Dynamic impacts of a financial reform of the CAP on regional land use, income and overall growth

http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/4364

Dynamic impacts of a financial reform of the CAP on regional land use, income and overall growth

In this paper we investigate the impacts of abolishing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the post-2013 European Union (EU) financial perspective and the impacts of re-investing the released funds on research and development (R&D). We apply a linked system of models to analyze the impacts for the EU member states. The linked system consists of five land-use sector models (agriculture, forestry, urban area, tourism and transport infrastructure), which are connected to a macro-econometric model. Additionally, a land cover model is used to disaggregate land use countries to a 1 km² grid. Three scenarios are analysed. In the “baseline” currently decided policies are assumed to be continued until 2025. In the “tax rebate” scenario agricultural support (first pillar) is removed, and the member states’ contributions to EU lowered. In the “R&D investments” scenario agricultural support is also removed, and the released funds are used to increase general R&D efforts in the EU. We find that in both liberalization scenarios, agricultural producer prices drop compared to the baseline. Agricultural production drops too, but less so in the “R&D investment” scenario due to productivity gains resulting from the increased R&D spending. In some countries, the productivity gains totally offset the negative impact of liberalisation on agricultural production. Smaller agricultural production implies less agricultural land use, and the more so in the “R&D Investment” scenario where productivity increases. The fall in agricultural production and prices negatively affects economic activity and households’ purchasing power, but the reduced direct taxation compensates this effect and results in a GDP gain of 0.53% and 0.8 million additional jobs. In “R&D investment” GDP gain reaches 2.57% and yields 2.95 million additional jobs in EU in 2025. The GDP, consumption and employment gains in the “R&D Investment” scenario widely exceed the losses in the agriculture sectors. The analysis indicates that if no external effects of agriculture are considered, then the CAP is an inefficient use of tax money, and that a considerable contribution to reaching the goals of the Lisbon agenda would be achieved if the same amount of money was instead invested in R&D.CAP reform, economical growth, land use, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use,

From evidence based bioethics to evidence based social policies

In this issue, Norwegian authors demonstrate that causes of early expulsion out the workforce are rooted in childhood. They reconstruct individual biographies in administrative databases linked by an unique national identification number, looking forward 15 years in early adulthood and looking back 20 years till birth with close to negligible loss to follow up. Evidence based bioethics suggest that it is better to live in a country that allows reconstructing biographies in administrative databases then in countries that forbid access by restrictive legislation based on privacy considerations. The benefits of gained knowledge from existing and accessible information are tangible, particularly for the weak and the poor, while the harms of theoretical privacy invasion have not yet materialised. The study shows once again that disadvantage runs in families. Low parental education, parental disability and unstable marital unions predict early disability pensions and premature expulsion out gainful employment. The effect of low parental education is mediated by low education of the index person. However, in a feast of descriptive studies of socio-economic causes of ill health we still face a famine of evaluative intervention studies. An evidence based social policy should be based on effective interventions that are able to break the vicious circles of disability handed down from generation to generation

Evidence of two viscous relaxation processes in the collective dynamics of liquid lithium

New inelastic X-ray scattering experiments have been performed on liquid lithium in a wide wavevector range. With respect to the previous measurements, the instrumental resolution, improved up to 1.5 meV, allows to accurately investigate the dynamical processes determining the observed shape of the the dynamic structure factor, $S(Q,\omega)$. A detailed analysis of the lineshapes shows the co-existence of relaxation processes with both a slow and a fast characteristic timescales, and therefore that pictures of the relaxation mechanisms based on a simple viscoelastic model must be abandoned.Comment: 5 pages, 4 .PS figure

Random Scattering by Atomic Density Fluctuations in Optical Lattices

We investigate hitherto unexplored regimes of probe scattering by atoms trapped in optical lattices: weak scattering by effectively random atomic density distributions and multiple scattering by arbitrary atomic distributions. Both regimes are predicted to exhibit a universal semicircular scattering lineshape for large density fluctuations, which depend on temperature and quantum statistics.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Density fluctuations and single-particle dynamics in liquid lithium

The single-particle and collective dynamical properties of liquid lithium have been evaluated at several thermodynamic states near the triple point. This is performed within the framework of mode-coupling theory, using a self-consistent scheme which, starting from the known static structure of the liquid, allows the theoretical calculation of several dynamical properties. Special attention is devoted to several aspects of the single-particle dynamics, which are discussed as a function of the thermodynamic state. The results are compared with those of Molecular Dynamics simulations and other theoretical approaches.Comment: 31 pages (in preprint format), 14 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Collective dynamics of liquid aluminum probed by Inelastic X-ray Scattering

An inelastic X-ray scattering experiment has been performed in liquid aluminum with the purpose of studying the collective excitations at wavevectors below the first sharp diffraction peak. The high instrumental resolution (up to 1.5 meV) allows an accurate investigation of the dynamical processes in this liquid metal on the basis of a generalized hydrodynamics framework. The outcoming results confirm the presence of a viscosity relaxation scenario ruled by a two timescale mechanism, as recently found in liquid lithium.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Static and Dynamic Properties of Dissipative Particle Dynamics

The algorithm for the DPD fluid, the dynamics of which is conceptually a combination of molecular dynamics, Brownian dynamics and lattice gas automata, is designed for simulating rheological properties of complex fluids on hydrodynamic time scales. This paper calculates the equilibrium and transport properties (viscosity, self-diffusion) of the thermostated DPD fluid explicitly in terms of the system parameters. It is demonstrated that temperature gradients cannot exist, and that there is therefore no heat conductivity. Starting from the N-particle Fokker-Planck, or Kramers' equation, we prove an H-theorem for the free energy, obtain hydrodynamic equations, and derive a non-linear kinetic equation (the Fokker-Planck-Boltzmann equation) for the single particle distribution function. This kinetic equation is solved by the Chapman-Enskog method. The analytic results are compared with numerical simulations.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, 3 Postscript figure

The centromeric/nucleolar chromatin protein ZFP-37 may function to specify neuronal nuclear domains

Murine ZFP-37 is a member of the large family of C2H2 type zinc finger proteins. It is characterized by a truncated NH2-terminal Kruppel-associated box and is thought to play a role in transcriptional regulation. During development Zfp-37 mRNA is most abundant in the developing central nervous system, and in the adult mouse expression is restricted largely to testis and brain. Here we show that at the protein level ZFP-37 is detected readily in neurons of the adult central nervous system but hardly in testis. In brain ZFP-37 is associated with nucleoli and appears to contact heterochromatin. Mouse and human ZFP-37 have a basic histone H1-like linker domain, located between KRAB and zinc finger regions, which binds double-stranded DNA. Thus we suggest that ZFP-37 is a structural protein of the neuronal nucleus which plays a role in the maintenance of specialized chromatin domains