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The problem of food insecurity is growing across the world, including economically developed countries. In Europe, the question is not just about the total supply of foods, but it includes even the accessibility of prices and their nutritional and qualitative adequacy. In this context many countries recognize the importance of trade policies to ensure adequate levels of food security. The aim of this work was to analyze the impact of trade openness on the level of food security in European countries, using a dynamic panel analysis with the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach. We selected two different indicators of food security (average protein supply, average dietary energy supply adequacy) capable of offering information both on the quantity and on the nutritional quality of the food supply. In order to improve the robustness of the empirical results, we developed three different regressions, with three trade openness indicators (trade openness, tariff, globalization) for each food security indicator. The results showed that commercial opening has, on average, a statistically significant net positive impact on the food security of European countries. Additional results indicate that also economic development, together with the importance of the agricultural sector, can improve food security levels.

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Despite their growing intensity and the enormous costs, adverse meteorological events are still perceived as "exceptional". Among the adverse weather events, the management of drought risk plays a key role due to the more pressing problem of the scarcity of water resources. In this context, agricultural insurance can represent a financial and risk mitigation tool for farmers. In this perspective, the aims of this study are: (1) to analyze, through a systematic review, the main findings of the scientific literature focused on the empirical and theoretical approach to the relation between adverse weather events in agriculture, risk and insurance; (2) to collect agroclimatic and insurance data for each Italian province for the period 2004-2011, (3) to measure the influence of climatic agroclimatic variables on insurance variables, i.e. Total Premiums, Insured Value and Certificates.The results of the analysis show the significance of the precipitation variable and its negative effect with each insurance dependent variable. The same result can be observed focusing on the effect of minimum temperature on two insurance variables, i.e. Total Premiums and Certificates. Models tested explain a range between 44% and 51% of the variation in our insurance dependent variables.

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The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of organizational resilience as an attitude, depending on the adoption of corporate governance, environmental and social practices (CESPs), in order to react to unexpected shocks, while preserving business sustainability. Organizational resilience is defined as the capacity for an enterprise to survive, to adapt and to grow in a turbulent change or unpredicted situation. Since organizational resilience is a latent path-dependent construct, it can be evaluated through long-term outcomes in an integrated perspective. The hypotheses are tested analyzing the economic performance of U.S. companies listed in Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500) and their environmental, social and governance (ESG) data has been extracted from Asset4. The period in the study covers 14 years, from 2002 to 2015, collecting the seven years before and after the 2008 financial crisis. The results of the empirical analysis highlight that economic performances of listed companies are influenced, over the 14 year period considered in the study, not only by the traditional sustainable pillars (SEPs), but also by the corporate governance ones (CESPs).

Insurance represents one of the main instruments, together with other risk management mechanisms, to face the adverse effects produced by natural calamity that, despite their growing intensity and the enormous costs, are still perceived as “exceptional”. Risk management is an important part of farming, and it is a concern for those governments which aim at achieving their agricultural policy targets. In this context, crop insurance can also represent a financial mitigation tool for farmers to face climate change consequences. This study is focused on the Italian case analyzing the evolution of public support and its effect on risk management policy in agriculture. Our research, based on panel data regressions, provides two different levels of analysis. The first one evaluates how the reimbursed value issued by insurance companies in favor of agricultural firms, as recovery from natural adversities, affects farmers’ profitability. The second one evaluates how the reimbursed value is used in farm management. The results of the analysis demonstrating the significance of insurance variables and their positive effect on the profitability of the farms, represent a strong advance in the farm risk management field

PurposeThe term “charity hazard” refers to the issue of the crowding out of insurance by co-existing relief programs in the context of different institutional governmental disaster schemes. In this context, the aim of this paper is to verify if the charity hazard phenomenon exists in the Italian agricultural insurance scheme.Design/methodology/approachAnnual data regarding crop insurance, subsidies and farm structure were extracted from ISMEA, ISTAT and FADN databases. A SYS-GMM dynamic panel model was estimated, considering the 2010–2017 time period and the Italian Regions as units of the analysis.FindingsThe empirical results highlight a negative relation between crop subsidies and the farmers' policies and total premium paid. The disincentive and crowd-out effects of public aid and subsidies on the choice of whether or not to take out an agricultural insurance policy ends up being one of the key factors for the low level of penetration of the agricultural insurance in Italy.Practical implicationsSince the diffusion of agricultural insurance can contribute to the general objective of sustainability and resilience, the implementation of alternative solutions to subsidies could be needed (e.g. the introduction of mandatory insurance against adversities or financial support for a geographically specific insurance tool).Originality/valueInvestigating empirically the determinants of the agricultural insurance policy diffusion among the Italian Regions, this study ensures an original contribution to the scientific progress in the field, demonstrating the existence of charity hazard caused by the public subsidies provision.