The World Health Organization has stated that obesity is spreading around the world like a “global epidemic”. In 2004 the percentage of obese people in the Italian population was 9%, but the trend s increasing in recent years. Focusing on this country, the purpose of the paper is to analyze...

The objective of this study has been to analyze the sensitivity of trade flow to trade barriers from gravity equations, using different econometric techniques recently highlighted in the literature. Specifically, we compare a benchmark OLS fixed effects specification a la Feenstra (2002), with...

In this study the case of olive oil imports of Germany is examined since olive oil is a traditional Mediterranean commodity and Germany is the biggest importer in the EU. A gravity model has been employed so as to analyse those factors that explain the German imports of olive oil that were...

The protection of geographical indications, organic certification and food quality assurance schemes are the cornerstones of European food quality policy. In this paper the importance of these voluntary quality policy schemes in the different Member States of the European Union is investigated....

This article measures the advantage granted by the European Union to different Mediterranean countries in the fruit and vegetables sector in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements. The advantage of each country are evaluated by calculating the value of the preferential...

This paper aims at considering policy regimes while studying international price transmission mechanisms. The focus is on the soft wheat market between the United States and the European Union in the years 1978-2003. EU domestic and border policies are expected to play a strong role; a...

Large differences in terms of economic and social development across countries and smaller regions are one of the most important hinders for effective implementations of sustainable development. This paper presents a methodological approach to measure differences of economic and social...

On the basis of our examinations we have come to the conclusion that longitudinal examinations are the simplest and most up-to-date methods as well as the most cost-efficient ones to follow the decision-making, preparatory data collecting, processing and analysing opportunities serving the...

In this paper, the prescriptive capacity of different types of positive mathematical programming models applied to the Alentejo agricultural sector is analysed. Model results are compared for 2000 and 2004 agricultural price and subsidies scenarios, regarding optimal combination of activities....

Due to the complexity of general and partial equilibrium models, conventional sensitivity analysis, qualitative reviews or literature-based meta-analyses do not allow for detailed assessments of the role of individual parameters and policy shocks across different models. Therefore, the partial...