Determinants and Welfare Impacts of Export Crop Cultivation - Empirical Evidence from Ghana

This paper investigates the determinants of farm households‟ participation in export cropping and the impact of export cropping on household welfare, using cross-sectional data obtained from the Ghanaian living standards survey 2005-6. Given the problem of selectivity bias that arise when households self-select into export cropping, we employ the full information maximum likelihood approach to analyze the participation decision, and generalized propensity matching approach to examine the welfare impacts of participation. The empirical results indicate that farmers facing lower transport costs and having better access to credit facilities are more likely to participate in export cropping. Estimates of the welfare impacts of export cropping generally reveal a positive relationship between engagement in export cropping and farm household welfare. However, a consideration of the impact of extent of export cropping shows a non-linear relationship with household welfare indicators, with per capita expenditures rising and poverty declining only at higher levels of export specialization.Export crops, Farm households, Household welfare, Poverty, Generalized propensity score, Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

Eine Ökonometrische Analyse von Politikmaßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Ernährungssicherheit und der Wohlfahrt in Entwicklungsländern

A wide range of political measures is applied in developing countries in order to protect people from hunger and malnutrition. The aim of this dissertation is to determine the contribution of various food security policies. In the first study of this work, a new micro-economic model of food security is developed. It shows the impact of the budget restriction on nutrient intake and the resulting consequences for different health dimensions. It demonstrates that the concept of food security also includes that all vital nutrients have to be contemporaneously affordable for an individual. Against this backdrop, typical strategies for improving food security in developing countries are discussed. The second study examines the often pursued strategy to increase local incomes by promoting exports, using Ghana’s agricultural sector as an example. Given that export crop cultivators are quite different from other farmers, econometric methods are applied that attempt to ensure unbiased estimation results. The results show that farmers’ access to financial resources as well as intermediation through state enterprises and co-operatives significantly contribute to export crop cultivation. Export cropping has a positive outcome on the living standard of farm households, but it is an important finding that this effect is non-linear. Large welfare benefits particularly occur at very high levels of export crop specialization. In cases when poor regions face severe food shortages, the controversial policy instrument of food aid is often used. Given the necessity of quick and targeted action in emergency situations, the third and fourth parts of this dissertation analyze different aspects of donors’ food aid allocation. In the third study, the determinants of food aid allocation from six major donors are investigated. For all donors, the amount of food aid is consistently sent to poorer countries, but also depends on shipped food aid from previous year. A particular focus of this study is on the coordination of food aid. The system-estimation approach employed in this study reveals that there is significant positive interaction between all donor countries. The fourth study extends earlier analyses on food aid allocation by examining the donors’ supply of vital nutrients (dietary energy, iron, vitamin A and zinc). Furthermore, an econometric method is used that takes into account the unobserved heterogeneity of recipient countries and avoids making typical restrictive assumption. The results show that the observed donor (USA) allocates nutrients towards populations with high nutritional demand and tight budgetary constraints. However, donor interests and media bias are prevalent in different parts of US food aid, and significant management problems are found.In Entwicklungsländern werden verschiedenste Politikmaßnahmen angewendet, um die Bevölkerung vor Hunger und Mangelernährung zu schützen. Das Ziel dieser kumulativen Arbeit ist es, den Beitrag der unterschiedlichen Politiken zur Verbesserung der Ernährungssicherheit herauszuarbeiten. Hierfür wird zunächst im ersten Beitrag der Arbeit ein neues mikroökonomisches Modell der Ernährungssicherheit entworfen, welches den Effekt der Budgetbeschränkung auf die Nährstoffzufuhr und die damit verbundenen Gesundheitsauswirkungen modelliert. Hierbei wird gezeigt, dass der Ernährungssicherheitsbegriff miteinschließt, dass simultan alle lebensnotwendigen Nährstoffe erschwinglich sein müssen. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden die in Entwicklungsländern verfolgten Strategien zur Verbesserung der Ernährungssicherung diskutiert. Im zweiten Beitrag wird am Beispiel des Ghanaischen Agrarsektors ein Fokus auf die oftmals verfolgte Strategie gelegt, lokale Einkommen mithilfe von Exportförderung zu stärken. Hierfür werden ökonometrische Verfahren genutzt, welche verzerrungsfreie Schätzergebnisse gewährleisten auch wenn Exportfruchtanbauer sich deutlich von anderen Landwirten unterscheiden. Die Resultate zeigen, dass der Zugriff auf finanzielle Ressourcen sowie die Vermittlungsrolle von staatlichen Unternehmen und Kooperativen förderlich für den Exportfruchtanbau sind. Exportfruchtanbau hat positive Auswirkungen auf den Lebensstandard der Farmhaushalte, allerdings ist dieser Effekt nichtlinear und kommt vor allem bei hoher Spezialisierung zum Tragen. Bei erheblichen Nahrungsmittelengpässen in armen Regionen wird oftmals das kontrovers diskutierte Mittel der Nahrungsmittelhilfe angewendet. In Anbetracht der Notwendigkeit eines schnellen und an der Bedürftigkeit ausgerichteten Handelns, analysieren der dritte und der vierte Beitrag dieser Arbeit unterschiedliche Aspekte der Nahrungsmittelhilfevergabe von Geberländern. Im dritten Beitrag werden die wesentlichen Determinanten der Nahrungsmittelhilfe der sechs größten Geber ermittelt. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt dieses Beitrags liegt in der Koordinierung von Nahrungsmittelhilfe aus unterschiedlichen Geberquellen. Diesbezüglich wurde mithilfe einer Systemschätzung eine signifikante Interaktion zwischen allen Geberländern nachgewiesen. Zudem lieferten alle Geber vermehrt an ärmere Länder, ließen sich allerdings stark von den Liefermengen des Vorjahres prägen. Der vierte Beitrag erweitert die bisherigen Studien zur Nahrungsmittelhilfevergabe, indem er erstmals die Lieferung bedeutsamer Nährstoffe (Energie, Eisen, Vitamin A und Zink) untersucht. Darüber hinaus wird ein ökonometrisches Verfahren genutzt, das die nicht messbaren Unterschiede von Empfängerländern berücksichtigt und dabei unrealistisch restriktive Annahmen vermeidet. Die Resultate zeigen, dass der untersuchte Geber, die USA, trotz erkennbarer Managementprobleme und Einflüssen von Geberinteressen und Medien in der Lage ist, Nährstoffe gezielt an bedürftige Bevölkerungsgruppen zu liefern

Устройство автоматического регулирования жидкости

Although the significance of tumour site for estimating malignant potential in gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) has recently been recognized, site-specific genetic patterns have not to date been defined. This study examined 52 c-kit-positive primary GISTs (with a mean follow-up of 42.3 months in 51 cases) from three different locations (35 gastric, 12 small intestinal, and five colorectal) using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). In general, tumour site correlated with key prognostic factors, including tumour size, mitotic rate, proliferative activity, and probable malignant potential. Furthermore, several DNA copy number changes showed a site-dependent pattern. These included losses at 14q (gastric 83%, intestinal 35%; p = 0.001), losses at 22q (gastric 46%, intestinal 82%; p = 0.02), losses at 1p (gastric 23%, intestinal 88%; p = 1 × 10-5), losses at 15q (gastric 14%, intestinal 59%; p = 0.002), losses at 9q (gastric 14%, intestinal 53%; p = 0.006), and gains at 5p (gastric 11%, intestinal 53%; p = 0.002). These data demonstrate strong site-dependent genetic heterogeneity in GISTs that may form a basis for subclassification. Prognostic evaluation of DNA copy number changes identified losses at 9q as a site-independent prognostic marker associated with shorter disease-free survival (p = 0.03) and overall survival (p = 0.002). Furthermore, 9q loss also appeared to carry prognostic value in predicting overall survival for patients with advanced or progressive GISTs (p = 0.003). Copyright © 2004 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Analyzing Consumer Demand During a Food Scandal: The Case of Dioxin Contaminated Feed in Germany and the Media

This study investigates the effect of media coverage on the consumer demand for pork chops and chicken filet in the course of the German dioxin scandal in 2011. A media index is constructed to account for the dynamics of the media coverage for the first nineteen calendar weeks in 2011. The response of the German households is estimated with a dynamic correlated random effect Tobit model based on weekly panel data provided by the GfK and data on media coverage provided by Lexis Nexis. Our dataset contains detailed information on purchasing transactions and socio-economic characteristics of the consumer households. The empirical results show that unobserved heterogeneity is important to consider when analyzing the determinants of demand in times of a scandal. For both meat products, media had a significant negative effect on the propensity to consume as well as the quantity purchased

Determinants and Welfare Impacts of Export Crop Cultivation - Empirical Evidence from Ghana

This paper investigates the determinants of farm households‟ participation in export cropping and the impact of export cropping on household welfare, using cross-sectional data obtained from the Ghanaian living standards survey 2005-6. Given the problem of selectivity bias that arise when households self-select into export cropping, we employ the full information maximum likelihood approach to analyze the participation decision, and generalized propensity matching approach to examine the welfare impacts of participation. The empirical results indicate that farmers facing lower transport costs and having better access to credit facilities are more likely to participate in export cropping. Estimates of the welfare impacts of export cropping generally reveal a positive relationship between engagement in export cropping and farm household welfare. However, a consideration of the impact of extent of export cropping shows a non-linear relationship with household welfare indicators, with per capita expenditures rising and poverty declining only at higher levels of export specialization

Analyzing Consumer Demand During A Food Scandal: The Case of Dioxin Contaminated Feed in Germany And The Media

This study investigates the effect of media coverage on the consumer demand for pork chops and chicken filet in the course of the German dioxin scandal in 2011. A media index is constructed to account for the dynamics of the media coverage for the first nineteen calendar weeks in 2011. The response of the German households is estimated with a dynamic correlated random effect Tobit model based on weekly panel data provided by the GfK and data on media coverage provided by Lexis Nexis. Our dataset contains detailed information on purchasing transactions and socio-economic characteristics of the consumer households. The empirical results show that unobserved heterogeneity is important to consider when analyzing the determinants of demand in times of a scandal. For both meat products, media had a significant negative effect on the propensity to consume as well as the quantity purchased

Nutritional Effects of Agricultural Diversification and Commercialization in Children in Zambia

Zambia and particularly the Eastern province have one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. The most vulnerable are the children from rural households which depend entirely on seasonal agricultural production and income, and survive on diets that are deficiency in proteins and other important nutrients. Agricultural diversification and commercialization provide alternative strategies for sustainable all-year-round household food and income availability. Applying Propensity Score Marching (PSM) and Generalized Propensity Score (GPS), this article evaluates the impact of agricultural diversification (in terms of calorie and protein production) and commercialization on reducing malnutrition in the Eastern province of Zambian. We use a uniquely rich dataset that comprises socioeconomic, agricultural and anthropometric data of 1120 children from five districts in the Eastern province. Results from PSM do not show significant impact of agricultural diversification and commercialization on reducing malnutrition while GPS results show that higher degrees of diversification reduce malnutrition. However, commercialization tends to have a negative effect particularly for short- and middle-term nutrition outcomes, where capital accumulation through higher purchasing power might have less impact. Policies need to consider the current diversification intensity of farmers and the different consequences on wasting and stunting when implementing diversification strategies. High levels of diversification could improve the wasting and underweight status of children by delivering a high amount of nutrients, but may come at the cost of reducing the efficiency of the farm and thus increasing the possibility of longer term stunting. Interventions focused on improving agricultural diversification and high degrees of commercialization may enhance adequate and diverse protein and calorie sources, while at the same time households will have excess produce for the market to meet their income demands

Food Aid Allocation Policies: Donor Coordination and Responsiveness to the Needs of Recipient Countries

This study employs a multivariate Tobit model to investigate whether food aid flows of the main donor countries – USA, EU (Community Aid and Member States), Canada, Japan and Australia – respond to recipient countries’ needs and the extent to which the donors interact in their food aid allocation. The response of global food aid is also analyzed with a censored least absolute deviation (CLAD) model to highlight the overall performance of aggregate food aid. The empirical results generally indicate that both global and bilateral food aid are effective instruments in improving food security at the national level in recipient countries. In particular, global food aid is found to be significantly targeted to poorer countries, as well as countries facing temporary food crises, sudden natural disasters and conflicts. All major donor countries are found to direct their food aid shipments to poorer countries and appear to significantly coordinate their food aid shipments, so that food aid from other donors are generally treated as complements. While highly significant persistence is found in each donor’s and global food aid allocation, variables representing donor interests were generally insignificant at conventional levels

Modelling the economic contribution of livestock to households in African countries - what data do we have and what do we still need?

Given the on-going global trend of rising consumption of animal products worldwide, one main question for African economies is the effect of these international nutrition trends on households keeping livestock. The application of existing quantitative analytical models mostly requires the availability of specific data information. However, for some developing economies this data required to perform particular analyses may not always be collected or estimated. This paper screens current features of livestock production systems in African countries and gives hints on how these features can be integrated properly into Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. We found some studies already linking certain aspects of livestock production with livestock-dependent households in CGE models. These studies represent an important starting point to assess the importance of livestock holding for households in a CGE framework. Finally, this paper draws on future adjustments to the requirements of CGE models to capture the special characteristics of livestock kept by households in African countries. These methodologies could become crucial for policy studies linking African households with international livestock markets