Based on the model by de Janvry, Fafchamps, and Sadoulet (1991), this study gives a two-step interpretation to response of the shadow or internal prices in a peasant household model with missing markets for both food and labor. In the first step, changes in exogenous variables have initial effects on the internal prices of food and labor in their respective “internal markets". In the second step, these effects are combined through interactions between the internal markets that are caused by cross-price effects between food and labor. Response of the internal prices under the two missing markets can be thought of as resulting from these interactions. This interpretation, as well as the sensitivity analysis based on it, reveals not only how the marked “internal instability" (or sharp fluctuation of the perceived scarcity) of food and labor arises but also which assumptions are crucial to produce it in the simulation analysis of de Janvry et al.

View full abstract

This paper investigated the role of farmers' access to information in a farm household's decisions of whether or not to adopt hybrid maize and the amount to adopt using data collected in a poor region of China. The empirical results suggest that increased availability of medium and more frequent extension visits would lead more farmers to adopt the hybrid maize. It is also found that, once adoption is realized, more frequent extension visits to the adopters will be vital to influence farmers to allocate more of their maize area to hybrid maize. The paper also demonstrate the adoption of new technology in the poor areas may well be different from that in the rich areas.

View full abstract

Mori and Inaba proposed an estimation method of deriving individual consumption by age from macro data classified by age of household head (HH), using quadratic programming, 1997. We replaced their approach by regression with weights which are determined by the magnitude of standardized residuals, following the leads of Huber, 1981 and Minotani, 1992. Using our revised method which provides objective statistics, the estimates of per capita individual consumption of fresh fruit and fresh fish, respectively, by non-adults are substantially larger and those for the young adults somewhat smaller in our studies than in previous studies. It seems quite apparent that Japanese children and young adults have decreased their at-home consumption of these products substantially in recent years. Those older than 50years of age seem to have maintained their consumption at relatively high levels.

View full abstract

The evaluation and forecasting of the performance of the Unions of Rural Cooperatives (URC) can be performed through the use of various types of financial ratios, such as ratios of efficiency, reliability and management. A computer decision support system (DSS) was designed and implemented for this purpose. The system evaluates and ranks the URC by applying principles of multicriteria analysis. Assigning various weights to the financial ratios enacts different scenarios. Actually each scenario calls for a different type of evaluation. The types of evaluation are determined by a variety of performance indicators. Actual financial data concerning the URC of north Greece for the last ten years was used as input to the DSS. The DSS applies fuzzy logic in order to forecast the future performance of each URC. The application of the system with original financial URC data and the use of a fuzzy forecasting method constitute the original contribution of the paper. The paper can be used in any country of the world without any revisions.

View full abstract