Suchergebnisse

Agriculture in the European Union is highly differentiated, and one of the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy is to improve agricultural competitiveness. Therefore, surveys regarding the competitiveness of agriculture and grouping countries of the European Union (EU) according to similar characteristics of agriculture are very valuable. They help make strategic decisions concerning the agricultural sector. This paper aims to evaluate the agricultural competitiveness of EU member states in 2010–2019. Data used is derived from the Eurostat and FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network). The study employed a competitiveness pyramid model based on two groups of factors–competitiveness sources (bottom of the pyramid) and competitiveness effects. Partial components allocated to the groups mentioned above of factors were used to calculate a synthetic measure to determine the level of agricultural competitiveness in respective countries. The studies revealed that EU agriculture varies both in terms of resources and relationships between production factors, as well as the efficiency of their utilization. A clear difference in the level of competitiveness occurred between old and new member states, although some new countries ranked relatively high in terms of competitiveness sources (Czechia and Poland). Belgium scored highest for the synthetic measure of agricultural competitiveness in 2010–2019, and Cyprus had the lowest. It was demonstrated that human resources were of utmost importance in the structure of competitiveness sources. In turn, the average holding area determined the management conditions to the highest extent.

Terror attacks are known to increase support for the attacked nation state and strengthen ingroup affiliations among citizens. Even though there is evidence that a terror attack can affect people all over the world, up to now no study has considered whether these nation-specific effects work on a supra-national level. This study investigates these effects by analyzing the impact of two severe Islamist terror attacks, the Paris attack from 2015 and the Manchester bombing from 2017, on citizens' attachment to the European Union (EU). We use data from the Eurobarometer surveys that were conducted around the time of these attacks. Applying an entropy- balancing approach before running ordered logistic regressions, we make use of the quasi-random variation in survey interviews to analyze the treatment effects of the two attacks. The results indicate that the so-called rally effects work for supra-national communities and that they increase EU citizens' attachment to and the identification with the EU. Thus, the study has relevant implications for research about terror attacks, as it provides new insights about the scope of rally effects and their mode of operation.

International crises like dramatic terror attacks leave their mark on society in various ways. According to the existing literature, some of these consequences include two seemingly conflicting responses: increasing as well as decreasing support for the incumbent government. To make sense of this seeming contradiction, this study combines these observations in one empirical framework. We investigate the effects of Islamist terrorism on citizens' evaluation of the national government by logistic regression analyses using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for Germany from 2014 to 2017. Our analyses demonstrate that support for the government significantly increases in the aftermath of Islamist terror attacks. However, the intensity of such support decreases with repeated exposure to terror attacks, and these effects even reverse when a certain level of terror is reached. Further, we find that radical right parties benefit from the issues accentuated by terrorism.

This paper aimed at evaluating the level of sustainability in agriculture in 28 member states of the European Union. The surveys were carried out based on a synthetic technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS)-based measure. This method synthesizes factors of various nature and assigns them a synthetic aggregate measure. The analysis made it possible to develop a ranking of EU member states according to a differentiated level of measures and assign them to one of four groups characterized by different levels of sustainability in agriculture. The group of member states representing the highest level of sustainability in agriculture included two countries from Central and Eastern Europe, i.e., Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The group of countries with a greater than average level of sustainability comprised 14 member states of the European Union, including seven countries admitted to the community after 2004. The group with a low level of sustainability consisted of eight EU member states, six of them from the group of old EU member states, i.e., Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and two new members, i.e., Romania and Slovenia. On the other hand, the lowest level of sustainability was characteristic of two &ldquo ; old EU&rdquo ; member states, i.e., The Netherlands and Belgium, and two &ldquo ; new EU&rdquo ; member states, i.e., Cyprus and Malta. The differentiated synthetic measure values showed disparities in the level of sustainability in agriculture among the member states of the European Union. They are a result of the varied level of development of this sector, production intensity and the resulting environmental impact.

Purpose: This paper aimed at evaluating changes in agricultural productivity in the group of new (NMS) and old (OMS) member states of the European Union. Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis covered the years 2007-2016. The calculations made use of unit data from farms participating in FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network). Surveys were carried out based on the Malmquist productivity index and partial indicators of land, workforce and capital productivity. Findings: The outcome pointed to increased total productivity of agriculture in NMS (9.5%), resulting from positive technological changes and improvement in technical efficiency. A small decrease in productivity was noted in a group of EU-15 countries, which was due to a decrease in technical efficiency. Despite the growth in total productivity, the value of partial productivity indicators in NMS remained at a much lower level than in OMS. Practical Implications: Identification of the determinants of growth in agricultural productivity is the precondition to make up differences occurring between member states in this respect. Originality/Value: This study contributes to reference literature concerning productivity of agriculture for a number of reasons. First, the scope of the survey is extensive, as it covers a group of 27 EU member states split into new and old members. The second aspect of the survey is taking into account both changes in total factor productivity and in productivity of respective production factors. Thirdly, the Malmquist index adopted for the needs of the survey made it possible to identify the sources of change in total factor productivity. ; peer-reviewed