While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research explaining social capital itself lags behind. The literature has a long tradition of examining the effect of social capital on local economic growth and development. In this paper we examine...

Welfare economics as the traditional, prescriptive theory framework used in agricultural economics has been criticised by institutional economists as being largely irrelevant to real-world policy issues. We therefore ask how normative statements are possible within an economic theory framework...

The relationship between multifunctionality and the roles of rural communities has not been discussed fully although the connection between the two is an essential issue in the rural policy arena. Pursuing this issue, this paper considers that multifunctional hamlet activities are generated as...

This study investigates the effect of community factors on the development and diversification of rural Japan. Diversification is a matter of concern in rural communities as a means of revitalizing regional socio-economies. To establish new diversified activities, cooperation between rural...

Capitalizing on the mobility of livestock is one of the major ways in which pastoralists have managed ecological uncertainties and risks, as it enables them the opportunistic use of the resources. However, agricultural encroachment onto rangelands by nearby agro-pastoralists has led to a...

Generally, an appropriate maintenance and management of the common-pool resources (CPRs) in rural areas can contribute to the enhancement of the “quality of life” of inhabitants through improvement of the local environment, etc. In recent years, with the aging of farm households and the rise...

In this study, we theoretically and empirically investigate the determinants of Bt maize adoption in German regions. Specifically, we ask how the regulatory framework, the farm structures as well as the socio-political environment of GM expansion in Germany have influenced regional adoption...

Farmers do not often change from their house bank to another bank, even if the competing banks offer better conditions. This “reluctance to switch” can be explained, on the one hand, by the transaction costs resulting from such a change of business relation. On the other hand, it may be the...

Widely accepted views among technical personnel and particularly developmnent programme administrators are that the explanation of widespread range of degradation in pastoral areas lies in the problem of common property (whereby private benefits from putting additional livestock on the range...

This paper analyzes technical efficiency of limited-resource farms operating in a sub-tropical environment (Province of Misiones, Argentina). Property rights over land, the degree of market exposure and food support programmes are three institutional variables that are hypothesized to lead to...