SOME RESULTS ABOUT RCK MODEL WITH ENDOGENOUSE FERTILITY

In this paper, incorporating the fertility in the utility function and the production function, an improved Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans(RCK) model with endogenous fertility is obtained. In this model, the fertility can be expressed as a function of per capita capital and per capital consumption. It has been proved that at least one equilibrium point exists and the equilibrium point is unique under a condition. The author discusses the possibility of existing multiple equilibria, their geometrical relationship and explains the economic sense of the main results.

Are vulnerable farmers more easily influenced?Heterogeneous effects of Internet use on the adoption of integrated pest management

The Internet is believed to bring more technological dividends to vulnerable farmers during the green agriculture transformation.However,this is different from the theory of skill-biased technological change,which emphasizes that individuals with higher levels of human capital and more technological endowments benefit more.This study investigates the effects of Internet use on farmers'adoption of integrated pest management(IPM),theoretically and empirically,based on a dataset containing 1015 farmers in China's Shandong Province.By exploring the perspective of rational inattention,the reasons for the heterogeneity of the effects across farmers with different endowments,i.e.,education and land size,are analyzed.The potential endogeneity issues are addressed using the endogenous switching probit model.The results reveal that:(1)although Internet use significantly positively affects farmers'adoption of IPM,vulnerable farmers do not benefit more from it.Considerable selection bias leads to an overestimation of technological dividends for vulnerable farmers;(2)different sources of technology information lead to the difference in the degree of farmers'rational inattention toward Internet information,which plays a crucial role in the heterogeneous effect of Internet use;and(3)excessive dependence on strong-tie social network information sources entraps vulnerable farmers in information cocoons,hindering their ability to reap the benefits of Internet use fully.Therefore,it is essential to promote services geared towards elderly-oriented Internet agricultural technology information and encourage farmers with strong Internet utilization skills to share technology information with other farmers actively.

Impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions:Evidence from low-income regions in China

This study examines the impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions,using survey data collected from low-income regions in China.Given farmers decide themselves whether to cultivate cash crops,an endogenous treatment regression model that accounts for potential selection bias issue is used to analyze the data.The empirical results show that cash crop cultivation exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on household income,but it does not affect household migration decisions significantly.The disaggregated analyses reveal that cash crop cultivation significantly increases farm income but decreases off-farm income.

Understanding the impact of sustainable land-scape management practices on farm productivity under intensifying tropical cyclones: Evidence from Southern Malawi

Southern Malawi is continuously affected by tropical cyclone-related floods(TCRFs),which have negative consequences on households'livelihoods,thereby displacing most households to neighbouring communities of Mozambique.The TCRFs have further threatened national,regional,community,and household food security agenda,which is already constrained by poverty,poor agricultural practices,low use of improved varieties,unaffordable inorganic fertilizers,and fragmenting landholding sizes.Accordingly,households have indigenously engineered resilience-based Sustainable Landscape Management(SLM)practices,like intercropping,agroforestry,cover cropping,and soil and water conservation practices,against the adverse effects of TCRFs on-farm productivity.Hence,this study examines the effect of TCRFs and SLM adoption on-farm productivity.While using rigorous endogenous switching regression econometric tools,the study finds TCRFs reducing farm productivity by 27 percent.After SLM adoption,the study observes farm productivity enhancement by 29-126 percent when households adopt at least one SLM practices under varying degrees of TCRFs.Despite the highlighted advantages of SLM adoption,female farmers are less likely to adopt SLM practices because they do not have access to productive resources.Hence,the study proposes the need of gender targeted extension services,accompanied by some seed capital for SLM adoption.Besides,there is need to sensitize farmers on the complementarities between inorganic fertilizer and SLM practices.Lastly,future studies should assess the effect of sustained SLM adoption or dis-adoption and input intensification on farm productivity.