Giacomo Giannoccaro

Criteria and methodology for the evaluation of water opportunity cost

Con il D.L.152/2006, lo Stato Italiano recepisce la direttiva comunitaria sulle acque 2000/60/CE. In particolare, i costi opportunita vengono interpretati come “i costi delle mancate opportunita imposte ad altri utenti in conseguenza dello sfruttamento intensivo delle risorse al di la del loro livello di ripristino e ricambio naturale”. La molteplicita di utilizzi dell’acqua e dei contesti operativi rende molto difficoltosa la valutazione del costo opportunita. A tal proposito, emerge che, mentre e gia disponibile un’abbondante letteratura relativa agli aspetti teorici e metodologici, i casi di studio reali (soprattutto ex-post) relativi ad analisi di progetti di investimento per l’ampliamento delle disponibilita e alla ri-allocazione delle risorse idriche sono ancora insufficienti. L’applicazione del costo opportunita consentirebbe di valutare i mancati benefici derivanti da un adeguato emungimento delle acque sotterranee in ambienti semi-aridi mediterranei, sottoposti a eccessivo sfruttamento per finalita irrigue.

Food waste: A survey about consumers and their attitudes

Food waste (FW) is a paradox of our time. Although there is a need to increase food production to feed an ever-growing population, about a third of world food production for human consumption is lost and wasted along the food chain every year (FAO, 2011). The authors analyse the amount of FW and the most recent studies on this phenomenon and conduct an empirical analysis to understand consumer habits regarding FW. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 127 consumers, considering that consumption represents one of the most expensive phases in the food chain. The results show that high income and older people pay less attention to avoiding waste. Finally, the results are compared with similar research and discussed in the concluding section.

Individuazione di buone pratiche volte a favorire l’accettabilità sociale a livello di comunità di progetti d’impianti a biomassa solida

The siting of solid biomass energy plants can be conceived as a transaction process taking place between two specific economic agents, the investor and local community. The investor is interested in obtaining the use right for local resources (e.g. area for setting; natural resources to feed the process, release of pollutants in the environment) while the community expects an increase of net benefits (es. job opportunities, induced industrial development, revitalization of the local economy). This transaction process has been analyzed according to the typical transaction costs theory, where the economic activities are conceived as the result of transactions among economic agents, which are hindered by three main obstacles: a) bounded rationality, b) opportunism, c) asset specificity. By applying the New Institutional theory approach, we treat the issue of social acceptance as a transaction cost problem. The aim is to identify the best practices adopted by biomass firms managers in order to enhance the social acceptance of solid biomass plants at local community level. In this paper we conduct a positive analysis where the methodological approach is based on the comparison of five case successful study cases. This allowed us to identify thirteen measures, capable to foster the social acceptance, and consequently to reduce the costs related to the investment.

Water policy design to enhance a sustainable use of groundwater resources in agriculture

In the last decade, groundwater demand has been quickly increasing, and overexploitation has been already recognized in many regions. In this research a case study where the groundwater resource is used for the irrigation is analyzed. The study shows a common case in the cost line of the Mediterranean regions (Apulia region, Italy), for which salt incursion from see is largely quoted. An integrated model with hydrologic, agronomic and economic themes has been built to perform farmer’s behaviors under three different water policy designs. Namely, status quo scenario where groundwater is subjected to competitive and free access use and, two different groundwater allotments restrictions, has been analyzed. Taking into account discounted farmer’s net value, findings here show as competitive use is not the most convenient groundwater management. Reduction in groundwater exploitation rate implemented with all the other scenarios show a more profitable use of this resource over time.