The structural transformation of agriculture in recent decades has raised serious concerns about the future of the family farm. This study examines the economic performance of U.S. farms, to explore the potential of smaller farms to compete with larger entities, and ultimately to survive in this rapidly changing environment. We use deterministic and stochastic frontier methods and survey data t...

In this paper we conduct a series of field experiments in rural India in order to measure preferences related to risk, loss, and ambiguity. Disaggregating by data, we find that on average women are significantly more risk averse and loss averse than men, though the higher average risk aversion arises due to a greater share of women who are extremely risk averse. Through a series of two empirica...

This work aims at demonstrating how the integration of the social responsibility in corporate strategy is a factor of competitiveness in the market, achieved through the full involvement of all stakeholders. The corporate social responsibility issue, still very controversial and difficult to univocally define, has been, in the latest years, of a fundamental importance in the business management...

This paper shows, in a two-sector Malthusian model of endogenous population growth, that output per capita, population density, and industrialization depend upon the labor intensity of agricultural production. Because the diminishing returns to labor are less pronounced, high labor intensity (as in rice production) leads not only to a larger population density but also to lower output per capit...

We examine the introduction of automatic air pollution monitoring to counter suspected tampering at local level, a central feature China’s “war on pollution.” Exploiting 654 regression discontinuity designs based city-level variation in day that was automated, we find an immediate and lasting increase 35 percent reported PM 10 concentrations post-automation. Moreover, automation’s increased onl...

The integration of markets may improve efficiency by lowering costs or reducing local market power. India, seeking to reduce electricity shortages, set up a new power market, in which transmission constraints sharply limit trade between regions. During congested hours, measures competitiveness fall and firms raise bid prices. I use confidential bidding data estimate the supply simulate outcomes...

There is active debate about the role of venture capital and entrepreneurship in advancing sustainability agrifood systems. Our contribution to this better understand agritech innovation intermediaries – organizations that foster by nurturing early-stage ventures. We present case Social Alpha, a “mission-oriented” intermediary based India, whose mission support innovations imp...

This paper investigates resources-related con‡icts in a small open economy through a game-theoretic approach. By endogenising the regime-switching mechanism, it models revolution and repression as the elite-civilian competition for control over resources, which is constrained by the opportunity costs of natural resources and labour. It shows that higher world resource prices tend to trigger con...

The paper deals with the determinants of labour out-migration from agriculture across 149 EU regions over the 1990-2008 period. The central aim is to shed light on the role played by CAP payments on this important adjustment process. Using static and dynamic panel data estimators, we show that standard neo-classic drivers, like the relative income and the relative labour share, represent signif...

This paper aims to examine the impacts of oil-price shocks on China’s price levels. To that end, we develop a partial transmission input-output model that captures the uniqueness of the Chinese market. We hypothesize and simulate price control, market factors and technology substitution the three main factors that restrict the functioning of a price pass-through mechanism during oil-price shock...