Journal of Rural Economics
Online ISSN : 2188-1057
Print ISSN : 0387-3234
ISSN-L : 0387-3234
Volume 67, Issue 1
Vol.67 No.1
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
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  • Atsusi MARUYAMA, Yoshiyuki SUGIMOTO, Masao KIKUCHI
    1995 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 1-9
    Published: July 10, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: January 12, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     Following Rosen's model, hedonic land price functions are estimated for Chiba City using mesh data with special reference to the values of farm land and green space as environmental attributes in the residential area. The extent of "farm land" and "green space" in the sample meshes, together with the intensity of "buildings" and "transport infrastructure," are provided as variables to represent the qualitative attributes of residential environments. Two alternative specifications of the hedonic land price function are provided, the "separate model" in which farm land and green space are treated as different variables and the "combined model" in which the two variables are combined into one variable. Several alternative functional forms are tried in the estimation of the hedonic land price function, including quadratic, quadratic semi-log, and Box-Cox transformation.
     The separate model reveals that, whereas green space is an amenity, farm land is a dis-amenity for urban residents. The hypothesis that the two variables have the same environmental attributes is rejected based on the estimation results of the two models. The present finding that farm land is a dis-amenity is consistent with some earlier hedonic studies that used micro-level data of large cities in Japan, but contradicts the results of studies in which such highly aggregated observational units as prefectures or cities were adopted for their hedonic analysis. This gap between micro and macro studies may be filled if the neighborhood nature of the effects of environmental factors, which have so far been largely neglected in research on the non-farm utilities of farm land in Japan, is given due attention using an appropriate observational unit.
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  • Hiromi TOKOYAMA
    1995 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 10-19
    Published: July 10, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: January 12, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     Food consumption in Japan is often referred to as "matured." This study is an attempt to give as exact an idea as possible to the recent state of the Japanese food consumption structure by examining the relationship between trends and income elasticities of about 130 individual food items during the period 1969-1993, based on The Family Income and Expenditure Survey. The basic working hypothesis is that maturing means:
     1) The disappearance of or weaker trends in per capita consumption of individual food items,
     2) Weaker influence of income or budget restriction on food consumption.
     The results of the present study confirm these hypotheses. Firstly, the number of food items with increasing trends in per capita consumption declined from about 40% in the first sub-period to less than 25% in the last sub-period. Secondly, the number of income elasticities of demand for food items which are statistically insignificant has increased from 35% in the first sub-period to 68% in the last sub-period. Thirdly, the remaining trends in per capita consumption of food items can hardly be accounted for by income elasticities and the trend in income.
     Another factor discussed in this paper is the income elasticities of the demand for food quality which is measured by the difference in unit value among different income classes. It is shown that income does not cause much difference in the quality of foods. This also supports the hypothesis that food consumption in Japan is in maturity since it is free from budget restriction.
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  • HIROSHI MORI, WILLIAM D. GORMAN
    1995 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 20-30
    Published: July 10, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: January 12, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
  • MASAAKI KANEDA
    1995 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 31-45
    Published: July 10, 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: January 12, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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