Prospects of fish supply-demand and its implications for food and nutrition security in Egypt

Aquaculture plays an increasingly important role in meeting the rising global demand for fish fuelled by economic and demographic growth. However, in many middle income countries, the growth of aquaculture is constrained by rising labor costs, limited input supply, environmental concerns, and infectious diseases. In this paper, we developed a multi species, multi sector equilibrium model and applied it to the fishery sector of Egypt, a leading aquaculture producer in Africa, to examine these barriers. Projection results show that rising wage rates would slow down the growth of labour-intensive aquaculture compared to those that use relatively less labour. The demand for feed, seed inputs and water use for aquaculture would substantially increase. The results also show that disease outbreaks would possibly affect production sectors via output reduction and also consumers via increases in fish price. Our findings suggest that stabilising the prices of feed and seed, investments in disease control and input use efficiency improvement technologies, including water use, are important while the overall effectiveness of tax instruments is modest. Though calibrated to Egypt, our approach can be applied to other middle size national aquaculture industries.

Commuting without Polluting: The Economic Geography of Active Transport in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>New Zealand has one of the highest rates of car ownership in the world and as such contributes disproportionately to global climate change, cardiovascular disease and obesity. This need not be the case for, among other things, New Zealand cities have the potential to increase the use of walking and cycling. There is substantial evidence that modifying the urban form and design of neighbourhoods can influence the use of active transport. However factors such as those related to employment and income have so far received far less attention as possible influences. This thesis explores the impact of income on the use of active modes of transport for commuting. Modal choice is sensitive to both income and relative costs. While historically the car has replaced walking and cycling as wage rates have risen, in cross section the relationship between income and active commuting takes quite a different form. While higher incomes do allow people to purchase motorised transport, they also allow workers to purchase shorter commutes and to integrate active modes into more complex trip chains. As a result, the probability of active commuting rises with income. As such, raising urban density can help stem some of the negative environmental and health effects of rising affluence.</p>

Commuting without Polluting: The Economic Geography of Active Transport in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>New Zealand has one of the highest rates of car ownership in the world and as such contributes disproportionately to global climate change, cardiovascular disease and obesity. This need not be the case for, among other things, New Zealand cities have the potential to increase the use of walking and cycling. There is substantial evidence that modifying the urban form and design of neighbourhoods can influence the use of active transport. However factors such as those related to employment and income have so far received far less attention as possible influences. This thesis explores the impact of income on the use of active modes of transport for commuting. Modal choice is sensitive to both income and relative costs. While historically the car has replaced walking and cycling as wage rates have risen, in cross section the relationship between income and active commuting takes quite a different form. While higher incomes do allow people to purchase motorised transport, they also allow workers to purchase shorter commutes and to integrate active modes into more complex trip chains. As a result, the probability of active commuting rises with income. As such, raising urban density can help stem some of the negative environmental and health effects of rising affluence.</p>

Development and Application of a New Zealand General Equilibrium Model

<p>Whether a country gains or loses from dismantling protection is a question which has received much attention in overseas studies; studies which deal both with the relevant theory and with actual measurement. The topic has not been well analysed in the New Zealand context. Discussion amongst economists and other interested parties has certainly occurred but this has been based more on philosophical and political considerations than on applied economic research. Since questions of protection reform affect the whole economy it is inappropriate to study such problems in a partial or selective framework which cannot capture the interdependencies between each and every sector in the economy. A multi-sectoral general equilibrium model overcomes this deficiency. This thesis is concerned with the development and application of such a model. The model (named JULIANNE) is a medium term policy model designed to answer 'what if' type questions, particularly questions about trade and structure. It is not a forecasting model. Its role is rather like that of a laboratory in the natural sciences, where experiments can be conducted in a situation where certain aspects of the (economic) environment can be controlled by the researcher so that it is possible to measure the relationships between the variables of interest. The closer the environment is to the 'real world' the easier it is to apply deductions from the experiment to reality. But even quite artificial experiments can yield useful insights. The thesis comprises eleven chapters, the first three of which introduce and develop the model, examining some of the overseas general equilibrium models and assessing some of the problems which need to be addressed when constructing such a model for New Zealand; a model with an emphasis on trade and structure. The following three chapters present the JULIANNE model including its equations, a detailed explanation of its features and routines, and its method of solution, which for general equilibrium models is a most important consideration as it distinguishes the purely abstract Walrasian model from a model which is actually computable. Chapters 7 and 8 apply the model to various problems, especially to protection reform, but also to other interesting topics such as export subsidisation, relative occupational wage rates and medium term projections. The issue of model validation (in a general sense) is also covered. In Chapter 9 the model is extended from a single period snapshot model into a multi-period dynamic model, essentially introducing another variable; time, that can be controlled by the experimenter. Some of the results from Chapters 7 and 8 are then reassessed with the extended model, as described in Chapter 10. Results from the application of the model to questions about the effects of changes in protection enabled one to conclude that under flexible factor prices with fixed factor employment, the gains from freer trade vary directly with the values of the export price elasticities of demand, with the potential for economies of scale arising from specialization, and with the time horizon under consideration. They vary inversely with the values of the elasticities of substitution both between domestic and imported goods of a given type, and between goods of different types. Under a different labour market asumption, namely fixed real wage rates and flexible employment, the case for free trade is much stronger (that is, for a given set of parameter values). The profile of protection across sectors can also be important with the not improbable chance that a low uniform level of protection is superior to complete free trade, again depending on parameter values and the characteristics of the labour market. In this connection the observed uniformity of the current protection regime is very dependent on the degree of sectoral disaggregation identified in the model. As the degree of disaggregation increases, the potential for specialization also increases, as does the potential for substitution between different commodity types. Just how important these issues are, is a question for future research.</p>

Development and Application of a New Zealand General Equilibrium Model

<p>Whether a country gains or loses from dismantling protection is a question which has received much attention in overseas studies; studies which deal both with the relevant theory and with actual measurement. The topic has not been well analysed in the New Zealand context. Discussion amongst economists and other interested parties has certainly occurred but this has been based more on philosophical and political considerations than on applied economic research. Since questions of protection reform affect the whole economy it is inappropriate to study such problems in a partial or selective framework which cannot capture the interdependencies between each and every sector in the economy. A multi-sectoral general equilibrium model overcomes this deficiency. This thesis is concerned with the development and application of such a model. The model (named JULIANNE) is a medium term policy model designed to answer 'what if' type questions, particularly questions about trade and structure. It is not a forecasting model. Its role is rather like that of a laboratory in the natural sciences, where experiments can be conducted in a situation where certain aspects of the (economic) environment can be controlled by the researcher so that it is possible to measure the relationships between the variables of interest. The closer the environment is to the 'real world' the easier it is to apply deductions from the experiment to reality. But even quite artificial experiments can yield useful insights. The thesis comprises eleven chapters, the first three of which introduce and develop the model, examining some of the overseas general equilibrium models and assessing some of the problems which need to be addressed when constructing such a model for New Zealand; a model with an emphasis on trade and structure. The following three chapters present the JULIANNE model including its equations, a detailed explanation of its features and routines, and its method of solution, which for general equilibrium models is a most important consideration as it distinguishes the purely abstract Walrasian model from a model which is actually computable. Chapters 7 and 8 apply the model to various problems, especially to protection reform, but also to other interesting topics such as export subsidisation, relative occupational wage rates and medium term projections. The issue of model validation (in a general sense) is also covered. In Chapter 9 the model is extended from a single period snapshot model into a multi-period dynamic model, essentially introducing another variable; time, that can be controlled by the experimenter. Some of the results from Chapters 7 and 8 are then reassessed with the extended model, as described in Chapter 10. Results from the application of the model to questions about the effects of changes in protection enabled one to conclude that under flexible factor prices with fixed factor employment, the gains from freer trade vary directly with the values of the export price elasticities of demand, with the potential for economies of scale arising from specialization, and with the time horizon under consideration. They vary inversely with the values of the elasticities of substitution both between domestic and imported goods of a given type, and between goods of different types. Under a different labour market asumption, namely fixed real wage rates and flexible employment, the case for free trade is much stronger (that is, for a given set of parameter values). The profile of protection across sectors can also be important with the not improbable chance that a low uniform level of protection is superior to complete free trade, again depending on parameter values and the characteristics of the labour market. In this connection the observed uniformity of the current protection regime is very dependent on the degree of sectoral disaggregation identified in the model. As the degree of disaggregation increases, the potential for specialization also increases, as does the potential for substitution between different commodity types. Just how important these issues are, is a question for future research.</p>

CONSTRAINTS FACED DURING THE PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF CABBAGE AND POTATO CROPS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MANIPUR AND NAGALAND STATES OF INDIA

The present study was carried out by purposively simple stratified random sampling technique to select 300 respondents from both the states of Manipur and Nagaland, while to highlight the constraint faced by the growers during the production and marketing of cabbage and potato crops with Garrett Ranking Technique. For the production viz.; seed, labour, manures and fertilizers, irrigation, PPCs and other issues like animals, pests and diseases, have hampered of the potato and cabbage in the selected areas. While for marketing high price of the seed, not available in time, inferior quality of seed, low reliability of the seed, high wage rates of labour, skill & unskilled labour not available in time, irrigation facility not available, perennial sources are not available and irrigation facility not reliable etc; While for the market related issues, grading by hand & mechanical means, lack of knowledge regarding packaging, packing materials, high cost of transportation, lack of market infrastructures, unauthorized & illegal tax collections, use of improper scales in weighing, lack of support prices, lack of reliable & timely availability of market information and distant market along with the lack of cooperation among the producers and frequent ban & social boycott are some of the problems and constraints encountered by the entire producers and market intermediaries in the region.

No Magic for Market Entry in the Field: Evidence from Taxi Markets

We study taxi markets in Singapore to understand market entry in the field. Although market-entry games in the laboratory consistently produce equilibrium outcomes, we show that a lack of market knowledge hinders the markets from consistently reaching equilibrium in the field. In Singapore, a small, 720-square-kilometre island city that can be divided into 29 taxi markets, full equilibrium is elusive: 68% of the market-entry decisions made by the 2,728 taxi drivers in our data could be improved. Using three months of earnings and detailed movement data from these taxi drivers, we find an average 20% gap in marginal wage rates across markets. We use dynamic programming to derive the optimal solution for more than 3 million search decisions and find that only 32% of the searches ended in an optimal market. Finally, we find that market knowledge developed in a given month explains an additional 3% variation of the earning losses in the 2.6 million decisions for the subsequent two months, an improvement in model fit of 74%, whereas strategic thinking and minimization risk have no impact on earning loss. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Accelerating Employability through Social Safety Net in Rural Bangladesh: Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest

This article assesses the effectiveness of the employment generation programme for the poorest (EGPP) and its impact on ensuring employment opportunities and employability of targeted beneficiaries in rural areas in Bangladesh. In particular, it examines the appropriateness of targeted beneficiaries, selection, and the impact of the programme on changing their livelihood and economic indicators. Respondents were selected from 12 unions of four districts of the Chattogram division, and data were collected using the interview method and key informant interview. First, the findings suggest that accurately selecting beneficiaries and households was a challenging task owing to inappropriate wage rates, social context and political influences. Besides, misappropriation of the selection process of beneficiaries is one of the main concerns of this programme. Second, the EGPP has improved the income levels of a significant number of beneficiaries and made a positive impact on their certain basic needs and livelihood indicators. Despite drawbacks in the implementation, the study concludes that the provision of adequate measures of employment generation programmes based on equity and geographical demands will notably contribute to ensuring the employability of the unemployed and marginalised sections of the country.

Efficiency Assessment of Transport Manufacturing Firms using a Stochastic Frontier Analysis Approach

This paper aims to analyze the level of technical efficiency and determinants of technical inefficiency of transport manufacturing firms in Malaysia using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approach from 2005 to 2010. Through SFA approach, hypothesis test is conducted in order to select Cobb-Douglas or Translog production function and testing the effects of technical inefficiencies. While the determining factors that been taken into account include the capital-labor ratio, training expenses, education level ratio, wage rate, information and communication technology expenditure, and firm size. Hypothesis test results show that the Cobb-Douglas production function is rejected. While the test for the effect of technical inefficiency shows its existence. Training expenses, secondary and tertiary education level ratios, wage rates and information and communication technology expenses are significant determinants for transportation manufacturing firms. However, the capital-labor ratio was found that it has reduced the level of technical efficiency. The implications of these results show that firms need to focus on investing in human capital, information technology and increase motivation among employees such as rising wage rates and reducing the use of capital appropriate to the technology.

The role of unpaid domestic work in explaining the gender gap in the (monetary) value of leisure

The value of travel time savings (VTTS) representing the willingness to pay to reduce travel time, consists of two components: the value of liberating time [equal to the value of leisure (VoL)] and the value of time assigned to travel (VTAT), representing the travel conditions of a trip. Their relative values indicate which dimension to emphasize when investing in transport: speed or comfort. In this paper, we formulate and estimate a framework aimed at the improvement in the estimation of the VoL. By introducing a novel treatment of time assigned to domestic work, we consider that unpaid labor should be assigned a wage rate as a measure of the expenses avoided when assigning time to those chores. We use state-of-the-art data on time use and expenses as well as online data on gig workers collected in Austria, and apply the time-use and expenditure model of Jara-Diaz et al. (Transp Res Part B 42(10):946–957, 2008). The wage rates for paid and unpaid work were combined to re-formulate the budget constraint, which affected women more than men due to the higher involvement of the former in domestic activities. Compared against the original estimation, the VoL changed from €10/h for men and €6/h for women to €9/h for both genders, which in turn yields a larger average VTAT, which becomes positive for public transport. As a conclusion, the novel treatment of domestic labor contributes to closing the gap in the VoL between genders and highlights the power of unveiling the components behind the VTTS. The empirical findings imply that investments in travel time reductions rather than in comfort should be prioritized, given the very good conditions of public transport in Austria.