Agricultural Economics, 2012 (vol. 58), issue 11

The distributional effects of agricultural policy reforms in Switzerland

Nadja El Benni, Robert Finger, Stefan Mann, Bernard Lehmann

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(11):497-509 | DOI: 10.17221/215/2011-AGRICECON  

This paper analyses the effects of Swiss agricultural policy reforms and the effects of farm income, off-farm income and direct payments on the distribution of the farm household income. To this end, the farm-level income records from the FADN data for the period 1990-2009 are used to calculate Gini coefficients and Gini elasticities. Bootstrap sampling procedures are applied to test for significant differences of the estimated parameters over time. The Gini coefficients estimated in our analysis show that the household income inequality in Swiss agriculture only slightly increased from 0.21 to 0.24, but the farm income inequality strongly increased...

The reinterpretation of the agri-food system and its spatial dynamics through the industrial district

Fabio SFORZI, Maria Cecilia MANCINI

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(11):510-519 | DOI: 10.17221/146/2011-AGRICECON  

The industrial district theory has brought to the development economics the opportunity to interpret the economic change through places, where it actually is formed, as a result of the join action of the local and extra-local social, economic and institutional forces. This paper sets out to discuss the contribution that the industrial district theory can make to the debate on the spatial dynamics of agri-food systems in the age of globalisation. To this end, the first part of the paper analyses the contribution of the industrial district approach in the relationship between industry and territory; the second part studies the evolution of the concept...

Biological assets reporting: Is the increase in value caused by the biological transformation revenue?

Hana BOHUŠOVÁ, Patrik SVOBODA, Danuše NERUDOVÁ

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(11):520-532 | DOI: 10.17221/187/2011-AGRICECON  

Agricultural activity differs from other activities carried out by business units to achieve the profit. Agricultural activity is in comparison with other activities of business subjects dependent on the natural and environmental conditions, and therefore the agriculture specialization is narrowly connected with geographical position. The aim of the paper is to identify the possible obstacles in the practical application of the International Accounting Standard 41 (IAS 41) and to suggest the possible ways of their elimination. The comparative analysis of the currently applied rules for agricultural activity reporting and the analysis of the current...

Agricultural and rural capital markets in Turkey, Croatia and the FYR of Macedonia

Štefan BOJNEC

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(11):533-541 | DOI: 10.17221/195/2011-AGRICECON  

This paper analyses the agricultural and rural capital factor markets in the three European Union (EU) candidate countries: Turkey, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia. Agricultural and rural capital markets share similarities with the general capital market developments, but agricultural and rural capital markets are facing specific credit constraints related to agricultural assets and rural fixed asset specificities, which constrain their mortgages and collateral use. Credit constraints form a limited access to the investment credits necessary for the restructuring of small-scale individual farms. Government transfers are...

Microeconomic aspects of government subsidies in the agricultural market

Lucie SEVEROVÁ, Jan CHROMÝ, Bohuslav SEKERKA, Alexandr SOUKUP

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(11):542-548 | DOI: 10.17221/212/2011-AGRICECON  

It is known from the Czech practice that a very actual problem of economic policy is created by the subsidies on the prices of agricultural products. A price subsidy of agricultural product causes the price to be kept above its equilibrium level. We will use the microeconomic knowledge about the behaviour of average and marginal costs curves in the short-run and long-run. We assume two agricultural firms in a perfect competition market. The agricultural large-scale company reaches a normal profit, but the small family firm has higher costs, therefore it runs at a loss. Using the subsidy can ensure that the prices of agricultural products are set at...