Agricultural Economics
S.E. Alavi; M. Mohammadi
Abstract
Environment quality and its determinants are one of the main challenges of the present and future of humanity and sustainable development is interpreted in the direction of preserving and improving the environment. In recent years, many studies have been conducted on the factors affecting environmental ...
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Environment quality and its determinants are one of the main challenges of the present and future of humanity and sustainable development is interpreted in the direction of preserving and improving the environment. In recent years, many studies have been conducted on the factors affecting environmental quality. One of the main topics that have been less considered in the related studies is the impact of governance on the quality of the environment. In this study, the impact of good governance components, including economic freedom, trade freedom, and political freedom, on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and its sub-indices including environmental health, ecosystem vitality, and climate change is investigated. The data required for statistical analysis are related to Middle East and North Africa region countries and Turkiye (MENAT) during 2000-2021. The panel data method was used to estimate the model and examine the relationship between the variables. The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between economic freedom and political freedom with the environmental performance index (EPI), and there is no significant relationship between trade freedom and EPI. In addition, the study found that economic freedom had a detrimental effect on ecosystem vitality and climate change, leading to negative impacts in these areas. However, it had a positive impact on environmental health, indicating that it contributed positively to this aspect. On the other hand, political freedom was observed to have a positive effect on the vitality of the ecosystem and climate change. However, it did not have a significant impact on the overall health of the environment, suggesting that its influence was more prominent in specific areas related to ecosystem vitality and climate change. The result of this research showed that economic freedom has led to more investment in the oil and gas sector of MENA countries, and therefore wastewater and gas emissions have had a negative impact on the vitality of the environment and climate change, but with the increase in production and sales of oil and Gas, per capita income of countries has increased, and environmental health has improved. Also, considering that political freedom among the MENA region has a lot of diversity, the results showed that the countries with more political freedom, through greater awareness of the society and more accountability of the governments and the establishment of environmental protection laws, had a positive impact on the environment. Of course, the environmental health index is more influenced by the economic situation and per capita production of countries and political freedom has little effect on it.
Agricultural Economics
M. Mohammadi; S.E. Alavi
Abstract
Due to increase of consumption of fast foods in Iran, the factors affecting the consumption level of sausages, salami and hamburgers have been investigated in this study. For this purpose, we investigated the probability of each household being in groups of non-consumption, low consumption, medium consumption ...
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Due to increase of consumption of fast foods in Iran, the factors affecting the consumption level of sausages, salami and hamburgers have been investigated in this study. For this purpose, we investigated the probability of each household being in groups of non-consumption, low consumption, medium consumption and high consumption using an ordered logit model and data of 396 households of Mashhad, in 2020. The results of the ordered logit model indicated that variables such as price, income, consumption of other meats and education level of consumers do not have a statistically significant effect on the level of consumption of prepared meat products. While variables such as awareness of the existence and effects of nitrite, information about cheating in the product and awareness about the materials used in the ready-made foods have a negative and significant effect on the probability of consuming these kinds of foods. Accessibility of households to the fast foods and households' trust in the producers also have a positive effect on the likelihood of consuming the ready-to-eat meat products under question. Regarding the importance of controlling fast food consumption in society, we concluded that improving awareness of consumers about the properties of fast foods and their consequences effects on health could be considered as an important tool to control fast food consumption
H. Mohammadi; M. Mohammadi; S. Kargar
Abstract
Introduction: Food industry is one of the most important industries in developing countries that has an enormous role in employment, export and value added of the agricultural sector. Iran as a developing country has a comparative advantage in food product industries for several reasons such as adequate ...
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Introduction: Food industry is one of the most important industries in developing countries that has an enormous role in employment, export and value added of the agricultural sector. Iran as a developing country has a comparative advantage in food product industries for several reasons such as adequate and cheap raw materials and having several companies in the field of food industries. The food products, sales promotion strategy is one of the strategies used to promote the sale of products in different stages of product life cycle. Appropriate usage of promotional strategy in different stages of product life cycle has an important role in the profitability of these industries and so determining the factors affecting the selection of promotion strategy in different stages of product life cycle is important. In this study, the main objective is to determine factors affecting the selection of promotion strategy in different stages of product life cycle in food product industries in Mashhad, Iran.
Materials and Methods: The main aim of this study is to determine factors affecting the selection of promotion strategy in different stages of introduction, growth, maturity and decline in food products industries in Mashhad. For achieving this goal, some explanatory variables such as education manager, company experience in food industry, operational cost, product diversity and market fluctuations considered as independent variables and ordered logit model was used for analyzing the effect of these variables on the probability of selecting different categories of a dependent variable. Dependent variable has four categories and shows the stage of product life cycle that managers select for applying promotion strategy.
Results and Discussion: One of the most important strategies for increasing sales in food product industries is sales promotion. Producers used this strategy, according to the life cycle stages of their products. In this study, for determining the important factors that affect the probability of selecting promotion strategy in different stages of product life cycle, we used ordered logit model in Mashhad food products companies. The results show that variables such as education of managers and company experience in producing food products have not any significant effect on choosing promotion strategy at different stages of product life cycle. Furthermore, operational costs and market fluctuations have a negative and significant effect on choosing promotion strategy in different stages of product life cycle. Therefore, when operational costs increase or when market fluctuations exist, producers in the food product industries apply promotion strategy mainly in the introduction and growth stages of product life cycle and the possibility of using promotion strategy in maturity or decline phase decreases because selecting promotion strategy in markets with high volatility or increasing operational cost is not economical. On the other hand, products diversity has a different pattern and with more diversity of products, the possibility of using promotion strategy in maturity and decline stages of product life cycle increases. It is recommended that if products diversity is high, producers use the appropriate promotion strategy at each stage of product life cycles and with identifying appropriate markets and products, profitability would increase in these phases. Companies should consider a sufficient budget for this subject. With increasing market volatility and operational costs, producers try to introduce and sell more products and increase the possibility of using marketing mix in the earlier stages of product life cycle. Diversity has a different pattern and perhaps the reason is that there is an interaction between the promotion strategy and diversity. Producers in the introduction and growth stages spend their costs for product introduction through advertising and replace more advertising instead of promotional strategies. However, in maturity and decline stages, the usage of promotional strategies increases because there are enough products in the market and producers try to sell their products by different promotional strategies. The promotional strategy will apply when consumers through advertising finds sufficient knowledge of the product, and then because of the promotion in buying this product, increase their purchases.
Conclusion: Because using appropriate marketing mix have a considerable effect on the profitability of companies, determining the appropriate marketing mix in each stage of product life cycle is essential. Promotion strategy has a substantial role in the profitability of food products companies and according to this research, the following recommendation might be important. At first, each producer should select an appropriate promotion strategy in each phase of product life cycle and then companies should devote adequate budget for research and strength the efficiencies of each marketing strategy such as promotion in each stage of product life cycle.
M. Mohammadi; H. Mohammadi; H. Azami
Abstract
Introduction: Continuous fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities have a significant effect on the situation of countries, especially developing countries in the world. In the short term, the impact of price shocks on imports of agricultural commodities and balance of payments and foreign ...
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Introduction: Continuous fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities have a significant effect on the situation of countries, especially developing countries in the world. In the short term, the impact of price shocks on imports of agricultural commodities and balance of payments and foreign exchange reserves is considerable in developing countries and it has negative effects on social security programs in these countries. In the long- run, these fluctuation effects on specialization of resources in production and development in agricultural sector delays. If price volatility to rise out of the market principals, increases in commodity prices in special times and for special products translates to bubble pick. Friedman’s theory on efficient markets underlines that, given rational behavior and rational expectations, the price of an asset will always reflect market fundamentals. Therefore, the main question is whether the forces of demand and supply, or explosive behavior (bubbles) generate price volatility mutations. If price volatility is due to market demand and supply conditions, a series of policies, including reducing demand or increase in supply can be effective to reduce volatility. However, if price fluctuations are for reasons beyond market factors, changes in supply or demand fluctuations may be more severe and worsen the situation of the producer and the consumer. Hence, it is important, especially for policy makers to determine that whether the market factors or factors outside of market cause fluctuations in the market.
Material and Methods: In the present study, by applying the generalized version of the sup augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) test, bubble behavior identified. For this test, time series data from 2002 to 2013 that collected on a monthly basis, was used. Study variables include the chicken and beef prices. Since in the internal investigations, discussing for speculative bubbles in commodities in agricultural products not addressed, it is important to address this issue. These products, select from this perspective that these goods regularly have price volatility over the past years (mainly increase) and therefore, faced with mass and low production. As a result, consumers sometimes have not access to a sufficient quantity of these goods or the supply too much in some periods and vice versa.
Results and Discussion: Our findings suggest that food commodities exhibited bubble behavior during mentioned years. These mutations of explosive behavior are, in general, short-lived. Assessing trends in the price of chicken show those four cycles of bubble behavior have seen for this product. In the meat market, there are important reasons and factors behind these fluctuations. Fluctuations in the price of inputs, especially after subside targeting in Iran in 2010, increasing the general level of prices and inflation, consumer cross-sectional volatility (changes in demand) and low ability to store the meat for a long time, not full replacement of fresh poultry meat to freeze and finally and the most important factor the elimination of subsidies for agricultural inputs in recent years are the important factors that affect price and production volatility in recent years in Iran meat industry. For the price of beef, just two short-term and long-term bubbles appear in the studied period. Rising meat prices due to the rising cost of inputs such as animal fodder and a variety of animal feed, animal drugs, high cost of packaging, transportation problems, related to subsidize livestock inputs, labor and the total inflation are the most important factors for price fluctuations in beef meat.It should be noted that price fluctuations in the price of chicken meat are more and more severe than the price of red meat. The reason for more fluctuations in the price of chicken meat is that per capita consumption of chicken meat is larger than red meat and the level of price for this meat is lower than red meat. Therefore, customers can buy it even when the price of chicken meat increases from its mean. The price of red meat is about 4 to 5 times of chicken meat and therefore volatility in the price of red meat can considerably affect on real income and consumption by consumers.
Conclusion: Considering the results and given the importance and influence of external factors on the price volatility of food commodities, we propose the strategies for reducing price volatility mutations and thus reduce the bubble behavior, such that it can be mentioned to apply the appropriate policy of import and export to control the market fluctuations and prices. It is recommended that the daily and monthly prices of major agricultural products such as meat, scrutinized and assessed carefully in order to determine the real parts of price fluctuations for better policy considerations.