Measuring Impact of Air and Agricultural Soil Pollution on Social Development in Saudi Arabia

This research aimed to measure the impact of air and agricultural soil pollution on social development in Saudi Arabia from the period 1995–2019 by using social development indicators, concentrating on the percentages of expenditure on education and health, and the Human Development Index. In addition, this study uses multiple regressions in estimating the model to study the impact of air pollution and agricultural soil on social development. Results of the study showed that a 10% change in the number of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in Saudi agriculture leads to a change in the total number of inpatients by 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively. It was also found that an increased percentage of health expenditure to total government spending by 10% leads to a decrease in the total number of patients in the hospital by 1.8%. An increase in air pollution, expressed as a 10% increase in CO2 emissions, increases the total number of hospitalized patients by 11.1%.  The increasing total number of patients by 10% leads to a decrease in the total productivity of the worker, as an indicator of 1.8%. Furthermore, a change of 10% in the ratio of education expenditure to total government expenditure leads to a change in the same direction of the Human Development Index by 9.6%. In light of these results, it can be recommended that the country need to reduce air pollution by expanding the use of natural gas in the industrial and transportation sectors, in addition to reducing the use of nitrogenous fertilizers and pesticides in Saudi agriculture through the expansion of clean farming and good agricultural practices

Technical, Allocative, and Economic Efficiencies of Broiler Farms in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia: Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Broiler farms in Central Saudi Arabia require substantial high investment costs and competent management. Some of the farms have experienced a wide range of technical and managerial problems. Some farms are operated at less than full capacity while others have ceased operations. The aim here is to determine the performance of the farms that remain, to measure their technical, allocative, and economic efficiencies, and to determine if the mean technical efficiency differs between small and large farms. The Data Envelopment Analysis approach (DEA) is used to estimate the technical, allocative, and economic efficiencies of broiler farms in the central region of Saudi Arabia by determining which farms are located on the production frontier and which are not. The mean technical efficiency of small farms is compared with that of large farms to determine if policy instruments should be targeted toward small or large farms. Overall technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures estimated from the DEA approach and their frequency distributions with CRS and VRS are presented. Under the CRS assumption, the estimated mean TE measure for the broiler farms is 72.9%. With the VRS model the mean technical efficiency was estimated to be 81%. The mean allocative (AE) and cost or economic (EE) efficiency measures estimated from the DEA frontier are 77.9% and 56.4%, respectively, for CRS, and 81.9% and 66.4% for VRS indicating that costs could be reduced by approximately 20%, if all of the farms were allocatively efficient. The mean TE estimated for small farms for the CRS and VRS DEA approaches are 82.1% and 87.2%. This result means that the small farms could produced the same level of output at approximately 17.9% less cost if the operation was technically efficient if CRS is assumed, or by 12.8% if VRS is assumed. The mean allocative (AE) and economic (EE) efficiency measures estimated with the DEA model are 71% and 58.5%, respectively, for CRS, and 74.5% and 65.3% for VRS. The mean technical efficiencies estimated for the large farms for CRS and VRS DEA approaches are 81.6% and 89.9%. The mean allocative (AE) and economic (EE) efficiency measures estimated from DEA frontier are 84.5% and 68.3%, respectively, for CRS, and 88.5% and 79.5% for VRS

The Economic Impacts of Taxes Policies on Vegetables Pricesin Saudi Arabia

The aims of this study is to study and investigate the effect of using tax policies on Vegetables Prices in Saudi Arabia according to the rules of WTO to policy makers in the appropriate departments to protect local production, and to help the producers to face their problems specially the competitions of imported products. The study used secondary data for the period 1999-2002 and used the nominal production coefficient and relative prices to measure the effect of different prices policies on Vegetables Prices in Saudi Arabia. The study shows that the used of (Roznama ) caused an affirmative protection for the most of studied vegetables during the seasons and during the rest of the year, while some local vegetables facing variation competition, where the whole sale imported prices less than whole sale local prices between 5% and 29% during the season and between 9% and 14% during the rest of the year. So, it is appropriate to determine ceiling prices for vegetables instead of (Roznama) in order to protect local production