scholarly journals A measure of cereal market integration between Finland and European major countries

Author(s):  
Liu Xing ◽  
Csaba Jansik ◽  
Jyrki Niemi

From take-off in January 2007 to peaks in the first half of 2008, wheat prices worldwide including Finland were doubled at the highest compared to the previous years, which known as “food crisis”. Rising prices for key staples ran alarm bells. The producer price for cereal products in Finland has become much more volatile, and the price level has followed the average price in the EU more closely than earlier. This indicates that the prices have become more subject to the changes in other EU countries. Within EU, one of the key targets of the CAP is to facilitate the spatial integration of agricultural markets within the individual member states as well as within the community. In other words, on a spatially integrated market, price information should freely flow between member states. International trade and trade liberalization contribute to greater price transmission elasticities as domestic markets become better integrated into the world economy. Therefore, the integration of the Finnish cereal market in the EU has important implications for domestic agricultural policy. In EU, Germany is the most important trading partners of wheat and barley for Finland, and France is the most important consumer and producer of all cereal products in EU and the Exchange Market of cereal products MATIFF is also located in France. Thus Germany and France are the best price benchmark market for the Finnish producer to follow the prices. Our aim is to estimate the characteristics of the Finnish bread wheat and feed barley markets in relation to those of Germany and France from producer's point of view. Especially we investigate the impact of “Food Crises” on the estimates of price transmission of Finnish producer’s prices in comparison to the European bench-mark countries, which are Germany and France. Methodologically, we apply the threshold vector error correction model (TVECM) developed by Balke and Fomby (1997) Goodwin and Piggott (2001), Hansen and Seo (2002), to identify regimes, one of which cover the food crises period. A TVECM allows us to more accurately discern the existence of a long-term equilibrium relationship among the stochastic processes as well as test for price asymmetry. We focus attention on the estimation of the transmission elasticities in different regimes especially during the period of food crisis. We found that the LOP held very well in the Finnish producer’s cereal market with those in Germany and France. Noticeably, the speed of adjustment towards long-term equilibrium was found to be quite fast during “food crises” for both cases of feed barley and bread wheat. It implied that Finnish producer prices of cereal products were cointegrated to EU market faster and better during price escalation and the time of “food crises”. It seems that “food crises” brought also opportunity for Finland to open agricultural markets, which is very important after the European market liberalized policies for the agricultural markets.

2003 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reimar von Alvensleben ◽  
Bernhard Brümmer ◽  
Ulrich Koester ◽  
Klaus Frohberg

AbstractReimar von Alvensleben asks in his article whether the “Agrarwende” in Germany could be a model for Europe. He argues that the new agricultural policy (the so-called “Agrarwende”), which has been proclaimed and implemented after the German BSE crisis 2000/2001, adds new problems to the already existing problems of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The strategy of improving international competitiveness of German agriculture by promoting the niche markets for organic food, animal-friendly produced food and regional food is unrealistic and thus neglecting the problem of improving the competitiveness of 85−90% of German agriculture. The criterion of ecological efficiency (How to achieve ecological goals at lowest costs?) is totally neglected in agricultural environmental policy. The strategy of implementing environmental and animal welfare standards by the market mechanism will not lead to reasonable results because of perception distortions of the consumers. As a consequence of distorted perception of food risks by politicians, cost of risk prevention are too high and/or safety and health standards in other less spectaculous areas are too low. For these reasons he concludes that the “Agrarwende” in Germany cannot be regarded as a model for Europe, especially not for Eastern Europe.Bernhard Brümmer and Ulrich Koester write in their paper that the Eastern Enlargement of the EU will have significant implications for governance of the CAP. The evolution of the CAP has led to a permanent increase in the intensity of regulation, although the rate of external protection has declined. Past experience - mainly revealed by the European Court of Auditors - has evidenced many irregularities and even fraud as a by-product of the CAP. Governance problems are due to badly designed policies, which demand control of even individual farms and give the member countries, administrative regions (which are supposed to implement the policies on the local scale) and the individual farms themselves incentives to breach the rules. In their view governance problems will certainly increase in the enlarged EU. The new member countries have a weaker administrative capacity and are subject to more corruption than the present EU countries. Adequate policy reaction should lead to fundamental changes of the CAP.Klaus Frohberg argues that in its Mid Term Review the EU-commission proposes a change in the most important instruments of the CAP. Direct payments and intervention prices belong to this group. In his paper the impact of these changes is discussed. Direct payments shall become decoupled from production and be summarised into a single payment to farmers. In addition, the right of these transfers shall be made tradable independent of a simultaneous exchange of land. With regard to the intervention prices they shall be reduced as to approach world market levels. Assuming that the Member States will confirm the proposals the CAP is expected to improve considerably. Allocation and transfer efficiency will increase, consumer welfare will go slightly up, taxpayers will be little if at all affected and the EU can defend its position in the negotiations of the ongoing WTO round. These advantages accrue to the current as well as to the new Member States. In spite of the improvements the CAP still needs to be enhanced in some areas such as the market organisation of sugar and milk.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramona Pîrvu ◽  
Cristian Drăgan ◽  
Gheorghe Axinte ◽  
Sorin Dinulescu ◽  
Mihaela Lupăncescu ◽  
...  

The impact of implementation of cohesion policy on the sustainable development of EU countries is of great interest and presents a number of actual challenges. This research aims to evaluate the impact and the effects of the cohesion policy among the Member States using hierarchical clustering analysis in order to identify how the selected variables affect the sustainable development adopted models. The variables used in the analysis were selected on the basis of official data provided by the European Commission, SDG Index and Dashboards Reports and the EU Cohesion Monitor. The results of the research have led to the grouping of the 28 Member States in a number of six clusters, identifying performers but also those countries that have a high potential for sustainable development or which require increased attention to be sustained in recovering existing gaps. The results of the study can be a starting point for policy makers and other stakeholders involved in their efforts to support sustainable development through effective and effective policies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Sørensen ◽  
Helmut Brand

Abstract A decade ago the European health literacy field was in its infancy. A comparable study among EU Member States was made to explore if health literacy was as much as a concern in Europe as elsewhere in the world. This article analyses the impact of the European Health Literacy project (2009–2012). Based on the outcomes new avenues for health literacy in Europe are proposed. In spite of progress there is still a strong call for actions to make health literacy a priority in the EU.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radka MacGregor Pelikánová

Research background: The Post-Lisbon EU aims at smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth on the single internal market, as indicated by the Europe 2020. The interplay of the competition and consumer protection on such a market is subject to harmonization. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has been made in order to achieve a full harmonization in this respect in 2007. However, EU member states share different social, political, legal and economic traditions and their approaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, are dramatically diverse. In such a context, is it feasible, effective and efficient to install a full harmonization?Purpose of the article: The primary purpose of this article is to describe and assess ap-proaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, by the EU law and EU member states law. The secondary purpose is to study and evaluate possibilities for the feasible, effective and efficient harmonization, or their lack. Methods: The cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional nature of this article, and its dual purposes, implies the use of Meta-Analysis, of the critical comparison of laws and the impact of their application, to the holistic perception of historical and national contexts, and to case studies. The primary and secondary sources are explored and the yield knowledge and data are confronted with the status quo. The dominating qualitative research and data are complemented by the quantitative research and data.Findings & Value added: The EU opted for an ambitious challenge to install via the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive a full harmonization of the regime against unfair commercial practices, including parasitic ones. The exploration pursuant to the duo of purposes suggests that the challenge is perhaps too ambitious and that the EU underestimated the dramatic diversity of approaches to unfair commercial practices, especially parasitic ones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
ALENA ANDREJOVSKÁ ◽  
VERONIKA KONEČNÁ ◽  
JANA HAKALOVÁ

VAT is one of the most decisive tax revenues sources in the EU Member States. Due to financial frauds and insufficient tax system, there is a billion loss of EUR every year in the European budget. The article deals with the impact of the tax evasion on economies of the EU Member States. By applying the top-down approach, we observed tax gaps as a quantifier of tax evasion from 2004 to 2017. The period around the economic crisis in 2009 was examined in more detail, as there was a sharp change in the evolution of tax gaps. We constructed a regression model, which examined the relationship of the tax gap and VAT tax revenues to selected determinants of tax evasion. The results showed that tax gaps in the Member States have been growing every year. We also found that there is an increase in tax revenues, but tax liabilities increase to greater extent.


Author(s):  
Yohana James Mgale

This article analyzes the transmission of prices between marketing agents and the factors affecting onion prices at the consumer level. The Error Correction Model-Engle Granger (ECM-EG) was used to test the price transmission by including the impact of the rise and fall of producer, wholesale and retail prices in past periods. The Error Correction Model (ECM) was applied to the factors affecting onion prices. The test results showed that price transmission was asymmetrical in the short and long-run. With regard to factors, the results show that consumer price in the short-run was influenced by wholesale prices, producer prices and the price of fuel while in the long-run it was influenced by wholesale prices, producer price, price of fuel and consumer prices in the previous period (t-1). These results suggest the existence of a short-term adjustment cost and a long-term market power which distorts price transmission.


Author(s):  
Viktor Boiko ◽  
Mykola Vasylenko ◽  
Serhii Kukharenko

The article deals with the issues of establishing cybersecurity in the EU and its member-states at the legislative level as viewed from the point of a systematic approach. The authors identified problematic aspects of improving cybersecurity quality and conditions. They analyzed the impact of the EU member states legislation on cy-bersecurity. The article as well considers the process of ICT development and pre-sents the ways of creating new challenges by means of new technologies. Key words: cybersecurity, cyber resilience, regulatory instruments, EU legislation, innovations.


Author(s):  
Whelan Peter

This chapter analyses the first challenge of design for European antitrust criminalization: defining the criminal cartel offence itself. There are two problematic issues concerning the definition of a criminal cartel offence, both of which must be understood—if not resolved—by legislatures that are serious about the effective enforcement of their criminal cartel laws. First, the impact of Regulation 1/2003 on the design and operation of a national cartel offence needs to be articulated. This is an issue which is unique to the EU Member States. Second, the legislature which is responsible for drafting a given national criminal cartel law is required to make a decision about how to deal with ‘acceptable’ cartel activity. The challenge for the drafters of a criminal cartel offence is how to ensure that 'acceptable' cartel activity is carved out of the criminal offence without making the offence unworkable in practice.


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