Identification of Decision Making for Food Under Economic Crisis: The Case of Greece

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to examine the changes on food consumption patterns of Greek households, following the economic crisis in Greece and the austerity measures that have greatly reduced the households’ incomes. A sample survey among a random sample of 932 households living in the region of Thessaly was carried out while the consuming behaviour is focused on 20 basic food products. In order to identify the effects of economic crisis on consumers’ behaviour, an exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by a hierarchical classification of the households have been implemented. Six patterns of food consumption's behaviour have been detected, revealing that most of the households have modified their eating habits, reducing the quantities consumed and/or looking for less expensive brands. Only 15% of the households do not seem to be affected by the crisis and the austerity policy. Quite enlightening is the research being made on the spatial basis. The results of this approach signify that low income households in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives, are deeply affected by the crisis, with these percentages to be even higher at semi urban and rural areas. This is the first attempt of assessment of the impact of the economic crisis in Greece on food consumption pattern

Measuring efficiency of the Greek flourmill firms using data envelopment analysis

The objective of this paper is to measure the efficiency of Greek flourmills firms, using the DEA methodology. The CRS and the VRS technical efficiency is measured as well as a return to scale estimation, the context dependent DEA is calculated and finally, the evolution of the Malmquist productivity index, the efficiency change and the frontier shift was computed for a five-year period. This implementation provided helpful information regarding the efficiency ranking of the firms operating in it. Proofs that inefficient firms are over-invested and over-exposed to high risk operation practices provide suggestions for future reparative actions in order for efficiency to be improved. This goal does not require radical effort from firms to achieve intermediate targets. Finally, stagnated mean efficiency change does not denote stagnated efficiency change for individual firms, but it is the outcome of a large variance of efficiency change scores being achieved by flour mills firms from period to period. This is the first attempt to assess the level of competitiveness and benchmark the firms operating in the Greek flourmill industry. © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Predicting operational and environmental efficiency of primary sectors of EU countries, by implementing Artificial Neural Networks

One of the most important policy reforms for the European Union (EU) agriculture was the implementation of the Agenda 2000, which establishes a new framework for subsidies management, decoupled from both crop and animal production for the vast majority of products. One of the main goals of this new policy framework is the improvement of its environmental impact. Additionally, there is a need for the implementation of new efficiency assessment and prognostication tools for the evaluation of EU farming, because the influence of market forces has been increased substantially. Regarding prognostication of crop and animal output, as well as Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) is being proposed, succeeding satisfactory quality characteristics for the models being proposed for operational and environmental predictions in EU agriculture. Copyright © 2017 for this paper by its autho

Measuring efficiency of the Greek flourmill firms using data envelopment analysis

The objective of this paper is to measure the efficiency of Greek flourmills firms, using the DEA methodology. The CRS and the VRS technical efficiency is measured as well as a return to scale estimation, the context dependent DEA is calculated and finally, the evolution of the Malmquist productivity index, the efficiency change and the frontier shift was computed for a five-year period. This implementation provided helpful information regarding the efficiency ranking of the firms operating in it. Proofs that inefficient firms are over-invested and over-exposed to high risk operation practices provide suggestions for future reparative actions in order for efficiency to be improved. This goal does not require radical effort from firms to achieve intermediate targets. Finally, stagnated mean efficiency change does not denote stagnated efficiency change for individual firms, but it is the outcome of a large variance of efficiency change scores being achieved by flour mills firms from period to period. This is the first attempt to assess the level of competitiveness and benchmark the firms operating in the Greek flourmill industry. © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Efficiency and productivity change in the greek dairy industry

The objective of this paper is to measure the efficiency and the productivity change of Greek dairy firms, using non parametric approaches. This assessment is being achieved by the computation of the CRS and the VRS DEA models, the context dependent DEA approach and finally, the evolution of the Malmquist productivity index. These empirical analyses are based on data from 29 Greek dairy firms. This implementation provided helpful information regarding the efficiency ranking of the firms that operate in the Greek dairy industry. Findings that inefficient firms are over-invested and overexposed to high risk operation practices provide suggestions for future reparative actions in order to improve efficiency. This goal does not require radial effort from firms to achieve intermediate targets. Finally, stagnated mean efficiency change does not imply stagnated efficiency change for individual firms, but it is the outcome of a large variance of efficiency change scores being achieved by dairy firms from period to period

Assess and prognosticate green house gas emissions from agricultural production of EU countries, by implementing, DEA Window analysis and artificial neural networks

One of the most important policy reforms for the European Union (EU) agriculture was the implementation of the Agenda 2000, which establishes a new framework for subsidies management, decoupled from both crop and animal production for the vast majority of products. One of the main goals of this new policy framework is the improvement of its environmental impact. Additionally, there is a need for the implementation of new efficiency assessment and prognostication tools for the evaluation of EU farming, because the influence of market forces has been increased substantially. Having in mind the efficacy of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, it is used to calculate and quantify the environmental efficiency of EU countries’ primary sectors. In this paper, the DEA Window methodology is used to assess GHG emissions efficiency and identify efficiency change of EU countries’ primary sectors, under the strong influence of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), quantifying by this way its positive or negative impact on a national basis, providing at the same time hints for counteractive actions. The main results provide the significant differences among EU countries, with the less developed ones to perform low environmental efficiency rates. Moreover, countries which their output depends to a large extend on arable crops achieve low efficiency rates too. Finally, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are being used as a tool to estimate future performance of EU countries primary sectors on the topic of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as an undesirable output of agricultural production process. The validation performance characteristics, as well as the linear fit to this output-target relationship, closely intersect the bottom-left and top-right corners of the plot. The combination of these methodologies provides a new methodological approach for CAP evaluation and prognostication, appropriately adjusted to the new market oriented framework for EU agricultural production. © 2017 Elsevier Lt

To eat or not to eat? The case of genetically modified (GM) food

Purpose: Since the moment genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically modified (GM) foods first came into the market, there has been a continuous debate between those who are supporters and opponents of them. This paper aims to identify the rationale of acceptance or denial of GM foods into the market. Design/methodology/approach: The Health Belief Model (HBM) successfully elucidates the consumer decision-making process for food selection. The questionnaire for this field of research consists of three parts. The first part refers to socioeconomic information, like sex, monthly income and educational level. The second part contains questions derived from the HBM. Interviewees had to use a 1-5 Likert scale for their answers, with 1 representing Total Denial, 3 for Neutral and 5 for Total Agreement. Finally, the third part consists of one question about the willingness to pay for GM foods or not. Findings: There are significant differences between Greek consumers and consumers from other European countries – the most important one being their focus on food safety and nutritional issues – with their importance not being reduced by possible pricing discounts. Increase in the market share of GM food can occur only if special focus will be given in the implementation of promotion strategies verifying about the safety of use and increased nutritional value of them, having as a second priority, the implementation of an aggressive pricing policy towards non-GM foods. Originality/value: This is an original field research, identifying the rationale of the food selection in the Greek market towards GM foods. © 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Seeking for convergence in the agricultural sector performance under the changes of Uruguay round and 1992 CAP reform

This paper builds on the knowledge generated by the past studies on agricultural convergence and extends it in order to provide a more holistic analysis in geographical terms, and a more detailed analysis of the aspects that shape the overall performance of the countries. The paper adopts a global scale of analysis and assesses convergence in terms of value generation, energy efficiency, and technical efficiency. To do so, analysis is based on a series of regression models in order to examine if the policy changes that occurred in the beginning of the 1990s promoted the convergence of the agricultural sector's performance across the globe. Two main types of convergence were tested. The first refers to the σ-convergence and the second type is this of β-convergence. The lack of any type of convergence regarding the generated value across countries around the globe has shown that the liberalization of the market has not brought about any substantial improvements in the position of the weakest countries. On the other side, a convergence of both σ and β type has been found for the energy efficiency of the countries. That is, it resulted in improvements in their energy efficiency. Policy changes of the early 1990s have substantially improved the position of the weakest countries. There was also a positive effect on the productivity of vegetable cultivations whilst it seems that they have slowed down a strong convergence process for fruit productivity. © 2019 by the authors

Investigation of the relative efficiency of LEADER+ in rural areas of Northern Greece

The aim of this paper is to investigate and measure the relative efficiency of LEADER+ action plans of seven rural areas in Northern Greece. To this end, a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is used, which is based on data from LEADER+ provided by the Ministry of Agriculture. In particular, the DEA method is used for measuring the relative efficiency of local actions and for the investigation of the inputs and outputs and to show how the maximisation of their relative efficiencies could be achieved through its use. The specific DEA model has the required characteristics for the empirical application of the input-oriented DEA method. The model shows that some Decision-Making Units could maximise their relative efficiency by proceeding to internal adjustments of the inputs being used, and it is these internal adjustments which are being taken into consideration for this paper. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd