1,721,009 research outputs found
An resilience analysis of the contraction of the accommodation and food service on the Scottish food industry
Full text linkThe Scottish economy, such as the United Kingdom (UK) economy, has been exposed to several adverse shocks over the past 5 years. Examples of these are the effect of the UK exiting the European Union (Brexit), the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently the Russia-Ukraine war, which can result in adverse direct and indirect economic losses across various sectors of the economy. The purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to explore the degree of resilience of the Scottish food and drinks sector, (2) to estimate the effects on interconnected sectors of the economy; and (3) to estimate the economic losses which is the financial value associated with the reduction in output. For this analysis, the study relied on the Dynamic Inoperability Input-Output Model (DIIM). The results indicate that the accommodation and food service sector was the most affect by the covid-19 pandemic lockdown contracting by about 60 per cent having a cascading effect on the remaining 17 sectors of the economy. The Processed and preserved fish, fruits and vegetable sector is the least resilient whilst Preserved meat and meat products sector is the most resilient to final demand disruption in the accommodation and food service sector. The least economically affected sector was the other food products sector whilst the other services sector had the highest economic loss. Despite the fact that the soft drinks sector had a slow recovery rate, economic losses were lower compared to the agricultural, fishery and forestry sector. From the policy perspective, stakeholders in the accommodation and food service sector should re-examine the sector and develop capacity against future pandemics. In addition, it is important for economic sectors to collaborate either vertically or horizontally by sharing information and risk to reduce the burden of future disruptions. Finally, the most vulnerable sector of the economy i.e. other services sector should form a major part of government policy decision-making when planning against future pandemics
Potential Impact of Brexit on Fruits and Vegetables Purchases in Scotland
Full text linkAt the start of 2021, the economics observatory suggested that the British pound was 15 per cent weaker relative to the Euro than it was on the eve of the Brexit referendum. The goal of the present study is to assess the implications of an unfavourable Brexit deal that has the potential to depreciate the British pound by making fruits and vegetables imported from the EU relatively more expensive than the pre-Brexit era in Scotland. Demand for fourteen kinds of fruits and vegetables purchased in Scotland was estimated using monthly time series data constructed from a consumer panel collated by Kantar Worldpanel from 2006 to 2020. Using short-run elasticities calculated from the demand model we simulated the implications of a 10 per cent price increase for fruit and vegetable resulting from changes to trade tariffs with the EU or movements in exchange rates. The results tend to suggest that a major share of the vegetables purchased in leading retail shops in Scotland are either produced in the UK or the rest of the world. For fruits, a major share of fruits especially tropical fruits and grapes bought are sourced from the rest of the world. The depreciation of the British pound relative to the Euro has negative implications for demand for all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The impact of the price increases is highest for fruits and vegetables of the EU origin. This could result in as high as 63 per cent reduction in net total purchases for seed vegetables and as low as 2 per cent reduction in purchases for edible plant stem vegetables. The fall in purchases could potentially affect Scottish government’s goal to increase fruits and vegetable consumption by 400 grams per person per day
Sustainable consumption: fiscal policies and household behaviour
Full text linkThe aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of climate and health policies on personal well-being and the environment or both as well as how household behaviour influences the sustainability of health goals – prevalence of obesity. The most important contribution of this thesis is the application of new methods, use of experimental data and incorporation of national climate and health policy goals into our analysis. The thesis has six chapters, the first chapter deals with the introduction of the thesis whilst the last chapter summarizes the conclusion from the four main chapters comprising of four papers. The second Chapter investigates the effectiveness of carbon tax to promote climate-friendly food demand, welfare and diet quality in Spain. Tax policy scenarios were based on EU alternative social cost of emissions. Own- and cross-price elasticities of sixteen food groups were calculated from incomplete Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) food demand system. Results show that price increases due to the tax reform reduces the consumption of the food products associated with higher CO2 equivalent emissions but improves diet quality. Even though the tax reform simultaneously improved both the environment and health, the tax was more regressive on low-income citizen’s welfare. The third Chapter investigates the effectiveness of a health tax reform on consumer welfare and diet quality. In this case, the tax policy scenario was based on internalizing the social cost of obesity in Spain. Using the 2012 Kantar homescan data, the EASI demand model was used to estimate nutrient price and expenditure elasticities. Results suggest marginal improvement in the quality of diet, although not in the very short term. Moreover, the consumption of health damaging nutrients such as saturated fatty acid, sodium, and cholesterol decreased tremendously. From the welfare perspective, all household segments had expenditure savings. In Chapter four the thesis took a behavioural perspective due to the marginal impact of the taxes on reducing the consumption of both environmental and health damaging foods. As a result, this chapter assessed the link between psychological attitudes such as risk attitudes, time inconsistencies and body mass index (to account for the prevalence of obesity) in Catalonia. Experimental data on consumer attitudes towards risk, time inconsistencies and sociodemographic characteristics were collated from a section of Catalonian households in 2014. Econometric approaches based on prospect theory and time discounting were used to estimate the risk and time parameters, respectively. The results support a strong influence of risk aversion on the development of body mass index. Furthermore, time inconsistencies significantly influence individuals propensity to increase body mass index. The fifth Chapter brings together all the covariates that influence the development of obesity by investigating the psychological, behavioural and socioeconomic drivers of obesity in Catalonia using path model analysis. Experimental data that elicited risk preferences, time inconsistencies, believes about obese persons, attitudes towards obesity, body perception, body image dissatisfaction and body mass index consumers were used. A multivariate path model was used to estimate the path parameters linking the covariates. Results suggest significant direct and indirect relationships between obesity and most variables. Obesity is also directly influenced by believe that obesity is controllable, correct body image and body image dissatisfaction. Second, significant indirect relationship was found between obesity and attitudes towards persons with obesity. Socioeconomic factors that have significant influence of obesity include age and gender. Risk attitudes did not have any direct or indirect effects on obesity.El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es investigar la influencia de políticas climáticas y de salud sobre el bienestar personal y el medioambiente, así como, la forma en que el comportamiento de los hogares influye en la sostenibilidad de los objetivos de salud. La contribución principal de esta tesis es la aplicación de nuevas metodologías, el uso de datos experimentales y la incorporación de los objetivos de políticas nacionales de clima y salud en nuestro análisis. El presente documento se divide en seis capítulos, el primero consiste en una introducción a la temática, los cuatro siguientes, donde se desarrollan los contenidos, corresponden a las publicaciones científicas, mientras que el último recoge las conclusiones de los capítulos anteriores. El segundo capítulo investiga la efectividad del impuesto sobre las emisiones de carbono en la promoción de la demanda de alimentos medioambientalmente sostenibles, bienestar social y calidad de la dieta en España. Se han diseñado diferentes escenarios de políticas de impuestos basados en las alternativas de costes de emisiones de la Unión Europea. Las elasticidades propias y cruzadas de los precios de dieciséis grupos de alimentos se han calculado a partir del sistema de demanda de alimentos - EASI. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el aumento de precios producido por la reforma de impuestos conlleva a una reducción del consumo de alimentos asociados con mayores emisiones de CO2 equivalente, a la vez que mejora la calidad de la dieta. Aunque se observa que la reforma de los impuestos mejora simultáneamente la salud y el medioambiente, esta parece afectar en mayor grado a segmentos de población con bajos recursos y niveles de bienestar. El tercer capítulo investiga la efectividad de la reforma de los impuestos en el bienestar y la calidad de la dieta de los consumidores. El escenario de política de impuestos se basa en internalizar el coste social de la obesidad en España. Para estimar el precio de los nutrientes y las elasticidades de gasto de la compra de los hogares se utilizan los datos del panel de hogares de Cataluña recolectados en el 2012. Los resultados sugieren una mejora marginal de la calidad de la dieta, aunque ésta no se observa a corto plazo. Además, el consumo de nutrientes dañinos para la salud como ácidos grasos saturados, sodio y colesterol, disminuyen enormemente. Desde el punto de vista de bienestar, el régimen neutral de los impuestos afecta a hogares de todas las clases sociales. En el cuarto capítulo evalúa el vínculo entre las actitudes psicológicas como las actitudes de riesgo, las inconsistencias temporales y el índice de masa corporal (para tener en cuenta la prevalencia de la obesidad) en Cataluña en 2014. El enfoque econométrico se basa en la teoría de la perspectiva y el descuento de tiempo- ambos se utilizan para estimar los parámetros de riesgo y tiempo, respectivamente. Los resultados apoyan una fuerte influencia de la aversión al riesgo en el desarrollo del índice de masa corporal. Además, las inconsistencias de tiempo influyen significativamente en la propensión de los individuos a aumentar el índice de masa corporal. El quinto capítulo reúne a todas las covariables que influyen en el desarrollo de la obesidad mediante la investigación de los factores psicológicos, de comportamiento y socioeconómicos de la obesidad en Cataluña mediante el análisis de modelos de diagramas causales. Los resultados sugieren que existen relaciones significativas directas e indirectas entre la obesidad y la mayoría de las variables. Se observó que la obesidad está directamente influenciada por la creencia que está bajo el control de la gente que la padece, que tiene una imagen corporal correcta y la gente que sufren insatisfacción de su imagen corporal. Además, se encontró una relación indirecta significativa entre la obesidad y las actitudes hacia las personas obesas, edad y el género. En cambio, las actitudes de riesgo no tuvieron ningún efecto directo o indirecto sobre la obesidad. El gobierno debe considerar las interacciones que existen entre los diversos determinantes de la obesidad al formular políticas relacionadas con la esta.Postprint (published version
Implications of increasing fruits and vegetable consumption in Scotland
Full text linkThe food system is a major cause of global warming contributing between 9 - 29 per cent of global carbon emissions. In addition, diet is believed to be a major cause of non-communicable diseases in Scotland, resulting in about 24 per cent of deaths and a reduction in life expectancy to 62.3 years. There is therefore the need to change consumer behaviour towards more sustainable lifestyles. The literature argues for diets high in fruit and vegetable but low in red meat and fat/sugar-based foods. To increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the UK i.e., Scotland, the government launched the “five-a-day” campaign in 2003 to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to 400 g/day through education and advertisement. However, after 18 years of its implementation, 2020 DEFRA food consumption data shows that Scottish consumption of fruits and vegetables was 23 per cent below the recommended daily intake. The goal of the present analysis is to simulate the price change required to increase fruit and vegetable consumption by 10 per cent in Scotland. The study relied on monthly food purchase data from 2013 – 2020 collated by Kanter Worldpanel for Scotland. This data was used to estimate unconditional food demand elasticities using an EASI demand model. The elasticities were introduced into a model that calculates the shadow prices that must prevail for consumers to increase their purchase of fruit and vegetables without changing the taste or utility of diets. Results suggest that, for the average person, a 10 per cent increase in purchases of fruits and vegetables would require subsidies between 8.36 per cent and 56.35 per cent for Processed fruit and fruit products and Fresh fruits, respectively. The post-policy diet was higher in the following food products: non-carcase meat and meat products, Butter, margarine, vegetable oils, cakes, buns and pastries, and confectionery. Unintended effects of the policy are 1) increase in average GHGe per person per day, and 3) increase in saturated fats and total fat purchases. The distributional analysis shows that 1) different income groups respond differently to subsidies, 2) persons earning above 30 K would reduce their emissions, and 3) households earning below 30 K would increase their sugar, saturate fat, and total fat purchases. In summary, though the policy would increase fruits and vegetable consumption, there will be unintended negative consequences
The Cause and Effect of the Nutrition Transition in Nigeria: Analysis of the Value of Indigenous Knowledge & Traditional Foods in Enugu State, Igboland
No full textGoing 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
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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
An empirical analysis of the purchases of soft fruit in Scotland
Full text linkThe production of soft fruits in Scotland, the main fruit category produced in the country, has a marked seasonality. In addition, the availability of soft fruit depends on imports from the rest of the UK and abroad (i.e., EU and non-EU countries) during the entire year. The purpose of this paper is to update the evidence of a previous analysis (Revoredo-Giha et al., 2011) regarding the purchases of soft fruit in Scotland. There are three main motivations on the topic: (1) the Scottish Government interest about the country’s dependence on fruit from elsewhere; (2) whether the expansion of the domestic supply of soft fruit may increase the quantity demand for it, and therefore, getting consumers closer to the health-related recommendations and (3) to what extent consumers’ purchases of soft fruit follow locality and seasonal patterns. For the empirical work we used time series constructed from the Kantar Worldpanel dataset for the period 2013 to 2021. Besides a descriptive analysis where we consider the origin of soft fruit purchased in Scotland, we pursued two further analyses: one was a seasonality analysis, and another was an estimation of an incomplete demand system by socioeconomic groups augmented by seasonal and trend terms. The results indicated that the share of Scottish soft fruit as a proportion of the total purchases is still modest and the purchases of soft fruit are still highly seasonal despite the possibility of getting out-of-season imported soft fruit; however, some of them show an increasing trend. Although strawberries, the main produced soft fruit from Scotland, are price sensitive and inelastic, raspberries price elasticities are above one showing more reaction to prices and possibilities to increase consumption if prices decrease
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