Efficiency, total factor productivity and returns to scale in a sustainable perspective: An analysis in the European Union at farm and regional level

Martinho, Vítor João Pereira Domingues

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.040

Cited by 43 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The Keynesian analysis, using the Verdoorn-Kaldor developments, reveals that there are strong increasing returns in the Portuguese agroforestry sectors, which are higher in the agricultural sector. These findings are in line with other works [32]. On the other hand, considering the enlarged Kaldor equation, the burnt area logarithm positively influences employment growth in the agricultural sector and negatively influences the forestry sector.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…The enlargement of this Kaldor equation and its application for use in several economic sectors, including agricultural activities, has already been implemented in other work, such as Martinho [28,29]. Indeed, the Verdoorn and Kaldor developments are increasingly relevant in the current global economic context and bring insight to both regional development [30][31][32][33], of labor contexts [34,35] and the relationship between manufacturing and economic development [36].…”

Section: Methodology Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Martinho

2019

Sustainability

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Recent forest fire activity has resulted in several consequences across different geographic locations where both natural and socioeconomic conditions have promoted a favorable context for what has happened in recent years in a number of countries, including Portugal. As a result, it would be interesting to examine the implications of forest fire activity in terms of the socioeconomic dynamics and performance of the agroforestry sectors in the context of those verified in the Portuguese municipalities. For this purpose, data from Statistics on Portugal was considered for output and employment from the business sector related to agricultural and forestry activities, which were disaggregated at the municipality level, for the period 2008-2015. Data for the burnt area was also considered in order to assess the impact of forest fires. The data was analyzed using econometric models in panel data based on the Keynesian (Kaldor laws) and convergence (conditional approaches) theories. The results from the Keynesian approaches show that there are signs of increasing returns to scale in the Portuguese agroforestry sectors, where the burnt area increased employment growth in agricultural activities and decreased employment in the forestry sector. Forest fires seem to create favorable conditions for agricultural employment in Portuguese municipalities and the inverse occurs for forestry employment. Additionally, some signs of convergence were identified between Portuguese municipalities for agroforestry output and employment, as well for the burnt areas. However, signs of divergence (increasing returns to scale) from the Keynesian models seem to be stronger. On the other hand, the evidence of beta convergence for the burnt areas are stronger than those verified for other variables, showing that the impacts from forest fires are more transversal across the whole country (however not enough to have sigma convergence).Sustainability 2019, 11, 374 2 of 14 modelling, for example, brings new approaches for forest fire assessment, namely because it allows us to link several dimensions related with these multidisciplinary realities [2]. Good assessments of the impacts of forest fires are important contributions to the design of adjusted agroforestry policies, specifically in order to direct support to the most negatively affected activities. Policy instruments and related legislation are determinant tools for reducing the negative impacts of forest fires [3].Indeed, in international terms, agroforestry land inside and outside of Europe continues to burn, in some cases with more severity and frequency, namely due to climate change and global warming. On the other hand, governments and related institutions create (and disclose) more regulations than in the past [4]. Maybe, new approaches are needed, where new technologies may play a determinant role. Multidisciplinary approaches could bring interesting contributions, for instance, economic analysis could transmit valuable insights.These undesirable forest fires have always brought neg...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodology Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Martinho

2019

Sustainability

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“…It is important to highlight that the variables selection took into account the original Cobb-Douglas model, the literature review carried out before and to avoid problems of multicollinearity. The Cobb-Douglas model, with proper adjustments, was considered in analyses for the agricultural sector by several authors, namely for efficiency surveys with data envelopment analysis [99] or through stochastic frontier [100].…”

Section: Stressing the Cobb-douglas Model Adequacy For Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Entrepreneurship in the European Union: Contributions for a Sustainable Development

Martinho

2020

Applied Sciences

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Entrepreneurship is sometimes seen as a glimmer of hope which may bring about some contribution towards improving economic dynamics and performance, specifically in the creation of employment by young people, in general, with further educational training, greater flexibility and who are better prepared for working with new technologies. However, entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector is, in certain circumstances, viewed as being something incompatible or, at least, difficult to implement. More scientific studies in these fields could provide interesting contributions on the road to highlighting new ideas inside the farming sector. In this framework, the objective of this study is to explore the entrepreneurship dimensions within the European Union agriculture towards a more sustainable sector. In fact, without an economic dimension in farm management, its sustainability in the medium and long run may be compromised, increasing the abandonment of farming, namely in more disadvantaged regions. For this, the literature which is available on the platform Web of Science relating to the following three topics was initially analysed: entrepreneurship, agriculture, and the European Union. This literature was clustered through the VOSviewer software, an interesting tool for performing bibliometric analysis. Secondly, statistical information related to European Union agricultural entrepreneurship considering empirical approaches was also explored. The analysis carried out shows that the realities across European Union countries are, in fact, different, where the instruments from the common agricultural policies, for example, may play a crucial role in promoting more farming entrepreneurship in a more sustainable way.

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“…Research that applies DEA in sustainable development measurements is in the vast majority related to sustainable development in a selected and narrow field, e.g., eco-efficiency evaluation of electric utility plants [8], energy-efficiency evaluation of selected countries [9,10] or employment-efficiency in terms of the three dimensions of sustainable development [11]. DEA is also applied to assess the sustainability of cities or urban regions [12][13][14] or the sustainable agriculture in selected countries and agricultural regions [15][16][17], to assess the sustainability of industrial parks [18] or the sustainable performance of the real estate industry [19]. Moreover, DEA proves to be helpful in evaluating the sustainability of the production of biofuels [20] or even the sustainability of products, such as the construction materials [21].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension

Łozowicka

2020

Sustainability

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Since the ‘Earth Summit’ in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, the concept of sustainable development has been widely discussed and implemented globally. This paper proposes a quantitative tool, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), that can support decision makers in assessing the efficiency of implementation of the sustainable development policy. The example of such analysis is presented by assessing the efficiency of implementation of the sustainable development policy of twenty two European Union Member States in 2005–2015. DEA (and more specifically the Slack-Based Measure) showed an improvement in the efficiency of most of the Member States in 2015 as compared to the results achieved in 2005. This outcome sent a positive and motivating signal for the continuation of activities in the area of sustainable development implementation. The method used in the study also has determined the weak areas that still exist in inefficient countries and indicated the action that should be taken to improve their efficiency. DEA enables an objective comparison of the results measured using this method and may therefore be considered by EU Member States as well as other organizations, including local governments responsible for the implementation of a sustainable development policy as a useful tool facilitating an objective assessment of the effects of their work.

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Efficiency, total factor productivity and returns to scale in a sustainable perspective: An analysis in the European Union at farm and regional level

Cited by 43 publications

References 25 publications

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Agricultural Entrepreneurship in the European Union: Contributions for a Sustainable Development

Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension

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