LIBRI DI GAETANO MARTINO

This study investigates how the decision making process in Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs), intended as hybrid organizations, supports the sustainability transition in food systems. The process of sustainability transition in food systems involves many kinds of tensions, especially in the process of pursuing a multiplicity of economic, social and environmental objectives. This study focuses on the SPGs in Italy and study how they organize their internal decision-making process and their search for the group objectives. This paper argues that the decentralization of the decision rights in SPGs sustains the integration of such different objectives and coordinates efficiently the multifaceted values of their members. The empirical analysis shows that the decision rights are decentralized and that the decentralized decision rights positions in solidarity purchasing groups are associated with the pursuing of different objectives. Our findings indicate that SPGs contributes to the transitions toward sustainability in food systems by using organizational democracy mechanisms to coordinate tensions among social, market and environmental values.

The objective of this study is to address the following research question: how could the Interbranch organizations (IBOs) support the implementation of the new cap regulatory approach sustaining the design and the implementation of private orderings in Agro-industry value chains? Our method is based on two steps. First we delineate a conceptual framework based on recent achievements of Transaction Cost Economics. This step is based on the illustration of a three institutional layers architecture which includes macro-, meso- and microinstitutional levels. The next step is to focus on the case study of IBOs and is dedicated to analysis of such arrangements in terms of meso- institutions. The study provides two basic results. First is pointed out that the cap reform calls for the identification of appropriate meso-institutional level. Secondly it is suggested that the efficiency of the micro-institutional level is increased by the integration of the scope of the meso-institutional level.

In Italy, the use of contracts is restricted to a small share of the durum wheat production used to obtain high quality pasta in order to ensure the origin of durum wheat. In response to the permanent crisis of this strategic sector, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture introduced the so-called "Fondo grano duro" in 2016. It aims to give financial support to farmers who sign a contract with pasta producers to supply durum wheat. This paper represents a preliminary attempt to approach and investigate the impacts of the "Fondo" on coordination of decisions. Therefore, a case study design was used and several durum wheat contracts funded by the "Fondo" were analysed and classified according to the principles of Transaction Cost Economics (tce). To this regard, findings could pave the way for a discussion on the nature of the "Fondo" in the light of the recent developments of the tce concerning the meso-institutional layer.

Department of Economic Sciences and Rural Appraisal, University of Perugia 1 Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, University of Perugia 2 (Paper first received, April 2005; in final form, April 2006) Abstract Economic inequality among European regions has been widely investigated, and a large number of empirical results have extended theoretical knowledge on the matter. Rural economies represent an important part of European capitalism, but there is insufficient evidence of distributional diversities arising from an urban-rural comparative approach. This paper tests the assumption that one of the characteristics of rural economies is relatively reduced inequality. Empirical analysis of the incomes of Italian households supports this hypothesis. It also suggests that further research may enrich the characterisation of rural development patterns and knowledge about the factors influencing income distribution structures and dynamics. Keywords: income inequality, rural systems, economic diversity, social relations. JEL-classification codes: D31, R11, O15.

Il tema della responsabilità dei soggetti impegnati nella produzione di alimenti che si rivelano dannosi per la salute del consumatore. Dopo l’analisi degli aspetti peculiari della responsabilità nei rapporti di filiera, in presenza di produzioni transgeniche, il testo offre un confronto sul tema della responsabilità del produttore agricolo e sui nuovi scenari che potranno dischiudersi in ordine alle modalità di riduzione del rischio nella produzione di alimenti da parte dei produttori agricoli.