Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics最新文献

As the popularity of geographical indication (GI) grows in developing countries, the coexistence of GI self-claims and certification has become widespread. This study focusses on the Chinese rice market and explores the market performance of GI self-claims and certification. The findings indicate that while GI self-claims can generate price premiums, these are lower than those generated by GI certification. In the mid-to-high-end rice market, GI self-claims barely succeed to generate any price premium, whereas GI certification maintains its competitiveness. Notably, there is heterogeneity in the price premiums of different types of GI self-claims and certification. On the one hand, only indirect self-claims, which utilise origin information denoted by a GI label, can generate a price premium. On the other hand, GI certification promoted in earlier years or with more stringent certification standards generates higher price premiums. There is no clear evidence suggesting that a higher number of GI certificates corresponds to higher price premiums.

This study investigates the impact of crop insurance participation on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices using microsurvey data from the China Land Economic Survey 2020. Propensity score matching and an endogenous switching probit model are applied to address potential selection bias. We find that crop insurance participation has significant and positive effects on farmers' adoption of straw return and biological pesticides. Specifically, it increases the probability of adopting straw return and biological pesticides by 45.6% and 46.3%, respectively. These impacts are particularly large for younger, larger scale and more risk-averse farmers. Our results highlight the necessity of supporting crop insurance participation to encourage desirable environmental outcomes. We also discuss potential policies to facilitate crop insurance uptake in rural China.

Despite the popularity of choice experiments (CEs) for the valuation of environmental goods and services, some of its shortcomings have been only partially addressed by the literature. Among these, of particular saliency are the hypothetical nature of CEs and the lack of information on joint choices (e.g. choices made by couples) in traditional CEs. In this study, we contribute to filling these gaps by investigating joint choices concerning cheeses produced via different processes, involving environmental and social sustainability features. We use a two-stage preference elicitation approach, using first stated and then real consumption choices collected from a sample of 90 couples. In the first stage, each member of the couples separately took part in a web survey with a hypothetical CE. In the second, these couples jointly engaged in a field experiment with monetary incentives in which they jointly chose the cheeses to purchase. This approach allows us to evaluate the role of individual preferences in shaping joint choices and to investigate whether predictions from stated choice data are congruent with, and validated by, real purchase data. We use CE data to estimate individual preferences with discrete choice models and use joint purchase data via the Multiple Discrete-Continuous Nested Extreme Value model. Results suggest that joint real choices follow a substantively different decision process from that of individual stated choices.

By combining a hypothetical labelled-choice experiment and a between-subject design experiment, this study explores the influence of carbon labels on low-emission meat consumption. The results reveal that carbon labels are effective in encouraging consumers to choose low-emission conventional meat products. However, carbon labels are ineffective in persuading consumers to choose novel meat alternatives. Additionally, the results suggest that the efficiency of carbon labels depends on their format. The traffic-light carbon label was identified as the most effective, reducing carbon emissions from meat consumption by 21.55%, followed by the carbon-reduction label at 18.07% and the carbon-neutral label at 2.6%. The findings raise implications for policymakers in developing standards for carbon labels.

We examine the role of soil conservation practices (SCPs) in promoting sustainable agri-food production to achieve food and nutrition security. To this end, we use the endogenous treatment regression model, as it allows us to address the selection bias associated with SCP adoption. Data sourced from the 2020 China Land Economic Survey, collected by Nanjing Agricultural University, China, are examined. First, we analyse the association between the adoption of SCPs and rice yield; we focus on rice as it is the most common staple food globally. Then, we examine the links between SCP adoption and dietary diversity and the consumption of seven specific foods (rice, potato, pork, poultry, egg, fruits and vegetable oil). This allows us to glean insights into how SCPs may affect the dietary patterns in rural communities. The findings show that adopting SCPs is associated with an 8.5% increase in rice yield. Rice yields increase with the intensification of SCP adoption. Disaggregated analysis suggests that low-income farmers receive the most rice yield promotion by adopting SCPs compared with wealthier ones. Meanwhile, among the three SCPs (i.e. soil remediation, commercial organic fertiliser application and formulated fertilisation) considered in our study, only formulated fertilisation increases rice yields. Furthermore, adopting SCPs is associated with higher consumption of protein-rich foods and lower dietary diversity.

In 2022, the United Nations (UN) endorsed a resolution to end plastic pollution, with an objective to have a legally binding agreement in place by 2024. The clothing industry uses a significant amount of plastic, which generates plastic pollution through both the mismanagement of clothing waste and microplastics released during the washing of clothes. Consequently, clothing needs to be made without plastic fibres or synthetic chemicals to comply with the UN's resolution and stop contributing to plastic pollution. In this paper, we develop an economy-wide model and impose a tax on the conventional clothing sector or subsidise plastic-free clothing in different regions until all clothing produced is free of plastics and synthetic chemicals. We analyse the impact of these policies on GDP, welfare, output and land use across six policy scenarios. If only some regions tax clothing production and not others, the production of conventional clothing increases in untaxed regions (i.e. there is conventional clothing ‘leakage’). As clothing producers import some of their plastic inputs, increased production of conventional clothing in untaxed regions dampens the reduction in plastic production in regions with a clothing tax. Conventional clothing ‘leakage’ does not occur in the subsidy scenarios, and global plastic production decreases by more compared with tax scenarios. Under both a tax and the subsidy, synthetic chemical and plastic-free clothing production increase global demand for ‘natural’ alternatives such as plant-based fibres, oil seeds, natural rubber and forestry products. This causes significant land use change in the model at the expense of food-based agricultural products.

Biosecurity: A Systems Perspective is a book edited by Susan M. Hester, Lucie M. Bland, Edith Arndt, Sana Bau, James S. Camac, Evelyn Mannix, Raphaël Trouvé, and Andrew P. Robinson. Susan is an associate professor at the University of New England Business School. Lucie is a biological scientist, Edith is a biosecurity research fellow and has worked in the public service, Sana is an environmental scientist, James is an applied ecologist, Evelyn is an artificial intelligence research fellow, Raphaël is an ecologist and statistical modeller and Andrew is a statistician. All the editors work at the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA) at the University of Melbourne in Australia. This book has twenty-five contributors who have backgrounds in agricultural and resource economics, statistics, environmental science, ecology, public policy and business. The majority of the contributors are from Australia with one contributor from New Zealand and another from Hawai'i. Therefore, the perspectives and examples in this book are mostly drawn from the Australian context.

Globally, the rate at which pests and diseases are spreading within and between countries is alarming. This increased rate of spread of pests and diseases is due to various factors such as climate change and globalisation. Consequently, most countries require a robust biosecurity system to reduce the risk of spread of pests and diseases and ultimately their economic, social and environmental impacts. In this book, the authors recognise that pests and diseases have broad impacts on society. Consequently, the authors define a biosecurity system as “a suite of management activities implemented by a jurisdiction to protect its economy, environment and human health from damaging impacts of pests and diseases” (page 5). The authors also suggest that biosecurity should be viewed from a systems perspective as a complex system of interactions between several actors in recognition that biosecurity systems consist of social, economic and political sub-systems all of which need to be considered when managing biosecurity challenges.

The link between economics and risk analysis is an aspect that is always ill-defined making it difficult for economists to clearly see their role in the field of biosecurity. This book provides four broad areas where economics can be applied to biosecurity. First, the authors suggest that a comprehensive risk assessment should include economic evaluation of the consequences of biosecurity threats. Examples of the economic evaluation methods outlined include benefit cost analysis, partial equilibrium models, computable general equilibrium models and non-market valuation techniques. Although it is unlikely that an economist will assess the risk of entry of pests and diseases, the book outlines how such computations are done using examples. This makes it easier for economists to understand the parameters required to evaluate the impact of

Milk is a near-universal source of essential nutrients and contributes significantly to global nutrient availability. Global demand for milk continues to rise, driven by population growth, rising household incomes and favourable consumption patterns. Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) to milk seek to cater to the preferences of a share of consumers regarding sustainability, lifestyle or health-related matters (e.g. allergies and lactose intolerance). Though popular, PBAs do not stand as suitable nutritional substitutes for milk. These considerations emphasise the complex relationships between nutritional content and consumer preferences. This paper estimates a demand system for milk and PBAs in the New Zealand (NZ) market. We explore patterns of complementarity or substitutability between standard milk, reduced-fat milk and organic milk, and an aggregate group of PBAs. We use these results to calculate nutrient elasticities and assess changes in nutrient availability in response to prices and expenditure variations. We estimate a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System using purchase records for 2460 NZ households in 2021. We find that demand for standard milk does not show any substitutional relationship with PBAs. On the contrary, increases in the PBAs price lead households to switch towards standard milk, thereby increasing the availability of essential nutrients. That is, in the case of price increases, milk effectively offsets the reduction in essential nutrients as households switch away from PBAs, but PBAs cannot offset any reduction in essential nutrients as households do not find them to be adequate substitutes for milk.

This study enhances our comprehension of the performance of farm businesses in Western Australia by estimating persistent and transient technical efficiency measures in the presence of firm-level effects. The analysis is based on a balanced panel data set of 54 farm businesses from the years 2002 to 2011. We employ Kumbhakar et al.'s (2014, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 41, 321) model to estimate persistent efficiency and firm effects separately, as well as Kumbhakar's and Heshmati's (1995, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 77, 660) model where these two factors are confounded. Furthermore, we investigate the factors that influence transient and persistent technical efficiency. Our findings reveal that failing to differentiate between persistent technical efficiency and firm effects underestimates the estimates of persistent and overall technical efficiency. This underestimation may result in misguided policy recommendations for improving the technical performance of farm businesses. We also find that persistent efficiency dominates overall technical efficiency. The significant determinants of persistent overall technical efficiency include the regional rainfall zone where a farm business is located, the managerial competency of the farm operator denoted by their age and off-farm activities. Off-farm income plays a crucial role in determining transient technical efficiency.