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The purpose of this paper is to estimate the determinants of rural and national poverty, of income distribution, and of agricultural growth in developing countries.

Data for all variables are from the 2008 World Development Report. The author applies the least‐squares estimation technique in a multivariate linear regression.

It is found, from different size samples, that: the percentage of the rural population living below the national rural poverty line in a developing country is dependent upon the logarithm of per capita purchasing power parity gross national income and the region in which it is located; it linearly depends on its per capita agriculture value added and its geographic location; agriculture value added growth linearly depends on the share of women in the agricultural labor force, whether the developing country is agriculture‐based, and whether it is located in Europe or Central Asia; and agricultural productivity linearly depends on the amount of arable and permanent cropland per agricultural person, the share of women in the agricultural labor force, and the share of agricultural employment in total employment.

Statistical results in this paper will assist governments in developing countries assess the magnitude of agricultural policy variables in an effort to use agriculture as an engine for economic development.

Common Agriculture Police in the EU, direct payments, solvency and income

We employ agriculture data for all twenty-eight EU Member States. The data comes from the public Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the EU. In terms of methodology we employ panel regression and panel Vector Autoregression analysis (panel VAR) to take into account possible endogeneity issues.

The reported panel regressions, impulse response functions (IRFs) and variance decompositions (VDCs) show that agriculture income has been subdued due to negative shocks in direct payments and solvency. Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher direct payments would increase agriculture income. In addition, whilst solvency subdues agriculture income, investment asserts a positive impact on agriculture income.

Further research on the impact of direct payments of CAP on EU agriculture is warranted at a disaggregate level so as to examine whether there is variability in the underlying interlinkages at regional level

As a policy implication, and in light of the ongoing reform of the EU's CAP, we would propose to raise net value added in agriculture using targeted income support to small and medium-sized farms. The European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) would be also supportive. In addition, further enhancing financial integration across the EU would provide funds for investment in agriculture.

As social implication, one would propose to raise investment in agriculture, that is through the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP). The EERP is designed as a stimulus package set up to mitigate the consequences of the global financial crisis in the EU. Also, a way to boost agriculture income is through the credit channel of the on-going quantitative easing of the ECB, where unconventional monetary policy is aiming to support the growth prospect of the Euro area.

This study examines the impact of direct payments, which include all subsidies, of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) on agriculture income as measured by the net value added. We also control for solvency. Despite the magnitude of CAP on the EU budget, few studies investigate the impact of direct payments on income in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This is surprising given the importance of agriculture for the economic recovery of the EU that remains anaemic more than a decade after the crisis.

This study aims to investigate the contingent roles real effective exchange rates (REERs) play in mediating the effects of oil revenue on the agriculture sector value-added in 25 major and minor oil-exporting (MIOEC) countries during the period of 1975–2014.

The panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimator proposed by Pesaran et al. (1999) was relied upon to achieve the objectives of the study. This estimator involves a pool of small cross-sectional units over a long-time span that covers for 25 oil-exporting countries over 39 years (1975–2014).

This paper reveals the following findings. Firstly, oil revenue has a direct negative effect on agricultural value-added in the short- and long-term. This finding holds for full sample and subsamples of major oil-exporting (MAOEC) and MIOEC countries. Further assessment reveals that the magnitude of the impact is larger for MAOEC than that of the MIOEC. Secondly, the finding for the long-run effect shows that the contingent effect of real exchange rate on the nexus between oil revenue and agricultural value-added is negative and statistically significant at the conventional level for the full sample. This suggests that, in the long-run, the appreciation in real exchange rates exacerbate the negative marginal effects of oil revenue on agricultural value-added in all oil-exporting countries. However, when sub-samples of MAOEC and MIOEC are considered, the contingent effect disappeared (become insignificant) in MAOEC while it is positive and statistically significant in MIOEC. Thus, in the long-run, the appreciation in real exchange rates diminishes the negative marginal effects of oil revenue on agricultural value-added in MIOEC. While oil revenue has a direct negative effect, its effect is also moderated by the variations in REERs in MIOEC in the long-run. Finally, in the short-run, fluctuations in the real exchange rate do not matter for the nexus of oil revenue and agriculture sector in these countries whether minor or MAOEC countries.

This study contributes to the debate in the empirical literature on the Dutch disease effect and “oil curse”. Using the appropriate panel ARDL empirical framework, it provides evidence on how exchange rate variations in the oil-exporting countries influence the nature of the effects of the oil revenue on agricultural sectors in the long-run but not in the short-run. Contingent effects of REERs only appear to exist in MIOEC in the long-run.

Multifunctional agriculture, including value-added agriculture, has drawn the attention of different stakeholders (government, farmers) interested in maximising the potential of farming operations and strengthening rural communities. This preliminary study aims to investigate value-added agriculture, including the extent to which food growers consider, or are involved in, this aspect of multifunctional agriculture, from the perspective of orchard operators located in different Australian states.

Orchard operators were contacted through regional growers' associations and by mail. A total of 80, the large majority of whom are small orchardists, participated in the study, completing a questionnaire designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.

Overall, there is moderate interest among the participating orchard operators in adding value to food production. Respondents also indicate barriers in the form of added expenses, lack of time, knowledge, and markets, to sell value-added products.

This study has only provided preliminary data from a limited number of participants; future research could broaden the scope to gather the insights of more orchard operators or even study other rural food-growing sectors.

With increasing pressures on the farmland, the findings have several implications, in particular, the need to understand the cost-benefits involved in value adding activities and potential cost-savings strategies.

In the case of Australian agriculture, little has been discussed about the extent to which value-added food production is being considered among food growers, for instance, using commercial kitchens to process foods that do not sell as “premium.” The present study examines this unexplored dimension and seeks to provide useful preliminary information.

This study aims to provide an empirical investigation into rising capital flight and the role of institutional quality to mitigate its effect on the real sector in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The study uses the system generalized method of moments and uses data spanning from 1989 to 2020 from 26 SSA countries.

The findings show that capital flight has no direct impact on the real sector while institutional quality adversely impacted the agricultural and industrial sectors. The study also found that institutional quality is unable to mitigate the effect of capital flight on the industrial sector.

This study investigates if institutional quality mitigates the impact of capital flight on the real sector proxied by industrial value-added and agriculture value-added.

The purpose of this research is to examine the validity of the agriculture-induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis with evidence from an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach with a structural break including real income and energy consumption in the model for Ghana over the period 1980–2014.

The ARDL approach with a structural break was used to analyze the agriculture-induced EKC model which has not been studied in Ghana. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) econometric methods were further used to validate the robustness of the estimates, and the direction of the relationship between the study variables was also clarified using the Toda–Yamamoto Granger causality test.

The ARDL results revealed that GDP, energy consumption and agricultural value added have significant positive effects on CO₂ emissions, while GDP² reduces CO₂ emissions. The Toda-Yamamoto causality test results show a bidirectional causality running from GDP and energy consumption to CO₂ emissions whereas a unidirectional long-term causality runs from GDP² and agriculture value-added to CO₂ emissions.

This finding validated the presence of the agriculture-induced EKC hypothesis in Ghana in both the short run and long run, and the important role of agriculture and energy consumption in economic growth was confirmed by the respective bidirectional and unidirectional causal relationships between the two variables and GDP. Thus, a reduction in unsustainable agricultural practices is recommended through specific policies to strengthen institutional quality in Ghana for a paradigm shift from rudimentary technology to modern sustainable agrarian technologies.

This study is novel in the EKC literature in Ghana, as no study has yet been done on agriculture-induced EKC in Ghana, and the other EKC studies also failed to account for structural breaks which have been done by this study. This study further includes a causality analysis to examine the direction of the relationship which the few EKC studies in Ghana failed to address. Finally, dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) methods are used for robustness check, unlike other studies with single methodologies.

This chapter does three things. First, it estimates regional gross domestic product (GDP) for three different geographical levels in Switzerland (97 micro regions, 16 labor market basins, and 3 large regions). Second, it analyzes the evolution of regional inequality relying on a heuristic model inspired by Williamson (1965), which features an initial growth impulse in one or several core regions and subsequent diffusion. Third, it uses index number theory to decompose regional inequality into three different effects: sectoral structure, productivity, and comparative advantage.

The results can be summarized as follows: As a consequence of the existence of multiple core regions, Swiss regional inequality has been comparatively low at higher geographical levels. Spatial diffusion of economic growth occurred across different parts of the country and within different labor market regions. This resulted in a bell-shaped evolution of regional inequality at the micro regional level and convergence at higher geographical levels. In early and in late stages of the development process, productivity differentials were the main drivers of inequality, whereas economic structure was determinant between 1888 and 1941. The poorest regions suffered from comparative disadvantage, that is, they were specialized in the vary sector (agriculture), where their relative productivity was comparatively lowest.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the energy–growth linkage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with emphasis on real sectors’ contribution to aggregate growth using dynamic panel estimation techniques that are practically and conceptually superior to the static models.

Dynamic panel econometric techniques pooled mean group, mean group and dynamic fixed effect were used to investigate the linkage among energy consumption, real sector value added and economic growth from 1967 to 2016 in 48 SSA countries.

A strong empirical evidence in favor of energy dependence and growth hypothesis in the investigated SSA countries was found. The finding that real sector value added and overall growth rate adjust reasonably to the shocks and dynamics of the energy consumption variables makes energy consumption an enabler for growth. This indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.

It is also important to note the policy implications of the high adjustment profiles indicated by the error correction representations. All the speeds of adjustment of the three models denominated in time are slightly above a year and are all within predictable limits (they fall below unity or 100%). We found that when agriculture value added, manufacturing value added and overall economic growth rate in our SSA panel estimation exceed equilibrium levels as a result of deviations arising from energy related variables, downward adjustments at 66%, 62% and 78% per year, respectively, take place.

The study indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.

Much as this study has made some addition to the literature on energy-growth nexus in the SSA region, which undoubtedly is an unveiling of economic forces in a collection of developing and energy deficient economies, it will be of great research significance if the form and style of this study is adopted for other economic blocs in the shapes and sizes of the SSA region.

This study ensured currency of data, novelty of approach and disaggregated energy consumption into emerging sources, traditional sources and geographical access.

Aside from oil, the Nigerian economy is largely agrarian, which is rain-fed. Hence the criticality of understanding climate change and its impact on agricultural output is more pressing than ever. This is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 13 which is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Regardless, Nigeria has in the past five decades experienced a significant increase in temperature, in the range of 10 to over 30 degree Celsius. Therefore, managing the effect of climate change on agricultural output now has the colouration of a developmental challenge.

In light of this, this study gives due consideration to the impact of climate change on agricultural output between the years 1986 and 2015. For the purpose of analysis, descriptive statistics, unit root test and the ordinary least square (OLS) estimation technique were employed.

Findings from the study reveal that the average annual rainfall, temperature and forest area positively influence agricultural output, whereas drought, floods and agricultural nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions have negative impact on agricultural output. The study suggests the need for a regulatory framework and also an explicit national agricultural policy essential to offset the negative effects of climate change especially on agricultural output.

As Nigeria look to diversify her economy which relied on oil, agriculture is among the alternative sector hoping to drive her economic growth, therefore, it is pertinent to examine the current output in the sector given the effects of climate change.

The purpose of this study is to assess the potential economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's macroeconomy and agri-food system and provide policy recommendations to stimulate economic growth and agri-food system development.

An economy-wide multisector multiplier model built on China's most recent social accounting matrix (SAM) for 2017 with 149 economic sectors is used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on China's macroeconomy and agri-food system. SAM multiplier analysis focuses on supply chain linkages and captures the complexity of an interconnected economy.

The paper finds that both the macroeconomy and agri-food systems are hit significantly by COVID-19. There are three main findings. First, affected by COVID-19, GDP decreased by 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with that in 2019, while the economic loss of the agri-food system is equivalent to 7% of its value added (about RMB 0.26 trillion). More than 46m agri-food system workers (about 27% of total employment) lost their jobs to COVID-19 in the lockdown phase. The COVID-19 affects the employment of unskilled labor more than that of skilled labor. Second, when the economy starts to recover during the second and third quarters, the growth rate in the value added of the agri-food system turns positive but still modest. Many jobs resume during the period, but the level of agri-food system employment continues to be lower than the base. The agri-food system employment recovery is slower than that of other sectors largely due to the sluggish recovery of restaurants. Agri-food system employment drops by 8.6m, which accounts for about 33% of the total jobs lost. Third, although the domestic economy is expected to be normal in the fourth quarter, external demand still faces uncertainties due to the global pandemic. The agri-food system is projected to grow by 1.1% annually in 2020 with resuming export demand, while only by 0.4% without resuming export demand. These rates are much lower than an annual growth rate of 4.3% for the agri-food system in 2019. The results also show that, without resuming export demand, China's total economy will grow less than 1% in 2020, while, with export demand resumed, the growth rate rises to 1.7%. These rates are much lower than an annual GDP growth rate of 6.1% in 2019.

The results show that continuously reducing economic dependency on exports and stimulating domestic demand are key areas that require policy support. The agri-food system can play an important role in supporting broad economic growth and job creation as SMEs are major part of the AFS. Job creation requires policies to promote innovation by entrepreneurs who run numerous SMEs in China.

This paper represents the first systematic study assessing the impact of COVID-19 on China's agri-food system in terms of value added and employment. The assessment considers three phases of lockdown, recovery and normal phases in order to capture the full potential cost of COVID-19.