Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy最新文献

This paper estimates the effect of short-term changes in real consumer food prices on short-term fluctuations in neonatal, infant, and child mortality rates using a panel dataset covering 59 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for the period 2000–2015. Quarterly mortality rates were constructed from over 145 rounds of the standard Demographic and Health Surveys allowing to identify short-term (<1 year) effects of food price shocks. The results indicate that rising real food prices had a large and significant effect on neonatal, infant, and child mortalities, regardless of the type of country-specific time trends chosen.

Wholesalers of agricultural crops have historically received limited attention in the literature on agricultural development, which has a strongly productivist focus. When wholesalers are considered, they are often framed as exploitative, taking advantage of information asymmetries, market failures, and unequal power relations to extract heavy surpluses from farmers. However, there is a growing appreciation that wholesalers may play important roles in facilitating agricultural development and rural transformation. This paper evaluates wholesaler conduct and performance using a survey of 218 maize wholesalers in 12 of the major maize-growing and trading townships of South Shan State, Myanmar and the cities of Lashio and Muse in North Shan. Hybrid maize emerged very rapidly in Myanmar over the past two decades to become a major cash crop, supplying domestic animal feed mills and becoming one of Myanmar's most important exports to China and Thailand. Wholesalers have been central to the development of this supply chain and the sector. Contrary to recent literature from Myanmar that has cast maize wholesalers as exploitative, the survey finds that the rapidly growing wholesaler segment of the maize value chain is highly competitive, rapidly changing with respect to technology, and functions efficiently. Farmers obtaining maize inputs from wholesalers in the form of tied output credit sell their maize at prevailing market rates. The emergence of clusters of maize wholesalers and allied actors such as third-party logistics services occurred spontaneously and symbiotically with the expansion of hybrid maize cultivation, and with each set of actors essential to the emergence of the others.

This paper provides an ex ante evaluation of the economic potential of the emergent industrial hemp industry in Oregon, a state with conditions favorable to hemp cultivation. The analysis exploits available data to simulate the performance of hemp for fiber and oil in existing cropping systems. The study finds that profitability and adoption of hemp into existing crop production systems in Oregon could range widely, depending on key factors including hemp prices, costs of production, investments in production technology and supply chains, and policies affecting hemp production and utilization.

In this study, we define, categorize, and systematically describe best practices and barriers to implementing preference elicitation lab-in-the-field experiments with farmers based on qualitative, in-depth interviews with researchers from the Research Network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy (REECAP). Following an assessment of the challenges the researchers faced and the solutions they adopted, we provide a step-by-step guide to conducting such experiments. We elaborate on limitations and provide recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Formal credit can enhance farmers' purchasing power, increase productivity, and enforce resilience throughout the agricultural sector. Therefore, analyzing bank clients and credit data in the agricultural sector is of interest. This study aims to (1) investigate distinct cluster patterns among the bank's farmer clients in Mali utilizing clustering techniques on 3335 farmer clients with 9469 credit records data collected between January 2010 and April 2022, and (2) reveal whether these clusters exhibit heterogeneity regarding credit repayment performance. Our results indicate the presence of three distinct clusters differing by personal and credit characteristics: frequent low-volume farmers (FLVF), moderate-volume high-interest farmers (MVHIF), and high-volume long-term farmers (HVLTF). Each identified and distinct cluster demonstrates a dissimilar on time, late, or defaulted repayment performance. The associations between credit volume, credit duration, interest rate, repayment periodicity, and various delayed repayments differ across clusters, indicating heterogeneity. Hence, tailored financial products to different farmer clusters are needed to enhance the repayment performance of farmers in Mali.

This study investigates the effect of food biotechnology misinformation on consumer demand and attitudes toward bioengineered food and tests the effectiveness of pre-bunking and debunking mitigation strategies. Using choice experiment data from a sample of 1270 U.S. consumers, we find that exposure to misinformation has a significant effect on consumers' food preferences and policy attitudes. We also find that while pre-bunking is an effective mitigating strategy, debunking by itself is not sufficient. Our findings suggest that preemptively warning consumers about misinformation and the tactics used to spread it is more effective than merely correcting the misinformation afterward.

Rural-urban divides have been found in various policy fields, but it remains unclear if they exist in agricultural policy. We analyzed the policy preferences of 1542 Swiss respondents, ranging from very rural to very urban. Respondents prioritized different pairs of conflicting goals, that is, two economic goals versus four conflicting agri-environmental goals. We find no evidence of a rural-urban divide in the prioritization of agricultural policy goals. Respondents prioritize economic goals over environmental goals. Efforts to make agriculture more environmentally sustainable do not per se create a rural-urban divide, but policies should focus on reducing trade-offs between economic and environmental goals.

Despite increasing scholarly attention to individual aspirations, rural women's aspirations in agriculture remain largely unexplored. With women increasingly central to agricultural work, understanding their aspirations is crucial. Using farm surveys from Ecuador, Kenya, and Rwanda, we investigate the relationship between gender and aspiration formation in agriculture. Similar to previous findings related to education and entrepreneurship, our findings show women have lower ambitions for agricultural production. Addressing the unique challenges they face, gender-sensitive policies are vital for inclusive, sustainable agriculture. Our study contributes to a broader understanding of the multidimensional factors shaping agricultural outcomes, underscoring the importance of integrating diverse perspectives for effective policy formulation in agriculture.

This study examines the drivers of rice trade. The analysis uses the standard comparative advantage model, the Heckscher–Ohlin–Vanek (HOV) framework, supplemented with a gravity-type equation. Using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation for data from 2002 to 2020, the analysis broadly confirms HOV model predictions. Results indicate that arable land, along with GDP, distance, precipitation and crop season temperature, significantly influences rice trade dynamics. The results showed that the precipitation play a key role in influencing the rice trade rather than the blue water availability. However, agricultural water stress discouraged exports and encouraged imports.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine War, global food markets have been in turmoil. Agricultural input and energy prices doubled between 2020 and 2022, with immediate consequences on food accessibility. We examine the drivers of the EU food inflation patterns, and how trade integration shapes these dynamics. We find that food price inflation has been mainly driven by surges in agricultural production costs and, to a lesser extent, by global food price increases. Trade openness has not exacerbated the inflating dynamics during this period. We conclude with reflections on inflationary, production, and trade policies.