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The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the costs of price and income subsidies when the food security policy targets the urban poor. The result may help policymakers choose a desired subsidy scheme to ensure food security for the urban poor facing food price surge.

The analysis consists of three parts: constructing an empirical model on provincial panel data in 1993‐2009 estimating the impact of grain price on food security among urban residents by different income level; evaluating the potential costs of shifting to income subsidy aiming to maintain the real income levels of the low income, lowest income or the poor residents if grain price increases by 20 percent; and comparing with the cost of price subsidy to achieve the same policy goal.

The paper finds that, food price surge will hurt the urban poor much more seriously than the high income population; the rich residents may receive more benefit from price subsidy; and income subsidy has obviously a cost advantage while the targeted people benefit more.

The obvious value of the paper is to show that income subsidy is much more desired than price subsidy, if the policy goal is to help the poor during food price surge.

The managerial questions of this paper are as follows, and the authors are trying to solve them: How revenue sharing contract (CSR) degree and government subsidy affect the agri-food quality? What kind of model (WPC, revenue-sharing contract [RSC] and cooperative) would be more effective in motivating manufacturers and retailer to increase effort and improve agri-food quality? What kind of model (WPC, RSC and cooperative) would make manufacturer and retailer better off?

Considering the jointing quality effort and contract decision in green agri-food supply chain, this paper proposes six models that consider CSR of manufacturer and retailer, and then the obtained optimal solutions are compared and analyzed. At the same time, the impact of government subsidies is analyzed, and corresponding conclusions are drawn.

The results show that, first of all, whether the increasing CSR of the manufacturer or the retailer can motivate both parties to improve the agri-food quality effort investment. Second, the WPC and RSC contract may play different role in different cases. Finally, under the model with government subsidies, regarding positive influence of government subsidies on efforts of manufacturer and retailer, quality and profits of members is investigated. Based on these conclusions, this study puts forward the following policy suggestions. Firstly, governments should formulate reasonable subsidy policies to support manufacturer and retailer to improve the agri-food quality, thereby promoting green industries' development. Secondly, manufacturer and retailer should actively improve CSR and strengthen the effort of agri-food so as to advance quality. Finally, manufacturer and retailer can choose cooperative model or WPC contract.

In this paper, one manufacturer and one retailer are considered. Since the agri-food supply chain structure in reality is more complicated, the future research direction can consider the supply chain structure with one manufacturer and multiple retailers. In addition, this paper only considers the subsidy, and future research can classify the subsidy into different types.

The study makes two substantive contributions to the body of knowledge in the field of sustainable operations:(1) incorporating quality-based demand function in supply chain and dynamic process of agri-food quality; (2) exploring the impact of CSR awareness of members and subsidy of government on agri-food quality, and comparing the influence in different models.

Indian households having the below poverty line (BPL) ration card receive rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene from the Indian Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) at subsidized rates. The paper uses the National Sample Survey Organization's consumption expenditure survey for the 61st round to study the causal effect of the BPL ration card on BPL households' calorie consumption. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This causal effect is estimated by comparing per-capita-per-day calorie consumption of the BPL households having BPL card with that of a matched counterfactual BPL household from the same state not having BPL card, using stratified propensity score matching.

The BPL ration card was found to increase calorie consumption from cereals and decrease calorie consumption from non-cereal food items without affecting the overall calorie consumption of household. Thus, TPDS induces households to consume more cereals and less non-cereal without significantly changing the overall calorie consumption.

The research methodology controls for selection bias due to observable variables. Further, research needed to devise experimental set up to control for the selection bias due to unobserved variables.

The paper uses the targeting error in identifying BPL households in TPDS as a quasi-experiment set up to study the causal effect of the BPL ration card.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the subsidies established by Measure 123 of the Rural Development Policy on the productivity of a sample of agri-food and forestry companies in the region of Asturias over the period 2006-2009.

The authors estimate a stochastic frontier function which allows subsidies to be considered as affecting both the level of technical efficiency and technical progress.

The results show that while subsidies have a positive effect on the technical progress of companies in the agri-food industry, for the forestry industry, the effect materializes as an improvement in technical efficiency. Additionally, other factors affecting either, technical progress and technical efficiency were identified.

This study adopts a model that allows the separate identification of the effect of subsidies on the level of efficiency, on the one hand, and on the technical progress, on the other.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between food security and cleaner energy and evaluate the financial viability of both ethanol and biodiesel productions in Southern Brazil, the current battleground region among food, ethanol and biodiesel. Southeastern Brazil was chosen to carry the analyses because that is the current battleground region for food, ethanol and biodiesel.

The analyses to be carried out encompass the following steps: evaluate the investment needs for the ethanol and biodiesel programs in Southeast Brazil; gather information on financial costs, converting them to economic costs to evaluate the economic desirability of the programs; evaluate the possible subsidy needed to fulfill the programs' goals; and evaluate the biofuel‐food tradeoff under some different scenarios.

The conclusion is that Brazil, despite being the most efficient producer of ethanol, may very well be forced to use compensatory subsidies for ethanol production if the USA persists in imposing importing tariffs on that Brazilian commodity. On food security matters, the production of ethanol has to compete with beef production, whose prices present a rising trend because of strong demand in emerging countries. For the same reason biodiesel becomes less viable the stronger the demand for vegetable oil.

The competition among these three alternative uses of natural resources will become tougher in the coming decades as, on the one hand, consumption of food and energy increases at high rates. Developed countries, on the other hand, continue to be heavy polluters and at the same time create all sorts of obstacles to the expansion of food and clean energy production elsewhere.

While the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) for poverty reduction is widely recognised, limited knowledge exists on its use in the social protection schemes devised for the world’s poor. Drawing on the institutionalist vision of IS development and organisational change put forward by Avgerou (2000), the authors propose that computerisation of these schemes entails two processes, namely, the progressive affirmation of ICT innovation and a shift in the programmes' organisational structure, which moves from a subsidy-based model to one grounded on direct cash transfers. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the role of ICT in anti-poverty schemes results from concomitance of such processes.

The paper draws on a study of the public distribution system (PDS), the main food security scheme in India, as it is being computerised in the state of Karnataka. Following an interpretive case study methodology, it investigates the ongoing computerisation of the Karnataka PDS through a combination of back-end and front-end technologies, based on biometric recognition of the programme’s users.

The data reveal that transformation of the PDS results from the simultaneous processes of institutionalisation of ICT innovation and deinstitutionalisation of the extant state-led subsidy scheme, in favour of a leaner social protection system centred on cash transfers to beneficiaries. This illustrates the point that ICT innovation is intertwined with the decline of an extant social welfare structure and the rise of a new one, based on the direct transfer of benefits.

The paper offers a new theoretical perspective to illuminate the computerisation of anti-poverty programmes, a phenomenon that affects the entitlements of millions of poor people on a global scale. In parallel, it draws practical implications for countries embarking on the digitalisation of their social protection schemes.

China is undergoing economic and political reforms. The aspect focused on is the problem of food supply. The Institute of Development Studies, of the State Council′s Rural Research Centre, has done comprehensive research on this project and found many unprecedented features of this “food crisis”. The IDS identifies China′s food problem as an institutional shortage and irrational food consumption pattern, quite different from that of other countries, capitalist or socialist. They raised some proposals in solving the problem. This article is a detailed report on the research.

During the 1950‐1979 period, the governments of Central America often pursued “cheap‐food” policies. A general‐equilibrium model is employed to show how these policies contributed to the resource‐allocation patterns observed in the region during this period. The model also shows how cheap‐food policies contributed to the observed shift in the functional distribution of income from wages to rents and profits. An empirical test verifies the contribution of bean‐pricing policy to the shift in land resources away from food crops in Costa Rica, and the causes behind the relaxation of cheap‐food policies in the 1980s are discussed.

Increased economic insecurity helps to spur individuals to work harder and be more efficient according to the theory of work incentive. However, in a civilised society, the society has a moral obligation to provide basic needs and social safety nets for its poor and unfortunate members who, due to factors beyond their own control, have not been able to earn a living. This paper analyses the trade‐off between economic reforms and economic and social security in India and China. The findings show that both countries’ attempts to minimise the social costs of economic reforms have not been successful. The policy implications are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how local supply chains prepare for and respond to the threats and opportunities presented by constitutional change, thereby building resilience.

Multiple case study analysis of 14 firms in the food sector is presented in the context of the UK’s impending exit from the European Union (Brexit). Organisations studied include farmers, processors, retailers and non-government organisations (NGOs). Data from interviews and roundtable discussions has been interpreted using the dynamic capabilities perspective, covering the sensing, seizing, and transforming stages.

The data highlights the importance of both vertical and horizontal collaboration between supply chain actors as they seek to anticipate the impact of the disruption and influence the future shape of the constitution. There is also evidence to suggest firms in possession of dynamic capabilities can innovate to build resilience and enhance their competitive position. Characteristics of the disruption posed by constitutional change are identified and contrast with those of many other threats more typically described in the literature. As a result, the process of building resilience is different.

The study could be extended to include post-Brexit interviews to further understand the seizing and transforming stages whilst the impact of Brexit on actors that remain within the EU could also be considered.

Practitioners need to work together to influence the future shape of the constitution; and they need to reconfigure their operations and supply chains where necessary to become more resilient to the threat posed by Brexit, such as by reducing their reliance on EU funding streams and trade. The study also has policy implications.

The first study of supply chain resilience to constitutional change and a rare empirical study of resilience across multiple supply chain tiers.