Participation in “Planting for Food and Jobs” Programme and Commercialization among Maize Farm Households in Savelugu Municipality, Ghana

Ghana’s “Planting for Food and Job” programme aims to improve farmers’ access to farm inputs. The idea is that through improved access to quality seed varieties, fertilisers and good agronomic practices, output would increase leading to an increased market surplus. This study sought to investigate whether engagement in ‘Planting for Food and Job’ (PFJ ) programme influences farm households’ maize commercialization level in Savelugu Municipality, in the Northern Region of Ghana. To correct for selectivity bias, unobserved endogeneity and avoid the problems associated with weak instrumentation, the conditional mixed process (CMP) method was used. The results revealed that participation in the PFJ programme and maize yield positively influenced maize commercialization. However, commercialisation was negatively influenced by gender of the farm household's head, household size and membership of community based organisations (CBOs). Participation in the PFJ programme itself was enhanced by education, marital status, increased farm size, farm ownership, membership of farmer-based organization (FBOs) and non-farm engagement. Government and all relevant stakeholders should step up efforts at promoting the PFJ programme and maize commercialisation through access to formal education, farmland and other productivity enhancing inputs and services.

The Competitive Effects of Transmission Infrastructure in the Indian Electricity Market

The integration of markets may improve efficiency by lowering costs or reducing local market power. India, seeking to reduce electricity shortages, set up a new power market, in which transmission constraints sharply limit trade between regions. During congested hours, measures of market competitiveness fall and firms raise bid prices. I use confidential bidding data to estimate the costs of power supply and simulate market outcomes with more transmission capacity. Counterfactual simulations show that transmission expansion increases market surplus by 22 percent, enough to justify the investment. One-third of this gain is due to sellers’ response to a more integrated grid. (JEL H54, L13, L94, O13, Q41)

Analyzing Potato Market Participation, Market Surplus and Market Outlet Choice on Small Farm Household Level: the Case of Lemoworeda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

This study was aimed to analysis potato market participation, market surplus and market outlet choice in Lemo woreda of Hadiya zone southern Ethiopia. In this study, primary and secondary data source were employed. Data were obtained from a sample of 202 farm household. To take 202 sample farm household simple random sampling techniques were used. For data analysis, Heckman second stage and multivariate probit models were employed to identify factors that determine potato market participation decision and potato sale volume of the farm households, and potato farmer market outlet choice respectively. The Heckman's first stages (probit) indicates that education level, sex, membership in the cooperative, distance to the nearest market, remittent from family members, own transportation facilities, seed types, frequency of extension contact, lagged market price and amount of credit that farm household used for potato production determine potato market participation. Heckman the second stage (OLS) result shows that education level, cooperative membership, family size, total cropland, oxen owned, types of seed, and lagged market price were significantly determine potato marketed surplus. On the other side; the multivariate probit results showed that the probability of choosing wholesalers, retailers, collectors, and consumers market outlet choice significantly affected by age, educational level, sex, farm experiences, distance to near market, family size, remittance, land size, product supplied to the market, own transport facility and extension service. Based on the findings of the study, we recommend that the government and concerned stakeholders should focus on promoting improved potato seed, encouraging education, promoting farmers’ cooperatives, empowering females, strengthening rural-urban infrastructure, and protecting informal labor trading.

How Efficient are Decentralized Auction Platforms?

We model a decentralized, dynamic auction market platform in which a continuum of buyers and sellers participate in simultaneous, single-unit auctions each period. Our model accounts for the endogenous entry of agents and the impact of intertemporal optimization on bids. We estimate the structural primitives of our model using Kindle sales on eBay. We find that just over one-third of Kindle auctions on eBay result in an inefficient allocation with deadweight loss amounting to 14% of total possible market surplus. We also find that partial centralization—for example, running half as many 2-unit, uniform-price auctions each day—would eliminate a large fraction of the inefficiency, but yield lower seller revenues. Our results also highlight the importance of understanding platform composition effects—selection of agents into the market—in assessing the implications of market redesign. We also prove that the equilibrium of our model with a continuum of buyers and sellers is an approximate equilibrium of the analogous model with a finite number of agents.

Measuring Ex Ante Welfare in Insurance Markets

The willingness to pay for insurance captures the value of insurance against only the risk that remains when choices are observed. This article develops tools to measure the ex ante expected utility impact of insurance subsidies and mandates when choices are observed after some insurable information is revealed. The approach retains the transparency of using reduced-form willingness to pay and cost curves, but it adds one additional sufficient statistic: the percentage difference in marginal utilities between insured and uninsured. I provide an approach to estimate this additional statistic that uses only the reduced-form willingness to pay curve, combined with a measure of risk aversion. I compare the approach to structural approaches that require fully specifying the choice environment and information sets of individuals. I apply the approach using existing willingness to pay and cost curve estimates from the low-income health insurance exchange in Massachusetts. Ex ante optimal insurance prices are roughly 30% lower than prices that maximize observed market surplus. While mandates reduce market surplus, the results suggest they would actually increase ex ante expected utility.

The Economics of Distributed Ledger Technology for Securities Settlement

We apply economic principles to understand how distributed ledger technology (DLT) might impact the innovation process and eventual market structure in the security settlement industry. Our main conclusions are that: i) Although DLT has the potential to significantly reduce costs in securities settlement, implementation is challenging, ii) technological innovation in the post-trade industry is more likely to succeed with some degree of coordination, which could be facilitated by the relevant authorities, and iii) DLTbased securities settlement is likely to be concentrated among few providers which, absent any regulation, could result in inefficient monopoly pricing or efficient price discrimination with service providers capturing much of the market surplus

Buyer Uncertainty About Seller Capacity: Causes, Consequences, and a Partial Solution

Employers in an online labor market often pursue workers with little capacity to take on more work. The pursuit of low-capacity workers is consequential, as these workers are more likely to reject employer inquires, causing a reduction in the probability that a job opening is ultimately filled. In an attempt to shift more employer attention to workers with greater capacity, the market-designing platform examined in this paper introduced a new signaling feature into the market. It was effective, in that when a worker signaled having high capacity, he or she received more invitations from employers, rejected a smaller fraction of those invitations, quoted lower prices to do the work, and was more likely to be hired. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the signaling feature alone could increase market surplus by as much as 6%, both by increasing the number of matches formed and by helping to allocate projects to workers with lower costs. This paper was accepted by Lorin Hitt, information systems.

Tendencje na rynku masła i serów na świecie i w Polsce w latach 2001-2017

Changes in production and trends in shortages / market surpluses of butter and cheese in the world and in Poland in 2001-2017 were presented. Market surplus of butter increased in New Zealand, EU and Belarus, and decreased in Australia and Ukraine. Shortages grew in China, Mexico, Iran and Turkey, and decreased in Russia and Canada. Relatively balanced production and consumption occurred in India, Pakistan, the USA and Brazil. On the cheese market, surplus grew in: EU, USA, New Zealand, Argentina and Belarus, and decreased in Australia and Ukraine. The shortages grew in: Russia, Brazil, Mexico. In Poland, there were surpluses in butter and cheese production, which resulted in growing exports, directed mainly to EU countries. Prices of butter and cheese in EU countries and on the world market were characterized by convergence. At the beginning of the analyzed period, butter prices in the EU were 134% higher than on the world market, and cheese prices were higher by 92.6%, and in 2017 these differences were respectively 6% and 0.6%.

Transformation of Traditional Silvo-Pastoral Home-Gardens: A Case Study in Southern Sri Lanka

The Pasture Development Program on silvo-pastoral system in traditional home-gardens in Matara district was commenced with the aim of increasing milk production and income of the small-scale cattle farmers. The objectives of the study were to analyze ecosystem changes, economic trade-offs and social breakthroughs taken place in home-gardens after the program, with the aim of expanding the program coverage. The study was conducted through a field survey interviewing 34 farmers randomly selected from the participants. Tthe farmers have changed the composition of eco-systems in their home-gardens, replaced traditional grasses with CO3 fodder, and removed number of trees disturbing fodder cultivation. They have significantly lost some traditionally cultivated crops and trees due to competition with fodder during dry seasons. The farmers have significantly increased the milk yield per cow, market surplus and income, increased the amount of fodder sufficient to feed their cattle and little market surplus, and gradually adapted to cow-done as organic fertilizer. The social breakthroughs are identified as: reduced risk of conflicts with neighbors and theft of cattle, controlled damages caused by cattle to agricultural crops, reduced time spent on feeding cattle during dry seasons, increased domestic milk consumption, and increased the number of milk collecting centers induced by increased milk production. Although the Pasture Development Program have transformed the traditional home-gardens to improved silvo-pastoral system, community governance yet to be developed in order attract externalities particularly land use planning, technology development and policy support.