Journal of Rural Economics
Online ISSN : 2188-1057
Print ISSN : 0387-3234
ISSN-L : 0387-3234
Volume 66, Issue 4
Vol.66 No.4
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
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  • Analysis of Groundwater Market in a Bangladesh Village
    Koichi FUJITA
    1995Volume 66Issue 4 Pages 181-191
    Published: March 28, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     Small-scale private investment in shallow tubewells has accelerated rice production during the 1980s in Bangladesh. It is now very common for tubewell owners to sell irrigation water to other villagers. The aim of this article is to analyze the distributional impact of the village-level groundwater market, based on the primary data collected in a Bangladesh village.
     It was found that the value of w/c (w: rate of water charge, c: operation and maintenance cost of irrigation per acre) is on average 2.59, which is quite high compared with other areas. However, analysis of net irrigation surplus, defined as gross rice product minus all input costs (including labor), showed that the water market is functioning rather well. The larger share to capital and the resulting smaller share to land is a reflection of the usurious interest rate in the informal credit market.
     Land-saving and capital-using bias of the "green revolution" technology has provided landless and marginal farmers with an opportunity to climb the social ladder. Particularly in rural areas with plenty of off-farm employment opportunities, the participation of lower strata villagers in usurious money lending (mainly to tubewell owners belonging to upper strata) is quite common. Even in the village surveyed, where off-farm activities are under-developed, the money flow related to usufructuary land transaction is apparently directed from the lower strata to the upper strata.
     Another implication of the technological bias is that the irrigated rice production is quite sensitive to market price. It was calculated that tubewell owners stop the water supply if rice price falls more than 18%. Therefore, rice self-sufficiency in Bangladesh may be quite vulnerable.
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  • Katsuhiko DEMURA, Akio ITO, Atsushi SETO
    1995Volume 66Issue 4 Pages 192-201
    Published: March 28, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     This paper is a comparative study based on the 1985 edition of the International Input-Output Table, published by Japan's MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry), conducted to analyze the cost structure of the dairy industry in Japan, the USA, the UK and France using two analyses in the table. The first is a cost-share analysis in the dairy industry in the table. The second approach is a price simulation model. Both analyses are based on an aggregated Input-Output Table for eight industries. The results of the study in the four main industries indicate that, if Japanese dairy industry is to survive as the country opens its market, it must cut production costs in order to close the price gap between domestic and imported products. This, in turn, will require lower milk production costs as well as cost reductions in related sectors such as distribution and services.
     The results of the first analysis show that the Japanese dairy industry has a relatively low cost input structure; it is similar to France and the UK in terms of general costs. It has a low input structure compared with the USA, the UK and France in terms of the costs of raw materials (i.e. milk). With respect to the cost of services and distribution, the Japanese market has a high cost input structure compared with the other three countries.
     The second analysis is aimed at clarifying the effects of price fluctuations in individual sectors on the industry as a whole. Results indicate that Japan's influence to the price fluctuations in the milk production (material) sector is lower than that of USA, however, is larger than that of UK and France. In Japan, lower prices of raw materials have little impact on the retail price of dairy products, while cost reductions in other sectors such as manufacturing, services and distribution influence dairy products' end price.
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  • Hideji ISOMAE
    1995Volume 66Issue 4 Pages 202-209
    Published: March 28, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of terre-capital from the point of view of "accidental quality of land ownership." To this end, it is necessary to clarify the positioning in the principles of economics of the problem for unexhausted value of improvement, which may occur when a tenant capitalist in agriculture forms terre-capital. This problem is examined for unexhausted value of improvement from two sides: return of invested capital and return in terms of the increases in land rent. By supporting the idea that depreciation expenses based on the term of a land lease become a component of production costs in the case of terre-capital invested by a tenant capitalist, the following results are obtained.
     The problem for unexhausted value of improvement is not given an important positioning in the principles of economics, and is not concerned with the establishment of capital category. Consequently, the existence of recourse for unexhausted value of improvement is not necessary for the concept of modern land ownership. The problem of the unexhausted value of improvement is not a matter brought about by the inevitable law in a capitalistic society, but is instead a matter of consciousness and policy. Therefore, it was not "paradoxical" but "natural" that a legal remedy for the unexhausted value of improvement in England was established in the period of transition to monopoly capitalism.
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