Surplus Approach Research Articles

POTENTIAL AND UTILIZATION LEVEL OF KRAI TUNA (Auxis thazard) LANDED AT SIBOLGA ARCHIPELAGO FISHING PORT NORTH SUMATERA PROVINCE

Krai tuna (Auxis thazard) is the most dominant catch in Sibolga Archipelago Fishing Port and has economic value, so the community widely consumes it. The magnitude of the potential of fisheries in Sibolga makes it important to analyze the stock of krai for the development and processing of the capture fisheries sector. The research method used is the survey method, the data needed is secondary data in the form of catch data and fishing effort for seven years (2016-2022), the data analysis used is the surplus production method with the Schaefer and Fox model approach, From the results of the study, it was concluded that the sustainable potential of krai using the production surplus approach method is more suitable using the Schaefer approach model because it has a low JTB of 1508 tons with a utilization rate status of 98.94% and is already in a fully-exploited condition or has reached the saturation point (catch-intensive). Utilization is almost near saturation point, so it is necessary to reduce fishing effort so that the catch remains and stock availability is maintained

Agency, functionalism, and all that. A Sraffian view

Former contributions examined the approach to institutions and economic history that can be derived from the classical and Marxian 'surplus approach' as particularly recovered by Piero Sraffa (1951) and Pierangelo Garegnani (1960). The present paper deals with the allegation levelled against historical materialism-and consequently against the surplus approach to institutions-of organicism or functionalism. Organicism is said to look at individuals as passive vectors functionally serving in various capabilities the reproduction and destiny of society as a whole. In this way human agency in the operation and change of society is excluded or at least restrained. Methodological individualism is the traditional alternative supported both by neoclassical and by (some) Marxist schools. The literature over the 'agency versus structure' determination of human behaviour in social and human sciences is immense. I will therefore limit myself to some episodes that may however provide enough food for thought on this field. I shall defend a functionalist view of society while giving space to individual intentional action and aspirations, albeit informed by historical conditioning circumstances. Historical reconstruction of the objective and subjective features of the economic formations under examination, rather than the empty and a-historical study of individual choices, unrelated to the social context, looks like the way to go. Agency must be historically contextualised.

An Ex-post Impact Assessment of Seed-to-Seed Mechanization in Maize in Telangana State, India

In Telangana, India, maize is cultivated in large areas next to rice and cotton. Considering the importance of the crop, Professor Jayashankar Telangana state Agricultural University (PJTSAU) is focusing on the development of new maize hybrids and agro-technologies that increase yield and income for farmers and reduce input and management costs. In order to evaluate the impacts of seed-to-seed mechanization technology, the Economic Surplus (ES) approach was applied in the present study that quantifies aggregate social benefits which includes producer and consumer surplus. Results revealed a total surplus of Rs. 19.61 lakhs, mainly benefiting producers (72.09 per cent) and consumers (27.91 per cent). The investment in seed-to-seed mechanization demonstrated a promising 23 per cent internal rate of return (IRR), a net present value (NPV) of Rs. 3.2 lakhs, and a favorable BC ratio of 1.67:1. The results of study found that the adoption of novel technology increased farm income and reduced the labour cost.

Rural livelihoods and caterpillar fungus collection: Diverse economies of surplus for dignified labour

AbstractThis study explores the appropriation and distribution of surplus in caterpillar fungus collection in Qinghai using a diverse economies of surplus approach. Ethnographic fieldwork included semi‐structured interviews, focus group discussions, oral histories and participant observations during collection. Findings suggest that one particular enterprise type, with more typically capitalist features has come to dominate caterpillar fungus collection in Qinghai. The surplus appropriation and distribution in this enterprise poses problems for rural farmer collectors in terms of insecure incomes and stringent working conditions that deprive them of their dignity of labour. This study suggests a rethink of surplus appropriation and distribution based on culturally valued dignity of labour to design more sustainable and equitable livelihood within and beyond the dominant model.

A Note on the Surplus Approach as ‘Neo-Marxian’ Political Economy

ABSTRACT After a short survey of the reasons why the label ‘Neo-Ricardianism’ customarily fixed to the surplus approach to political economy should be discarded for good, the note focuses on Marx's analysis of the influence of income distribution on the incentive to invest and technical change. It is held that it is principally this analysis that should be taken as the foundation for any further development of the surplus approach, with a view to putting together the essential elements of an alternative theory of employment and activity levels within which also the role of the State and its economic policy may be critically dealt with.

Different Approaches to Assessing Pollution Load: The Case of Nitrogen-Related Grey Water Footprint of Barley and Soybean in Argentina

Agriculture is among the main causes of water pollution. Currently, 75% of global anthropogenic nitrogen (N) loads come from leaching/runoff from cropland. The grey water footprint (GWF) is an indicator of water resource pollution, which allows for the evaluation and monitoring of pollutant loads (L) that can affect water. However, in the literature, there are different approaches to estimating L and thus contrasting GWF estimates: (A1) leaching/runoff fraction approach, (A2) surplus approach and (A3) soil nitrogen balance approach. This study compares these approaches for the first time to assess which one is best adapted to real crop production conditions and optimises GWF calculation. The three approaches are applied to assess N-related GWF in barley and soybean. For barley in 2019, A3 estimated a GWF value 285 to 196% higher than A1, while in 2020, the A3 estimate was 135 to 81% higher. Soybean did not produce a GWF due to the crop characteristics. A3 incorporated N partitioning within the agroecosystem and considered different N inputs beyond fertilization, improving the accuracy of L and GWF estimation. Providing robust GWF results to decision-makers may help to prevent or reduce the impacts of activities that threaten the world’s water ecosystems and supply.

The potential economic benefits of controlling trypanosomiasis using waterbuck repellent blend in sub-Saharan Africa.

Trypanosomiasis is a significant productivity-limiting livestock disease in sub-Saharan Africa, contributing to poverty and food insecurity. In this paper, we estimate the potential economic gains from adopting Waterbuck Repellent Blend (WRB). The WRB is a new technology that pushes trypanosomiasis-transmitting tsetse fly away from animals, improving animals’ health and increasing meat and milk productivity. We estimate the benefits of WRB on the production of meat and milk using the economic surplus approach. We obtained data from an expert elicitation survey, secondary and experimental sources. Our findings show that the adoption of WRB in 5 to 50% of the animal population would generate an economic surplus of US$ 78–869 million per annum for African 18 countries. The estimated benefit-cost ratio (9:1) further justifies an investment in WRB. The technology’s potential benefits are likely to be underestimated since our estimates did not include the indirect benefits of the technology adoption, such as the increase in the quantity and quality of animals’ draught power services and human and environmental health effects. These benefits suggest that investing in WRB can contribute to nutrition security and sustainable development goals.

The Surplus Approach, Institutions, And Economic Formations

AbstractThe paper develops Pierangelo Garegnani’s notion of the ‘core’ of the classical theory of distribution to propose a wider integration of the concept of social surplus and institutions into economic thinking. Its main tenet is that the social surplus does not exist independently of the institutions (or social order) that oversee its production and distribution, starting from those that prevail in the sphere of production. In this sense, we supplement the surplus approach with important insights not only from the Polanyian approach, from economic archaeology and anthropology, but also from Sraffian authors and Sraffa’s manuscripts. Taking inspiration from Garegnani, this work is offered as a prelude to the design of different economic ‘cores’ for different stylized economic formations.

The Erroneous Foundations of Law and Economics

The fundamental originating principle of law and economics (L&E) is that legal decisions should be (and are) based on maximizing efficiency. But L&E proponents do not define “efficiency” in the way agreed to by most economists, as Pareto Efficiency. A Pareto optimal condition is obtained when no one can be made better off without making someone worse off. Pareto Improvements are win-win changes where no losers exist. In the judicial system, however, there are always winners and losers, because under Article III § 2 of the Constitution a legal case does not exist unless there is a justiciable “case or controversy” in need of resolution. Unable to use Pareto Efficiency, L&E scholars have been forced to adopt alternative definitions of efficiency. Most L&E scholars claim to define “efficiency” based on the work of Kaldor and Hicks, but (perhaps unwittingly) instead use a definition of “efficiency” derived from the 19th century idea of consumer surplus, which encompasses L&E notions such as “wealth maximization,” and “consumer welfare” in antitrust. Neither of these alternative definitions is viable, however. Outside of L&E, the Kaldor-Hicks approach has long been recognized to be riddled with logical inconsistencies and ethical failures, and the surplus approach is even more deficient. Remarkably, virtually none of the numerous L&E textbooks even hint at such problems. Critically, all definitions of efficiency improvements in economics are biased in favor of wealthy individuals or firms, either because they are dependent on the status quo ante distribution of assets, or because they bestow large advantages on parties with political influence or who can afford to bring lawsuits quickly. Many L&E practitioners treat efficiency improvements instead as being objectively good, an error revealing that L&E is primarily motivated by its neoliberal policy agenda.

The surplus approach to rent

Theories of rent are wide-ranging. However, whether neoclassical, Marxist, or Proudhonist, they tend to neglect evolutionary institutionalist theorising. Increasingly dominated by the income approach, rent theories need to be expanded, partly to correct existing work, partly to break persistent intellectual monopoly and oligopoly, and particularly to develop institutional theories of rent. In this paper, I attempt to do so by presenting and evaluating the surplus approach to rent, particularly R.T. Ely’s, highlighting its power and potential and stressing its critiques and contradictions. Drawing, among others, on the original writings of Ely, it is argued that, while the emphasis on property rights, land as a ‘bundle of sticks’, and rent as surplus rather than income help to advance heterodox approaches to rent, the surplus approach is severely limited in its analysis of inequalities and how they can be addressed, especially in extractivist and rentier societies. To unravel long-term inequalities that characterise rent and rentier economies, it is crucial for surplus theorists to engage stratification economics which, in turn, can drive the surplus approach to rent.

Marxian Rate of Exploitation and Keynesian Income Determination: A Mini Review

In this article (developing a previous contribution on the analyses by Marx and Sraffa) it is suggested that, when one tries to integrate the surplus approach with the Keynesian perspective, an ideal choice is to take as given circumstance the rate of labor exploitation rather than wage. The reason for this decision rests on the features of Sraffa’s Standard Commodity in the context of joint production, a technological-economical setting which in turn, it is argued, cannot be neglected as a special, unusual and, perhaps, prima facie negligible case but is and has always been the normal condition for economic systems.

Economic Impact of Fluopyram-Amended Seed Treatments to Reduce Soybean Yield Loss Associated with Sudden Death Syndrome.

Soybean (Glycine max) sudden death syndrome (SDS), caused by Fusarium virguliforme, is a key limitation in reaching soybean yield potential, stemming from incomplete disease management through cultural practices and partial host resistance. A fungicidal seed treatment was released in 2014 with the active ingredient fluopyram and was the first chemical management strategy to reduce soybean yield loss stemming from SDS. Although farm level studies have found fluopyram profitable, we were curious to discover whether fluopyram would be beneficial nationally if targeted to soybean fields at risk for SDS yield loss. To estimate economic benefits of fluopyram adoption in SDS at-risk acres, in the light of U.S. public research and outreach from a privately developed product, we applied an economic surplus approach, calculating ex ante net benefits from 2018 to 2032. Through this framework of logistic adoption of fluopyram for alleviation of SDS-associated yield losses, we projected a net benefit of $5.8 billion over 15 years, considering the costs of public seed treatment research and future extension communication. Although the sensitivity analysis indicates that overall net benefits from fluopyram adoption on SDS at-risk acres are highly dependent upon the market price of soybean, the incidence of SDS, the adoption path, and ceiling of this seed treatment, the net benefits still exceeded $407 million in the worst-case scenario.

Economic potential of AVIKASIL-S technology for estrus synchronization in sheep

The study captures the economic benefits of AVIKASIL-S, an estrus synchronization technology in sheep using an economic surplus approach in the Rajasthan state of India. The adoption of technology at the field level was at a nascent stage. Study simulated scenarios at different adoption rates of technology and discerned that technology has the economic power to enhance the income of shepherds in the state. To reap the more benefits of technology, the adoption rate needs to increase. The support of government, private sector, and public-private partnership models besides entrepreneurs are the channels for wider adoption of technology amongst shepherds.

A critical evaluation of some Kaleckian proposals to deal with the issue of convergence towards normal capacity utilization

It is a well-established result of Kaleckian models in which output growth is led by investment expenditures that capacity utilization is endogenous and positively related to the growth rate of output, and that attempts by capitalists to adjust productive capacity to demand might trigger Harrodian instability. This motivated several theoretical proposals by some Kaleckian authors in order to deal with the issue of convergence to normal utilization. Our purpose in this article is to rescue the concepts of competition, the determinants of normal capacity utilization, and the relation between normal prices, normal utilization, and normal profits, according to the classical surplus approach – and more specifically the ideas presented by Ciccone (1986; 1987; 2011) – in order to discuss critically the proposals developed by the Kaleckians in the light of this theoretical background. Our main point is that most of these proposals seem to have ignored some of these concepts from the classical surplus approach, adopting (explicitly or implicitly) some hypotheses that are in contradiction to the concepts of competition and to the determinants of normal utilization presented here – and in some cases have even modified the concept of normal utilization itself.

Andean potato diversity conserved in the International Potato Center genebank helps develop agriculture in Uganda: the example of the variety \u2018Victoria\u2019

The International Potato Center (CIP) genebank conserves and facilitates access to highly diverse germplasm of potato, sweetpotato, and Andean roots and tubers as a global public good for food security. While it is generally understood that material from the CIP genebank has played an important role in the release of many CIP-related varieties grown by smallholder farmers in lower-income countries, the contribution has not been evaluated in quantitative terms. By applying the relative contribution of provenance based on pedigree data, we apportion the CIP genebank contribution of two released potato varieties: Pallay Poncho and Victoria. The estimated contribution of the CIP genebank to Pallay Poncho and Victoria is 35% and 72%, respectively. We then used an economic surplus approach to measure Victoria’s benefits in Uganda by attributing and valuing productivity gains. The gross benefit of Victoria in Uganda is estimated at USD $1.04 billion (2016 value), which exceeds the annual operating cost of the entire genebank over its lifetime. Seventy-two percent of the economic benefits corresponding to germplasm of Victoria are due to the CIP genebank contribution. Our findings demonstrate the magnitude of economic benefits generated by the use of conserved germplasm provided by the CIP genebank in crop improvement, which is only one of the several components of its total economic value. These results show that the availability of diverse germplasm is perhaps one of the most important elements in varietal development.

Economic Impact of Vegetable Variety in Haryana: A Case of Pusa Rudhira of Carrot

ABSTRACT This study aimed at assessing the economic impact of Pusa Rudhira variety using an economic surplus approach during 2014-15 in Haryana. Primary data were collected from Panipat, Sonepat and Fatehabad districts purposively on account of a large area under vegetable cultivation and the total sample was 120 farmers. The results revealed that there was an economic surplus of 100.84 crores generated out of this technology. Of this total surplus, the share of producers’ and consumers’ gains was around 66 and 34 percent respectively. It implied that such benefits came from investment in research of this crop production technology. Financial viability analysis of returns to investment in research of developing the Pusa Rudhira variety showed that the project was economically viable since benefit-cost ratio (BCR) and internal rate of return (IRR) was 447 and 138 percent respectively. Sensitivity analysis was conducted, four scenarios were developed keeping both supply and demand elasticity at a different level. While keeping inelastic demand and supply elastic, the economic surplus was 59.4 crore.

Marx, Sraffa, and Surplus: Observations Prompted by Garegnani (2018)

ABSTRACT In a posthumously published article, Pierangelo Garegnani (2018. ‘On the Labour Theory of Value in Marx and in the Marxist Tradition.’) depicts Marx’s project in Capital as that of ‘developing systematically the theory of Ricardo and [the] implications of social conflict’ implied by Ricardo’s ‘surplus approach to value and distribution’. This paper argues to the contrary that Marx’s theory of surplus value and exploitation differs from (neo-)Ricardian surplus theory in fundamental ways, and modifies Garegnani’s simple Sraffian model to illustrate the distinctive implications of Marx’s theory.

ANALYSIS OF FISHERY BIOECONOMIC IN THE EAST COASTAL OF BINTAN ISLAND

The objective of this study is to measure the potential economic value of fisheries in the area of conservation of seagrass meadows on the eastern coast of Bintan island. The result of this study could became a policy input for managing sustaibale fisheries resources. The presence of seagrass ecosystem could support carrying capacity of the surrounding area of seagrass for growing related biotas that associated with the seagrass ecosystem. The number of benefit of seagrass ecosystem could be measured by production surplus approach. The result of analysis shows that the economic value of fisheries of seagrass ecosystem is equal to the fisheries economic IDR 92.73 billion or IDR 558.28 million hectare-1 year-1 in 2016. The maximum economic yield (MEY) of this artisanal fisheries is 5032 ton year-1 with the number of effort should be maintained at 5281 trip of net fishing gear. A sustainable fisheries management should be maintained in the level of harvest and effort in MEY condition in order to give a maximum benefit to the fishermen and sustaible to the fisheries. Keywords: seagrass ecoystem, seagrass fisheries, bioeconomic of seagrass fisheries, eastern coast of Bintan island, maximum economic yield

Demanda efetiva no longo prazo e no processo de acumulação: o debate sraffiano a partir do projeto de Garegnani (1962)

Resumo O artigo discute a evolução do projeto sraffiano, iniciado em 1962 por Garegnani, de desenvolver uma teoria da demanda efetiva de longo prazo. Tratamos tanto dos aspectos metodológicos quanto analíticos, começando com a questão da compatibilidade entre o princípio da demanda efetiva e a abordagem clássica do excedente. Discutimos as relações entre os graus efetivo e normal da utilização da capacidade e o problema do caráter dual do investimento. A seguir relacionamos estes conceitos com a noção de posições de longo prazo e a análise do processo de ajustamento da capacidade à demanda no processo de acumulação de capital.

Price elasticities of pharmaceuticals in a value based-formulary setting.

Empirical estimates of price elasticities of demand (PED) for pharmaceuticals suggest that they are relatively price inelastic. However, in many settings, a medication and its substitutes and complements face simultaneous differential changes in prices that affect the observed "composite" PED. We exploit an implementation of a value-based formulary (VBF) that utilized drug-specific incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) to inform drug copayments, resulting in increases in copayments for some medications and decreases in copayments for others. We first show theoretically that by changing the price of a medication and its substitute in opposite directions, VBF designs can leverage cross-price effects to increase the range of composite PEDs. We then empirically estimate PED and welfare effects using a consumer surplus approach. Overall PED was -0.16, similar to the RAND Health Insurance Experiment estimate. However, there was substantial dispersion of PED across the VBF copayment tiers ranging from -0.09 to -0.87 with a statistically significant trend aligned with the levels of value as reflected by the ICER estimates (p<0.001). The net welfare increase was $147,000 for the cohort or $28 per member over the postpolicy year. Further experimentations of VBF designs with alternative cost-effectiveness thresholds, copayment levels and value definitions could be quite promising for improving welfare.