Technical and Environmental efficiencies and Best Management Practices in Agriculture

An input distance function (IDF) is estimated to empirically evaluate and analyze the technical and environmental efficiencies of 210 farms located in the Chaudière watershed (Quebec), where water quality problems are particularly acute because of the production of undesirable outputs that are jointly produced with agricultural products. The true IDF is approximated by a flexible translog functional form estimated using a full information maximum likelihood method. Technical and environmental efficiencies are disaggregated across farms and account for spatial variations. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between technical and environmental efficiencies. The IDF is used to compute the cumulative Malmquist productivity index and the Fisher index. The two indices are used to measure changes in technology, profitability, efficiency, and productivity in response to the adoption of 2 selected best management practices (BMPs) whose objective is to reduce water pollution. We found significant differences across BMPs regarding the direction and the magnitude of their effect on profitability, efficiency and productivity.Environmental efficiency, distance function, phosphorus runoff, productivity, profitability, technical efficiency.

Do inventories have an impact on price transmission? Evidence from the Canadian chicken industry

This paper investigates the influence of inventories in explaining the magnitude of price transmission. The empirical strategy consists of two distinct steps. First, the flexible non-linear framework of Hamilton is used to investigate the influence of inventories on price transmission. The procedure detects significant non-linearities and suggests that the price transmission elasticity is increasing in the level of the farm price and decreasing in the ratio of inventories to sales. This evidence leads to specific functional forms for the price transmission and target inventory equations which are estimated in a second step. The estimation procedure accounts for potential simultaneity between sales at the wholesale level and the wholesale price. Our results suggest that price transmission is lower (higher) when inventories are below (above) a target which is function of domestic sales.Asymmetric price transmission; inventories

Spazio pubblico e attrattività urbana. L'Isola e le sue piazze

L’Isola e le sue piazze è un progetto di valorizzazione urbana integrata promosso nel gennaio 2015 da Comune di Milano, Regione Lombardia e Distretto urbano del commercio Isola, volto a promuovere l’identità del quartiere Isola, attraverso la realizzazione di arredi temporanei, eventi e un piano di comunicazione. Entro tale contesto, un gruppo multidisciplinare di ricerca del Politecnico di Milano afferente ai dipartimenti di Architettura e Studi Urbani e di Design, attraverso mappature e rilievi, osservazione diretta e interviste, ha condotto un lavoro di accompagnamento e monitoraggio della proposta risultata vincitrice del bando pubblico. Il volume restituisce gli esiti della ricerca: descrive lo sfondo entro cui è maturato il progetto, racconta le specificità del quartiere, la qualità del suo spazio pubblico, le geografie dell’offerta economica. I testi degli autori della ricerca si intrecciano alle voci di abitanti, di testimoni privilegiati, di rappresentanti delle istituzioni e dell’associazionismo locale che a vario titolo sono stati coinvolti dal progetto, con l’obiettivo di riflettere sulle molteplici dimensioni dello spazio pubblico e dell’attrattività urbana: dagli usi formali e informali ai servizi commerciali di prossimità, dagli eventi che hanno avuto luogo nel periodo osservato alle dinamiche che hanno innescato, fino agli esiti di un inedito bando e alle opportunità della sua replicabilità

Investment behavior of Canadian Egg Producers: Analyzing the Impacts of Risk Aversion and Variability of Prices and Costs of Production

Animal welfare is a major concern for consumers. This concern has not gone unnoticed by sector stakeholders, especially egg producers. One of the fundamental changes likely to affect egg producers regards modes of production, specifically changes in housing systems, ranging from conventional cages to free range. From farmers’ perspective, changing their mode of production generates a technological and economic/marketing risk. This study documents the level of risk in the Canadian egg sector (conventional and specialty eggs) using data from 2009 to 2011. Our results indicate multiple uncertainty sources (technological, cost of production, price of eggs) that vary according to the types of eggs. We use a quadratic programming approach applied to expected mean-variance models to analyze the impact of risk on decision to invest when the resources must be allocated to different types of production that have different risk levels. Overall our results show how, given risk aversion parameters, producers minimize their risk levels by devoting their resources to the least risky type of eggs. An important result of our study is that supply management, by reducing the perceived risk level, has favored the development of specialty eggs, for the benefit of consumers

A Gravity approach to evaluate the significance of trade liberalization in vertically-related goods in the presence of non-tariff barriers

A gravity-based model is developed to explain bilateral trade flows in primary and processed agri-food commodities. It innovates by explicitly accounting for the vertical production linkages between primary and processed agri-food products, tariffs, and subsidies and by estimating the restrictiveness of non-tariff barriers in the upstream sector. Our application focuses on cattle/beef trade flows between forty-two countries. The structural parameters of the model are used to simulate trade flows under various scenarios of import tariffs and domestic and export subsidies reductions. The United States and Australia emerge as the exporting countries that stand to benefit the most from cuts in tariffs and subsidies as bovine meat imports in the European Union and Japan significantly increase. A bootstrap procedure is used to generate confidence intervals around predicted trade liberalization outcomes.Gravity model; cattle/beef trade

L’économie expérimentale pour l’analyse de modifications au système centralisé de vente du quota laitier au Québec

This study experimentally tests whether a modification to the centralized quota sales system is capable of lowering the price of the milk quota in Québec, while at the same time minimizing the negative impacts on the auction's efficiency. This modification consists of applying two treatments on the uniformed price auction used to trade dairy production quota.. The first treatment excludes 5% or 15% of the sellers and the vendors' highest bids. The second treatment applies a tax of 2% or 10% to the units that the vendors put on the market but don't manage to sell. Different combinations of these two treatments are also tested. The generated data shows that the highest bids exclusion mechanism allows to lower the price of the quota, the 15% exclusion being more conclusive than the 5% one. Alternatively, the tax by itself has little impact on the price of the quota, while the combination of the two treatments causes a more important diminution of the number of transactions and of the price of the quota than when the tax treatment and the exclusion treatment are applied individually. This has as a consequence to lead to a greater loss of economic efficiency. La présente étude teste de manière expérimentale la capacité d’une modification au système centralisé de vente du quota (SCVQ) à faire diminuer le prix du quota laitier au Québec tout en minimisant les impacts négatifs des changements sur l’efficacité de l’enchère. Cette modification consiste à appliquer deux traitements sur l’enchère de prix uniforme où s’échange le quota. Le premier traitement consiste en une exclusion (de 5 % ou de 15 %) des mises les plus élevées des acheteurs et des vendeurs. Le second traitement est une taxe (de 2 % ou de 10 %) appliquée aux unités que les vendeurs mettent en marché et ne réussissent pas à vendre. Différentes combinaisons de ces deux traitements sont également testées. Les données générées permettent de conclure que le mécanisme d’exclusion des mises les plus élevées permet de faire diminuer le prix du quota, l’exclusion de 15 % étant plus efficace que celle de 5 %. Pour sa part, la taxe seule a peu d’impact sur le prix du quota tandis que la combinaison des deux traitements entraîne une diminution du nombre de transactions et du prix du quota plus marquée que lorsque les traitements de taxe et d’exclusion sont appliqués individuellement. Cela a comme corollaire d’entraîner une perte d’efficacité économique plus importante.exclusion, experimental economics, quota, taxation, uniform price auctions, enchères de prix uniformes, exclusion, économie expérimentale, quota, taxation

LAPORAN INDIVIDU PRAKTIK PENGALAMAN LAPANGAN (PPL) UNIVERSITAS NEGERI YOGYAKARTA DI SMK KI AGENG PEMANAHAN Jl. Parangtritis Km 16,5 Patalan Jetis Bantul

Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan (PPL) merupakan salah satu mata kuliah lapangan yang bersifat intrakulikuler. Oleh karena pelaksanaan PPL yang langsung berinteraksi dengan peserta didik, maka dibutuhkan persiapan yang matang. Maka dari itu, pihak Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta memberi pembekalan khusus tentang pelaksanaan PPL dalam menyiapkan tenaga pendidik. Pengetahuan dan keterampilan diberikan untuk mahasiswa sebagai bekal dalam menghadapi dunia kerja di bidang pendidikan secara khusus dan dunia kerja secara umum. Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Ki Ageng Pemanahan yang beralamatkan di Jalan Parangtritis Km 16,5 Patalan, Jetis, Bantul, Yogyakarta adalah lokasi yang digunakan untuk pelaksanaan kegiatan PPL mahasiswa Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta selama ± 1 bulan. Kegiatan PPL dilaksanakan pada tanggal 10 September sampai dengan 12 Oktober 2015. Dalam kegiatan PPL ini, mahasiswa melakukan kegiatan mengajar yang terbimbing. Mahasiswa menjalankan program mengajar minimal 4 kali pertemuan. Metode yang digunakan dalam mengajar beragam, seperti metode diskusi, tanya jawab, ceramah dan cooperative learning. Praktikan telah menyelesaikan tugas mengajar sebanyak 13 kali selama kegiatan PPL berlangsung. Mengampu mata pelajaran Sensor Dan Aktuator dan Kesehata dan Keselamatan Kerja (K3) dengan tatap muka 3 kali seminggu dan setiap minggunya praktikan mengajar selama 6 jam. Secara keseluruhan program kerja PPL terlaksana dengan baik, meskipun masih terdapat beberapa kendala seperti pengelolaan kelas yang terkadang sulit untuk dikondisikan. Namun, semua itu merupakan sebuah proses untuk menuju yang lebih baik lagi. Dalam melaksanakan kegiatan pembelajaran, praktikan telah melaksanakan pembuatan rencana pembelajaran sebanyak 16 RPP, melakukan kegiatan praktik mengajar sebanyak 13 kali pertemuan, membuat Trainer Sensor LDR, membuat Running Text dan melakukan 2 kali evaluasi belajar untuk mata pelajaran Sensor dan Aktuator dan Kesehatan dan Keselamatan Kerja (K3) di kelas X Teknik Mekatronika dan XII Teknik Mekatronika. Dalam pelaksanaan praktik mengajar metode yang digunakan yaitu menggunakan metode ceramah, demonstrasi, asimilasi tanya jawab dan penugasan kelompok dan individu. Melalui kegiatan Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan ini, praktikan mendapatkan banyak bekal seperti pengalaman serta gambaran nyata tentang kegiatan pembelajaran, serta nilai-nilai seperti kerja keras, kerjasama, tanggung jawab, dan disiplin. Selain itu, dapat membantu mahasiswa dalam mempersiapkan diri untuk menjadi tenaga pendidik yang profesional dan memiliki keterampilan mengajar. Untuk pelaksanaan PPL periode yang akan datang ada baiknya jika antara pihak sekolah dan mahasiswa lebih meningkatkan kerjasama agar dapat lebih bermanfaat bagi semua pihak