Imre Fertő

Complementarities of trade advantage and trade competitiveness measures

The complementarities of trade advantage and trade competitiveness measures for agro food trade of five Central European (CE-5) countries with the European Union are analysed. The stability and duration of the trade measures over time is investigated by the survival analysis using the nonparametric Kaplan–Meier product limit estimator, and the consistency test between the trade measures is conducted by the stratified Cox proportional hazard model. The CE-5 countries experienced a greater number of products with relative trade disadvantages and greater significance of one way imports. Unlike the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, Hungary experienced Relative Trade Advantages (RTAs) for bulk raw commodities, processed intermediates and horticulture, with the greatest significance of successful quality competition and one-way exports, and the lowest significance of unsuccessful price and unsuccessful quality competition. The duration of RTAs is longer than the duration for the successful trade competition categories. Our results confirm that the RTA is consistent with the one way export and the successful price and successful quality competition categories in two way trade on one side, and the relative trade disadvantage with the one way import and the unsuccessful price and unsuccessful quality competition on the other.

Does EU Enlargement Increase Agro-Food Export Duration?

This paper examines the impact of EU enlargement on agro‐food export performance across 12 new EU member states and five newly independent states in the EU markets covering the period 1999 to 2007. The performance is examined by duration of export and hazard model. We find larger duration for the agro‐food exports from the new EU member states. The results confirm gains from the eastward EU enlargement and governance on export increases and longer duration for exporting higher value‐added specialized consumer‐ready food and more competitive niche agro‐food products.

The evolution of agri-food trade patterns in Central European countries

This article describes the evolving pattern of Central European countries agri-food trade using recently developed empirical procedures based around the classic Balassa index. The extent of trade specialisation exhibits a mixed trend. The results suggest that the trade pattern has converged in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia, while it polarised in Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia over the period. For particular product groups, the indices display greater variation. They are stable for product groups with comparative disadvantage, but product groups with weak to strong comparative advantage show significant variation. In addition, in the Baltic countries many specialisation improvements occurred in those product groups for which world demand expanded at the fastest rates during the period analysed.

Broadband availability and economic growth

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a model to measure the effect of broadband availability on economic growth in developed OECD countries.Design/methodology/approach – The effect of the broadband availability‐related variables on economic growth is analyzed by using cross‐country panel data for 34 OECD countries over the years 1998‐2009. The robustness of the results by the six econometric estimation approaches is compared. The preferable dynamic panel model with the system of Generalized Method of Moments is selected.Findings – The access channels per inhabitant and total broadband per inhabitant have improved over time, but vary across the analysed OECD countries. The improved access channels per inhabitant and gross capital growth (investment) play a positive and significant role in the per‐capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Labour productivity growth has encouraged economic growth positively. These results are robust independently of the estimation procedure.Research limitation...

Internet and international food industry trade

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an adaptedz gravity model to measure the impact of the number of the internet users on food industry trade between developed Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries using both panel and cross‐sectional data.Design/methodology/approach – The impact of the internet users on food industry export growth and levels, and on food industry trade reorientation, and whether the internet has altered the effect of distance on food industry trade, are analyzed using adapted gravity model.Findings – The positive, significant and over time increasing effect of the internet on food industry exports confirm that the internet reduces market‐specific entry costs for food industry exports. The significant positive effect pertained to the internet is found in the importing countries. The significant positive effects on food industry exports are found for the countrys economic size and bilateral common features and proximities. The internet mitigates th...

Price transmission in the milk sectors of Poland and Hungary

Rapid and thorough changes have recently taken place in the dairy supply chain in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. Growing concerns have been expressed that these changes may negatively affect farmers relative position vis-a-vis the downstream industry, owing to market power exercised by the latter. This article investigates the price transmission mechanism in two countries from the region, Poland and Hungary, and contrasts the results with dairy market organisations specific to these countries. Using cointegrated vector autoregression and controlling for potential structural breaks, it is shown that Polish milk prices, unlike Hungarian ones, are characterised by short-term and long-term asymmetries. We discuss a number of potential explanations for these results, and consider, among others, differences between the dairy chain structures and the role of FDI.

Contractual relationships in the Hungarian milk sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse farmers contracting choice in the Hungarian milk sector, employing transaction cost economics framework.Design/methodology/approach – The authors focus on some key determinants of farmers contracting choices using milk producer survey data. Different semi parametric and semi non parametric discrete choice models are applied to investigate the type of contracts, duration, number of contractors, incentives provided in the contract and business history of farmers and buyers.Findings – Main results confirm that contract‐specific investment is a strong predictor explaining contract choice and contract design. Although trust is an important factor, the authors estimations however report some counterintuitive results. Farm size is also significantly associated with contracts and contractual arrangements. Vulnerability to opportunistic behaviour also depends on partner change switching costs and farmers bargaining power.Originality/value – This is a recent stu...

Is there a consensus among Hungarian agricultural economists

This article investigates the degree of consensus among Hungarian agricultural economists on specific propositions on the basis of a survey using a consensus index. In comparison with previous studies of agricultural economists this study finds much more diversity among them. In contrast to earlier studies, we found no evidence that there was a difference in views between positive and normative propositions. The results suggest that personal characteristics of agricultural economists, such as age, occupation and educational background may have an influence on the pattern of responses. We also found some support for the role of positive and normative influences when it comes to policy judgement.