scholarly journals Performance of Swiss dairy farms under provision of public goods

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 300-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Mamardashvili ◽  
D. Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
High Level

Farmers provide not only agricultural products but also public goods and services. When analyzing farm performance, these different outputs should be modelled separately. In this study, we investigated Swiss dairy farms located in the plain, hill and mountainous regions for the period between 2003 and 2009. For the representation of production technology, we employed a parametric output distance function and modeled particular public goods and services as a separate output. The resulted elasticities of agricultural output coincided with the corresponding shares of this output. However, the elasticities of particular public goods and services were higher than the corresponding shares. This might be related to the fact that this output contains different kinds of direct payments, “production” of which does not require additional inputs or trade-off with other outputs. Our results showed that the level of pro ductivity in the plain region did not depend on the scale of production, but more on the improvement in the technical efficiency. However, in the hill and mountainous regions, there was potential for scale adjustments. Sample farms in these regions showed significant decreasing returns to scale, which suggests that the average farm in these subsamples could improve its productivity by scaling down its production. Our results might also be confirmation of decelerated structural change, since decreasing returns to scale might reflect an obstacle to growth. We found the wide range of the efficiency scores for Swiss farms, which indicates potentials for improvements. Among others, off-farm income as well as high level of ecological services showed significantly positive influence on the technical efficiency of Swiss farms in all three regions.  

Understanding and Analyzing Natural Hazards Governance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Gerber
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Wide Range

Governance is a complex, highly elastic term used in a wide range of settings which sometimes leads to ambiguity. As a result, defining natural hazards governance as a unique and specific construct is needed for conceptual clarity and analytic precision. At core, natural hazards governance pertains to two fundamental considerations: reducing risk and promoting resilience. While not always recognized as such in the hazards and disasters literature, risk reduction and resilience promotion are two pure public goods. But they are also highly complex public goods—amalgams of a series of distinct but interrelated public policy choices and the administrative systems that put those choices into effect. To understand better a logic for defining and assessing natural hazards governance it is essential to consider it as a set of explicitly collective choices over the production of a complex of public goods aimed at addressing hazards risk reduction and promoting resilience within or across defined political jurisdictions. Those choices create frameworks permitting a set of authoritative actions (lawful and legitimate) to be stated and executed by governmental entities, by non-governmental agents on their behalf (in some form), or for goods and services to be jointly co-produced by governmental and non-governmental actors. Those collective choices in a given setting are influenced by the institutional structure of formal public policy decision-making, which itself reflects variations in the political efficacy of community members, competing interests and incentives over policy preferences, and level of extant knowledge and understanding of critical challenges associated with given hazards. Those formal collective choices are also reflective of a broader cultural context shaping norms of behavior and conception of the relationship between communities and hazards.

scholarly journals Assessing ‘good governance’:‘scientific’ measurement and political discourse

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
State Authority

The idea of governance – as distinct from government – has become intellectually fashionable in academic circles over the past decade or so, constituting a new conceptual paradigm that embodies ideas about the dispersal and fragmentation of formerly centralised state authority, the increasing involvement of civil society in the delivery of public goods and services, and the networked collaboration of a wide range of governmental and nongovernmental bodies in the pursuit of public purposes and the public interest.

POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SILVER ECONOMY UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Sika ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Economic Potential ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Slovak Population ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Business ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

The economic behaviour, needs and preferences of people vary in the individual phases of their lives. The silver economy market is made up of consumers, employees or employers aged 50+. The share of this population is an important target group for entrepreneurs, brings a wide range of new products and services to businesses and has a significant role for the national economy as there is a change in the understanding of the ageing process from a threat towards economic opportunities. Although the ageing workforce and seniors in the Slovak Republic do not represent a strong demand for market goods yet, their economic potential may not be negligible. The rapid ageing of the Slovak population represents, among other things, an economic potential that can be exploited in favour of innovation and improvement. Despite not a high level of pensions, seniors have considerable purchasing power, which will generate an increasing demand for specific goods and services, which is an opportunity for the labour market. In this paper we try to describe selected areas in which the silver economy and the ageing population itself should be viewed as a challenge to new business opportunities. In particular, these include health service and health care, spa care, the pharmaceutical industry, tourism, the financial sector and, last but not least, construction industry. The silver economy will change the rules of market forces in existing sectors and create a wholly new industry at the intersection of demographic and technological changes with a high export potential.

scholarly journals Stochastic production function and costs-returns analyses of apiarists in Adamawa State, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.M. Audu ◽  
M.R. Ja’afar-Furo ◽  
B.H. Gabdo
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Production Function ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Gross Margin ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Output Elasticity ◽  
Age Range

Abstract. This study assessed apiculture enterprise to determine the output elasticity of production, returns to scale, technical efficiency and profitability in Adamawa State, Nigeria. A total of four agricultural zones out of six, and 108 apiarists were selected through purposive and simple random methods, respectively. Descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier production function and budgetary technique were used in the analyses of data. Findings revealed that all (100%) the respondents were males within the age range of 21-30 years (44.44%). The majority of apiarists (87.0%) were married with household size of 1-10 persons (77.78%) and 50.0% of them had secondary school education. A larger proportion (37.0%) had between 6 and 10 years of beekeeping experience with 41.67% earning monthly income of N11000 (USD30.8) – N20000 (USD56.0) from other sources. Further, the findings revealed that labor and number of hives had reassuring influence on the industry, while age, education and experience could be used to reduce inefficiency in the industry to improve efficiency status. The apiarists also had mean technical efficiency of 89.9%, while the inefficiency estimate was only 10.1%. In terms of profitability, beekeeping in the study area was found to have had a high gross margin of N16800.00 (USD47.0) and net farm income of N15225.97 (USD42.6) for every beehive in a cropping season. The major constraints to beekeeping reported in the area included beehive crops theft, high propensity of bees’ stings, inadequacy of finance, rampant bush burning and deforestation, among others. It was concluded that beekeeping in the study area was found to be profitable and technically efficient. Improving beekeeping business in the area, among other things, would require its modernization and involvement of female participants, provision of soft credit facilities and enactment of stringent forestry laws to check unwholesome forestry practices.

scholarly journals A DEA approach for merging dairy farms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Lozano ◽  
Belarmino Adenso-Diaz
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
Increasing Returns ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Efficiency Improvement ◽  
Increasing Returns To Scale ◽  
Different Response

This paper proposes a model for determining the most advantageous merger within a set of dairy farms. It uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the total technical efficiency improvement that the merger would produce and for decomposing it into a learning effect and a pure merger effect. A design of experiments has also been carried to test the effects of various factors (the total number of farms, the standard deviation of herd size, the percentage of farms exhibiting increasing returns to scale, the standard deviation of the current technical efficiency of the farms) on different response variables (the percentage of farms involved in the merger, the reduction of herd size and the efficiency improvement obtained by the merger). The results show that the disparity in the herd size of the farms in a region and the percentage of farms that exhibit increasing returns to scale increase the number of farms that enter into the most advantageous merger. The disparity of herd size also increases the number of cows that are not needed after the merger. Finally, the expected efficiency improvement increases with the total number of farms.

scholarly journals MEASURING RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN SELECTED EU AND OECD COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF SLOVENIA AND CROATIA

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Aristovnik ◽  
Alka Obadić
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
High Level ◽  
Non Parametric

This article continues on a number of previous studies by other scientists in investigating secondary education efficiency by applying a non-parametric methodology. In this respect, the purpose of the article is to review some previous studies on measuring the efficiency of public (secondary) education sector as well as some conceptual and methodological issues of a non-parametric approach. Most importantly, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique is presented and then applied to a wide range of EU and OECD countries, including Slovenia and Croatia, to evaluate the technical efficiency of secondary education. The empirical results show that technical efficiency in secondary education varies significantly across the great majority of EU and OECD countries. Both Slovenia and Croatia show a relatively high level of technical inefficiency in their secondary education as they respectively only rank in the third and fourth quartiles among selected countries. Therefore, rationalising public secondary education spending is strongly recommended with possible redirecting of some excessive resources to the tertiary education sector.

Bracketed Morality in Sport

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-45
Author(s):  
Visnja Djordjic
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Fair Play ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Moral Decision Making ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Moral Atmosphere ◽  
High Level ◽  
And Behavior

Summary Although sport can promote moral values and prosocial behavior in youth, numerous research shows that sports engagement alone does not guarantee that outcome. Instead of striving for fair-play and sport excellence which not exclude justness, solidarity and moral integrity, contemporary sport frequently follows the Lombardian ethic, where „winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”. Moral pause or bracketed morality, as described in sport, refers to the phenomenon of tolerance and acceptance of aggressive behavior or cheating, that will be morally condemned outside sports arenas. Accordingly, lower levels of moral reasoning and behavior have been identified in athletes and non-athletes in the sports-related situation in comparison to other life situations; in athletes when compared to non-athletes, in more experienced athletes, high-level athletes, team-sport athletes, and male athletes. Moral reasoning and behavior of athletes are influenced by contextual and personal factors, with coaches having a particularly important role to play. The positive influence of sport on the moral development of athletes might be related to pre-service and in-service education of coaches how to develop adequate moral atmosphere, and how to plan for moral decision-making as an integral part of everyday practice.

The way of value of Correlation of genomic DNA microsatellite loci and live weight of Chukchi reindeer

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-32
Author(s):  
V. Dodokhov ◽  
N. Pavlova ◽  
T. Rumyantseva ◽  
L. Kalashnikova
Keyword(s):  
Microsatellite Markers ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Live Weight ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Tribal Community ◽  
High Germination ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean ◽  
High Level ◽  
Dna Microsatellite

The article presents the genetic characteristic of the Chukchi reindeer breed. The object of the study was of the Chukchi reindeer. In recent years, the number of reindeer of the Chukchi breed has declined sharply. Reduced reindeer numbers could lead to biodiversity loss. The Chukchi breed of deer has good meat qualities, has high germination viability and is adapted in adverse tundra conditions of Yakutia. Herding of the Chukchi breed of deer in Yakutia are engaged only in the Nizhnekolymsky district. There are four generic communities and the largest of which is the agricultural production cooperative of nomadic tribal community «Turvaurgin», which was chosen to assess the genetic processes of breed using microsatellite markers: Rt6, BMS1788, Rt 30, Rt1, Rt9, FCB193, Rt7, BMS745, C 143, Rt24, OheQ, C217, C32, NVHRT16, T40, C276. It was found that microsatellite markers have a wide range of alleles and generally have a high informative value for identifying of genetic differences between animals and groups of animal. The number of identified alleles is one of the indicators of the genetic diversity of the population. The total number of detected alleles was 127. The Chukchi breed of deer is characterized by a high level of heterozygosity, and the random crossing system prevails over inbreeding in the population. On average, there were 7.9 alleles (Na) per locus, and the mean number of effective alleles (Ne) was 4.1. The index of fixation averaged 0.001. The polymorphism index (PIC) ranged from 0.217 to 0.946, with an average of 0.695.

COVID-19 Outbreak Prediction with Machine Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Faizollahzadeh Ardabili ◽  
Amir Mosavi ◽  
Pedram Ghamisi ◽  
Filip Ferdinand ◽  
Annamaria R. Varkonyi-Koczy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Fuzzy Inference ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Inference System ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Standard Models ◽  
High Level

Several outbreak prediction models for COVID-19 are being used by officials around the world to make informed-decisions and enforce relevant control measures. Among the standard models for COVID-19 global pandemic prediction, simple epidemiological and statistical models have received more attention by authorities, and they are popular in the media. Due to a high level of uncertainty and lack of essential data, standard models have shown low accuracy for long-term prediction. Although the literature includes several attempts to address this issue, the essential generalization and robustness abilities of existing models needs to be improved. This paper presents a comparative analysis of machine learning and soft computing models to predict the COVID-19 outbreak as an alternative to SIR and SEIR models. Among a wide range of machine learning models investigated, two models showed promising results (i.e., multi-layered perceptron, MLP, and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system, ANFIS). Based on the results reported here, and due to the highly complex nature of the COVID-19 outbreak and variation in its behavior from nation-to-nation, this study suggests machine learning as an effective tool to model the outbreak. This paper provides an initial benchmarking to demonstrate the potential of machine learning for future research. Paper further suggests that real novelty in outbreak prediction can be realized through integrating machine learning and SEIR models.

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