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The book offers practical and theoretical insights in regional externalities. Regional externalities are a specific subset of externalities that can be defined as externalities where space plays a dominant role. This class of externalities can be divided into three categories: (1) externalities related to mobility and transport, (2) external economies of scale and cluster effects, and (3) spatial environmental externalities. The book offers examples of the above mentioned categories.

AbstractMember commitment has an impact on the viability and success of cooperatives. While there are studies on member engagement in European and American cooperatives, empirical research on member commitment in Chinese agricultural cooperatives is rare. Using a sample of 391 farmer cooperative members in China, this study investigates the factors associated with member commitment, particularly whether trust in the cooperative leadership and social pressure at village level affect member commitment. In addition, the study explores the pathway how trust and social pressure affect member commitment by employing structural equation modelling. Our results show that both trust and social pressure are positively associated with the three components of member commitment – affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment – in a direct way. Furthermore, trust in the leadership impacts affective commitment indirectly via the mediation of member participation. These findings can be used by cooperative leaders, policy makers and rural administrators to strengthen member commitment and thereby the economic viability of agricultural cooperatives and the communities in which they are embedded.

1. The EU Food Sector -- 2. EU Food Law: A Very Short Introduction -- 3. EU Food Quality Policy: Geographical Indications -- 4. Public and Private Food Standards -- 5. Health and Nutrition: Policy, Consumer and Industry Perspectives -- 6. Future Developments in the EU Food Sector -- 7. A Public Good Perspective on the Rural Environment: Theory and History -- 8. Market Mechanisms and the Provision of Environmental and Social Services -- 9. Nature Conservation and Agriculture: Two EU Policy Domains That Finally Meet? -- 10. Public Policies for Social Innovation in Rural Areas -- 11. Rural Resilience as a New Development Concept -- 12. EU Rural Development Policies: Present and Future -- 13. Present and Future EU GMO Policy -- 14. EU Biofuel Policies for Road and Rail Transportation Sector -- 15. Bio-Based Economy Strategy -- 16. Opportunities and the Policy Challenges to the Circular Agri-Food System -- 17. Future Developments in EU Bio-Based Economy

Despite the purposeful governmental programs, agricultural cooperation in Russia is not developing - on the contrary, the number of cooperatives has been continuously declining. This study investigates the reasons for farmers' refusal to join cooperatives. A prepared questionnaire was distributed in one of the Russian regions (the Republic of Tatarstan), and the collected data were analyzed via the cross tabulation method and logit analysis. According to the study results, the major reasons for not cooperating are as follows: respondent farmers lack the experience of cooperation, they have problems trusting each other, they are not socially active in their communities, and they rarely have a higher education. The study results recommend that the Ministry of Agriculture, willing to develop agricultural cooperation, pay special attention to educating farmers in terms of cooperation. Particular work should be done in teaching farmers to work in groups, trust each other, and organize systems of cooperative ventures in a way that would exclude cheating and free-riding behavior on the parts of both the cooperative members and the leaders. Stimulating social activities among farmers in rural areas might also increase cooperation. In addition, there is a need for agricultural consulting services offering high quality educational courses explaining the advantages of cooperatives and profits that they may provide to the members.

AbstractOne of the key issues in collective action is whether stakeholders are able to realize commons governance through a trust‐based mode or control‐based mode. This paper, examines whether trust and control affect the commons governance for small‐scale irrigation facilities, and the moderating effects of group size on the relationship between trust and control and cooperative performance. The data were collected from 504 households who participated in the collective action for small‐scale irrigation facilities in Shaanxi, Gansu Province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of Northwest China. The analysis was performed by Structural Equation modeling and hierarchical regression. The findings show that trust and control are contrasting forces that influence the participation degree and the cooperative performance, although their relationship is not of a simple supplementary character but could be moderated by the group size. Both trust‐based and control‐based modes of irrigation management are effective in small groups, whereas only a control‐based mode of management has an effect in big groups. The theoretical contribution of this paper clarifies the mechanisms through which the contrasting forces of group size are exerted on trust and control, directly and indirectly influences the participation degree and the cooperative performance in commons governance.