Italian Review of Agricultural Economics

CIDE and elasticity oscillation on the ethanol and gasoline market: Brazilian taxation policy under discussion

2020-07-20T17:16:51+00:00

The aim of this paper is to identify the path of the gasoline price elasticity, ethanol price elasticity, ethanol-gasoline cross-price elasticity and the gasoline-ethanol cross-price elasticity for the flex-fuel vehicle market, as well as to discuss the taxation policies impact of the Economic Domain Intervention Contribution (CIDE) on the ethanol and gasoline markets. Therefore, it was used the Structural Methodology model, as well as official data from 2003 to 2007. The results show great power of influence of the tax on the gasoline’s price and on the costumer’s choice between ethanol or gasoline. Thus, the CIDE is one of the most important reasons for ethanol consume, contributing to an effective reduction in the green house gases and atmospheric pollutants emissions.

Asymmetric price transmission in the commercialization of rice in Brazil

2020-07-31T09:00:14+00:00

This paper aims to investigate the presence of price transfer asymmetry (APT) in the rice production chain in Rio Grande do Sul incorporating in the analysis the effects of public policy interventions, specifically the agricultural minimum prices. The results indicate the occurrence of positive APT among all relations analyzed (contemporaneous, lagged or cumulative) in the rice production chain. In general, the industry-producer relationship presented the best adjustment and the existence of positive asymmetry indicates that this market link takes advantage of the direct relationship with the producer to pass through price increases more quickly reductions to its consumers. Finally, it was identified that in periods of market prices below the minimum price, the symmetry was not rejected, indicating its permanence in times of greater government intervention.

A survey on the performance of the Italian brewing companies

2020-07-20T17:17:58+00:00

The paper analyzes the performance of a sample of Italian microbreweries. For small and very small companies, performance analyses represent an important tool for the investigation of both the efficiency and the survival chances of the companies in the medium and long term. The methodology used consists of calculating different profitability and productivity indexes followed by a DEA model for the evaluation of the companies’ efficiency. The results show that the companies operate at significantly low productivity levels and in conditions of technical inefficiency, due to both the inability of the managers to manage the inputs and the fact that companies operate at sub-optimal levels of scale. Lastly, profitability turns to be positive for two out of three indexes examined.

Consumers are unaware about European legislation on communication of the health benefits conveyed by claims. An empirical survey

2020-07-20T17:18:36+00:00

This paper investigates how consumers knowledge of the EC list (reg. (EU) 432/2012) can affect their understanding of health claims (HC). Despite the existence of a rigorous regulation on the communication of health benefits attributed to functional foods (reg. (EC) 1924/2006), there are still doubts about the efficacy of legislation. In fact, the information conveyed by HC does not always reach the consumer in a clear and understandable way, making the consumer skeptical. This paper proposes an empirical analysis to verify if this effect could be mitigated in case that the consumer knew the European register of HC. The results show how consumers skepticism is linked to trust and assessment problems that contribute to limit the HC efficacy and provide new elements to improve the health benefits regulation.

Farm advisory services and knowledge growth in Italy: comparison among three regional intervention models

2020-07-20T17:19:18+00:00

The profound changes in European policy for farms advisory services (FAS) require a period of experimentation and results observation before the new CAP 2021-2027. This paper focuses on Measure 2 of Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020. The paper is focused on the description of case studies in three Italian regions: Campania, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. Different Measure 2 – sub-measure 2.1 models are analyzed through a qualitative approach, using a conceptual framework adapted by Birner et al. (2009). The paper contributes to the ongoing debate in the scientific literature on the strengths and weakness of policy intervention focused on tailored advisory services to force a broader Agricultural Innovation System.