Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Eva HÝBLOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Title: Analysis of mergers in Czech agriculture companies Abstract: Agriculture represents a significant part of the national economy. It secures production of food and influences many related processing industries. Although the volume of agricultural production and its proportion in the gross domestic product has been decreasing, there is a huge interest in increasing the performance of agriculture companies. One of the ways to enhance the company performance, to gain new markets or to achieve cost savings is a merger. Mergers are not very usual in the field of agriculture currently - their proportion in the total number of mergers in the Czech Republic in 2001-2013 was 3.07%. The aim of this paper is to analyse mergers in the field of agriculture. The analysis focuses on the consequences of mergers from the perspective of changes in the financial position and the company performance in the year before the merger and three years after the merger. The analysis proved that the company size (measured by the balance sheet total) decreased as a consequence of mergers and their performance increased. Keywords: agriculture, mergers, economic development of a company, financial position, performance Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 441-448 Volume: 60 Issue: 10 Year: 2014 DOI: 10.17221/15/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/15/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201410-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:60:y:2014:i:10:id:15-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Štefan BUDAY Author-Workplace-Name: National Agricultural and Food Centre, Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Tatiana ČIČOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: National Agricultural and Food Centre, Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Title: The transactions on the agricultural land market in Slovakia Abstract: Data on the transactions with agricultural land in 2012, based on the primary data from the Research Institute of Geodesy and Cartography in Bratislava, were evaluated according to the legal status of the buyer and also whether the legal person was a national of the Slovak Republic, or had been resident abroad. The results of the data analysis pointed out that in the selected twelve districts of the Slovak Republic in 2012, there were 55.75% of legal persons, 44.10% of natural persons and 0.15% of subjects without determining the legal form involved in the transactions with agricultural land. Legal persons were divided into two categories, i.e. the entities with the nationality of the Slovak Republic and the entities domiciled abroad. The results showed that in 2012, within the study sample of buyers of the farmland, there were 99.91% of legal persons having the nationality of the Slovak Republic, and only 0.09% was other legal persons from abroad. Keywords: average market price of agricultural land, selected districts of Slovakia Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 449-457 Volume: 60 Issue: 10 Year: 2014 DOI: 10.17221/56/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/56/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201410-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:60:y:2014:i:10:id:56-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jianmei ZHAO Author-Workplace-Name: Central University of Finance and Economics, Haidian District, Beijing, China Author-Name: Jun ZHANG Author-Workplace-Name: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at Sichuan Branch, Sichuan, China Author-Name: Peter J. BARRY Author-Workplace-Name: University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, USA Title: Do formal credit constraints affect the rural household consumption in China? Abstract: The article investigates the consequences of credit constraints on rural household consumption in China. Based on a unique rural finance and consumption survey, the authors first identify the credit constraint status of rural households from formal financial institutions. Then, they apply an endogenous switching regression model to compare the consumption responses to household production inputs for credit constrained and non-constrained households. The estimation results reveal that the credit constraint could result in the crowding out effect of the aggregate household consumption from its production inputs. Nonetheless, similar to the non-constrained households, the credit constraint households are capable of smoothing their necessary consumption. Keywords: direct elicitation method, rural credit, switching regression model Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 458-468 Volume: 60 Issue: 10 Year: 2014 DOI: 10.17221/161/2013-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/161/2013-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201410-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:60:y:2014:i:10:id:161-2013-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Suleyman KARAMAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Faculty, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey Author-Name: Feyza YAVUZ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Faculty, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey Title: Hedonic price analysis of the quality characteristics of Anatolian hard red wheat Abstract: The study analyses the relations between the quality characteristics and price of the Anatolian Hard Red Wheat. It uses a data set consisting of the price and eight quality characteristics of the Anatolian Hard Red Wheat traded in spot transaction in each month of 2011 in the Polatli Commodity Exchange. Marginal implicit values of the quality characteristics of the Anatolian Red Hard Wheat traded in the spot market of the Polatli Commodity Exchange are determined through the hedonic price model. This model is estimated from the linear-log functional form. Results of the hedonic price model demonstrate that the quality characteristics, which are statistically significant in the determination of price, namely, the protein content, the hectolitre weight, and the grain content damaged by pests and wheat bugs, are important factors in the purchasing decisions of flour millers. As the protein content and the hectolitre weight of wheat increase by 1%, the price increases by TL 0.005 and TL 0.006, respectively. As the grain content damaged by pests and wheat bugs increases by 1%, the price of wheat drops by TL 0.0002. These marginal implicit values are expected to encourage wheat producers to produce the higher quality wheat. Keywords: wheat policy, quality characteristics, Polatli Commodity Exchange, Turkey Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 469-478 Volume: 60 Issue: 10 Year: 2014 DOI: 10.17221/37/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/37/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201410-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:60:y:2014:i:10:id:37-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gordana DJUROVIC Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro Author-Name: Branko BULATOVIC Author-Workplace-Name: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Podgorica, Montenegro Title: Proposal for the EU CAP compliant agricultural budgeting model in Montenegro Abstract: After the official start of the Montenegrin accession negotiations with the EU in June 2012, it is important to plan a significant increase in the agricultural budget financing well ahead of the accession. Considering the structure and economic importance of agriculture for the generation of Montenegrin GDP, the balanced trade deficit, the reduction of poverty and the regional disparities in development and reversing the negative demographic trends, the proposed reformed agricultural budget of Montenegro in the period 2014-2018 outlines significantly higher levels of the funding both as a share of the state budget and the GDP. The proposed proportions of financing of the key measure groups in the subsequent tables utilize as a starting point the model defined in the Montenegrin National Program of Food Production and Rural Development 2009-2013. Some changes in the proportion of the measures are also proposed according to the agricultural sector needs and the institutional capacity building for the next phase of the EU accession negotiations. In order to prepare the Montenegrin agriculture to cope with the competitive pressures of the EU single market, the indisputable conclusion of this study is that the proposed future levels of agricultural funding in the agricultural budget should be at least near to those (in the relative terms) of the comparable economies of the Western Balkans countries. Keywords: agricultural budget, agriculture and rural development, EU accession negotiations Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 479-487 Volume: 60 Issue: 10 Year: 2014 DOI: 10.17221/165/2013-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/165/2013-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201410-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:60:y:2014:i:10:id:165-2013-AGRICECON