Agricultural Economics, 2008 (vol. 54), issue 4

Euro: the engine of integration or the seed of dissolution?

A. Rusek

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2008, 54(4):137-149 | DOI: 10.17221/290-AGRICECON  

The common currency Euro is considered one of the biggest achievements of the European political and economic integration. However, it is necessary to stress that Euro was always first and foremost a political feat. Economists by and large pointed out that the EU - even in its 1992 reincarnation - is not an optimum common currency area (OCA). But politicians and some economists hoped that the existence of Euro itself may accelerate the processes toward the OCA. However, this did not happen and the divergence processes inside the Eurozone accelerated after 1999. Today, the Eurozone stands near the crossroad - where some countries may be increasingly...

Czech agriculture after the accession to the European Union - impacts on the development of its multifunctionality

T. Doucha, I. Foltýn

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2008, 54(4):150-157 | DOI: 10.17221/291-AGRICECON  

The article presents the evaluation of multifunctionality of Czech agriculture and its individual farm categories in the period of 2003-2005. It compares the situation before and after the EU accession. The assessment is based on the set of indicators for the three elementary axes of multifunctionality: economic efficiency, relations to environment and relations to rural development. Applying the presented method of multi-criterion evaluation and during the period of 2003-2005 on average, the highest level of multifunctionality is found in the category of farms of physical persons with 101-300 ha (score 174) and the lowest level in the category of...

Slovak agricultural farms in different regions - comparison of efficiency

Z. Sojková, Z. Kropková, V. Benda

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2008, 54(4):158-165 | DOI: 10.17221/294-AGRICECON  

This paper presents the results of stochastic parametric approach used in estimation of production frontier. The estimation of output oriented technical efficiency was based on the Stochastic Frontier analysis with Cobb-Douglas production function. The model also included a dummy variable which expressed production conditions in which Slovak farms are operating. We divided farms into two groups regarding production conditions: productive regions (PR) and less favorable area (LFA) regions. The data set included 79 Slovak farms operating in different regions in the 2003-2005 time periods. The following input variables are included in the model: capital,...

Eligibility criteria for less-favoured areas payments in the EU countries and the position of the Czech Republic

M. Štolbová

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2008, 54(4):166-175 | DOI: 10.17221/293-AGRICECON  

The delimitation of less-favoured areas (LFA) on the territorial and the farm level in the EU member states varies in many ways. The Commission emphasizes the unification of criteria on the territorial level. But the EU countries use very different criteria for the eligibility area definition and for the eligibility on farm level. This makes the comparison very difficult. The CR belongs to the countries with a lower level of differentiation of payments rates. The eligibility area is restricted to the grassland in the CR and degresivity of payments is not applied. In particular, collective farms as the owners' association play an important social role...

The impact of supply chain governance structures on the inter-firm relationship performance in agribusiness

A. Gyau, A. Spiller

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2008, 54(4):176-185 | DOI: 10.17221/292-AGRICECON  

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the types of supply chain governance structure and the perceived relationship performance of Ghanaian fresh fruit and vegetable exporters concerning their business with European importers. Using the principal component and regression analyses based on data obtained from 101 interviews with exporters in Ghana, we show that relationship performance is a multi dimensional construct with economic and behavioral relationships as the two main dimensions. The study reveals that whereas the economic relationship performance is influenced by the type of governance structure used, the behavioral relationship...