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

Xu, Wei; Filler, Gunther; Odening, Martin; Okhrin, Ostap.

Systemic weather risk is a major obstacle for the formation of private (nonsubsidized) crop insurance. This paper explores the possibility of spatial diversification of insurance by estimating the joint occurrence of unfavorable weather conditions in different locations. For that purpose copula methods are employed that allow an adequate description of stochastic dependencies between multivariate random variables. The estimation procedure is applied to weather data in Germany. Our results indicate that indemnity payments based on temperature as well as on cumulative rainfall show strong stochastic dependence even at a national scale. Thus the possibility to reduce risk exposure by increasing the trading area of the insurance is limited. Irrespective of...

COST EFFICIENCY OF CATFISH FARMS IN CHICOT COUNTY, ARKANSAS: THE IMPACT OF EXTENSION SERVICES

Palavras-chave: Weather risk; Crop insurance; Copula; Risk and Uncertainty; C14; Q19.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49131

Engle, Carole R.; Kaliba, Aloyce R..

Cost efficiency measures of a sample of catfish farms in Chicot County, Arkansas are estimated using a data envelopment analysis technique. A measure of overall efficiency is used to determine operator's characteristics, farm practices, and institutional support services that are likely to lead to higher farm level cost efficiency. Results indicate that live catfish production could increase by 55% using the same level of inputs if all farms were operating at the minimum average cost curve. Higher feeding rate and availability of extension services were associated with increased cost efficiency. Higher stocking density affected overall efficiency negatively. The marginal value of extension contacts in Chicot County was estimated to be $2988. This study...

Peer Effects and Textbooks in Primary Education: Evidence from Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa

Palavras-chave: Catfish; Cost efficiency; Data envelopment analysis; And extension services; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; C14; C24; D61.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/34740

Frolich, Markus; Michaelowa, Katharina.

As opposed to many other school inputs, textbooks have frequently been demonstrated to significantly foster student achievement. Using the rich data set provided by the 'Program on the Analysis of Education Systems' (PASEC) for five francophone, sub-Saharan African countries, this paper goes beyond the estimation of direct effects of textbooks on students' learning and focuses on peer effects resulting from textbooks owned by students' classmates. Applying and extending nonparametric estimation methods from the treatment evaluation literature we separate the direct effect of textbooks from their peer effect. The latter clearly dominates but depends upon the initial level of textbook availability.

A Nonparametric Kernel Representation of the Agricultural Production Function: Implications for Economic Measures of Technology

Palavras-chave: Primary education; Student achievement; Evaluation; Nonparametric estimation; Labor and Human Capital; C14; C21; O15.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/26262

Livanis, Grigorios T.; Salois, Matthew J.; Moss, Charles B..

The issue of production function estimation has received recent attention, particularly in agricultural economics with the advent of precision farming. Yet, the evidence to date is far from unanimous on the proper form of the production function. This paper reexamines the use of the primal production function framework using nonparametric regression techniques. Specifically, the paper demonstrates how a nonparametric regression based on a kernel density estimator can be used to estimate a production function using data on corn production from Illinois and Indiana. Nonparametric results are compared to common parametric specifications using the Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression estimator. The parametric and nonparametric forms are also compared in terms of...

Economic Efficiency Adjusted for Risk Preferences

Palavras-chave: Nonparametric regression; Nonparametric derivatives; Gaussian kernel; Optimization techniques; Production function; Production Economics; C14; C15; C16; C61; Q12.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51063

Yeager, Elizabeth A.; Langemeier, Michael R..

This study investigates the impact of risk preferences on economic efficiency scores. Risk averse individuals may be less likely to adopt new technologies and have lower production levels than individuals with other risk preferences. Nonparametric techniques are used to estimate cost and revenue efficiency for a sample of Kansas farms. Each farm had a risk preference score and the scores in the sample ranged from 5 to 86 where a smaller value represents greater risk aversion. Efficiency estimates were first calculated using traditional input and output measures. Efficiency was re-estimated including the inverse risk preference score as a non-discretionary input. Comparisons were made between the characteristics of the farms with an observed...

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Cost Efficiency; Revenue Efficiency; Risk Preference; Agribusiness; Farm Management; Production Economics; Risk and Uncertainty; C14; D22; D81.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/124012

Bounds on Quantile Treatment Effects of Job Corps on Participants' Wages

Blanco, German; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso.

This paper assesses the effect of the U.S. Job Corps (JC), the nation's largest and most comprehensive job training program targeting disadvantaged youths, on wages. We employ partial identification techniques and construct informative nonparametric bounds for the causal effect of interest under weaker assumptions than those conventionally used for point identification of treatment effects in the presence of sample selection. In addition, we propose and estimate bounds on quantile treatment effects of the program on participants' wages. In general, we find convincing evidence of positive impacts of JC on participants' wages. Importantly, we find that estimated impacts on lower quantiles of the distribution are higher, with the highest impact being in the...

Institutions, Policy Reforms and Efficiency in New Member States from Central and Eastern Europe

Palavras-chave: Job Corps; Nonparametric Bounds; Principal Stratification; Active Labor Market Programs.; Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; J24; J68; C14; C21.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103761

Bojnec, Stefan; Ferto, Imre; Jambor, Attila; Toth, Jozsef.

This paper investigates determinants of agricultural sector efficiency in ten new member states (NMS-10) of the European Union (EU) from Central and Eastern European countries by the non-parametric method Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the panel data analysis. The agricultural sector efficiency varies between the NMS-10. We have found positive and significant association of the agricultural sector efficiency with the natural agricultural factor endowments, average farm size, farm specialization, small-scale farms, and the EU integration process. The foreign direct investments have an ambiguous affect, while the nominal assistance rate is not found significant. Reform and institutional developments and liberalization are associated with the...

Trade Policy, Trade Volumes and Plant-Level Productivity in Colombian Manufacturing Industries

Palavras-chave: Agricultural efficiency; Institutions; Policy reforms; Agricultural and Food Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Political Economy; C14; C23; Q12.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91032

Fernandes, Ana.

This paper offers new insights on a central question in trade and development economics: does increased exposure to foreign competition generate gains in plant productivity? We find that it does. We examine Colombian trade policy from 1977 to 1991, a period during which trade liberalization alternates with increased trade protection in varied ways across industries, to investigate the link between trade policy and plant productivity. Using a rich panel of manufacturing plants, we obtain production function estimates separately across industries that are consistent in face of the simultaneity between input demands and productivity. These estimates are used to derive plant-level time-varying productivity measures for which a systematic component related to...

A NONPARAMETRIC HYPOTHESIS TEST VIA THE BOOTSTRAP RESAMPLING

Palavras-chave: Simultaneity and production functions; Trade policy; Productivity; Colombian manufacturing; Endogeneity of protection; International Relations/Trade; F13; D24; C14; O54.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28444

Temel, Tugrul T..

This paper adapts an already existing nonparametric hypothesis test to the bootstrap framework. The test utilizes the nonparametric kernel regression method to estimate a measure of distance between the models stated under the null hypothesis. The bootstraped version of the test allows to approximate errors involved in the asymptotic hypothesis test.

International Consumption Patterns for Proteins and Fats: Intra-distributional Mobility and the Role of Income Elasticity

Palavras-chave: Hypothesis test; The bootstrap; Nonparametric regression; Omitted variables; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C12; C14; C15.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/20600

Does Gibrat's Law Hold Amongst Dairy Farmers in Northern Ireland?

Fousekis, Panos.

Stochastic kernels are used in this paper to investigate intra-distribution dynamics in the world per capita intakes of proteins and fats. The analysis of actual transitions over the last 40 years indicates that lagging countries improved their position relative to the leading. Long-run (steady-state) distributions have been obtained using estimated intake change models. These distributions have been compared to “virtual” ones revealing that the income elasticity of demand or equivalently the rate of growth in per capita income does have a strong influence on the dispersion of intakes at the steady-state.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Nutrient Intakes; Stochastic Kernels; Agricultural and Food Policy; Q1; D12; C14.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/58279

Kostov, Philip; Patton, Myles; Moss, Joan E.; McErlean, Seamus.

This paper tests whether the Law of Proportionate Effects (Gibrat, 1931), which states that farms grow at a rate that is independent of their size, holds for the dairy farms in Northern Ireland. Previous studies have tended to concentrate on testing whether the law holds for all farms. The methodology used in this study permits investigation of whether the law holds for some farms or all farms according to their size. The approach used avoids the subjective splitting of samples, which tends to bias results. The finding shows that the Gibrat law does hold except in the case of small farms. This is in accordance with previous findings that Gibrat's law tends to hold when only larger farms are considered, but tends to fail when smaller farms are included in...

Food Safety Regulation and Firm Productivity: Evidence from the French Food Industry

Palavras-chave: Gibrat's law; Quantile regression; Sample selection bias; Integrated Conditional Moments test; Agricultural and Food Policy; C12; C14; O49; Q19.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24775

Requillart, Vincent; Nauges, Celine; Simioni, Michel; Bontemps, Christophe.

The purpose of this article is to assess whether food safety regulations imposed by the European Union in the 2000s may have induced a slow-down in the productivity of firms in the food processing sector. The impact of regulations on costs and productivity has seldom been studied. This article contributes to the literature by measuring productivity change using a panel of French food processing firms for the years 1996 to 2006. To do so, we develop an original iterative testing procedure based on the comparison of the distribution of efficiency scores of a set of firms. Our results confirm that productivity decreased in the poultry processing industry at the time when safety regulation was reinforced.

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Total factor productivity; Safety regulation; Food processing sector; Panel data; Non-parametrics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; C14; D24; L66.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/124378

Are Food Price Differences in EU Member States a Result of the Penn Effect?

Searching for an Environmental Kuznets Curve in Carbon Dioxide Pollutant in Latin American Countries

Fousekis, Panos.

Panel data from 14 EU member states and non parametric techniques are used in this paper to investigate the relationship between food prices and real per capita incomes. The empirical results suggest that the Penn Effect largely holds for Total Food prices but not for the prices of certain among the seven disaggregate food commodities considered. In particular, for Cereals, for Fats and Oils, and for Other food products poorer countries are likely to face prices no lower than those prevailing in richer ones

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Food Prices; Living Standards; EU; Agricultural and Food Policy; Q11; C14.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/58057

Poudel, Biswo N.; Paudel, Krishna P.; Bhattarai, Keshav.

This study utilized a semiparametric panel model to estimate environmental Kuznets curves (EKC) for carbon dioxide (CO2) in 15 Latin American countries, using hitherto unused data on forestry acreage in each country. Results showed an N-shaped curve for the region; however, the shape of the curve is sensitive to the removal of some groups of countries. Specification tests support a semiparametric panel model over a parametric quadratic specification.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: CO2; Forest acreage; Environmental Kuznets curve; Latin American countries; Semiparametric regression model; Agribusiness; Environmental Economics and Policy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; C14; C33; Q23; Q53.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/48759

Unbundling the Degree Effect in a Job Training Program for Disadvantaged Youth

Bampasidou, Maria; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso.

Government-sponsored education and training programs have the goal to enhance participants' skills so as to become more employable, productive and dependable citizens and thus alleviate poverty and decrease public dependence. While most of the literature evaluating training programs concentrates on estimating their total average treatment effect, these programs offer a variety of services to participants. Estimating the effect of these components is of importance for the design and the evaluation of labor market programs. In this paper, we employ a recent nonparametric approach to estimate bounds on the "mechanism average treatment effect" to evaluate the causal effect of attaining a high school diploma, General Education Development or vocational...

A two-stage productivity analysis using bootstrapped Malmquist index and quantile regression

Palavras-chave: Causal Inference; Treatment Effects; Mechanism Average Effects; Nonparametric Bounds; Potential Outcomes; Principal Stratification; Training Programs; Job Corps; Active Labor Market Policies; Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics; C14; I20; J01.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103619

Kaditi, Eleni A.; Nitsi, Elisavet I..

This paper examines the effects of farm characteristics and government policies in enhancing productivity growth for a sample of Greek farms, using a two-stage procedure. In the 1st-stage, non-parametric estimates of Malmquist index and its decompositions are computed, while a bootstrapping procedure is applied to provide their statistical precision. In the 2nd-stage, the productivity growth estimates are regressed on various covariates using a bootstrapped quantile regression approach. The effect that the covariates exert on productivity growth of the average producer is analyzed, as well as the marginal effect of a given covariate for individuals at different points in the conditional productivity distribution. The results indicate that there exists...

The Impact of Natural Amenity on Farmland Values: A Quantile Regression Approach

Palavras-chave: Malmquist productivity index; Quantile regression; Bootstrap; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C14; C21; D24.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52845

Uematsu, Hiroki; Mishra, Ashok K..

The objective of this study is to estimate the impact of natural amenity on farmland values in the contiguous United States using a quantile regression approach and data from the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Agricultural Resource Management Surveys. The contribution of this study is three-fold. First, we explicitly include variables representing natural amenity and soil characteristics of farmland. Second, we employ a quantile regression approach to examine potentially heterogeneous impacts of natural amenity and soil characteristics at different quantiles of farmland values. Third, we utilized data from a nationwide survey of farm household to examine findings in studies using regional data are consistent at a national scale. Our quantile regression analysis...

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Farmland Values; Quantile Regression; Natural Amenity; Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use; C14; Q15; Q24.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/119804

An Information-Theoretic Approach to Modeling Binary Choices: Estimating Willingness to Pay for Recreation Site Attributes

Henry-Osorio, Miguel; Mittelhammer, Ronald C..

Information-Theoretic Econometrics

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Minimum power divergence; Cressie-Read statistics; Contingent valuation; Empirical likelihood; Discrete choice; Binary response models; Environmental Economics and Policy; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C13; C14; C25; Q51.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123432

The Economic Growth Impacts of Sugarcane Expansion In Brazil: An Inter-Regional Analysis

Deuss, Annelies.

Analysing Wine Demand With Artificial Neural Networks

Palavras-chave: Brazil; Sugarcane expansion; Economic growth; Propensity score; Ethanol; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; International Development; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C14; C21; O13; R13.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103564

Gerolimetto, M.; Mauracher, Christine; Procidano, I..

In this paper we analyse wine demand in Italy using microdata. Instead of estimating a traditional parametric model (like AIDS) we employed artificial neural networks (ANN) and evaluate the elasticities using two different methods, specific for the non parametric framework. We compared the performances of the two methods to estimate elasticities and put in evidence the relevance of some demographic variables together with the usual economic ones, explaining the consumer's behaviour.