The impact of the 2008 financial crisis on dynamic productivity growth of the Spanish food manufacturing industry. An impulse response analysis

The emergence of a financial crisis is an event that can impact the fortunes of nearly all economic agents. The focus here is on the 2008 financial crisis and how firms’ productivity growth was impacted by this crisis in the years that followed. This article focuses on dynamic productivity growth and its components using a firm‐level data set of Spanish meat processing, dairy processing, and oils and fats firms. The impulse response analysis shows that the impact of the crisis on dynamic productivity growth is negative and persistent in the oils and fats industry, initially positive but then negative in the meat processing industry, and positive in the dairy processing industry. The observed magnitudes of change in indicator are between 2% and 5% for oils and fats industries, and of 1% in both dairy and meat industries. Our analysis further confirms that firms’ size is an important factor in explaining how crisis impacts dynamic productivity growth and its components, while we find only slight evidence regarding the firms’ experience in the market.     

Managerial and program inefficiency for European meat manufacturing firms: A dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach

This paper proposes a dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach within the context of Data Envelopment Analysis to measuring input- and investment-specific managerial and program inefficiency for groups of firms characterized by different technologies. Dynamic managerial inefficiency refers to the distance to the firms’ group-specific dynamic frontier of best practices, and dynamic program inefficiency measures the difference between the group-specific dynamic frontier and the pooled dynamic frontier. The empirical application focuses on panel data of large meat processing firms in Eastern, Western and Southern Europe over the period 2005–2012. The results show that Eastern European firms have the highest dynamic managerial inefficiency for all inputs, but have the smallest values for dynamic program inefficiency. Western European firms perform worst in terms of program inefficiency for all inputs, while Southern European firms are the best with regard to dynamic managerial inefficiency. The results also reveal that regardless the dynamic inefficiency dimension considered, investments is the most inefficient input, followed by labor, and materials.     

Challenging the food vs. fuel dilemma: Genealogical analysis of the biofuel discourse pursued by international organizations

This paper looks critically at how food and agriculture-, energy security-, and climate change-oriented international organizations have consolidated and modified the biofuel discourse in relation to the agricultural system. Using Foucault-based genealogical analysis of discursive formations, the paper traces the last 20 years of institutions’ biofuel debate in relation to rural production. We find that the prevalent motive is an aspiration to combine the agriculture and energy markets into one, which prompts structural changes and challenges in the rural sector. This has implications for the future role and shape of global agriculture and – contrary to the food vs. fuel perspective – calls for re-conceptualizing the biofuel debate as the food vs. food dilemma.     

South African consumers' opinions and beliefs regarding the health benefits of soy and soy products

Studies linking diet and health and consumers' demand for health information, has led to an increasing awareness of the role of nutrition in health and disease. Interest in soy foods and an awareness of its health benefits has also increased. The objective was to assess South African (SA) consumers' opinions and beliefs regarding the health benefits of soy and soy products using different statements. This cross‐sectional study randomly selected 3001 respondents from metropolitan and rural areas in South Africa. Data of 81% of respondents (n = 2437), who had heard of soy, were used. Trained fieldworkers administered questionnaires as face‐to‐face interviews. Fifteen statements probing consumers' opinions regarding the health benefits of soy were used. The data were weighted to be representative of the total South Africa adult population (n = 18 251 000) based on gender, age, living environment and race distribution in 2000. Effect sizes were used to determine the strength of associations (practical significance), since statistical significance could be attributed to the large study population. No practically significant differences between either gender or age groups, or between rural and metropolitan respondents' opinions were found. Most respondents in the total study population (50–75%), as well as within all race groups agreed that soy has many health benefits; soy is good for you; soy lowers cholesterol; soy is good for people with a milk allergy; soy helps keep your heart healthy; soy is good for diabetes and soy is good for growing children. Medium to large practically significant differences were found between racial groups regarding some of the statements. Practically significantly more adult Black consumers believed that soy is only for people with a low‐income, and fewer that soy milk is good for people with a milk allergy than did White, Indian and Coloured consumers. Whites were relatively more positive towards the use of soy for people with a milk allergy opposed to Blacks, while Blacks were relatively more positive than Whites towards the statement that soy helps keep your bones strong. The results indicate that SA consumers held positive opinions and associate consumption of soy with several health benefits. The role of soy is seen more as being preventative than curative. It may represent a challenge to the food industry to design soy‐containing products that appeal to a broader spectrum of consumers.     

The latin model of welfare: Do ‘insertion contracts’ reduce long-term dependence?

This paper aims to present an assessment of the welfare policies implemented in most South European countries. Welfare programs in these countries try to combine a basic level of economic protection and measures favoring life and labor skills (‘insertion benefits’) of low-income households. We focus on a specific program set up with the twofold strategy of cash and ‘insertion benefits’ (Madrid's IMI) and, more precisely, on the so-called ‘insertion projects’, consisting in a gradual mix of job search assistance, training and subsidized jobs. We evaluate the effects of these ‘insertion projects’ on welfare recidivism and the duration of off-welfare spells using propensity score-matching methods. Our results suggest that propensity score estimators appear to reduce selectivity due to non-random participation. Both recidivism rates as well as the duration of off-welfare spells suggest potentially successful interventions.     

Consumers' experiences of cold chain food packaging: A qualitative study among women in South Africa

Food packaging defines a product's uniqueness and strengthens consumers' relationship with a brand, in this way offering functional and experiential benefits. Although cold chain food is predicted to become even more important to consumers, consumers' experiences of the packaging of these products have been neglected in the literature. Thus, this exploratory study investigated these experiences of female participants in Potchefstroom, South Africa, using semi‐structured interviews and a projective technique assisted by ambiguous mock packaging. The findings reveal that despite marketers' intention to use packaging to lure consumers to purchase food products, participants also valued functionality and quality in cold chain food packaging. This study also identified a dislike of carton boxes and preference for plastic bottles for this kind of packaging, as well as further negative and positive characteristics for consideration by manufacturers. Although brand loyalty and price sensitivity were stronger considerations for some participants than the packaging, the latter seemed to play a pre‐eminent role in most participants' purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is recommended that when designing packaging for frozen and refrigerated foods, product developers and manufacturers should take into account consumers' experiences, requirements and needs of the packaging specific to cold chain food. Our research offers a starting point for designing cold chain food packaging that complies as closely as possible with consumers' expectations.