Publications > Cahiers (English)> N° 34-35, 1st and 2nd terms 1995

• Causality analysis in agricultural economics : a review of theoretical and empirical issues, R. Sarker
• [The payment of forest works], B. Elyakime
• [Inheritance tax and profitability of forest investments], J.-P Terreaux
• [Models of firm : a tool to study and classify dairy industry], P. Albert J.-P. Huiban,
  M. Martin
• Environmentally friendly agricultural practices : an application of the contingent valuation method, J.-C. Cooper
• [Brothers and sisters apart ? The effect of sibling composition on XIXth century France migration], P.-A. Rosental

Causality analysis in agricultural economics : a review of theoretical and empirical issues

R. Sarker (Department of Agricultural Economics & Business, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 5-43

Summary : This paper provides an overview of causality analysis in agricultural economics. The relationships between Granger causality and various concepts of exogeneity are discussed. Four traditional causality tests developed for testing Granger causality are described and their applications in agricultural economics are critically appraised. Causality analysis in vector autoregressive and cointegrated systems along with their applications in agricultural economics are discussed. Irrespective of the methodology, commodity price analysis received most of the applications of causality analysis in agricultural economics. In view of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, a sequential approach for testing Granger causality based Johansen's maximum likelihood method is suggested for systems involving variables with stochastic trends and cointegration.

Key-words : agricultural economics, Granger causality, vector autoregressive, cointegrated systems.

La rémunération des travaux forestiers
[The payment of forest works]

B. Elyakime (Station d'économie et sociologie rurales de l'INRA, chemin de Borde Rouge, Auzeville, B.P. 27, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 45-57

Summary : In the French country, sawmills and paper-mills buy some parts of forests, a wood-cutting, to private-owner forests or to public-owner forests. But wood-cutting is made with standing timber. The use of the standing timber is either the production of paper either the production of wood-lumber. So in French forests, the private-owner forests, sawmill and paper factory, employ a woodcutter-contractor to make forest works. But an important number of these French wood-cutter contractors have no experience in forest works and the employers, sawmills and paper-mills, do not know the real capacity of the woodcutter-contractor to make forest works. The contact between the woodcutter-contractor and the employer is simple and do not take account of the real capacity of the contractor to make forest works. The contract between the employer and the wood-cutter contractor is dependent on a private information of the contractor : adverse selection is important in the relation between the employer and the wood-cutter contractor. So we propose a non linear pricing, based on a contractor's private information, applied to these forest works. The aim is to improve supplies of sawmills or paper factories and the development of the woodcutter's profession. In the first part of this paper, we describe the work's conditions of the woodcutter-contractor in French forests and the payment used at present. Then we propose a first model of contract in adverse selection and based on a contractor's private information about costs for forest works. We give a numerical example of a non linear pricing for forest works. A second model of payment in adverse selection is carried out : the aim is to incite the woodcutter-contractor to get back some timbers in a wood-cutting intended to a paper- mill. This is possible with an experienced woodcutter contractor. So we propose a non linear pricing that takes account of the woodcutter contractor's experience in forest works. a numerical example is carried out. In the conclusion we examine the necessary social conditions to apply a non linear pricing in forest works, to improve supplies of French wood industry.

Key-words : adverse selection, incentives, forest works.

Fiscalité sur les successions et rentabilité forestière
[Inheritance tax and profitability of forest investments]

J.-P Terreaux (INRA, Station d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales, BP 27, Auzeville, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 59-76

Summary : Some countries, and among them France, are according a partial relief of inheritance taxes for the transmission of wooded land, provided the respect of some stipulations. We compute the expected value of this tax and of the comparative advantage for the forests (as an annual rate), with a model using economic and demographic equations. Results are set out in a graphical mode. For the value of the parameters corresponding to the French data, for an owner who is 60 years old, the actualised value of inheritance taxes which will be paid during the 50 following years represents 30 % of the forest value when the partial relief of taxation is not obtained, but only 8 % in the opposite case. This relief gives a bonus of about 0.66 % of profitability, per year, and which are supposed in our model to provide a real rate of return of 3 %. This means a rise of the profitability of 22 %. We give the variability of the results in accordance with some demographic parameters. But this comparative advantage given to forest investments must be balanced, for the private owner by the risks and the irreversibility linked to this production, and for the society by the positive externalities of forestry. The method we use here allows us to quantify the impacts of other inheritance taxation advantages, in force or in preparation at the present time, or the effects of the modification of some fiscal parameters, concerning other categories of goods or of investments than forests.

Key-words : forest, economics, inheritance, taxation.

Les modèles d'entreprise : application au secteur laitier
[Models of firm : a tool to study and classify dairy industry]

P. Albert (ENESAD, 26, bd du Docteur Petitjean, 21000 Dijon), J.-P. Huiban (INRA, 369, rue Jules Guesde, BP 39, 59651 Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex), M. Martin (INRA, 26, bd du Docteur Petitjean, 21000 Dijon)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 77-102

Summary : The study of industrial sectors has always been very present in the economic literature. But several different approaches were used, some concerning especially the sectoral dynamics and others dealing with the study of firm, considered as an organizational entity or as an informational nexus. Works that would try to build a bridge between the different approaches are rare. We propose a synthetic representation of the firm within three dimensions : the technical combination of production factors, the organizational structure, the relations with the market. By this way, an industrial sector can be considered as the aggregation of several groups composed by firms that are close to a stylised form, that we named a "firm model". We consider the case of the French dairy industry as an empirical field to test this analytical tool. Thus, each firm of this sector is analyzed and classified with the help of this scheme, by using individual statistical data and some data analysis, classification and analysis of variance methods. Nine "firm models" appear in the dairy industry case. Their characteristics as well as their relative weight in the sector are quite different. We also test their relative performances by using various criteria and point out the existence of an hierarchy between these models : some are very efficient, while the existence of some others is quite surprising in regard to their relative performances. By the same time, we reveal that some complementarities exist between the firms of the different models, concerning for instance the functional distribution of jobs, this is suggested explicit or implicit relations between firms : competition is not the only way, and coordination also appears between firms. That last point can be useful to understand the sectoral architecture. A sector is not only a competition space for firms, but also a cooperation one. The existence of some firms as well as their strategies or performances cannot be understood if these kind of relation between firms are not pointed out.

Key-words : dairy industry, firm, sector.

Environmentally friendly agricultural practices : an application of the contingent valuation method

J. C. Cooper (Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, 1301 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 111-122

Summary : Over time, public concern over the contribution of agricultural pollutants to the degradation of surface and ground water supplies has been increasing. To address this concern, one existing governement program provides incentive payments to farmers to encourage them to adopt more environmentally benign production practices than they currently use. However, current payment levels are fixed. Hence, farmer response to different incentive payment levels is not known. This paper presents a model for estimating the probability of farmer adoption of environmentally sound management practices as a function of offered incentive payments. A modification of the random utility model is used to analyze survey results for farmers in several regions of the USA.

Key-words : incentive payments, random utility model, probit, farm management practices, contingent valuation method.

Une fratrie ou deux fratries ? La migration des frères et la migration des soeurs en France au XIXe siècle
[Brothers and sisters apart ? The effect of sibling composition on XIXth century France migration]

P.-A. Rosental (Laboratoire de Démographie Historique, EHESS, 54, boulevard Raspail,
75006 Paris)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 34-35, 1995, pp 123-143

Summary : The nature of French 19th century official sources makes it particularly difficult to trace migratory trajectories. This paper uses a sample of descending geneologies from 1800 to 1914 to reexamine the classical question concerning the relation between birth rank and geographic mobility. A first set of results confirms the findings of work in historical anthropology. Individuals coming from regions subject to inheritance laws based on a principle of free choice had markedly different trajectories than those setting out from areas subject to a regime of equidistribution. In the first so-called "liberal" areas, the eldest child and the younger children follow very different paths. First-borns were often more sedentary, and the later born were much more prone to undertake long distance migrations. Under the egalitarian system of partition, birth order was not associated with different migratory patterns. It is likely that "liberal" regions managed to maintain a system of transmission which favored the first-born despite the introduction in 1804 of a law forbidding such practices. While the practice eventually subsided, it nevertheless persisted into the late 19th century. The study of geographic mobility thus confirms the claims that, despite the introduction of the Code Civil, the ancient law, inherited from the Ancien Régime, continued to exercise significant anthropological effects throughout the century. The study of genealogical data also allows for an exploration of the interaction of this phenomenon with other less studied mechanisms. The distribution of sexes amongst siblings played a particularly important role in determining migratory patterns. On the one hand the degree of mobility varied considerably depending on whether an individual belonged to an all male set of siblings, an entirely female set, or a mixed sibling family. This effect was particularly marked for women : the propensity to migrate was much lower for women in a family of only female children than for those who had at least one brother, while the effect of sex composition on male movement was much less marked. On the other hand, whereas the eldest male child exhibited the same patterns as the eldest in general, the same was not the case for female children: the eldest female child was much more likely to migrate than her younger sisters. These results raise a number of more general points concerning migration as a phenomenon. They suggest that an explanation of migration patterns can not be confined to the study of either macro-level regularities or of individual level attributes. Instead the researcher must take into account an intermediary level, that of inter- individual configurations which constitute the migrant's reference group at the moment of her or his departure.

Key-words : migration, family, siblings, gender.