Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Stefan KIRCHWEGER Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Jochen KANTELHARDT Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Friedrich LEISCH Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Title: Impacts of the government-supported investments on the economic farm performance in Austria Abstract: Farm investments in the European Union are supported by the governmental programmes. The evaluation of this programme is challenged through the voluntary participation and heterogeneous observation units. Therefore, we combine the Matching Method with the Difference-in-Difference estimation in order to overcome these problems and to estimate the impact of supported farm-investment activities on the economic performance of the Austrian farm holdings. In particular, we detect an increase in production, land renting and capital borrowing. Furthermore, a shift from the non-farm to farm activities, but with no statistically significant impact on the total income is shown. Keywords: farm-investment support programme, selection bias, matching, conditional Difference-in-Difference estimation Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 343-355 Volume: 61 Issue: 8 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/250/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/250/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201508-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:8:id:250-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Igor KREJČÍ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Petr MAZOUCH Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Statistics, Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Kristýna VLTAVSKÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Statistics, Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Roman KVASNIČKA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Age of machinery and equipment in the Czech agriculture Abstract: The paper deals with the estimation and analysis of the average age and the age structure of machinery and equipment in agriculture. The development of the average age of machinery and equipment could be used as an indicator of the modernisation process and the picture of investment support in the industry. For the purposes of the analysis, the official model of the perpetual inventory method is transformed into the Markov chain model. The analysis shows significant differences in the institutional sectors. The average age of machinery and the age distribution depicts the situation in agriculture and it indicates the lower competitiveness of small farmers. The paper contains the prognosis of development of the average age of machinery and equipment in the case of permanent investment on the level of the current year. The international comparison shows that the average age of machinery and equipment in the Czech Republic is close to the level of developed countries. However, the estimated development shows a decreasing average age of the machinery and equipment. Keywords: agriculture industry, average age of assets, Markov chain, gross capital stock, perpetual inventory method, life expectancy Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 356-366 Volume: 61 Issue: 8 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/238/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/238/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201508-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:8:id:238-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jarmila LAZÍKOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Law, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Ivan TAKÁČ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of European Policies, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Pavol SCHWARCZ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of European Policies, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Anna BANDLEROVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Law, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Title: Agricultural land market in Slovakia - economic and legal impacts of the Law No. 140/2014 Coll. on the land acquisition Abstract: Agricultural land is an important natural resource and the wealth of each country; in addition it is one of the main production factors, especially for the agricultural businessmen. That is a reason that state law makers adopt the legal regulations which are able to protect this unique natural resource and prefer using the land mainly for the agricultural purposes. The Slovak law makers have followed also such objectives by adoption of the Law No. 140/2014 Coll. on the acquisition of ownership of agricultural land and amending and supplementing certain laws. The paper analyses the economic and legal impacts of this law on the agricultural market in Slovakia with the regard to the presented land protection as the objective of the new legal regulation. Keywords: agricultural land, land market, land acquisition, legal regulation, land purchase Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 367-376 Volume: 61 Issue: 8 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/165/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/165/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201508-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:8:id:165-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jan SIKORA Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan, Poland Author-Name: Wlodzimierz KACZOCHA Author-Workplace-Name: The Higher School of Management and Banking, Poznan, Poland Author-Name: Agnieszka WARTECKA-WAZYNSKA Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education, Poznan, Poland Title: Values and professional and ethical norms in rural tourism in Poland Abstract: With development of the market economy, the views concerning the importance of ethical norms in business activity are developing. Ethical orientation in economics, has been popularized for several decades by e.g. French centre "Economie et Humanisme"1, established by a renowned Dominican, L.J. Lebret. Tourism, including rural tourism, represents an economic activity which has its specific ethical dimension. The goals of this paper are to characterize the basic values that are voluntarily accepted and used in tourism in rural areas in Poland and to identify the ethical norms that guarantee the realization of these values. The authors adopted the basic values-goals that should be recommended in rural tourism. They also formulated specific professional and ethical norms that support realization of the values, which include: humanity and standards for realizing the principle of humanity; the cultural and material conditions of living in rural areas; economic activity, including tourist activity that improves rural living conditions; innovative attitudes towards modernization and improving the quality of rural tourist services; and values that support the development of sustainable tourism in rural areas. The theoretical investigations concerning axiological problems were supplemented with the results obtained from a national-level empirical survey that was conducted in rural areas in Poland. Keywords: continuous education, rural tourist services, sustainable tourism, values-goals Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 377-392 Volume: 61 Issue: 8 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/14/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/14/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201508-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:8:id:14-2014-AGRICECON