bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
3 Der Markt für Zucker
Authors: Sommer Ulrich
Published: August 2024

Agricultural Markets at the Turn of 2001/2002: (3) SugarEstimated world sugar supply and demand remained uncertain in 2001 but finally depressed import requirements carried the day and sent prices down to 6.5 cts/lb in October (as against 10 cts/lb around March). Precautionary quota management caused the beet growers associations all over the EU to issue recommendations not to over plant quotas. The reason was that the Commission had unveiled plans to abolish the established storage levy/reimbursement system. Furthermore, a new CMO of sugar was approved by the Council without major changes except for fixing a five years term instead of the proposed two.
4 Der Markt für Milch
Authors: Roth Thomas , Salamon Petra
Published: August 2024

Agricultural Markets at the Turn of 2001/2002: (4) Milk ProductionAlthough there are different trends to be seen world-wide, overall cow milk production continued to increase at a moderate rate. Import demand for dairy products remained strong in 2001 and led to relatively world high prices. With EU support prices being fixed and milk quotas raised under the Agenda 2000 the Commission tried to control the market by repeatedly adjusting subsidies for disposal of skim milk and SMP as well as on SMP and butter exports. Several member countries made changes in their sophisticated commercial quota transfer systems while the mid-term review which the Commission is committed to present in 2003 is expected to give guidance towards a later abolition of the whole EU dairy quota regime. The WTO Appellate Body Report (Canada-dairy) is, however, putting new question marks.
5 Die Märkte für Schlachtvieh und Fleisch
Authors: Probst Friedrich-Wilhelm
Published: August 2024

Agricultural Markets at The Turn of 2001/2002: (5) Meat MarketsInternational red meat markets were rarely more disturbed by animal diseases than in 2000/01. Western Europe and Latin America were directly hit and many other countries declared embargoes. In several EU member countries consumer demand for beef broke off at times by up to 70 per cent heavily straining cattle prices and producer incomes. The EU took various measures to counter such effects among which a "purchase for destruction" scheme, public intervention and an increase of the advances for the beef premia. World pig meat production increased by around 4 per cent in 2001 and trade in meat and live animals rose to almost 10 per cent of production. China is by far the world's biggest supplier yet with only decreasing exports. Pig prices reached cyclical heights during the first half of the year and weak-ened sharply in the US as well as in the EU.
Neue empirische Befunde zur Preissetzung und zum Verbraucherverhalten im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel
Authors: Herrmann Roland , Möser Anke , Werner Elke
Published: August 2024

New Empirical Evidence on Price Setting and Consumer Behaviour in the Retailing Sector. There are two objectives of this article: (i) It is discussed theoretically how the dynamics of pricing decisions of multiproduct retailers can be explained. (ii) It is analyzed empirically by use of scanner data how prices are actually set and how consumers react at the point of sale to price changes and promotional activities by retailers. The empirical evidence focuses on breakfast products in general and jam and breakfast cereals in particular. Main results are the following: 1. Theory of optimal pricing by multiproduct firms suggests that direct and cross price elasticities of demand and marginal costs determine the profit-maximizing price at one point of time. Good reasons do exist additionally for multiproduct retailers to vary prices intertemporally. Sales, e.g., can be consistent with optimal intertemporal pricing. 2. Scanner data for German food retailers in the period September 1996 - June 1999 are utilized in the empirical analysis. The law of one price does not hold for individual branded foods across store types. Price dispersion varies by product. The impact of sales is high in grocery retailing; on average for 20 food categories, one product of a category was on sale every other week. 3. Promotional activities affect demand for branded products strongly, but impacts on quantities varied widely. They were above average for coffee, a storeable product, below average for fresh milk, a less storeable good. In some cases, these effects are so strong that consumers seem to buy the brand only when it is on sale. 4. In the special case of jam, prices are lowest in discounters and highest in supermarkets. The spread of prices is also lowest in discounters and highest in supermarkets. Price-elastic reactions at the point of sale was, however, a uniform pattern across all store types of grocery retailing. The strongest reaction was found in supermarkets with a price elasticity of demand of -5.09.5. For breakfast cereals, strong reactions by consumers occur to various promotional activities. Impacts on demand were, e.g., as high as 175 % when the instruments sales, display and leaflet were combined. Sales were an important feature of promotional activities with a strong demand-increasing effect. Summing up, it can be concluded that an active price policy of grocery retailers is a crucial component of their marketing mix. This is compatible with the finding of a strong price responsiveness of consumers. The stylized fact that the price elasticity of food demand is absolutely low, may be correct for aggregate demand but is not confirmed at the store level. On the contrary: High absolute levels of the store-level price elasticity of demand are typical for branded foods.
Umweltfördermaßnahmen in der Landwirtschaft - Teilnehmerauswahl durch Ausschreibungen?
Authors: Holm-Müller Karin , Radke Volker , Weis Jürgen
Published: August 2024

Agri-environmental Programs - Using Auctions to Select Participants?Agri-environmental programs offering uniform payments to farmers achieved only low participation ratios in some regions whereas, in other regions, windfall profits arose. Auctions leading to individual payments equal to farmers' bids could solve this problem. Simulations showing auctions' efficiency gains are based on critical assumptions though. In this article the validity of these assumptions is discussed for different auction designs and different subprograms. We find that extensification programs offer the best conditions for successful auctions. However, it seems counterproductive to use auctions for choosing among different areas in environmental contracting.
Economics of Food and Feedstuffs Safety with Special Regard to Law Enforcement
Authors: Lippert Christian
Published: August 2024

The objective of this article is to describe and to analyse the basic relationships between control frequency, amount of fines, other social sanctions, the producers' capability to influence certain attributes (including costs of quality assurance) and damage incidence in the field of food and feedstuffs safety. For this purpose an economic model is developed that minimizes monitoring costs including (a) the harm prevented and (b) the revenues from fines. First, monitoring measures are optimized by exclusively taking account of the interests of consumers and taxpayers. In a second step, the model is enlarged by adding constraints relative to the costs of quality assurance so that aspects of both producer welfare and total social costs are explicitly accounted for when simultaneously optimizing the probability of detection and the degree of punishment.The results derived from the model show among other things:-From an economic point of view legal regulation (i.e. the setting of performance standards) is advisable only in cases of comparatively high potential damages.-Even when the entire production is to be free from certain residues, it is often not necessary to check all units of the commodity considered.-In the presence of (a) poor possibilities to influence an attribute - or a wide range of quality assurance costs among producers - and (b) prospective damages which justify a control frequency of one hundred percent, no fines at all should be stipulated in order to avoid allocative distortions.-In the case of strong social sanctions (e.g. losses of reputation), all else being equal the control frequency may be lowered considerably.Against the background of these conclusions the application of uniform control frequencies is inappropriate. Instead, every food control authority should be free to choose the size of samples, taking into account not only the given structure of fines but also its knowledge concerning the market specific social sanctions, monitoring costs, the extent of potential damages from legal transgressions as well as the producers' possibilities and costs of influencing the relevant food or feedstuffs attributes.
Diversification and Growth of Farms
Authors: Weiss Christoph , Thiele Holger
Published: August 2024

The liberalization of agricultural markets has increased the interest of farmers (as well as those working on policies concerned with their welfare) in agricultural diversification strategies. However, empirical research on diversification in European agricultural markets is very limited. This paper follows OUSTAPASSIDIS (1992) and investigates the relationship between different diversification strategies and farm performance (farm growth rates). The results of fixed- and random-effect models for approx. 3900 farms in Schleswig-Holstein for the period 1988/89-1997/98 show that diversification into related products increases growth rates whereas the opposite applies for diversification into unrelated products. Initial farm size has a significant and negative impact on the rate of growth which implies ß-convergence of farm sizes.
Zollkontingente bei US-amerikanischen Käseimporten
Authors: Gast Michael
Published: August 2024

The US Tariff-Rate Quota System for CheeseA tariff-rate quota (TRQ) is a two-tier tariff. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture provides for the transformation of remaining import quotas into TRQs in order to eliminate quantity restricting import barriers to trade. However, more often than not are TRQs de-facto-quotas. The profit-maximizing condition for an importer confronted with two differentiated goods under a common quota is derived. The main focus of the present article is the US import regime for cheese which was transformed according to the tariffication process into a TRQ system. Analysis of cheese import quantities shows that this transformation has indeed little changed. Being the only remarkable exception in partially overcoming the import barriers, the case of New Zealand indicates a possible price discrimination in favor of high-duty imports.
The New Role of Social Security in Rural Areas of Developing Countries
Authors: Jütting Johannes P.
Published: August 2024

In the 1990ies the ultimate target of social security has been widened: Social security aims at protecting people against life risks and helping them to take advantage of social and economic opportunities. Existing social security systems in rural areas of developing countries are often "second best solutions" and need reforms. Institutional innovations such as micro insurance schemes are a promising way of improving the risk management of rural households. The example of community based health insurance schemes in Senegal shows, that rural households can be successfully integrated into insurance schemes. This allows a better access to health care and is an essential prerequisite for increasing labour productivity. Moreover, it offers in the mid to long term the chance to shift to more risky but also more profitable production systems. The discussion of the appropriate design of social security in rural areas of developing countries has yet started. Many questions are still open as e.g. the willingness of rural households to pay for insurance products, the optimal design of micro insurance schemes and the measurement of the effects of social security on productivity. Agricultural economics research can make substantial contributions in answering these questions.
Das moderne Konzept der internen Subventionierung als Kriterium zur Identifizierung von Wettbewerbsverzerrungen bei europäischen Agrarumweltmaßnahmen
Authors: Holm-Müller Karin , Witzke Heinz Peter
Published: August 2024

The "Rule of Additional Costs" and Modern Economic Theory - Applied to Payments for Ecological ServicesBoth WTO and the EU use a "Rule of additional costs" (RAC) to restrict payments for ecological services in agriculture in order to prevent trade distortions. We assess this rule in the light of modern economic theory. It is shown that the RAC is efficient, if conventional agriculture is competitive without other payments. In regions where agriculture is not competitive though and is said to be important for ecological purposes the payments for ecological services must exceed additional costs. In these cases three criteria exist to prevent trade distortions as far as possible: the regions in which farmers are eligible to more than additional costs must be clearly defined by economic and ecological indicators, payments must not exceed the costs for equivalent nature conservation measures by non-farmers and the ecological benefit of the farmer's actions must be demonstrated. The definition of the regions where more than additional costs can be paid should be made at the EU-level if the ecological importance of these regions is of international concern.
Agrarumweltpolitik nach dem Subsidiaritätsprinzip - Föderalismustheoretische Grundlagen zur Politikgestaltung
Authors: Rudloff Bettina
Published: August 2024

Agri-environmental Policy and the Principle of Subsidiarity - Introduction into the Concept of Fiscal Federalism The Theory of Fiscal Federalism offers a normative framework to evaluate the existing allocation of competences. To derive an actual relevant scope for reforms supporting an efficient Agri-environmental Policy the general theoretical criteria have to be specified. Thus, the parameters defining theoretically the optimal degree of centralisation will be applied to sectoral characteristics. Additional agri-environmental sub-competencies will be differentiated to identify deficits regarding the Principle of Equivalence. Based on this existing infringements with respect to agri-environmental measures are noticeable what requires a changed allocation of competences.
Halbzeitbewertung der Agenda 2000: Chancen und Risiken von Fischlers Reformkurs
Authors: Schmitz P. Michael
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Why has the Dual Structure of Larger-scale Farms and Household Plots been Preserved in Russian Agriculture?
Authors: Schulze Eberhard
Published: August 2024

The collectivisation of agriculture in most socialistic countries was connected with the development of a dual enterprise structure of large-scale farms and household plots. In Russia, in contrast to other European transition countries, this structure in most regions remained in the main features. The article tried to find reasons for this development. It has been recognised that beside the macroeconomic situation above all the intersection of the three institutional and organisational systems large scale enterprise, rural community and household plots is of importance. Based on this, suggestions for continuation of the agrarian reform in Russia are derived.
Beratung landwirtschaftlicher Betriebe: Bund und Länder weiterhin in der Pflicht
Authors: Hoffmann Volker
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Konzeptionelle Potenziale des schweizerischen Direktzahlungsregimes für die EU
Authors: Mann Stefan
Published: August 2024

What Potentials Does the Swiss Direct Payment Regime Offer for the CAPThe paper has the goal to check whether elements of the Swiss direct payment regime could serve as a model for the EU. It does so by checking the direct payment regime’s accordance with the concept of an efficient and sustainable economic policy and by quantitatively examining what impact it has if some of its elements are integrated into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It becomes clear that Swiss agricultural policy roots much firmer in the foundations of public finance theory than the CAP, but that an adaptation in the EU would lead either to large budget increases or to massive income losses for farmers. However, the Swiss example shows that large direct payments can be brought into accordance with public finance theory.
Impacts and Alternative Options of Modulation of Direct Payments
Authors: Kleinhanss Werner
Published: August 2024

The system of direct payments in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is being criticised with respect to the level, unequal distribution and allocation effects on production. Besides the decoupling of direct payments a modulation and a partial transmission to the second pillar of CAP are proposed. Modulation on a voluntary basis was already introduced in Agenda 2000. In its Mid-term Review of the Agenda the Commission proposes an obligatory dynamic modulation scheme including the capping of direct payments beyond a threshold of 300 000 Euro. Possible impacts of the Commission's proposal are assessed with simulations based on farm accounting data of EU-FADN. Distribution effects between farm sizes and member states are unveiled. Alternate options with regard to capping and progressive reductions of direct payments are analysed. Due to the different distribution of direct payments, farms of EU Member states will be affected differently by the proposal of the Commission: The franchise of 5 000 Euro will exempt from modulation about tw -thirds of farms being represented by FADN respectively 15 % of the premium volume. About 80 % of the volume are subject to proportional reductions and 5 % fall off due to capping. More than four fifths of the capping affects Eastern Germany alone.The capping measurement leads to large distributional effects between farm sizes and between member states: In the first step of the dynamic modulation, premia beyond the franchise are reduced by 3 % while they are totally taken away beyond the capping threshold. Direct payments to large farms in Eastern Germany would be reduced by more than half. Due to drastic income shortfalls farm adaptations by splitting-up the farm enterprises or reducing the number of hired workers would be induced. An alternate scheme of modulation based on a progressive reduction of direct payments has been proposed. Elements of this system are a franchise, dynamic progressive reductions of direct payments within a progressive zone and proportional premia reductions beyond the upper limit of the progressive zone. There is no capping and with regard to administration purposes no other factors than the level of direct payments are included. With the determination of a few parameters — the franchise, the progression zone and the minimum and maximum rates of reduction — the system can be handled flexibly in view of social and budgetary objectives. Compared to the Commission's proposal farms entitled to less than 100 000 Euro of direct payments would forfeit less money under the progressive reductions system. Farms entitled to 100 000 to 300 000 Euro of direct payments would lose moderately more. Among the large farms however, premia reductions would be distributed more evenly and never exceed the maximum rate of e.g. 35 % while by the capping as proposed by the Commission affected farms could lose much more with the average loss increasing from 35 to 42 % of original entitlements.
Zur Bedeutung von EU-Direktzahlungen für landwirtschaftliche Unternehmen in Ungarn
Authors: Hinners-Tobrägel Ludger , Keszthelyi Kristián
Published: August 2024

Impacts of EU Direct Payments on Agricultural Enterprises in HungaryDirect payments are a controversial issue in the accession negotiations. While the EU proposes reduced payments the accession countries claim that they should be equally treated as the present EU members.The present study, based on micro-simulations on the farm level, shows impacts of various policy options (ranging from non-accession to the granting of full direct payments) on the production structure and profitability of Hungarian agricultural enterprises.For most products prices are expected to be higher in 2004 than in the reference year, 2001. EU accession will have an additional positive effect on the prices of all products. Direct payments would further increase farm profits. In particular crop producers would benefit (due to the increase in the price of corn) while profits in animal production would be affected in a negative way due to increased opportunity costs of forage area and higher labour cost.The presented figures are based on data collected in 14 typical model farms selected from the Hungarian Farm Accountancy Data Network and they cannot be regarded perfectly representative. However, in accordance with other sector studies the figures allow two conclusions. First, the majority of Hungarian agriculture (with respect to the share in total farm area as well as the share in total standard gross margins) would suffer no economic harm from an EU accession without direct payments. Second, direct payments would increase farm profits in Hungary considerably.
Agricultural Policy 2002
Authors: Manegold Dirk
Published: August 2024

The agricultural policy discussion in Germany was dominated last year by the European Commission's Mid-term Review of the Agenda 2000 and by the process of EU enlargement. Proceedings at WTO issues were less visible to the public but the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations remained present in all discussions at least as a key argument in favour of continued agricultural policy reform. The Mid-term Review proposed some further reductions in price support and unexpectedly called for a deeprooted change in direct payments. Besides advocating a complete decoupling of payments it suggested a progressive decrease in the level of direct payments in order to save monetary resources for funding measures of more general rural development. With regard to EU enlargement, negotiations have finally been completed due to further compromises especially in the fields of financial transfers and agricultural quotas. Entry of ten new member countries is now scheduled to take place on May 1st, 2004.
Die Märkte für Schlachtvieh und Fleisch
Authors: Probst Friedrich-Wilhelm
Published: August 2024

Meat MarketNational and international meat markets recovered in 2002 from the disturbances recently caused by animal diseases (BSE, FMD). Relaxed trade restrictions allowed world trade to grow at an overall rate of 2.5 per cent as against only 1 per cent in 2001. In several world regions as e.g. North America, Oceania and Russia, however, higher beef production also resulted from increased slaughter due to widespread draught. Initial prospects of rising beef prices could therefore not gain ground. With a rate of around 3 per cent world pig meat production is likely to have increased even faster than beef. It may have slightly surpassed a total of 94 mt in 2002. Trade in pig meat was stimulated yet only at depressed prices. Similar developments characterised the world markets of mutton, lamb and goat meat while the upward trend of poultry meat production continued at somewhat reduced annual rates.EU Member countries exhibited varying trends in beef production and consumption. EU beef exports still struggle to resume pre-BSE levels and the WTO quota of allowed subsidised exports was filled at only 60 per cent in 2001. Pig meat consumption rose a bit in 2001 at the expense of exports and without attracting higher imports. In 2002, however, another increase in pig meat exports is expected but again without WTO restrictions to become binding. Poultry meat production and consumption continue to increase in the EU with around 70 per cent of EU production falling to chicken. With various processed and convenience products, however, turkey (20 per cent of EU poultry production) remains the most dynamic section in the poultry market.
Modellgestützte Politikberatung in der Agrar- und Agrarumweltpolitik - Vorwort
Authors: Zeddies Jürgen
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Analysis of Trade and Environmental Policy Options on the Basis of a National Agricultural Sector Model with Multifunctional Outputs
Authors: Weber Gerald
Published: August 2024

SummaryStudies on liberalisation normally do not take into account the external benefits and costs of agriculture. Empirical studies on the valuation of externalities should be integrated into quantitative modelling. MULTSIM is a national supply model of agriculture. Besides commodity output the model depicts also external benefit linked to landscape preservation and external environmental costs of agriculture. Internalisation scenarios are defined showing that the reduction of commodity-linked support and the introduction of land subsidies and intermediate input taxes have differentiated impacts on the farm types’ competitiveness. A comprehensive policy approach to multifunctional agriculture requires market feedbacks to be taken into account. Internalising externalities may lead to a strong reduction of commodity output quantities. This gives rise to expectations that commodity prices would increase, which in turn would dampen the production impacts. As a consequence MULTSIM should be regarded as a bridge tool that may be linked to microeconomic based multi market models and agricultural trade models. A further strain of model development is an improved consideration of multiple policy objectives.
A Hedonic Pricing Model for German Wine
Authors: Schamel Günter
Published: August 2024

We develop a hedonic pricing model for German quality wine. Quality indicators for 4,141 wines are sensory awards received at the annual German wine competition and the legally required quality category as well as a set of control variables including regional origin, color, style, and their age at the time of judging. The data confirms that sensory quality awards have a significant and positive price impact. Moreover, we estimate significant relative differences between quality categories, growing regions and most of the control variables.
Die Märkte für Getreide und Ölfrüchte
Authors: Kersten Lutz Kersten
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Der Markt für Obst
Authors: Ellinger Wilhelm
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Pfadabhängigkeit als Forschungsprogramm für die Agrarökonomie
Authors: Theuvsen Ludwig
Published: August 2024

More than a decade ago, path dependence turned out to become a promising research program for agricultural economics. This article reviews important trends in path dependence research and highlights its role in the economics of technology, institutional economics, agricultural economics, and organization theory. Due to potential inefficiencies of path dependent processes, more and more researchers focus on path creation which has as yet not been understood very well. The implications of these recent developments for research questions and methodology of agricultural economics are sketched.
Der Wechsel vom konventionellen zum ökologischen Landbau: Eine investitionstheoretische Betrachtung
Authors: Odening Martin , Mußhoff Oliver , Utesch Volker
Published: August 2024

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of the real options approach for analyzing farmers’ choice to switch from conventional to organic farming. Understanding the determinants of this decision is relevant in particular for agricultural policy makers when predicting the response of farmers to support programs. After a brief review of the existing literature on barriers to the adoption of organic farming a theoretical model is presented that allows one to incorporate two main features of the adoption decision, namely irreversibility and uncertainty of the returns. The real options model quantifies investment multiples that trigger the adoption of organic farming. Compared with neoclassical models it suggests an inertia of the respective farming type, i.e. economic hysteresis. In order to find some empirical evidence for that hypothesis we utilize a switching regression model has originally been developed to test for market integration. The econometric model is then applied to aggregated data of conventional and organic farms in Germany and Austria spanning the period from 1982 until 2002. The empirical analysis confirms the reluctance to adopt organic farming due to option-like effects. We conclude that the incentives for adoption of organic farming (e.g. higher prices, direct payments or income stabilization) have to be increased if a higher share of this production type seems desirable.
Clusteranalyse als Instrument zur Gruppierung von spezialisierten Marktfruchtunternehmen
Authors: Herink Michael , Petersen Volker
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Relating diet, demographics and lifestyle to increasing US obesity rates
Authors: Schroeter Christiane
Published: August 2024

Changes in the American lifestyle are putting more individuals at risk due to the declining quality of their diets. In the last 20 years, the readily available high-fat foods (e.g., "fast foods") combined with the decreased caloric requirements due to lower physical activity levels is assumed to be the major factor in the sharp rise in the prevalence of obesity. The typical away-from-home meal is less healthy than food at home, since it tends to contain more total fat and saturated fat, less calcium, fiber, and iron, and fewer servings of fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, due to the super-sizing trend that is sweeping the market, when Americans eat out, they eat more. Thus, a rising away-from-home consumption appears to establish a significant barrier to improve American dietary habits and health status. The continuously increasing trend towards obesity is affecting the public health system tremendously, since four of the ten leading causes of death in the US, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes, are strongly associated with poor diet and physical inactivity. In terms of lost productivity and medical expenses, it leads to an estimated cost of $200 billion each year. Despite the considerable change in demographics and lifestyles, little research has documented the impact of changes in these factors on the rising US obesity. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of food source, diet, demographic, and lifestyle on the prevalence of obesity and overweight. This study will be based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999-2000), which, among many other variables, includes measured weight and height and hence provides the best opportunity to track trends in weight in the US NHANES, administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The NHANES provides nationally representative information on the health and nutritional status of the US population. While controlling for demographics, lifestyle and diet information, the main goal is to determine whether the source from which food is obtained also contributes to the increased overweight. Linear regression is applied to estimate the effect of food source, particularly fast-food outlets and restaurants, on the body mass index (BMI). BMI expressed as weight/height² (i.e. kg/m²), is commonly used to classify overweight (BMI: 25.0-29.9) and obesity (BMI: >= 30.0) among adults (age 18 years and over). Previous studies have found gender-specific differences in the effect of different factors on the BMI. This is tested empirically in this study. Quantifying the effects of demographic and lifestyle determinants on BMI will provide a better understanding of the impact of different factors on obesity.
Industry-mandated testing to improve food safety: the new US marketing order for pistachios
Authors: Brunke Henrich , Alston Julian M. , Gray Richard S. , Sumner Daniel A.
Published: August 2024

Food safety shocks can threaten the health of consumers, create havoc within an industry and result in severe losses to producers. Governments often attempt to aid food safety by mandating standards and inspection of food products to supplement the efforts by private firms and industries. This article assesses a form of collective action that falls between typical government mandates and purely private action. The California pistachio industry recently established a U.S. federal marketing order, which sets quality standards and inspection to reduce the likelihood of dangerous or poor quality pistachios. Simulation results indicate that, across the full range of parameters used in the analysis, the benefit-cost analysis was always favorable to the new policy. In the case of California pistachios, collective action is likely to be a helpful tool to ensure a safe product and increase benefits to producers and consumers.
Ökologischer Landbau in Nordrhein-Westfalen: Empirische Analyse und Bestimmungsgründe der heterogenen räumlichen Verteilung
Authors: Haas Guido
Published: August 2024

In North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the most populated German state (18 million people), 2.6% of the agricultural area is farmed organically (as of 1.1.2002). Using data derived from the NRW statistical office, the statewide extension agencies and organic farmers’ organisations, the geographical distribution of the organic farms was investigated by correlating general conditions and the economic and natural environment. The organically farmed area varied widely - from 0.1 to 7.5% of total agricultural area - over the 34 administrative districts of NRW. The focus of this study is an analysis of the agricultural structure to understand the heterogeneous distribution of organic farms in NRW. In certain parts of NRW, highly specialised intensive farming creates a high environmental burden. Although organic agriculture clearly has a lower negative environmental impact, the number of organic farms in regions with specialised intensive production is low. The inherent needs of these specialised intensive systems restrict the options to simplify and to adopt organic farming systems, and some products (e.g., pork, sugar beet) only have access to a very small organic market. Therefore, the opportunity for increasing the rate of transition (conversion) of specialised conventional farms to organic farming is very limited within the current agro-political framework. The analysis of the heterogeneous spatial distribution of the organic farms illustrates the need for a different supporting payment system for organic areas. In addition, measures supporting organic farming should not be restricted to financial support.
Der Kommissionsvorschlag zur Reform der EU-Zuckermarktordnung: "Schnellschuss" und "überzogene Reform" oder sorgfältig erarbeitetes Konzept für den Einstieg ...?(1)
Authors: Schmidt Erich
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Zur Bewertung von Wetterderivaten als innovative Risikomanagementinstrumente in der Landwirtschaft
Authors: Mußhoff Oliver , Odening Martin , Xu Wie
Published: August 2024

The importance of weather as a production factor in agriculture is well established long time and a significant portion of yield fluctuations is caused by weather risks. Traditionally, farmers have tried to hedge against unfavorable weather using insurance, such as crop insurance. In recent years a new class of instruments, so called weather derivatives, have emerged. They allows to reduce weather based risks as well. Weather derivatives are financial market products such as forwards, futures, options and swaps, that have a weather component such as temperature or rainfall. Although weather derivatives have some advantages compared to traditional insurance, their trading volume is still rather small. One reason (among others) for why potential users hesitate to enter the market are the difficulties to determine a fair price for these products. Financial pricing methods such as the Black-Scholes formula cannot be directly applied since weather is not a tradable asset. In this article, various pricing methods are investigated and applied to actual weather data. One important finding is that there are considerable differences between the pricing methods. We identify the strengths and weaknesses of the pricing methods and give some recommendations for their application. Our results may be relevant not only for producers but also for potential sellers of weather derivatives.
Über die Rekonstruktion der Handlung "Einkaufen im Bioladen" - ein Beispiel für qualitative Sozialforschung nach der "Grounded Theory"
Authors: Helmle Simone
Published: August 2024

This article presents a study about the symbolic significance of shopping in the organic store. The data are based on autobiographic reports and analyzed using grounded theory. The result is a concept with finding of identity and well-being as the main categories. According to these categories, hypotheses about the structures of personal values were proposed. Such structures are the perception of an alternative lifestyle as something normal, sympathetic ideas towards farm production and ideas about self-sufficiency. A strong point of the analysis is the abundance of empirical material, but the small number of cases and the subjects strong philosophical nature are restrictive.
The economics of reducing food-borne diseases in developing countries: the case of diarrhea in Rwanda
Authors: Von Witzke Harald , Kirschke Dieter , Lotze-Campen Hermann , Noleppa Steffen
Published: August 2024

The paper provides a methodology which is suitable for the analysis of the social cost of disease and the benefits and cost of health intervention by integrating public health analysis and economics. The approach developed in the paper is applied to food-borne diarrhea in Rwanda. The results suggest that both prevention and treatment are socially very profitable. However, simple treatments such as Oral Rehydration Therapy have a higher social rate of return than prevention.
Der Markt für Getreide und Ölfrüchte
Authors: Schumacher Klaus-Dieter , Striewe Ludwig
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Die Märkte für Vieh und Fleisch
Authors: Hansen Arne , Herzfeld Thomas , Thiele Holger D.
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Zur Entwicklung der Hauswirtschaften im Verlaufe des Transformationsprozesses in der Ukraine
Authors: Nedoborovskyy Andriy , Schulze Eberhard
Published: August 2024

In the course of transition, the role of household plots in agricultural production in Ukraine has grown substantially in importance. The key reason for this is the integration of household plots into large agricultural enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic efficiency of household plots. In addition, the paper aims at testing whether economic theory is able to explain the behaviour of households in this regard. Two important characteristics in the evolution of household plots’ in Ukraine have been identified. One is the integration of household plots into large agricultural enterprises. This improves the efficiency of these plots through access to inputs. The other is that about 22.4 % of household plots farmers, who also worked in the large agricultural enterprises are planning to expand their operation. Although the theories presented in the paper greatly contribute to the explanation of household plots’ behaviour, more research must be done to better explain the reasons for households’ economic acti-vity.
Die neue EU-Zuckermarktordnung - Beschlüsse, Auswirkungen und Bewertung
Authors: Zeddies Jürgen
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Wie viel bringt eine verbesserte Produktionsprogrammplanung auf der Grundlage einer systematischen Auswertung empirischer Zeitreihen? – Die Bedeutung von Prognosemodellen ...
Authors: Mußhoff Oliver , Hirschauer Norbert
Published: August 2024

In this paper we examine whether there is room for improvement in farm program decisions through the integration of formal mathematical optimisation into the planning process. Probing the potential for improvement, we investigate the cases of four Brandenburg cash crop farms over the last six years. We find that their total gross margins could have been increased significantly through a more sophisticated program planning. However, we also find that the superiority of formalised planning approaches depends on the quality of the data. The superior formal planning approach includes, in contrast to farmers’ ad hoc planning, a systematic time series analysis of gross margins and a stochastic optimisation model. For each of the six years, the formal planning approach provides optimised alternative programs based on the information available to the farmers at the respective time of planning. In order to avoid solutions that exceed the farmers’ risk tolerance, the variance of the observed program’s total gross margin which implicitly reflects the risk attitude of the individual farmer is used as an upper bound in the optimisation. Using the yields and prices realised at the end of each planning period, the total gross margins that could have been realised through the formally optimised programs in each year are then compared to those that were actually realised.
Impact of the CAP reform on small-scale grassland regions
Authors: Roeder Norbert , Kantelhardt Jochen , Kapfer Martin
Published: August 2024

This paper presents a regional land-use model that conceives farms as independent agents aiming at maximum individual utility. Farm agents optimize their utility with the help of a linear-programming algorithm that takes into account natural, economic and personal restrictions. Interactions between farms take place on the land market, which is modelled as an equilibrium market. The model is applied in three typical grassland regions in southern Bavaria. The results indicate that the CAP reform of 2003 has various significant consequences for grassland use. In particular, the decreasing profitability of dairy farming will lead to low-intensity forms of grassland use, including mulching. In general, land rents will increase due to the effects of decoupling.
Zur Organisation der Agrar- und Ernährungswissenschaften
Authors: Berg Ernst
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Economics and agricultural market impacts of growing biofuel production
Authors: Von Lampe Martin
Published: August 2024

This paper analyses the economics of biofuel production and the implications that the accelerating growth in biofuel production in many countries could have on agricultural markets. It shows that production costs of ethanol and biodiesel differ significantly across countries and feedstock crops. These costs often exceed those of fossil fuels. In consequence, the economics of biofuel production depends on public support in most countries. Similarly, land requirements for crops required to enable significant shares of biofuel production in transport fuel consumption are shown to be substantial in many countries given current technologies. An expected growth in biofuel production is, therefore, likely to have a significant increasing impact on world prices for sugar, cereals and oilseeds beyond what is caused by higher crude oil prices alone. The paper points out a number of policy issues that require attention and further analysis to facilitate a fuller discussion of biofuel policies.
Ernst Engels Entdeckung vor 150 Jahren
Authors: Grings Michael
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.
Die Logik der europäischen Agrarpolitik: Politische Macht oder ökonomische Gesetzmäßigkeiten?
Authors: Henning Christian H.C.A. , Struve Carsten , Brockmeier Martina
Published: August 2024

This paper derives an applied general political economy model incorporating a model of political decision-making into a computable general economic equilibrium model. Political decision-making among a set of legislators is modeled via a mean voter decision rule derived from a modified non-cooperative legislative bargaining game of a BARON-FEREJOHN type. Legislators’ preferences are endogenously derived from political support maximization, where policies translate into legislators’ support according to a political transformation surface. Each surface reflects specific economic framework conditions of legislators' constituency. The model allows a simultaneous analysis of political and economic factors determining policy outcome. In regard to the Health Check proposal of the Commission the model is applied to simulate future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) under various political and economic scenarios. Main results are: (i) MTR-reform will not be stable in the future. In particular, EU-enlargement and technical progress imply further reforms in 2013 corresponding to further liberalization of CAP and a further shift towards the second pillar, i.e. from market & price to structural policies. (ii) These general trends would be attenuated by increased world market prices, while additional WTO restriction would amplify these trends. (iii) Compared to economic and international policy factors, constitutional reforms, e.g. a higher participation of the European Parliament in CAP decision-making, have only moderate impact on future CAP, while changed financial rules would significantly reverse policy trends, i.e. reallocating budget from the second to the first pillar.
Der Markt für Bioenergie
Authors: Schaper Christian , Theuvsen Ludwig
Published: August 2024

Dieser Artikel ist nur in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
The article is only available in German language.