Q18 - Agricultural Policy; Food PolicyNávrat zpět

The paper presents the Chicago School economist Theodore Schultz's contributions to economic theory. Schultz is the only agricultural economist to have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. The first part briefly describes the life of Theodore Schultz. The second part deals with his works in the economics of agriculture. The third part discusses his book The Economic Value of Education (Schultz, 1963). The fourth part analyses his work Investing in People (Schultz, 1981). The fifth part explores the book The Economics of Being Poor (Schultz, 1993). The sixth part outlines the book Origin of Increasing Returns (Schultz, 1993). The seventh part discusses his Nobel Prize lecture.

In the present study we analyze diversification of food consumption in Slovakia. Dietary diversity is a proxy for the quality of diet and it measures one aspect of household food and nutritional security. Using data from the Slovak Household Budget Survey, we estimate determinants of demand for food diversity by means of linear and quantile regressions. We measure food diversity by count measure of food items consumed during a specific time period and by Berry index. While demand for food diversity has been steadily increasing since 2004, economic crisis in 2009 slightly reduced the diversity of foodstuffs consumed by Slovak households. Estimated income elasticities are consistent with the applied theoretical framework and previous studies conducted in other countries. Furthermore, results from the quantile regression reveal that the estimated coefficients significantly differ across quantiles of the dependent variables' distribution. Results further indicate that Slovak households diversify their food consumption less during the first quarter of the year and in rural areas. Individual characteristics of the household head, such as education, age or gender significantly influence diverse food consumption too. Overall, an increasing demand for food diversity was observed between 2004 and 2010 which can imply an improved quality of diet and food security of Slovak households.

The submitted paper is focused on the evaluation of the Common Agriculture Policy impact on economic results of Czech organic farmers. The aim of the paper is a complex evaluation of the influence of subsidy on production, costs, profit and technical efficiency of organic farms. The partial aim is to evaluate different methods of subsidy rate calculation. The main methodological tool for achieving mentioned aims is an analysis using a production and a stochastic frontier production function. This approach has not been used in the Czech Republic yet. The previous studies, analyzed subsidy of organic farming, were based on a comparison of especially family farm income, profit or costs of organic and conventional farming. The analysis was conducted on the basis of unbalanced panel data from 143 organic and 388 conventional enterprises - legal entities, obtained over the time period 2004 - 2008. The sample of organic farms represents 58 % of the entire population of organic legal entities. Results of the analysis indicate negative impact of subsidies on production, profit and technical efficiency of organic farmers and refer to the reality that actual level of subsidy discourages organic farmers from rational behavior and implicates their dependence on state support.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate some economywide effects of the adoption of Common Agricultural Policy. The general equilibrium approach is applied. The model is designed as a static computable general equilibrium one. The model structure reflects basic neoclassical assumption, i.e. producers maximize their profit and consumers maximize utility while the government wishes to balance its budget. The scenarios follow the debate about the extent of CAP available for candidate countries. Selected macro and sectoral economic indicators are used to assess the magnitude of scenarios impacts on the national economy. Model simulations indicate that positive aspects of accession prevail over negative ones in the most respects.