Fabian Capitanio

Indications for drivers of innovation in the food sector

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse the main dynamics of the Italian food system, focusing on the relationships between the inclination to innovate and a set of firm characteristics.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis includes two steps. In the first, principal component analysis is carried out in order to identify factors that can explain the features that differentiate Italian food firms. In the second phase the role of such factors on innovation behaviour is quantified by means of a logit model.Findings – The empirical analysis showed that, in the Italian food sector, innovation adoption follows different patterns when product or process innovation is considered. In particular, the probability of introducing product innovation is influenced by the quality of human capital, the geographical context and, to a lesser extent, the age of the firm.Research limitations/implications – The research is restricted in so far as it only considers the Italian food sector. Because the da...

Farmer Participation, Entry and Exit Decisions in the Italian Crop Insurance Programme

The factors affecting the demand for agricultural insurance in the USA have been extensively studied over the last two decades. However, the determinants of a farms entry and exit decisions in the insurance market have received relatively little attention. Turnover in the insurance book of business is an important issue in most private and public crop insurance plans. Moreover, insurance markets in the EU are still largely under-investigated. We investigate empirically the determinants of crop insurance participation in Italy. We show that the participation rate is high for large firms and that it is negatively correlated with crop diversification, which is itself a form of insurance. High premiums tend to inhibit both entry and exit from the insurance market. Larger and wealthier farms are more likely to adopt insurance and renew coverage over time. We discuss implications of our results for public intervention and the private industry. In particular, we demonstrate that the decision to drop coverage by an insured grower may differ significantly from the corresponding decision to enroll in an insurance programme by an uninsured farmer. To the extent that policymakers want to encourage participation in subsidized crop insurance programmes, education and outreach efforts toward uninsured farmers may differ substantially from those directed toward keeping insured farmers enrolled in the programme. We investigate these differences.

Does market competitiveness significantly affect public intervention in agricultural insurance: the case in Italy

Analyses of agricultural insurance failures often assume the existence of competitive supply, tracing the reasons for high insurance cost and limited farmer participation to informational problems, and suggesting the need for premium subsidization in order to increase participation. However, in countries such as Spain and Italy, where agricultural insurance is most highly subsidized, it could be that supply is not fully competitive. In this article, we explore the incidence of public subsidies to agricultural insurance premia when supply is noncompetitive. Through the use of a simple empirical model of an insurance market, it is shown that, while in the case of a competitive supply, subsidies to insurance would benefit farmers, a monopolistic supply would capture most of the subsidy, thus eliminating the potential incentive towards wider participation by farmers. The model is applied to a panel of Italian farms for different levels of risk aversion to demonstrate the limited effect that a subsidy to a hypothetical all risk yield insurance would have on farmer participation in the case of monopolistic supply.

What Foods are Identified as Animal Friendly by Italian Consumers

In the Italian market, voluntary certifications implying higher levels of animal welfare generally fall into wider production schemes. Despite of the results of EU surveys indicating that about 50% of Italian consumers can easily identify and find animal-friendly products, they still are distributed scarcely or discontinuously in the main retail chains. To assess the apparent contradiction between the intricate information consumers receive from labels and their declared awareness about animal welfare, a survey was conducted in Emilia Romagna region on 355 Italian consumers (face-to-face interviews based on a structured, semi-close-ended questionnaire). Overall, consumers showed a low degree of knowledge about animal welfare attributes, animal farming conditions and animal protection policies (about 30% of correct answers), and a low level of awareness of the effects of their purchasing choices on the welfare of farmed animals (22%). The respondents also showed difficulties in identifying animal-friendly products and often confused them with other certified foods, having sometimes a weak connection (or none at all) to animal welfare (e.g., Protected Designation of Origin products). However, most consumers declared to be ready to pay a premium price in name of animal welfare. In conclusion, a labelling system for the welfare content of animal-derived foods is confirmed to be an effective strategy to compensate the efforts of farmers in improving animal welfare, provided that the information given is clear and able to fill the substantial lack of consumer knowledge.

Integrating Agricultural Risks Management Strategies in Selected EU Partner Countries: Syria, Tunisia, Turkey

Dynamics and transitions in the agricultural sector of emerging countries are not well understood yet. A decade of major political and economic changes is challenging the Mediterranean Economies, affecting the primary sectors of transition economies which are largely influenced by recent trends. The resulting exposure of agriculture to risks has called great attention on risk management strategies and public intervention. We explore their role in three different economies with a view to a unified policy framework. The analysis is conducted through a field activity in Syria, Tunisia and Turkey that has allowed to understand the key issues. The experts’ opinions draw a clear picture of retrospect and prospects and stimulate a comparative analysis that widens the current knowledge of risk management in the EU Partner Countries.

Crop Insurance Subsidies and Environmental Externalities: Evidence from Southern Italy

Rapid environmental changes can affect agriculture by introducing additional sources of uncertainty. Conversely, policy interventions to help farmers cope with risks can induce strong impacts on the environment. In this paper, the authors evaluate the effects of public risk management programmes, particularly subsidies on crop insurance, on fertilizer use and land allocation. They implement a mathematical programming model based on data collected from 1,092 farms in the Puglia region of southern Italy. The results show that, under the current crop insurance programmes, input use is expected to increase, while the effect on production is likely to be crop-specific. The policy and environmental implications of subsidies on crop insurance are discussed.

Economic issues on food safety

A globalised food trade, with a huge increase of the exchanged volume, extensive production and complex supply chains are contributing towards an increased number of microbiological food safety outbreaks. All of these factors are putting pressure on the stakeholders, either public or private, in terms of rule and control. In fact, this scenario could force manufacturers to be lenient towards food safety control intentionally, or unintentionally, and result in a major foodborne outbreak that causes health problems and economic loss. As a response to emerging calls for the adoption of a systemic approach to food safety, we try to identify and discuss the several related economics issue in this field. Based on an extensive analysis of academic and policy literatures on the economic effects of global environmental change at different stages of the food system, we highlight the main issues involving economists in the field of food safety. In the first part, we assessed the several approaches and problems related to the evaluation of food safety improvements, followed by an overview of drivers of food safety demand in the second part. The third section is devoted to discussing changes occurred at the institutional level in building and managing food safety policies. The last section summarises the main considerations aroused from the work.

A case-study on profiling Italian consumers of animal-friendly foods

Abstract Our research is based on 335 consumer interviews, conducted near and within supermarkets and hypermarkets in Bologna (North-Italy) and in its province. A multiple correspondence analysis followed by a cluster analysis were carried out in order to profile consumers based on their knowledge of farming conditions, their knowledge of “animal friendly” products and their willingness to pay for them. The analysis identified four groups of consumers (clusters). Groups were called: (1) “sensible and aware consumers” (36%); (2) “unconcerned consumers” (33%); (3) “the insiders” (6%) and (4) “uninvolved consumers” (25%). The first group represents an important market segment for “animal friendly” products. However, a diffused lack of knowledge was observed towards the issues of animal welfare and animal protection. These results urge a reflection on the needs and the risks that may underlie the creation of a shared European label for animal-friendly foods in order to minimize the risk of a failure of the certification scheme.

La gestione del rischio nella zona DOCG Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, valutazioni economiche

The risk management policy in agriculture has become particularly prominent, considering the evolution of the CAP and the dreaded climate change. The aim is the evaluation of economic convenience to join to risk management tools provided to winegrowers in the DOCG area of Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. The study makes use of specific information gathered by Condifesa and proposes an original efficiency indicator of the subsidies. The analysis shows that the subsidized insurance alone is no longer the most adequate. Only the drafting of a supplementary coverage can minimize the loss function. The prediction of more severe weather events suggests that maybe only a higher risk perception can be an enticing premise for the development of a solid insurance market.

Vulnerability Of Agricultural Areas To Climatic Risk And Effectiveness Of Risk Management Policy Scheme In Italy

At the global level, risk management tools are under discussion, in particular in the agricultural sector, in relation to its vulnerability to climatic risk. The main question points refer to the effectiveness of the most common current policy schemes, based on public support to insurances and compensation aids, in relation to the patterns of risk analysis in the context of climate change. Italy has a long tradition of risk management in agriculture because of the heterogeneity of climatic conditions. The present study has been conducted by Council for Agricultural Research and Economics to explore the potential of the current risk management scheme. One of the more relevant aspects studied is the demand for risk management in terms of exposure to disasters of the agricultural areas and their vulnerability. Crossing this analysis with the policy scheme, it is possible to assess its effectiveness in covering climatic risks. The results show that the current system based on economic tools needs a strong integration into a wider framework of risk assessment and policy strategies addressing climate change adaptation, in synergy with other structural and management measures.