The Farm Level Impacts of Replacing Current Farm Programs with a Whole Farm Revenue Program

This study evaluates the farm level economic impacts of implementing a whole farm revenue insurance program in lieu of current government program payments on agricultural producers in major production areas of the United States. Realizing a multitude of viable options exist, this study demonstrates one way a whole farm revenue coverage program could work at the farm level and makes comparisons between the current baseline situation and alternative levels of revenue coverage implementation.agricultural policy, simulation, representative farms, government payments, crop insurance, revenue coverage, Agricultural and Food Policy,

TESTING FOR EFFICIENCY: A POLICY ANALYSIS WITH PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

The study evaluates the efficiency of government intervention using a vertical structured model including imperfectly competitive agricultural input markets, the bread grain market, and the imperfectly competitive food industry. To test for policy efficiency the actually observed bread grain policy is compared to a hypothetical efficient policy. To account for the sensitivity of the results in regard to the model parameter values computer-intensive simulation procedures and surface response functions are utilized.agricultural policy, efficient combination of policy instruments, statistical policy analysis, Productivity Analysis,

Decision makers\u27 experience of participatory dynamic simulation modelling: Methods for public health policy

Background: Systems science methods such as dynamic simulation modelling are well suited to address questions about public health policy as they consider the complexity, context and dynamic nature of system-wide behaviours. Advances in technology have led to increased accessibility and interest in systems methods to address complex health policy issues. However, the involvement of policy decision makers in health-related simulation model development has been lacking. Where end-users have been included, there has been limited examination of their experience of the participatory modelling process and their views about the utility of the findings. This paper reports the experience of end-user decision makers, including senior public health policy makers and health service providers, who participated in three participatory simulation modelling for health policy case studies (alcohol related harm, childhood obesity prevention, diabetes in pregnancy), and their perceptions of the value and efficacy of this method in an applied health sector context. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with end-user participants from three participatory simulation modelling case studies in Australian real-world policy settings. Interviewees were employees of government agencies with jurisdiction over policy and program decisions and were purposively selected to include perspectives at different stages of model development. Results: The ‘co-production’ aspect of the participatory approach was highly valued. It was reported as an essential component of building understanding of the modelling process, and thus trust in the model and its outputs as a decision-support tool. The unique benefits of simulation modelling included its capacity to explore interactions of risk factors and combined interventions, and the impact of scaling up interventions. Participants also valued simulating new interventions prior to implementation in the real world, and the comprehensive mapping of evidence and its gaps to prioritise future research. The participatory aspect of simulation modelling was time and resource intensive and therefore most suited to high priority complex topics with contested options for intervening. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a participatory approach to dynamic simulation modelling to support its utility in applied health policy settings

Constants in Future Cities and Regions

The paper resumes some of the conversations the authors had in three years of research, based on the review of best participatory planning practices worldwide. The case projects are selected and discussed with the protagonists across four leading issues: Simulation, Scenario and Visioning, Government and Governance, and Scale. The case-oriented discussion is a peculiarity of the book , contributing to give shape to future cities or regions. The aim is to build a critical thinking on how urban planning, policy and design issues are faced differently or similarly throughout every cases studied. The book include the description of computer models and media, socio-political experiments and professional practices which help communicating the future effects of different design, policy and planning strategies and schemes with a wide range of aims: from information, through consultation, towards active participation. The cases have confirmed that simulation tools can impact on local government and can drive new forms of "glocal" governance, shaping and implementing future plans and projects at different scale and time span. The following paragraphs will point at some of the constant thoughts the authors had around the selection and editing of the book's case studied and related issue

Who Benefits from the Tariff Reforms?

Who benefits from the tariff reforms launched by the Philippine government from 1994-2000? On the basis of the results of his simulation runs, the author of this Policy Notes suggests that tariff reduction is generally pro-poor as shown by the drop in poverty incidence as a whole due to the increase in factor prices and decline in consumer prices. However, the simulation results also indicate that there is a bias in favor of factors employed in the manufacturing sector as industry expanded while agriculture contracted. More details are shown in this Policy Notes.unemployment, income distribution, computable general equilibrium (CGE), poverty, tariff reform

Agricultural Policy Adjustments in East Asia: The Korean Rice Economy

The processes of agricultural policy decision-making in the East Asian economies of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea are characterized by the complex interactions of competing special interest groups in their respective political arenas. An analytical model is designed to investigate how adjustments in rice price policies are endogenously related to the political economic forces associated with macroeconomic changes. The model is tested against the case of Korean rice price policy, which has not been satisfactorily explained in earlier modeling efforts. A political preference function is used to estimate the relative political weights of producers, consumers, and government over a 25-year period (1961-1985) during which major macroeconomic changes occurred. A simultaneous 12-equation model is then constructed to explore the effects of the macroeconomic changes on the rice pricing decisions through the estimated political weights. Highly significant econometric results are obtained to explain the pattern of increasing political influence of producers relative to that of consumers and government. Simulation experiments show how the patterns in the rice economy are linked to macroeconomic change. The results obtained, thus far, open the way for methodological improvements to further our functional understanding of agricultural policy adjustments in Korea and other East Asian economies.endogenous rice policy, political macroeconomy, political preference function, political weights, econometric simulation, East Asia, Korea, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,