Lucia Baldi

Price discovery in commodity markets

This article investigates the long-run relationship between spot and futures prices for corn and soybean. We apply cointegration methodology, allowing for the presence of potentially unknown structural breaks and then study the causality relationships between spot and futures prices within each specific subperiod identified with the aim of analysing the price discovery. Empirical estimates highlight (i) multiple breaks exist in the cointegrating relationship between prices and (ii) subperiods consequently identified express different dynamics in the causal relationship between spot and futures prices and support the idea that fundamentals are important in explaining the 2007/08 food price increase.

Shelf Life Date Extension of Fresh-Cut Salad: A Consumer Perspective

ABSTRACT During the past decades, various technological applications relating to an extension of the shelf life of food products have been introduced. The adoption of such technologies in the fresh-cut salad sector is a key issue for the sustainable management of the supply chain. The aim of the study is to analyse consumers’ attitude towards fresh-cut salad with an extended shelf life date. The analysis was based on face-to-face interviews with 351 consumers living in Lombardy, one of the Italian provinces where the consumption of fresh-cut salad is high and characterized by good margins of development. Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used as preliminary data preparation for market segmentation. Cluster analysis revealed the presence of three different consumers groups. Only the cluster of ‘favorable’ shows a positive attitude towards the extended shelf life date. Consumers grouped in the cluster of ‘skeptical’ associate such innovation to a low level of product freshness. The cluster of ‘mistrust’ reveals the presence of consumers with safety concerns towards the prolongation of the shelf life date. Such consumers do not reveal a high level of trust in processing firms and their related brands.

Investing in the wine market: a country-level threshold cointegration approach

In recent years, investments in commodities, via commodity futures and commodity index funds, have grown rapidly. The appeal of investing in commodities is generally attributed to the low correlati...

Alimentazione, salute e ambiente: consumatori e imprese "sostenibili"

Il tema dell’alimentazione, nei suoi aspetti relativi alla salute e all’ambiente, viene analizzato in una prospettiva di sostenibilita. La relazione tra alimentazione e salute, infatti, sta acquisendo un interesse crescente dovuto sia alla diffusione dell’obesita che all’attenzione per il benessere complessivo dell’individuo. L’alimentazione, inoltre, riveste un ruolo fondamentale nelle problematiche ambientali: l’approvvigionamento sostenibile, il ridotto consumo di energia e acqua, la gestione dei rifiuti e, soprattutto, l’acquisto consapevole di prodotti alimentari rappresentano le principali sfide che il sistema alimentare dovra affrontare nei prossimi anni. Tali tematiche hanno riflessi anche all’interno delle filiere agro alimentari, con l’implementazione di sistemi di certificazione relativi alla sostenibilita, che possono determinare benefici in termini di efficienza degli scambi.

Technological change and concentration of firms: an empirical application to the food industry of Lombardy.

This study represents an empirical evaluation of the technical progress effects on the Lombardy food industry considering different sized companies. It is possible to find in industrial economic literature different evidences about the relationship between technical progress and company size. We use a sample of companies in the period 1985–91 to analyse this relationship. To measure the economic effects of technical progress some proxy indicators are adopted, considering mainly the changes in labour productivity. Moreover, we utilise a concentration index to describe the structural evolution of Lombardy food industry. The results show that a technical progress effect can be identified in the increase of real labour productivity during the period analysed. The most important contribution to this growth is provided by the largest companies and the technological efficiency appears to be connected to the size of the company. But also the small and medium companies demonstrate a significant propensity to adopt innovative technologies.