Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dynamics Of Rural Labour Markets: Evidence From Longitudinal Panel Data In India, A Amarender Reddy

A Amarender Reddy

Given the slow structural transformation of employment in rural areas in India, this paper tries to probe into the structural transformation in semi-arid tropics of India, by using high frequency longitudinal panel data from 1975 to 2010. The results show that, up to early 1980s, structural transformation was very slow and most of the workers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Most of the workers are spent more days in self-employment in agriculture with very few days in paid work. Both men and women have more leisure time during the 1970s compared to early 2000s. However, from 2001 onwards, there …

The Economics Of Co2 Sequestration Through Enhanced Oil Recovery, Klaas T. Van 'T Veld, Charles F. Mason, Andrew Leach

Charles F Mason

No abstract provided.

A Life Cycle Assessment (Lca) Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Sri And Flooded Rice Production In Se India, Alfred Gathorne-Hardy Dr, Narasimha Reddy Duvvuru Prof., Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr., Barbara Hariss-White Prof.

Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

Rice feeds more people than any other crop, but each kilogram of rice is responsible for substantially more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than other key staple foods. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has recently received considerable attention for its ability to increase yields while using less water. Yet so far there has been little research into the GHG emissions associated with SRI production systems, and how they compare to those from conventional flooded-rice production techniques.

A streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used to compare the GHG emissions and groundwater use from SRI and from conventional rice production. …

Bosques Sin Dueño, Jose Luis Sardon

Jose Luis Sardon

Bosques amazónicos seguirán desapareciendo si no se los protege con derechos de propiedad.

A Current Overview And Analysis Of The 21st Century Kansas Farmers Markets, Skylar M.G. Joyner

Skylar M.G. Joyner

A Current Overview and Analysis of the 21st Century Kansas Farmers Markets from a #11;Social Enterprise Perspective

The Plight Of The Kimberley: Jobs Or Culture?, Stuart Murray

Stuart Murray

No abstract provided.

Consumer Demand For Domestic And Imported Broiler Meat In Urban Ghana: Bringing Non-Price Effects Into The Equation, Andrea E. Woolverton, Stephen Frimpong

Stephen Frimpong

Ghana’s domestic poultry industry is one of many in West Africa that is seeking strategies to compete with imported poultry products. This study investigates if urban Ghanaian consumers are willing to pay for non-price attributes in poultry; hence, offering potential competitive niches. Consumer preferences in Accra, Ghana for domestic and imported chicken were studied using a choice based conjoint analysis. A total of 138 respondents who were directly purchasing broiler products were drawn randomly from both traditional and modern markets for inclusion into a revealed preference data collection. A conditional logistic regression model was used to estimate the part-worth of …

Turning Water Into Wine: The Political Economy Of The Environment In Southern California's Wine Country, Jason Simms

Jason L Simms

This dissertation examines questions of water sustainability in contexts of wine production and state-led neoliberal development in the Temecula Valley, southern California, where wine tourism is at present being harnessed as an engine of economic growth. Natural and anthropogenic forces, such as global climate change, desertification, urban development, and the marketization and commodification of natural resources, affect the distribution and availability of water throughout the globe. As a result, the use of water, and associated political and environmental processes and consequences, in the production of global commodities, including wheat, citrus, and coffee, recently have come under increased scrutiny. Given wine's …

Tb182: Agricultural Land Changes In Maine: A Compilation And Brief Analysis Of Census Of Agriculture Data, 1850-1997, Soeun Ahn, William B. Krohn, Andrew J. Plantinga, Timothy J. Dalton

William B. Krohn

The purpose of this study is to compile the best available long-term historical information on agricultural land use in Maine and to briefly analyze these data to develop a statewide description of Maine's land use history from the mid-1800s to present. Our emphasis is on compiling statistically based information and, in particular, land use data reported in the Census of Agriculture. Objectives were (1) to compile available statewide data on agricultural land and land cover (LULC) in Maine, 1850-1997; (2) to examine temporal and spatial patterns in the LULC of Maine; and (3) to discuss the implications of the major …

Vehicle Choices, Miles Driven, And Pollution Policies, Ye Feng, Don Fullerton, Li Gan

Don Fullerton

Mobile sources contribute large percentages of each pollutant, but technology is not yet available to measure and tax emissions from each vehicle. We build a behavioral model of household choices about vehicles and miles traveled. The ideal-but-unavailable emissions tax would encourage drivers to abate emissions through many behaviors, some of which involve market transactions that can be observed for feasible market incentives (such as a gas tax, subsidy to new cars, or tax by vehicle type). Our model can calculate behavioral effects of each such price and thus calculate car choices, miles, and emissions. A nested logit structure is used …

Engineering Estimates Versus Impact Evaluation Of Energy Efficiency Projects: Regression Discontinuity Evidence From A Case Study, Corey Lang, Matthew Siler

Corey Lang

Energy efficiency upgrades have been gaining widespread attention across global channels as a cost-effective approach to addressing energy challenges. The cost-effectiveness of these projects is generally predicted using engineering estimates pre-implementation, often with little ex post analysis of project success. In this paper, for a suite of energy efficiency projects, we directly compare ex ante engineering estimates of energy savings to ex post econometric estimates that use 15-minute interval, building-level energy consumption data. In contrast to most prior literature, our econometric results confirm the engineering estimates, even suggesting the engineering estimates were too modest. Further, we find heterogeneous efficiency impacts …

The Additionality Problem With Offsets: Optimal Contracts For Carbon Sequestration In Forests, Charles F. Mason, Andrew J. Plantinga

Charles F Mason

No abstract provided.

Sustainability And Competitiveness In Evolutionary Perspectives, Massimiliano Mazzanti

Massimiliano Mazzanti

No abstract provided.

China’S Agrarian Reform And The Privatization Of Land: A Contrarian View, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson

John Donaldson

Many media and scholars outside China are advocating for the privatization of land ownership in China, claiming it to be a necessary step before China can transform its agriculture into large-scale, market-oriented and technology-intensive modern agriculture. Chinese scholars advocating land privatization, on the other hand, typically argue that land privatization would offer farmers more protection of their rights. In this paper, we present a contrarian view to these calls for land privatization published in both mainstream media and academic journals. We argue that, under China’s current system of collective land ownership and individualized land use rights, the aforementioned goals can …

The Impact Of Weather Extremes On Agricultural Production Methods: Does Drought Increase Adoption Of Conservation Tillage Practices?, Ya Ding, Karina Schoengold, Tsegaye Tadesse

Tsegaye Tadesse

One benefit of conservation tillage practices is an increase in soil moisture. The paper combines panel data techniques with spatial analysis to measure the impact of extreme weather events on the adoption of conservation tillage. Zellner’s SUR technique is extended to spatial panel data to correct for cross-sectional heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation. Panel data allows the identification of differences in adoption rates as a function of the severity of past drought or flood events. The adoption of no-till, alternative conservation tillage, and reduced till are estimated relative to conventional tillage. Extremely dry conditions in recent years are found …

Waste Prevention And Social Norms: The Role Of Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivations, Massimiliano Mazzanti

Massimiliano Mazzanti

No abstract provided.

Leakage, Welfare, And Cost-Effectiveness Of Carbon Policy, Kathy Baylis, Don Fullerton, Daniel H. Karney

Don Fullerton

We extend the model of Fullerton et al (2012) to explore cost-effectiveness of unilateral climate policy in the presence of leakage. We ignore the welfare gain from reducing greenhouse gas emissions and focus on the welfare cost of the emissions tax or permit scheme. Whereas that prior paper solves for changes in emissions quantities and finds that leakage maybe negative, we show here that all cases with negative leakage in that model are cases where a unilateral carbon tax results in a welfare loss. With positive leakage, however, a unilateral policy can improve welfare.

Leakage, Welfare And Cost-Effectiveness Of Carbon Policy, Kathy Baylis, Don Fullerton, Daniel Karney

Kathy Baylis

We extend the model of Fullerton, Baylis, and Karney (2012 working paper) to explore cost-effectiveness of unilateral climate policy in the presence of leakage. We ignore the welfare gain from reducing greenhouse gas emissions and focus on the welfare cost of the emissions tax or permit scheme. Whereas that prior paper solves for changes in emissions quantities and finds that leakage maybe negative, we show here that all cases with negative leakage in that model are cases where a unilateral carbon tax results in a welfare loss. With positive leakage, however, a unilateral policy can improve welfare.

The Economics Of Eco-Labeling: Theory And Empirical Implications, Charles F. Mason

Charles F Mason

No abstract provided.

National Contexts Matter: The Co-Evolution Of Sustainability Standards In Global Value Chains, Stephan Manning, Frank Boons, Oliver Von Hagen, Juliane Reinecke

Stephan Manning

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions and market opportunity structures in consuming countries have been important sources of standards variation, for example in the cases of Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C). In turn, supplier structures in producing countries as well as their linkages with traders and buyers targeting particular consuming countries have been key mechanisms of …

Empathy Tempering Economic Choice: The Empirical Evidence, Marianna Khachaturyan, Gary D. Lynne Prof, Natalia Czap, Hans Czap, Mark E. Burbach

Marianna Khachaturyan

The notion that something beyond money could also be an important part of economic choice goes back hundreds of years. Adam Smith, who is credited with providing the framework for modern market-based economies, wrote extensively in the late 1700s about the role of the “moral sentiments.” In fact, his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments was actually drafted first, and he worked on it many years after the publication of his better known book On the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the latter focused “on the money.” Intriguingly, the sentiments/empathy book is all about how market …

Transboundary Water Issues In The Kura-Araks River Basin, Marianna Khachaturyan, Karina Schoengold

Marianna Khachaturyan

Water resources that are shared across boundaries by different states or countries are referred to as “transboundary” or “international” water resources. Worldwide, there are about 263 international basins that are shared by two or more countries, with 40 percent of the world population living on these international basins (Giordano and Wolf, 2003). This is an increase from the 214 basins that were identified in 1978, due to better mapping technology and newly emerging nations. For example, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 created 15 new independent nations and simultaneously created new transboundary water resources.

Tempering The Over-Use And Abuse Of Common-Pool Resources, Marianna Khachaturyan, Gary D. Lynne

Marianna Khachaturyan

Elinor Ostrom, a professor at Indiana University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (first woman to ever receive it) in 2009, sharing it with Professor Oliver Williamson. The prize was awarded “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” She “challenged the conventional wisdom by demonstrating how local property can be successfully managed by local commons without any regulation by central authorities or privatization”. Also, full privatization, i.e., assigning individual property rights rather than shared, common property rights, is also not essential. She summarizes her contribution in the finding “that humans have a more complex motivational structure …

Land Reform And Farm Structure In The Former Soviet Union, Marianna Khachaturyan, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Marianna Khachaturyan

Land is a critical input for agricultural production. At the same time, land has long been seen as a store of wealth, an asset that may be held for a wide range of purposes and that may account for a significant share of a nation’s resource stock. The way in which land is owned, used and transferred has varied over time and throughout the world. Laws and customs governing land ownership, use and transfer, are known as institutions, and are extremely important determinants of agricultural output. Insecurity of land ownership rights, for example, may reduce not only the incentive individual …

Gender, Interdisciplinarity And Global Food Crises, Marianna Khachaturyan, Ann Mari May, Gale Summerfield

Marianna Khachaturyan

Higher education plays a pivotal role in analyzing and offering potential solutions to the world’s problems, and seldom have the world’s economic and social problems appeared more critical. As the world’s population increases and faces the unpredictable effects of climate change and begins to come to terms with the possibility of peak oil and its implications, we face rising concerns about food security and global food crises. As we work to address these growing concerns it is increasingly apparent that our research must be interdisciplinary in nature. Because women play critical roles in the supply and consumption of agricultural products, …

Politics And Trade In The Former Soviet Union, Marianna Khachaturyan, Wesley Peterson

Marianna Khachaturyan

Fifteen independent countries emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-91. Aside from the Russian Federation, the former Soviet Republics lie in four geographic regions: the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia); Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan); the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania); and Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine).

Two And A Half Cheers For The Midwestern Bourgeoisie: Role Of The Virtues In Tempering Business Decisions, Marianna Khachaturyan, Gary D. Lynne Prof

Marianna Khachaturyan

A recent book (The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, D. N. McCloskey), raises the matter of the role of the virtues in business and economic choice, arguing that capitalism can indeed, be virtuous or at least better than the alternative(s). This argument is especially timely in light of the apparent excesses on Wall Street and in some banking/financial institutions. Excessive greed and often the lack of business ethics contributed in substantive ways to the financial crisis and near economic meltdown we have been experiencing. As McCloskey, (2006, pp. 1-2) argues (in setting the stage for the complex …

Do Emotions Matter In Environmental Choice? The Effect Of :) And :(, Natalia Czap, Hans Czap, Marianna Khachaturyan, Gary D. Lynne, Mark E. Burbach

Marianna Khachaturyan

The problem of shared resources, especially Common Pool Resources (CPRs), has been studied extensively. In such cases (e.g. aquifers), if the users are driven solely by self-interest and do not cooperate/coordinate their actions, over-extraction occurs. However, over the years many researchers (e.g. Ostrom, 2010) have found that users are not always driven solely by self-interest, and often manage to prevent the overuse of resources through self-regulation, tempering their self-interest. Similarly, while the use of other shared resources such as water in rivers and creeks and the atmosphere may not lead to over-extraction, a variety of “downstream” problems can arise, as …

The Market Acceptance And Welfare Impacts Of ‘Terminator’ Technology, Marianna Khachaturyan, Amalia Yiannaka

Marianna Khachaturyan

An Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) system is effective when infringers can be identified, successfully sued for damages and deterred from further infringement. The effectiveness of IPRs in plant varieties is limited due to high detection costs of unauthorized use of seed that embodies intellectual property (e.g., genetically modified (GM) seed) and high enforcement costs. Seed companies have traditionally performed limited research and development (R&D) in self-pollinating plants mainly because seed saving limits their ability to recoup their investment.1

Inhibition Of Bacillus Cereus Growth By Bacteriocin Producing Bacillus Subtilis Isolated From Fermented Baobab Seeds (Maari) Is Substrate Dependent, Donatien Kaboré, Dennis S. Nielsen, Hagrétoui Sawadogo-Lingan, Bréhima Diawara, Mamoudou H. Dicko Prof., Mogens Jakobsen, Line Thorsen

Pr. Mamoudou H. DICKO, PhD