Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing, Linwood H. Pendleton

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of …

The Gap Between Science And Policy: Assessing The Use Of Nonmarket Valuation In Estuarine Management, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Jing Guo

Working Papers

Estuaries, which are among the most productive natural systems on earth, provide an array of human welfare benefits if well managed. Non-market valuation (NMV) is considered a powerful tool, which can contribute to informed policies for estuarine management. More than 30 year of research valuing estuaries around the world does not appear to have had a major impact on estuarine management. Published examples of policy applications using estimates from these studies, are rare, leading to the question whether the effort and money spent on this research has been useful and worth the cost.

Despite raising public awareness of the importance …

Conditional Cash Transfers, Community, And Empowerment Of Women In Colombia, Harlan Downs-Tepper

21st Century Social Justice

In 2001, the Colombian government initiated an experiment in poverty alleviation called Familias en Acción. This conditional cash transfer (CCT) program takes a novel approach to poverty reduction by addressing short- and long-term factors contributing to poverty. Though Colombia’s CCT program is just one of a wave of similar initiatives, its unique context and unexpected social effects, beyond the primary intentions of program designers, differentiate it from other such programs. Drawing on 200 interviews and focus group discussions which he conducted with academic experts, program beneficiaries and program administrators in three Colombian cities, the author finds that an unexpected …

Spreading The Char: The Importance Of Local Compatibility In The Diffusion Of Biochar Systems To The Smallholder Agriculture Community Context, Laura C. V. Munoz

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis enters the context of smallholder agriculture communities in the developing world. It explores the potentials of biochar and what biochar systems could bring to the smallholder communities while simultaneously bringing environmental benefits. It then acknowledges the challenges of diffusion –the spreading of an unfamiliar innovation. It seeks to answer the question of what will make diffusion of biochar systems more successful in the smallholder context, fixating on the characteristic of compatibility as well as the role local community members can play in making a new biochar system more visible to the rest of the communities.

State Of The U.S. Ocean And Coastal Economies 2014, Judith T. Kildow, Charles S. Colgan, Jason D. Scorse, Pat Johnston, Matt Nichols

Publications

The nation's coasts and oceans contribute much to the United States economy. For the past 14 years, the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP), now a program of the Center for the Blue Economy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, has compiled time-series data that track economic activities, demographics, ports and cargo volume and value, natural resource production and value, non-market values, and federal expenditures in the U.S. coastal zone both on land and in the water. A report on the ocean and coastal economies of the United States was released by NOEP in 2009 covering data through 2005. The …

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2014, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the year ended 31st December, 2014. In general, 2014 has been a very eventful and challenging year for the Bank, the country, and the world at large. In the course of the year, the Bank underwent significant changes in its governance composition. In 2014, the global economy witnessed considerable vulnerabilities characterized by fragile growth and weak economic outlook. Global growth recovery was modest and continued to be threatened by strong downside risks, as a result of sharp drop in commodity prices, escalating geo-political tensions, and heightening threats …

The Primacy Of Context: An Exploration Into The Causes Of Food Insecurity In Kitere, Kenya., William O. Aludo

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this study was to explore the specific reasons why households in Kitere village, Kenya experience persistent food insecurity every year while the region enjoys the advantage of two planting/harvest seasons in a year. Kitere village lies within the lakeside region of Nyanza Province in Kenya, generally considered to be one of the more agriculturally productive parts of the country. The Participatory Rural Appraisal method was employed to gather qualitative data on the causes of food insecurity in Kitere village. The data sources were focus groups and a self-administered, one-time survey of random and non-random samples of key …

Valuation Of The Ecosystem Services Provided By Coastal Ecosystems In Shandong, China: Developing A Non- Market Valuation System, Jing Guo

Working Papers

Non-market valuation assesses the contributions of ecosystem services to human well-being by determining the preference of users. That is how much money users are willing to pay for ecosystem improvements or how much they are willing to accept for ecosystem losses. Through exploring these preferences, the natural capital can be accounted for economically and quantitatively. It can not only lead to better understanding of ecosystem benefits, but also make it possible to compare ecosystem services with other conventional goods and services (e.g. real estate) in monetary terms.

Shandong is a coastal province of China, which is located on the eastern …

Agricultural Biotechnology, International Trade, General Equilibrium And Efficiency, Comlanvi Martin Konou

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ongoing debates about the adoption of the agricultural biotechnology in the developing countries and EU have dominated the literature in development economics and biosciences. This dissertation considers some environmental, economic and social consequences of the technology from three perspectives: 1) the impact of the ongoing pest density on the performance of the agricultural biotechnology in India; 2) trade consequences of EU restrictive trade policies towards biotech products; and 3) the adoption decision of the technology in the EU and the developing economies.

Agricultural biotechnology appears to be successful in increasing yield and reducing the use of pesticides. However, most studies …

Blue Growth In The Middle Kingdom: An Analysis Of China’S Ocean Economy, Rui Zhao, Stephen Hynes, Guang Shun He

Working Papers

This paper builds on the work carried out by OEAS in China, which established the framework of ocean economy accounting in China. It also demonstrates how it is possible to compile ocean economy data, from the existing government databases in China. The Chinese ocean economy was divided into two separate parts for the purpose of the analysis presented; the ocean industry and ocean-related industry. Data was collected for 12 major ocean industries. Using a similar methodology to that developed in previous international studies, it was found that the major ocean industries produced US$239.09 billion in value added output in 2010 …

Subsidies, Agricultural, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides historical and contemporary information on U.S. Government agricultural subsidies and how they affect agricultural policy in the Western U.S.

Measurement Of The Effect Of Policy Changes On Volatility In Dairy Markets1, Eoin Kelly, Declan O'Connor, Michael Keane

Irish Business Journal

Volatility in dairy commodity markets has become a major concern for many in the dairy supply chain and is likely to remain so in the future. Changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) over the past decade have more closely aligned EU and World prices and their associated volatilities. The aim of this paper is to measure volatility at farm level in Ireland over time, identify possible reasons for the increased volatility and identify ways of reducing volatility. Statistical measures such as coefficient of variation (CV) and annualised standard deviation are used to provide measures of past volatility and its …

Financial Inclusion And Natural Disasters, Benjamin L. Collier

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation explores the implications of natural disaster risk for access to financial services, especially credit. Its results show that disasters can dramatically undermine the ability of financial intermediaries (FIs) to lend after an event, increasing the cost of the disaster and delaying recovery. Moreover, the risk of natural disasters discourages investment in vulnerable regions and economic sectors and so slows economic development. Financial risk transfer mechanisms such as insurance can help maintain lending following an event. While many international development projects have targeted disaster insurance markets to households, managing disaster-related credit risk may be done more effectively through insurance …

Fossil Fuel Subsidies: Impacts And Reform Strategies, Jennifer E. Good

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that …

Valuing Improvements To Coastal Waters Using Choice Experiments: An Application To Revisions Of The Eu Bathing Waters Directive, Stephen Hynes, Dugald Tinch, Nick Hanley

Working Papers

Planned changes to the European Union’s Bathing Waters Directive (2006/7 EC) will force member states to produce improvements in a number of parameters of coastal water quality. This study uses the choice experiment method to estimate the economic benefits attached to such improvements, based on a sample of recreationalists on beaches in Ireland. The analysis indicates that improvements in all of the bathing water related attributes studied result in positive willingness to pay, and also show evidence of scope effects. Using random parameters and latent class modelling techniques, potential heterogeneity in preferences is then investigated and shown to be present …

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

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

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 …

The Resource Curse And Peru: A Potential Threat For The Future?, Sergio Cruz

Master's Theses

What explains the ability of some countries to successfully use their natural resources towards development and economic growth while for others stagnation and impoverishment? The resource curse theory has helped economists explain this observation. This work examines how Peru has been able to produce strong economic growth in the last 20 years despite the economy’s strong dependence on its natural resource extractive industry. Peru has been able to avoid many of the pitfalls and traps that resource curse literature considers to be detrimental to economic growth. This article examines the resource based economies of four other countries (Venezuela, Chile, Nigeria, …

World Food Crisis: Imperfect Markets Starving Development, A Decomposition Of Recent Food Price Increases, Christine Costello

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The recent decade has experienced two rather substantial food price spikes. This thesis sets out to provide an in-depth look at the recent food price increases by achieving two goals: assessing the forces driving food prices, and determining the magnitude of those forces. These goals are reached by reviewing selected rhetoric on the recent food price increases, analyzing case studies, and lastly determining our modeling capabilities in decomposing food price changes. Additionally, this thesis will serve as a tool for stakeholder's to better address critical policy issues surrounding food, agriculture, and energy policies.

Adviser: Hendrik Van Den Berg

Geopolitics: A Guide To The Issues, Bert Chapman

Libraries Research Publications

Provides overview of how geography influences international relations and international politics including climate change, energy security, international economics, and international security.  Introduces key figures in geopolitics development as a discipline such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Halford Mackinder, covers the geopolitical interests of individuals countries, describes disciplinary divisions within geopolitics, details international geopolitical crisis areas and provides maps of some of these areas, emphasizes geopolitics information resources, and stresses the critical importance of geography in studying international politics and security.

A Literary Analysis And Case Study Evaluation Of The Environmental, Cultural, And Economic Impacts Of Ecotourism, Ashley M. Driver

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2010, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

2010 annual report reviews the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and appraises the macroeconomic policies in 2010. the report is structured into two parts. Part 1 reviews the corporate operations of the bank, while the part 2 evaluates the performance of the economy against the challenges in both the thrust of monetary policy and other financial measures was to improve liquidity and enhance the efficiency and stability of the financial system without compromising the primary goal of monetary and price stability.

The Consequences Of Increasing Ocean Acidification On Local And Global Fishing Industries, Alyson N. Stark

CMC Senior Theses

As human activities continue to generate accelerating levels of carbon dioxide emissions, the world’s oceanic resources are threatened by variability in seawater chemistry, known as ocean acidification. Recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have resulted in decreased carbonate ion concentrations and ocean pH levels, leading to increasingly acidic waters. The exact consequences of these chemical changes on ecosystems and individual species are difficult to predict; however, research has shown that economically valuable calcifying species will experience reduced reproductive fitness and population declines. Ocean acidification, therefore, poses an immediate risk to both fish stocks and fishery industries. From a local perspective, …

Central Bank Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December, 2009, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the Year Ended 31st December, 2009 revealed that the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.7% YoY, compared to 6.0% in the previous year. This growth was driven by the non-oil sector, with the non-oil GDP growth rate of 8.3%. Within the non-oil sector, the agricultural sub-sector grew by 6.2%, while the whole-sector and retail sectors recorded growth rates of 11.5 and 10.5 per cent, respectively. The robust output recorded during the previous three years was driven by the government's optimism, which reflected in the oil …

Are Credit Unions In Ecuador Achieving Economies Of Scale?, Nick A. Marchio

Economics Honors Projects

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when membership grows too diffuse. To address this issue, this study uses a model that takes into account existing theory on constrained-optimization in credit unions and theory on the adverse effects of diffuse ownership. Using data on 36 public credit unions in Ecuador, the empirical analysis finds evidence that credit unions can achieve economies of scale despite their problematic structural features. …

Measurement Of The Market Data For The Ocean And Coastal Economy, Charles S. Colgan

Publications

This paper supplements reports and data released on the Coastal and Ocean Economies of the United States by the NOEP. It provides a discussion of the relevant literature involved in the investigation of the Ocean and Coastal related Economies, the theoretical background of measures such as gross domestic product (GDP) and gross state product (GSP), and provides details on sources, methods, assumptions, and limitations of the data provided by NOEP.

Those concerned with the health of coastal and ocean resources increasingly need to understand the socio-economic context in which changes are occurring. The market data of the National Ocean Economics …

Green Revolutions And Miracle Economies: Agricultural Innovation, Trade And Growth, Brishti Guha

Research Collection School Of Economics

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple model of an economy in which growth is driven by a combination of exogenous technical change in agriculture and a rising world demand for labor-intensive manufactured exports. We explore the relative roles of an exogenous agricultural productivity shock and rising export demand in a model with two traded industrial goods and a non-traded agricultural good, food. When the non-traded sector uses a specific factor, we show that technical change in agriculture may be the key to factor migration into industry, in particular driving intersectoral labor migration. A key assumption is …

California’S Ocean Economy, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Charles S. Colgan

Publications

California’s Ocean Economy is the most expansive study of its kind in the nation and provides an update to the 1994 economic study conducted by the California Research Bureau and later released as part of the Resources Agency ocean strategy titled, California’s Ocean Resources: An Agenda for the Future. This report from the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) provides a more comprehensive understanding of the economic role of California’s ocean resources than has been available to date. It also provides California with strong evidence that its unique ocean and coastal resources are important to sustaining California’s economy. This information highlights …

The Doha Round - 2004 Version, Clayton K. Yeutter

Clayton K. Yeutter, United States Secretary of Agriculture: Papers

Thank you, Sherman Katz. It is a pleasure always to participate in this CSIS Seminar, which is becoming an annual reunion for former USTRs. Trade is always on the front burner of world affairs, but that burner is especially hot at the moment! And it is as hot here in the U.S. as it is anywhere. So let's turn to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, and see where we stand.

The Doha Round: Comin' Allve?, Clayton K. Yeutter

Clayton K. Yeutter, United States Secretary of Agriculture: Papers

May I first pay compliments to the leadership of the Asian Development Bank for hosting this seminar. Asia has a huge stake in the success of the WTO generally, and the Doha Round specifically, but not everyone realizes that. So seminars of this _ nature are terribly important in providing focus to the Doha Round, encouragement to the negotiators, and in building public support for this endeavor. Let's hope we can accomplish those objectives here in Osaka.

United States Sugar Trade, Jeremy R. Meiners

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The best means to understand the effects of the tariff-rate quota system on production and consumption of sugar is by creating an economic model. By analyzing the most recent figures concerning consumption, importation, production, and tariff-rate quotas, an economic model of the sugar market of the United States can be produced. From this model, the effects of the removal of the tariff-rate quota system can be seen, as well as the effects on domestic consumers and producers. Through this model, an accurate picture of whom the tariff-rate quota affects and what these effects are is shown.