scholarly journals Production Risk, Farmer Welfare, and Bt Corn in the Philippines

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santi Sanglestsawai ◽  
Divina Gracia P. Rodriguez ◽  
Roderick M. Rejesus ◽  
Jose M. Yorobe

We determine the production risk effects and welfare implications of single-trait Bt corn adoption in the Philippines. We use a stochastic production function estimation approach that allows for examining the skewness effects of Bt within a damage abatement specification. Our results indicate that Bt corn has a statistically significant yield increasing, risk-increasing (i.e., variance-increasing) and downside risk-reducing (i.e., skewness-increasing) effects. Based on risk premium, certainty equivalent, and loss probability welfare measures, Bt corn farmers in the Philippines are better-off (in absolute terms) relative to non-Bt farmers given Bt corn's dominant yield increasing effect and downside risk-reducing effect.

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Berry ◽  
Martin Gaynor ◽  
Fiona Scott Morton

This article considers the recent literature on firm markups in light of both new and classic work in the field of industrial organization. We detail the shortcomings of papers that rely on discredited approaches from the “structure-conduct-performance” literature. In contrast, papers based on production function estimation have made useful progress in measuring broad trends in markups. However, industries are so heterogeneous that careful industry-specific studies are also required, and sorely needed. Examples of such studies illustrate differing explanations for rising markups, including endogenous increases in fixed costs associated with lower marginal costs. In some industries there is evidence of price increases driven by mergers. To fully understand markups, we must eventually recover the key economic primitives of demand, marginal cost, and fixed and sunk costs. We end by discussing the various aspects of antitrust enforcement that may be of increasing importance regardless of the cause of increased markups.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjan Kazemi ◽  
Mohammad Sharif Karimi

Context: Hospitals are the most important section in relation to health economy, accounting for 50-80% of the health budget in developing countries. Objectives: The present study aimed to estimate the production functions of the hospitals in Iran. Data Sources: This systematic review was conducted via searching in the international databases of Scopus, ISI, PubMed and Persian databases of IDML, SID, MagIran for access to data in 2019 with no time limits using keywords such as hospitals, hospital performance, hospital performance assessment, production function estimation, and Iran. The required data on the authors, year of publication, language of publication, and number of hospitals were extracted from the articles using a checklist. The extracted data were categorized and interpreted in the Excel software. Results: The initial search yielded 334 articles, which were extracted and reviewed based on their title, abstract, and elimination of the duplicates. In total, 12 articles were obtained for the final analysis. The mean elasticity of the inputs for physicians, nurses, active beds, and other staff was 0.22, 0.55, 0.64, and 0.36, respectively. In addition, the marginal production of the factors for physicians, nurses, active beds, and other staff was 53.22, 32.56, 41.10, and 38.56, respectively. The marginal production of all the inputs was positive. Conclusions: Considering the positive marginal production of all the inputs, it is suggested that the utilization of the inputs increase due to their elasticity in order to improve efficiency, which is a priority for using active hospital bed. It is also advisable to assess various sections of each hospital rather than on a hospital level and evaluate productivity and efficiency.


Author(s):  
Ashok K Mishra ◽  
Anthony N Rezitis ◽  
Mike G Tsionas

Abstract Contract farming (CF) has been offered as a solution to missing markets in developing economies. However, little is known as to how the presence of CF affects production risk, technical efficiency and risk attitudes of the smallholder. This study investigates production risk, technical efficiency, output price uncertainty and risk attitudes of contract and independent farmers. Using a Bayesian estimation method and farm-level data from Nepal, we find that contract farmers are more risk-averse than the independent farmers. Contract farmers can increase output by reducing the scale more than independent farmers. We find that labour and capital are risk-reducing, while land and other inputs are risk increasing for both contract and independent farmers. Finally, independent growers consistently over-predict output prices.


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