Adele Finco

Pathways to Urban Sustainability

The concept of sustainable development has become very much in vogue in the past decade. We have also observed a shift in the interpretation of this concept from a global perspective to a meso perspective—that is, at a local, regional or sectoral level. This paper aims at highlighting the urban dimension of environmental issues. After a sketch of urban pollution problems and of tools for economic analysis, the notion of urban sustainability will be advocated as a meaningful analytical and policy concept. Next, the main focus of this paper will be on a typological approach to urban sustainability issues on the basis of three characteristic angles, viz. strong and weak sustainability, absolute and relative decoupling and the spatial ecological footprint. Various methodological issues will also be discussed, while the paper will conclude with some perspectives on policy issues. Copyright

Exploring consumers’ behaviour towards short food supply chains

Purpose – Investigating the drivers of consumers’ behaviour towards purchasing in short food supply chains (SFSCs) and clarifying their relationships, the purpose of this paper is to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in order to predict the intention and the behaviour under investigation. Design/methodology/approach – The research includes a literature review of SFSCs. To investigate all the variables (attitudes, subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and intention) underlying consumers’ behaviour towards buying in SFSCs, an exploratory survey with a TPB questionnaire and a principal component analysis have been carried out among university students in Italy. Using a system of simultaneous equations, the relationships among variables have been measured. Findings – Findings illustrate that both attitudinal variables (i.e. sustainability, typicality and loyalty), SN and PBC play a key role in the consumers’ intention, that has a predictive effect on behaviour instead of PBC. Ori...

Integrated evaluation of biofuel production options in agriculture: an exploration of sustainable policy scenarios

This paper addresses the future potential of biofuel production in agriculture, with a particular view to its implementation in agriculture in Europe. After a brief account of recent developments, an exploratory meta-analysis is presented in order to assess the effectiveness of biofuel production from the perspective of several relevant policy criteria. Next, various scenarios are outlined and evaluated by means of a multi-criteria analysis, so as to judge the feasibility of various biofuel production options. The paper concludes with some policy lessons.

A Comparison Between Ethanol and Biodiesel Production: The Brazilian and European Experiences

Industrialized countries’ dependence on fossil fuels has been distressing for a long time for countries that do not have self-sufficiency, whether for environmental, economic, geopolitical, or other reasons. In this context, it is understood that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) increasing the risk of intensifying climatic disturbances that can deteriorate the processes of production, consumption, and welfare in the world. Therefore, the development of alternative energy sources can provide solutions for the gaps, since reducing exposure to the vulnerability of supply and price volatility, environmental issues, and even the development of new investment opportunities in these countries. This is due to the possibility of developing innovations in the production and processing industry, which would contribute to the economic activity. Thus, increasing the use of bioenergy is one of the existing ways to reconcile the need to expand the supply of energy with the slowdown in global warming, i.e., the most important and disseminated use would be the biomass power generated by the consumption of biofuels, once it reduces GGE emissions.

European biodiesel market and rapeseed oil: what impact on agricultural food prices?

The last decade has seen a rapid increase in the production and consumption of biodiesel in the EU. This development has been especially stimulated by EU policy as a means to promote energy security and to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, in recent years, biodiesel production has been questioned due to the possible impact on food prices. This paper aims to explore the impact of EU biodiesel prices on diesel and rapeseed oil prices, using a Vector Error Corrections Model (VECM). Impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions are also computed in order to investigate the interrelationships within the relevant time series. Unlike the predominant literature, which mainly addresses the US and Brazilian ethanol sector, this paper focuses on the European biodiesel market. Our results suggest that biodiesel prices are mainly affected by feedstock prices, but there is no strong evidence that changes in biodiesel prices affect food prices.

Disponibilità a pagare per la qualità di un olio extravergine locale

Extra virgin olive oil is one of the most important product of the Italian agri-food sector. Starting from this point of view, the present analysis enhances Italy’s effort to create quality food products with higher added value and valorise the local extra virgin olive oil for the domestic and global market. This paper aims to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (wtp) for extra virgin olive oil available in the Italian local market (Marche region) with a view to providing some useful insights to outline strategies for promotion of olive oil production. The notion of willingness to pay could be defined as the amount of money represented by the difference between consumers’ surplus before and after adding or improving a given food product attribute. The consumer might be willing to pay more for higher quality, thus compensating for the higher production costs, if the differences in the quality were efficiently communicated to the consumers. The method used in this study is the contingent valuation method that requires a survey in which the consumers are asked how much they would be willing to pay for a higher quality product. The data derives from a survey conducted in Marche region’s supermarkets. The questionnaire contained 4 sections: consumption habits and quality perceptions (section 1), consumers’ opinion (section 2), elicitation willingness to pay (section 3) and socio-economic characteristics (section 4). The elicitation format adapted is a dichotomic choice - double bounded. The empirical results reveal that the consumers are willing to pay a premium for the local extra virgin olive oil certified by the public administration (qm-Quality Marche). The consumers consider the local product as an additional assurance concerning food safety and quality. The paper is divided into six sections. After the introductory section, in the section 1 we discuss the conceptual framework of contingent evaluation. Section 2 and 3 present the methodology in terms of survey design and the model’s specifi- cation. The results of the study are shown and discussed in Section 4. The last section provides the summary and conclusion of the study

GHG balance of biodiesel production and consumption in EU

The promotion of biofuels as energy for transportation in the industrialised countries is mainly driven by the perspective of oil depletion, concerns about energy security and global warming. Nevertheless, the production of biofuels entails emissions to the environment coming from the different stages in the product life cycle. This paper evaluates the environmental impact of pure rapeseed biodiesel (B100) production and consumption in the public transport sector, in terms of GHG emissions released by every stage in the life cycle, in order to identify proper interventions to reduce the emissions. The methodology applied to this purpose is an Attributional Life Cycle Analysis (ALCA). The Agricultural phase results to be the process that produces the highest GHG emissions, mainly because of the production and the use of nitrogen fertiliser.

Comparing Italian and Brazilian consumers’ attitudes towards Short Food Supply Chains

According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, this work investigates consumers’ attitudes towards the intention to buy local food in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), carrying out a survey among university students in Italy and Brazil. Results show that sustainability and food safety mostly influence consumers’ behavior in both countries. However, the main differences emerged are related to the fact that Italian consumers recognized the SFSCs as a catalyst for new employment opportunities and local development, whereas the role of short chains on life quality and wellbeing is stressed by Brazilian ones.

PAC II pilastro: prime valutazioni nella programmazione 2007-2013

Nowadays, there is no doubt that Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents the main support to rural development across the whole Italian territory. Offering the potential to learn from experience, the paper is here concerned with the quantitative evaluation of Italian regional programs under the 2007-2013 CAP’s Pillar II, considering both national and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development’s funding to Pillar II at the end of December 2013. The empirical analysis shows some relevant discrepancies in funding allocation among both rural development’s axis and measures and different regions in Italy, and also between planned and declared expenditure. This reflects a scarce efficiency of public spending and some unsatisfactory rural development’s performance.

The Italian coffee import: a gravity model analysis

After the US and Germany, Italy is the third world’s largest importer of green coffee, above all from Brazil, Vietnam and India, being also the second roasted coffee producer, exporter and consumer in EU, after Germany. Given the importance of coffee import in Italy, this paper applies the gravity model to investigate the influence of the main variables affecting the Italian coffee import. In particular, the aim of this paper is to identify the most influent factors determining the level of import flows between Italy and its 11 main coffee export partners. Our results show that the exporters’ GDP, their coffee production, the distance between the Italian capital town and those of the other partners, and finally the continental territorial boundary affect the Italian coffee import, as well as the tradition to drink coffee and the consumers’ demand for quality.