ASSET, ACTIVITY, AND INCOME DIVERSIFICATION AMONG AFRICAN AGRICULTURALISTS: SOME PRACTICAL ISSUES

This paper starts from the premise that diversification of assets, activities, and incomes is important to African rural households, in that diversification into nonfarm income constitutes on average about 45 percent of incomes, and the push and pull factors driving that diversification are bound to persist. From that premise, we noted that the empirical study of diversification has been beset by practical problems and issues relating to (1) definitions and concepts, (2) data collection, and to (3) measurement of the nature and extent of diversification. The paper addressed each of those problems. Two points are of special interest to the overall conceptualization of diversification research. The first is that empirical studies have exhibited a wide variety - bordering on confusion - of systems of classification of assets, activities, and incomes as pertains to diversification behavior. We argued that the classification should conform to that used in standard practice of national accounts and macro input-output table construction, classifying activities into economic sectors that have standard definitions, and the classification of which does not depend on the location or functional type (wage- or self-employment) of the activity. We further argued that given a sectoral classification, it is useful to make a functional and locational categorization of the activity, and keep each of these three dimensions of the activity - sectoral, functional, and locational - separate and distinct so as to avoid confusion. The second is that it is useful to have an image of a production function in mind when analyzing the components of diversification behavior: (1) assets are the factors of production, representing the capacity of the household to diversify; (2) activities are the ex ante production flows of asset services; (3) incomes are the ex post flows of incomes, and it is crucial to note that the goods and services produced by activities need to be valued by prices, formed by markets at meso and macro levels, in order to be the measured outcomes called incomes. "Livelihoods" is a term used frequently in recent diversification research, and while its meaning differs somewhat over studies, it generally means household and community behavior, with respect to holdings and use of assets and the productive activities to which the assets are applied. The link between livelihoods and incomes needs to be made by valuing the output of livelihood activities at market (and/or virtual) prices. That valuation permits an analytical link between household/community behavior (thus a micro view of diversification) and the aggregate functioning of markets (thus a link with the meso and macro levels and the policies pertaining thereto).Agribusiness, O, Q12,

CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF GROUNDWATER PROTECTION PROGRAMS

Three conjoint models-a traditional ratings model, a ratings difference specification, and a binary response model-were used to value groundwater protection program alternatives. The last, which is virtually identical to a dichotomous choice contingent valuation specification, produced the smallest value estimates. This suggests that the conjoint model is very sensitive to model specifications and that traditional conjoint models may overestimate economic value because many respondents are not in the market for the commodity being valued.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

HETEROGENEOUS CONSTRAINTS, INCENTIVES AND INCOME DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGIES IN RURAL AFRICA

A burgeoning recent literature emphasizes "livelihood" diversification among smallholder populations (Chambers and Conway 1992, Davies 1993, Ellis 1998, Bryceson 1999, Ellis 2000, Little et al. 2001). While definitions vary within this literature, the concept of livelihoods revolves around the opportunity set afforded an individual or household by their asset endowment and their chosen allocation of those assets across various activities to generate a stream of benefits, most commonly measured as income. This holistic perspective has the potential to enhance our understanding of the strategies that farm households pursue to ensure food and income security given the natural and economic environment in which they operate. Diversification patterns reflect individuals' voluntary exchange of assets and their allocation of assets across various activities so as to achieve an optimal balance between expected returns and risk exposure conditional on the constraints they face (e.g., due to missing or incomplete markets for credit, labor, or land). Because it offers a glimpse as to what people presently consider their most attractive options, given the incentives and constraints they face, the study of diversification behavior offers important insights as to what policy or project interventions might effectively improve either the poor's asset holdings or their access to higher return or lower risk uses of the assets they already possess. Since diversification is not an end unto itself, it is essential to connect observed livelihood strategies back to resulting income distributions and poverty. Not all diversification into off-farm or non-farm income earning activities offers the same benefits and not all households have equal access to the more lucrative diversification options. Yet the livelihoods literature offers little documentation or explanation of important differences between observed diversification strategies. This paper addresses that gap by offering a comparative analysis using data from three different countries, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya and Rwanda. Like Dercon and Krishnan (1996) and Omamo (1999), we emphasize that interhousehold heterogeneity in constraints and incentives must factor prominently in any sensible explanation of observed diversification behaviors. Indeed, section 4 demonstrates that at a very fundamental level - the choice of basic livelihood strategy - households would prefer locally available livelihood strategies other than those they choose, were they not constrained from doing so. A simple appeal to the principle of revealed preference thus suggests that heterogeneous constraints and incentives play a fundamental role in determining livelihood diversification patterns manifest in income diversification data. The plan for the remainder of this paper is as follows. The next section presents the basic conceptual foundation from which we operate. Section 3 then introduces the data sets and definitions employed in the analysis. Section 4 presents findings relating to the observed variation in income sources across the income distribution, to distinct livelihood strategies pursued by rural African households, to the determinants of strategy choice, and to the effects of alternative livelihood strategies on income dynamics. These findings point especially to significant rural markets failures - especially with respect to finance and land - that force poorer subpopulations to select strategies offering demonstrably lower returns while wealthier subpopulations are able to enjoy higher return strategies to which entry is at least partly impeded by fixed costs and lower marginal costs of participation. Section 5 concludes.Labor and Human Capital, O & Q12,

Idiosyncratic shocks, risk management and welfare dynamics in rural Ghana

International Development, Risk and Uncertainty,

AGROINDUSTRIALIZATION IN EMERGING MARKETS: OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT

This article offers an overview for a special issue on agroindustrialization. It reviews eleven articles analyzing the agroindustrialization process in Latin America and Asia. It sets out a conceptual framework from the organizational economics and strategic management literature to enhance the understanding of the process of agroindustrialization from a competitive strategy point of view.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Smallholder Participation in Agricultural Value Chains: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents

Supermarkets, specialized wholesalers, and processors and agro-exporters’ agricultural value chains have begun to transform the marketing channels into which smallholder farmers sell produce in low-income economies. We develop a conceptual framework through which to study contracting between smallholders and a commodity-processing firm. We then conduct an empirical meta-analysis of agricultural value chains in five countries across three continents (Ghana, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Nicaragua). We document patterns of participation, the welfare gains associated with participation, reasons for non-participation, the significant extent of contract non-compliance, and the considerable dynamism of these value chains, as farmers and firms enter and exit frequently.

Smallholder Participation in Agricultural Value Chains: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents

Supermarkets, specialized wholesalers, and processors and agro-exporters’ agricultural value chains have begun to transform the marketing channels into which smallholder farmers sell produce in low-income economies. We develop a conceptual framework through which to study contracting between smallholders and a commodity-processing firm. We then conduct an empirical meta-analysis of agricultural value chains in five countries across three continents (Ghana, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Nicaragua). We document patterns of participation, the welfare gains associated with participation, reasons for non-participation, the significant extent of contract non-compliance, and the considerable dynamism of these value chains, as farmers and firms enter and exit frequently.Agricultural Value Chains, Contract Farming, Africa, Asia, Latin America

Bayesian log-Gaussian Cox process regression: applications to meta-analysis of neuroimaging working memory studies

Working memory (WM) was one of the first cognitive processes studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging. With now over 20 years of studies on WM, each study with tiny sample sizes, there is a need for meta-analysis to identify the brain regions that are consistently activated by WM tasks, and to understand the interstudy variation in those activations. However, current methods in the field cannot fully account for the spatial nature of neuroimaging meta-analysis data or the heterogeneity observed among WM studies. In this work, we propose a fully Bayesian random-effects metaregression model based on log-Gaussian Cox processes, which can be used for meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. An efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo scheme for posterior simulations is presented which makes use of some recent advances in parallel computing using graphics processing units. Application of the proposed model to a real data set provides valuable insights regarding the function of the WM

Why, or Why Not, Be an Originalist?

On November 15, 2019, the Federalist Society hosted the second showcase panel of the 2019 National Lawyers Convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The topic of the panel was “Why, or Why Not, Be an Originalist?” There are a variety of arguments for following originalism today, such as justifications rooted in language, positivism, sovereignty, and consequences. This panel would look at many normative positions for and against originalism