Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: F. Střeleček Author-Name: J. Lososová Author-Name: R. Zdeněk Title: Economic results of agricultural enterprises in 2009 Abstract: Every year, an analysis of economic results of a sample of agricultural enterprises farming in various production and climatic conditions in the territory of the Czech Republic is carried out by applying economic statistical methods. Based on these results, long-term trends of economic results and their influencing factors are defined. This article is based on the analysis of development of economic indicators of a sample of agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic in the period 2003-2009, divided according to the proportion of the LFA. The year 2009 brought, in comparison with the previous years, a strong deterioration in economic results. In 2009, the economic result was the worst during the whole monitored period. The decrease in the average number of workers together with the increase in labour productivity manifests a long-term tendency. Agricultural subsidies tend also to grow in the long-term even though their growth has been slowing down. Keywords: financial analysis, profit/loss, labour productivity, subsidies, LFA, NON LFA Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 103-117 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/175/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/175/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:175-2010-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Chuanmin SHUAI Author-Workplace-Name: Schoolof Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China Author-Name: Xi WANG Author-Workplace-Name: China Social Sciences Press, Beijing, China Title: Comparative advantages and complementarity of Sino-US agricultural trade: An empirical analysis Abstract: By adopting the RCA, CMS, TCD, SI and TCI models, this paper has made an empirical analysis of the comparative advantages and complementarity of the agricultural trade between China and the United States in terms of sixteen major agricultural products since 1997. The results indicate that (1) the exporting agri-products of China and the United States reflect the characteristics of the resource endowment of each country; (2) China's agri-product competitiveness has decreased after its WTO accession, while the country's agri-export structure has been upgraded; (3) Sino-US agri-trade dependency continues to rise, and the U.S. relies more on China than China does on the U.S.; (4) China and the United Sates have good complementarity in the agricultural trade, which tends to strengthen after the China's accession to the WTO. Policy implications are proposed accordingly based on these findings. Keywords: agricultural trade, comparative advantages, complementarity, China, the United States Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 118-131 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/46/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/46/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:46-2010-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ibrahim A. ONOUR Author-Workplace-Name: Arab Planning Institute, Kuwait, Kuwait Author-Name: Bruno S. SERGI Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Messina, Messina, Italy Title: Modeling and forecasting volatility in global food commodity prices Abstract: To capture the volatility in the global food commodity prices, we employed two competing models, the thin tailed the normal distribution, and the fat-tailed Student t-distribution models. Results based on wheat, rice, sugar, beef, coffee, and groundnut prices, during the sample period from October 1984 to September 2009, show the t-distribution model outperforms the normal distribution model, suggesting that the normality assumption of residuals which are often taken for granted for its simplicity may lead to unreliable results of the conditional volatility estimates. The paper also shows that the volatility of food commodity prices characterized with the intermediate and short memory behavior, implying that the volatility of food commodity prices is mean reverting. Keywords: volatility, forecast, fat-tail distribution, food commodities Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 132-139 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/28/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/28/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:28-2010-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Karel ŠRÉDL Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Alexandr SOUKUP Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Consumer's behaviour on food markets Abstract: The article is interested in the problems of consumer's behaviour in the food market and namely the determining factors of his (her) behaviour according to the neoclassical theory approaches and its modern modifications, which are compared here with the concepts of other authors. It also is interested in the possibilities of the marginalist analytical apparatus in the consumer's decision-making. Keywords: Cardinalism, ordinalism, neoclassical theory, agricultural products, food markets, marginalist analysis Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 140-144 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/7/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/7/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:7-2010-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Thomas GLAUBEN Author-Workplace-Name: IAMO, Halle, Germany Author-Name: Kristin HANSEN Author-Workplace-Name: KraftFoods, Zug, Switzerland Author-Name: Jens-Peter LOY Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kiel, Germany Author-Name: Christoph R. WEISS Author-Workplace-Name: Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), Austria Title: Breadth and depth of promotional sales in food retailing Abstract: Temporary price reductions (sales) as a means of promotion have become an increasingly important tool in the marketing mix of food retailers around the world. This paper investigates the retailers' pricing strategy by explicitly accounting for the multi-product nature of retailing. We find that retailers systematically adjust the breadth and depth of sales over time and they respond aggressively to their rivals' promotional activities. Finally, the breadth and depth of sales are found to be substitutes in the set of the available strategies to increase the store traffic. Keywords: multi-product food retail pricing, promotional sales, Germany, milk products Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 145-149 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/158/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/158/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:158-2010-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Arnošt VESELÝ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Economic classification and regression problems and neural networks Abstract: Artificial neural networks provide powerful models for solving many economic classifications, as well as regression problems. For example, they were successfully used for the discrimination between healthy economic agents and those prone to bankruptcy, for the inflation-deflation forecasting, for the currency exchange rates prediction, or for the prediction of share prices. At present, the neural models are part of the majority of standard statistical software packages. This paper discusses the basic principles, which the neural network models are based on, and sum up the important principles that must be respected in order that their utilization in practice is efficient. Keywords: multilayer neural networks, classification, bankruptcy prediction, time series prediction, neural network training, error functions Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 150-157 Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Year: 2011 DOI: 10.17221/50/2010-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/50/2010-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201103-0006.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:57:y:2011:i:3:id:50-2010-AGRICECON