Estimation of Cost Allocation Coefficients at the Farm Level Using an Entropy Approach

This paper aims to estimate the farm cost allocation coefficients from whole farm input costs. An entropy approach was developed under a Tobit formulation and was applied to a sample of farms from the 2004 FADN data base for Alentejo region, Southern Portugal. A Generalized Maximum Entropy model and Cross Generalized Entropy model were developed to the sample conditions and were tested. Model results were assessed in terms of their precision and estimation power and were compared with observed data. The entropy approach showed to be a flexible and valid tool to estimate incomplete information, namely regarding farm costs.Generalized maximum entropy; costs; estimation; Alentejo, FADN.

Entrepreneurial Intentions and Activities of Students at Portuguese Universities - 2018

Nowadays, there is great interest in the subject of entrepreneurship, considering the impact it has on the economy, and so on everyone’s life. Consequently, it is an important topic for everyone: politicians, governments, labour unions, investors, employers, academics, students and citizens. This report, which is based on the data collected through the international project Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS), gives insights into the entrepreneurial intentions and activities among the 4178 participants in the GUESSS 2018 survey, from a total of 25 Portuguese higher education institutions (see the appendix for the list of the Portuguese participant institutions). In 2018, the Portuguese participation in the GUESSS project was coordinated by a team of professors from the Management Department of the School of Social Sciences, University of Évora, namely Rui Quaresma (coordinator), Jorge Casas Novas and Rui Fragoso, also researchers from Centre for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics (CEFAGE-UE). The GUESSS project was founded in 2003 at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and is presently organized and managed through a cooperation between that university and the University of Bern, also in Switzerland. Currently, is one of the largest entrepreneurship research projects in the world, and the eight editions that have already taken place (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013/2014, 2016, and 2018) generated data that have been used by various researchers involved in the data collection process for publications in top journals such as the Journal of Business Venturing or Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. We hope that the data presented and analysed in the following pages may be useful

CLUSTERING OF TERRITORIAL AREAS: A MULTI-CRITERIA DISTRICTING PROBLEM

Endogenous resources, economic profile and socio-economic issues are the criteria that define the development level and the identity features of a territorial unit. The territorial units that organize the country, in political and administrative terms – parishes and counties –, have a hierarquical structure, which initially reflected the organization of productive activities as well as the tradition State organization. The success of development policies addressed to territorial agglomerates depends on its homogeneity and of their territorial units. Facing to this the clustering of territorial areas can be stated as a districting multi-criteria problem. Thus, this paper aims to propose a framework for obtaining homogenous territorial clusters based on a Pareto frontier that includes multicriteria related to the territorial endogenous resources, economic profile and sociocultural features. This framework is developed in two phases. First, the criteria correlated with the development at the territory unit level are determined through statistical and econometric methods. Then, a multi-criteria approach is developed to allocate each territory unit to an agglomerate of territory according to the Pareto frontier established. The framework is applied to the context of a set of parishes and counties of the Alentejo Central region, southern Portugal. Results are presented and discussed in the scope of a regional strategy of development

A minimum cross entropy model to generate disaggregated agricultural data at the local level

This work presents an entropy approach to disaggregate agricultural data at a local level. It comprises two different steps. In a first one, an information prior at disaggregated level based on experts’ opinions, available cartography of land use and biophysical data is created. In a second step, it’s used a minimum cross entropy process in order to manage these information inputs and to guaranty a solution compatible with all the different restrictions. The model was applied to the region of Algarve in the year of 1999, in order to disaggregate the data at the pixel and county level. Results show that the model was able to provide some satisfactory results since the estimated values obtained for the different areas revealed a good approximation to the true values. These results were then analyzed and provided a new insight about the policies’ consequences in the territory.Minimum cross entropy, data disaggregation, local level, Algarve, agricultural policies, Agricultural and Food Policy, C11, C81, Q15, R14,

Recovery of Incomplete Data of Statistical Livestock Number Applying an Entropy Approach

Livestock Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Avaliação e Impacte Ambiental e Económico de Medidas Agro-ambientais no Contexto da Evolução da PAC: O caso da Sementeira Directa no Sistema de Produção de Culturas Arvenses de Sequeiro da Região Alentejo

A consciencialização da necessidade de desenvolver sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis, de reduzir os impactes ambientais das práticas agrícolas e o compromisso da UE integrar as questões ambientais na política agrícola (PAC) traduziu-se na obrigatoriedade do cumprimento da ecocondicionalidade e na implementação de medidas agro-ambientais nos Estados-Membros. O principal objectivo deste artigo é avaliar ambiental e economicamente o sistema de produção agrícola de sequeiro da região Alentejo e os efeitos da medida agro-ambiental - sementeira directa no contexto de evolução da PAC, nomeadamente com a Agenda 2000 e com a aplicação do Regime de Pagamento Único (RPU). Determinam-se indicadores agro-ambientais e económicos de actividades e tecnologias agrícolas para posterior incorporação num modelo de programação linear da exploração agrícola tipo desse sistema de produção. Os resultados do modelo indicam que a sementeira directa permite obter melhores níveis de rendibilidade e menores impactes ambientais na generalidade dos temas ambientais. A aplicação do RPU e em simultâneo a não obrigatoriedade de set aside, melhora a rendibilidade pois o efeito do aumento da área cultivada é superior ao efeito da modulação. Com o RPU e, consequente desligamento das ajudas, verifica-se uma redução acentuada do preço sombra da terra e dos valores duais dos indicadores ambientais, significando que o decréscimo de margem líquida associado à redução de uma unidade de impacte ambiental é menor que nas medidas políticas anteriores, o que favorece a implementação de medidas ambientais que exigirão encargos orçamentais adicionais muito menores

Economical and environmental trade-offs of traditional Mediterranean dry farming systems in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

This paper aims assessing the economic and environmental trade-offs of traditional Mediterranean dry farming systems in the Alentejo region, southern Portugal. An environmental analysis using environmental indicators, such as the nitrogen balance, energy input, greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, eutrophication impacts, as well as an aggregated eco-indicator were developed. For assessing economic returns of farming systems, a budgeting analysis was carried out. Then the environmental and economic analysis was integrated in a linear programming model which was developed for a regional farm type. This model was used to assess the farm net profit under different policy measures, as well as to obtain the economic trade-off of each environmental indicator through its dual solution regarding the respective shadow prices. Results show that farm net profit greatly varies among crops for the different policy scenarios considered and the economic and environmental trade-offs highlights the important role other crops than cereals in rotations for promoting the sustainability of Mediterranean crop system

Sustainability of crop and livestock dominant dryland system of Alentejo region: do they have large differences in economic returns and environmental consequences?

This paper presents a case study with two traditional Mediterranean-type farming systems: grazing dominant and cropping dominant, of the Alentejo region of Portugal. Farming systems traditional of the Alentejo area and of the Mediterranean region are compared in terms of economic returns, environmental impacts and trade-offs. Methodological aspects for environmental impacts evaluation during cradle-to-gate of a product are assessed through two tools: Life Cycle Assessment and Input-Output analysis with environmental accounts. These tools reveal and quantify environmental occurring within supply chain of a good or service and define a solid base for their environmental performances assessment. The application of these two tools is believed to yield more benefits than if used separately. Such combination delivers solid results that can be used for an economic evaluation of environmental impacts. For each farming system it is developed a linear programming model that emphasizes the biology and economics of the farming systems. The objective function is profit maximization, subject to managerial, resource and environmental constraints. Shadow prices are compared for both cropping systems to evaluate cost and efficiency of policies that constrains environmental consequences and promote sustainability

Sinergias entre instituições de ensino superior e empresas

Mestrado em GestãoEste trabalho procura fazer um ponto de situação sobre o momento actual no que se refere à cooperação entre Universidade-Empresa. Iremos caracterizar cada um dos intervenientes neste processo, dando a devida atenção às principais motivações, constrangimentos, críticas e desafios que cada um deles enfrenta. Tendo sempre como pano de fundo a realidade Portuguesa, iremos mais além mostrando os exemplos de Taiwan, Brasil, Reino Unido e Índia, destacando as melhores práticas e a sua consequente aplicabilidade no paradigma Português. Ao longo de todo o trabalho e também nos pontos específicos, daremos conta dos riscos e barreiras que a cooperação apresenta e sugerimos soluções para as mesmas. Debruçamo-nos sobre os problemas éticos, limitativos do processo de cooperação e clarificamos as questões ligadas à propriedade intelectual. No final pretendemos apresentar uma clara visão de todo o processo de cooperação Universidade-Empresa assim como das variantes que afectam o seu sucesso.With this paper it’s our purpose to analyze the current moment in the cooperation between University-Business . We will specify the role of each of the parts, excel the motivations, constraints, criticisms and challenges that the process faces. Along this essay we will always have the Portuguese reality as a background, but we will also present some examples from Taiwan, Brazil, UK and India where we can find some of the best practices to apply to the Portuguese paradigm. Throughout this work, and also in specific points, we will excel the risks and barriers that cooperation faces and bring up solutions to it. We will also focus our analysis in the ethical problems as they can be a barrier to the process itself. It’s our goal to bring a clear idea of intellectual property on this specific matter. By the end of our work, we want to present a new vision from the whole process University-Enterprise cooperation going deeply on the success variants evolved

Clustering of Territorial Areas: A Multi-Criteria Districting Problem

Endogenous resources, economic profile and socio-economic issues are the criteria that define the level of development and identifying features of a territorial unit. The territorial units that organize the country, in political and administrative terms ? parishes and counties ?, have a hierarchical structure, which initially reflected the organization of productive activities as well as the traditional State organization. The success of development policies addressed to territorial agglomerates depends on the homogeneity of their territorial units. In this context, the clustering of territorial areas can be stated as a multi-criteria districting problem. Thus, this paper aims to propose a framework for obtaining homogenous territorial clusters based on a Pareto frontier that includes multiple criteria related to territories' endogenous resources, economic profile and socio-cultural features. This framework is developed in two phases. First, the criteria correlated with development at the territorial unit level are determined through statistical and econometric methods. Then, a multi-criteria approach is developed to allocate each territorial unit to a territorial agglomerate, according to the Pareto frontier established. The framework is applied to a set of parishes and counties of the Central Alentejo region in southern Portugal. Results are presented and discussed in the scope of a regional development strategy. The results of multiple linear regression analysis show us the most important variables in explaining the differences in development in the area considered. We conclude, as expected, that the more elderly the population or the higher the school drop-out rate, the lower the area's development. On the other hand, the greater the active population or the rate of employment in tertiary social activities, the greater is the development. In the 2nd part of the analysis, we started from the current situation in terms of administrative organization of parishes. The results of the Max-p-model show that tests to increase the homogeneity between parishes, using the variables of population size and area, it is possible to reduce the disparity between parishes, reducing the number of units. The simulations show that the number of parishes may be lower if the variable of analysis is population size. This result takes into account the wide disparity of the population in current parishes, as well as the small number of inhabitants in most places