In the last two decades the Italian food retail landscape has changed considerably also thanks to the LD 114/1998 and subsequent trade liberalization laws. In this study, we investigate the impact of LD 114/1998 on the structure of the Italian food retailing industry and on the food and beverage...

New information communication technology is a good opportunity to exchange information and to get feedback from customers shortening the traditional channel of social relationships. In different countries over the time there has been a significant growth of social interactions by social networks...

Developing country producers face several constraints related to food safety standards imposed by developed countries. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting export flows with respect to food safety standards; and to measure the effects of food safety standards on exports....

A simple but new theoretical approach is used to analyse ex-ante the impact of tariff reduction. This methodology is based on the assumption of a constant price relation between each direct substitutable product. No elasticities are needed, but accurate import and domestic prices of the most...

The CAP Health Check in 2008 may result in fundamental changes in EU dairy policy. An expansion of the EU dairy quota is being strongly considered as a prelude to the elimination of the quota mechanism by 2014/15. This paper addresses the implications of such a reform for EU and Irish dairy...

The European Commission proposes a minimum of 10 % biofuels in the total transport fuel use by 2020. The new 10% minimum target in 2020 is combined with the existing regulation, which fixes the target at 5.75% in 2010. This paper will in particular investigates how a full implementation of the...

The Common Agricultural Policy is modelled as a club good providing the European Union (EU) farmer with financial benefits. We build an economic model which explains how much farmers in individual EU countries invest in rent-seeking activities in order to test for free-riding behaviour on...

Paper removed by author for revision 12/09/08.

The price-wedge method yields a tariff-equivalent estimate of technical barriers to trade (TBT). An extension of this method accounts for imperfect substitution between domestic and imported goods and incorporates recent findings on trade costs. We explore the sensitivity of this revamped tariff...

It is well documented that consumers tend to be patriotic in their choices of food. This paper theoretically examines the consequences of such patriotic behavior for agricultural policy, assuming that the policy is decided by the median voter. The analysis is conducted in the framework of a...