A study on the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in NUTS3 regions within the framework of digital agenda for Europe

This paper investigates the high-speed broadband situation in the EU and its prospects. It uses a deployment model to estimate the investment required to meet the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) broadband targets set by the European Commission in its Europe 2020 strategy at different stages: as of 2016, after expected operators’ deployment, after public subsidies and leveraged investment, and as expected in 2020. The model uses data at the NUTS3 level, which is the most granular level that has data available on the status of broadband deployment, to arrive at a coherent and comparable framework. From the different perspectives on the investment to meet DAE targets, the paper concludes on the need for an appropriate combination of incumbent and alternative operators investments, public subsidies and leveraged investments, and new investments, both public and private and non-existing as of 2016, examining their feasibility and the impact of different regulatory, technical, and policy strategies.     

Transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under domestic economic policy reforms: An analysis during 1960–2011

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under the domestic economic policy reforms. An econometric approach is adopted by analyzing the evolution of Romanian agriculture between 1960 and 2011 from the perspective of its implications on residential land economy. This methodological choice relies on its high degree of applicability and its ability to reveal the massive transformation of the Romanian agricultural paradigm during the period under focus. Two regression models have been developed in the attempt to analyze the evolution of total value added and labor productivity in agriculture. The results obtained during the research confirm that Romanian agriculture exhibits determinant and significant elements able to trigger a massive change of paradigm.     

Non-farm entrepreneurship in rural sub-Saharan Africa: New empirical evidence

We report on the prevalence and patterns of non-farm enterprises in six sub-Saharan African countries, and study their performance in terms of labor productivity, survival and exit, using the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). Rural households operate enterprises due to both push and pull factors and tend to do so predominantly in easy-to-enter activities, such as sales and trade, rather than in activities that require higher starting costs, such as transport services, or educational investment, such as professional services. Labor productivity differs widely: rural and female-headed enterprises, those located further away from population centers, and businesses that operate intermittently have lower levels of labor productivity compared to urban and male-owned enterprises, or enterprises that operate throughout the year. Finally, rural enterprises exit the market primarily due to a lack of profitability or finance, and due to idiosyncratic shocks.     

Blocking,attracting, imposing,and aligning: The utility of ASEAN forest and environmental regime policies for strong member states

International institutions, including ‘global regimes’ and ‘regional regimes’, address an increasing number of environmental issues. While in the past much attention was given to global regimes, a plethora of regional institutions and organizations (regional regimes) and their environmental policies have recently gained more momentum in political practice and attention in scholarship. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such regime, and is actively developing its own policies relating to (e.g.) forests and the environment. These policies necessarily have to be useful for the regime’s member states; however, we further argue, that within the member states the regime’s policies especially have to be useful for specific member states’ bureaucracies, because it is they who actually develop the policies on behalf of the member states. Further, this paper aims to analyse the utility of ASEAN’s forest and environmental policy for specific member states and their responsible bureaucracies. Our analytical framework builds on regional regime theory, bureaucratic politics, and concepts of actor’s utility and interests. It differentiates the utility of the regional regime policies into several functions: (i) blocking unpleasant international initiatives, (ii) attracting international political or financial support, (iii) imposing rules on other member states, and (iv) aligning the interests of member states against external political opponents. Our results indicate that ASEAN’s environmental and forest policies serve all four functions. For instance, through ASEAN structures, Indonesia is blocking strict CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulation of ramin wood to maintain existing ramin protections and business, and the ASEAN Biodiversity Centre is found to be instrumental in blocking ambitious claims towards biodiversity from international actors. In addition, Malaysia and Singapore have imposed an ASEAN wildfire haze pollution agreement onto other member states in order to protect their directly affected interests in air quality and air traffic. ASEAN is also attracting to its members various international environmental funds in areas including climate change, community-based forestry, and sustainable peatland management. Last, member states under ASEAN actively align their positions in international climate negotiations as well as global forest deliberations to enhance their influence. We conclude that policies developed within regional regimes such as ASEAN are aligned with the interests of stronger member states, and their bureaucracies in particular. It remains unclear, however, how powerful these actors need to be in order to make this customization of regime policies valid for them. The results suggest that not only a potential hegemon, but also second or third powers may have this option. At the same time, member states’ activities do not seem to be conducted by states as unitary actors; instead, issue-specific actions are based on the interests of issue-relevant bureaucracies, which are in charge of representing a given member state in a given field of a regime’s policy.     

湖南省农村信贷现状及发展对策

根据对湖南省农村信贷现状的调查,进而对湖南农村信贷在发展中存在的问题进行了分析,并提出了完善湖南省农村信贷的发展对策.     

A multicriteria model for the assessment of rural development plans in Greece

In the last decades rural communities face the problems of ageing of population, high share of elder farmers and imbalanced distribution of farmers across age classes. The Rural Development Plans (RDPs) of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in European Union (EU) are the policy instruments that affect agriculture and the people living in rural areas. The RDP measure “Setting up Young Farmers” aims to fight the demographic problems of these areas. This study is an attempt to highlight the role and the impacts of RDPs and especially of the “Setting up Young Farmers” measure in the prefecture of Thessaloniki in Greece. To this end, a multicriteria mathematical programming model was implemented. This methodology was chosen using the Knowledge Brokerage Approach in the context of the LIAISE project, which proposes a set of support modules that are linked to the impact assessment process with a final goal to support future policies and design. The results showed that the “Setting up young farmers” measure achieved its goals to transfer land to young, trained farmers, to offset the set-up costs faced by young people when establishing themselves in farming.     

环境与就业维度下出口商品结构优化——以江苏为例

利用计量方法从环境和就业这两个指标来考察江苏出口商品结构优化,其中环境指标主要是通过碳排放指标来体现的。通过研究发现江苏九大类出口商品在环境和就业指标上都无此消彼长现象,其中对两指标都具显著影响力的为机械及运输设备,化学品及有关产品和按原料分类的制成品这两类出口商品仅对环境有着显著影响力,对就业不具显著影响力,至于其他种类的出口商品则对环境和就业这两个指标都不具显著影响力,最后得出江苏出口商品结构优化的最明确方向,即大力促进机械及运输设备的出口,抑制化学品及有关产品和按原料分类的制成品这两类出口商品的出口。     

Alternative farming and collective goals: Towards a powerful relationships for future food policies

Based on the significant amount of literature on the concept of spatial, ecological, and social embeddedness in the Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) research, this study describes the main dynamics related to the involvement of non-conventional farmers in their collective ideas and actions.With a comparison between two European regions: Sardinia and the Community of Madrid, the paper identifies different styles of behaviour among organic producers, whether or not supervised by a control body, and highlights the differences and similarities regarding their ideas about how alternative agriculture has an impact on the environment as well as society. Eco-economies and ecopreneurship are also considered. The aim is to see if, and to what extent, these ideas have a collective character, going beyond the limits of the single farm to reach a regional scale and, thus, if there is a basis for the development of future food-related planning policies. Through the information provided by semi-structured interviews, farmers have been divided into categories according to their degree of embeddedness, described through the main themes that emerged during the interviews. Every farmer has been included in only one category according to his or her main preference, which does not imply the ab-sence of a positive attitude towards other categories.The study aims to contribute to the understanding of how AFN values and methods can boost the improvement of biodiversity and landscape conservation through collective actions which have the power to boost and develop rural initiative at a regional scale.     

Value for money in energy efficiency retrofits in Ireland: grant provider and grant recipients

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Better Energy Homes scheme to provide a financial incentive for home owners to engage in energy efficiency retrofits. This study analyses data from the scheme and Building Energy Rating data for participants to the scheme to examine the value for money achieved by households. In addition, this research identifies which retrofit combinations provide greatest value for money, in terms of energy efficiency gains, for the grant provider. We utilize an error-in-variables approach to model the variation in benefits accruing to households of varying characteristics. We find that household and grant provider surplus can be maximized in the short term by retrofitting less energy efficient and larger homes, timber or steel frame homes and houses rather and apartments. The types of retrofits leading to the greatest surplus for both household and grant provider include cavity wall insulation paired with either a boiler with heating controls or heating controls only retrofit.     

An exploratory examination of additional ground access trips generated by airport ‘meeter-greeters’

A significant share of airport passengers are accompanied to and/or from the airport by friends and relatives to wave them off or greet them when they land. At some airports the number of these ‘meeter-greeters’ can be substantial, which can have important ground access planning, economic and environmental implications for the airport operator. Yet this group have received comparatively little attention in either the academic or industry literature. Consequently, to some extent ‘meeter-greeters’ have remained something of a ‘hidden’ element of ground access user. In an attempt to address this, the paper uses secondary data analysis of the UK CAA Passenger Survey Report to explore ‘meeter-greeters’ at five UK airports; Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Luton. Focus is given to assessing the scale of ‘meeter-greeter’ journeys and the role of a passenger's trip purpose (business/leisure) and resident status (resident/non-resident) in this process. A key finding from the analysis relates to the disproportionate impact of multi-person trips, where a number of different ‘meeter-greeters’ accompany a passenger to the airport. The implications of these findings are discussed and a number of recommendations for decision makers proposed. Namely, it is suggested that airport monitoring and assessment procedures should incorporate a measure of the additional trip generation by ‘meeter-greeters’ in order to present a more complete picture of the number of people accessing/egressing an airport.