Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics-Revue Canadienne D Agroeconomie最新文献

In the United States, truck rates for perishable food, the per-mile rate charged for trucking services to move perishable food from farms to stores, rose substantially in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. We argue that rising truck rates is a signal of a broader shortage of truckers, but the connection between labor shortages, rising truck rates, and a lack of trucking services has yet to be established empirically. In this paper, we develop an empirical examination based on an equilibrium job search, matching, and bargaining framework in which we estimate the role of labor shortages in accelerating driver-wage growth, and truck rates for agricultural products. We estimate the model by combining US Bureau of Census Current Population Survey data on truck driver wages with USDA-Agricultural Marketing Service Service data on truck rates to establish the linkage between trucker supply and the demand for trucking services. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for a rise in for-hire trucker wages of some $��38�\%�$, a rise in average truck rates of nearly $��50�\%�$ and that the gap between trucker-job openings and successful matches explains a significant, but small, rise in truck rates.

Method myopia is defined as theoretical rhetoric absent empirical discernment regarding flavor-of-the-day econometric methodologies. This Fellows Address discusses why method myopia is pervasive, what factors contribute to the pervasiveness, why is likely it to increase, and finally, a possible remedy. To that end, incentive structures facing researchers, reviewers, and editors are considered within the life-cycle of a typical econometric methodology. Considering our discipline is empirically driven, there are potentially large costs by using flavor-of-the-day methodologies when an alternative -- possibly leading to different economic results and policy responses -- is the appropriate method. Furthermore, method myopia can notably restrict the set of research problems examined thereby creating additional, potentially large, opportunity costs. Finally, over-selling the superiority/completeness/correctness of results from such flavor-of-the-day methodologies to policy makers can not only be costly in the particular case, but can undermine the long-term credibility of our disciplinary advice to policy makers.

Transmission of prices, profits, and more generally, economic well-being across vertically connected sectors of agriculture have a long history of interest—arguably of most current interest in meat and livestock markets. Disruptions in live animal harvesting, especially from COVID-19, have corresponded with substantial market adjustment and hence elevated interest in inner-industry relationships, including from policymakers. This paper's main contribution is assessing how price changes in the U.S. feedlot industry manifest in feeder cattle markets. We use Ricardian rent theory as a framework to quantify price transmission by testing how price fluctuations actually pass through the supply chain versus theoretical expectations. We posit that the capacity utilization of feedlots changes because of market shocks, impacting price relationships. In the empirical model, when feedlot capacity utilization rates are below the 65% critical point, we find that both fed to feeder cattle and corn to feeder cattle pass-through rates are higher than hypothesized. When feedlot capacity utilization rates are high (>65%), estimated pass-through rates are lower and not statistically different from Ricardian rent theory. Understanding how prices pass through in the beef industry can help inform policy discussions about beef market competitiveness and promote efficient resource allocation.

This paper analyzes changes in agricultural productivity gender gaps in Côte d'Ivoire between 2008 and 2016 using decomposition methods. The analysis finds that the gender gap went from 40% in food crops and 17% in exports crops in 2008, to 19% in food crops and a statistical zero in export crops in 2016. The overall gender gap decreased by 15 percentage points over this period, and is statistically insignificant in 2016 once accounting for whether households farm export crops. Moreover, our results show that while some drivers of the gender gap remain stable across the decade (including total land cultivated, and pesticide and fertilizer use), others change their contribution (number of plots, crop choice and household labor). Despite substantial improvements, female-headed households in the bottom half of the distribution remain disadvantaged. Our results indicate that strengthening women's access to agricultural labor and adoption of export crops are policy priorities to reach gender parity.

Urban expansion often takes place on the most productive agricultural lands, affecting how the remaining agricultural land is used. Evidence on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in urbanizing areas is scarce and mostly based on cross-sectional data. Cross-sectional studies, however, cannot reflect the dynamics of urbanization and adoption. We use household panel data from 2017 and 2020 to analyze the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices among peri-urban farmers in Bangalore, India, a rapidly urbanizing region. We focus on practices for water and erosion management, integrated pest management and soil fertility management, and an integrated package of sustainable practices. Using random effects probit models with the Mundlak approach, we consider various factors besides urbanization, including exposure to weather variability, awareness of climate change, connection with institutional actors, and household and farm characteristics. Results show that urbanization, measured as changes in the percentage of built-up area, reduces the probability that farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices. Like prior studies, we find that wealth indicators, market access, knowledge of climate change, and rainfall variability facilitate adoption. However, contact with institutional actors largely reduces farmers’ probability of adoption. Policies should promote the integration of sustainable farming technologies at the institutional level and in information and training programs to achieve sustainable intensification of peri-urban agriculture.

During the corn stockpiling system reform in Northeast China between 2008 and 2015, corn production expanded dramatically, and corn residue, which was mostly burned in-situ, caused severe air pollution issues. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we assessed the effects of the corn stockpiling system reform in China and its associated environmental outcomes with a provincial-level dataset. Our results suggest that the implementation of this policy significantly increased annual corn production in Northeast China by 15.1%. We also observed a substitution pattern between corn and soybean cultivation in the treatment area, with a percentage point increase in the net soybean-to-corn profit ratio leading to a decrease in corn production by 0.023 percentage points. Overall, based on changes in crop patterns during the system reform, increased straw resulted in increased burning and the resulting consequence to the environment is a net pollution increase equivalent to 16.03%, 0.33%, and 3.64% of the smoke and dust, SO₂, and NO_X, respectively, from the industrial sector in the treatment provinces.

Second-generation biofuel (e.g., ethanol, renewable diesel) can be made from crop residues. However, the availability of residues for biofuel production is uncertain, because farmers have the option to grow different crops and use the residues for alternative purposes, such as livestock bedding and feed, or leave them in the field to improve soil quality. Taking Canadian wheat straw supply as an example, we develop a dynamic programming model to investigate a farmer's wheat straw supply decision in response to different wheat straw and grain prices. Our model considers crop choices between wheat and canola in the context of disease risk, the trade-off between the immediate payoffs a farmer may receive from bailing and selling wheat straw, and the long-term adverse effects that removing wheat straw from the soil surface may have on wheat and canola yields. The results from this study provide insights into how farm-level supply decisions, in response to wheat straw price changes, affect soil quality dynamics and scale up to regional wheat straw supply for biofuel production. This information also has implications for land use change and the sustainability of feedstock supply for biofuels.

Adolescence is a critical period for future health outcomes. Food habits and cognitive development are underway, and it is a period of heightened sensitivity to external influences and emotional shifts. We experimentally test the individual and combined influence of food advertisements and emotional primes (i.e., positive, negative, neutral) on adolescent food choices. Participants completed a food choice task selecting five snacks out of twenty healthy and unhealthy options in an online experiment. Prior to the food choice, we randomized whether adolescents were exposed to unhealthy food or non-food online advertisements. To induce experimental variation in adolescents’ emotions, they were assigned to watch two, two-minute film clips validated to elicit the targeted emotion. The online food advertisement did not significantly impact food choices, except that Black and Hispanic groups selected a higher share of calories from unhealthy foods. Participants in a negative emotional state selected more unhealthy sweet snacks. Finally, we find only weak evidence that a positive emotional state amplified the impact of food advertisements on the nutritional quality of food selection. Together, results suggest that while a negative emotional state drives food choices, this pattern occurs independently from food advertisement exposure.

Canada's agricultural business risk management (BRM) programs require significant public expenditure, with unclear consequences related to climate change adaptation and mitigation through the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs). This study examines the relationship between Canada's current suite of BRM programs and the adoption of practices that mitigate GHG emissions in crop agriculture. We review the impacts of agricultural insurance on climate adaptation and mitigation, identifying impacts on both the intensive and extensive margins of production. We consider five potential program modifications, including: (1) changes in producer insurance premiums in AgriInsurance for the adoption of practices that would decrease the actuarially fair insurance rate if they were properly incorporated in the calculation; (2) dedicated insurance products related to trials of specific BMPs; (3) adjustments to current programs to allow more whole-farm considerations and intercropping; (4) cross-compliance measures on AgriInvest tied to environmental education; and (5) reduced insurance coverage for unfavorable environmental practices. While the effects of these potential modifications remain uncertain, they will drive the data collection process necessary to ensure that Canada's BRM programs play an appropriate role in greenhouse-gas reducing BMP adoption and climate change adaptation and mitigation.