Agricultural Economics, 2014 (vol. 60), issue 1
Application of the "boundary line analysis method" for the optimisation of the number of tractors used in an agricultural companyOriginal Paper
Miroslav MIMRA, Miroslav KAVKA, Karel TOMŠÍK, Marián STRUHÁR
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2014, 60(1):1-8 | DOI: 10.17221/3/2013-AGRICECON 
The "boundary line analysis method" calculates the minimal total annual operational costs used for the optimisation of number of tractors owned by agricultural companies. This calculation reflects the actual need of tractors used in the selected time periods during a year. The above method is based on data gained during five day periods (so-called pentads) in the plant production Farm Estate Lány which belongs to the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Based on the annual use of tractors in the company, operational costs involve tractors owned and hired. The calculated curve changes in relation to the total annual costs for the owned tractors....
Farmers' stated responses towards the chemicals use under the CAP liberalizationOriginal Paper
Giacomo GIANNOCCARO, Julio BERBEL
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2014, 60(1):9-20 | DOI: 10.17221/57/2013-AGRICECON
The research aims to analyze the farmers' preferences towards the chemical input use in the case of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) being removed after 2013. The analysis is based on a survey of European farmers carried out in 2009. The intended responses of farmers to the CAP liberalization are analyzed by the logit model regressions. Although for the majority of respondents there would be no change in their intentions if the CAP were suppressed, about 20% would intend to decrease the amount of chemicals. The effects of the CAP liberalization appear not to be univocal and strongly case-specific, as it substantially differs across the European...
Determinants of the intra-industry trade in cereal and miscellaneous edible preparations: the evidence for Nigeria and the ECOWAS partnersOriginal Paper
Godwin Odo ONOGWU
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2014, 60(1):21-30 | DOI: 10.17221/18/2013-AGRICECON
The trade liberalization processes of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are implemented through such interventions like free international trade, common external tariff wall, the consolidation or freezing of custom duties and non-tariff barriers to the intra-trade among others. However, the extent to which these efforts have translated to the intra-industry trade in the prepared foodstuff products has not been investigated yet. The objectives of this study are to assess the intra-industry trade theory in cereal and miscellaneous edible preparations; to evaluate the growth rates of simultaneous exports and imports in these prepared...
Euro-Mediterranean relations and their heading. On the way to a differentiated multilateralism?Original Paper
Eva CIHELKOVÁ
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2014, 60(1):31-48 | DOI: 10.17221/153/2013-AGRICECON
The European Union pays a primary attention to the development of neighbouring relations; it means the relations with countries in the immediate vicinity of its external borders. This is done for the sake of prosperity, stability and the spread of democratic values in the world. In this sense, a kind of the privileged region have always created the states of the Southern and Eastern or eventually Northern Mediterranean with which the European Economic Community began to develop cooperation immediately after its formation. Then since the mid-1990s, the EU set out a goal to create a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area and thus to move closer to the interlacing...