Spatial Econometric Analysis: Potential Contribution to the Economic Analysis of Smallholder Development
The stars appear to be aligned for a sustained effort to improve information to rural development policy makers about the impact space has on the opportunities for development of the ubiquitous smallholder households in rural areas of Southeast Asian countries. The influences of spatially heterogeneous resource constraints on farming activities, distance to markets and institutions, and spatial interaction among smallholders can now be better accounted for in modelling work as a result of improvements in analytical methodologies, the growing availability of so-called 'big data' and access to spatially defined information in panel data sets. The scope for taking advantage of these advances is demonstrated with two examples from a Southeast Asian country, the Philippines: spillovers and neighbourhood effects in impact studies and the development of sophisticated spatial stochastic frontier models to measure and decompose productivity growth on smallholdings.
Propensity to Buy Branded Beef Among Groups of Australian Beef Consumers
*Australian Beef Industry has evolved in: • Processing → A more integrated supply chain. • Quality evaluation system → Introduction of MSA grades. *Research Problem: • Eating Quality is guaranteed, but Product Information is low. • Small companies have survived by focusing on niches (Selling differentiated and branded products). • Large Australian beef-producing companies are not selling differentiated and branded products to Supermarkets. *The challenge for the industry → To develop a wider range of brands on a larger scale. Consumers could recognise different attributes, uses and origins. Is this possible?
The New World challenge: Performance trends in wine production in major wine-exporting countries in the 2000s and their implications for the Australian wine industry
Anderson, K., Nelgen, S., 2011. Global Wine Markets, 1961 to 2009: A Statistical Compendium. University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide publication of an index of revealed comparative advantage suggests that the Australian wine industry had come under increased competition from other 'New World' producers in the first decade of this century. We examine this influence by comparing the transformation of winegrapes into wine volume and value in the 11 largest wine-exporting countries during the years, 2000-2009. Our focus is on the challenge issued by other New World producers from the Southern Hemisphere to Australian producers, and the continuing challenge to Old World global supremacy by New World producers and its response. Four performance measures are used this study. Two key trends are evident. First, all countries migrated to higher price points, albeit with differing degrees of success: slightly declining productivity in transforming winegrapes into wine output was overwhelmed by price/quality effects, leading to substantial gains in transforming winegrapes into wine value. Second, New World producers plus Portugal and Spain were much more successful in achieving gains in their export value proposition than they were in extracting value in their domestic markets. Results show that Australian wine producers had lost some of their competitive advantage during the 2000s as their pre-existing strategy dominated by the export of high-volume wines by large companies at low to medium price points, and their reliance on a reputation for reliable good quality for the price point was beginning to fail in the face of competition from both New World and Old World producers. Acknowledgement of this outcome has led to a good deal of introspection, and recognition of the need to promote the wine regions of Australia, based on higher-quality wines, and to select and promote quality indicators.
Bayes inference about productivity in the presence of structural change
This study highlights the usefulness, versatility and general dexterity of an extremely robust methodology for assessing structural change in agriculture. The methodology is the multiple change point model estimator developed by Chib (1998). Despite its appeal it has, until now, remained hitherto unexploited in agricultural economics. We modify slightly the seminal prototype in Chib (1998) to embrace a rich set of rotating panel observations on agricultural cereals enterprises as assessed previously by Hadley (2006); 'Journal of Agricultural Economics' 57:81-100. We find evidence that multiple structural change occurred throughout the consecutive sample periods 1983:1986, 1989:1997, and 2000:2002.