The Structure and Economic Impact of R&D Organisation in New Zealand

R&D spending in New Zealand is a mixture of private and public investment undertaken to improve productive activity and efficiency. Investment is split fairly equally between private business, government organisations and the universities. It is a long term investment with some uncertainty about outcomes being achieved. It is predominantly a public good investment as most government organisations and universities are providers of R&D but not users of it and hence there is a discontinuity in the connection between investment and results. Furthurmore, the supply of R&D has properties of a free good which lead to users looking for new applications on a wider and wider front (spillovers). For these reasons R&D is generally regarded as a `good thing’ rather than a solid investment vehicle. Cost-benefit studies have shown, both in New Zealand and overseas, some projects with rates of return well in excess of the opportunity cost of capital, yet at the aggregate level there is a paucity of cost-benefit studies confirming such rates of return on a broader industry basis. This paper discusses some results from aggregate studies of the economic impact of R&D investment in NZ and suggests reasons why the links between aggregate supply of R&D and user demand are very weak.Investment, R&D Expenditure, Social Benefits, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty,

Productivity in the Sheep Sector

Previous papers at this conference over the years have dealt with trends in productivity in the total agricultural sector, the forestry sector and the dairy sector. Productivity indexes were developed by the Tornquist methodology that produces index numbers free of base year bias. Sources of data are the national accounts for the total agricultural and forestry sectors and designated farm surveys for the dairy and sheep sectors. The surveys are taken as representative of the whole in such calculations. In this paper we analyse the Meat and Wool Information Economic Service (MWI) survey of sheep and beef farms for the past 20 years and develop an index of whole farm productivity (total productivity) free of base year bias. Some technical comparisions are made with productivity trends in Landcorp which had a fairly similar product mix in the period concerned.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Whither the Crown Research Institutes? Funding Issues

In the course of another exercise (Johnson, Scrimgeour & Manning 2006) I compiled, with the help of CCMAU, a financial record of the crown research institutes from 1992 to 2005. In this paper I thought I would share with this audience some of the facts that emerged from the exercise and make some observations about present and future trends in the organisation of R&D funding in NZ. There has been a systematic clamour from the agricultural institutes that the initial plans for the CRI discriminated against their activities. This led to job uncertainty as well as a huge increase in transaction costs in the process of obtaining funds. More recently, the activities of the agricultural interests has seen a re-activation of forward planning for this part of the science sector in the form of Dairy 21 an amalgamation of Dexcel, Dairy Insight and Fonterra interests along with AgResearch. In the meantime, the Government has yielded to CRI pressure to modify the contestable model for science funding with more emphasis on longer term planning and continuity for the funding of the institutes. Most recently, scientists at Otago University have pointed out that moves in this direction are likely to be at the expense of university funding of R&D.Crown Research Institutes, Funding, Contestability, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Costs and Benefits of Introducing Mandatory Hygiene Regulations

In an idealised model the costs of capital and maintenance and the resulting flow of income benefits over a period of years enables the analyst to produce computations of present values and internal rates of return that summarise the whole investment process in a micro environment. In approaching an industry investment problem like mandatory hygiene regulations with benefits or costs to other entities involved, identifying the appropriate capital and maintenance costs and the industry and non-industry benefits is a giant task. In this paper, we report an attempt to identify the extra costs involved in the introduction of the regulations where industry recorded data is not available, and an attempt to identify industry and non-industry benefits from modelling market effects when countries impose restrictions on exports of NZ meat products. For the latter we employ the GTAP model and examine the saved costs to NZ when countries do not impose import restrictions on hygiene grounds. The problem involves consideration of private and public costs and benefits and the flow of costs and benefits when inadequate data is only available. Although our results are confined to average responses to the hygiene programme, they do give an indication of the overall necessity for embarking on such programmes in today's trading conditions.HACCP/RMP, Benefit Cost Analysis, Meat, New Zealand, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Non-linear waves in fluid-filled elastic tubes and related problems

Imperial Users onl

Has New Zealand benefited from its investments in research & development?

We use panel data for nine industries to evaluate research and development (R&D) investments in New Zealand over the past forty years. We estimate the impact of R&D stocks in a particular industry on output per person in that industry and on output per person in the rest of the economy. We examine both public and private R&D investments. Privately provided R&D has a statistically significant positive impact on own-industry output per person, suggesting it increases productivity. However, publicly provided R&D has no impact on own-industry output per person. There is also evidence that private R&D in certain industries positively affects output per person in the rest of the economy, i.e. it generates positive spillovers. There is no evidence of positive spillovers from publicly provided R&D.R&D; spillovers; productivity

FOOD SAFETY ISSUES, PROTECTION AND TRADE (WITH RESPECT TO MEAT PRODUCTS)

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for Applied Economics and Policy Studies, Massey University. Dietary changes, especially in developing countries, are driving a massive increase in demand for livestock products. The objective of this symposium was to examine the consequences of this phenomenon, which some have even called a "revolution." How are dietary patterns changing, and can increased demands for livestock products be satisfied from domestic resources? If so, at what cost? What will be the flow-on impacts, for example, in terms of increased demands for feedgrains and the pressures for change within marketing systems? A supply-side response has been the continued development of large-scale, urban-based industrial livestock production systems that in many cases give rise to environmental concerns. If additional imports seem required, where will they originate and what about food security in the importing regions? How might market access conditions be re-negotiated to make increased imports achievable? Other important issues discussed involved food safety, animal health and welfare and the adoption of biotechnology, and their interactions with the negotiation of reforms to domestic and trade policies. Individual papers from this conference are available on AgEcon Search. If you would like to see the complete agenda and set of papers from this conference, please visit the IATRC Symposium web page at: http://www1.umn.edu/iatrc.intro.htmFood Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Ag econ angst crisis revisited

The present paper was inspired by and is a response to the Rola-Rubzen, Hardaker and Dillon paper ‘Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects’ (Rola-Rubzen et al. 2001). It is agreed that the position of agricultural economists in foreign aid and poverty programs has declined over recent decades. Such a feeling of guilt and remorse expressed by the above authors does indeed create considerable ‘angst’. A major reason for this state of affairs lies in ‘the flavour of the month’ approach of the development agencies. These include women in development, gender-based farming systems research, household nutrition and food security, people participation, and targeting the poorest of the poor. These fads have driven disciplinary considerations to the wall and the more widely-defined objectives have reduced the drive for economic efficiency. We argue there is still a place for better designed and delivered assistance programs within the wider framework of assistance that has become fashionable. Greater application of institutional principles in both the political processes associated with assistance and the implementation agencies would improve the outcomes of many projects. Particular attention would need to be given to the interface between the development agencies and recipient governments. The present paper picks up on the market failure aspects of agriculture’s rather poor contribution to development, and develops a wider perspective in terms of the new institutional economics and a continuing role for the agricultural economist.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The effects of metal ion and ligand substitution on the spectroscopic properties of metal complexes.

Includes bibliographical references.Metal-nitrogen stretching vibrations in Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) chloride 4-methylaniline complexes are assigned by ¹⁵N-labelling in conjunction with a consideration of the relative crystal field stabilizition energies of the metal ions. Bands in the ultraviolet electronic spectra of Cu(II) β-ketoenolate complexes are more conclusively assigned by comparison of the spectra of the β-ketoenolates, their sodium salts and the copper complexes. The effect of ligand substitution on the infrared spectra of Cu(II) benzoylacetanilide complexes and their methanol adducts is used to assign copper-oxygen stretching frequencies. The effect of ligand substitution on the ultraviolet electronic spectra is used to estimate the extent of π-interaction in these complexes. The infrared spectra of six ¹⁵N-labelled Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) N-salicylideneanthranilate complexes yield assignments of metal-ligand and certain ligand vibrations. These assignments are supported by observing the effects of metal ion and ligand substitution on the spectra. The shifts observed in the metal-ligand stretching frequencies are related to the relative crystal field stabilization energies of the metal ions and to the electron releasing and withdrawing capacities of the ligand substituents. Assignments of metal-ligand vibrations in the infrared spectra of Ni(II) and Cu(II) benzoylbenzilidenehydrazone complexes and Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) benzoylsalicylidenehydrazone complexes are made by observing the effects of metal ion and ligand substitution on the spectra. The infrared spectra of three ¹⁵N-labelled Ni(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) triarylformazan complexes yield assignments of metal-ligand and certain ligand vibrations. The effect of ligand substitution on the infrared spectra of Ni(II) triarylformazan complexes is related to the electron releasing or withdrawing capacities of the substituents. A total of 168 complexes, of which 131 have not previously been reported, has been synthesized and discussed