This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike.

Governance in global value chains

One lingering puzzle is why voluntary contribu tions to public goods decline over time in experimental and real-w orld settings. We show that the decl ine of cooperation is driven by individual preferences for im perfect conditional cooperation. Many people’s desire to contribute less than oth ers, rather than changing beliefs of what others will contr ibute over time or people’s heterogeneity in preferences makes voluntary cooperation fragile. Universal free riding thus even tually emerges, despite the fact tha t m ost peop le a re not selfis h. (JEL C91, C72, H41, D64)

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Social Preferences, Beliefs, and the Dynamics of Free Riding in Public Goods Experiments

Rural development in the digital age: A systematic literature review on unequal ICT availability, adoption, and use in rural areas

As a way to explore the increasing use of sustainability labels in the marketplace, this study analyzes the differential values and interactive effects of sustainable production claims (organic, fair trade, and carbon footprint) and location claims through a conjoint choice experiment included in a 2008 U.S. survey. Locally grown is the highest valued claim, and its value is further enhanced with fair trade certification, but carbon-intensive local products are discounted more severely than those sourced from other locations. Some negatively valued claims (imports and carbon footprint) can be mitigated by combining them with other claims (organic and fair trade). Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/AJAE_AJAEAJAEAAR005.pdf?abstractid=3570824&mirid=1

Does Local Labeling Complement or Compete with Other Sustainable Labels? A Conjoint Analysis of Direct and Joint Values for Fresh Produce Claim

Demand for local food in the US has significantly increased over the past decade. In an attempt to understand the drivers of this demand and how they have changed over time, we investigate the literature on organic and local foods over the past few decades. We focus our review on studies that allow comparison of characteristics now associated with both local and organic food. We summarize the major findings of these studies and their implications for understanding drivers of local food demand. Prior to the late 1990s, most studies failed to consider factors now associated with local food, and the few that included these factors found very little support for them. In many cases, the lines between local and organic were blurred. Coincident with the development of federal organic food standards, studies began to find comparatively more support for local food as distinct and separate from organic food. Our review uncovers a distinct turn in the demand for local and organic food. Before the federal organic standards, organic food was linked to small farms, animal welfare, deep sustainability, community support and many other factors that are not associated with most organic foods today. Based on our review, we argue that demand for local food arose largely in response to corporate co-optation of the organic food market and the arrival of ‘organic lite’. This important shift in consumer preferences away from organic and toward local food has broad implications for the environment and society. If these patterns of consumer preferences prove to be sustainable, producers, activists and others should be aware of the implications that these trends have for the food system at large.

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Local versus organic: a turn in consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay.

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of credit constraints on production for farm and nonfarm sole proprietorships. A propensity score-matching estimator is employed to provide unbiased estimates of the production impacts of being denied credit. The empirical results demonstrate that the value of production is significantly lower for credit-constrained sole proprietorships. If this drop in the value of production is aggregated to a national level, it constitutes only 3% and 13% of total value of production for farm and nonfarm sole proprietorships, respectively. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.

Credit Constraints: Their Existence, Determinants, and Implications for U.S. Farm and Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships

Fairness, Farmers Markets, and Local Production

Consumers have shown an increasing interest in not only how their food is produced, but also who benefits from their food purchase. In some cases, such as organics, food is marketed as being produced in an 'equitable' food system. But are consumers willing to pay for a fair food system? Using a model of inequality aversion and a set of real-money experiments, we find that about 15 per cent of consumers' willingness-to-pay a premium for organic foods is attributable to altruism and inequality aversion. The fairness premium is significantly influenced by who receives this premium, how much the consumer earns, and how the experiment is framed. Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2010; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Preferences for fairness and equity in the food system

AJAE appendix for “Food Values”

Rural broadband infrastructure and service has received a significant amount of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds should increase broadband availability, but will broadband be used in rural areas and in particular by farmers? This paper uses Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to investigate why the majority of U.S. farmers choose not to use the Internet in their farm business. Although frequently cited by policymakers, concerns about inadequate Internet service or security actually account for a small percentage of responses. This research identifies targeted educational programs that focus on alleviating perceived barriers to Internet use. Key Words: ARMS, farming, Internet, multinomial logit, non-use (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) The Internet has woven its way into nearly every aspect of American life: people use it for communication, entertainment, education, and commerce opportunities (Horrigan and Rainie 2006). In 2005, approximately 73 percent of Americans used the Internet from some location (Madden 2006). To increase Internet availability, the federal government is providing $7.2 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 to raise levels of Internet broadband1 infrastructure throughout the United States, especially in rural areas. While this increased availability will benefit both individuals and businesses, many industrial sectors have already begun to take advantage of the "information revolution" provided by the Internet. Businesses are using the Internet to improve profitability by lowering costs and increasing revenues. The farming industry, in particular, has realized several potential benefits of the Internet. For example, the Internet provides access to timely information (such as weather forecasts or market prices). Farms can also reduce costs by buying inbulk inputs online or purchasing inputs that are not available locally. New markets are made available to farmers through individual farm websites. And, some farmers are selling their products online. Yet, not all U.S. farms are taking advantage of the business opportunities that the Internet presents. According to the 2005 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data, only 30 percent of U.S. farmers indicated that they use the Internet as part of their farm business. Hence, most farmers still do not use the Internet in their farm business. The objective of this study is to identify key farm and household characteristics that influence a farmer's decision not to use the Internet on the farm. The reasons for non-use can be quite varied, including unfamiliarity with the technology, the lack of a computer, no perceived need, and concerns about Internet connections, security, or cost. Several of these reasons have been explicitly noted by individuals and groups concerned with agriculture, including researchers, policymakers, and extension programs. Henderson, Dooley, and Akridge (2004) indicate that nearly half of agribusiness firm managers feel that farmers' security issues were a barrier to e-commerce adoption. Similarly, McFarlane, Chembezi, and Befecadu (2003) find that 41 percent of agribusiness firms with websites believe that farmers have privacy concerns with purchasing over the Internet. Smith et al. (2004) recognize that Internet use is, for the most part, contingent upon owning a computer, and separately estimate models on computer and Internet adoption for Great Plains farmers. Another potential reason for non-use by farmers is poor Internet service. Whitacre and Mills (2007) find that the presence of wired broadband infrastructure in rural areas was well behind that for urban areas over the period 2000-2003. Typically acknowledged as lagging in rural areas, broadband infrastructure has seen funding increases from the rural development portion of the Farm Bill in each version since 1996. In addition, two distinct broadband infrastructure programs are included in the ARRA-one headed by the Rural Utility Service (with $2. …

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Brian C. Briggeman

Papers

Credit Constraints: Their Existence, Determinants, and Implications for U.S. Farm and Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships

Fairness, Farmers Markets, and Local Production

Preferences for fairness and equity in the food system

AJAE appendix for “Food Values”

Farming and the Internet: Reasons for Non-Use