This study provides an empirical assessment of the competitiveness of Albanian dairy and wine production, based on specifically collected survey data. For both product groups, the analysis is carried out on two levels: farm level production of raw material and processing and manufacturing of the...

The objectives of this study are (i) to analyse the current state of socio-economic sustainability of SFHs and identify the main types of SFH, and (II) to assess the impact of the 2005 EC Rural Development Measures on SFHs' socio-economic sustainability.

This paper is concerned with agri-environmental policy in Germany and focuses in particular on soil and water conservation. At first it discusses to what extent agriculture contributes to erosion and the pollution of surface waters and groundwater with nutrients and pesticides. Whereas erosion...

The present study aims at modelling the impact of different CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) scenarios on 6 case study regional economies. The starting point is the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) obtained through a combination of mechanical downscaling of higher level...

Social capital is defined as the shared knowledge, trust, and culture, embodied in the structural forms of networks and other stable inter-agent relationships. Social capital has been shown to be more difficult to build than economic capital, and to have greater beneficial effects for community...

Over the years a number of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms have led to the emergence of a CAP chapter specifically dedicated to rural development, also referred as Pillar 2, and have resulted in a progressive switch of CAP budget from Pillar 1 (i.e. direct support to farmers, including...

This paper argues that mainstream economics does not follow the positivist research tradition it (often implicitly) claims to follow and expresses some serious doubt that econometrics in particular can make economics a hard science. Mathematical rigour and sophisticated statisti-cal techniques...