Publications > Cahiers (English)> N° 45, 4th term 1997
- Incentives
for quality provision and environmental innovations by water supply
utilities,
T. KUHN, K. PITTEL - [Estimating and modeling demand for edible oils and fats in the European Union. A complete semiflexible system], L. MORIN, Y. SURRY
- [Preservation value for groundwater quality : a comparison between users and non-users], A. ROZAN, A. STENGER, M. WILLINGER
- [The
process of specialisation of French farms : technical changes and input
price trend],
P. DUPRAZ
COMPTES RENDUS DE LECTURE
C . MORRISSON, La
répartition des revenus, par J.-L. Brangeon, G. Jégouzo ; G. BEAUR
et
P. MINARD (sous la direction de), Atlas de la Révolution Française,
par R. Mallet ; J.-P. BOUILLOUD, Sociologie et société. Epistémologie
de la réception, par Christian Poncet ;
C. LARRERE et R. LARRERE (éds.), La crise environnementale, par
D. Vermersch
Incentives for quality provision and environmental innovations by
water supply utilities
[Primes accordées à la qualité et à l'innovation en matière d'environnement
par les services des eaux]
Tomas KUHN and Karen PITTEL (Technical University Chemnitz, Department of Economics, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany)
In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurale, n° 45, 1997, pp 5-19
Summary : This paper deals with optimal regulatory policies to provide for quality of ser-vice and innovations in abatement technology by water supply utilities. The main focus of the analysis is on the relationship among price, quality, pollution and abatement technology. Allowing for asymmetric information about abatement costs and costs of quality service we try to characterize incentive compatible mechanisms, where price, quality and technical pro-gress are optimally regulated to assure for a second-best solution. We find price to be higher, quantity and investment in abatement technology to be lower than in the full information solution.
Key-words : regulation, asymmetric information, technological change, aater.
Modélisation et estimation de la demande alimentaire d'huiles et de
graisses dans l'Union européenne. Un système complet de demande semi-flexible
[Estimating and modeling demand for edible oils and fats in the European
Union. A complete semiflexible system]
Laurent MORIN (ONIDOL, 12 avenue Georges V, 75008 Paris cedex), Yves SURRY (INRA, Unité d'économie et sociologie rurales, 65, rue de St Brieuc, 35042 Rennes cedex)
In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurale, n° 45, 1997, pp 23-60
Summary : The article studies the response of the demand for edible oils and fats in the European Union to prices and expenditure. A conditional demand equations system conform with the neoclassical consumer theory is specified and estimated for ten oils and fats. The model is implemented using a semi-flexible Rotterdam model. The latter has two attractive properties worth mentionning: first, it offers a parsimonious representation of demand functions; and second global curvature conditions can be easily imposed through a triangular decomposition of its Slutsky matrix. The model is semi-flexible in the sense that it reduces the number of parameters while all the regularity conditions are still maintained. Full matrices of price and expenditure elasticities for oils and fats are obtained and discussed in the article. An examination of these elasticities matrices revealed that: (i) palm oil is responsive to expenditure; (ii) a large number of substitution possibilities emerge between oils and fats and in particular between coco and palmkernel oils and between palm and rapeseed oils; (iii) by contrast, tallow and palm oil are complements, as well as palm and soybean oils. The results obtained are similar to those previously published in works on the same products in the United States.
Key-words : European Union, oils and fats, Rotterdam model, semiflexibility, demand system.
Valeur de préservation de la qualité de l'eau souterraine : une comparaison
entre usagers et non-usagers
[Preservation value for groundwater quality : a comparison between users
and non-users]
Anne ROZAN (BETA, Université Louis Pasteur, 38, boulevard d'Anvers, 67070 Strasbourg cedex), Anne STENGER and Marc WILLINGER (INRA, Laboratoire d'études et de recherches économiques, rue de la Géraudière, BP 1627, 44316 Nantes cedex 3)
In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurale, n° 45, 1997, pp 61-92
Summary : We report the results of a contingent valuation study on the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for preserving groundwater quality in the Alsace region (France). The resource is a large aquifer which supplies 80% of the households of the region. The purpose of our paper is to compare the results of two separate studies, one concerning households that are supplied by water from the aquifer (users) and households which are currently supplied by a different source than the aquifer (non-users). Non-users are households which are located in an area close enough from the aquifer to become eventually supplied by groundwater in the future. We expected that non-users would be likely to pay an insurance premium in order to secure access to a substitute and preserved water source in the future, for the event where their current water source would be polluted. A contingent valuation questionnaire was submitted to respondents in 12 different locations spread over the aquifer region during a face-to-face interview. In 2 of the locations there were only non-users. One of the main results of the study is that non-users are willing to pay a substantial amount of money to preserve the quality of the water in the aquifer, even if they believe that it is unlikely that they will use it in the future. Moreover, their WTP relies apparently much more on bequest and existence motives than on an insurance motive. The results also show that the households' dependence on groundwater has a positive influence on their WTP. The non-users' mean WTP is about 60% of the users' WTP, which is an interesting indication about the importance of non-users for contingent valuation studies. But both WTP have different explanatory variables. Only the bid value and the respondent's income appear as common explanatory variables in our study.
Key-words : contingent valuation, groundwater, preservation value, use value, non-use value, willingness to pay, users, non-users.
La spécialisation des exploitations agricoles : changements techniques
et prix des facteurs
[The process of specialisation of French farms : technical changes and
input price trend]
Pierre DUPRAZ, (INRA, Unité d'économie et sociologie rurales, 65, rue de St Brieuc, 35042 Rennes cedex)
In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurale, n° 45, 1997, pp 93-122
Summary : For decades, the French agricultural sector has been characterised by farm specialisation and concentration. The competitive equilibrium with a finite number of farms is the framework to analyse the changes in scale and scope economies and their consequences on the respective competitiveness of specialised and diversified farms . This theoretical approach shows how the input price trend may explain the farm specialisation process through these technical changes. Accordingly, the empirical analysis deals with the dissociation of the animal and vegetal production lines, observed in the French farms.
Key-words : scope economics, scale economics, agriculture, specialisation.