Resilience and performance of wine cooperatives in Castilla La-Mancha (Spain) during a period of financial crisis

The economic crisis has had an asymmetric effect on Spanish and regional/local economies. This study aims to analyze the strategies developed by cooperative wineries in Castilla-La Mancha (CLM) and their impact on performance measurements. The paper opted for an exploratory study based on a compilation of financial statements consisting of the traditional economic-financial profitability ratios (ROA, ROI, ROS) plus a specific analysis, Return of Owner Cooperative (ROC). We have also used two financial measurements: Liquidity and Leverage. Trade dynamism is the hallmark of wine cooperatives in CLM in terms of strategic action in the face of a crisis. Their resilience is patent in the conquest of foreign markets via low unit costs, which have been transferred to sales prices. The paper has implications for the understanding of the resilience of the agricultural cooperatives during the crisis period in question. The consistency of the results provides a context to promote the cooperative model as an essential factor in the social economy. This paper fulfils an identified need to show the cooperative model as a resilient one in the agricultural field and in the context of rural development. Highlights: Cooperative wineries contribute to economic and social development in Castilla La Mancha (Spain). Social economy companies withstood the crisis better due to their objective function (maximizing cooperative owners’ income) and thanks to their flexibility in terms of grape payment policies. The Return of Owner Cooperative (ROC) measures the transfer of income to farmers and is higher than the payment they would receive from other agents. The cooperative wineries have reacted to the crisis with good financial indicators: liquidity and leverage. The cooperative wineries have adopted a strategy based on exports that has allowed them to overcome the economic crisis.The economic crisis has had an asymmetric effect on Spanish and regional/local economies. This study aims to analyze the strategies developed by cooperative wineries in Castilla-La Mancha (CLM) and their impact on performance measurements. The paper opted for an exploratory study based on a compilation of financial statements consisting of the traditional economic-financial profitability ratios (ROA, ROI, ROS) plus a specific analysis, Return of Owner Cooperative (ROC). We have also used two financial measurements: Liquidity and Leverage. Trade dynamism is the hallmark of wine cooperatives in CLM in terms of strategic action in the face of a crisis. Their resilience is patent in the conquest of foreign markets via low unit costs, which have been transferred to sales prices. The paper has implications for the understanding of the resilience of the agricultural cooperatives during the crisis period in question. The consistency of the results provides a context to promote the cooperative model as an essential factor in the social economy. This paper fulfils an identified need to show the cooperative model as a resilient one in the agricultural field and in the context of rural development. Highlights: Cooperative wineries contribute to economic and social development in Castilla La Mancha (Spain). Social economy companies withstood the crisis better due to their objective function (maximizing cooperative owners’ income) and thanks to their flexibility in terms of grape payment policies. The Return of Owner Cooperative (ROC) measures the transfer of income to farmers and is higher than the payment they would receive from other agents. The cooperative wineries have reacted to the crisis with good financial indicators: liquidity and leverage. The cooperative wineries have adopted a strategy based on exports that has allowed them to overcome the economic crisis

Analysis of international competitive positioning of quality wine from Spain

The global vitiviniculture sector is immersed in a dynamic of systemic and thorough changes. Spain holds a privileged position in the global scene, ranking first place in surface area, third in production and second in export volume. In recent years interior consumption has experienced a clear and defined recession, the same as in the case of France and Italy. Therefore, exportation has become the main commercial exit for table and quality wine. In Spain, designated quality wine represents 50% of the total production and has undergone differentiated commercial dynamics compared to table wine in international markets. The object of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing the competitiveness in international markets for quality wine, represented by Designations of Origin. After defining a competitivity index, adapted from the Balassa index, and with environmental and internal variables, three panel data models of the most representative Designations were specified for the 2000/2001 to 2009/2010 seasons. The results showed that environmental variables were more determinant toward understanding the weak competitive international positioning of the more outdistanced Designations. European public regulation by the Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP) and the economic crisis have turned out to be significant and explanatory in this regard. Economies of scale, quality, and unit cost were the most determinant of the interior factors for the most competitive quality wine production areas

Análisis de los factores explicativos de la rentabilidad de las empresas vinícolas de Castilla-la mancha

The wine sector in recent decades is experiencing a vertiginous process of changes and new dynamics that are affecting the performance and strategies of firms in the sector: growing internationalization, the fall in the domestic markets of traditional producing countries, the entrance of exogenous capital, etc. The expertise that a given organization demonstrates to adapt to the new situation will be reflected in profitability, the basic indicator for judging efficiency in business management. Starting from a representative sample of firms from Castilla-La Mancha, the greatest wineproducing region in the world, this paper poses a new econometric model consisting of the performance variables defined by the principal component technique. It is inferred from the results that business profitability comes from three variables. First is company structure with greater profitability for capitalist firms than for cooperatives. Second is size where performance is better the larger the size, taking advantage of scale economies. Third is financial structure with greater cost-effectiveness when the firm\\\\s make- up prioritizes its own resources and liquidity. On the contrary, the lack of permanent financing to address fixed assets and a trade dynamic orientated toward the sale of low-priced bulk wine significantly reduce profitability ratios

Análisis de la convergencia en productividad agraria en las regiones europeas

[EN] In this paper, we intend to analyze the regional convergence of the agricultural sector in Europe. More specifically, we want to show the relevance of the agricultural sector in explaining territorial inequalities within the European Union. For that purpose, we will analyze the evolution of inequality and convergence in European agriculture by using data on Gross Value Added per employee in the period spanning from 1985 to 1997. Empirical results provide evidence of the existence of absolute convergence among regional agricultural sectors. However, we have found empirical evidence of the existence of several stationary states due to the specific peculiarities of each economy. This result can be interpreted in terms of the existence of convergence clubs and center-periphery models. Moreover, we show that the CAP is a relevant variable in explaining convergence through the protection of Mediterranean and Continental products. We have found that physical capital and infrastructure, as well as accumulation of capital, are the primary sources of convergence. This result is compatible with a neoclassical model in which convergence is due to decreasing returns of physical capital, whilst also showing the importance of the territorial dimension of public investment.[ES] En este artículo se estudia la convergencia regional desde un punto de vista sectorial, centrada en el sector agrario. En el desarrollo del mismo se hace eco de la relevancia del sector agrario para una explicación histórica de las desigualdades territoriales en la Unión Europea y se analiza la evolución de la desigualdad y la convergencia de las agriculturas en las regiones europeas durante el periodo 1985-1997 a través del valor añadido agrario por ocupado. La existencia de un proceso de convergencia a niveles absolutos entre las economías regionales agrarias es un hecho constatado en el análisis. Sin embargo, las peculiaridades específicas de cada territorio hacen que no podamos hablar de una posición de equilibrio común, sino que las limitaciones estructurales llevan a la existencia de distintos estados estacionarios y, por tanto, de clubes de convergencia y a la presencia de fenómenos centro-periferia. En las variables que actúan sobre el proceso, destaca la incidencia de la PAC, como actuación pública sectorial, que se deriva del distinto apoyo de esta política a productos mediterráneos y continentales. En el análisis, la variable capital físico, infraestructuras en general y la acumulación de capital, se perfilan como la fuente primaria de convergencia, lo que permite inferir la presencia de convergencia «neoclásica» por la existencia de rendimientos decrecientes y el «empuje» de la inversión pública, en nítido efecto territorial de la actuación pública, a diferencia de la incidencia sectorial de la PAC.Castillo Valero, JS.; Cuerva Narro, MC. (2005). An analysis of agricultural productivity convergence among European regions. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 5(10):89-105. doi:10.7201/earn.2005.10.05SWORD8910551

Constraints on Higgs boson production with large transverse momentum using H →b b ¯ decays in the ATLAS detector

This paper reports constraints on Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 1 TeV. The analyzed data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV were recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider from 2015 to 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb-1. Higgs bosons decaying into bb¯ are reconstructed as single large-radius jets recoiling against a hadronic system and are identified by the experimental signature of two b-hadron decays. The experimental techniques are validated in the same kinematic regime using the Z→bb¯ process. The 95% confidence-level upper limit on the cross section for Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 450 GeV is 115 fb, and above 1 TeV it is 9.6 fb. The Standard Model cross section predictions for a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV in the same kinematic regions are 18.4 fb and 0.13 fb, respectively

Measurement of the polarisation of single top quarks and antiquarks produced in the t-channel at √s = 13 TeV and bounds on the tWb dipole operator from the ATLAS experiment

A simultaneous measurement of the three components of the top-quark and top-antiquark polarisation vectors in t-channel single-top-quark production is presented. This analysis is based on data from proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Selected events contain exactly one isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum and exactly two jets, one being b-tagged. Stringent selection requirements are applied to discriminate t-channel single-top-quark events from the background contributions. The top-quark and top-antiquark polarisation vectors are measured from the distributions of the direction cosines of the charged-lepton momentum in the top-quark rest frame. The three components of the polarisation vector for the selected top-quark event sample are Px′ = 0.01 ± 0.18, Py′ = −0.029 ± 0.027, Pz′ = 0.91 ± 0.10 and for the top-antiquark event sample they are Px′ = −0.02 ± 0.20, Py′ = −0.007 ± 0.051, Pz′ = 0.79 ± 0.16. Normalised differential cross-sections corrected to a fiducial region at the stable-particle level are presented as a function of the charged-lepton angles for top-quark and top-antiquark events inclusively and separately. These measurements are in agreement with Standard Model predictions. The angular differential cross-sections are used to derive bounds on the complex Wilson coefficient of the dimension-six O operator in the framework of an effective field theory. The obtained bounds are C ∈ [−0.9, 1.4] and C ∈ [−0.8, 0.2], both at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

A search for an unexpected asymmetry in the production of e(+)mu(-) and e(-)mu(+) pairs in proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at root s=13 TeV

This search, a type not previously performed at ATLAS, uses a comparison of the production cross sections for e(+)mu(-) and e(-)mu(+) pairs to constrain physics processes beyond the Standard Model. It uses 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded at root s = 13 TeV at the LHC. Targeting sources of new physics which prefer final states containing e(+)mu(-) and e(-)mu(+), the search contains two broad signal regions which are used to provide model-independent constraints on the ratio of cross sections at the 2% level. The search also has two special selections targeting supersymmetric models and leptoquark signatures. Observations using one of these selections are able to exclude, at 95% confidence level, singly produced smuons with masses up to 640 GeV in a model in which the only other light sparticle is a neutralino when the R-parity-violating coupling lambda(23)(1)' is close to unity. Observations using the other selection exclude scalar leptoquarks with masses below 1880 GeV when g(1R)(eu) = g(1R)(mu c) = 1, at 95% confidence level. The limit on the coupling reduces to g(1R)(eu) = g(1R)(mu c) = 0.46 for a mass of 1420 GeV

Study of Bc+→J/ψDs+ and Bc+→J/ψDs∗+ decays in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A study of Bc+→J/ψDs+ and Bc+→J/ψDs∗+ decays using 139 fb of integrated luminosity collected with the ATLAS detector from s = 13 TeV pp collisions at the LHC is presented. The ratios of the branching fractions of the two decays to the branching fraction of the Bc+→ J/ψπ decay are measured: B(Bc+→J/ψDs+)/B(Bc+→J/ψπ+) = 2.76 ± 0.47 and B(Bc+→J/ψDs∗+)/B(Bc+→J/ψπ+) = 5.33 ± 0.96. The ratio of the branching fractions of the two decays is found to be B(Bc+→J/ψDs∗+)/B(Bc+→J/ψDs∗+) = 1.93 ± 0.26. For the Bc+→J/ψDs∗+ decay, the transverse polarization fraction, Γ/Γ, is measured to be 0.70 ± 0.11. The reported uncertainties include both the statistical and systematic components added in quadrature. The precision of the measurements exceeds that in all previous studies of these decays. These results supersede those obtained in the earlier ATLAS study of the same decays with s = 7 and 8 TeV pp collision data. A comparison with available theoretical predictions for the measured quantities is presented. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Search for light long-lived neutral particles that decay to collimated pairs of leptons or light hadrons in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for light long-lived neutral particles with masses in the O(MeV–GeV) range is presented. The analysis targets the production of long-lived dark photons in the decay of a Higgs boson produced via gluon–gluon fusion or in association with a W boson. Events that contain displaced collimated Standard Model fermions reconstructed in the calorimeter or muon spectrometer are selected in 139 fb of s = 13 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Background estimates for contributions from Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are consistent with the expected background. Exclusion limits are reported on the production cross-section times branching fraction as a function of the mean proper decay length cτ of the dark photon, or as a function of the dark-photon mass and kinetic mixing parameter that quantifies the coupling between the Standard Model and potential hidden (dark) sectors. A Higgs boson branching fraction above 1% is excluded at 95% CL for a Higgs boson decaying into two dark photons for dark-photon mean proper decay lengths between 10 mm and 250 mm and dark photons with masses between 0.4 GeV and 2 GeV. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Search for a light charged Higgs boson in t -> H±b decays, with H± -> cb, in the lepton plus jets final state in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for a charged Higgs boson, H-+/-, produced in top-quark decays, t -> H(+/-)b, is presented. The search targets H-+/- decays into a bottom and a charm quark, H-+/- -> cb. The analysis focuses on a selection enriched in top-quark pair production, where one top quark decays into a leptonically decaying W boson and a bottom quark, and the other top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark. This topology leads to a lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets containing b-hadrons, and deploys a neural network classifier that uses the kinematic differences between the signal and the background. The search uses a dataset of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 13TeV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.15% (0.09%) and 0.42% (0.25%) are derived for the product of branching fractions B( t -> H-+/- b) x B( H +/- -> cb) for charged Higgs boson masses between 60 and 160 GeV, assuming the SM production of the top-quark pairs