Spatial Price Dynamics and Asymmetric Price Transmission in Skim Milk Powder International Trade: Evidence from Export Prices for New Zealand and Ireland

A fast-changing global landscape highlights the importance of understanding spatial price dynamics in key international markets such as China, especially in the era of COVID-19 pandemic with international food trade and food system experiencing an unprecedented challenge. Nowadays, New Zealand’s dominant position in China’s dairy import market is being challenged by European Union (EU) dairy exporters leading to intensified market competition. Using monthly export data of skim milk powder (SMP), we applied threshold cointegration models along with asymmetric error correction models to examine spatial price dynamics and price transmissions of New Zealand and Ireland in Chinese and global markets. We found that New Zealand’s export prices retain their leadership position in China, Ireland’s export prices are well more aligned with those in international markets. In terms of own-country price transmission, Ireland’s relatively symmetric and swift adjustments were found to contrast with New Zealand’s SMP export prices, which displayed more asymmetric price transmissions

Spatial price transmission and strategic trade patterns for global dairy market

This thesis aims to make empirical contributions to spatial price transmission following market shocks in international agri-food trade markets with a focus on the dairy sector. It comprises one background, one literature review and three empirical studies on spatial price transmission of dairy product export prices at three different spatial levels, that is, national, regional and global, respectively. The thesis provides a comprehensive framework and analysis of spatial price transmission and market mechanisms for major dairy export countries (regions) under different shocks. At the national level, threshold cointegration models along with asymmetric error correction models are employed to examine spatial price transmission and price leadership for New Zealand and Ireland in the Chinese market and in the global market. A finding is that whereas New Zealand’s export prices maintain a leadership position in China, Ireland’s export prices are well integrated into global markets. In terms of price transmission, in contrast to Ireland’s relatively symmetric and swift adjustments, asymmetric price transmission from Chinese to global markets is found in New Zealand’s skim milk powder exports. At the regional level, Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) methodology was used to investigate market integration and price dynamics following shocks for both intra-EU and extra-EU exports in the EU cheese sector. Significant differences are evident in these two markets and the EU internal market is estimated to be better integrated than its external market. At the global level, a GVAR model was applied to understand butter export price transmission among geographically separated exporters as well as the dynamics of global butter export prices after shocks to macroeconomic factors and energy input prices, in both the short- and long-run. The study of this chapter finds that the global butter export market is not well integrated, with butter export prices greatly affected by palm oil prices, exchange rates and food inflation shocks. This thesis sheds light on the spatial price transmission of dairy export prices and deciphers interactions of export prices with various influencing factors in international trade. It addresses price leadership in a dairy major import country, market integration, as well as impacts of market shocks and the economic policy uncertainties on the export price and trade patterns for the global dairy sector. It also connects the research on dairy international trade to domestic dairy market and economic conditions, energy market and markets of the other commodities, thus highlighting the market mechanism and strategic trade patterns of the dairy sector in the contexts of dynamic economic and policy scenarios at global scope

Neo-gibberellin signaling: Guiding the next generation of the green revolution

The agricultural green revolution spectacularly enhanced crop yield and lodging resistance with modified DELLA-mediated gibberellin signaling. However, this was achieved at the expense of reduced nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE). Recently, Wu et al. revealed novel gibberellin signaling that provides a blueprint for improving tillering and NUE in Green Revolution varieties (GRVs)

The Impacts of Trade Facilitation Provisions on Fresh Agricultural Products Trade between China and the BRI Countries

Trade facilitation is essential to lowering overall trade costs and increasing economic returns on both the multilateral and regional levels. Trade facilitation is also an integral part of trade agreements and has become an important component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This paper adopts a time-varying stochastic frontier gravity model and a trade inefficiency model and assigns values to different trade facilitation provisions to construct relevant indicators to assess the impacts of the trade facilitation provisions of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) on trade efficiency between China and BRI countries, as well as on the current conditions and challenges of fresh agricultural product trade between China and countries of the BRI, using data from 2011 to 2020. The results show that the size of domestic markets and population positively affect agricultural trade between China and BRI countries, while geographical distance has a negative impact on their scale of trade. Moreover, this study finds that the obligations set out in trade facilitation provisions of RTAs play an important role in improving trade efficiency, and among these trade facilitation obligations improving the legal provisions of “information transparency”, “customs cooperation” and “advance ruling” can significantly improve trade efficiency, however, some measures relating to “formalities” could potentially constitute barriers to trade. This study innovatively carried out an analysis of the impact of trade facilitation provisions on agricultural trade flows and efficiency from the perspectives of international trade law and economics and provides new policy recommendations for BRI countries to support agricultural trade

The Impact of ICT Capital Services on Economic Growth and Energy Efficiency in China

This study aims to investigate the impact of ICT capital services on economic growth and energy efficiency in China at both national and industrial levels during the period 2000–2020. To achieve this aim, this study introduces a measurement method for capital services, explores ICT’s contributions to economic growth, and analyzes the impact of ICT on energy efficiency. The empirical results of this study indicate that although the ICT capital services scale is relatively small, accounting for only 8.87% of the total in 2020, its growth rate is faster than that of non-ICT capital services, and the distribution of ICT capital services varies widely among different industries. Additionally, based on the economic growth decomposition framework, this study finds that the contribution of ICT capital services to economic growth is 6.95% on average. It is significantly higher in certain industries, such as Financial industry; Information transmission, software and information technology services; Construction; and Manufacturing compared to others. The total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) reveals that industries with higher energy consumption have lower energy efficiency, while the panel regression model illustrates that the development of ICT has a positive impact on improving energy efficiency, with variability across industries. Overall, the findings of this study provide crucial scientific evidence and policy implications for promoting the development of ICT and integrating it with various industries, which can significantly contribute to boosting economic growth and energy efficiency

The Impact of High-Quality Energy Development and Technological Innovation on the Real Economy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China: A Spatial Economic and Threshold Effect Analysis

The sustainable economic development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is a significant part of China’s regional development strategy. The article selects panel data from 11 provinces of the region from 2004 to 2020 and constructs a spatial economic model and a threshold effect model to investigate the impact of energy development and technological innovation on the real economy of this region. The result indicates that technological innovation plays a significantly beneficial role in supporting the development of the local real economy, while its spatial spillover effect to neighboring provinces is not significant. Energy development has a significant negative impact on both the local real economy and that of the neighboring provinces. Such impact is shaped by the threshold effect of the level of technological innovation

Governance and Actions for Resilient Urban Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Lessons and Challenges in China

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically challenged urban food systems, has hurt the resilience and fundamental function of urban food systems and also accelerated the trends of digitization and changing preferences of consumers in cities. This research conducted a qualitative analysis of the discourses, actions and interactions of different actors in the urban food systems in China during COVID-19 using an actor-oriented approach and discourse analysis. This research finds that stricter regulations and policies have been implemented by governments to regulate the food supply chain and ensure human health. Local community service personnel, volunteers, stakeholders along the food supply chain and consumers formulated collective actions during the pandemic yet chaos and discourse distortions also emerged at different stages. The pandemic is a preamble to changes in consumers’ preferences and food supply chains in urban communities. There were significant structural changes and a dual structure of urban and rural food systems, where unbalanced supply and demand existed. Collective actions with community governance and an innovative food business model to digitize flows and easily adapt to shocks in food systems are required

Spatial Price Transmission and Price Dynamics of Global Butter Export Market under Economic Shocks

Recently, the world has experienced striking economic and policy changes, and subsequent uncertainties have impacts on dairy trade price fluctuations. The Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) methodology was established in this paper to better understand international butter export prices transmission, the feedback between the economic context changes and price fluctuations, and the link between the global butter market, energy market, and other commodity markets. We assessed which key factors are typically associated with butter export price movements with regards to shocks to crude oil price, palm oil price, farm-gate raw milk price, exchange rates, and consumer price index (CPI) for food of the EU, New Zealand, the U.S., and the rest of world (RoW), respectively. Using generalized impulse response functions, this study found that decreases in farm-gate raw milk price could be swiftly transmitted to butter export prices of not only a home country but other foreign countries. However, palm oil price and crude oil price merely affects global butter export prices. We also found that U.S. dollar depreciations against the Euro will cause a decline in U.S. butter export price. It is concluded that butter export markets are not well-integrated, yet butter export prices of New Zealand and the U.S. are highly linked