Awudu Abdulai

Spatial price transmission and asymmetry in the Ghanaian maize market

Abstract This paper utilizes recently developed threshold cointegration tests that allow for asymmetric adjustment toward a long-run equilibrium relationship to examine price linkages between principal maize markets in Ghana. Unlike previous studies, the approach employed here assumes that economic agents only act to move the system back to equilibrium when the deviation from equilibrium exceeds a critical threshold, whereby the benefits of this adjustment exceed the costs. The findings indicate that major maize markets in Ghana are well integrated. Both the threshold cointegration and asymmetric error correction models reveal that wholesale maize prices in local markets (Accra and Bolgatanga) respond more swiftly to increases than to decreases in central market (Techiman) prices. Accra prices are found to react faster than Bolgatanga prices to changes in Techiman market prices.

Determinants of income diversification amongst rural households in Southern Mali

Abstract Household-level panel data from a representative sample of rural households in Southern Mali describing the different sources of household income are used to examine the determinants of income diversification. A conditional fixed effects logit model is employed in the analysis to control for household-specific effects. We find evidence that poorer households have fewer opportunities in non-cropping activities such as livestock rearing and non-farm work, and hence less diversified incomes. This appears to reflect their relative lack of capital, which makes it difficult for them to diversify away from subsistence agriculture. The results also indicate that households in remote areas are less likely to participate in the non-cropping sector than their counterparts closer to local markets, while households with educated heads are more likely to participate in the non-farm sector than those with illiterate heads. The significance of entry-constraints in explaining portfolio diversification suggests that the role of government in making assets — as well as improved infrastructure — available to poorer households is still essential in promoting income diversification.

The Diffusion of New Agricultural Technologies: The Case of Crossbred-Cow Technology in Tanzania

The recent literature on agricultural technology adoption shows that diffusion of new technologies varies significantly across space and time. Furthermore, puzzles exist about why some seemingly profitable technologies are not adopted, especially in livestock production. We employ a hazard or duration function to explain diffusion of crossbred-cow technology in a unique sample of Tanzania farmers. A farmers adoption of crossbred technology depends positively on the proximity of his farm to other users, on his schooling, and on his access to credit and contact with extension agents.

Structural Adjustment and Economic Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana

Increasing agricultural productivity and employment in sub-Saharan African countries has received widespread attention in the literature on economic development and poverty alleviation. Agricultural growth, however, is linked to farm profits. Over the past few years, considerable research has examined agricultural efficiency in the region. This issue has gained attention in the light of structural adjustment programs—involving market liberalization, fiscal austerity, and currency devaluation—that are currently being implemented in many sub-Saharan African countries and global trade liberalization being pursued under the World Trade Organization. The experience of structural adjustment programs since the beginning of the 1980s shows how particularly important farm household efficiency is to the African rural economy. The fundamental role of structural adjustments was to enable private markets to perform better by eliminating the dominant public sector, encouraging the development of the private sector, and letting prices perform their signaling role for the allocation of factors of production, goods, and services. One of the main explanations for previous failures to intensify food crop production in the region has been poor public policies, including subsidizing cereal imports, which penalized domestic cereal production. Under structural adjustments, changes in the fiscal environment that reduce subsidies on food items are supposed to make agriculture more profitable. However, the reduction or removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, fuel, or machinery tends to increase the prices of these inputs to farmers. Available evidence shows that the agricultural sector’s response to these policy reforms has been encouraging

Using threshold cointegration to estimate asymmetric price transmission in the Swiss pork market

This paper employs threshold cointegration tests that allow for asymmetric adjustment towards a long-run equilibrium relationship to examine the relationship between producer and retail pork prices in Switzerland. The short-run adjustments are also examined with asymmetric error correction models that are compared to the conventional symmetric error correction models. The results indicate that price transmission between the producer and retail levels is asymmetric, in the sense that increases in producer prices that lead to declines in marketing margins are passed on more quickly to retail prices than decreases in producer prices that result in increases in the marketing margins.

Measuring Heterogeneous Preferences for Cattle Traits among Cattle-Keeping Households in East Africa

This study employs mixed logit and latent class models to examine preferences for cattle traits with a focus on heterogeneity among cattle keepers, using choice experiment data of 506 cattle-keeping households in Kenya and Ethiopia. The findings indicate the existence of preference heterogeneity based on cattle production systems. Highly valued cattle traits for the cropping systems include traction fitness and trypanotolerance, while traits associated with herd increase are considered important in pastoral systems. Considering heterogeneity within population segments provides a framework for adapting breeding policy interventions to specific producer segments, by integrating preferred traits in a breed improvement program.

Determinants of Nonfarm Earnings of Farm-Based Husbands and Wives in Northern Ghana

The nonfarm work participation decisions of married men and women in rural Northern Ghana were jointly and separately estimated for married couples through a bivariate probit, using recent survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for in estimating wage offer and labor supply equations, using Heckmans procedure. Education, experience, infrastructure, distance to the capital, and population density, as well as interactions between education and infrastructure and between education and distance to the city, were found to be significantly related to the probability of nonfarm labor market participation, wages, and the amount of nonfarm labor performed, with significant differences by gender. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.

Technical efficiency during economic reform in Nicaragua: evidence from farm household survey data

Abstract This paper employs a translog stochastic frontier model to examine technical efficiency of maize and bean farmers in two selected regions of Nicaragua using farm-level survey data for the 1994–1995 crop year. The average technical efficiency levels are 69.8 and 74.2% for maize and beans, respectively. The results from the maize and beans translog frontier functions show that farmers’ human capital represented by the level of schooling, access to formal credit and farming experience represented by age contribute positively to production efficiency, while farmers’ participation in non-farm employment tends to reduce production efficiency.

The Adoption and Impact of Soil and Water Conservation Technology: An Endogenous Switching Regression Application

This paper identifies the factors that affect farmers’ decisions to adopt soil and water conservation technology in Africa and how this technology impacts farm yields and net returns. This technology is important because it improves efficiency of water use from rainfall—a critical issue in water-deficient Sub-Saharan Africa. An analysis of new data from a survey of 342 rice farmers in northern Ghana shows that farmers’ education, capital and labor constraints, social networks and extension contacts, and farm soil conditions mainly determine adoption of field ridging, and the adoption of this technology increases rice yields and net returns significantly. (JEL Q15, Q24)

An empirical investigation of short and long-run agricultural wage formation in Ghana

This paper investigates the factors that influence real agricultural wage rates in Ghana, a critical issue in that country for promoting successful macroeconomic adjustment to structural changes in incentives. It is based on 1957-91 data. The Johansen cointegration framework is used to quantify and to examine the stability following major shocks of new long-run relationships among agricultural and urban wage rates, the domestic terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture, urban unemployment, capital stock in agriculture and the size of the rural population. An error correction model is then used to investigate short-run dynamic relationships among the variables. Results show that: (1) there is only one stable equilibrium relationship among agricultural wage rates and their determinants in the long run; (2) a 1% change in the domestic terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture leads to a 0.48% change in the real agricultural wage rate in the short run and a 0.83% change in the long run; and (3) the analysis suggests a one-time and one-way upwards structural shift of 3.6% in real agricultural wages during the 1980s.