New Medit - Vol. 19 N. 3 (2020) - BUP - Bologna University Press La Fondazione Bologna University Press è un’esperienza editoriale innovativa, coraggiosa ed efficace, che coniuga perfettamente la vocazione universitaria con una ambizione universale.

Catalogo

New Medit - Vol. 19 N. 3 (2020) - Bologna University Press

Rivista

New Medit, Economia e Finanza

New Medit - Vol. 19 N. 3 (2020)

Mediterranean Journal of Economics, Agriculture and Environment

Gracia, Barreiro-Hurlé and Pérez y Pérez investigate social preferences in Spain for sustainable biofuels and, in particular, the willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable bio- diesel. The European Union (EU) considers biofuels as an option to reduce GHG emis- sions. EU renewable energy directives introduced some requirements that biofuels should meet to be certified as sustainable. Results indicate that consumers are willing to pay, a premium of 5% for biodiesel. Authors identified two segments of consumers according to their WTP for the different biodiesel characteristics. One segment was more willing to pay for biodiesel while the other one attached more importance to fuelling convenience and biodiesel availability.

Mulazzani et al. deals with the connection between food security and migration. The paper aims firstly to draw a general framework of this nexus and then to validate it us- ing empirical literature on the African continent. Drivers of migration are never simple and well defined. Quite often, more than one cause (including economic, climatic and security drivers) contributes to migration. A few common points can be emphasized for the continent: due to structural and familiar characteristics, different strategies based on opportunity costs or risk minimization (including food security aspects) may emerge. In- dividuals often migrate following household strategies and investment, so land grabbing and land tenure security repres…ent important drivers to be considered. Finally, gender issues need a special attention.

Paper assesses the strategy of adopting labeling environmental and social issues and to what extent these labels could contribute to the promotion of Spanish olive oil to French consumers. Authors Erraach and Sayadi through the scenario method, highlight the criteria for choosing olive oil. The results show that the price, the brand, the organoleptic and sen- sory characteristics, cold pressure and origin are the most determining criteria for consu- mer choice. Findings from a qualitative study performed to French consumers confirm that the Spanish olive oil is perceived as a lower quality. Environmental and/or social labeling, through institutional certification, could help to improve the perceived country’s image.

Paper investigates how food safety investment decisions are affected on the one hand by laws and on the other by firm’s economic and organizational drivers. The data were col- lected by through a postal questionnaire submitted to 2,069 Italian meat companies. The authors Martino et al. show how regulation and freedom of contract act as drivers of food safety investments. They affirm that regulatory interventions are more effective if there is a private possibility to allocate investment decision rights with respect to the distribution of information between private and public agents and the degree of uncertainty. So informa- tion regarding the role of these collective bodies will become relevant in the near future in the context of expected changes in the EU’s agricultural policy.

El Bilali et al. highlight a methodological approach adopted to evaluate the envi- ronmental sustainability of quality agro-food products integrated in a regional quality scheme. Indicators measurable at the farm/firm level were selected in relation to the following environmental themes: biodiversity, land use and management, energy use and climate change, use of chemical inputs, and responsible management of by-products and waste. The presented approach represents a practical and innovative way to develop an information scheme for typical agri-food products and can be, with some refinement and contextualisation, easily scaled up to other territories.

Yagüe-Perales, Pérez-Ledo and March-Chorda investigate whether an innovative at- titude can be explained by market-entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, in- dividual profile traits and farm size in Spain. The findings provide insights into how age and experience affect innovation in agricultural smallholdings. The study shows that the most innovative farmers run large farms and have a strong market-entrepreneurial orien- tation. Farm size and learning orientation are key requirements to enhance the innovative attitude of farmers.

The paper investigates the vertical relations along the Italian durum wheat chain and the factors affecting farmers’ behavior in adopting contractual agreements. The authors Solaz- zo, Petriccione and Perito carry out a direct survey to a sample of 261 durum wheat farmers in Italy. One of the main issues emerging is the low frequency of written contractual forms between durum wheat farmers and downstream operators. In most cases the farmers do not want constraints and reveal a lack of trust in contracts. They prefer to sell their product to a local downstream operator with whom they have a long-standing and solid relationship of trust. Moreover, results of a logistic model show that certain farm features, such as turnover and degree of specialization in durum wheat production, play an important role in driving the decision to adopt written contracts.

Ignatov deals with the relationship between the performance of the European Union states in terms of business and entrepreneurial attractiveness and activity and the level of over- all economic security. The author consider a throughout quantitative analysis of raw data regarding the discrepancies in the European Union in terms of innovation output, resource productivity, employees’ salary, business R&D expenditure, international investment posi- tions, gross fixed capital formation, exports, energy efficiency and unemployment. The re- sults reached expressively underline that the level of discrepancies among the performance groups in the European Union is high, these differences growing in the areas of business and entrepreneurial performance. The economic security of the European Union is, there- fore, affected and the overall growth potential is diminished due to the persistence of this entrepreneurial heterogeneity.

Paper examines the relative technical efficiency of mixed crop-livestock farming systems and assesses their economic performance between the Upper and Delta regions of Egypt. The authors Ahmed, Rungsuriyawiboon and Abdelsalam apply a non-parametric data en- velopment analysis (DEA) method for measuring technical efficiency using farm-level data for 838 mixed crop-livestock farmers. Results also suggest that technical efficiency improvement is positively affected by farmers’ education, having a farm milk production certificate, and being located in the Delta region, whereas farm size negatively affects the economic performance of mixed crop-livestock farming systems in Egypt.

Disciplina

Economia e Finanza

Argomento

Scienze e tecnologie agro-alimentari

Formato

170 × 240 mm

Anno

2020

Confezione

Brossura

Lingua

Inglese

ISBN

9788869236266

ISBN online

doi

nm2004

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