Milk from forage on organic dairy farms

Milk from forage (MFF) has been used as an indicator of dairy enterprise performance since the 1970s. There is considerable evidence associating MFF with good economic performance. ORC researcher Katharine Leach and intern Gaëlle Feur have been looking at the MFF performance of some organic dairy farms as part of the SOLID project

The Trade Policy Jungle: A Survival Guide for Academic Economists

The rules of the trade policy arena differ from those in academia. How can an economic researcher survive, let alone thrive, in what may appear to be a trade policy jungle? The purpose of this paper is not just to offer guidance in this respect but also to think through the factors that determine the supply and demand for timely, relevant policy-relevant insights into commercial policy matters. Understanding the latter provides much of the rationale for the former. Advice follows analysis, as it should do. Economic researchers have certain advantages that they can make immediate use of in the jungle and maybe some baggage that they would do well to shed.International Relations/Trade,

BOOK REVIEW ON ELEMENTS OF URBANISM; AUTHOR: ALPOPI CRISTINA

In september 2008 has been published at Universitaria Publishing House of Bucharest, Romania, the book "Elements of Urbanism", written by Cristina Alpopi. Cristina Alpopi, Associate Professor at Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, is a dedicated researcher and a prolific author of articles and papers in the field of Urbanism. The book contains 8 chapters very rich in concepts, theories, ideas, representing a contribution to the development of the literature in the field of urbanism.

An analysis of the regional impact of the Kapuni ammonia / urea plant : a research report constituting two 14.499 Research Reports, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agricultural Business and Administration, Massey University

Successive post war governments in New Zealand have emphasised industrial development as the basis of economic growth. During this period national-level planning has become institutionalised. Central to the choice of planning policy for industrial development is the balance of payments problem. This has tended to mask other considerations which can be identified as pertinent to national and regional level decision making by private and public organisations . A major difficulty for the researcher is establishing which questions are relevant in a New Zealand context. This research exercise pursues the perspectives and questions which might be brought to bear on specific national development projects. The research focuses on the Kapuni Amronia/urea plant and analyses the regional impact of that project

The governance of formal university–industry interactions: understanding the rationales for alternative models

This article develops a conceptual framework to explain the economic rationale underpinning the choice of different modes of governance of formal university–industry interactions: personal contractual interactions, where the contract regulating the collaboration involves a firm and an individual academic researcher, and institutional interactions, where the relationship between the firm and the academic is mediated by the university. Although institutional interactions, for numerous reasons, have become more important, both governance modes are currently being implemented. We would argue that they have some important specificities that need to be understood if university–industry knowledge transfer is to be managed effectively and efficiently

Interviewing mothers: reflections on closeness and reflexivity in research encounters

Taking as a starting point the idea that a researcher's subjectivity is data and a resource for interpretation, I write about my own experience of combining motherhood and paid work, undertaking a psychosocial study of first time motherhood. I reflect on the emotional work involved in undertaking fieldwork and engaging with different texts about the maternal, when the research topic is close to the stuff of one's life. I then set this writing and the feelings it evokes alongside a case study from the research project, in order to explore how a researcher can notice herself, in research encounters with others, and with texts, in ways which make the reflexive self visible. The data I use are drawn from a project entitled Becoming Bangladeshi, African Caribbean and White mothers: identities in process, part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Identities and Social Action programme

An Empirical Investigation of Female Entrepreneurship & Innovation Activities in Greece

The importance of entrepreneurship for economic growth has been emphasised by economic literature. The recent debate on the determinants of output growth has concentrated mainly on the role of knowledge, typically produced by a specific sector of the economy, and furthermore in the role of entrepreneurship and the implications on economic growth. Much of the recent work on economic growth can be viewed as refining the basic economic insights of classical economists. The statistical analysis is therefore very important. Nowadays there are well-organized databases, and the researcher can easily decide about the sample, rather than some years ago. Research and Development, technical change and entrepreneurship are directly related with industrial infrastructure, productivity effects and regional development. Entrepreneurship aims to reinforce the competitiveness, and to succeed the modernisation process and the convergence between firms and industries in the member states, adopting statistical techniques, using the appropriate software. This paper attempts to examine the role of entrepreneurship, and those of innovation activities (technical change, research and development and diffusion of technology) and the effects of output growth, using both a theoretical and empirical approach in a Greek case study. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the framework, the obstacles, the determinant factors using the appropriate statistical techniques and furthermore the role of female entrepreneurship in the Greek firms. It also attempts to examine the role of female entrepreneurship on innovation activities and the effects on sustainable development and in the implications on growth, economic integration, regional development and social change.

Farmer-Researcher Networks in West African Organic Value Chains. Economic and Sociological Challenges

Farming in tropical Africa is getting more and more complex. Land shortages often lead to soil fertility decline, as the usual fallow can’t be practiced anymore. Organic farmers have to compete additionally with subsidized synthetic fertilizer programs, cost-rising GMO competition and policy preferences for conventional and non-organic practices. The EuropeAid funded Syprobio project in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin) involves organic farmers, researchers and technicians from farm organizations organized in networks to develop innovative technologies to improve competitiveness of organic value chains as well in enhancing food security for the producers. The main challenges of both economics and sociological issues are described and recommendations made. The role of information technology is presented and first research results are discussed on the use of video for farmer-to-farmer extension. Socio-economic preconditions are proposed in order to institutionalize these new communication tools and to further strengthen farmer-researcher networks

Impact of Fiscal Policy on the Economy of Pakistan

This research paper endeavors the relationship and the positive effect between tax rates, inflation rate and the balance of trade in Pakistan by utilizing the economic survey and current scenario of increasing tax rate because of increasing inflation rates and decreasing of balance of trade to represent the economic position of Pakistan. The data by the researcher was all on yearly basis for the above variables and the tax rate was being recorded by the direct and indirect from the period of 1979 to 2009. The research implement regression model to test the effect of tax rates progression on inflation rate rates and another 2-stage least square test of tax rate on balance of trade so in this result, shows that there was a significant impact in these variables. The study concluded on this way that there was no significant association between tax rates on inflation rate in Pakistan. There was the impact of tax rate on balance of trade.Fiscal Policy; Economy of Pakistan