Search results for "TRADE"

The importance of the Logistics Performance Index in international trade

2014

Logistics and transport increasingly play a pivotal role in international trade relations. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) analyses differences between countries in terms of customs procedures, logistics costs and the quality of the infrastructure for overland and maritime transport. The aim of this article is to analyse the impact that each of these components has on trade in emerging economies using a gravity model. Furthermore, the study also attempts to detect possible advances in logistics in developing countries, which are grouped into five regions (Africa, South America, Far East, Middle East and Eastern Europe) by comparing the first LPI data published in 2007 with the most re…

Asphalt mixtures improved with plastic additives: mix design and case study in an airport

La crescente domanda di prestazioni e le esigenze di salvaguardia dell’ecosistema spingono a sviluppare nuove tecnologie di lavorazione, a sperimentare l’impiego di nuovi materiali, a migliorare i metodi di progetto delle miscele. Il criterio seguito è quello di un impiego più razionale delle risorse e dell’utilizzo di tecniche a basso impatto ambientale. Per ragioni tecniche ed economiche stiamo assistendo al fenomeno di espansione nel mercato degli additivi, impiegati nella produzione di miscele bituminose per migliorarne le prestazioni e ridurre i costi. In generale, però riuscire a soddisfare tutti gli obiettivi con un unico prodotto è difficile, perché l’alta qualità richiede costi più…

EMISSION FACTORS, VEHICLE MODAL ACTIVITY AND ROAD OPERATIONS. A MESOSCOPIC APPROACH

2009

Current studies underline that vehicle emissions are highly linked to modal vehicle activity and a modal approach to traffic-related air quality modeling is suitable to estimate mobile source contribution to air quality. Pollutant emissions depend on characteristics of vehicles in traffic flow and on road operating conditions predictable after the implementation of the road project; then, the usual emission rate models do not predict properly the on-road vehicles emissions of modal traffic events, such as those ones occurring at intersections. Moreover modal activity analysis carried out at micro scale level, as required by modal emission models, will be still necessary to value reliable em…

Assessing the dynamic of agri-food export trends before and after the EU Eastern Enlargement

2018

This study examines the evolution in development of Intra-European Union agri-food export during the period 2000–2011. By using Data Envelopment Window Analysis, this paper at first provides a more comprehensive picture on agri-food trade performance of sampled New Member States, focusing the attention on the pre and post phase of the enlargement process. Two specific country case studies will be released, revealing different patterns of performance among New EU Member States. The majority of New EU Member States differed in their approach in benefiting from the opportunity to enter into the EU enlarged market, and some of theme preferred to strengthen established trade relations with a pas…

Precarious workers' choices about unemployment insurance membership after the Ghent system reform : The Finnish experience

2019

The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision-making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part-timers, temporary employees, and low-skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment…

Within-host evolution decreases virulence in an opportunistic bacterial pathogen

2015

Abstract Background Pathogens evolve in a close antagonistic relationship with their hosts. The conventional theory proposes that evolution of virulence is highly dependent on the efficiency of direct host-to-host transmission. Many opportunistic pathogens, however, are not strictly dependent on the hosts due to their ability to reproduce in the free-living environment. Therefore it is likely that conflicting selection pressures for growth and survival outside versus within the host, rather than transmission potential, shape the evolution of virulence in opportunists. We tested the role of within-host selection in evolution of virulence by letting a pathogen Serratia marcescens db11 sequent…

Finnish Shipping — A Nordic Exception?

2012

The Finnish economy has for centuries been dependent on seaborne transport. In some periods, such as the mid-nineteenth century and the 1970s, Finland also emerged as an important shipping nation in international cross-trades. In the mid-1970s, Finnish tonnage was the sixth largest in the world in per capita terms — just after the Scandinavian countries (Karonen, 1992; Kaukiainen, 2008b). Nevertheless, compared to the other Nordic countries, it was a minor player in international shipping and, subsequently, it has fallen even further behind. In 1987, for example, the freight earnings of Finnish shipping were about one-fifth of those of Norway and about one-third of those of Denmark and Swed…

Retail Evolution in Eastern European Countries: An Overview

2020

Retail has evolved a lot in the last years. Still, compared to more mature markets (such as US, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands), retail in Eastern European countries is less developed, with more balanced supply and demand. According to GfK’s report on European Retail in 2018, in 2017 there was a slight increase (+1.9 percent) in the purchasing power within the European Union (EU28) countries, Romania having the biggest increase (+7.8 percent) [1]. However, Romania’s low per capita purchasing power shows a gap in wealth levels across Europe. Huge differences between Western and Eastern Europe are visible also in terms of per capita values for retail space. Thus, the purpose of …

SEXUALLY SELECTED TRAITS EVOLVE POSITIVE ALLOMETRY WHEN SOME MATINGS OCCUR IRRESPECTIVE OF THE TRAIT

2014

Positive allometry of secondary sexual traits (whereby larger individuals have disproportionally larger traits than smaller individuals) has been called one of the most pervasive and poorly understood regularities in the study of animal form and function. Its widespread occurrence is in contrast with theoretical predictions that it should evolve only under rather special circumstances. Using a combination of mathematical modeling and simulations, here we show that positive allometry is predicted to evolve under much broader conditions than previously recognized. This result hinges on the assumption that mating success is not necessarily zero for males with the lowest trait values: for examp…

Consumers' perceptions of sustainably produced food: a focus group study

2009

The purpose of this study is to provide information on consumers' perceptions of sustainably produced food products and the main product attributes that influence consumers' buying behaviour in the case of organic, Fair Trade and locally produced food. The paper draws on data from four focus groups. The results provide empirical insight into the motivating as well as the restricting factors that influence consumers' purchasing behaviour in the case of sustainably produced food and introduce the emerging key themes associated with the attributes of sustainably produced food products.