DSpace Angular :: Browsing by Author "Foster, William"

Browsing by Author "Foster, William"

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Collective marketing arrangements for geographically differentiated agricultural products: Welfare impacts and policy implications
(BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, 2007) Lence, Sergio H.; Marette, Stephan; Hayes, Dermot J.; Foster, William
We examine the incentives of atomistic producers to differentiate and collectively market products. We analyze market and welfare effects of alternative producer organizations, discuss circumstances under which they will evolve, and describe implications for the ongoing debate between the EU and the United States. As fixed costs of development and marketing increase and the anticipated market size falls, it becomes essential to increase the producer organization's ability to control supply to cover the fixed costs associated with the introduction of differentiated products. Counterintuitively, stronger property right protection for producer organizations may enhance welfare even after a differentiated product has been developed.
Effects of contracts and work relationships on salaries and income distribution of workers in the Chilean agricultural sector, 1996 and 2006
(2012) Campos, Jorge; Foster, William
J. Campos and W. Foster. 2012. Effects of contracts and work relationships on salaries and income distribution of workers in the Chilean Agriculture sector, 1996 and 2006. Cien. Inv. Agr. 39(1): 5-17. During the past thirty years the Chilean economy generally and agriculture specifically have grown considerably, raising both per capita GDP and observed real wages of salaried workers. There has been, however, a concern about the country's persistent unequal distribution of income. Among the possible factors associated with income inequality is the relatively infrequent use of contracts in seasonal and occasional work, both strongly present in agriculture. Based on Chilean household surveys (CASEN) for 1996 and 2006, impacts of contracts and work relationships (permanent, seasonal, etc.) on salaries, and their possible contributions to inequality, were measured, accounting for schooling, ethnicity, work experience, geographic zones, and other variables correlated with salaries. Separate hourly-wage equations for men and women were estimated. Ceteris paribus, employees with contracts earn more than those without, and those in a permanent work relationship earn more than those seasonally employed. The negative effects of not having a contract and being in a non-permanent work relationship are greater for women. Schooling is the single most important factor in explaining unequal salaries; however, the contribution of schooling to salary improvement has not changed considerably over time. Contracts and work relationship are important in explaining salary inequality, especially in the case of women.
In search of economically significant food losses: Evidence from Tunisia
(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2021) Anriquez, Gustavo; Foster, William; Ortega, Jorge; Rocha, Jozimo Santos
Large estimates of food losses among farms and intermediaries publicized recently by several international organizations invite the question: Why do economic decision makers live with such losses? The intuitive, economic response would be that the marginal benefits of loss reduction do not exceed the marginal costs. This paper analyzes the possibility that economically significant losses nevertheless might be occurring at the farm and wholesale levels in two cases that have drawn attention in the Near East and North Africa. In Tunisia, concerns exist that farm equipment, especially harvesting equipment, is a major source of wheat losses in a country for which the grain plays an important role in diets and the national import bill. Our analysis finds that smaller wheat farms do have relatively large physical losses, compared to large farms, attributable to the use of older and imperfectly adjusted harvesting equipment. Nevertheless, given the scale of most operations in Tunisia, there is little incentive for farmers to make the specific investments that would significantly reduce losses. In Egypt, local experts have focused on large post-harvest losses of tomatoes, an important crop, largely produced by small-scale farmers. We examine the effectiveness of plastic crates for reducing food losses in harvesting, transport and storage as compared to traditional palm crates. We find that there is perhaps a marginal gain to be had in terms of the value of losses avoided, but such gains are likely within a margin that makes adoption of plastic economically ambiguous.
Innovative Rural Entrepreneurship in Chile
(PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, FAC AGRONOMIA INGENIERIA FORESTAL, 2021) Modrego, Felix; Foster, William
Successful policies seeking to promote rural entrepreneurship require a conceptual model consistent with the features of rural spaces and free of stereotypes of entrepreneurship as being only technologically sophisticated. The objective of this essay is, first, to argue that rural areas can be fertile ground for entrepreneurial activities in middle income countries such as Chile and, second, to discuss policy options to achieve the goal of encouraging a more innovative entrepreneurship in rural areas. The scientific literature on entrepreneurship and the definitions, types and roles of entrepreneurship in development are reviewed. The literature on the location of entrepreneurship is summarized to understand the drivers of observed territorial differences in entrepreneurial activity. One conclusion is that rural areas face a (seemingly) adverse economic geography for entrepreneurship, although there is a recent tendency for amenities-led growth. We then present the geography of rural entrepreneurship in Chile. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the rates of entrepreneurship in Chilean rural areas are high, although presumably of a limited growth potential under current conditions. Nevertheless, this entrepreneurial base provides a stock of knowledge from which a greater sophistication could be reached, and we discuss potential policy approaches to stimulate more innovative rural entrepreneurship. In the case of Chile, available policy options are coherent with the recently enacted National Rural Development Policy. A systemic, amenity based approach gives middle-income countries opportunities for the development of more innovative rural entrepreneurship through territorial policies that provide local public goods and improve living conditions.
Measuring the costs and trade effects of phytosanitary protocols: A US-Japanese apple example
(BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, 2008) Calvin, Linda; Krissoff, Barry; Foster, William
This article investigates the trade impact of Japan's decision in 2005 to revise its phytosanitary protocol for fire blight for U.S. apple imports but retain its codling moth protocol. The analysis presents a participation model to measure the economic costs of phytosanitary barriers to trade. The model provides an explicit cost of the phytosanitary barriers in terms of the structure of the protocols, an important advantage over the price-wedge methodology. This makes it possible to separate the economic costs of various protocols-in this case, the fire blight and codling moth protocols.
Modeling the economic impact for Chile of an import ban on genetically modified maize
(2024) Foster, William; Ortega, Jorge; Vargas, Gonzalo
We estimate producer and consumer surplus changes due to a possible GM maize import ban in Chile, which produces only non-GM grains for internal use. Without foreign non-GM sources, the ban's effect on domestic maize prices would be so significant as to induce Chile to switch from net exporter to net importer of animal products. Fixed factor owners in farm production would benefit significantly, although non-GM maize imports would moderate gains. Total social welfare measures would decline considerably, requiring large offsetting noneconomic benefits for a ban's political viability. Without non-GM imports, internal maize prices would likely eliminate domestic animal product industries; with possible imports, industries and final consumers would suffer, but much less. Currently, the country is a net importer of grain and a net exporter of pork and poultry, and so most welfare losses on the demand side of the market for maize would be in terms of the economic rents generated by the pork and poultry sectors. International competition would protect final consumers to the extent that animal product imports based on GM feed were permitted.
Refining the scale of the rural-urban landscape: A policy-relevant application to Chile
(2024) Anriquez, Gustavo; Calabrese, Jazmine; Foster, William; Keim, Klaus; Osses, Pablo
The rural-urban divide has traditionally been used to characterize key features of regions, including features of economic geography like density and connectivity that determine the prospects for economic growth and other dimensions of territorial development. In this paper, we develop a methodology that identifies areas along the urban-rural continuum according to their key features of population density and distance to large urban settlements at a more-detailed scale than the smallest administrative areas, taking Chile as a case study, a country that has experienced a rapid socio-economic transition over the last three decades. Information derived from the application of this methodology allows the identification of geographic categories according to observable density and distance. We also present geographic definitions of urban, rural, and mixed areas, which allow a practical, policy-relevant taxonomy of the rural-urban landscape, consistent with the 3-tier approach taken in most OECD countries. We demonstrate the relevance and practical importance of this smaller-scale approach by showing that, in the case of Chile, there is a significant mismatch between the official, cruder definitions, based on political subdivisions and currently in use by the government, and the realities of the country's present ruralurban landscape. Our results demonstrate that a focus on the scale at which information can be interpreted and summarized is not merely an academic exercise, but a way of correctly identifying, within the policymaking framework, communities according to the realities of their needs and capabilities.
Reflections on the Role of Agriculture in Pro-Poor Growth
(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2010) Valdes, Alberto; Foster, William
This paper assesses the importance of agriculture poverty reduction, largely through its impact on overall economic growth, drawing on evidence from Latin America and other developing regions. The econometric evidence strongly suggests that the sector contributes to growth more than its share of GDP, certainly in Latin America but also elsewhere. Cross-country studies show that, on average in the developing world, agriculture tends to have an impact on both national growth and poverty reduction that is greater than its simple share of national GDP. The results reinforce the argument against taxing agriculture relative to other sectors and that in assigning government expenditures to public goods one should take into account the historical relationship between agricultural growth and the subsequent non-agricultural growth. The paper also considers approaches to stimulate the rural economy. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Region-level yield and area price elasticities for Chilean wheat incorporating climate variables
(2010) Gonzalez, Sergio; Foster, William
S. Gonzalez, and W. Foster. 2010. Region-level yield and area price elasticities for Chilean wheat incorporating climate variables. Cien. Inv. Agr. 37(3): 47-56. Wheat yields have increased in Chile in the last thirty years due in part to incentives, increased input use and improved varieties. Region-specific price elasticities of per-hectare yields and planted hectares are estimated using region-level data for the period 1975-2007. Price-yield and price-hectare elasticities are similar, although slightly lower than those obtained by Morales and Foster (2002) in all regions, ranging between 0.33 and 0.73 for yields and between 0 and 0.43 for hectares. Values of price elasticity for total production range between 0.38 and 1.12. For two of the regions studied, climate variables were available and their inclusion results in a reduction in of the elasticity of total production with respect to price. The results suggest that the inclusion of climate variables should be considered when estimating producer responses to prices and when projecting the likely impacts of forecasted climate changes on producer decisions.
Slow burn: Weak energy transition in a growing economy
(2024) Fercovic, Juan; Foster, William; Gulati, Sumeet
Despite impressive recent gains in income (now classified by the World Bank as a "high income country"), and access to alternative heating systems, Chileans continue to have amongst the highest levels of per-capita wood consumption in the world, with serious attendant health and environmental implications. In this paper, we estimate the income elasticity of the use of firewood as a primary residential heating system in Chilean households. Our estimate accounts for the country's climatic, geographic, and socio-demographic variation; controls for multiple levels of fixed-effects and covariates; and accounts for selection-as some households choose no heating systems whatsoever. We find that an increase of income of 10% decreases the probability of firewood use by about one-tenth of a percentage point, a statistically significant but economically trivial effect. This result, consistent across various robustness checks, provides evidence for an extremely weak income-based energy transition in Chile. It implies that passive environmental policy, expecting a reduction of firewood use exclusively from income growth will fail. If the Chilean government's aim is to lower the detrimental health and environmental outcomes associated with firewood use, they will have to adopt more aggressive approaches.
The Constraints to Escaping Rural Poverty: An Analysis of the Complementarities of Assets in Developing Countries
(OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2011) Foster, William; Valdes, Alberto; Davis, Benjamin; Anriquez, Gustavo
Based on Food and Agriculture Organization data for 15 developing countries, we examine household characteristics, asset bundles and income-generating activities of the rural poor. Assets aid in exiting poverty, not independent of one another, but rather in combination. We develop an approach to estimate the complementarities between education, farm size and infrastructure. Limited access to the three assets of interest here (susceptible to medium-and long-term interventions) might prevent moving a large number of small farmers out of poverty in the short-term (even with support programs). Increased land holding often has lower poverty-reducing potential, and when its potential is high, it is in countries where most land is divided among small operations (for example, Bangladesh). Education is confirmed as highly poverty-alleviating, and has a high complementarity with infrastructure.
The distance to market effect on rural poverty in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago
(PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, INST ESTUDIOS URBANOS TERRITORIALES, 2013) Perez, Rodrigo; Salazar, Alejandro; Foster, William; Osses, Pablo
The national poverty headcount in Chile has declined considerably since 1990. In 2006, rural poverty rate fell below that of urban areas, due in part to population mobility. Rural areas, however, are still characterized by low educational levels and incomes, explained, in part, by low population density, remoteness to services, and limited access to markets for rural-produced products. This study finds that distance (measured as travel time) of rural populations to urban areas is associated with the incidence of poverty in rural communities after controlling for other factors. Using an econometric model based on geographical and socioeconomic information of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, the study finds that poverty levels in census tracts increase with distance to Santiago, and, for a given distance, access to transportation reduces poverty, through a mitigation of the distance effect.
Understanding Farm-Level Incentives within the Bioeconomy Framework: Prices, Product Quality, Losses, and Bio-Based Alternatives
(2021) Jansen, Sarah; Foster, William; Anriquez, Gustavo; Ortega, Jorge
The bioeconomy framework emphasizes potential contributions of life sciences to novel, bio-based products and to discover economic uses for what would otherwise be considered waste or loss in traditional production systems. To best exploit this perspective, especially for biowaste innovations, economists should develop behavioral models that integrate decision-making with biophysical concepts. The supply to bioeconomy uses of farm production otherwise lost depends on the relative net benefits of adjusting production across a range of quality levels. Without understanding such incentives, one cannot fully anticipate the effects on prices and consumer welfare due to new alternatives. The analysis here examines farm-level incentives that determine quality, sales and loss levels, and possible switching of supplies to alternative uses. We present a farmer decision model of the distribution of product qualities, total losses, and the adoption of alternative profitable activities, such as for antioxidants or other novel bioproducts. We demonstrate how the introduction of bio-based alternatives changes opportunity costs of resource use, altering product quality proportions and sales to traditional markets. Adopting biowaste alternatives depends on scale, productivity, and fixed costs; adopting these reduces the proportion of production going to traditional buyers/consumers and shifts downward the distribution of traditional product (e.g., food-grade) qualities.

Browsing by Author "Foster, William"

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