We use newly-available Indian panel data to estimate how the returns to planting-stage investments vary by rainfall realizations. We show that the forecasts significantly affect farmer investment decisions and that these responses account for a substantial fraction of the inter-annual...

This paper investigates the impacts of cotton marketing reforms on farm productivity, a key element for poverty alleviation, in rural Zambia. The reforms comprised the elimination of the Zambian cotton marketing board that was in place since 1977. Following liberalization, the sector adopted an...

The use of climate information in economic activities, typically provided by climate services, may serve as a possible adaptation strategy to changing climate conditions. The present paper analyzes the value of climate services aimed at improving agricultural productivity through a reduction in...

This paper identifies the key causal factors behind farmers’ marketing decisions in Mozambique. A two-step decision making process is modelled. Farmers decide, first, whether or not to participate in the market and, second, how much to market. The model is estimated using a Heckman switching...

Following formal privatisation of farm land and assets in CentralEurope, the change in agriculturalproduction structures has been both more limited and different thanwas initially expected. In this paper, thetheoretical reasons underlying those expectations are reviewed. Analternative...

This paper incorporates interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics and suggests a holistic framework for assessing the forms and efficiency of environmental management in agriculture. First, it defines environmental management as a specific system of social order regulating behaviour and...

Hamilton’s essay begins with a reflection on food and society. He writes of the effect of modernization and industry on the relationship America has with food. What once was a centerpiece of our economic independence, family life, and health is now merely an afterthought. Quality and trust in...

This paper incorporates a new inter-disciplinary methodology of the New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics, and examines pace, factors and modes for post-communist agricultural specialization and farming structures development in Bulgaria. Firstly, it presents the specific Bulgarian...

This paper presents the evolution of diverse modes of environmental management in Bulgarian agriculture, and assesses their efficiency and likely prospects of development. First, it analyzes the pace of development and the impact(s) on individual behavior of the major modes of environmental...

This book is a first attempt to make a comprehensive comparative analysis of agricultural policies in Bulgaria and Vietnam. Twenty year experience in reforming the agrarian sectors in both countries gives an extraordinary opportunity to (re)assess agrarian policies, their impacts and...