The Perceived Impact of the In-Trust Agreements on CGIAR Germplasm Availability: An Assessment of Bioversity International's Institutional Activities

This study assesses the generation and consequences of the In-Trust Agreements (ITAs) that established the legal status of the CGIAR germplasm as freely available for the benefit of humanity under the auspices of FAO. The analysis looks at the history of the ITAs and focuses on the role of Bioversity International in research and other activities in influencing, facilitating and enabling the ITA negotiations. Results confirm the central role of Bioversity and policy research in the negotiations process. Concepts developed during the ITA negotiations contributed toward subsequent multilateral negotiations that eventually culminated in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources

Neophobia in food consumption: An empirical application of the FTNS scale in southern Italy

Through the Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS) proposed by Cox and Evans (2008) this work investigates the role of consumer attitudes to food technology in determining the probability of purchasing innovative products by using a set of commonly purchased food. Six food categories with different processing levels were analyzed. Consumer choices were empirically modeled through a simultaneous system of three equations. The results confirm the strength of the FTNS scale, reflecting the dichotomy between neophobia and neophilia attitudes even in southern Italy, characterized by a very different socio-cultural context from that analyzed by Cox and Evans. The model highlights the role of both consumer attitudes to technology and socio-demographic characteristics in determining the probability of buying innovative products, providing some initial elements to define ideal customer profiles for the products considered

Quality dimensions and consumer preferences: A choice experiment in the Italian extra-virgin olive oil market

This paper investigates consumer preferences for extra-virgin olive oil in Italy. In order to segment the Italian extra-virgin olive oil market, the information obtained from a nationwide survey was analysed by using a randomised parameter logit regression and implementing a cluster analysis on the estimates of consumers’ willingness to pay for origin of olives, production method and sensory attributes. Our results show that information on origin, both in terms of the adoption of PDO or PGI certification and labelling of the origin, production method and organoleptic characteristics crucially affect consumer preferences for olive oil. Market segmentation shows there are consumers who are particularly sensitive to origin and organic certification as well as labelling clarity

What attributes of extra virgin olive oil are really important for consumers: a meta-analysis of consumers’ stated preferences

The literature on food economics has extensively analyzed consumer preferences for extra-virgin olive oil attributes. In order to summarize and systematize the information gained in recent years, it seems appropriate to make a critique of the existing literature. First, we carry out a narrative systematic review of the literature on the topic. Subsequently, using only the empirical contributions which provide estimates of consumer willingness to pay for quality attributes including a measure of the goodness of the estimation (20 papers with 78 estimates), a meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the empirical results obtained

The fingerprint of the summer 2018 drought in Europe on ground-based atmospheric CO2 measurements

During the summer of 2018, a widespread drought developed over Northern and Central Europe. The increase in temperature and the reduction of soil moisture have influenced carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in various ways, such as a reduction of photosynthesis, changes in ecosystem respiration, or allowing more frequent fires. In this study, we characterize the resulting perturbation of the atmospheric CO2 seasonal cycles. 2018 has a good coverage of European regions affected by drought, allowing the investigation of how ecosystem flux anomalies impacted spatial CO2 gradients between stations. This density of stations is unprecedented compared to previous drought events in 2003 and 2015, particularly thanks to the deployment of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) network of atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring stations in recent years. Seasonal CO2 cycles from 48 European stations were available for 2017 and 2018.The UK sites were funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department of Energy and Climate Change) through contracts TRN1028/06/2015 and TRN1537/06/2018. The stations at the ClimaDat Network in Spain have received funding from the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, under agreement 2010-002624

Treatment effect and double robust estimator at the quantiles

Abstract: The analysis of treatment effect at various quantiles for two or more treatment conditions is discussed. Treatment effects are estimated using (i) inverse propensity score weights; (ii) unconditional outcome distribution within each group. Through (i) and (ii) the standard double robust estimator is extended to evaluate the treatment effects of binary/multiple treatment options not only on average but also in the tails (quantiles), to assess whether the treatment effect is constant or varies across the quantiles

Testing the Adding up Condition in Demand Systems

A test of the adding up condition in demand systems is crucial for determining whether a share format is admissible when the number of sample goods is smaller than the number of commodity choices available to consumers. This test requires the estimation of a demand system in a quantity format. The share specification of any demand system is like a straight jacket: once worn, it forces the error covariance matrix to be singular and the adding up condition to hold whether or not the data generating process warrants it. The empirical verification of the adding up hypothesis uses a five-commodity sample selected from the Canadian Family Expenditure Survey with 4847 observations. Three specifications are considered: AIDS, QUAIDS and EASI. The hypothesis is rejected in all three cases with a high level of confidence

A new-institutional framework to explore the trade-off between agriculture, environment and landscape

The focus on sustainability issues in recent years has revived interest in the complex relations between economic development and environmental impact. New characteristics are being attributed to the rural landscape, while agriculture is taking on ever-increasing roles in public intervention policies in land management. This paper lends a further contribution to the wide-ranging discussion on the complex relations between agriculture and conservation of the rural landscape, revisiting the subject in the light of the new context of the multifunctional landscape and heterodox environmental economics. Analysis of both cultural and economic changes suggests the formulation of a new paradigm of sustainable development whose theoretical basis is laid by a multi-objective optimal allocation model. Farming must be remunerated directly by the market with the right combination of intrinsic product quality and attraction capacity thanks to positive externalities and the supply of public goods. This may lead to a reappraisal of whole areas in terms of efficiency and sustainability