Agricultural Economics, 2015 (vol. 61), issue 10

On the combined estimation of technical efficiency and its application to agricultureOriginal Paper

Lucyna BŁAŻEJCZYK-MAJKA, Radosław KALA

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(10):441-449 | DOI: 10.17221/72/2014-AGRICECON  

Assessment of efficiency of businesses has been considered an object of interest by economists since the 1950's. A number of methods have been developed, including the so-called parametric approaches, using the regression analysis, and the non-parametric approaches, connected with the mathematical programming techniques. However, the diversity of available methods, especially when supplying contradictory estimates, leads to confusion, hindering an objective interpretation of results. In this paper, we propose a procedure leading to the reduction of such discrepancies by the proper modification of a combined method linking the non-parametric approach...

Factors that influence the competitiveness of Czech rural SMEsOriginal Paper

Josef ABRHÁM, Wadim STRIELKOWSKI, Milan VOŠTA, Jan ŠLAJS

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(10):450-460 | DOI: 10.17221/63/2015-AGRICECON  

The paper focuses on determining the key factors that influence the competitiveness of rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. Rural SMEs play an important part in sustainable rural development, post-transformation processes, as well as in the integrated development of formal and informal rural institutions in the Czech economy. The research design is based on a questionnaire survey conducted with a sample of 1144 randomly selected Czech rural SMEs. There was applied a one-way error model expressed either by the fixed effects (FE) model and the random effect (RE) model with the error term consisting of two components: a time-invariant...

Analysis of the agriculture trade openness impact on the rural household's food consumption in ChinaOriginal Paper

Difei ZHAO, Zhenyuan LIU

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(10):461-474 | DOI: 10.17221/188/2014-AGRICECON  

Granted that the traditional measure methods in calculating trade openness always trigger results of singleness and twisted outcomes, the aim of the paper is to recalculate the Chinese produce trade openness after 1978, using new measure methods consisting of the trade reliance and shares. After calculation and contrasting, obvious differences have been found between the new and traditional methods. The results of the traditional measure methods turn out to be severely underestimated, whereas the new ones are more specific to reveal the extent of the Chinese produce trade openness, along with demonstrating the function of the Chinese produce in world...

A study on the relationship between international trade and food security: Evidence from less developed countries (LDCs)Original Paper

Hyunsoo KANG

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(10):475-483 | DOI: 10.17221/246/2014-AGRICECON  

Hunger and poverty are main critical issues in less developed countries (LDCs) and can be attributed to the fact that almost 70% of the LDC populations are employed in the agricultural sector. Although the international trade can reduce food insecurity in LDCs, for example, facilitating the access to larger markets, the volatility in food prices since the late 2000s has negatively affected the food availability. This study examines the effects of trade on the food security and traces a U-shaped relationship between two variables, using 2000-2010 panel data for the LDCs. The results are robust across different methods and show that the food security...

The role of participants' competitiveness in consumers' valuation for food products using experimental auctionsOriginal Paper

Azucena GRACIA, Tiziana DE-MAGISTRIS

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(10):484-491 | DOI: 10.17221/247/2014-AGRICECON  

The aim of the paper is to assess the effect of the participants' competitiveness on their valuation for food products. Specifically, to investigate the effect of the participants' competitiveness on their bids in a non-hypothetical experimental auction. Then, we designed an experimental auction to measure the consumers' preferences for food products with two treatments. Both treatments had all the same designed characteristics except that in the second treatment, the participants who reported the highest levels of competitiveness were not allowed to participate in the auction. Then, we could directly compare bids from the participants with two different...