Agricultural Economics, 2012 (vol. 58), issue 8

Methodology for the identification of managerial competencies in knowledge-based organizations

Martina KÖNIGOVÁ, Jan HRON

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(8):347-353 | DOI: 10.17221/206/2011-AGRICECON  

In the current entrepreneurial environment characterised by the dynamic development and changes, organizations have to promote the development of their employees in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Therefore, the personality of a manager who is a holder of specific knowledge, abilities, skills, traits, motives, attitudes and values becomes increasingly important as it is the main source for gaining a competitive advantage. Managerial competencies, i.e. the individual characteristic necessary to reach the required level of a manager's performance, together with an efficient management thus become the key factor of success. The article focuses...

Agri-food exports in the enlarged European Union

Alessandro ANTIMIANI, Anna CARBONE, Valeria COSTANTINI, Roberto HENKE

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(8):354-366 | DOI: 10.17221/145/2011-AGRICECON  

This paper explores the agri-food export dynamics in the New Member States and the Old Member States of the European Union during the enlargement process. The analysis relies on two different approaches based on the similarity and the sophistication indices of exported goods using a disaggregation at 95 items. The analysis shows that different and somehow divergent paths are in place. On the one side, the Czech Republic and Poland are involved in a quality catching up process and increase their competitiveness. On the other side, Bulgaria and Romania seem to be still trapped in the low-quality segment of the agri-food market with a decreasing competitiveness...

Producer price disparities in the EU agriculture: divergence or convergence?

Harun UCAK

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(8):367-371 | DOI: 10.17221/84/2011-AGRICECON  

The issue of price disparities in the EU commodity markets has given rise to a fair amount of empirical and theoretical research. Price convergence studies were generally on the aggregate level, and investigated the convergence of inflation among countries. This study aims to investigate the convergence of agricultural price disparities among the EU member states, based on different individual agricultural products. The analysis shows the existence of agricultural price convergence among the EU member states since 1991, even including some countries were not members of the EU. Furthermore, the speed of convergence differs among agricultural...

Biofuels: policies and impacts

Karel Janda, Ladislav Kristoufek, David Zilberman

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(8):372-386 | DOI: 10.17221/124/2011-AGRICECON  

This paper provides a general overview of the technological, social, environmental, economical, and policy considerations related to biofuels. While the biofuel production and consumption exhibited significant increase over the first decade of the new millennium, this and further increases in biofuel production are driven primarily by government policies. Currently available first generation biofuels are not economically viable in the absence of fiscal incentives or high oil prices (with a few exceptional cases, especially in the case of the most developed Brazilian sugarcane production of ethanol). Also the environmental impacts of biofuels as an...

The role of the value added tax on foodstuffs in the consumer basket

Jan ŠIROKÝ, Anna KOVÁŘOVÁ, Kateřina RANDOVÁ

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(8):387-395 | DOI: 10.17221/188/2011-AGRICECON  

When looking for economic policy instruments in the times of economic crisis, even tax instruments are considered, particularly the changes (increases) of the value added tax rates. Most of the EU member states have two VAT rates, while foodstuffs and non-alcoholic beverages are included under a reduced rate. If increasing the reduced VAT rate, the significance of the foodstuff or non-alcoholic beverages in the consumer basket, the regression of the VAT in these commodities and the significance of the impact on households should be considered. This article tries to point out this issue by analyzing the impacts of changes in the VAT rates, or the actual...