The linearization of structural models of random price production may be carried out by exploiting the mean-standard deviation approach under a location and scale parameter condition. As shown here, the linearization problem may be solved under widely employed assumptions on production technology (i.e., a homogeneous production function) and on the type of risk aversion (i.e., constant absolute risk aversion or constant relative risk aversion). The linear structural models proposed in this study are more practical than those developed using the expected utility approach, for several reasons. First, they remarkably reduce the cost of estimating agent risk parameters. Second, they facilitate the calculation of various analytic measures that are useful for understanding production behavior, such as the risk premium and the elasticity of supply. Third, they allow for geometric explanations of agent attitudes toward price uncertainty. These practical attributes would facilitate a structural examination of farmer production behavior in the face of price risk. Furthermore, since the location and scale parameter condition under which all the arguments in this study are made is satisfied in a large number of economic models, the structural model simplification procedure considered here would be effective for developing tractable structural models involving alternative types of randomness, such as yield and financial uncertainties.

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The various kinds of damages currently caused by wildlife throughout Japan can be attributed to the fact that the policies for management and utilization have lacked both a long-term perspective and an examination from the biological and economic points of view. This paper, therefore, addresses the issue of the management of the Yeso deer in Hokkaido and reexamines it. The paper presents three main conclusions. First, when the revenues from forestry products are sufficiently high, it will be appropriate to maintain the wildlife resource level lower than the level corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). Second, there is a possibility that certain changes in the discount rate and the price may lead to a substantial alteration of the management criteria. Third, there is little difference between the monopoly case and the socially optimum case under the parameter values set in this paper.

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The Chinese Government has promoted the national fuel-ethanol program since 2002 to deal with the energy security and air pollution problem. Inferior corn has been allocated as the major raw material to produce fuel-ethanol, but is inadequate for this purpose. Contrary to the national government's decision, the Chinese fuel-ethanol facilities in Heilongjiang and Jilin use normal corn, which is used for feed, food and industrial raw material. This study examines the impacts the Chinese fuel-ethanol program would have on domestic and international corn markets, by applying a newly developed Chinese corn market model. Our simulation suggests moderate impacts of the problem on the world corn market.

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The relationship between multifunctionality and the roles of rural communities has not been discussed fully although the connection between the two is an essential issue in the rural policy arena. Pursuing this issue, this paper considers that multifunctional hamlet activities are generated as institutional joint products within the hamlet. Also evaluated is the connection between multifunctional activities and institutional hamlet conditions under the Japanese direct payment program for less favored areas. Results of conceptual considerations and empirical evaluations reveal that specific multifunctional hamlet activities depend on hamlet conditions; those on the least favorable level tend to perform land preservation activities while those under the most favorable conditions tend to undertake recreational activity. Hamlets participating in forming landscape fall in the middle. Thus, firstly, institutional jointness is not constant but variable depending on hamlet conditions. Consequently, programs to enhance multifunctionality should respect hamlet conditions that represent different levels of institutional jointness of multifunctional activity rather than treat multifunctionality as a single concept. Secondly, for diversification, it would be effective to organize hamlet activities based on an open and wider human network rather than the traditional closed one in rural communities.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the productivity change for agricultural cooperatives in Japan measured by nonparametric output-oriented Malmquist indices of total factor productivity (TFP). The productivity change is decomposed into technical change and technical efficiency change. Linear programming techniques are used to calculate the productivity change using a panel data set for 44 agricultural cooperatives located in the dairy-farming region of Hokkaido in Japan over the period 1982-1991. The results suggest that the pattern of TFP changes tends to be driven more by technical progress rather than improvements in technical efficiency. The results also suggest that the goal of a 30% increase in productivity in agricultural cooperatives by the year 2000 introduced at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Agricultural Cooperatives Association of Japan held in 1994 was unattainable in the case of 44 agricultural cooperatives located in the dairy-farming region of Hokkaido.

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Though there are many studies on Japanese agricultural productivity, studies in relation to efficiency of Japanese agriculture are very few. In this study an attempt is made to measure the technical efficiency and technical change in Japanese agriculture from 1965 to 1995. Both data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) methods are used to measure the efficiency. We obtained a consistent result between these two analyses. We also found that a fair amount technical progress existed, but at the same time technical efficiency declined in these thirty years. Prefectures which have large-scale rice farming such as Hokkaido, Niigata, Ishikawa, and Toyama possess high technical efficiencies. Also, prefectures which are near big cities such as Tokyo, Kanagawa and Aichi possess high technical efficiencies. On the other hand, cold, mountainous and less populated prefectures such as Iwate, Tottori and Shimane possess low technical efficiencies. Also, we found that technical efficiency diverged rather than converged over these 30 years.

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