IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v177y2020ics0921800919317768.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are All Colonies Created Equal? The Role of Honey Bee Colony Strength in Almond Pollination Contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Goodrich, Brittney K.
  • Goodhue, Rachael E.

Abstract

This paper examines how honey bee population dynamics, the scale and timing of almond bloom, and unmarketability of almond honey interact to create misaligned incentives for growers and beekeepers in the California almond pollination services market. We combine economic contract theory with data from the first pollination contract survey to examine the design of pollination contracts. 89.2% of respondents used contracts with minimum colony population requirements, suggesting that all colonies are not considered to be equal providers of pollination services. Contracts that involved enforcement every year provided the highest pollination fees on average, while those with no enforcement provided the lowest fees. We contribute to the literature regarding pollination services by demonstrating that the number of hives and price per hive present an incomplete picture of almond pollination transactions without information regarding colony strength requirements and enforcement. We also provide a theoretical rationale for why almond pollination agreements have anecdotally become more formal over time: as the marginal value of colony strength increases, the grower offers the beekeeper stronger incentives to provide high colony strength. California almond production is an extreme case of a crop relying almost solely on managed pollinators, but ultimately could reflect the future for many pollinator-dependent crops if pollinator populations continue to decrease while monoculture crop production increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Goodrich, Brittney K. & Goodhue, Rachael E., 2020. "Are All Colonies Created Equal? The Role of Honey Bee Colony Strength in Almond Pollination Contracts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:177:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919317768
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106744
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919317768
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106744?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wu, Steven Y., 2006. "Contract theory and agricultural policy analysis: a discussion and survey of recent developments," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Cheung, Steven N S, 1973. "The Fable of the Bees: An Economic Investigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 11-33, April.
    3. Jonathan Levin, 2003. "Relational Incentive Contracts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 835-857, June.
    4. Silke Boger, 2001. "Quality and contractual choice: a transaction cost approach to the polish hog market," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 28(3), pages 241-262, October.
    5. Rachael E. Goodhue, 2000. "Broiler Production Contracts as a Multi-Agent Problem: Common Risk, Incentives and Heterogeneity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(3), pages 606-622.
    6. Deaton, Angus, 1988. "Quality, Quantity, and Spatial Variation of Price," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 418-430, June.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Goodrich, Brittney K., 2019. "Do more bees imply higher fees? Honey bee colony strength as a determinant of almond pollination fees," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 150-160.
    9. Randal R. Rucker & Walter N. Thurman & Michael Burgett, 2012. "Honey Bee Pollination Markets and the Internalization of Reciprocal Benefits," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(4), pages 956-977.
    10. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, 2003. "Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 281-315.
    11. Charles R. Knoeber & Walter N. Thurman, 1995. ""Don't Count Your Chickens...": Risk and Risk Shifting in the Broiler Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(3), pages 486-496.
    12. Lawrence, John D. & Kliebenstein, James, 1995. "Contracting and Vertical Coordination in the United States Pork Industry," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5050, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Muth, Mary K. & Thurman, Walter N., 1995. "Why Support the Price of Honey?," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 1-3.
    14. Narjes, Manuel Ernesto & Lippert, Christian, 2019. "The Optimal Supply of Crop Pollination and Honey From Wild and Managed Bees: An Analytical Framework for Diverse Socio-Economic and Ecological Settings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 278-290.
    15. Brittney K. Goodrich & Jeffrey C. Williams & Rachael E. Goodhue, 2019. "The Great Bee Migration: Supply Analysis of Honey Bee Colony Shipments into California for Almond Pollination Services," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 101(5), pages 1353-1372, October.
    16. Steven Y. Wu, 2006. "Contract theory and agricultural policy analysis: a discussion and survey of recent developments ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(4), pages 490-509, December.
    17. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    18. Kliebenstein, James B. & Lawrence, John D., 1995. "Contracting and Vertical Coordination in the United States Pork Industry," ISU General Staff Papers 199507010700001264, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    19. Winfree, Rachael & Gross, Brian J. & Kremen, Claire, 2011. "Valuing pollination services to agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 80-88.
    20. Mark V. Pauly, 1974. "Overinsurance and Public Provision of Insurance: The Roles of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(1), pages 44-62.
    21. Bessy, Christian & Brousseau, Eric, 1998. "Technology licensing contracts features and diversity1," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 451-489, December.
    22. Hudson Darren & Lusk Jayson, 2004. "Risk and Transactions Cost in Contracting: Results from a Choice-Based Experiment," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-19, February.
    23. Hyunok Lee & Daniel A Sumner & Antoine Champetier, 2019. "Pollination Markets and the Coupled Futures of Almonds and Honey Bees: Simulating Impacts of Shifts in Demands and Costs," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(1), pages 230-249.
    24. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    25. Gillespie, Jeffrey M. & Eidman, Vernon R., 1998. "The Effect of Risk and Autonomy on Independent Hog Producers' Contracting Decisions," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 175-188, July.
    26. Oliver Hart & Bengt Holmstrom, 1986. "The Theory of Contracts," Working papers 418, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    27. Ferrier, Peyton M & Rucker, Randal R. & Thurman, Walter N. & Burgett, Michael, 2018. "Economic Effects and Responses to Changes in Honey Bee Health," Economic Research Report 276245, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    28. Brittney K Goodrich & Jeffrey C Williams & Rachael E Goodhue, 2019. "The Great Bee Migration: Supply Analysis of Honey Bee Colony Shipments into California for Almond Pollination Services," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1353-1372.
    29. Christian Hennig & Tim F. Liao, 2013. "How to find an appropriate clustering for mixed-type variables with application to socio-economic stratification," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 62(3), pages 309-369, May.
    30. A. Champetier & D. Sumner & J. Wilen, 2015. "The Bioeconomics of Honey Bees and Pollination," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(1), pages 143-164, January.
    31. Kliebenstein, James & Lawrence, John D., 1995. "Contracting and Vertical Coordination in the United States Pork Industry," ISU General Staff Papers 199501010800001264, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    32. James B. Kliebenstein & John D. Lawrence, 1995. "Contracting and Vertical Coordination in the United States Pork Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(5), pages 1213-1218.
    33. John W. Siebert, 1980. "Beekeeping, Pollination, and Externalities in California Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(2), pages 165-171.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fraser, Iain, 2005. "Microeconometric analysis of wine grape supply contracts in Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 49(1), pages 1-24.
    2. Steven Y. Wu, 2014. "Adapting Contract Theory to Fit Contract Farming," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1241-1256.
    3. Poray, Michael C. & Gray, Allan W. & Boehlje, Michael, 2002. "Evaluation of Alternative Coordination Systems Between Producers and Packers in the Pork Value Chain," Staff Papers 200386, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    4. Hudson, Darren, 2001. "Cross-Commodity Perspective On Contracting: Evidence From Mississippi," Research Reports 15800, Mississippi State University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    5. Cozzarin, Brian P. & Barry, Peter J., 1998. "Organizational Structure In Agricultural Production Alliances," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-17.
    6. Kumar, Shiv & Devender & Chakarvarty, Kavita & Chand, Puran & Dabas, J.P.S., 2007. "Mode of Operation and Performance of Contract Farming of Cottonseed in Haryana," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 20(1).
    7. Love, H. Alan & Burton, Diana M., 1999. "A Strategic Rationale For Captive Supplies," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18, July.
    8. Charles R. Knoeber, 2000. "Les contrats de production dans l'agriculture américaine. Une caractérisation de la recherche empirique actuelle," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 259(1), pages 3-15.
    9. Mao, Hui & Zhou, Li & Ifft, Jennifer, 2017. "Risk Preferences, Contracts and Technology Adoption by Broiler Farmers in China," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 257248, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Antoine Champetier & Daniel A Sumner, 2019. "Marginal Costs and Likely Supply Elasticities for Pollination and Honey," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1373-1385.
    11. Cordero Salas, Paula, 2016. "Relational Contracts and Product Quality: The Effect of Bargaining Power on Efficiency and Distribution," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 41(3), pages 1-19.
    12. Wilcox, Steven W. & Just, David R. & Gomez, Miguel I. & Lin Lawell, C. Y. Cynthia & Grab, Heather, 2023. "To (Rent) Bees or Not to (Rent) Bees? An Examination of the Farmer's Question," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335769, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Cakir, Metin & Balagtas, Joseph Valdes & Wu, Steven Y., 2009. "Allocation of Authority in Agricultural Production Contracts," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49577, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Adhikari, Bishwa B. & Harsh, Stephen B. & Cheney, Laura Martin, 2003. "Factors Affecting Regional Shifts Of U.S Pork Production," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22200, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. Martinez, Stephen W., 2002. "Vertical Coordination Of Marketing Systems: Lessons From The Poultry, Egg, And Pork Industries," Agricultural Economic Reports 34051, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Key, Nigel D. & McBride, William D., 2001. "Does Contracting Raise Farm Productivity? The Impact Of Production Contracts On Hog Farm Performance," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20721, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Hueth, Brent & Ligon, Ethan & Dimitri, Carolyn, 2007. "AJAE Appendix: Agricultural Contracts: Data and Research Needs," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1-7, December.
    18. Sneeringer Stacy E, 2009. "Effects of Environmental Regulation on Economic Activity and Pollution in Commercial Agriculture," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-35, July.
    19. McBride, William D. & Key, Nigel D., 2003. "Economic And Structural Relationships In U.S. Hog Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 33971, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Jang, Jongick & Sykuta, Michael E., 2008. "Contracting for Consistency: Hog Quality and the Use of Marketing Contracts," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 5966, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contracts; Pollination; Honey Bees; Pollination Services; Colony Strength; Cluster Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:177:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919317768. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.