ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE POST-1992 CAP REFORMS ON ALENTEJO ECONOMY OF PORTUGAL

This research develops 'Johansen-type' models of agriculture and constructs Input-Output models for assessing the impact of the post-1992 CAP reforms on incomes, employment and the environment in four Alentejo study areas of Portugal. The effects of agricultural output changes on businesses supplying inputs and processing farm output were also assessed by those empirical models.Common Agricultural Policy, Johansen Model, Input-Output Model, Elasticity, Multiplier and Environmental Indicators, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Assessment of Environment Impact of CAP Reforms on European Agricultural Production Efficiency

The studies of performance and production efficiency have ignored additional products of most transformation processes classified as undesirable outputs. Without the inclusion of the undesirable outputs, the efficiency measurement is a purely technical measure, and it does not account for the interaction of the system with the environment and the impact of policy decisions on the system. Moreover, there are technological dependencies between the desirable and the undesirable outputs which have to be included in the analytical tools used to measure efficiency. The relationships between the desirable and the undesirable outputs motivate the exploration of new areas of the measurement of efficiency to incorporate policy decisions and address new issues. This research develops a formulation that uses goal programming in conjunction with Data Envelopment analysis – known as GoDEA approach – to deal with the conflict between the desirable and the undesirable outputs. This approach is used to assess the environment impact of the Agenda 2000 and the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform on agricultural production in fifteen European countries. Model results show that the 2003 CAP reform strengthens environmental policies and has a better performance than the Agenda 2000 for some European countries. The North and Central European countries have been dealing better with environmental issues than the Mediterranean countries.Data Envelopment Analysis, Performance Measurement, Undesirable Outputs, Technological Dependence, Goal Programming, Common Agricultural Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, CO2, DO1, Q15, Q58,

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

This research work examines levels and trends in global agricultural productivity in fifteen European Union countries and four Eastern European countries that have already applied for European Union membership. The study makes use of data collected from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and covers the period 1980-1998. An approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis is used to provide information on the peers of the (inefficient) i-th country and to derive the Malmquist productivity indices. This approach is chosen due to the non-availability of reliable input price data to measure total factor productivity change, technical efficiency change and technical change. Model results show France, Bel-Lux and Italy are on the frontier technology in the period of study. Although Bulgaria and Hungary do not belong to the European Union, these countries are on the frontier technology, too. These results also show that France posts the most spectacular performance, while the Eastern European region is the major performer region and the Mediterranean region is the weakest performer region over the period of study. These results indicate that technical efficiency is not a source of total factor productivity growth. Another interesting result is that there is not a degree of catch-up due to improved technical efficiency along with growth in technical change in European Union Countries and four Eastern European countries.Productivity Analysis,

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN UNION AND EASTERN REGIONS

This research work uses stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine the sources of agricultural productivity growth over time and of productivity differences among countries and regions in European Union over the period 1980-1998. A comparison of the mean productivity scores obtained by the two approaches show that DEA results are higher than in SFA results, because DEA fits a tighter (more flexible) frontier than the translog frontier. This study is a valuable warning for people to be carefully about the effects of the methodology choice upon their results and to use more than one approach if they suspect that it may have some influence.Data Envelopment Analysis, Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Technical Efficiency Change, Technical Change, Total Factor Productivity Change, European Union., Productivity Analysis, Q12, D24,

Reallocating Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emission in EU15 Countries

This research work uses an alternative approach for modeling agricultural greenhouse gas emissions as an undesirable output, based on the zero sum gains DEA model (ZSG-DEA BCC model). This approach reallocates agricultural greenhouse gas emissions among EU15 countries. The reallocation analysis of greenhouse gas emissions permits countries that increase their emissions negotiate the emissions reduction with the others. This negotiation process might create a quota trade system for agricultural activity.DEA, Zero Sum Gains, Movement along the Efficient Frontier, Smoothed Frontier, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q54, Q56,

Security and Privacy Issues of Big Data

This chapter revises the most important aspects in how computing infrastructures should be configured and intelligently managed to fulfill the most notably security aspects required by Big Data applications. One of them is privacy. It is a pertinent aspect to be addressed because users share more and more personal data and content through their devices and computers to social networks and public clouds. So, a secure framework to social networks is a very hot topic research. This last topic is addressed in one of the two sections of the current chapter with case studies. In addition, the traditional mechanisms to support security such as firewalls and demilitarized zones are not suitable to be applied in computing systems to support Big Data. SDN is an emergent management solution that could become a convenient mechanism to implement security in Big Data systems, as we show through a second case study at the end of the chapter. This also discusses current relevant work and identifies open issues.Comment: In book Handbook of Research on Trends and Future Directions in Big Data and Web Intelligence, IGI Global, 201

CUMULATIVE PROSPECT THEORY: A STUDY OF THE FARMERS' DECISION BEHAVIOR IN THE ALENTEJO DRYLAND REGION OF PORTUGAL

The mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy will change the way the European Union supports its farm sector. The new Common Agricultural Policy will be geared towards consumers, and taxpayers, while giving farmers the freedom to produce what the market wants. In the future, the majority of the subsidies will be paid independentlty from the volume of production. To avoid abandonment of production, Member States may choose to maintain a limited link between subsidy and production under well conditions and within clear limits. These new "single farm payment" will be linked to the respect of environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards. Severing the link between subsidies and production will make farmers more competitive and market oriented, while providing the necessary income stability. As the subsidy becomes a common component of all the alternatives of decision, the farmer will segregate that common component of the problem in the edition phase, starting to make decisions with base in negative results, what can determine the abandonment of the farming activity. This research work intends to know, to characterize and to identify the farmers' behavior in the Alentejo dryland region of Portugal, when they face to the emerging reality of the new Common Agricultural Policy. The Cumulative Prospect Theory allows to model the farmers' behavior, because besides defining that the results are appraised in agreement with variations in relation to the initial wealth, this theory treats in a differentiated way gains and losses. The value functions and the weighting probabilities are elicited by the Trade-off and Certainty Equivalent methods for a group of farmers in the Alentejo dryland region. These functions will constitute the objective function of a discrete sequential stochastic programming model, whose restrictions describe the crop and livestock farms in their productive, financial, commercial and taxes components. Model results show that the introduction of the total decoupling payments leads to the abandonment of the crop production in the Alentejo dryland region and an increase of the livestock production in the natural pastures. The crop farms stop producing, except the farms that have good soils continue to produce, although these farms do not produce durum wheat and they start to produce barley and oats. With respect to the beef cattle farms, these farms maintain the number of cattle heads, they increase the pasture and forage areas and they substitute durum wheat for oats and barley. The sheep farms reduce the number of cattle heads drastically and they substitute durum wheat for barley and oats.Farm Management,

THE ROLE OF AREA-YIELD CROP INSURANCE IN FARMERS' ADJUSTMENT AGAINST RISK IN A DRYLAND REGION OF PORTUGAL

This research develops a mathematical programming model to maximize the expected utility of the farmers' wealth-producing cereals in the Alentejo dryland region of Portugal, and it is used to determine the premium rate that crop farmers are willing to pay for reducing the variability of their incomes, and the Portuguese government subsidy of the premium rate in the case where the farmer is not willing to pay the totality of this.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty,

The Role of area-yield crop insurance program face to the Mid-term Review of Common Agricultural Policy

The mid-term review of Common Agricultural Policy increases the complexity of the decision-making process of farmers. The subsidies are substituted for a single decoupled income payment. The farmers decide what crops and livestock will produce based on climate, soils conditions and agricultural market signals and not based on subsidies granted to each one of the crop and livestock activities. The area-yield crop insurance program might have an important role on increasing production and facing natural catastrophes. This paper studies the introduction of the area-yield crop insurance program to reduce the risk originating from the variability of farmers' income and to compare this alternative with other agricultural policy alternatives in the context of the mid-term review of Common Agricultural Policy. The comparison of the introduction of the area-yield crop insurance program with other agricultural policy alternatives is made through an approach using concepts of the Cumulative Prospect Theory, because besides defining that the results are appraised in agreement with changes in relation to the initial wealth, this theory treats in a differentiated way gains and losses. A discrete sequential stochastic programming model with five states of nature is developed to study agricultural policy alternatives. The objective function is constituted by a set of functions (the value function and the probability weighting function) differentiated for gains and losses, in that the total value of the game is given by the sum of the positive and negative components. The value functions and the weighting probabilities are elicited by the Trade-off and Certainty Equivalent methods for a group of farmers in the Alentejo dryland region of Portugal. The set of constraint restrictions describes the environment in which the Alentejo farmers develop their crop and livestock activities in all their components: production, financial, marketing and taxes. Model results show the introduction of the area-yield crop insurance program with full decoupling of income payments from agricultural production under the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy has positive effects in the agricultural production. This new Agricultural Policy guarantees a minimum farm income, while the area-yield crop insurance program allows making face to the agricultural production variability and avoids the abandonment of the farming activity in the Alentejo dryland region.Cumulative Propospect Theory, Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy, Discrete Sequential Stochastic Programming Model, Area-Yield Crop Insurance program, Risk and Uncertainty,

Fair ground : festival phenomena : an urban park upgrade and transformation of the Southwest Bank of Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg South

“wherever the human spirit is free, people celebrate. All cultures commemorate what makes them distinctive and worthy in their own eyes. Periodically, a common humanity in us all sets aside the work and worry of everyday life and blossoms into festivity, sometimes even in the face of cultural domination and economic deprivation.” (Rinzler & Seitel, 1982, p.7) Various cultures exist and the display of specifi c group’s values, traditions and crafts in the form of an event becomes the ‘exciting experience’ longed for by the inhabitants of the city who crave an outlet from the everyday pressures and routine of life, desire a sense of belonging, want to express their suppressed desires or share an interest in the ideals or products being portrayed. These events require space, of various nature and size, which facilitate its range of needs from culturally relevant locations to necessary features. Globally, the urban setting has proved to be ideal when computing these space requirements and municipalities are going out of their way to create or maintain spaces to host these events for the wealth of social, spatial and economic stimulation they hold