Innovation and new technology adoption represent two central elements for the enterprise and industry development process in agriculture. The objective of the paper is to provide an ex-ante analysis of the effectiveness of alternative policy design options concerning the RDP measures intended to...

Albania is a transition country aspiring to become a member of EU, while it is expected that it will become Candidate member within 2012, enabling access to IPARD funding. EU integration implies more opportunities, in form of subsidies for rural and agriculture development, but also imposes...

Agricultural landscape is a complex system composed by interrelated ecological, economic and social sub-systems. Disentangling interactions and mechanisms in such a context is, therefore, difficult and involves knowledge and methodologies developed in different scientific fields. In this paper...

Literature on innovation adoption mechanism has emphasised the positive effect of Single Farm Payments (SFP) and Rural Development Payments on adoption of new technologies. In this context, the expected process of CAP reforming after 2013 is likely to strengthen the role of innovation in the...

A comprehensive quantification of biodiversity in farming systems would require a very significant amount of work (and funds) even for a small area. Therefore, biodiversity indicators are needed to solve the problem of the measurement feasibility. Even though the issue of cost and effectiveness...

This paper discusses how environmental indicators and multicriteria methodologies can support the ex post evaluation of Agri-Environmental Schemes. The paper is based on information from the Mid term evaluation of the Rural Development Programmes and develops around an example that compares...

EU agriculture and arable crops in particular are suffering from competitiveness deficits compared to other producers in the world economy. One potential strategy to cope with competitiveness challenges is to focus on research and technological innovation. The objective of this paper is to...

The aim of this paper is to test the relevance of considering private fixed transaction costs for contract design of Agri-Environmental Schemes, when transaction costs are negatively correlated to marginal compliance costs. In order to do so, a principal-agent model of contract design under...

The CAP reform process has been a central issue for agricultural economics research in recentyears, and is gaining further attention in view of the post-2013 perspectives.The objective of this paper is to assess ex-ante the effect of different post-2013 CAP and marketscenarios on the demand of...

Acknowledgements -- Introduction / ASHOK MISHRA, DAVIDE VIAGGI, AND SERGIO GOMEZ-Y-PALOMA -- The relationship between farm families and the structure of agriculture / MARY C. AHEARN AND WALTER ARMBRUSTER -- Influence of cap on social sustainability in Greek and Bulgarian rural areas / D....