Environmental and Production Cost Impact of No-Till: Estimates from Observed Behavior

No-till has been promoted as a cultivation method that reduces both production costs and the environmental impacts of farming relative to conventional tillage. Using farmlevel data from Finland, we show that no-till has no statistically significant effect on total variable costs but that it increases the use of plant protection products and fertilizers, and decreases the use of labor. An environmental impact simulation combining the results on input use with a nutrient and herbicide runoff model predicts that no-till produces environmental benefits on highly erodible land, but may be even detrimental to the environment in average conditions

Environmental and Production Cost Impact of No-Till: Estimates from Observed Behavior

No-till has been promoted as a cultivation method that reduces both production costs and the environmental impacts of farming relative to conventional tillage. Using farmlevel data from Finland, we show that no-till has no statistically significant effect on total variable costs but that it increases the use of plant protection products and fertilizers, and decreases the use of labor. An environmental impact simulation combining the results on input use with a nutrient and herbicide runoff model predicts that no-till produces environmental benefits on highly erodible land, but may be even detrimental to the environment in average conditions

The European Common Agricultural Policy: Moving Forward

The Common Agricultural Policy has traditionally been a way to guarantee food security through subsidies between European Union nations. Recent CAP reforms require additional policies to enforce environmental sustainability, decrease pollution, promote better nutrition, and encourage young and small farmers. On the supranational EU level, the reformed CAP has positively impacted sustainability and improvement of the environment. Critics argue the CAP still perpetuates inequality, both between nations and between large and small farmers, and waters down environmental policy. Still, the CAP is an improvement to past policies and has made positive changes, both towards the environment and public good

Strategic Immigration Policies and Welfare in Heterogeneous Countries

In this paper we consider a model with two industrialised countries and immigrants that come from “the rest of the world”. The countries are distinguished on the basis of three parameters: population size, bias towards immigrants, and production complementarity between native population and immigrants. We consider a non-cooperative game where each country makes a strategic choice of its immigration quotas. We first show that our game admits a unique pure strategy Nash equilibrium and then study the welfare implications of countries’ choices. It turns out that a county with a higher degree of production complementarity and a higher level of tolerance towards immigrants would allow a larger immigration quota and achieve a higher welfare level. Our results call for coordinated and harmonised immigration policies that may improve the welfare of both countries.Immigration quotas, Heterogeneity, Production complementarity, Welfare, Policy Harmonisation

Languages Disenfranchisement in the European Union

We introduce the notion of language disenfranchisement which arises if the number of EU working languages is reduced. We use the data on language proficiency in EU and show that, in spite of the widespread knowledge of English, the retention of French and German as working languages in essential to avoid a too large degree of disenfranchisement of citizens. The picture, however, becomes somewhat different if we consider the population under age of 40. We also argue that even though French is the second leading language within the EU, the situation is likely to be reversed after the enlargement.Languages, Disenfranchisement, European Union

Stochastic Production in a Regulated Fishery:The Importance of Risk Considerations

In this paper we address the implications of production risk for controlling fishing effort in a regulated fishery in a framework where fishers maximize expected utility of profit. We focus on controlling effort through season closures that limit the number of days the fishery is open to harvest each year

Stochastic Production in a Regulated Fishery:The Importance of Risk Considerations

In this paper we address the implications of production risk for controlling fishing effort in a regulated fishery in a framework where fishers maximize expected utility of profit. We focus on controlling effort through season closures that limit the number of days the fishery is open to harvest each year

R&D in Cleaner Technology and International Trade

We consider a dynamic three-stage game played by two regulator-firm hierarchies to capture the scale and technological effects of opening markets to international trade. Each firm produces one good sold on the market. Firms can invest in R&D in order to lower their fixed emission/output ratio and are regulated with costly public funds. We take the context of sufficiently high market sizes and investment cost parameters. Opening markets to international trade yields more investment in R&D, more production and a lower emission ratio. When the market size is low enough and the investment cost parameter is high enough, pollution in common market is higher than in autarky. International trade reduces the social welfare.R&D, Cleaner technology, Common market, Social welfare

Social Conformity and Bounded Rationality in Arbitrary Games with Incomplete Information: Some First Results

In has been frequently observed, in both economics and psychology, that individuals tend to conform to the choices of other individuals with whom thy identify. Can such conformity be consistent with self-interested behaviour? To address this question we use the framework of games with incomplete information. For a given game we first put a lower bound on e so that there exists a Nash e-equilibrium in pure strategies consistent with conformity. We also introduce a new concept of conformity that allows players to conform and yet perform different actions. This is achieved by the endogenous assignment of roles to players and by allowing actions to be conditional on roles. We conclude by relating our research to some experimental literature.Social Conformity, Bounded Rationality, Arbitrary Games