Bradford L. Barham

Credit constraints, credit unions, and small-scale producers in Guatemala

Abstract Efficient and equitable development outcomes may depend, in part, on whether formal financial institutions leave low-wealth producers tightly constrained in their access to credit. If so, can cooperative institutions efficiently relax these constraints? These issues are explored using survey data gathered from 950 small-scale producer households in areas of Guatemala with market-oriented credit unions that mobilize savings and make unsubsidized loans. Nonprice rationing by banks is found to be common among lower wealth households, while credit unions relax credit constraints for a significant portion of those rationed by banks, but not the poorest of the study households.

Universities and agricultural biotechnology patent production.

Using patent data, this work provides an initial empirical investigation into university production of agricultural biotechnology patents. We develop a consistent theoretical methodology for understanding the university patent production process and then estimate count data econometric models of university-owned agricultural biotechnology patents on a series of explanatory variables. The zero inflated negative binomial econometric model used allows inclusion of all major universities, rather than merely those dedicated to agricultural research. The results demonstrate the importance of the US land grant university infrastructure, technology transfer offices, and star scientists. lJEL Codes: L300- Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise: General Q160- Agricultural Technology: Agricultural Extension Services C240- Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models: Truncated and Censored Modelsr

Level playing fields and laissez faire: Postliberal development strategy in inegalitarian agrarian economies

Focusing on the rural sector in Latin America, this paper explores the microeconomic linkages between distribution and growth which drive the possible reproduction of rural poverty over time. The result of this exploration is a neostructuralist perspective which argues that actually existing laissez faire agrarian economies do not present a level playing field, and that low wealth farms face disadvantages which tend to reproduce or even deepen sectoral inequality. The paper then tries to identify the sorts of public policy and collective action which might modify the nature of growth and distribution in post-liberalization agrarian market economy.

Rapid Rural Appraisal in Humid Tropical Forests: An Asset Possession-Based Approach and Validation Methods for Wealth Assessment Among Forest Peasant Households

Researchers and practitioners often use rapid rural appraisal (RRA) methods to secure a representative, accurate, and cost-effective portrayal of wealth rankings among rural populations. This paper proposes an asset possession-based approach to developing RRA wealth rankings and portrayals of wealth holdings and portfolios. It also offers new validation methods for RRA efforts, especially for identifying sources of error in wealth attribution and rankings. The approach and validation methods are examined using data gathered from forest peasant households in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon. Ways of improving future RRA efforts are suggested.

Agro-export production and peasant land access: Examining the dynamic between adoption and accumulation☆

Abstract New technologies and export opportunities have often contributed to dualistic agrarian structure and intense social conflict in Latin American. A switching regression model developed in this paper explicitly links export adoption and land accumulation patterns controlling for pre-existing differentiation processes. Applied to survey data gathered from peasant households in Guatemala, the model provides evidence of equitable structural change induced by a recent export boom in vegetable crops. However, the optimism of these results is tempered by consideration of the unfavorable longer term market dynamics confronting small-scale producers.

Ecosystem-service tradeoffs associated with switching from annual to perennial energy crops in riparian zones of the US midwest.

Integration of energy crops into agricultural landscapes could promote sustainability if they are placed in ways that foster multiple ecosystem services and mitigate ecosystem disservices from existing crops. We conducted a modeling study to investigate how replacing annual energy crops with perennial energy crops along Wisconsin waterways could affect a variety of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. We found that a switch from continuous corn production to perennial-grass production decreased annual income provisioning by 75%, although it increased annual energy provisioning by 33%, decreased annual phosphorous loading to surface water by 29%, increased below-ground carbon sequestration by 30%, decreased annual nitrous oxide emissions by 84%, increased an index of pollinator abundance by an average of 11%, and increased an index of biocontrol potential by an average of 6%. We expressed the tradeoffs between income provisioning and other ecosystem services as benefit-cost ratios. Benefit-cost ratios averaged 12.06 GJ of additional net energy, 0.84 kg of avoided phosphorus pollution, 18.97 Mg of sequestered carbon, and 1.99 kg of avoided nitrous oxide emissions for every

Are There Spatial Spillovers in the Adoption of Clean Technology?: The Case of Organic Dairy Farming

1,000 reduction in income. These ratios varied spatially, from 2- to 70-fold depending on the ecosystem service. Benefit-cost ratios for different ecosystem services were generally correlated within watersheds, suggesting the presence of hotspots – watersheds where increases in multiple ecosystem services would come at lower-than-average opportunity costs. When assessing the monetary value of ecosystem services relative to existing conservation programs and environmental markets, the overall value of enhanced services associated with adoption of perennial energy crops was far lower than the opportunity cost. However, when we monitized services using estimates for the social costs of pollution, the value of enhanced services far exceeded the opportunity cost. This disparity between recoverable costs and social value represents a fundamental challenge to expansion of perennial energy crops and sustainable agricultural landscapes.

The roles of risk and ambiguity in technology adoption

This paper examines spatial spillovers associated with the adoption of organic dairy farming. We hypothesize that neighboring farmers can help to reduce the uncertainty of organic conversion by lowering the fixed costs of learning about the organic system. A spatially explicit 10-year panel dataset of more than 1,900 dairy farms in southwestern Wisconsin is used as input into a reduced-form econometric model of the decision to convert to organic production. Using an identification strategy that exploits the panel aspect of the micro dataset, we find evidence that the presence of neighboring organic dairy farms affects the conversion decision. (JEL Q15, Q24)

Integrating Technology Traits and Producer Heterogeneity: A Mixed-Multinomial Model of Genetically Modified Corn Adoption

We study the impacts of risk and ambiguity aversion on the adoption of new technologies, specifically genetically modified (GM) corn and soy seeds. We conduct experiments measuring risk and ambiguity aversion with Midwestern grain farmers. Risk aversion has only a small impact on the timing of adoption of GM soy, while ambiguity-aversion has a large impact speeding up farmer adoption of GM corn. We hypothesize that this unusual finding is due to the fact that GM corn often contains an insect-resistance trait which reduces the ambiguity of pest damages for adopters. GM soy never contains this insect-resistance trait. This highlights the importance of distinguishing between risk and ambiguity when studying the effects of aversion to uncertainty on adoption of new technologies.

A Dynamic Analysis of University Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Production

This article proposes a model of technology adoption that integrates demand for individual traits of new technologies with the potential for heterogeneity based on farm and farmer characteristics. The model is applied to recent genetically modified corn adoption data from Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers, using a mixed-multinomial logit (MMNL) model to estimate the effects of traits and farm and farmer characteristics on adoption outcomes. This approach allows explicit recovery of estimates of farmers’ shadow prices for individual technology traits. Results show the importance of producer and regional heterogeneity in preferences for seed traits. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.