The European Regional Policy in Hungary. An Evaluation of the Objectives and Instruments for the Cohesion

The paper underlines the progresses Hungary undertook during the pre-accession process and after the European Union membership in regional economic development. Using official documents of the European Institutions, statistical data provided by Inforegio, Eurostat, the Hungarian National Institute of Statistics, FADN-DG Agriculture and AKI Ive evaluated the impact of the European objectives and instruments for the cohesion (Structural funds and the Cohesion fund) on the convergence of the Country with the European parameters. The results obtained show a slow evidence of economic convergence but also the emergence and increase of internal divergence between winning and loosing counties, these last being prevalently agricultural, with problems of re-conversion increased by the effects of the post- 1989 legislative provisions. This outcome derives party from the lack of projecting abilities (and opportunism) of the Hungarian governments but its also linked to the often unsuitable guidelines and weak monitoring of the European Institutions.European regional policy, convergence, cohesion, agricultural reforms., Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Mapping changes on agricultural and rural areas: an ex-post evaluation of the EU membership for Hungary

Several progresses have been made in evaluating the development policies for rural areas in the last years; many indicators1 have been set for assessing the effectiveness of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Rural Development Policies (RDPs) and their role on the convergence process of the EU members, but a shared definition of rurality is still missing. The results obtained at the level of growth and development by the most lagging behind areas, are far from being satisfactory (Brasili, 2005). The evaluation of the policies and programmes introduced evidenced lack of institutional planning and implementing abilities, and an insufficient targeting of policies and payments (Mantino, 2010). The experience of the 10 New Member States (NMSs)2 showed how the current CAP and Cohesion policy, designed for the EU-15 (Csaki et al. 2010), aren’t enough for addressing the regional specificities, hindering a process of development which is already weakened by the effects of the unfinished transition. This paper aims at offering a methodological contribution for evaluating the EU membership, with particular attention to the CAP, in Hungary. We chose this Country among the 10 NMSs because of the relevance (96%) of the rural areas on the total land3, and given the historical socio-economic role played by agriculture. The authors believe that more targeted – and therefore efficient – policies for agricultural and rural areas require a deeper knowledge of their structural and dynamic characteristics. Therefore, in order to identify the changes occurred before (2003) and after (2007) the EU membership on agricultural and rural areas, we use the following multivariate statistics methodologies: Principal Components Analysis, applied to the set of 42 variables, and Cluster Analysis on the results obtained by the Principal Components Analysis. Then, we offer a preliminary evaluation of the distribution of Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS)4, using the information on the applications provided at the County level by the Hungarian Paying Agency to show correlations with the leading factors.Agricultural and rural development policy evaluation, rural areas, policy targeting, EU enlargement, Agricultural and Food Policy, O18, P25, R58,

The Effect of Distance on Auditory Spatial Attention in the Peripersonal Space

Tohoku University鈴木陽

A Comparative Analysis of the Meat Sector in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna: Performance and Efficiency

In the last years, a lot of important changes occurred inside the European Union after the entering of 12 new member States. The rate of economic growth of the new member States has been higher the other EU members. In Hungary, particularly, the growth level has reached an intermediate position, placing itself at 4% GDP per capita. Comparative analysis are needed to better understand the process of catching-up and to evaluate how the integration between EU regions and countries is going on. The aim of this paper is to compare the economic and efficiency performance of firms in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna, considering a specific sector, meat processing and storage, of the food industry). We will investigate if in the last years the integration process has ultimately led to narrow the gap in the economic performances and efficiency of the firms. The choice of meat processing industry is due to the fact that in Hungary theres a remarkable animal production, whereas in the Emilia-Romagna region the meat industry reflects an organizational structure based on the concentration and specialization in agri-food districts. This paper compares the financial-economic performances and the technical efficiency of firms involved in the industry of meat processing in Hungary and in an Italian region, Emilia-Romagna. We will also discuss and compare the different results obtained throughout governance and structure of meat industry. We will underline the main role of the industrial districts in Emilia-Romagna, and how the Hungarian entrepreneurial system could handle the competition in the global market.Firms financial-economic performances, stochastic production function, agri-food districts, meat processing industry, Hungarian and Emilia-Romagna food industry, Livestock Production/Industries,

Italy’s off shore oil referendum: another lost opportunity

On 17 April, a referendum was held in Italy on rules governing off shore drilling licenses. As Biagio Carrano and Irene Monasterolo write, this relatively niche issue nevertheless produced a full-blown political contest, involving heavy infighting inside the government coalition. They argue that these events illustrate the Italian government is still more concerned with protecting the interests of powerful industrial lobbies than it is with stimulating the economy and employment through investments in renewable energy

Evaluation of two grass pollen extracts for immunotherapy by serum determinations of specific IgE and IgG4 antibodies towards purified Timothy grass pollen allergens (Phl p 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12) in patients undergoing hyposensitization treatment

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe diagnosis of allergic diseases with recombinant allergens allows us to detect antibodies specific for single allergens in extracts. The aim of the present study was to assess the early effect of grass pollen immunotherapy on IgE and IgG4 responses to eight purified grass pollen allergens in patients undergoing hyposensitization treatment.MethodsThe sera of 22 consecutive atopic individuals undergoing cluster regimen grass pollen immunotherapy were analyzed for IgE and IgG4 antibodies specific for grass pollen allergens (Phl p 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12). Two serum samples were taken, one before the start of therapy and one between 12 and 15 weeks after the first immunization. Immunotherapy was performed with two allergy vaccines comprising a standardized extract aluminum-adsorbed grass pollen mix and a standardized extract of grass pollen mix adsorbed onto calcium phosphate.ResultsOne treated patient showed a specific IgE conversion from negative (<0.35 kUA/L) to positive in the capsulated hydrophilic carrier polymer (CAP) test for Phl p 2, 1 and 4 (1.89, 0.84 and 0.68 kUA/L, respectively). The sera of 10 of 11 patients treated with alluminum-adsorbed grass pollen extract showed a significant increase in specific IgG4 towards natural Timothy grass pollen extract and purified allergens, as well as significant IgG4 levels towards Phl p 1 (P = 0.000238) Phl p 2 (P = 0.000289), Phl p 4 (P = 0.000585), Phl p 5 (P = 0.000364), Phl p 6 (P = 0.000346) and Phl p 11 (P = 0.039623; Mann–Whitney U-test) 12 weeks after the onset of immunotherapy. The sera of seven of 11 subjects treated with calcium phospate-adsorbed grass pollen extract had significant IgG4 levels against Timothy pollen allergens, as well as significant IgG4 titers against Phl p 1 (P = 0.004703), Phl p 4 (P = 0.000282), Phl p 5 (P = 0.015480), Phl p 6 (P = 0.013012) and Phl p 11 (P = 0.005178). Patients treated with aluminum-adsorbed grass pollen extract had higher levels of IgG4 towards Phl p 2, 4 and 6 and natural Timothy grass extract compared with patients treated with calcium phosphate-adsorbed grass pollen extract. Both the alluminum-adsorbed and calcium phosphate-adsorbed grass pollen extract allergy vaccines induced significant titers of specific IgG4 towards Phleum pratense pollen extract (P = 0.008376 and 0.01148, respectively).ConclusionsThese results indicate that grass pollen immunotherapy elicits an array of antibody specificities that reflect the allergen content and the potency of allergen extracts; this could be of pivotal importance to define optimal allergen extract doses

Climate risk assessment of the sovereign bond portfolio of European Insurers

In the first collaboration between climate economists, climate financial risk modellers and financial regulators, we apply the CLIMAFIN framework described in Battiston at al. (2019) to provide a forward-looking climate transition risk assessment of the sovereign bonds’ portfolios of solo insurance companies in Europe. We consider a scenario of a disorderly introduction of climate policies that cannot be fully anticipated and priced in by investors. First, we analyse the shock on the market share and profitability of carbon-intensive and low-carbon activities under climate transition risk scenarios. Second, we define the climate risk management strategy under uncertainty for a risk averse investor that aims to minimise her largest losses. Third, we price the climate policies scenarios in the probability of default of the individual sovereign bonds and in the bonds’ climate spread. Finally, we estimate the largest gains/losses on the insurance companies’ portfolios conditioned to the climate scenarios. We find that the potential impact of a disorderly transition to low-carbon economy on insurers portfolios of sovereign bonds is moderate in terms of its magnitude. However, it is non-negligible in several scenarios. Thus, it should be regularly monitored and assessed given the importance of sovereign bonds in insurers’ investment portfolios

Natural Disasters, Cascading Losses, and Economic Complexity: A Multi-layer Behavioral Network Approach

Assessing the short-term socio-economic impacts of climate-led disasters on food trade networks requires new bottom-up models and vulnerability metrics rooted in complexity theory. Indeed, such shocks could generate cascading socio-economic losses across the networks layers where emerging agents¿ responses could trigger tipping points. We contribute to address this research gap by developing a multi-layer behavioral network methodology composed of multiple spatially-explicit layers populated by heterogeneous interacting agents. Then, by introducing a new multi-layer risk measure called vulnerability rank, or VRank, we quantify the stress in the aftermath of a shock. Our approach allows us to analyze both the supply- and the demand-side dimensions of the shock by quantifying short-term behavioral responses, the transmission channels across the layers, the conditions for reaching tipping points, and the feedback on macroeconomic indicators. By simulating a stylized two-layer supply-side production and demand-side household network model we find that, (i) socio-economic vulnerability to climate-led disasters is cyclical, (ii) the distribution of shocks depends critically on the network structure, and on the speed of supply-side and demand-side responses. Our results suggest that such a multi-layer framework could provide a comprehensive picture of how climate-led shocks cascade and how indirect losses can be measured. This is crucial to inform effective post-disaster policies aimed to build food trade network resilience to climate-led shocks, in particular in more agriculture-dependent bread-basket regions.Series: Ecological Economic Paper

A climate risk assessment of sovereign bonds' portfolio.

Aligning finance to sustainability requires metrics and methods to price forward-looking cli-mate risks and opportunities in financial contracts and in investors' portfolios. Traditionalapproaches to financial pricing cannot incorporate the nature of climate risks, i.e. deep uncertainty, non-linearity, complexity and endogeneity. To fill this gap, we develop a frameworkfor climate-financial risk assessment and management under uncertainty. We consider a riskaverse investor with an information set given by past market valuation, information on futureclimate economic shocks, and utility maximization based on the minimization of the ClimateValue at Risk (VaR) in presence of incomplete markets. We then consider a disorderly policy transition to 2°C scenarios that leads to unanticipated shocks in economic trajectories of fossil fuel and renewable energy sectors, estimated using Integrated Assessment Models. We model the shock transmission from the change in sectors' Gross Value Added to firms' profitability and to sovereign fiscal revenues. We then introduce the forward-looking climatepolicy shocks in sovereign bonds valuation introducing scenario- conditioned financial riskmetrics (Climate VaR, Climate Spread). We provide an application to OECD sovereignbonds of Austrian National Bank's portfolio. We find that investments' climate alignmentcan strengthen the sovereign fiscal and financial position by decreasing the climate spread. In contrast, misalignment can negatively affect countries' economic competitiveness and financial stability, and thus the performance of investors who own such bonds. Our analysissupports investors' portfolios risk management strategies in the low-carbon transition andand financial supervisors in the design of prudential risk measures

Conference report: 21st SERCIA Conference: Cinema and Seriality in the English-speaking World

SERCIA (Société d’Etudes et de Recherche sur le Cinéma Anglophone), a society founded in 1993 to gather researchers in the field of English-speaking cinema, held its 22nd conference in September 2016 at Université Paris Diderot, France. Remarkably organized by Ariane Hudelet, Associate Professor at Université Paris-Diderot, and Anne Crémieux, Associate Professor at Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre, the conference was especially notable for being the first joint conference with the research gro..