This note provides a general concept of how the conflict of interest between credit rating agenci... more This note provides a general concept of how the conflict of interest between credit rating agencies and financial entities that hire them to rate issues can be severed. The concept stresses addressing the conflict with minimal government regulation. Only a skeleton concept is offered--the goal is to spark a debate and encourage creative solutions.
Working Paper--Submitted to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Jul 10, 2014
Recent periods of high and volatile food prices have prompted several import-dependent Arab micro... more Recent periods of high and volatile food prices have prompted several import-dependent Arab micro-states to consider at least some domestic production, among other proposals, as a way of mitigating extremely volatile food prices, which even in rich micro-states can have adverse health and economic effects and probably represent the most serious manifestation of food insecurity to such countries. Using Qatar as a case study, which is almost entirely import-dependent and faces exceptionally volatile food prices, we employ non-linear mathematical programing and analogs to measures of volatility in the financial sector to develop a model to guide the constitution of a crop portfolio for the inaugural year for domestic production, supplemented by storage, which is optimal in the sense of achieving the most dampening effect on price volatility. We conclude that the desired result cannot be achieved for grains through domestic production and that strategic storage must play a crucial role. However, a meaningful target for volatility reduction, well short of self-sufficiency, can be achieved for all other raw products through an obtainable level of domestic production.
Import-dependent arid Arab micro states such as those in the Persian Gulf are particularly vulner... more Import-dependent arid Arab micro states such as those in the Persian Gulf are particularly vulnerable to food-security risk. Among the many remedial policy suggestions is some initiation or increase in domestic production to insulate these countries from supply disruption, import price volatility and high import prices. This paper does not address the efficacy of domestic production but notes that such production will require government intervention in the form of production subsidies to mitigate market risk. The narrow focus of this paper is to provide a conceptual structure of subsidies that avoids many previous problems in established subsidy systems. The model has two components: a calculation of the true economic cost of a unit of an agricultural product and a deficit payment that is calculated to bridge the gap between true economic cost and market remuneration.
After many years of conflict in the WTO concerning the EU banana regime, the primary players in t... more After many years of conflict in the WTO concerning the EU banana regime, the primary players in the EU, U.S., and Latin America reached an accord in 2001. The settlement, set out in separate understandings between the EU and the U.S., and the EU and Ecuador, provided for the introduction of tariff-only regime no later than 1 January 2006. In the interim, the EU would be allowed to maintain the quota system, with some minor adjustments, that had been ruled to be in violation of WTO agreements by WTO panels and the WTO Appellate Body.
This note provides a general concept of how the conflict of interest between credit rating agenci... more This note provides a general concept of how the conflict of interest between credit rating agencies and financial entities that hire them to rate issues can be severed. The concept stresses addressing the conflict with minimal government regulation. Only a skeleton concept is offered--the goal is to spark a debate and encourage creative solutions.
Working Paper--Submitted to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Jul 10, 2014
Recent periods of high and volatile food prices have prompted several import-dependent Arab micro... more Recent periods of high and volatile food prices have prompted several import-dependent Arab micro-states to consider at least some domestic production, among other proposals, as a way of mitigating extremely volatile food prices, which even in rich micro-states can have adverse health and economic effects and probably represent the most serious manifestation of food insecurity to such countries. Using Qatar as a case study, which is almost entirely import-dependent and faces exceptionally volatile food prices, we employ non-linear mathematical programing and analogs to measures of volatility in the financial sector to develop a model to guide the constitution of a crop portfolio for the inaugural year for domestic production, supplemented by storage, which is optimal in the sense of achieving the most dampening effect on price volatility. We conclude that the desired result cannot be achieved for grains through domestic production and that strategic storage must play a crucial role. However, a meaningful target for volatility reduction, well short of self-sufficiency, can be achieved for all other raw products through an obtainable level of domestic production.
Import-dependent arid Arab micro states such as those in the Persian Gulf are particularly vulner... more Import-dependent arid Arab micro states such as those in the Persian Gulf are particularly vulnerable to food-security risk. Among the many remedial policy suggestions is some initiation or increase in domestic production to insulate these countries from supply disruption, import price volatility and high import prices. This paper does not address the efficacy of domestic production but notes that such production will require government intervention in the form of production subsidies to mitigate market risk. The narrow focus of this paper is to provide a conceptual structure of subsidies that avoids many previous problems in established subsidy systems. The model has two components: a calculation of the true economic cost of a unit of an agricultural product and a deficit payment that is calculated to bridge the gap between true economic cost and market remuneration.
After many years of conflict in the WTO concerning the EU banana regime, the primary players in t... more After many years of conflict in the WTO concerning the EU banana regime, the primary players in the EU, U.S., and Latin America reached an accord in 2001. The settlement, set out in separate understandings between the EU and the U.S., and the EU and Ecuador, provided for the introduction of tariff-only regime no later than 1 January 2006. In the interim, the EU would be allowed to maintain the quota system, with some minor adjustments, that had been ruled to be in violation of WTO agreements by WTO panels and the WTO Appellate Body.
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Papers by David Raboy