Agricultural Economics, 2013 (vol. 59), issue 11
Synergistic effect in the management of agricultural productionOriginal Paper
Jan HRON, Tomas MACAK
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):489-495 | DOI: 10.17221/92/2013-AGRICECON 
Generally, when a certain type of agricultural production is optimized, an interaction is said to exist between two factors when the response (the yield of agricultural production) at the different levels of one factor is affected by the level of the other factor present. Thus, the combined effect of the two factors is not simply the sum of their separate effects, but either more than this sum (synergistic interaction) or less than this sum (antagonistic interaction). A 3 factor interaction between the factor f1, f2, and f3 occurs when the nature of the interaction between f1...
Competency-based approach to human resources managementOriginal Paper
Stanislava LIŠKOVÁ, Pavel TOMŠÍK
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):496-504 | DOI: 10.17221/68/2013-AGRICECON
The paper deals with the competency approach to human resources management. The approach is seen as one of the possibilities to effectively manage work performance. The paper focuses on defining the term competency, components of competency, types of competencies, and on identification of competencies. The paper also focuses on the competency models, their types, approaches to them, and the procedures of their creation. Finally, the paper summarizes the possibilities of the use of the competency approach in various spheres of management of human resources, and it describes the connection of the competency approach with the strategic management.
Arbitrage hedging in markets for the US lean hogs and the EU live pigsOriginal Paper
Martin ZIEGELBÄCK, Gregor KASTNER
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):505-511 | DOI: 10.17221/14/2013-AGRICECON
The paper describes an attempt to gain insight into the relationship between cash and futures markets for US lean hogs and EU live pigs, and the opportunity of arbitrage hedging. In doing so, the authors use newer methods of threshold cointegration analysis for time series from 1999 until 2008. Besides the existence of a long-run equilibrium, asymmetric price adjustments can be demonstrated. This is especially the case for the EU live pigs, where price variations of the basis are higher and exhibit lower standard deviation. The results also perfectly show that cash prices follow the futures market more than the other way round. Furthermore, a grid...
Asymmetric price transmission in the Slovak liquid milk marketOriginal Paper
T. Weldesenbet
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):512-524 | DOI: 10.17221/150/2012-AGRICECON
The divergence in liquid milk price trends has raised concern about the efficiency of the milk market price transmission in Slovakia. The paper provides empirical evidence on the price transmission among the producer, wholesale, and retail markets of liquid milk in Slovakia, using the monthly data from 1993 to 2010. The empirical analysis is based on the Granger causality and the Johansen cointegration tests and on the asymmetry tests (Houck approach and error correction model approach). The causality test results show that the changes in producer prices cause changes in the wholesale and retail prices; there is a feedback from the retail to producer...
Assessing the situation of food and beverage enterprises regarding the implementation of the quality management systems (Case of Tirana/Albania)Original Paper
Ilir KAPAJ, Ana MANE
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):525-530 | DOI: 10.17221/112/2012-AGRICECON
The purpose of the study is to examine the current situation in the food processing sector in Tirana/Albania regarding the quality management systems and the availability of information regarding quality and safety of the food and beverage products, in decision-making for improving the quality of the products. The specific goal of the study is to provide information for policy-makers in the field of agro-industry (food industry), on one hand, and on the other hand, also to provide some information, related to the quality assurance systems (QA), for the managerial staff of food industry enterprises to help them in orienting their decisions towards improving...
Impacts of literacy rate and human development indices on agricultural production in South AfricaShort Communication
Selebogo LESHORO, Temitope L.A. LESHORO
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):531-536 | DOI: 10.17221/35/2013-AGRICECON
Agriculture is an important sector in South Africa, and the impact that education and human development would have made in this sector via non-white small scale farming was limited through biased policies of the apartheid era. Due to apartheid laws, South Africa found itself with high levels of unskilled labour force. This study seeks to find the impacts of literacy rate and human development indices on agricultural production using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test approach to co-integration. A long run relationship among the variables, agricultural production (agriculture GDP), literacy rate and human development indices were found....
An organizational economics approach to the existence of sharecroppingShort Communication
Jiancai PI
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2013, 59(11):537-541 | DOI: 10.17221/127/2012-AGRICECON
The paper provides a new explanation for the existence of sharecropping in agriculture from the perspective of organizational economics. Similar to a multinational enterprise's decision of whether to enter a joint venture or to choose a wholly owned subsidiary, we can see sharecropping as a joint venture and a fixed rent contract as a wholly owned subsidiary when we stand in the tenant's position. Our analysis shows that when the landlord has a strong enough comparative advantage in exerting one type of effort, he/she tends to choose the share contract.