Since the end of the quasi-moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMO) in the European Union in 2004, the establishment of GMO-free zones has become an EU wide phenomenon. In contrast to other European countries, Germany follows the concept of cooperative GMO-free zones where neighbouring...

Research on agricultural development in China has increasingly paid attention to the potentially negative effects of highly fragmented farm structures. This study provides a deeper theoretical understanding of the linkages between land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply and investigates...

Using a unique dataset of a commercial microfinance institution in Madagascar, this paper investigates how the provision of microfinance loans with (in)flexible repayment schedules affects loan delinquencies of agricultural borrowers. Flexible repayment schedules allow a redistribution of...

Based on farm panel data we empirically investigate the determinants of Polish farm households 'flexibility from 1994 to 2001. We focus on scale flexibility (adjustment in production volume) and scope flexibility (adjustment in product mix). The findings of our fixed-effects regression provide...

Politicians and farm lobbyists frequently use the argument that agricultural policy is necessary to safeguard jobs in agriculture. We explore whether this is true by conducting an econometric ex-post evaluation of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the three East German...

This paper shows how the involvement of local governments and individuals allowed the successful creation of a public-private partnership for agricultural marketing in South-Eastern Poland, despite a generally negative perception of cooperation among the rural population. While the regional...

‘Productivity and efficiency growth enhances competitiveness’. Similarly formulated statements are common in the literature on the economic performance of firms, industries and nations. This conventional perception in the economic literature, originating from trade and growth theory models,...

Even after more than 15 years of transition from plan to market, agriculture in Ukraine still faces many challenges in terms of its structure. The evidence in the literature points to significant heterogeneity of technical efficiency and productivity scores in Ukraine. Moreover, both the...