A Comparison of Agricultural Productivity in the European Union Regions

This paper is concerned with the estimation of productivity and technical progress based on DEA applied to complete panel data (intertemporal-DEA). Instead of assuming unchanged technology, this paper presents a formulation of technical change that allows the decomposition of productivity scores obtained using intertemporal-DEA. The assumption here is that the technology level in period t for each country is the maximum productivity index obtained until this period. The model assumes that improvements over earlier productivity levels are due to technical progress and that productivity scores below the earlier maximum productivity level are due to inefficiency. The methodology is applied to the analysis of agricultural productivity in the European Union regions in the 1985-97 period. The major source of data is Cronos in Eurostat. This database is used to obtain the disaggregated outputs, intermediate inputs, and depreciation, in current and constant 1990 prices, and labor in annual work units. Capital is measured by depreciation. Land is agricultural area in hectares. Outputs are aggregated in two categories: crops and animal products. Intermediate inputs are grouped into two major categories: feedstuffs and other materials. Aggregation uses national price indices and regional production structures, using the translog price formula. All output, intermediate input and depreciation data, originally reported in local currencies was converted into ECUs, using the 1990 exchange rates. The discriminatory power of the analysis is higher than those with only contemporary analysis of technical efficiency, giving less than 10% of observations in the reference set. Further discrimination is explored using super-efficiency analysis. Radial efficiency measures give only a particular form of inefficiency that can be explained by a proportional contraction in input usage. The paper studies particular output and input efficiencies. As examples, animal products inefficiency is usual only in southern regions. Inefficiency in intermediate consumption usage is pervasive, suggesting the possibility of reducing agricultural production costs. Labor and capital inefficiencies arise in different regions. Land slacks are common in the southern and the westernmost regions.

A Comparison of Agricultural Productivity in the European Union Regions

This paper is concerned with the estimation of productivity and technical progress based on DEA applied to complete panel data (intertemporal-DEA). Instead of assuming unchanged technology, this paper presents a formulation of technical change that allows the decomposition of productivity scores obtained using intertemporal-DEA. The assumption here is that the technology level in period t for each country is the maximum productivity index obtained until this period. The model assumes that improvements over earlier productivity levels are due to technical progress and that productivity scores below the earlier maximum productivity level are due to inefficiency. The methodology is applied to the analysis of agricultural productivity in the European Union regions in the 1985-97 period. The major source of data is Cronos in Eurostat. This database is used to obtain the disaggregated outputs, intermediate inputs, and depreciation, in current and constant 1990 prices, and labor in annual work units. Capital is measured by depreciation. Land is agricultural area in hectares. Outputs are aggregated in two categories: crops and animal products. Intermediate inputs are grouped into two major categories: feedstuffs and other materials. Aggregation uses national price indices and regional production structures, using the translog price formula. All output, intermediate input and depreciation data, originally reported in local currencies was converted into ECUs, using the 1990 exchange rates. The discriminatory power of the analysis is higher than those with only contemporary analysis of technical efficiency, giving less than 10% of observations in the reference set. Further discrimination is explored using super-efficiency analysis. Radial efficiency measures give only a particular form of inefficiency that can be explained by a proportional contraction in input usage. The paper studies particular output and input efficiencies. As examples, animal products inefficiency is usual only in southern regions. Inefficiency in intermediate consumption usage is pervasive, suggesting the possibility of reducing agricultural production costs. Labor and capital inefficiencies arise in different regions. Land slacks are common in the southern and the westernmost regions

Structural Change in Spanish Seafood Consumption

This study analyses seafood consumption at home in Spain using three different cross sections (1980, 1990, and 1998). Price indices for seafood and other items are calculated for each household. The empirical analyses consists of the estimation of double hurdle models of seafood consumption for each survey, separately. Socio-economic variables play an important role and with a similar pattern in the three periods. The more important results concern economic fundamentals. Seafood demand is inelastic and substitute of meat and eggs and dairy products in 1980, and elastic and complement other animal food items in 1990 and 1998. Expenditure elasticity does not decrease between 1980 and 1998. The large variations in aggregate seafood consumption in Spain during the 90s have been explained previously as changes in consumption tastes or in demographics during this period. The main conclusion of this study is a very important change in tastes or in buying habits since the 80s, the seemingly erratic trend in aggregate seafood consumption in the 90s being explained by the demand elasticity

Labor Use and its Adjustment in the Spanish Fishing Industry

This study investigates the adjustment process of labor in the fishing industry of the Spanish regions (Autonomous Communities). The analysis is based on a dynamic model applied to a panel of the 10 coastal regions in Spain for the period covering 1965 to 2001. A translog labor demand equation is estimated with flexible adjustment parameter which is both region and time variable. The results indicate that the long run labor demand exhibit increasing price elasticity, increasing output elasticity and decreasing capital elasticity, although still close to unitary in the final years. The fishing industry has shown considerable dynamics in adjusting its workforce, with different patterns for regions and years. In general, the speed of adjustment is modest except for some particular years in mid-90s. The speed of adjustment is low in Galicia, Andalusia, and in the Basque Country but very high in the Canary Islands. The average equilibrium labor to actual labor (optimality ratio) ratio is on average below unity, but there are important regional differences in evolution patterns

Price and Quantity Indices for Aquaculture Production in Europe

This paper considers the modelling of aggregate price and quantity of aquaculture production in the European countries since mid-80s. In general, the evolution of aquaculture production only considers the evolution of total value and total weight. The heterogeneity of aquaculture production is neglected. As a consequence, the unit value ('price') of cultured fish seems to be increasing due to the increasing trend towards more valued fish species. The right way to aggregate heterogeneous goods in economics is by using index numbers. In general, it is observed that the quantity indices increase much more than the weight of cultured fish. The trend for price indices is very different between countries, but in the EU-15 as an aggregate is decreasing, contrary to the trend with unit values

Limitaciones en la elección del nombre

El trabajo habla acerca de las limitaciones que existen para elegir el nombre de nuestros hijos, dónde se recogen dichas limitaciones, y resoluciones acerca de cada una de ellas.<br /

Non-parametric efficiency analysis in the Spanish agri-food co-operatives

Se analiza la eficiencia, desde una perspectiva agregada, en el uso de los factores de producción de 501 cooperativas agroalimentarias españolas en los años 2014-2017. Las cooperativas del estudio abarcan 22 actividades principales y se agrupan en 4 tamaños. Se trata de evaluar la aplicación adecuada de los recursos en la obtención de bienes o servicios para lo cual se obtienen, para cada cooperativa, tres indicadores que relacionan los gastos en recursos con los ingresos de explotación. Estos indicadores reflejan el uso de los factores de producción, y su inversa corresponde a una medida de eficiencia. Se realiza un análisis de tipo comparativo y multifactorial que se basa en la técnica de envolvimiento de datos (DEA) que proporciona valores de eficiencia relativos respecto a la mejor o las mejores prácticas. Se comparan los resultados de eficiencia obtenidos considerando rendimientos constantes a escala (RCE) y rendimientos variables a escala (RVE). Constatando el peso, todavía importante, que tienen las cooperativas pequeñas en el sector agroalimentario español, se obtienen valores de eficiencia medios, por tamaño de las cooperativas, y también por actividad productiva principal y por Comunidad Autónoma. Finalmente, y por la importancia del sector cooperativo agroalimentario en Cataluña, se comparan los resultados obtenidos por las cooperativas agroalimentarias catalanas con los obtenidos por las cooperativas agroalimentarias del resto de España. En los valores de eficiencia obtenidos con DEA no se aprecian sesgos en las cooperativas eficientes, que son tanto grandes, como medianas y pequeñas Se ha producido, en general, un incremento en la eficiencia media de los grupos de actividad, entre los años 2014 y 2017, tanto con RCE como con RVE. Los valores de eficiencia para las cooperativas catalanas y las cooperativas del resto de España son similares, aunque se observa una menor eficiencia para las primeras en comercio de frutas y hortalizas y en producción de pienso.In aggregate perspective, this paper analyses the productive efficiency of 501 Spanish agri-food co-operatives over 2014-2017 period, covering 22 main activities and 4 different co-operative sizes. The focus is on the efficient use of resources to obtain goods and services for which three ratios are obtained, for each co-operative, between factor and product. This is a measure of factor use and the inverse is an efficiency measure. Furthermore, a non-parametric efficiency is obtained using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Efficiencies estimated using DEA are relative, that is, relative to the best performing. A comparison of results is made assuming that the operations follow both constantreturns to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS). The results are given aggregate by cooperative main activity, by cooperative size and by region. Finally, and due to the importance of the sector in Catalonia, a comparison between Catalan agri-food co-operatives efficiencies and the rest of Spanish agri-food co-operatives efficiencies is presented. In the efficiency values calculated by the DEA, no biases are observed in efficient cooperatives, which are both large, medium and small size. In general, it has been observed an increase in the average efficiency of the activity groups, between 2014 and 2017, both with RCE and with RVE. The efficiency scores for Catalonian co-operatives and for the rest of the Spanish co-operatives are very similar, although efficiencies of fruits and vegetables and animal food co-operatives are smaller in Catalonian than in Spanish ones

High SOX9 Maintains Glioma Stem Cell Activity through a Regulatory Loop Involving STAT3 and PML

Glioma stem cells (GSCs) are critical targets for glioma therapy. SOX9 is a transcription factor with critical roles during neurodevelopment, particularly within neural stem cells. Previous studies showed that high levels of SOX9 are associated with poor glioma patient survival. SOX9 knockdown impairs GSCs proliferation, confirming its potential as a target for glioma therapy. In this study, we characterized the function of SOX9 directly in patient-derived glioma stem cells. Notably, transcriptome analysis of GSCs with SOX9 knockdown revealed STAT3 and PML as downstream targets. Functional studies demonstrated that SOX9, STAT3, and PML form a regulatory loop that is key for GSC activity and self-renewal. Analysis of glioma clinical biopsies confirmed a positive correlation between SOX9/STAT3/PML and poor patient survival among the cases with the highest SOX9 expression levels. Importantly, direct STAT3 or PML inhibitors reduced the expression of SOX9, STAT3, and PML proteins, which significantly reduced GSCs tumorigenicity. In summary, our study reveals a novel role for SOX9 upstream of STAT3, as a GSC pathway regulator, and presents pharmacological inhibitors of the signaling cascade.P.A. and A.S.-A. were recipients of predoctoral fellowships from the AECC foundation and Carlos III Institute (ISCIII), respectively. M.a.-S. holds a Sara Borrell postdoctoral contract from the ISCIII (CD19/00154). E.C.-G. was a recipient of a Stop Fuga de Cerebros postdoctoral fellowship and holds a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII (CP19/00085). We thank the Histology Platform of the Biodonostia Health Research Institute, The Neuro-Oncology Committee of Donostia University Hospital, and Basque Biobank for their help. This research was supported by grants from ISCIII and FEDER Funds (CP16/00039, DTS16/00184, PI16/01580, DTS18/00181, PI18/01612, CP19/00085), and the Industry and Health Departments of the Basque Country