Can life cycle assessment be used to evaluate plant breeding objectives to improve supply chain sustainability? A worked example using porridge oats from the UK

The challenge for agricultural production in the 21st century is to produce sufficient high-quality food whilst minimizing impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can help by identifying the parts of a supply chain with the greatest environmental impact, and to determine which technologies – for example plant breeding – may be most appropriately employed to minimize negative impacts. A ‘plough-to-plate’ LCA of a porridge oat production chain was undertaken using data that corresponds to the inputs and outputs of an indicative supply chain. The greatest environmental impact of the porridge oats life cycle occurs in crop production and cooking. There are traits for oats that are available for manipulation by plant breeders, which can influence these areas; these include yield, nitrogen use efficiency and beta-glucan content. Therefore plant breeding may be a useful strategy for improving the sustainability of the crop. However LCA cannot be a definitive tool to guide plant breeding and therefore this approach needs to compliment others. Nevertheless this study highlights that porridge oat supply chain sustainability would benefit from an integrated effort stretching from the geneticist to consumer; a finding that is likely to be relevant to other food supply chains.     

Global Geopolitics and Local Geoeconomics in Northwest Africa: The Industrial Port of Granadilla (Canary Islands,Spain)

In the world scenario of US unilateralism, this paper argues the competition for control over Africa's resources between the major powers (United States, the European Union and China) provides a renewed geostrategic situation for the Canary Islands (Spain). First, the political and economic rivalry over Northwest Africa adds new dimensions to the geostrategic location of the Archipelago, which constitute NATO's southern flank and a logistic platform for neighbouring Africa. Second, it focuses on the particular case of the industrial megaport envisaged for Granadilla (Tenerife), examining its geostrategic projection as an important infrastructure both for the Canarian ruling elites' geoeconomic interests and also for the geopolitical interests of the major world powers.     

Board structures,liberal countries,and developed market economies. Do they matter in environmental reporting? An international outlook

Previous empirical evidence has shown the effect of most corporate governance mechanisms on corporate social responsibility and environmental disclosure. However, there is scant empirical evidence that examines the influence of liberal countries, developed market economies, and board structures on environmental disclosure. Thus, this research aims to explore how liberal and developed countries and board structures affect environmental reporting. We hypothesise a linear and positive association between companies located in countries with liberal and developed market economies and environmental reporting. Moreover, we hypothesise that one‐tier board structures negatively affect environmental disclosure. Focusing on 13,100 companies domiciled in 39 different countries from 2005 to 2015, it is established that those companies located in liberal and developed economies are more likely to disclose environmental information, whereas one‐tier boards have a negative effect.     

Adapting football to the child: an application of the logistic regression model in observational methodology

Logistic regression is included into the analysis techniques which are valid for observational methodology. However, its presence at the heart of this methodology, and more specifically in physical activity and sports studies, is scarce. With a view to highlighting the possibilities this technique offers within the scope of observational methodology applied to physical activity and sports, an application of the logistic regression model is presented. The model is applied in the context of an observational design which aims to determine, from the analysis of use of the playing area, which football discipline (7 a side football, 9 a side football or 11 a side football) is best adapted to the child’s possibilities. A multiple logistic regression model can provide an effective prognosis regarding the probability of a move being successful (reaching the opposing goal area) depending on the sector in which the move commenced and the football discipline which is being played.     

Evaluating price transmission between global agricultural markets and consumer food price indices in the European Union

This paper uses error correction models to evaluate the extent to and speed at which world agricultural commodity price movements affect consumer food prices in the European Union member states. We consider three types of world commodity price indices, each containing different commodities and weighting criteria. Results reveal a long‐run relationship between world agricultural commodity and consumer food prices in over half of the member states. Consumer prices in different member states and categories of member states respond differently to specific world price indices, suggesting that there are disparities in the structure and the efficiency of their food markets. The eurozone founders generally have lower transmission elasticities. This should be taken into account when predicting the impacts of extreme world price volatility and consumer food price rises, prompting governments to pay attention to the most vulnerable households.     

Effect of low-cost airlines on tourism in Spain. A dynamic panel data model

This article estimates the impact of low-cost airlines on Spanish tourism during the first decade of the 21st century looking tourist traffic from the principal EU-15 member states using a dynamic panel data. The expansion in low-cost airline activity has had significant, positive direct and indirect effects on the Spanish economy. The study also looks at some of the key elasticities of demand that have influenced this.     

Marcelo Diamand’s contributions to economic theory through the lens of the classical Keynesian approach: a formal representation of unbalanced productive structures

Abstract:

We examine both conceptually and in formal terms the contributions by the structuralist economist Marcelo Diamand, which all revolve around the notion of unbalanced productive structure, and its implications on income distribution, the general price level, and output dynamics in Latin American countries, with a special focus on Argentina. We argue that Diamand’s work provides a very useful framework to understand why institutionally and historically determined real wage and real exchange rates can, on the one hand, explain the relatively low productivity of the industrial sector and, on the other hand, cause devaluations to be both inflationary and contractionary, as has been the case in many Latin American countries that attempted to initiate an industrialization process by import substitution.     

Using Non-linear Models for a Complexity Approach to Psychological Well-being

Psychological well-being in adolescence is an increasing field of study. The literature identifies a large number of dimensions of psychological well-being. However, even when considering all these dimensions, the explanatory power of most models is rather low. Complexity theories can be a productive alternative, at the theoretical but especially the methodological level, to the limitations more traditional approaches to psychological well-being have. In this paper, we suggest a structural equation modelling approach to complexity that focuses on the non-linearity property. Given the large number of dimensions, the model is estimated in two steps as described by Jöreskog [(2000) Latent Variable Scores and Their Uses. Lincolnwood IL: Scientific Software International] First, a confirmatory factor analysis is fitted and Anderson and Rubin’s factor scores are saved. Then all possible products and squared terms of the factor scores are computed and are used as predictors of the dependent variable using an ordered logit model. The results from a sample of 968 Catalan adolescents show that a non-linear model including interaction effects among the eight dimensions, age and gender, has a higher explanatory power to predict satisfaction with life as a whole, compared to a linear model. Important consequences for the study of psychological well-being in adolescence emerge from the methodological procedure we have followed, which can be used to study any type of complex psychological and psychosocial phenomenon.     

Williamson’s Welfare Trade-Off Around the World

Review of Industrial Organization - Fifty years ago, Williamson (Am Econ Rev 58:23, 1968) argued that an efficiency-enhancing merger that reduces production costs but increases market power could...     

Family Control of Firms and Industries

We test what explains family control of firms and industries and find that the explanation is largely contingent on the identity of families and individual blockholders. Founders and their families are more likely to retain control when doing so gives the firm a competitive advantage, thereby benefiting all shareholders. In contrast, nonfounding families and individual blockholders are more likely to retain control when they can appropriate private benefits of control. Families are more likely to maintain control when the efficient scale is small, the need to monitor employees is high, investment horizons are long, and the firm has dual-class stock.