Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Wun-Ji JIANG Author-Workplace-Name: Taiwan WTO and RTA Center, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taipei, Taiwan Author-Name: Yir-Hueih LUH Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan Title: Does higher food safety assurance bring higher returns? Evidence from Taiwan Abstract: With increasing concern of the food safety issue, consumer's demand for certified food have induced the adoption of organic farming or traceability certification. There is, however, relatively limited research devoted to examining the determinants and economic outcomes of the two food safety assurance certifications. The major intents of this study are to analyse the determinants of the farm household's adoption decisions of the organic and/or traceability certifications, and to investigate the economic consequences of different modes of adoption. It is found that while the log-odds of rice farmers' choice of organic certification over the choice of none of the certifications decreases significantly with age, the educational level is positively associated with the adoption of traceability certification. The results suggest the significance of the "Straybird Program", "One Hundred Young Farmers Counselling Program" and "The Farmers' Academy" in promoting the adoption of food safety assurance certification. Estimated average treatment effect after correcting for the self-selection problem indicates that the adoption of the traceability certifications leads to a better economic outcome for the Fuli rice farmers, compared with the adoption of organic or both certifications. This result thereby suggests that higher food safety assurance does not necessarily bring higher returns. Keywords: determinants of adoption, economic consequences, Fuli rice farmers, organic certification, traceability certification Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 477-488 Volume: 64 Issue: 11 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/154/2017-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/154/2017-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201811-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:11:id:154-2017-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Marko OGOREVC Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana, Slovenia Author-Name: Renata SLABE-ERKER Title: Assessment of the European Common Agricultural Policy and landscape changes: an example from Slovenia Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine whether and to what extent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures actually succeed in preserving the diversity of agricultural landscapes. This paper assesses the effects of agricultural policy on changes in the diversity of agricultural landscapes in Slovenia. Diversity is measured by the Shannon index and the Simpson index, while the impacts were estimated using a spatial lag model. The results show that direct payments decrease landscape diversity by 2 index points per 1 000 EUR/ha, but agri-environmental payments for reducing negative impacts on the environment and those for nature conservation increase agricultural landscape diversity by 2.8 index points and 12.30 index points per 1 000 EUR/ha, respectively. Furthermore, we did not find any statistically significant effects of habitat protection payments on landscape diversity. Since direct payments are almost four times larger on average as agri-environmental payments, they preserve landscape diversity only to a limited extent. Keywords: agricultural landscape diversity, agricultural payments, Shannon index, Simpson index, spatial lag model Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 489-498 Volume: 64 Issue: 11 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/337/2017-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/337/2017-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201811-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:11:id:337-2017-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zulfiqar Ali WAGAN Author-Workplace-Name: School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, China Author-Name: Zhang CHEN Author-Workplace-Name: School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, China Author-Name: Hakimzadi SEELRO Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, Sindh, Pakistan Author-Name: Muhammad Sanaullah SHAH Author-Workplace-Name: School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, China Title: Assessing the effect of monetary policy on agricultural growth and food prices Abstract: Agricultural growth is closely associated with sustainable economic development. This is especially true from the perspective of developing countries, such as India and Pakistan, where significant portions of the labour force are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. This study analysed the impact of macroeconomic policy (i.e. monetary policy) on employment, food inflation, and agricultural growth by analysing to what extent monetary policy is effective in controlling food price inflation, the effect of contractionary monetary policy on the agricultural sector's employment and productivity, and the extent of monetary policy transmission to money market rates and 10-year interest rates. We did so by applying a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model proposed by Bernanke et al. (2005) to agricultural data from 1995 and 1996 to 2016 for India and Pakistan, respectively. We found that tight monetary policy significantly reduced food inflation and agricultural production while increasing the rural unemployment rate. Short-term and 10-year interest rates increased owing to the contractionary monetary policies pursued by both countries. An inclusive monetary policy whereby policymakers work alongside governments to achieve price stabilisation and reasonable employment rates is recommended. Keywords: agricultural growth, food inflation, monetary policy Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 499-507 Volume: 64 Issue: 11 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/295/2017-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/295/2017-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201811-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:11:id:295-2017-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Habtamu ALEM Title: Effects of model specification, short-run, and long-run inefficiency: an empirical analysis of stochastic frontier models Abstract: This paper examines the recent advances in stochastic frontier (SF) models and its implications for the performance of Norwegian crop-producing farms. In contrast to the previous studies, we used a cost function in multiple input-output frameworks to estimate both long-run (persistent) and short-run (transient) inefficiency. The empirical analysis is based on unbalanced farm-level panel data for 1991-2013 with 3 885 observations from 455 Norwegian farms specialising in crop production. We estimated seven SF panel data models grouped into four categories regarding the assumptions used to the nature of inefficiency. The estimated cost efficiency scores varied from 53-95%, showing that the results are sensitive to how the inefficiency is modeled and interpreted. Keywords: agriculture, cost function, panel data, short and long-run inefficiency Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 508-516 Volume: 64 Issue: 11 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/341/2017-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/341/2017-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201811-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:11:id:341-2017-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ayhan KAPUSUZOGLU Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Business, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey Author-Name: Xi LIANG Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Accounting and Finance, Business School, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Author-Name: Nildag Basak CEYLAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Business, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey Title: Macroeconomic impacts of global food price shocks on the economy of Turkey Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of food prices on the macroeconomic variables of Turkey. The effects are investigated using monthly data for the period January 1980-January 2016. A structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model is employed for the analysis. Impulse response functions are obtained to assess the impact of food price shocks on the macroeconomic variables of Turkey. To this end, SVAR model is employed as suggested by Cushman and Zha (1997). The impulse responses gathered suggest that the food price causes Turkish Lira (TRY) to appreciate and inflation to increase contemporaneously. This study provides an important contribution to the literature in terms of determining the factors and presenting the measures to be taken against these factors for Turkey which is a developing country and sensitive to macroeconomic factors. Keywords: agricultural commodity, economic variables, global market, structural vector autoregressive model (SVAR) Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 517-525 Volume: 64 Issue: 11 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/261/2017-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/261/2017-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201811-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:64:y:2018:i:11:id:261-2017-AGRICECON