Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bazyli CZYZEWSKI Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Personnel Development, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poznan, Poland Author-Name: Anna MATUSZCZAK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Macroeconomics and Agricultural Economics, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poznan, Poland Title: Towards measuring political rents in agriculture: case studies of different agrarian structures in the EU Abstract: It is generally believed that the subsidisation of agriculture serves as a payment of political rents to farmers. Here, we attempt to show that characterisation of the entire amount of subsidies as "political rent" is unjustified in the light of the definition of political rent as formulated in the rent-seeking theory. Political rents in agriculture diverge from the definition, since the resources devoted to rent-seeking partly serve to produce public goods - that part cannot be regarded as wastage. Furthermore, if market imperfections cause rents to be captured by other entities (the treadmill theory), then it is even more true that these benefits are not exclusive. However, it is hard to find any attempts to measure the value of political rents. Thus, a novel methodology is proposed for valuing these items, with the aim of calculating the "pure political rent", based on an input-output (I-O) Leontief approach adopting matrices for "representative farms" according to EUFADN typology and on a decomposition of the Hicks-Moorsteen TFP index for the period 2007-2012 for four countries: Slovakia, France, Austria and Poland. Keywords: agriculture, CAP, input-output analysis, rent-seeking Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 101-114 Volume: 64 Issue: 3 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/286/2016-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/286/2016-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201803-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:3:id:286-2016-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Cristina SALVIONI Author-Name: Dario SCIULLI Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Studies, University of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, Italy Title: Rural development policy in Italy: the impact of growth-oriented measures on farm outcomes Abstract: Growth-oriented measures of the EU's rural development policy have been promoted to meet the aims of the Lisbon strategy. This article assesses their impact on performance-related variables of farms. We apply a conditional difference-in-differences approach to the 2003-2007 Italian FADN survey. No evidence emerges to indicate any impact of the measures on farm income, employment or partial productivities. Conversely, participation in the selected policy schemes resulted initially in a productivity increase and, subsequently, in enhanced farm performance. We argue that participation in the growth-oriented measures gave rise to a process of capital deepening that, in turn, elicited a productivity increase and, eventually, positive growth rates in farm performance. The estimated variations in capital intensity signal that the measures resulted in the activation of channels that are expected to positively affect farm performance after a time lag. Keywords: AP, farm support, rural development policy, treatment effect Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 115-130 Volume: 64 Issue: 3 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/73/2016-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/73/2016-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201803-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:3:id:73-2016-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Daniel KOMADEL Author-Name: Ludovit PINDA Author-Workplace-Name: University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Katarina SAKALOVA Author-Workplace-Name: University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Title: Securitization in crop insurance with soil classification Abstract: Securitization is an emerging alternative to transfer of insurance risk, especially in cases exceeding the capacity of reinsurance, thus extending the insurability of risks. The original subjects of securitization are the risks emerging from the aftermaths of natural disasters. The range of securitized risks has broaden rapidly over the past decade. The reason of securitization's feasibility in transfer of agricultural risks is the spatial correlation of harvests among the producers that can result in fatal loss suffered simultaneously by many producers and subsequent producer's insolvency to settle the insurance claims. The paper proposes the reduction of the insurer's risk exposure by its transfer to capital markets via catastrophe bonds. A catastrophic event is defined through the relative loss of the current national per hectare yield of the particular crop to the average yield from previous years. The number of years included in the average is subject to the minimization of the relative loss' fluctuation over the given period. The triggering probability of the catastrophe bond is calculated from the kernel estimation of the loss distribution, with the relative loss being the loss index. The general case is upgraded by the factor of soil quality. The insurer is proposed to offer the coverage according to the producers' soil. The soil classes are securitized separately, with the set of catastrophe bonds. Both cases are illustrated by the numerical example on the data set of wheat produced in the Slovak Republic over last 45 years. The outcome of the examples are the graphs of expected payoffs depending on various parameters. Keywords: agricultural risk, catastrophe bond, insurance, risk transfer Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 131-140 Volume: 64 Issue: 3 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/156/2016-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/156/2016-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201803-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:3:id:156-2016-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Qianhui GAO Author-Workplace-Name: School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China Author-Name: Shoichi ITO Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Kyushu University, Japan Author-Name: Hisamitsu SAITO Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, Hokkaido University, Japan Title: Measuring Japan's technical barriers to trade based on the China's fruit exports to Japan Abstract: The study analyses the influence of technical barriers to agricultural trade carried out by Japan on China's fruit exports. In order to measure the tariff equivalents of technical barriers, the price wedge method is utilized. Based on the utility function specified in the study, the constructed model is adopted to evaluate the elasticity of substitution between the imported fruits and Japanese domestic fruits, and the consumers' preference parameters for different kinds of fruits. Sample data are chosen from the beginning of 2002 to the end of 2015. Based on the estimated preference parameters and elasticity of substitution, the results show that Japanese consumers prefer domestic fruits to the imported fruits. Besides, the results reveal that although the substitution and preference parameters are higher for the improved quality of imported fruits in the context of the positive list system, the scales of tariff equivalents of technical barriers are larger than the regular custom tariffs, and the technical barriers would cause extra huge costs for the imported fruits. Especially, in the three consecutive years after the implementation of the positive list system, tariff equivalents of technical barriers almost reached 150%, and then gradually decreased in the following years. Keywords: positive list system, preference parameter, substitution elasticity, tariff equivalents Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 141-147 Volume: 64 Issue: 3 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/235/2016-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/235/2016-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201803-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:3:id:235-2016-AGRICECON