We hypothesize that institutions such as agricultural cooperatives influence regional levels of variety diversity through input supply, processing or marketing functions. This diversity can also affect yield, a partial measure of crop productivity. We test these hypotheses with data from southern Italy, a mega-diversity spot and centre of diversity for durum wheat. Cooperatives in the southern ...

During the last decades, increasing ecology in reduction of environmental impact caused by traditional plastics is contributing to growth more sustainable with aim reduce consumption non-renewable resources for their production [...]

(31 Aug., p. 819) argue that, because current pricing practices do not internalize environmental costs, some mechanism other than the market is needed to protect environmental values. They propose a system of environmental credits-natural resource units (NRU's)-to be allocated to individuals and industrial organizations. Although their system is ingenious, I offer the following objections. 1) T...

2 Is cooperative action modern or old fashioned? Why should policymakers pursue it in development strategies? In what way are cooperatives different in terms of economic theory and organisation theory? And if there are differences in organisation, human resource management practices, property rights and forms of collective action, what are the governance issues to be addressed so as to allow co...