Modelling the Impact of the CAP Reform on Farm Investments

In this paper we evaluate empirically the impact of policies on farm investment and output decisions, considering risk-averse farmers making inter-temporal choices on current and future profits. We refer specifically to the recent reform of the CAP, while estimation and simulation results are carried out on a FADN sample of Italian arable crop farms. The main message of the paper is that a policy change that shifts resources from price support to direct payments tend to consistently reduce farm investments, mainly as a result of the increased output price volatility, which increases the level of uncertainty faced by farmers. However, this is not clearly reflected in a negative impact on farm output.investments, Common Agricultural Policy, decoupling, uncertainty, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18,

MODELLING THE 1992 CAP REFORM: DEGREE OF DECOUPLING AND FUTURE SCENARIOS

We model CAP reform in order to measure the response of production and land allocation to compensatory payments. The application refers to a sample of farms in Italy. The model allows us an analysis of the degree of decoupling and a simulation of the impact of the "Agenda 2000" proposals.Land Economics/Use,

MODELLING THE CAP ARABLE CROP REGIME UNDER UNCERTAINTY

In this paper we evaluate empirically the absolute and relative size of risk-related effects of a farm policy change, with specific reference to the CAP arable crop regime. We adopt a dual framework under non linear mean-variance risk preferences, which incorporates the impact of price uncertainty in the specific decision-making structure of EU arable crop producers. A system of output supply, input demand and land allocation equations has been estimated on a sample of Italian specialised arable crop farms, which allows us to derive elasticities with respect to all the relevant exogenous variables, including those related to risk. The simulation of the impact of an Agenda 2000-type of shock confirms that the size of risk effects is important in evaluating farmer's output responses. This may have important implications for the revision of "green box" criteria in the context of the current WTO negotiations. Keywords: Risk effects; Common Agricultural Policy; Decoupling; Duality.Risk effects, Common Agricultural Policy, Decoupling, Duality., Agricultural and Food Policy,

Panel Data Estimation Techniques for Farm-level Data Model

Econometric models wishing to estimate relevant parameters for agricultural policy analysis are increasingly relying on unbalanced panels of farm-level data. Since in the agricultural economics literature such models have often been estimated through simplified approaches, in this paper we try to verify whether the adoption of more sophisticated panel data techniques may impact the estimation results. For this reason, the policy model by Moro and Sckokai (1999) has been reestimated using techniques recently developed in the econometric literature. The preliminary results show a strong impact on the estimations. This seems to suggest that the adoption of proper panel-data techniques is likely to be very important in order to obtain reliable estimates of some key policy parameters.Agricultural policy, Panel data, Systems of equations, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Consumer's Attitude Towards Labeled and Unlabeled GM Food Products in Italy

Based on survey data collected on a sample of 500 Italian consumers, this paper evaluates the consumer's attitude towards foods obtained from the application of biotechnologies and foods labeled as "GM free". Results from the application of probit models shows that the probability to purchase GM products is lower for individuals more adverse to risk, older, with higher education and less confident in institutional guarantees. Willingness to Pay for GM free products is positively related to information, risk aversion, age, trust in institutional environment, negatively to the degree of agreement with the application of biotechnologies.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Consumers’ willingness to pay for food safety: the case of mycotoxins in milk

European statistics show that one of the most widespread source of health risks related to food is mycotoxins. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the Italian consumers’ perception of the mycotoxins’ risk and, more specifically, their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a hypothetical bottle of milk obtained by cows in which the feed ration contains maize certified for the ‘good practices’ that reduce such risk. For this purpose, a web-based stated choice (SC) experiment involving a representative sample of 973 Italian consumers has been carried out and WTP has been measured using the panel data version of a Random Parameters Logit (RPL) model. The results show that Italian consumers are willing to pay a rather high average price premium for “reduced-micotoxin” milk. This premium becomes even higher for female, middle-age and low-education consumers.Food safety, Mycotoxins, Willingness to pay, Mixed logit, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, C35, D12,

Development of piezoelectric harvesters with integrated trimming devices

Piezoelectric cantilever harvesters have a large power output at their natural frequency, but in some applications the frequency of ambient vibrations is different fromthe harvester\u2019s frequency and/or ambient vibrations are periodicwith some harmonic components. To copewith these operating conditions harvesters with integrated trimming devices (ITDs) are proposed. Some prototypes are developed with the aid of an analytical model and tested with an impulsive method. Results show that a small trimming device can lower the main resonance frequency of a piezoelectric harvester of the same extent as a larger tip mass and, moreover, it generates at high frequency a second resonance peak. A multi-physics numerical finite element (FE) model is developed for predicting the generated power and for performing a stress-strain analysis of harvesters with ITDs. The numerical model is validated on the basis of the experimental results. Several configurations of ITDs are conceived and studied. Numerical results show that the harvesters with ITDs are able to generate relevant power at two frequencies, owing to the particular shape of the modes of vibration. The stress in the harvesters with ITDs is smaller than the stress in the harvester with a tip mass trimmed to the same frequency

Simulated infrared and Raman spectroscopy, complex dielectric function and refractive index dataset of monoclinic C2/m stoichiometric clinochlore Mg6Si4O10(OH)8 as obtained from Density Functional Theory

This article reports a simulated dataset of the vibrational (infrared and Raman) and optical properties (complex dielectric function and refractive index) of clinochlore, an important mineral belonging to the phyllosilicate family [1]. The data here reported were calculated from ab initio Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations at B3LYP level, including a correction for the dispersive forces (B3LYP-D* approach) and all-electron Gaussian-type orbitals basis sets. This dataset was calculated between 0 cm–1 and 4000 cm–1 and comprises infrared, reflectance and Raman spectra, frequency-dependent complex dielectric function and complex refractive index of clinochlore. The data was validated against available experimental spectroscopic results reported in literature and can be of help in several application fields, for instance fundamental georesource exploration and exploitation, in applied mineralogy, geology, material science, and as a reference to assess the quality of other theoretical approaches