Improving Food Safety at the Dairy Farm Level: Farmers' and Experts' Perceptions

This study examines farmers' and experts' perceptions of important action points for improving food safety on the dairy farm. Adaptive conjoint analysis is used to elicit these perceptions. A comparison on the basis of professional background (farmers versus experts) shows no major differences in the perceptions regarding chemical and microbiological hazards. Two-stage cluster analysis of individual perceptions regarding chemical and microbiological hazards results in four and three distinct groups, respectively. Although results indicate a rather good level of farmers' knowledge of most important action points, the findings can be used to modify current education programs aimed at improving farm-level food safety.     

Farm‐specific Adjustment Costs in Dutch Pig Farming

This paper develops a dynamic model of investment under rational expectations, assuming farm‐specific production technologies and adjustment cost structures. The model distinguishes regimes of negative, zero and positive investments and maintains that it is optimal for a farmer not to invest for a range of shadow prices, depending on thresholds for positive and negative investments. The model is applied to a rotating sample of Dutch pig farms over the period 1980–1996. Farm‐specific parameters of the adjustment cost function and production technology are obtained using Generalised Maximum Entropy estimation. Cluster analysis using the farm‐specific adjustment cost parameters indicates that five groups of farms with distinct adjustment cost structures can be identified. A tobit regression analysis is used to explain the impact of different socio‐economic factors on the size of the threshold between positive and negative investments.     

The taxation of passive foreign investment: lessons from German experience

Abstract The paper evaluates the working of German CFC rules that restrict the use of foreign subsidiaries located in low‐tax countries to shelter passive investment income from home taxation. While passive investments make up a significant fraction of German outbound FDI, we find that German CFC rules are quite effective in restricting investments in low‐tax jurisdictions. We find evidence that the German 2001 tax reform, which unilaterally introduced exemption of passive income in medium‐ and high‐tax countries, has led to some shifting of passive assets into countries for which the exemption was previously limited.     

Biofuels and the poor: Global impact pathways of biofuels on agricultural markets

This study seeks to assess the future impacts of biofuel production on regional agricultural and related sectors over the next decade with a specific focus on the vulnerable regions of developing nations. Using a modification of the GTAP modeling platform to account for the global interactions of regional biofuel and food markets, the analysis shows that biofuel production levels depend on the assumption about the future price of energy and the nature of the substitutability between biofuels and petroleum-based transport fuels. Low energy prices reduce the demand for biofuels and thus require greater government support to meet the desired production targets. At the other extreme, when prices are high and there is scope for substituting biofuels for petroleum-based fuels, the volume of biofuels produced will exceed the mandates. Even when biofuels are being mainly produced in developed countries, our results indicate that there are impact pathways that extend far beyond the borders of the US, Brazil and the EU. Prices of feedstock and non-feedstock commodities rise in developing countries. There is also a rise in value added from the agricultural sector—a gain that is enjoyed by the owners of land and labor, including unskilled. Hence, to the extent that agriculture is a key sector in getting growth started and addressing poverty needs, the emergence of biofuels can (in this way at least) be a positive force.     

Spatial dynamic analysis of productivity growth of agri‐food companies

This study analyzes the spatial dynamics in productivity growth and its components for a sample of agri‐food companies in Murcia (Spain) over the period 2005–2014. We find that productivity growth of a company is related to productivity growth of neighboring companies, in both the short and long term. The marginal effects of the different factors on productivity growth are stronger in the short run rather than in the long run. Land characteristics and economic territorial conditions have the largest marginal effect on productivity growth and its components. This study contributes to the existing literature by including spatial interactions in the analysis of productivity growth.