Are geographical indication products fostering public goods? some evidence from Europe

Within the framework of multifunctional conceptualisation, the authors have investigated the level of public goods embedded in Agri-food geographical indication productsPostprint (published version

Sustainable development goals in the European Union and its regions: Are we moving forward in economic, social, and environmental dimensions?

We build a framework using Markov transition matrices to develop comparative analyses of the dynamics of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals across 20 EU Member States and three sustainability dimensions—economic, social, and environmental—over the period of 2011–2019. The results indicate that the European Union has significantly progressed in achieving sustainable development, and that this progress has been achieved in all dimensions of sustainability and all EU regions. Nevertheless, we have detected different dynamics of sustainability across some countries and dimensions. This can help policymakers identify where greater emphasis should be placed on putting global goals back on track

El contraste de raíz unitaria MSB: la influencia de la observación inicial

El objetivo de la tesis es analizar el comportamiento asintótico y en muestras pequeñas de un contraste de raíz unitaria, el contraste modificado de Sargan y Bhargava, abreviado como MSB, que propuso Stock (1999). Dada la simplicidad de la forma que adopta el contraste, se examina si un estadístico tan simple posee buenas propiedades en relación con otros contrastes existentes en la literatura. El contenido de la tesis se estructura en cuatro capítulos, de los cuales, los dos primeros basan su análisis en el supuesto tradicional de que la observación inicial es Op(1) bajo ambas hipótesis del contraste y los dos últimos, en tratamientos alternativos. La tesis concluye con una síntesis de nuestras aportaciones a la literatura así como con una breve exposición de líneas de trabajo abiertas para futuras investigaciones

Sustainability Performance of Certified and Non-certified Food: Social and Economic History

Abstract The dataset Sustainability performance of certified and non-certified food (https://www.doi.org/10.15454/OP51SJ) contains 25 indicators of economic, environmental, and social performance, estimated for 27 certified food value chains and their 27 conventional reference products. The indicators are estimated at different levels of the value chain: farm level, processing level, and retail level. It also contains the raw data based on which the indicators are estimated, its source, and the completed spreadsheet calculators for the following indicators: carbon footprint and food miles. This article describes the common method and indicators used to collect data for the twenty-seven certified products and their conventional counterparts. It presents the assumptions and choices, the process of data collection, and the indicator estimation methods designed to assess the three sustainability dimensions within a reasonable time constraint. That is: three person-months for each food quality scheme and its non-certified reference product. Several prioritisations were set regarding data collection (indicator, variable, value chain level) together with a level of representativeness specific to each variable and product type (country and sector). Technical details on how relatively common variables (e.g., number of animals per hectare) are combined into indicators (e.g., carbon footprint) are provided in the full documentation of the dataset.Publishe

Do food quality schemes and net price premiums go together?

This article addresses the issue of the profitability of Food Quality Scheme (FQS) products as compared to reference products, which are defined as analogous products without quality label. We approach this question by taking into account the level of the value chain (upstream, processing, and downstream), the sector (vegetal, animal, seafood) and the type of FQS (PGI, PDO, Organic). We collected original data for several products produced in selected European countries, as well as in Thailand and Vietnam. Comparisons depending on value chain level, sector and FQS are possible by using two comparable indicators: price premium and net price premium (including cost differential). The following principal conclusions were reached: 1) Price is higher for FQS products than for the reference products, regardless of the production level, the type of FQS or the sector; 2) Price premiums generated by FQS do not differ along the value chain, nor between sectors (vegetal, animal or seafood/fish); 3) Price premium for organic products is significantly higher than for PGI products, and this conclusion holds at upstream and processing levels, taking into account the costs directly related to production; 4) All organic products and almost all PDO and PGI products analysed benefit from a positive quality rent; 5) At upstream level and processing level, the relative weight of intermediate consumption in the cost structure is lower for organic products than for reference products.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (published version

Live and let live: understanding the temporal drivers and spillovers of life expectancy in Europe for public planning

The European continent has one of the longest life expectancies in the world, but still faces a significant challenge to meet the health targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for 2030. To improve the understanding of the rationale that guides health outcomes in Europe, this study assesses the direction and magnitude effects of the drivers that contribute to explain life expectancy at birth across 30 European countries for the period 2008–2018 at macro-level. For this purpose, an aggregated health production function is used allowing for spatial effects. The results indicate that an increase in the income level, health expenditure, trade openness, education attainment, or urbanisation might lead to an increase in life expectancy at birth, whereas calories intake or quantity of air pollutants have a negative impact on this health indicator. This implies that health policies should look beyond economic factors and focus also on social and environmental drivers. The results also indicate the existence of significant spillover effects, highlighting the need for coordinated European policies that account for the synergies between countries. Finally, a foresight analysis is conducted to obtain projections for 2030 under different socioeconomic pathways. Results reveal significant differences on longevity projections depending on the adoption, or not, of a more sustainable model of human development and provides valuable insight on the need for anticipatory planning measures to make longer life-spans compatible with the maintenance of the welfare state.Publishe

Capturing the drivers of social SDGs: An econometric analysis of the dimensions of health and education.

With the changing policy landscape, the monitoring of human development in terms of the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., economic, social, environmental) has gained considerable traction in recent years. As a tool for conducting economic impact assessments, CGE simulation modelling is a workhorse member of the standard toolbox of modelling applications available to policy-makers, think tanks and academics alike. Notwithstanding, whilst simulation modelling is adept (in differing degrees) at handling issues relating to two of the three dimensions of sustainability, the social dimension remains neglected. Indeed, with their reliance on strictly market driven concepts, the task of including social indicators in economic models relating to, for example, health or education, necessitates a linkage with historical observation and statistical rigour. This paper sets out to provide an initial step toward filling this gap. More specifically, employing panel datasets and econometric model specifications based on searches of the relevant literature, this paper provides parametric linkages between identifiable indices in economic simulation models and a selection of six indicators covering health and education. One of the conclusions drawn from this paper is the significant effect of per capita GDP on health and education indicators. Nevertheless, the impact of other drivers, such as the food intake or the share of the agricultural sector on GDP, have a similar or even a greater magnitude than the income level. We also found a close relationship between health and education, since all health indicators tend to improve as the years of schooling increase. In contrast, the impact of pollution, trade openness and inequality on the selected indicators is much more reduced and, in most cases, not statistically significant

Empirical insights on the dynamics of SPS trade costs: The role of regulatory convergence and experience in EU dairy trade

With its influence on the world stage, the EU’s Farm to Fork initiative seeks to extend sustainable and fair food production practises globally, in part, by encouraging convergence with EU food standards (i.e., sanitary and phytosanitary measures-SPS). Harmonisation clauses have been found empirically to encourage trade, but no quantifiable estimates exist on the trade effects of SPS regulatory convergence. This paper examines this issue for the dairy industry, a highly regulated sector with significant sustainability concerns attached. Furthermore, the cost-saving effects arising from closer regulations and ‘experience’ (i.e., accumulated years of foreign trade track-record), are compared. Employing a 3-year interval panel starting in 2010, a structural gravity equation that includes domestic trade is estimated with a flexible empirical approach that evinces asymmetric trade impacts for specific bilateral trade routes. Results indicate a trade depressing effect for SPS measures, estimated as a global average 10.4% Ad-valorem Equivalent (AVE). Moreover, at the global level, converging regulatory frameworks generate larger trade gains than experience, where a 1% rise in regulatory convergence is equivalent to 5 years of positive trade and a 14% reduction of the AVE. The reduction of trade frictions prompted by harmonisation and experience does not, however, outweigh SPS trade costs. Exporters to the EU face a higher SPS AVE than that faced by the EU (10.1% vs 9.3%). On average, exporters to the EU also benefit from a 9% saving due to experience, although cost savings from regulatory convergence are only reported for larger exporters to the EU, whose consolidated position in EU markets also grants them even greater than average benefits from years of accumulated experience.Los autores agradecen el apoyo financiero del Instituto Nacional de Investigacion ' y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) (RTA2015-00031-00-00), cofinanciado por FEDER 'Operational Programa Smart-Growth' 2014-2020; y el programa de investigación e innovación Horizonte 2020 de la Unión Europea bajo el acuerdo de subvención No. 861932 (BatModel). Las opiniones aquí expresadas son exclusivamente las de los de los autores y en ningún caso deben considerarse como una posición posición oficial de la Comisión Europea.Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)ExperienceRegulatory convergenceGravityEUDairyPublishe

Effect of Non-Tariff Measures on the Extensive and Intensive Margins of Agrifood Trade from Least Developed Countries to the High- Income Countries

Esta investigación ha recibido financiación del Programa de investigación e innovación Horizonte 2020 de la unión europea bajo el acuerdo de subvención n. 861932 [Batmodel

Agricultural land market regulations in the EU Member States

The objective of this report is to provide an overview of agricultural land market regulations in the EU Member States (MS). This report builds upon the framework developed by Swinnen, Van Herck and Vranken (2014a) to provide comprehensive and structured analyses of the different agricultural land market regulations across MS. The report describes the situation of land market regulations as it was in 2020 in 22 MS. The analyses of agricultural land market regulations provided in this report are based on information obtained from the MS country experts using the following three tools: (i) structured questionnaires, (ii) semi-structured group interviews and (iii) country reports. The input compiled by land market experts through these tools is based on MS legislation and other relevant documents (e.g. official documents and academic literature) that contain information on agricultural land market regulations and/or their implementation.PublishedEste informe es el resultado del trabajo conjunto de los autores principales, Liesbet Vranken (KU Leuven), Ewa Tabeau (Wageningen Economic Research (WEcR)) y Peter Roebeling (WEcR), basado en aportes de expertos de 22 países. Pavel Ciaian (Centro Común de Investigación) revisó el informe y contribuyó con análisis adicionales en diferentes partes del informe. Los expertos de los países contribuyeron conjuntamente con los informes de los países, completaron los cuestionarios de los países y proporcionaron otros materiales, incluidas fuentes legales, referencias, publicaciones relevantes o partes de los mismos. Participaron en discusiones de grupos focales y fueron coautores de la sección con las descripciones cualitativas a nivel de país de las regulaciones del mercado de tierras