A Market for Ideas
The scientific method that underpins ERS research necessarily
requires that analysts be actively engaged with their disciplinary
peers in agricultural and other
fields of applied economics. The test of quality for a research project is
whether it meets
disciplinary standards in problem definition and in the application of appropriate
theory and empirical methodology. Each ERS researcher, therefore, has a role
to play in the scientific community, seeking review from research peers but
also providing that review and working with colleagues on advancing disciplinary
knowledge.
While, these days, much of the collegial interaction occurs via electronic
communication, there is no substitute for face-to-face conversation and debate
with one’s
colleagues, who are located across the country and the globe.
The primary forum for real (as opposed to virtual) gatherings
of peers is the annual meeting of the American
Agricultural Economics Association. This year’s
meetings were held in Montreal jointly with the Canadian
Agricultural Economics Society and Rural
Sociological Society. ERS researchers
contributed more than 100 papers and presentations to the
two and a half day meetings attended by some 1,800 professionals.
The ERS program contributions spanned the range of the agency’s
subject matter, including:
- Diet and health issues with a focus on economic incentives
to design more effective health policy to address
obesity.
- Policies and farm practices to manage manure and improve
water quality, with ERS staff analyzing farm level, regional,
and national impacts of decisions to apply manure on cropland
at agronomic rates so as to reduce runoff and leaching
of nitrogen and phosphorous into surface and ground water.
- The effect of farm programs, including new counter-cyclical
payments, on farm households and agricultural markets,
analyzed in papers applying different approaches, including
general equilibrium modeling and experimental
economics.
- Measurements of social and economic diversity among U.S.
counties, including results from research on definitions
of farming-dependent counties.
Every 3 years, the International
Association of Agricultural Economics convenes, and this summer the meeting was in Durban,
South Africa. There, ERS organized and financially sponsored
a workshop drawing on ERS research on the economics of food
security to cover both domestic and international issues.
In this learning workshop, titled “Food Security Measurement
in a Developing World Context with a Focus on Africa,” speakers
described and assessed various techniques used to measure
food security in the U.S. and across the globe. Included
were survey-based methods ERS helped develop to assess the
food security of U.S. households by asking questions about
specific behaviors and conditions known to characterize households
having difficulty meeting their food needs. ERS researchers
also described collaborative work with social scientists
in several low-income countries to adapt the U.S. methods
for use in those countries. A panel of experts on data collection
in low-income countries wrapped up the workshop with a lively
discussion on concrete steps that could be taken to improve
current methods.
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Liberalizing
World Trade in Textiles and Apparel
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International trade in textiles and apparel has been governed
by quantitative restrictions under the Multi-Fiber Arrangement
(MFA) and earlier agreements for more than 30 years. One of
the major accomplishments of the Uruguay Round was the Agreement
on Textiles and Clothing, which phases out the MFA over a
10-year period that ends in 2004. Beginning in 2005, the economic
landscape for global textiles and apparel will change, with
implications for the cotton-producing countries around the
world as well as for the economies of major yarn, fabric,
and clothing exporters and importers. ERS is examining the
likely impacts of textile trade liberalization on developing
countries, U.S. cotton farmers, and U.S. textile workers in
rural communities. Freer textile trade is expected to provide
tremendous opportunities for some developing countries (such
as China), but may have negative implications for countries
with existing preferential trade relations with the U.S. and
the European Union (such as Mexico and countries in northern
Africa). Stephen
MacDonald
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