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

Boyd, James; Banzhaf, H. Spencer.

This paper advocates consistently defined units of account to measure the contributions of nature to human welfare. We argue that such units have to date not been defined by environmental accounting advocates and that the term "ecosystem services" is too ad hoc to be of practical use in welfare accounting. We propose a definition, rooted in economic principles, of ecosystem service units. A goal of these units is comparability with the definition of conventional goods and services found in GDP and the other national accounts. We illustrate our definition of ecological units of account with concrete examples. We also argue that these same units of account provide an architecture for environmental performance measurement by governments, conservancies, and...

The contribution of female non-farm income to poverty reduction

Palavras-chave: Environmental accounting; Ecosystem services; Index theory; Nonmarket valuation; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q51; Q57; Q58; D6.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10586

Seebens, Holger.

There is a widely held view that off-farm income in developing countries tends to reduce poverty, leading to the conclusion that policies should focus on the further diversification of income options of rural households. However, much off-farm employment might be initiated rather as a survival strategy but as a sustainable way to reduce poverty in the long run. Using a rich data set from Tanzania, this study examines the potential income increases generated by off-farm income with a particular focus on off-farm income contributed by women. The findings indicate that women’s contributions to household income through off-farm activities are limited and smaller as compared to those of men. Investigating the possible reasons, fetching water and collecting...

Oil and Agriculture in the Post-Separation Sudan

Palavras-chave: Income diversification; Off-farm employment; Women; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Labor and Human Capital; D1; D6; J22; J4.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51762

Deregulation of the Maize Marketing System of Swaziland and Implications for Food Security

Siddig, Khalid H.A..

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed by the government of Sudan and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ended more than 20 years of civil war. According to the CPA, the Sudan’s government has 50% of the oil exploited from the wells existing in the south in addition to the oil produced from the northern wells. The latter represents about 30% of the total oil production in Sudan. In January 2011, the people in southern Sudan have voted for separation from the Sudan and in July 2011 the Republic of South Sudan was officially announced as Africa’s newest state. Now the CPA period is over and the south possesses its entire production of oil, but need to use the export infrastructure that exists in the north to export it. For...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Oil; Agriculture; Sudan; South Sudan; Separation; CGE modelling; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Food Security and Poverty; International Relations/Trade; Labor and Human Capital; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis; C6; D5; D6; F1; F2; H5; N5.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/122341

Mashinini, Nkosazana N.; Obi, Ajuruchukwu; van Schalkwyk, Herman D..

Recent shortfalls in the supply of maize in the Kingdom of Swaziland have exacerbated the country's growing food insecurity and led to fresh calls for full deregulation of the maize marketing system. The proponents of deregulation believe that it eliminates inefficient production and service units by transferring resources to their best alternative uses. While the theoretical foundations for that position are not questionable, no studies have to date explicitly investigated the effects of the current arrangements and the potential effects of full deregulation. This paper reports on a study that examined the welfare effects of the regulation of the country's maize industry and considered the likely impacts of full deregulation of the industry. Using a...

Labor Market Competitiveness and Poverty

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries; Food Security and Poverty; D6; F13; I3; L5; Q18.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25511

Goto, Hideaki.

How does labor market competitiveness frame the impact of greater labor productivity and lower inequality on poverty? Specifically, does greater competitiveness increase the impact of higher labor productivity and lower inequality on poverty reduction? In a simple model, we show that there is complementarity between competitiveness and productivity – the greater is one, the larger is the impact of the other. This suggests that improving labor market competitiveness is worthwhile not only for its own sake, but because it improves the transmission mechanism from productivity increases to poverty reduction. We also derive precise conditions under which there is a similar complementarity between equality and competitiveness in poverty reduction.

Pourquoi et comment l’instabilité est-elle une caractéristique structurelle des marchés agricoles?

Palavras-chave: Inequality; Labor productivity; Market competitiveness; Poverty; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Political Economy; D6; I32; J2; J64.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51159

Boussard, Jean-Marc.

Agricultural price volatility is "bad". But where does it come from? Remedies are completely different for "endogenous" or "exogenous" fluctuations. The recent crisis seems to indicate that exogenous remedies have been applied to endogenous fluctuations.

Using Biomedical Technologies to Inform Economic Modeling: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Analysis of Environmental Policies

Palavras-chave: Instability; Agricultural policy; Development; Fluctuations; Quotas; Cobweb; Insurance.; Agricultural and Food Policy; Industrial Organization; Political Economy; Production Economics; Public Economics; B5; D4; D6; D8; N5; O1..

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44424

Roe, Brian E.; Haab, Timothy C..

Advances in biomedical technology have irrevocably jarred open the black box of human decision making, offering social scientists the potential to validate, reject, refine and redefine the individual models of resource allocation that form the foundation of modern economics. In this paper we (1) provide a comprehensive overview of the biomedical methods that may be harnessed by economists and other social scientists to better understand the economic decision making process; (2) review research that utilizes these biomedical methods to illuminate fundamental aspects of the decision making process; and (3) summarize evidence from this literature concerning the basic tenants of neoclassical utility that are often invoked for positive welfare analysis of...

Irreversibility, Uncertainty and the Adoption of Transgenic Crops: the Case of BT-Maize in France

Palavras-chave: Neuroeconomics; Neuroscience; Brain imaging; Genetics; Welfare economics; Utility theory; Biology; Decision making; Preferences; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; D01; D03; D6; D87.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49151

Scatasta, Sara; Wesseler, Justus; Demont, Matty.

This study applies a real option approach to quantify, ex-ante, the maximum incremental social tolerable irreversible costs that would justify immediate adoption of Bt maize in France. Based on field trials, we find that incremental private reversible benefits in the agricultural sector are -18 million euro yearly for maize for animal feed and 1 million euro yearly for maize for human consumption. Incremental social irreversible benefits from reduced insecticide use are negligible. The maximum incremental social tolerable irreversible costs are -28 million euro yearly for maize for animal feed and 0.4 million Euro yearly for maize for human consumption.

Phosphorus-Based Application of Livestock Manure and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Palavras-chave: Bt maize; Real option; France; Field trials; Irreversible social costs; Crop Production/Industries; D6; D8; Q1.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24758

Norwood, F. Bailey; Chvosta, Jan.

The application of manure phosphorus at rates above crop uptake has resulted in water pollution for some regions. In response, new manure management standards will require some farms to match manure phosphorus applications rates with crop uptake. For some regions, this will lead to more crop acres and a shift toward crops with greater nutrient uptake, both of which will increase nitrogen runoff. The greater nitrogen runoff could offset the lower phosphorus runoff to result in greater water pollution. This demonstrates the law of unintended consequences, which results when policy does not consider how economic agents respond to incentives.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Best management practice; Eutrophication; Manure management; Nutrient runoff; Phosphorus standards; Pollution control; Water pollution; Environmental Economics and Policy; Production Economics; D6; Q1; Q2.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/43715

A 2004 Social Accounting Matrix for Israel: Documentation of an Economy-Wide Database with a Focus on Agriculture, the Labour Market, and Income Distribution

Siddig, Khalid H.A.; Flaig, Dorothee; Luckmann, Jonas; Grethe, Harald.

This document describes the Israeli Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for the year 2004, developed by the Agricultural and Food Policy Group at the University of Hohenheim. The SAM is a part of a larger research project which aims to analyse several economic, trade, and labour policies in the context of economic integration of agriculture between Israel and the West Bank. Data are obtained from various sources in Israel. Sources include the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), the Central Bank of Israel (CBI), and the Israeli Tax Authority (ITA). Data from sources outside of Israel are used to fill-in some gaps in the domestic reports. External sources include the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and...

'Green' Preferences as Regulatory Policy

Palavras-chave: SAM; IO Table; CGE; Database; Israel.; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Labor and Human Capital; C6; C8; D1; D3; D5; D6; E2; E6; F1; F2; H2.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/110156

Brennan, Timothy J..

We examine the suggestion that if consumers in sufficient numbers are willing to pay the premium to have power generated using low-emission technologies, tax or permit policies become less necessary or stringent. While there are implementation difficulties with this proposal, our purpose is more fundamental: can economics make sense of using preferences as a regulatory instrument? If"green" preferences are exogenously given, to what extent can or should they be regarded as a substitute for other policies? Even with green preferences, production and consumption of polluting goods continues to impose social costs not borne in the market. Moreover, if green preferences are regarded as a policy instrument, the "no policy" baseline would require a problematic...

On the Productive Value of Biodiversity

Palavras-chave: Environmental regulation; Preference change; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q2; B4; D6.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10787

Chavas, Jean-Paul.

The paper investigates the value of biodiversity as it relates to the productive value of services provided by an ecosystem. It analyzes how the value of an ecosystem can be "greater than the sum of its parts." First, it proposes a general measure of the value of biodiversity. Second, this measure is decomposed into four components, reflecting the role of complementarity, scale, convexity, and catalytic effects. This provides new information on the sources and determinants of biodiversity value. Third, the paper examines the role of uncertainty. In this context, the role of risk and of downside-risk exposure and their effects on the value of biodiversity are explored. This provides useful insights on how management and policy decisions can affect the value...

Agricultural Efficiency Gains and Trade Liberalization in Sudan

Palavras-chave: Biodiversity; Productive value; Complementarity; Scale; Convexity; Catalytic effect; Uncertainty; Environmental Economics and Policy; D6; Q2; Q5.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/21280

Siddig, Khalid H.A.; Babiker, Babiker Idris.

The traditional agriculture in Sudan occupies 60% of the total cultivated land and employs 65% of the agricultural population. Nevertheless, it is characterized by its low crop productivity, which is mainly driven by low technical efficiency, while drought and civil conflicts threaten most of its areas countrywide. Therefore, it has contributed only an average of 16% to the total agricultural GDP during the last decade. This paper addresses from an empirical point of view the sectoral and macroeconomic implications of agricultural efficiency improvement in Sudan and assesses the efficiency gains under the assumption of trade liberalization. Efficiency improvement experiments are implemented by augmenting the efficiency parameters of labor, capital, and...

Health impact assessment of folate biofortified rice in China

Palavras-chave: Agricultural efficiency; Liberalization; Sudan SAM; CGE analysis; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Consumer/Household Economics; Crop Production/Industries; Food Security and Poverty; Labor and Human Capital; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis; D2; D5; D6; E1; E2; F1; F2; H2.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/112786

De Steur, Hans; Gellynck, Xavier; Storoshenko, Sergei; Liqun, Ge; Lambert, Willy; Van der Straeten, Dominique.

Introduction: As folate deficiency is mainly caused by the dependency on folate-poor staple crops, such as rice, the implementation of rice with a high level of natural folate could be a successful pro-rural and pro-poor intervention strategy to reduce folate deficiencies in China, where about 260 million people are considered to be folate deficient. Consuming folate biofortified rice instead of conventional rice could prevent someone from negative health outcomes of folate deficiency, such as megaloblastic aneamia and neural-tube defects. Especially for poor Chinese women of childbearing age, folate biofortification could be important to prevent them from having a baby with a neural-tube defect, the main adverse health outcome. As Northern and Southern...

Effects of Global Climate Change on Nigerian Agriculture: An Empirical Analysis

Palavras-chave: Folate biofortification; Health impact; Neural-tube defects; DALYs; China; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; I1; D6.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116439

Apata, Temidayo Gabriel; Ogunyinka, A.I.; Sanusi, R.A.; Ogunwande, S..

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the effects of global warming on Nigerian agriculture and estimation of the determinants of adaptation to climate change. Data used for this study are from both secondary and primary sources. The set of secondary sources of data helped to examine the coverage of the three scenarios (1971-1980; 1981-1990 and 1991-2000). The primary data set consists of 1500 respondents’ but only 1250 cases were useful. This study analyzed determinants of farm-level climate adaptation measures using a Multinomial choice and stochastic-simulation model to investigate the effects of rapid climatic change on grain production and the human population in Nigeria. The model calculates the production, consumption and storage of grains...

Was the NOAA Panel Correct about Contingent Valuation?

Palavras-chave: Climate change; Adaptation; Economic consequences; Farm level productivity; Average Rainfall; Nigeria; Food Security and Poverty; D6; D91; E21; O13; Q01; Q2.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91751

Carson, Richard T.; Hanemann, W. Michael; Kopp, Raymond J.; Krosnick, Jon A.; Mitchell, Robert C.; Presser, Stanley; Ruud, Paul A.; Smith, V. Kerry; Conaway, Michael; Martin, Kerry.

The past few years have seen a highly charged debate about whether contingent valuation (CV) surveys can provide valid economic measures of people's values for environmental resources. In an effort to appraise the validity of CV measures of economic value, a distinguished panel of social scientists, chaired by two Nobel laureates, was established by NOAA, to critically evaluate the validity of CV measures of nonuse value. The Panel provided an extensive set of guidelines for CV survey construction, administration, and analysis, and distinguished a subset of items from their guidelines for special emphasis and described them as burden of proof requirements. Of particular interest was the Panel's requirement that CV surveys demonstrate "responsiveness to the...

Economic Uncertainties in Valuing Reductions in Children's Environmental Health Risks

Palavras-chave: Contingent valuation; Scope test; NOAA Panel; Environmental Economics and Policy; D6; H4.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10503

Hoffmann, Sandra A.; Krupnick, Alan J.; Adamowicz, Wiktor L..

The recognition that environmental hazards can affect children differently and more severely than adults has provoked growing concern in industrialized nations about the impact of environmental pollution on children's health. In this paper, commissioned by the OECD, we are charged with examining "economic uncertainties" associated with valuing the benefits of environmental policies that reduce risk to children's health. We examine two sources of uncertainty in benefits estimation: forecasting uncertainty and modeling uncertainty. We explore how these sources of uncertainty affect the use of standard economic and non-economic approaches to the valuation of health benefits. These include willingness-to-pay measures, cost-of-illness and human-capital...

MFA Quotas Elimination: the Case of Cotton Yarn in Greece - a Multi-Market vs. a Single Market Analysis

Palavras-chave: Willingness to pay; QALY; Children; Social welfare function; Health valuation; Environmental health; Household behavior; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q51; I18; I1; J17; D13; D6; D63; D64.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10722

Dadakas, Dimitrios; Katranidis, Stelios D..

Non-Participation in Choice Models: Hurdle and Latent Class Models

Palavras-chave: Trade; Multi-Market; Welfare; International Relations/Trade; D6; F1; C0.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/21390

Burton, Michael P.; Rigby, Dan.

In repeated choice modelling studies, it is often the case that individuals always select the status quo option. Although these choices may reflect considered choices, they may also be the result of alternative decisions about whether to participate in the choice process at all. Alternative methods of dealing with this feature of such data are presented, with the implications for estimates of economic values. In particular we consider the alternatives of excluding such individuals from the data, using hurdle models to explicitly model this group, and consider the possibility of latent class models, that endogenously allow for difference preference structures. The application is to a stated preference choice modelling data set that investigates preferences...

Enlargement of Trade Blocs: National Welfare Effects If Trade Is Liberalized

Palavras-chave: Demand and Price Analysis; C8; D6; C23.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25312

Glebe, Thilo W.; Salhofer, Klaus.

Small countries may benefit from the formation of a trade bloc, since their combined market power will enable them to manipulate the terms of trade. The question of interest is whether countries will benefit from the enlargement of a trading bloc, if trade liberalization induces countries to substitute domestic support measures for conventional border protection. The paper deals with this question by analyzing the conditions for positive welfare effects resulting from the enlargement of a trade bloc. Based on a partial equilibrium trade model, we consider a game in production taxes/subsidies between two trade blocs. The tax/subsidy instrument may capture the production effect which can be induced by a combination of environmental, health or safety rules....