Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics最新文献

Recent evidence shows that the inverse relationship between plot size and productivity is driven by an edge effect or by the over-reporting of production by farmers on smaller plots. In this paper, we re-examine the relationship between plot size and productivity in the context of Bangladesh. We also examine whether the effect of plot size is different across rice and non-rice crops. We use panel data at the household level and estimate a fixed effects model. Results show that the effect of plot size on productivity is positive but not statistically significant. Further results show that there is no statistically significant effect of plot size on productivity for both rice and non-rice crops. Our findings suggest that land redistribution, even if it leads to smaller plots, will not decrease farm production.

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.