Štefan Bojnec

Determinants of technical efficiency of Slovenian farms

This article investigates the determinants of technical efficiency of Slovenian farms during the transition to a market economy and before accession to the European Union (1994–2003). Both the parametric stochastic frontier and the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods show that the degree of technical efficiency has increased during the transition, and that farm specialisation associated with technological change is found to be a crucial determinant for increasing technical efficiency. A negative impact of farm commercialisation on technical efficiency is found, explained by the specific nature of livestock farms, in particular, with intra-farm intermediary consumption. The use of hired labour has no significant influence, but mixed results are found for rented land. The results suggest possible sources of imperfections in farm input markets.

Measures of farm business efficiency

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate technical, scale, allocative and economic efficiencies by data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier methods to provide a decision‐making tool and managerial implications in the measurement of farm business performance and efficiency.Design/methodology/approach – Technical, scale, allocative and economic efficiencies are analyzed with the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) sample for 13 farm business branches in Slovenia in the period 1994‐2003. DEA models are used with an output‐orientation, three outputs and four inputs. The non‐parametric DEA estimations are compared with a parametric stochastic frontier approach. The cluster analysis is used to identify three different farm business groups according to their performance.Findings – The average technical, scale, allocative and economic efficiencies for the whole FADN sample over the analyzed period are relatively high (around or over 0.90), suggesting that, although the FADN sample contain...

Trade and Revealed Comparative Advantage Measures: Regional and Central and East European Agricultural Trade

Štefan Bojnec is Senior Research Associate of the Policy Research Group at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Phare-ACE program of the Commission of the European Communities and from the Slovenian National Science Foundation. Eastern European Economics, vol. 39, no. 1, March–April 2001, pp. 72–98.

Economic Efficiency, Energy Consumption and Sustainable Development

This paper analyzes structural indicators of economic efficiency and energy intensity consumption as determinants of sustainable economic development for the selected 33 European countries. The correlation, regression and multivariate factor analyses are applied to test the associations between the selected structural variables of energy intensity consumption, economic efficiency, and the main driving forces behind these developments. Economic efficiency is positively associated with expenditures on research and development (R&D) and a greater technological intensity of exports, while at the same time the economic efficiency of R&D expenditures and technological intensity of exports reduce the energy intensity consumption of the economy. The results suggest that management strategies and policies directed towards R&D expenditures, human capital investments, and technologically intensive export oriented products are improving economic efficiency performance and contributing to energy saving sustainable economic development. The technological intensity of products reduces energy consumption, which is related to restructuring of energy intensive industries into more advanced and energy saving ones with higher value added per unit of product, but with lower energy consumption per unit of product.

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.

Vertical market integration and competition : the meat sector in Slovenia

This paper presents price transmission models explaining the farm-to-retail price spread and degree of competition in the meat marketing chains during the period of economic transition in Slovenia. The meat marketing chains in Slovenia are characterised by relatively large processing and marketing margins, which are expected to decline with market deregulation and integration into the international markets. As results of the economic restructuring and policy reforms, competitive market pressures in a marketing margin determination have increased, inducing pressures for efficiency improvements in the vertical market integration from the farm to the retail stage in the Slovenian meat sector. Co-integration models are applied to estimate vertical market integration and to assess the degree of price competition in the Slovenian beef and pork marketing chains. The tested econometric models confirmed the existence of the long run market integration in the meat chain and the speed of adjustment of price changes. Farm-gate meat prices are identified as weakly exogenous, indicating the crucial role of supply side processing and marketing factors in the retail meat price determination. The results of structural tests suggest a long-run mark-up price strategy in the beef, and a competitive price strategy in the pork, chain as the outcome of policy reforms. The increased competitive market pressures are very likely to increase efficiency in the beef markets. Efficiency improvements in the Slovenian food markets are needed in the increased competitive market pressures of the enlarged European Union markets.

The Shadow Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia: The Labor Approach

This paper deals with the labor aspect of the shadow economy in three countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, and Slovenia. Despite their common pasts, the countries differ in their levels of shadow-economy activity due to different development levels and paths, but there might be some converging patterns in the long run. The labor methods applied provide evidence on the shadow economy in the economies studied. The study shows that BiH suffers the most from the phenomenon of the shadow economy (averaging over 30 percent of the official GDP in the period 1999-2001), which is somewhat anticipated due to its lower level of economic development, higher rates of unemployment, and devastating consequences of war. For Croatia and Slovenia (averaging around 27 and 20 percent in the post-2000 period, respectively), on the other hand, shadow-economy activities have been, on average, on a downturn since 1994. This is in line with expectations, as economic growth and socioeconomic development are believed to hinder shadow-economy activities.

Agri‐Food Export Competitiveness in European Union Countries

This article investigates the competitiveness of agri-food exports of the European Union (EU-27) countries on global markets, using the revealed comparative advantage (B) index over the years 2000–11. Panel unit root tests, mobility index and the Kaplan-Meier survival rates of the B index are used. The majority of agri-food products in the EU-27 countries show a comparative disadvantage on global markets. The B indices of the EU-27 countries tend to convergence. Most of the old EU-15 Member States experienced a greater number of agri-food products having a longer duration of revealed comparative advantages than have most of the new EU-12 Member States. Among the most successful Member States in agri-food export competitiveness on global markets are the Netherlands, France and Spain.

Export competitiveness of dairy products on global markets: the case of the European Union countries.

This paper analyzed the export competitiveness of dairy products of the European Union (EU) countries (EU-27) on intra-EU, extra-EU, and global markets, using the revealed comparative advantage index over the 2000-2011 period. The results indicated that about half of the EU-27 countries have had competitive exports in a certain segment of dairy products. The results differed by level of milk processing and for intra-EU and extra-EU markets, and did so over the analyzed years. Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands are old EU-15 countries with competitive dairy exports (from the lowest to the highest according to the level of milk processing). The majority of the new EU-12 countries have faced difficulties in maintaining their level of export competitiveness, at least for some dairy products and market segments. The more competitive EU-12 countries in dairy exports were the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Poland. The duration of export competitiveness differed across the dairy groups of products according to the level of milk processing, indicating the importance of dairy chain product differentiation for export competitiveness and specialization. The export competitiveness of the higher level of processed milk products for final consumption can be significant for export dairy chain competitiveness on global markets.