉交易价格基本一致;不同棉花交易主体对籽棉交易价格的形成具有较大影响。     

退耕补贴到期对贫困地区农户消费的影响研究

目的 退耕补贴是维持贫困地区农户消费水平和维持生活消费的重要收入来源,首轮退耕还林补贴到期是否影响了退耕农户的消费是亟待探究的关键性问题,但鲜有研究对此进行探讨。方法 文章基于河北与四川8个贫困县831份农户实地调查数据,利用PSM-DID模型估计退耕补贴到期对农户消费水平和结构产生的影响,并利用组间差异分析和分位数回归来探究退耕补贴到期对异质性农户消费行为的影响。结果 退耕补贴到期对农户总消费、生存性消费、发展性消费和享受性消费影响系数分别为-0.091%、-0.087%、-0.097%和0.030%,贫困农户和低、中消费水平农户受到退耕补贴到期的较大影响。结论 退耕补贴到期对样本农户消费水平产生明显负向影响,同时一定程度上不利于农户消费结构改善。贫困农户相较于非贫困农户、低中消费水平农户相较于高消费水平农户更易受到退耕补贴到期的负向影响,为帮助提高贫困地区农户消费水平,维护脱贫攻坚成果,该研究依据实证结果提出政策建议。     

Modelling Group Heterogeneity for Small Area Estimation Using M‐Quantiles

Small area estimation typically requires model‐based methods that depend on isolating the contribution to overall population heterogeneity associated with group (i.e. small area) membership. One way of doing this is via random effects models with latent group effects. Alternatively, one can use an M‐quantile ensemble model that assigns indices to sampled individuals characterising their contribution to overall sample heterogeneity. These indices are then aggregated to form group effects. The aim of this article is to contrast these two approaches to characterising group effects and to illustrate them in the context of small area estimation. In doing so, we consider a range of different data types, including continuous data, count data and binary response data.     

Monetarizing Spillover Effects of Soil and Groundwater Contaminated Sites in Taiwan: How Much More Will People Pay for Housing to Avoid Contamination?

This study monetizes spillover effects of soil and groundwater contaminated sites using a quantile hedonic price model for different site types in Taoyuan City in Taiwan, which has 1664 sites, the highest number for any city in Taiwan. The results show that except for those living in the cheapest housing, most residents are willing to pay a higher price to live farther away from contaminated sites. Farmland makes up the largest share of the total contaminated site area and has the highest per square monetary spillover effects in Taoyuan City; remediation of farmland is one of the most urgent missions for the city. Overall, a NIMBY effect is found to exist for soil‐ and groundwater‐contamination in this city.     

Key market values for bottled wine in an emerging market: product attributes or business strategy?

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the emerging bottled Chilean red wine market and studies the main determinants of the consumer price of wine sold on the domestic market. A hedonic price function was estimated for a sample of 810 wines using a quantile regression (QR) model. The database contains three variable groups to explain price: objective variables (national, international and vine quality designations), subjective variables (wine score) and business strategies used by wine producers. Results show that some objective variables have a greater impact on price than the wine score (a subjective variable) and business strategies, which vary for each quartile of prices analysed. Finally, this information will allow companies to design and implement marketing strategies to inform the consumer about the importance of some variables in the price of their product.