AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics collects, indexes, and electronically distributes full text copies of scholarly research in the broadly defined field of agricultural economics including sub disciplines such as agribusiness, food supply, natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, agricultural trade, and economic development.
The majority of items in AgEcon Search are working papers, conference papers, and journal articles, although other types such as books chapters and government documents are included. AgEcon Search will serve as the permanent archive for this literature and encourages authors and organizations to use this electronic library as the storehouse for additional appropriate scholarly electronic works.
AgEcon Search is co-sponsored by the Department of Applied Economics and the University Libraries at University of Minnesota and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
The site has received encouragement and financial support from:
Agricultural Economics Reference Organization
Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
European Association of Agricultural Economists
Farm Foundation
International Association of Agricultural Economists
USDA Economic Research Service
AgEcon Search is part of the University of Minnesota's Digital Conservancy, which provides stewardship, reliable long-term access, and broad dissemination of the digital scholarly and administrative works of the University of Minnesota faculty, departments, centers and offices.
Papers and articles downloaded from AgEcon Search may be used for non-commercial purposes and personal study only. No other use, including posting to another Internet site, is permitted without permission from the copyright owner, or as allowed under the provisions of Fair Use, U.S. Copyright Act, Title 17 U.S.C.
AgEcon Search does not hold the copyright to articles, working papers, conference papers, or other materials available in the database. Copyrights may be held by any of the following: individual authors, multiple authors, organizations, institutions, or publishers.
History
AgEcon Search began in 1995 as an experiment to see if it were possible to use the internet to archive, index and deliver on demand, full text working papers produced by university agricultural economics departments. The first papers were from agricultural economics departments at Minnesota and Wisconsin. These early papers predated the World Wide Web and were mounted on a GOPHER server in WordPerfect format. The project was (and still is) a cooperative project of the University of Minnesota Libraries, the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). The Farm Foundation and the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided financial support in the beginning of the project. Patricia Rodkewich and Louise Letnes managed AgEcon Search until Patricia's retirement in 2001, when Julie Kelly joined the AgEcon Search team. Erik Biever also served on the original AgEcon Search team, providing valued technical services and guidance. The members of the Agricultural Economics Reference Organization endorsed the efforts of AgEcon Search early on and have been instrumental in expanding the use of AgEcon Search in their respective institutions.
Since its inception AgEcon Search has operated as a distributed network, with each institution designating a member of their organization to submit papers on their behalf. With this model, costs for maintaining the system were kept low and institutions do not have to pay membership fees for participation. In the cases where an institution had no central person to act as the network member, a fee has been charged for AgEcon Search staff to submit papers. The first organization to choose this option was the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, which since 1997 has been contracting with AgEcon Search to post its annual conference papers.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 251 - 255 of 376THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY ON LIVESTOCK AND LAND-USE MANAGEMENT: THE BORANA PLATEAU, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
The Borana people are the predominant ethnic group on the Borana Plateau in southern Ethiopia. Though traditionally transhumant pastoralists, they have recently increased their reliance on crops. Rainfall in the region averages between 353 mm to 873 mm; variability is high, with coefficients of variation ranging from .21 to .68. Anectdotal evidence implies that the vulnerability of pastoralist households to drought is increasing; stock levels increase dramatically during good rainfall years but plummet when rainfall is poor, indicating that the drought cycle is becoming more pronounced.
IMPACTS OF LAND RESDISTRIBUTION ON LAND MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE ETHIOPIAN HIGHLANDS
The increasing problem of landlessness in Ethiopia has put pressure on regional governments to redistribute land. In 1997 and 1998, a major land redistribution was undertaken in the Amhara region, reducing landlessness where implemented. While the impacts of such redistributions have been hotly debated, little empirical evidence exists concerning the actual impacts of this redistribution.
UNDERSTANDING THE DEMAND FOR FARMLAND PRESERVATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR MICHIGAN POLICIES
The diversity of opinion on farmland preservation suggests that a close look at the issue is warranted as state and local governments consider how best to preserve the state's farmland resource. Public support for farmland preservation programs will be required if those programs are to be successful and will only be forthcoming if there is greater agreement about questions that underlie the policy debate.
LAND, TREES, AND WOMEN: EVOLUTION OF LAND TENURE INSTITUTIONS IN WESTERN GHANA AND SUMATRA
How do women's land rights change as customary tenure systems give way to individualized land tenure? While the individualization of land rights creates incentives for poor farmers in marginal areas to adopt agroforestry, not much is known about its impact on women's land rights. Land, Trees, and Women examines the evolution of customary land tenure institutions in areas of Western Ghana and Western Sumatra where traditional matrilineal inheritance systems have been changing.
THE ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER IMPERFECT ENFORCEMENT: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
This paper develops a model of heterogeneous producers to examine theeconomic causes of IPR infringement and its consequences for the welfare of the interestgroups and the pricing and adoption of a new technology (i.e., a genetically modifiedseed) in the context of a small open developing economy. Enforcement of IPRs, andpricing and adoption of the new technology are modeled as a sequential game betweenthe government that enforces the IPRs, a foreign innovating firm that prices the newtechnology, and the developing country’s producers who make the production andcheating decisions.