The recent expansion of the sugar and ethanol industries has raised some concerns regarding a number of issues. One major concernis with the quality of employment, the level of remuneration, the presence of child labor, the low qualification of the workers,informality and the high presence of...

The national market for FLV (fruits, legumes and vegetables) has grown significantly in recent years. However, due to the high perishability of these products, their quality is subject to appropriate processes of standardization, selection, classification, packaging and transportation to avoid...

Based upon the structure-conduct-performance approach the present paper analyses determinants of price-cost-margins over the business cycle for food industries in Germany, the USA as well as the Netherlands. Controlling for market structure variables, cyclical fluctuations in profitability are...

The proposition of a carbon tax has reinvigorated the discussion about the price elasticity of gasoline demand. This paper analyzes how consumers react to higher gas prices in a new setting, examining whether they choose Internet purchasing over in-store purchasing when gas prices increase....

Contracts are widely used by agricultural processors for purchasing inputs not only in developed countries but also in developing countries such as China. The total number of formal, written contracts between farmers and food processors is increasing rapidly in China, and the formal contracts...

The measurement of productivity fluctuations has been the focus of decades-long interest. In addition to broad structural forces driving productivity changes, there is more recent interest in measuring and identifying the heterogeneous forces driving these changes. A major force is...

The food industry is one of the most important sectors in the Latvian economy. However, due to its close links to agriculture, the structural crisis in the processing sector is the main obstacle to increasing output, productivity and profitability in the entire agricultural sector. Based on the...

The Retail Food Industry Center established the Supermarket Panel in 1998 as the basis for ongoing study of the supermarket industry. The Panel is comprised of individual stores that provide information annually on store characteristics, operations, and performance. The Panel has two overall...

The Supermarket Panel collects data annually from individual supermarkets on store characteristics, operations, and performance. It was established in 1998 by the Food Industry Center as the basis for ongoing study of the supermarket industry. The Panel is unique because the unit of analysis is...

Based on interviews with retail food store managers and a subsequent survey, this paper traces the pathways that spawn competence acquisition in the retail food industry. It finds that having an essential capability for learning, that is, obtaining new ideas, concepts, methods, tends to breed...