On the 26 of June 2003, an agreement was reached by agricultural ministers to reform the Common Agricultural Policy. Decoupling direct payments from farm output and reductions of administrative prices are core elements of this reform. Major reform goals are less output of cereals, beef, sugar and milk, stabilised farm incomes and a more competitive farm sector. Model simulations show that these...

Given the scarcity of land resources in most Chinese cities, the fragmentation of construction land use is a greater constraint than expansion for urban sustainability. Therefore, there is an urgent need to quantify the fragmentation level of construction land use for planning and managing practices. This study focuses on residential land use, which is one of the most important types of constru...

Mexico’s ultimate electoral reform, adopted in November 1996, was the law of the land for the July 1997 elections. Regrettably, its terms could not be met. This paper explains why, what was in fact done in the circumstances, and what should be done about it.  1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lisa Ting (BA, LLB, LLM). is a lawyer who was invited to undertake a PhD candidature in the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne to investigate frameworks for legal and institutional reform of land administration systems for sustainable development. As Director of the Australia-Indonesia Legal Development Foundation, she is also involved in legal and institutional reforms in I...

This article compares the income distribution’s equality in the economic growth of East Asia and Latin America, with the conclusion that the degree of social equality is not significant better in east Asia. And this article analyzes how the characteristics of social equality affects the economic development by the factors including industry policy, education, land reform, social security, urban...

Along with its economic reform, China has experienced a rapid urbanization. This study mapped urban land expansion in China using high-resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper data of 1989/1990, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000 and analyzed its expansion modes and the driving forces underlying this process during 1990-2000. Our results show that China's urban land increased by 817...

What is the impact on voting behavior of strengthening property rights over agricultural land? To answer this question, we use the 14 year nationwide rollout of Mexico’s land certification program (Procede) and match affected communities (ejidos) before and after the change in property rights with voting outcomes in corresponding electoral sections across six federal election cycles. We find th...

This paper discusses the implications of poor or non-existent information on soil quality, at the proper scale, during the planning and implementation of settlement projects in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on data from the Machadinho settlement project, Rondônia, we show that most settlers had no knowledge about the agricultural capability of the area, did not receive technical information, coul...

This paper uses the findings of a 1999 case study of ejidos (collective landholdings) in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, a prominent agricultural region of northwest Mexico, to examine responses to a series of economic and legal reforms enacted as part of Mexico’s ‘Reform of the Countryside’, which began in the late 1980s. In particular, it analyses reactions to the 1992 amendment to Article 27 of Me...