This article explains regionally differentiated patterns of structural change based on a theoretical framework dealing with strategic interaction of farms on the land market. The main research question focuses on the causes of regionally persistent structures. An empirical Markov chain model is defined for the West German agricultural sector. The model is used to explain the probabilities of farm growth, decline, or exit in terms of the current and former regional farm size structure. Further, the impact of variables describing the regional farm structure, thereby indicating market power of the large, the potential of high competition for land within a region, and possibly high rents of the status quo in combination with sunk costs, is quantified. The results confirm the relevance of strategic interaction as a crucial determinant of persistent regional differences in the farm size structure over time. Copyright (c) 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
In recent years, the endogenous development (ED) approach has gained influence within the rhetoric of European rural development policies (RP). This paper provides a fundamental critique of the approach and shows that neither the economic elements of RP in general nor ED in particular are targeted towards the specific economic needs and capabilities of rural areas. The second part of this paper consists of the search for possible alternative concepts for a more targeted and effective RP. Based on a synopsis of existing theories, an integrated approach is proposed that builds upon the different coordination mechanisms for economic activity suggested by different theories. The new, integrated perspective enables an economic characterisation of rural areas and indicates that the successful support of local coordination of economic activity is determined by specific local conditions. It also makes evident that localised approaches usually cannot compensate rural areas for the lack of agglomeration advantages. Therefore, programmes for the economic development of rural areas which support the local coordination of economic activity remain a second-best policy. As such, they do not free the state from policies of spatial redistribution if the political aim is the creation of comparable living conditions.
Purpose This paper aims to identify criteria for the better targeting of public funding for private social activities and organizations. As a starting point, it proposes that financing strategies can characterize organizations which are positioned on a for-profit/non-profit continuum. The paper then analyses how far the effectiveness of public support systems depends on recipients’ general financing strategies. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on data from a standardized small-scale survey. The analysis applies latent class analysis for the creation of a meaningful organizational dimension and applies them in an ordered logistic regression. Findings Despite their variety along a for-profit/non-profit continuum, organizations in the sample can be described by three meaningful dimensions, and the focal role of organizations’ financing strategies can be confirmed. Repeated project-based public support might create a harmful dependence on this kind of funds. To be effective, it needs to be targeted at nascent socially effective organizations with non-solvent clients. Practical implications Recognition of different financing strategies as meaningful characteristics of organizations with consequences for their long-term development is of direct practical relevance for a better design and targeting of financing systems in general and public support systems in particular. Originality/value Although the focal relevance of financing for the characterization of (social) organizations has been stressed before, the paper is able to operationalize the idea and to demonstrate its value in an application to the evaluation of project based support.
Complementing more specific “p-value discussions”, this paper presents fundamental arguments for when null hypothesis statistical significance tests (NHST) are required and appropriate. The arguments, which are paradigmatic rather than technical, are operationalised and broken down to the extent that their logic can be mapped into a decision tree for the use of NHST. We derive a perspective that does not ban p-values but proposes to minimize their use. P-values will become rather rare in (agricultural) economics if they are not applied in any cases, where the conditions for their proper use are violated or where their use is not appropriate or required in order to answer the questions asked of the data. The accompanying shift from prioritising inferential statistics to recognising the value of descriptive statistics requires not only a change in entrenched habits of thought. This shift also has the potential to trigger changes in the research processes and in the evaluation of new approaches within the disciplines.
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