https://academic.oup.com/erae/issue/50/1
Regression discontinuity designs in agricultural and environmental economics
David Wuepper, Robert Finger
Date labels, food waste and supply chain implications
Bradley J Rickard, Shuay-Tsyr Ho, Florine Livat, Abigail M Okrent
A welfare analysis of Norway’s export promotion programme for whitefish
Henry W Kinnucan, Abhipsita Das, Ingrid Kristine PettersenAuction versus direct sale: the effect of buyers and sellers on prices
Geir Sogn-Grundvåg, Dengjun Zhang
Visa for competitiveness: foreign workforce and Italian dairy farms’ performance
Federico Antonioli, Simone Severini, Mauro Vigani
COVID-19 income and price shocks effect on household food access in Malawi
Maria Sassi, Gopal Trital
Careers in arm’s-length contracting: evidence from the Chilean wine-grape market
Pilar Jano, Brent Hueth
Regression discontinuity designs in agricultural and environmental economics
David Wuepper Robert FingerAbstract：Regression discontinuity designs (RDD) are increasingly being employed in agricultural and environmental economics to identify causal effects. Here, we showcase recent applications, identify best practices, discuss commonly invoked identifying assumptions and show how these can be tested. We discuss basic empirical issues and more advanced topics, including how to exploit the availability of panel data, models to explain heterogeneous treatment effects and extrapolation of local estimates. Moreover, we show how agricultural economists can leverage RDD in combination with remote sensing and environmental modelling. Finally, we highlight three areas of emerging opportunities and draw conclusions for research and policy.Date labels, food waste and supply chain implications
Bradley J Rickard Shuay-Tsyr Ho Florine Livat Abigail M OkrentAbstract：We developed a survey to collect information on consumers’ intentions to discard 15 food products when exposed to different date labels. Results show that the use of certain date labels has the capacity to reduce food waste, but the reductions would happen differentially across food groups. When we examine the nutritional implications, we find that a shift from the ‘Best by’ date label to the ‘Best if Used by’ date label would increase total household purchases of energy and lead to a disproportional increase in purchases of fats, cholesterol and protein.A welfare analysis of Norway’s export promotion programme for whitefish
Henry W Kinnucan Abhipsita Das Ingrid Kristine PettersenAbstract：Norway recently increased the effective levy used to fund its export promotion programme for whitefish by 21 per cent. Study results suggest the intensified programme is welfare increasing. The net social gain, defined as the difference between the increase in economic surplus associated with the increased advertising and the decrease in economic surplus associated with the increased effective levy, is estimated at between $20 million and $136 million per year, for a best-bet estimate $60 million. The associated benefit–cost ratio (BCR), defined as the ratio of the aforementioned changes in economic surplus, is estimated at between 11 and 71, for a best-bet estimate of 32. The BCR is invariant to the supply elasticity. The invariance property is useful as it implies that the BCR can be estimated using strictly demand-side information; there is no need to estimate the supply side of the market. The current levy of 0.75 per cent appears to be well below the levy that would maximise producer welfare.Auction versus direct sale: the effect of buyers and sellers on prices
Geir Sogn-Grundvåg Dengjun ZhangAbstract：This study examines the question of selling agricultural commodities by auction or directly. Hedonic price analysis using transaction data from the sale of frozen cod in Norway shows that buyer–seller matches explain 32.4 and 13.6 per cent of the price variation in direct sales and auctions, respectively, indicating that direct sales are more informationally efficient than auctions. Meanwhile, auctions gain a price premium of 2.6 per cent over direct sales, holding other variables constant. However, a substantial increase in the use of direct sales indicates that their information efficiency is more important to sellers than the small price premium provided by auctions.Visa for competitiveness: foreign workforce and Italian dairy farms’ performance
Federico Antonioli Simone Severini Mauro ViganiAbstract：This paper studies the impact of foreign labour on the competitiveness of Italian dairy farms relying on the theory of foreign labour in profit functions. Application of an endogenous switching regression model identifies the drivers of adoption of the immigrant workforce. A counterfactual analysis performed on unit labour costs between farms employing and non-employing immigrants suggests the essential role of foreign farmworkers on dairy farms’ competitiveness, which provide a cheaper source of labour. The lower unit labour cost for immigrant workers resembles staunch support to the newly introduced ‘social conditionality’, for a CAP delivering also for farmworkers.COVID-19 income and price shocks effect on household food access in Malawi
Abstract：The paper contributes to the scarce literature on the negative effect of coronavirus 2019-induced income and food price shocks on household economic access to food, focusing on Malawi during the first two pandemic waves and using a country representative sample. We find that household income reduction, as explained by income source shocks and health mitigation measures, has a wave-specific and persistent effect on ordinal categories of food security perception. Our evidence supports the implementation and monthly scaling-up of nutrition-sensitive social protection programmes and health measures at the household level to address these adverse effects.Careers in arm’s-length contracting: evidence from the Chilean wine-grape market
Abstract：This paper investigates the presence of career and promotion-based incentives in the context of arm’s-length contracting between wineries and independent wine-grape farmers. We hypothesise that long-term contracts represent a stage in a farmer’s career after a series of short-term contracts. We develop a conceptual framework to frame the interaction between explicit performance incentives and implicit career incentives arising from the possibility of promotion to a long-term contract, conditional on wineries learning a farmer’s potential for superior-quality production. Based on data from Chilean wine-grape farmers, we find evidence suggesting that implicit market-based incentives, usually studied in the context of employment contracts, are also important in arm’s-length contracts used in procurement of farm output.
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编辑：秦运兰
审核：龙文进