Joseph Buongiorno. (2015). Income and time dependence of forest product demand elasticities and implications for forecasting. Silva Fennica vol. 49 no. 5 article id 1395. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.1395

Keywords: modeling; structural change; econometrics; markets

Highlights: Elasticities of demand with gross domestic product and prices were stable over time and income level for sawnwood and particleboard only; Other product elasticities differed with income and time, leading in conjunction with a sector model to higher projected world demand and prices than obtained by ignoring differences between countries and over time.

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In view of improving multi-country forest sector models, this study investigated to what extent the price and income elasticity of demand for forest products had changed in the past two decades, and how much they depended on the countries income level. For each of seven major product groups annual observations were divided between high-income (top 20% in gross domestic product per capita) and low-income, and between recent (2004–2013) and older (1992–2003) observations. The results indicated that for sawnwood and particleboard the data could be pooled across all countries and years. For the other commodity groups (veneer & plywood, fiberboard, newsprint, printing & writing paper, other paper & paperboard), there were statistically significant differences in gross domestic product or price elasticity between high and low-income levels or old and recent observations. Efficient elasticities were obtained by pooling the maximum number of observations while respecting the statistically significant differences. The resulting GDP elasticities were the same, or very close, across income levels for all products. The price elasticities differed by income level only for newsprint and for veneer and plywood. International forest sector projections to 2065 obtained with these elasticities compared with those based on pooling all data across time and income levels gave less than 3% difference for world consumption of sawnwood, particleboard, fiberboard, and newsprint, but 19% higher consumption for veneer and plywood, 31% for printing and writing paper, and 18% for other paper and paperboard. The world price was 1% to 11% higher for end products and 3% to 22% higher for raw materials and intermediate products.

Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA E-mail: jbuongio@wisc.edu

article id 58, category Research article

Ilona Suuriniemi, Jukka Matero, Harri Hänninen, Jussi Uusivuori. (2012). Factors affecting enlargement of family forest holdings. Silva Fennica vol. 46 no. 2 article id 58. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.58

Keywords: economies of scale; structural change; forest ownership; non-industrial private forest owners; land policy; parcelization; consolidation

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This study contributes to the research of enlargement – a counterforce of parcelization – of forest holdings. To help planning policy measures aiming at increased average size of forest holdings, we study the characteristics of family forest owners who acquired additional forestland area during the years 2004–2008. Increases of forestland area due to purchases on the open market, purchases from parents or other relatives, inheritance or gift are studied. Survey data, containing information of 6318 forest owners, are analyzed with logistic regression analysis in order to establish a relationship between the probability of increasing the forestland area and the characteristics of landowners. The results indicate that young male owners, who appreciate economic values of the ownership and are active users of their forest estates, most often expand their forest property. This can be considered as an encouraging result from the point of view of the political objective to boost forest management activity through enlarging family forest holdings.

Suuriniemi, University of Eastern Finland, School of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: is@nn.fi
Matero, University of Eastern Finland, School of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jukka.matero@uef.fi
Hänninen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: hh@nn.fi
Uusivuori, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: ju@nn.fi

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