SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Recent Trends in New Zealand Agricultural Productivity and its Measurement

There has developed in recent years some concern about the effectiveness of government policy, especially concerning its implementation and the agencies responsible for it. Institutional economics and transaction cost economics provide a number of pointers to the evaluation of past policy aims which appear pertinent. More broadly, the paper pleads for wider application of the structure/conduct/performance paradigm to given policy implementation. Some case studies are discussed and suggestions made for future application.

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123822

Forbes, Rod; Johnson, Robin.

This paper updates the results of an earlier paper (Johnson 1996) exploring productivity trends 1972-92 prepared for the OECD. Tornqvist indexes are used to compensate for changes in the mix of outputs and inputs. Capital is charged at service prices. Present indications are that labour and capital inputs have not increased in the last ten years but total factor productivity has increased at the rate of around 4 per cent per year reflecting past investments and adaptation to new challenges. Comparisons are made with indexes based on static factor shares and suggestions are made on the construction of more ideal index numbers for measuring productivity change where the data is available.

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Productivity Analysis.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123646

Ag econ angst crisis revisited

Johnson, Robin; Rossmiller, George Edward; Sandiford-Rossmiller, Frances.

The present paper was inspired by and is a response to the Rola-Rubzen, Hardaker and Dillon paper ‘Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects’ (Rola-Rubzen et al. 2001). It is agreed that the position of agricultural economists in foreign aid and poverty programs has declined over recent decades. Such a feeling of guilt and remorse expressed by the above authors does indeed create considerable ‘angst’. A major reason for this state of affairs lies in ‘the flavour of the month’ approach of the development agencies. These include women in development, gender-based farming systems research, household nutrition and food security, people participation, and targeting the poorest of the poor. These fads have driven disciplinary...

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116192

The Costs and Benefits of Introducing Mandatory Hygiene Regulations

Cao, Kay; Johnson, Robin.

In an idealised model the costs of capital and maintenance and the resulting flow of income benefits over a period of years enables the analyst to produce computations of present values and internal rates of return that summarise the whole investment process in a micro environment. In approaching an industry investment problem like mandatory hygiene regulations with benefits or costs to other entities involved, identifying the appropriate capital and maintenance costs and the industry and non-industry benefits is a giant task. In this paper, we report an attempt to identify the extra costs involved in the introduction of the regulations where industry recorded data is not available, and an attempt to identify industry and non-industry benefits from...

The Structure and Economic Impact of R&D Organisation in New Zealand

Palavras-chave: HACCP/RMP; Benefit Cost Analysis; Meat; New Zealand; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; International Relations/Trade.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/31976

R&D spending in New Zealand is a mixture of private and public investment undertaken to improve productive activity and efficiency. Investment is split fairly equally between private business, government organisations and the universities. It is a long term investment with some uncertainty about outcomes being achieved. It is predominantly a public good investment as most government organisations and universities are providers of R&D but not users of it and hence there is a discontinuity in the connection between investment and results. Furthurmore, the supply of R&D has properties of a free good which lead to users looking for new applications on a wider and wider front (spillovers). For these reasons R&D is generally regarded as a `good...

FOOD SAFETY ISSUES, PROTECTION AND TRADE (WITH RESPECT TO MEAT PRODUCTS)

Palavras-chave: Investment; R&D Expenditure; Social Benefits; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/98521

Johnson, Robin; Hillman, Jimmye S.; Petrey, Allen.

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for Applied Economics and Policy Studies, Massey University. Dietary changes, especially in developing countries, are driving a massive increase in demand for livestock products. The objective of this symposium was to examine the consequences of this phenomenon, which some have even called a "revolution." How are dietary patterns changing, and can increased demands for livestock products be satisfied from domestic resources? If so, at what cost? What will be the flow-on...

Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper

Palavras-chave: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; International Relations/Trade.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/14553

Econometric Analysis of some Trade Issues for Meat

Cao, Kay; Johnson, Robin.

This paper is based on an econometric model of the New Zealand meat export trade for the period 1990-2003. The model is known as a gravity model because it describes trade flows as being balanced between the respective pull of domestic and importing country size and incomes. The meat trade is characterised by strict hygiene regulations, quota markets and tariff charges in different markets. In addition, meat is not a homogeneous commodity but is characterised by breed, cut and presentation, and differentiated market destinations. An econometric model not only identifies general trends in demand and supply which might already be fairly obvious to the trade preactitioner but it also puts confidence intervals on the economic relationships being observed. We...

The Contribution of Agriculture to the National Economy of New Zealand

Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Land Economics/Use; Livestock Production/Industries.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/97776

Rates of Return on New Zealand R&D

The agricultural sector tends to get a bad press and low priority from NZ Treasury due to the falling share of GDP. On the other hand, the agricultural sector in NZ shows up highest in the OECD total factor productivity studies! Is not the efficient use of resources the main factor Treasury should be taking into account and not the declining share of GDP? Further, is there some economic truth in the argument that production activities are the basis of the economy and are needed to create the real wealth for the rest of the economy? Is there some point where the service economy falls in on itself and the proliferation of service jobs cannot feed on itself for ever? This paper will try to assess the place of agriculture in a strategic plan for future growth...

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Productivity Analysis.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123821

Productivity in the Sheep Sector

This paper reports on a survey of past trends in national and sectoral R&D expenditure in New Zealand back to 1962 and models used to measure the rate of return to investment in R&D. Cobb Douglas models are compared with productivity models and are used to explore the interaction between R&D and labour and capital variables. Polynomial distributed lag models are investigated and the results compared with stock models. The average rates of return to R&D investment vary across sectors of the economy - some being surprisingly high - but some results remain ambiguous to interpret.

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123686

Previous papers at this conference over the years have dealt with trends in productivity in the total agricultural sector, the forestry sector and the dairy sector. Productivity indexes were developed by the Tornquist methodology that produces index numbers free of base year bias. Sources of data are the national accounts for the total agricultural and forestry sectors and designated farm surveys for the dairy and sheep sectors. The surveys are taken as representative of the whole in such calculations. In this paper we analyse the Meat and Wool Information Economic Service (MWI) survey of sheep and beef farms for the past 20 years and develop an index of whole farm productivity (total productivity) free of base year bias. Some technical comparisions are...

Whither the Crown Research Institutes? Funding Issues

Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Land Economics/Use; Livestock Production/Industries; Productivity Analysis.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/97789

In the course of another exercise (Johnson, Scrimgeour & Manning 2006) I compiled, with the help of CCMAU, a financial record of the crown research institutes from 1992 to 2005. In this paper I thought I would share with this audience some of the facts that emerged from the exercise and make some observations about present and future trends in the organisation of R&D funding in NZ. There has been a systematic clamour from the agricultural institutes that the initial plans for the CRI discriminated against their activities. This led to job uncertainty as well as a huge increase in transaction costs in the process of obtaining funds. More recently, the activities of the agricultural interests has seen a re-activation of forward planning for this part...