At a time when policy-makers in many developed countries continue to justify farm support on the basis of relatively low and unstable incomes, this chapter shows that incomes of farm households are not particularly lower on average compared to those of non-farm households in most of the ten selected OECD member countries. What is however striking is that income disparity and poverty are greater in the farm community compared to the non-farm community in most of the selected countries. This analysis questions therefore the continuation of indiscriminate farm income support. It also calls for the need of collecting farm household data that would allow a more effective targeting of farm support and for revising fundamentally public interventions towards the agricultural sector.

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We propose unit root tests for panel data with a small number of time periods, T , and increments that follow an AR(1) process under the null. The model is a fixed-effect panel version of the augmented Dickey-Fuller regression of order 1. Individual-specific linear trends may also be included. The test statistics are t-type statistics based on leastsquares estimates from which the Nickell bias is removed. Their limiting distributions (for an increasing number of independent cross-section units, N , and fixed T ) are standard normal. Our test generalizes the panel unit root test of Harris and Tzavalis, which is based on an unaugmented Dickey-Fuller regression. As an illustration, we examine whether the Law of One Price holds in the European car market since the start of stage three of the EMU in 1999. We find strong evidence of price convergence in the EMU countries. Journal The Econometrics we find K 11 = tr(C L MLC C L MLC) = tr(D L MLD D L MLD) + tr(rb L MLbr rb L Mbr ) = tr(D L MLD D L MLD) + r (4) * (b L MLb) 2 ,where r (4) * ≡ lim T 0 →−∞ (r r) (r r) = (1 − ρ 4 ) −1 . Similar calculations givetr (C L MS C L MS) = tr (D L MF D L MF ), K 55 = tr (D MF D MF ), K 14 = tr (D L MLD D L MF ), K 15 = tr (D L MLD D MF ), K 24 = tr (D MLD D L MF ), K 25 = tr (D MLD D MF ), K 34 = tr (D MD D L MF ), K 35 = tr (D MD D MF ), K 45 = tr (D L MF D MF ) and J 11 = 2tr (L MLA) 2 , J 22 = tr MLA(ML + L M)A, J 33 = 2tr (MA) 2 , J 44 = tr (L MF D ) 2 + tr (L MLA), J 55 = tr (MF D ) 2 + tr (MA), J 12 = tr L MLA(ML + L M)A, J 13 = 2tr L MLAMA, J 14 = 2tr L MLAL MF D , J 15 = 2tr L MLAMF D , J 23 = 2tr MLAMA, J 24 = tr (ML + L M)AL MF D , J 25 = tr (ML + L M)AMF D , J 34 = 2tr MAL MF D , J 35 = 2tr MAMF D , J 45 = tr L (MF D ) 2 + tr L MA.

Multi-functionality and the provision of eco-system services are politically highly prioritised aspects of farming. This study uses a Symmetric Generalised McFadden cost function to analyze the relationship between costs of production and the provision of biodiversity for Swedish milk farms. Biodiversity indicators are based on the number of valuable plant species present at the farm and are modeled as an output in the cost function. The results show that the marginal cost of biodiversity increases with higher provision, and that an increased provision of biodiversity also increases the costs of market commodities such as milk and beef. The upward slope of the marginal cost of biodiversity and its competitive relationship with market goods questions the efficiency of support schemes based on voluntary programmes with a flat-rate per hectare compensation. Instead, the results support targeted environmental policy schemes with zonings and/or the use of biodiversity indicators.

Sexual offenses are often part of a larger criminal career also encompassing nonsexual crimes. However, most sexual offending typologies focus on an individual’s most recent sexual offense. We compare data from Belgian and Dutch national conviction cohorts and use latent class analysis to distinguish groups of individuals based on their history of sexual and nonsexual offenses, considering continuity and variety. The resulting classification is compared between individuals convicted of sexual offenses and individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. Results show that four latent classes can be distinguished based on continuity and variety in criminal histories of individuals convicted of sexual offenses, and that some of these classes resemble those distinguished among individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. We find limited overlap between these latent classes and typologies based solely on the index offense. Results show marked similarities across countries. These results challenge theories of sexual offending to incorporate patterns of nonsexual offending.

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