International Interlinkages of Biofuel Prices: The Role of Biofuel Policies

Based on their theoretical predictions, Kliauga, de Gorter, and Just (2008) and de Gorter, Drabik, and Just (2010) argue that the United States and the European Union establish the world ethanol and biodiesel prices, respectively. We test these theories using cointegration analysis and the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model. Weekly price series are analyzed for the major global biofuel producers (European Union, United States, and Brazil) for the period 2002 – 2010. Polices in the United States and Brazil appear to play an equal role in determining ethanol prices in other countries, thus only partially confirming the theoretical predictions. For biodiesel, our results demonstrate that the EU mandate impacts the world biodiesel price and thus they confirm the European Union’s price leadership established in theory.biofuels, biofuel polices, price leadership, VEC, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C32, Q16, Q17, Q47,

Vertikálna cenová transmisia v dodávateľskom reťazci slnečnicového oleja na Ukrajine

Sunflower is one of the most popular and extensively produced crops in Ukraine. Almost all production of sunflower is processed further into sunflower oil. During the last 20 years, the amount of produced and exported Ukrainian sunflower oil have increased markedly, so Ukraine has become the world’s biggest producer of sunflower oil and its exporter. However, due to the increasing industry concentration and rapid sunflower oil price growth starting from mid-2020, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine started its investigation of the sunflower oil supply for the possible competition issues. There are suspicions that there might be a collusion of sunflower oil producers aimed at an artificial price increase. Those concerns have motivated us to study the potential manifestation of market power in the Ukrainian sunflower oil supply chain. For this purpose, the Threshold Autoregressive Cointegration model was estimated, using monthly producer and consumer sunflower oil prices from January 2013 to September 2021. The results of this analysis bring evidence about a long-term cointegration between price pairs. Moreover, there is a noticeably more dynamic price correction for the negative deviations from the long-run equilibrium than for positive deviations.Slnečnica je jednou z najpopulárnejších a najviac pestovaných plodín na Ukrajine. Takmer celá produkcia slnečnice sa ďalej spracováva na slnečnicový olej. Za posledných 20 rokov sa výroba a export slnečnicového oleja na Ukrajine výrazne zvýšili, takže Ukrajina sa stala najväčším svetovým producentom a exportérom slnečnicového oleja na svete. V dôsledku zvyšujúcej sa koncentrácie priemyslu a rýchleho rastu cien slnečnicového oleja od polovice roku 2020 Protimonopolný úrad Ukrajiny začal vyšetrovanie hospodárskej súťaže vo výrobe slnečnicového oleja. Existujú podozrenia, že by mohlo existovať dohodu výrobcov slnečnicového oleja zameraná na umelé zvyšovanie cien. Tieto obavy nás motivovali preskúmať možnú prítomnosť trhovej sily v ukrajinskom dodávateľskom reťazci slnečnicového oleja. Na tento účel bol odhadnutý prahový model autoregresnej kointegrácie s použitím mesačných výrobných a spotrebiteľských cien slnečnicového oleja od januára 2013 do septembra 2021. Výsledky tejto analýzy prinášajú dôkazy o dlhodobom kointegračnom vzťahu medzi cenami. Naviac, pri záporných odchýlkach od dlhodobej rovnováhy sa ceny prispôsobili podstatne rýchlejšie ako pri kladných odchýlkach

The Price of BitCoin: GARCH Evidence from High Frequency Data

This is the first paper that estimates the price determinants of BitCoin in a Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity framework using high frequency data. Derived from a theoretical model, we estimate BitCoin transaction demand and speculative demand equations in a GARCH framework using hourly data for the period 2013-2018. In line with the theoretical model, our empirical results confirm that both the BitCoin transaction demand and speculative demand have a statistically significant impact on the BitCoin price formation. The BitCoin price responds negatively to the BitCoin velocity, whereas positive shocks to the BitCoin stock, interest rate and the size of the BitCoin economy exercise an upward pressure on the BitCoin price.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur

The impact of crop rotation and land fragmentation on farm productivity in Albania

In this study, we estimate the impact of land fragmentation and crop rotation on farm productivity in rural Albania. We employ a stochastic production frontier estimation approach to survey data collected among farm households in Albania in 2013. Our estimates suggest that land fragmentation improves farm efficiency, probably because it permits a better use of household labour during the production seasons. Our estimates also suggest that crop rotation increases farm efficiency. However, the impact of land fragmentation on on farm efficiency is far more pronounced

Pass-through of unfair trading practices in EU food supply chains

This report presents the results of the research project “Pass-Through of Unfair Trading Practices in EU Food Supply Chains: Methodology and Empirical Application”. The purpose of the project is to design and test a monitoring system of unfair trading practices (UTP) along the agri-food supply chain. The investigation has special focus on assessment of the “pass-through effect”, defined as the consequences for the entire supply chain of UTPs adopted in a specific transaction. The report includes: (i) a review of the economic literature for a better understanding of the economic principles of UTPs; (ii) a review of available data sources and past experiences in UTP monitoring; (iii) the illustration of two alternative approaches for UTP monitoring: B-SEA (broad-scope empirical analysis) and IDEA (in-depth analysis); (iv) a test application of the two approaches to the EU fresh fruit sector; (v) a comparative analysis of the IDEA and B-SEA results and (vi) a discussion of the implications of our research.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur

Spatial Price Transmission of Milk Prices Among the Visegrad Countries

When trading with homogenous goods, consumers are not able to distinguish between individual goods and thus not willing to pay a higher price, if the same product is available for lower price. This leads to an interesting effect, when prices of homogenous goods in different locations in an open market tend to get closer. It is the result of the so-called Law of One Price. Because of the Law of One Price, producers are affected not only by vertical price transmission, but also horizontally. The aim of this paper is to assess the linkage and patterns among the prices of cow’s raw milk in the V4 countries. We apply the price transmission methodology, such as unit root tests, cointegration tests, error correction models, and Granger causality tests. Monthly data for producer prices of raw milk are used, covering the period from January 2005 to June 2017. Our results confirm the existence of the Law of One Price when milk producer prices in different locations are co-integrated

SOME PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Slovak Republic was among ten new members joining European Union in May 2004. Since then the EU accession has influenced the social and economic aspects of life in the country and still continues to do so. The main purpose of this article is to present several problem areas of socio-economic development of Slovak agriculture. In details, we will focus to the position of agriculture in the National economy, development trends of Slovak Agriculture and transformation process, entrepreneurial structure and use of land, economic situation in Agriculture and the development of selected socio-economic indicators in agriculture. Finally, we will mention about the present situation and priorities of the Slovak Agricultural Policy