The Demand for Loans for Major Rice in the Upper North of Thailand

Though Thailand is the largest rice exporting country, its yield is relatively low. This might be a result of the under use of purchased input factors. Amongst other factors, high input prices and capital constraints could be some reasons. The latter could be removed by loans providing favorable market conditions exist. This paper seeks to investigate factors affecting the decision to borrow, and the demand for loans, for rice. The Tobit type-II models are estimated using the survey data collected from 656 rice farmers in the Upper North of Thailand in 2004. It is found that significant factors affecting the decision of borrowing include; the land planted to rice, dummy variable for off-farm income sources, and annual interest rates. In the second step, the farmers who borrowed from the rural financial sources, including 202 and 250 farmers from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai respectively, are considered. According to the OLS estimation, only the land planted to rice has a positive significant effect on the amount of loans for major rice. Further, the interest rate affects the probability of loans but has no impact on the amount of loans, for rice.Upper North of Thailand, Tobit type-II model, Probability of loans for rice, Amount of loans, Rural financial sources, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries,

Effects of international gold market on stock exchange volatility: evidence from asean emerging stock markets

This paper examines behaviors of returns and volatility of ASEAN emerging stock markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), incorporating with the effects from the international gold market. The estimates of GARCH(1,1) and GJR(1,1) for these stock markets indicate that the GJR(1,1) model is preferred to GARCH(1,1), except Vietnam. However, under the exogenous effects from international gold market such as the 1 day lagged returns and the 1 day lagged volatility of gold, the GARCH(1,1)-X model captures better stock market volatility behavior than GJR(1,1)-X, except Indonesia. Interestingly, gold could be a substitute commodity for stocks in Vietnam and the Philippines, while it could be a complement for stocks in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.Volatility, GARCH-X, Gold effects, ASEAN emerging stock markets

k-EVCLUS: Clustering Large Dissimilarity Data in the Belief Function Framework

International audienceIn evidential clustering, the membership of objects to clusters is considered to be uncertain and is represented by mass functions, forming a credal partition. The EVCLUS algorithm constructs a credal partition in such a way that larger dissimilarities between objects correspond to higher degrees of conflict between the associated mass functions. In this paper, we propose to replace the gradient-based optimization procedure in the original EVCLUS algorithm by a much faster iterative row-wise quadratic programming method. We also show that EVCLUS can be provided with only a random sample of the dissimilarities, reducing the time and space complexity from quadratic to linear. These improvements make EVCLUS suitable to cluster large dissimilarity datasets

Skew Constacyclic Codes over Finite Fields and Finite Chain Rings

This paper overviews the study of skew Θ-λ-constacyclic codes over finite fields and finite commutative chain rings. The structure of skew Θ-λ-constacyclic codes and their duals are provided. Among other results, we also consider the Euclidean and Hermitian dual codes of skew Θ-cyclic and skew Θ-negacyclic codes over finite chain rings in general and over Fpm+uFpm in particular. Moreover, general decoding procedure for decoding skew BCH codes with designed distance and an algorithm for decoding skew BCH codes are discussed

Energy efficiency, energy conservation and determinants in the agricultural sector in emerging economies

Improving energy efficiency and conservation is integral to sustain agricultural growth in emerging economies. This paper investigates the energy efficiency and energy-saving potential of the agricultural sector of 27 emerging economies using a stochastic frontier approach and Shephard distance function, and their determinants are examined using the Tobit quantile regression model. Results revealed that energy efficiency in the agricultural sector fluctuated during the period from 1998 to 2017. The median average energy efficiency was estimated at 0.74, and the cumulative energy-saving potential was estimated at 542.80 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe), which can be achieved by eliminating energy inefficiency alone. Differences exist in energy efficiency and energy-saving potential across continents, with higher potential in Asia and lower potential in Europe. Economic structure, urbanization and GDP per capita have negative influences on agricultural energy efficiency. Energy mix and pesticide use are significant drivers of energy efficiency, while the ratio of agricultural land that has varied influences different quantiles. Policy implications include optimization of the energy mix, economic structure and pesticide use

Addressing rural–urban income gap in China through farmers’ education and agricultural productivity growth via mediation and interaction effects

Narrowing the rural–urban income gap is an important challenge in achieving sustained and stable economic and social development in China. The present study investigates the role of farmers’ education and agricultural productivity growth in influencing the rural–urban income gap by applying mediation, interaction, and quantile regression models to provincial panel data of China from 2003 to 2017. Results show that, first of all, China’s agricultural productivity (TFP) continues to improve, and it is mainly driven by technical change (TC), with no significant role of technical efficiency change (TEC) or stable scale change (SC). Improving farmers’ education not only directly narrows the rural–urban income gap but also indirectly improves agricultural productivity to further narrow the rural–urban income gap. Due to differences in income sources of farmers, the corresponding impacts of farmers’ education and agricultural productivity growth on the rural–urban income gap also differ. Policy recommendations include continued investments in farmers’ education and training as well as modernization of agricultural for higher productivity growth

Enhancing Productivity and Resource Conservation by Eliminating Inefficiency of Thai Rice Farmers: A Zero Inefficiency Stochastic Frontier Approach

The study first identified fully efficient farmers and then estimated technical efficiency of inefficient farmers, identifying their determinants by applying a Zero Inefficiency Stochastic Frontier Model (ZISFM) on a sample of 300 rice farmers from central-northern Thailand. Next, the study developed scenarios of potential production increase and resource conservation if technical inefficiency was eliminated. Results revealed that 13% of the sampled farmers were fully efficient, thereby justifying the use of our approach. The estimated mean technical efficiency was 91%, implying that rice production can be increased by 9%, by reallocating resources. Land and labor were the major productivity drivers. Education significantly improved technical efficiency. Farmers who transplanted seedlings were relatively technically efficient as compared to those who practised manual and/or mechanical direct seeding methods. Elimination of technical inefficiency could increase output by 8.64% per ha, or generate 5.7–6.4 million tons of additional rice output for Thailand each year. Similarly, elimination of technical inefficiency would potentially conserve 19.44% person-days of labor, 11.95% land area, 11.46% material inputs and 8.67% mechanical power services for every ton of rice produced. This translates into conservation of 2.9–3.0 million person-days of labor, 3.7–4.5 thousand km2 of land, 10.0–14.5 billion baht of material input and 7.6–12.8 billion baht of mechanical power costs to produce current level of rice output in Thailand each year. Policy implications include investment into educating farmers, and improving technical knowledge of seeding technology, to boost rice production and conserve scarce resources in Thailand