1,720,974 research outputs found
Berücksichtigen Landwirte bei ihren Investitionsentscheidungen die damit verbundenen Auswirkungen auf die finanzielle Flexibilität ihres Betriebes?
No full textThe structural change in the agricultural sector calls for adaption processes which often involve leveraged investments that, in turn, cause decreasing equity capital ratios of farms. It is, therefore, possible that financial flexibility - as the farm's debt capacity - will also decrease. The question arises to what extent decision makers consider the effects on the financial flexibility of the individual farm when making their investment decisions. In the present study, farmers are faced with hypothetical investment alternatives in a discrete choice experiment. The investment alternatives presented to the farmers differ in their profitability, risk and effect on the financial flexibility of the individual farm. The results show that financial flexibility is relevant in their investment decisions. The importance farmers attach to the financial flexibility depends, among others, on their risk attitude and the profitability of the farm
Ist der Anbau von Zuckerrüben als Biogassubtrat für Landwirte eine Alternative? Ein Discrete-Choice-Experiment zur Ausgestaltung von Substrat-Lieferverträgen für Zuckerrüben
No full textIn order to provide a sustainable renewable energy production in biogas plants, it is necessary to examine substrates apart from silage maize on their suitability and acceptance in society. In this context, sugar beets gain more and more importance for the production of biogas. To date, there have not been any studies on the attitude of farmers towards the alternative use of sugar beets in biogas plants. We, therefore, investigated how substrate supply contracts should be designed that farmers agree to cultivate sugar beets for biogas. Due to the lack of farm-level data, we conducted an online-survey including a Discrete Choice Experiment with 118 German farmers. Our results show that the participating farmers react with restraint to contract sugar beets for biogas. If farmers opt for a supply contract of beet as biogas substrate, they prefer a short contract period and small-scale cultivation. A spring harvest of sugar beets is generally rejected
Ist der Anbau von Zuckerrüben als Biogassubtrat für Landwirte eine Alternative? Ein Discrete-Choice-Experiment zur Ausgestaltung von Substrat-Lieferverträgen für Zuckerrüben
No full textIn order to provide a sustainable renewable energy production in biogas plants, it is necessary to examine substrates apart from silage maize on their suitability and acceptance in society. In this context, sugar beets gain more and more importance for the production of biogas. To date, there have not been any studies on the attitude of farmers towards the alternative use of sugar beets in biogas plants. We, therefore, investigated how substrate supply contracts should be designed that farmers agree to cultivate sugar beets for biogas. Due to the lack of farm-level data, we conducted an online-survey including a Discrete Choice Experiment with 118 German farmers. Our results show that the participating farmers react with restraint to contract sugar beets for biogas. If farmers opt for a supply contract of beet as biogas substrate, they prefer a short contract period and small-scale cultivation. A spring harvest of sugar beets is generally rejected
Sugar beet as a biogas substrate? A discrete choice experiment for the design of substrate supply contracts for German farmers
No full textBiogas production using biomass of agricultural origin plays a key role in Germany's energy transition process. As the main substrate, maize usage has been increasingly criticized in recent years leading to a reduction of this crop for the use in biogas plants by an adjustment of Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act in 2012. Thus, at least 800 biogas plants are obliged by law to find suitable substrate alternatives to maize. This study explores German farmers' willingness to grow sugar beets for biogas production based upon the analysis of a discrete choice experiment conducted with 118 arable farmers. Models are estimated in terms of willingness to accept. Results reveal that at least two-thirds of the participating farmers assess biogas production from sugar beets as a suitable alternative to maize. However, with respect to their own farms, farmers are rather reluctant to choose a contract. Findings also indicate that experience with growing energy crops on contract does not enhance contract acceptance. Furthermore, risk-averse farmers are more likely to contract sugar beet as a biogas substrate than less risk-averse farmers, resulting in a lower price demand. However, risk-averse farmers prefer short contract periods and a small share of their arable land for contracted production, otherwise they demand a markup. Regarding a viable biogas production from agricultural biomass, our study is useful for biogas plant operators, farmers and policy makers to gain insight into the contract design for a possible substrate alternative from the perspective of farmers. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.Federal Ministry of Food and Agricultur
To insure or not to insure? Analysis of foresters' willingness-to-pay for fire and storm insurance
No full textNatural catastrophes in forests have become more damaging in recent years and are expected to further increase according to climate change scenarios. Currently, governmental measures mostly focus on providing financial support, such as direct payments, to forest owners after disasters. However, in the light of more weather extremes, this could lead to a heavier financial burden for national budgets. Therefore, the current financial support system has to be reconsidered with regard to privatizing foresters' risks. Insurance could play a key role, but in many countries forests are rarely insured. In order to explain insurance coverage, we analyzed foresters' preferences regarding fire and storm insurance, which are expressed as their willingness-to-pay (WTP). Therefore, we measured the risk attitude and conducted a discrete choice experiment with 137 German foresters, using various policy and forest enterprise scenarios. Our results show that most foresters have a very low WTP for insurance, and individual risk attitude was not of significant influence. The WTP was higher for fire than for storm insurance, presumably due to liquidity preservation motives. Policy programs involving unconditional support after disaster reduced the WTP. Instead, subsidized insurance premiums increased the WTP and thus, should be considered to establish an efficient insurance market. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG); Waldklimafond
Financial flexibility in agricultural investment decisions: A discrete choice experiment
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Discrete choice experiments in agricultural economics - farmers' preference structure and willingness to pay in different decision situations
No full textDie vier Beiträge der vorliegenden Dissertationsschrift untersuchen das Entscheidungsverhalten von Landwirten in unterschiedlichen Entscheidungssituationen. Das übergeordnete Ziel ist es, die Präferenzstruktur und Zahlungsbereitschaft von Landwirten in den untersuchten Entscheidungssituationen zu analysieren, um so die Informationsgrundlage als Entscheidungsbasis für Politiker und Berater sowie der Landwirte selbst zu erweitern. Hierzu findet die Methode der Discrete Choice Experimente in allen vier Beiträgen Anwendung.
Im Einzelnen werden in den Beiträgen folgende Forschungsfragen untersucht: Der erste Beitrag prüft welche Faktoren die Entscheidung von Landwirten beeinflussen, den Preis für ihr Erntegut ex ante abzusichern. Im zweiten Beitrag werden die Präferenzen von Landwirten für das Eingehen einer Kooperation unter expliziter Berücksichtigung von nicht-monetären Faktoren analysiert. Der dritte Beitrag geht der Frage nach, welche Rolle die finanzielle Flexibilität in Investitionsentscheidungen von Landwirten spielt. Wie Anbauverträge für Biogas-Zuckerrüben aus Sicht der anbauenden Landwirte ausgestaltet sein müssen, wird im vierten Beitrag geklärt.The four papers included in this dissertation examine the decision behavior of farmers in different decision situations. The overall aim is to analyze the preference structure and willingness to pay of farmers in the examined decision situations and, in this way, to extend the information based on which politicians, consultants and farmers can make their decisions. To do so, the method of discrete choice modelling is applied in all four papers.
In detail, the following research questions are examined: The first paper tests, which factors influence the decision of farmers to use price hedging instruments. In the second paper, farmers’ preferences for establishing CAs under explicit consideration of non-monetary factors are analyzed. The third paper examines to what extent decision makers consider the effects on the financial flexibility of the individual farm when making their investment decisions. The fourth paper provides an answer to the question how supply contracts for sugar beets as biogas substrate should be designed from farmers’ point of view
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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