Cristina Brasili

Trends in dietary patterns and compliance with World Health Organization recommendations: a cross-country analysis.

OBJECTIVES To investigate time patterns of compliance with nutrient goals recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). DESIGN A single aggregated indicator of distance from the key WHO recommendations for a healthy diet is built using FAOSTAT intake data, bounded between 0 (maximum possible distance from goals) and 1 (perfect adherence). Two hypotheses are tested for different country groupings: (1) whether adherence has improved over time; and (2) whether cross-country disparities in terms of diet healthiness have decreased. SETTING One hundred and forty-nine countries, including 26 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 115 developing countries (including 43 least developed countries), with yearly data over the period 1961-2002. RESULTS The Recommendation Compliance Index (RCI) shows significant improvements in adherence to WHO goals for both developing and especially OECD countries. The latter group of countries show the highest levels of the RCI and the largest increase over time, especially between 1981 and 2002. No improvement is detected for least developed countries. A reduction in disparities (convergence of the RCI) is observed only within the OECD grouping. CONCLUSIONS Adherence to healthy eating guidelines depends on economic development. Diets are improving and converging in advanced economies, but developing and especially least developed countries are still far from meeting WHO nutrition goals. This confirms findings on the double burden of malnutrition and suggests that economic drivers are more relevant than socio-cultural factors in determining the healthiness of diets.

Regional differences in Chinese agriculture: Results from the 1997 First National Agricultural Census

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CHINESE AGRICULTURE The development of the Chinese agricultural sector and its capability to increase agricultural production is gaining a greater importance for food security and food trade on a worldwide scale. Considering the size of China, this could influence international food prices, and thus determine major problems for food-importing developing countries. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) remains predominantly a rural country, but its economy is characterized by strong macro-regional differences owing to factor endowments (human capital, resources and infrastructure) and differences in the structure of agriculture and other economic sectors. Economic development in China has registered uneven economic growth in favour of the coastal region (vs. inland and border ones), the urban areas (vs. rural areas) and the industrial sector (vs. the agricultural sector). During its transition the Chinese economic system faced strong structural changes. One of the main changes is certainly the reduction of the share of the agricultural sector in relation to total GDP and labour force. Indeed, the rural enterprises (or township and village enterprises, TVEs) are the leading and most dynamic elements in China’s economy. Therefore, the integration of agricultural activities with other economic activities in the rural areas is of great importance and interest [Biggeri, M., 1998; Giovannini, 2000].

Tools for evaluating EU agricultural policies: an integrated approach

The aim of this paper is to propose a theoretical “multi-phase” strategy for analysing in dynamic terms the territorial impact of agricultural and environmental EU policy measures. This approach should also allow to evaluate the adjustment capability of farms as a function of the characteristics of different territories. The proposed methodology is illustrated by an example using data relative to the 41 provinces of Northern Italy. In the first step, a multivariate statistical analysis (MSA) consisting in Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis leads to the identification of homogeneous clusters of territorial units. The territorial mapping is conditional to a predetermined set of indicators that takes into account different aspects of agricultural development. In a second step, Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) allows to introduce the impact of agricultural policies (compensatory payments, price changes, etc.) returning different scenarios of land use and agricultural profitability. According to the outputs of the PMP, the third step consists in a new MSA for detecting any changes in the territorial mapping. Convergence analysis can then synthesise the impact of the different policy options.

Dynamic Changes in China's Spatial Inequalities across Provinces and its Rural and Urban Areas

This paper aims to understand the nature and evolution of spatial disparities in China. Inthe first part, we perform a convergence analysis of the per capita income at province and subprovincelevel (1996-2009), using the kernel estimator on the distribution of this variable. Inthe second part of the paper we complement our analysis by looking at the changes occurredin the same period using a Multi-Dimensional Indicator of Development (mid), calculated foreach Chinese province and its rural and urban sub-provincial areas. The mid is composed offive dimensions (Macroeconomic Climate, Research and Innovation, Human Capital, Infrastructureand Economic Efficiency) and is used to rank the Chinese provinces and rural andurban areas according to their degree of development for the years 1996 and 2006. Thematicmaps of China representing the mid and its dimensions are provided in the paper to visualizethe changes occurred over time.

Localizzazione, specializzazione e sopravvivenza nell'industria alimentare italiana

The Food Industry in Italy is an important sector of Manufacturing Industry with a large diffusion all over Italy. It is mainly concentrate in the Northern regions, whereas in the Southern regions it is one of the most important sector of the weak Manufacturing Industry. This paper analyse the localisation and the specialisation of Food Industry by sectors. It shows the importance to deepen the analysis at more detailed territorial level, from regional, to province up to municipal level. The lower territorial level of analysis allow to identify the principal local system of production, for this purpose we have used the Census data of Industry 1991 and 1996. These data evidence the important structural changes that have occurred in the main food sectors (meat, dairy and fruit and vegetables) in the years between the two Census. The survival analysis confirms the food industry is a dynamic one and with deep differences among the main sectors.

La linea commerciale Vivi Verde Coop: andamenti, diffusione e prospettive future

Social, cultural and demographic changes due to economic growth lead to changes on food production patterns. Increased instruction levels, strong urbanization and consequent depopulation of rural areas, increased number of working women, increased wealth of families, growth and differentiation of food demand led to deep innovations in consumers priorities and choices: consumption behaviors are now more focused on food safety (search for secure, healthy and even biological food) rather than food security (the problem of food scarcity no longer affects the developed countries). Food producers and distributors, in particular large scale distribution, gradually adapted their strategies to meet the emerging consumers’ preferences. In this paper we analyze the brand management strategy ViviVerde” pursued by Coop and, with an analysis of the demand elasticity of the food products sold with the ViviVerde label (eggs, milk, fresh cheese, pasta, fruit juices) from January 2010 to May 2012.

The short-term effects of Emilia's earthquake on regional economic growth

Between May and June 2012 a series of earthquakes occurred in the Po Valley in Emilia, causing deaths and widespread damages to buildings and manufacturing plants. The negative economic consequences include, beyond direct damages, also indirect costs (e.g. economic loss through production chains with the damaged firms). This paper estimates the overall short-term impact on the GDP growth rate of Emilia-Romagna, the mostly affected region. Using a difference-in-differences approach and a coincident indicator of monthly economic cycle, we estimate a 0.2 percentage points reduction of economic growth rate.

Economic Growth and Dualism in Italian Regions: A Spatiotemporal Model

The topic of regional economics and business cycles has attracted increasing attention inrecent years. However, an analysis of the dynamics and the features of economic growth in different areas is hampered by the fact that official Italian GDP statistics at the regional level are not updated and have only an annual frequency. For this reason, we considered a high frequency and easily updatable Indicator of Regional Economic Activity that provides information on different dimensions of local business cycles and thus can be useful to policy makers. We propose a spatiotemporal hierarchical model of regional economicgrowth that isolates different sources of variability.

Agrifood districts and PDO, PGI, TSG productions

Industrial districts and PDO and PGI productions are peculiarities of the Italian socio-economic system. In the contemporary crises they registered positive economic performances. The linkages between those sectors led to creation of quality agri-food districts, instituted by the law 57/2001. Aim of this paper is to prove the existence of those realities, using the specialization indexes and the localization of geographical identified products, and to analyze their reactions to the economic crisis. Moreover the impact of the crisis is studied to stress the opportunities of development of this specific sector. The results could lead to new economic policies aimed to the development of those important realities, which are typical of the Italian economic system.

World trade and getting out the crisis of Italy and Germany

Italy and Germany are going out from the crisis following different patterns. Each one has an economical structure based on the manufacturing sector and could be defined ‘bazaar economies’. In the 2010 Italy grows less than Germany in a phase in which a structural change in the world trade is becoming and Germany also changes the countries from which imports. Thus, the growth of the German economy does not imply the increasing in Italian economy. The German success has been due to the reduction of costs and to the high quality production. Germany is overcoming the crisis increasing the productivity together to the wages reduction to improve the competitiveness. In this scenario Germany has focused its investments in research, high education and ICT skills.