Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis research uses descriptive analysis to provide a preliminary examination of the role of human capital in farms and ranches that sell through local food markets. We first provide an in‐depth review of previous research investigating the role of human capital in local food markets. Then, we use U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to provide national descriptive statistics to investigate if the repositioning of food and agricultural supply chains towards more localized markets affects the role of human capital in the business model (in terms of the share of business activities spent on human capital), and secondly the returns to human capital (in terms of wages). Given the place‐based nature of these strategies, we also investigate how these human capital investments vary across the rural urban continuum. We find that local food producers devote a larger share of total variable expenses to labor, and have significantly higher average estimated wages; this is especially true for operations with intermediated‐only or intermediated and direct sales, as opposed to direct‐only sales. We also find that wages are higher for local food producers in more urban locations.

Rural population decline has been observed in most developed and emerging economies but has been especially apparent in postsocialist countries. In this paper, we investigate the spatial patterns and the determinants of the rural population dynamics during the transition period from 1991 to 2010 in Tyumen Province, Russia, with the aim of better understanding the forces underlying depopulation. We use descriptive and exploratory statistical tools to analyze data from population censuses and district-level statistics of agriculture. Our results reveal distinct differences in the spatial clusters of the population increase and decline in the first and second decades of the post-Soviet era. We argue that these differences reflect the penetration of market relations into the countryside. The emergence of market forces initially advantaged the areas that were more suited to agriculture, which experienced population growth in the 1990s. Later, the drop in agricultural output, market-driven restructuring of farms, and introduction of labor-saving technologies reduced employment in agriculture. During the 2000s, labor opportunities in agriculture were no longer statistically related to rural population dynamics, while population dynamics in the villages have increasingly been determined by transport accessibility to larger markets, especially to the provincial capital. Governments need to be sensitive to these spatial and temporal population dynamics to foster opportunities in the countryside, avoid the negative side effects of depopulation on local economies and ensure the provision of social services.

This paper aimed to investigate whether financial literacy (knowledge and confidence) affects the level of gambling intensity among informal laborers in southern Thailand. Multistage sampling was applied, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview the subjects face-to-face. There were in total 995 questionnaires used in the analysis that applied logistic regression. The results reveal that there was an inconsistency between what the subjects actually know and what they think they know. Their actual financial literacy was poor, while their financial literacy confidence was high. Females had higher financial literacy confidence than males. In addition, it was found that the higher the financial literacy confidence, the higher the gambling intensity. If the subject possessed good financial literacy, the gambling intensity was not increased. Thus, providing financial education could be one approach to reducing gambling intensity. Besides financial education, training with the purpose to achieve a healthy dose of financial literacy confidence is also no less crucial.JEL: G53; G59; G40

A relatively high labor-intensity in government-run entities need not imply slack in their organization. Rather, it is a rational reaction to various forms of wage tax advantage that the public sector has over private firms. Even though an unequal tax treatment of public and private sectors precludes production efficiency, it may improve welfare by mitigating the labor supply distortion. With inelastic labor supply, privatizing a previously government-run sector improves welfare, while with elastic labor supply a full outsourcing of government activities can never be optimal if it goes along with a decrease in net wages.