Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tomas RATINGER Author-Workplace-Name: Technological Centre of the Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Zuzana KRISTKOVA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Title: R&D Investments, technology spillovers and agricultural productivity, case of the Czech Republic Abstract: The objective of the paper is to quantify the effect of the R&D investments on agricultural productivity in the Czech Republic using the co-integration analysis. The effect of the R&D investments is measured by a knowledge stock constructed using a gamma distribution with lags ranging from 7 to 15 years. The relationship between the total factor productivity in agriculture, the domestic knowledge stock and the foreign R&D spillovers approximated by the imports of agricultural technologies is examined using an error correction model. Whereas the estimates confirm that domestic research plays a positive role in agricultural productivity, the results for the foreign R&D spillovers are rather weak. Furthermore, there is little evidence that either length of time or the functional form of weights plays a major role in assessing the dependence of the productivity on R&D investments; however, the models with the knowledge distribution lags longer than 7 years perform better. Keywords: agricultural research, co-integration analysis, knowledge stock, total factor productivity Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 297-313 Volume: 61 Issue: 7 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/148/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/148/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201507-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:7:id:148-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Heng-Hung KUO Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Finance, Chung Hua University, Taiwan Author-Name: HO Li-Hsing Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, Taiwan Author-Name: Wen-Hung LIN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, Taiwan Title: Do hog breeds matter? Investigating the price volatility in the Taiwan's auction market Abstract: The study analyzes the dynamic differences between the prices of black hogs and white hogs in Taiwan and determines whether these two products should be viewed as homogeneous commodities by analyzing their price volatility. Previous studies have shown that the differences in auction prices stem from the traits of the individual hogs rather than certain breeds demanding a premium because of their superior meat quality. Methodologically, this study utilizes the multivariate GARCH and the constant conditional correlation models to analyze the average daily prices of the two breeds generated by random auction sequences. Data were collected from 1485 observations, from January 2009 to December 2013, of the Miaoli hog auction market of Taiwan. Based on the dissimilarity of price volatility structures and the low correlation factor between the black hogs and white hogs, this study concludes that these two hog breeds should be regarded as heterogeneous products. This conclusion should serve as a reference for the local hog producers when searching for the best economic traits of indigenous breeds in terms of rearing the potential as well as for the stakeholders when developing the breed-specific marketing strategies. Keywords: black hog, indigenous hog breeds, price actions, wholesale market Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 314-325 Volume: 61 Issue: 7 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/206/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/206/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201507-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:7:id:206-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jindřich KLŮFA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Economic aspects of the LTPD single sampling inspection plans Abstract: The paper deals with the LTPD (Lot Tolerance Percent Defective) single sampling plans when the remainder of rejected lots is inspected. There are considered two types of the LTPD plans - for inspection by variables and for inspection by variables and attributes (all items from the sample are inspected by variables; the remainder of rejected lots is inspected by attributes). These plans were created by the author of this paper and published in the Statistical Papers. These new plans were compared with the corresponding Dodge-Romig LTPD plans for the inspection by attributes from the economic point of view. From the results of the numerical investigations, it follows that under the same protection of consumer the LTPD plans for the inspection by variables are in many situations more economical than the corresponding Dodge-Romig attribute sampling plans (saving of the inspection cost is 80% in any cases). The dependence of the saving of the inspection cost on the acceptance sampling characteristics is analyzed in the paper. Keywords: acceptance sampling, economic efficiency, inspection by variables Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 326-331 Volume: 61 Issue: 7 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/186/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/186/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201507-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:7:id:186-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Muhammad Rizwan YASEEN Author-Workplace-Name: Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Author-Name: Imran QAISER Author-Workplace-Name: Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Author-Name: Nabeela KOUSAR Author-Workplace-Name: Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Title: Comparative analysis of the animal products consumption in developing countries: the case study of the South Asian countries Abstract: Being the most populous countries of South Asia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh represent about 37% of the world total undernourished population. In these three countries, the growing place of animal products can be observed in the diets, but the levels consumed for animal products remained very low as compared to the world mean. The consumption behaviour of animal products for three countries is presented in the study. Expenditure elasticities, own and cross compensated as well as non-compensated price elasticities of main animal products of these countries are calculated by using a LA/AIDS model applied to yearly data. Milk is income as well as price elastic in Pakistan while all other animal products in all three countries are relatively price inelastic. On the other hand, chicken and eggs are relatively income elastic. The results are compared with other authors in detail. The impact of some government policies to improve the protein and calorie intake by the actions on income and prices for the most vulnerable consumers (low income group) in these countries is also evaluated for Pakistan. Keywords: animal food consumption, expenditure elasticities, LA/AIDS, price elasticities, protein and calorie intake Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 332-342 Volume: 61 Issue: 7 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/138/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/138/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201507-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:7:id:138-2014-AGRICECON