Co-operation and economic relationship as determinants for competitiveness in the food sector: the Spanish wheat to bread chain

The objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of co-operation amongst stakeholders of the food chain on enterprise competitiveness. The analysis focuses on the Spanish wheat to bread chain. A theoretical model is developed which covers the main components that define competitiveness (profitability, turnover, market share, customer loyalty and product quality), quality supply chain relationship (trust, commitment and satisfaction) and the main factors explaining supply chain relationship (i.e. quality and frequency of the communication, personal bounds, etc.). The Spanish wheat to bread supply chain has been chosen to empirically test the model. This sector is very fragmented all along the chain, with a high number of wheat farmers, millers and bakers. Exchanges in the sector are mainly done in the open market but there is an increasing tendency to maintain stable relationships with suppliers to assure quality. Therefore, stakeholders in the wheat to bread chain are mainly using two types of economic relationships: “repeated market transactions” and “spot market” but the former is by far the most used. Based on data from a standardised survey with farmers, processors and retailers a structural equation modelling approach has been applied to empirically test the influence of relationship quality on stakeholders’ competitiveness in the Spanish wheat to bread chain. The main conclusion of the study is that, as the quality of the relationship in the Spanish wheat to bread chain improves the stakeholder’ competitiveness increases. The results also reveal that quality of the relationship in the Spanish wheat to bread chain is based on trust, satisfaction and commitment with buyers/sellers and strongly influenced by communication quality and quantity. In addition, the outcome shows that the quality of communication has an indirect positive effect on stakeholders’ competitiveness through the relationship quality. Finally, the only factor that will influence the quality of the relationship is the equal power distribution along the chain. Moreover, personal bounds positively influence the quality of communication in the bread Spanish supply chain.competitiveness, food, Spain, Agribusiness,

Do oil price shocks matter? Evidence for some European countries

This paper analyzes the oil price-macroeconomy relationship by means of analyzing the impact of oil prices on inflation and industrial production indexes for many European countries using quarterly data for the period 1960-1999. First, we test for cointegration allowing for structural breaks among the variables. Second, and in order to account for the possible non-linear relationships, we use different transformation of oil price data. The main results suggest that oil prices have permanent effects on inflation and short run but asymmetric effects on production growth rates. Furthermore, significant differences are found among the responses of the countries to these shocks.oil price shocks, inflation, economic activity

Oil Prices, Economic Activity and Inflation: Evidence for Some Asian Countries

In this paper we study the oil prices-macroeconomy relationship by means of studying the impact of oil price shocks on both economic activity and consumer price indexes for six Asian countries over the period 1975Q1-2002Q2. The results suggest that oil prices have a significant effect on both economic activity and price indexes although the impact is limited to the short-run and more significant when oil price shocks are defined in local currencies. Moreover, we find evidence of asymmetries in the oil prices-macroeconomy relationship for some of the Asian countries.

Bulls and Bears: Lessons from some European Countries

This paper analyzes the recent behavior of stock markets in four European countries. More specifically, we describe the bull and bear phases of those markets, comparing some of their features across countries and with the US. We also comment on the degree of concordance of stock market phases across countries. We find that cycles in European countries have become substantially more concordant in recent years, a result that was to be expected given the increased integration of the European financial markets, but that the degree of concordance is not high.

Financial Liberalization and Emerging Stock Market Volatility

In this paper we test whether volatility in six emerging markets has changed significantly over the period 1976:01-2002:03. This period corresponds to the years of more profound development of both the financial and the productive sides in emerging countries. We use alternative methodologies of of endogenous breakpoints detection that estimate the dates at which the behavior of the sotck market volatility changed. The analysis suggests that volatility has behaved in a di¤erent manner over the periodemerging markets, volatility, multiple structural breaks

Dimensional reduction of the massless limit of the linearized "New Massive Gravity"

The so called "New Massive Gravity" in $D=2+1$ consists of the Einstein-Hilbert action (with minus sign) plus a quadratic term in curvatures ($K$-term). Here we perform the Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction of the linearized $K$-term to $D=1+1$. We end up with a fourth-order massive electrodynamics in $D=1+1$ described by a rank-2 tensor. Remarkably, there appears a local symmetry in $D=1+1$ which persists even after gauging away the Stueckelberg fields of the dimensional reduction. It plays the role of a $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. Although of higher-order in derivatives, the new $2D$ massive electrodynamics is ghost free, as we show here. It is shown, via master action, to be dual to the Maxwell-Proca theory with a scalar Stueckelberg field.Comment: 12 pages, one more reference and text slightly modified accordingl

Stock Market Cycles and Stock Market Development in Spain

In this paper we use Spanish stock market data to identify the bull and bear phases of the market and to analyze its characteristics during the period 1941-2002. We compare these characteristics with those of the US and of two other European countries (Germany and the UK). Our sample is divided in two subperiods in order to account for differences induced by the process of development undergone by Spanish capital markets in the late 1980's and early 1990's. We find that the Spanish stock market has become increasingly more similar to those of the more developed countries, although some differences still persist. Additionally, we show that concordance of the Spanish stock market with other developed markets has increased quite significantly.Stock market cycle; data generating process; financial development