THE SCOPE FOR INCREASING BIOFUEL CROP PRODUCTION IN JAPAN: AN ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE POLICIES
Journal Title: Asian Economic and Financial Review - Year 2016, Vol 6, Issue 3
Abstract
In 2010, concerns regarding Japan?s excessive dependence on imports for food and energy caused the Japanese government to introduce subsidies to stimulate biofuel crop production. In this paper, we study the viability of price subsidies and certain other policies with respect to increasing the production of biofuel crops. First, we estimate the elasticity of the supply of Japanese agriculture with respect to price (inclusive of the subsidy for each unit of production). For this purpose, we use a longitudinal database of 1822 municipalities that covers all 47 prefectures of Japan. This database includes information about the production of 116 crops and their respective revenues, including subsidies. Using panel data regression techniques, we determine that although the long-run supply of certain crops is highly elastic, this supply is highly inelastic if the production of other crops is held constant. Therefore, an increase in the demand for biofuel crops will cause substantial price increases of agricultural products, largely crowding out the demand for food crops. We then discuss the viability of encouraging various agricultural practices, such as multiple cropping and the cultivation of recently abandoned land. Instead of using abandoned land, which produces a lower yield and requires abundant labor, we recommend a multiple cropping system that involves the rotation of rice and wheat. Although these measures will increase biofuel crop production to a certain extent in the short run, full-scale biofuel crop production can only take place after substantial reforms are implemented to increase the production capacity of the Japanese agricultural sector.
Authors and Affiliations
Ai Leon| National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES), Tsukuba, Japan, Roberto Leon*| National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP2253
- DOI -
- Views 536
- Downloads 43
EMPLOYEE BRANDING MODEL BASED ON INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES IN THE IRANIAN BANKING INDUSTRY
In the competitive world of today, every company knows that their main asset is human resources, since employees have a crucial role in building strong a brand. But researches show that more managers do not pay attention...
DETERMINANT OF FDI: EVIDENCE FROM ORGANIZATION OF THE PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC)
The paper examined the determinants of foreign direct investment inflows in OPEC countries. This paper aims to find out the major determinants of foreign direct investment in the periods 1985 - 2014 using the Generalized...
GENDER DISPARITY IN FUNCTIONALITY AND CONSEQUENCE OF MICROFINANCE: DOES IT FUNCTION CURRENTLY?
This study has been designed to represent gender disparity in different issues like adequacy of loan amount, rate of interest, formalities to take loan and consequence of microfinance in poverty alleviation. Both descrip...
SUGGEST SOLUTIONS FOR DIFFUSION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING IN VIETNAM
Activity-Based Costing (ABC) was developed by Robert S. Kaplan in the mid-1980s and up to now the academics, researchers as well as accounting practitioners have perceived it as the normative appropriate cost system. It...
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE TAIWAN AND JAPAN EQUITY AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKETS: MODELING, ESTIMATION AND APPLICATION OF THE COMPONENT GARCH-IN-MEAN MODEL
The main purpose of this paper is to verify the effectiveness of the bivariate Component GARCH-in-mean (GARCH-M) model and analyze the interactions and risk premium of equity markets by exploring the short- and long-run...