This study outlines the current trends and patterns of farming employment in the EU and discusses possible development paths for the European agricultural labour force. In particular, this study investigates the drivers of and structural changes within agricultural labour markets at regional, national and EU level, building on a range of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods.

In 1986 the Ðổi Mới reform changed the economic and social policies in Vietnam, triggering steep economic growth and the shift from a low- to a middle-income economy. In parallel to the economic growth, Vietnam also experienced rapid social and demographic change, which resulted in modified consumption behavior. This paper estimates a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System, obtaining income and own- and cross-price elasticities for 10 groups of goods and services that can contribute to the further economic development of Vietnam. To control for potential bias generated by unobserved quality substitution and endogenous unit values, the analysis adopts an instrumental variable method. The results show that household equipment, clothing and accessories, telecommunication, transport, and medical and health services are responsive to income changes, while food, foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco, education, and electricity are income inelastic. Moreover, the analysis detects complementarity between education and the rest of the goods and services, and substitution between health care and household equipment, clothing, and telecommunication services. These results help in understanding recent socioeconomic development patterns in Vietnam and provide updated evidence to support business decisions and economic policy planning.

This paper provides evidence on private standards on genetically modified (GM) organisms for 44 retailers operating in 54 countries, distinguishing between retailers not using GM ingredients, and retailers using ingredients which are potentially GM in private label products. Using this information, we empirically investigate the drivers that induce retailers to adopting a GM-free private standard. The results show that many of the drivers highlighted in the literature, such as historical factors, communication infrastructure and sectoral conditions affect the likelihood of adopting a private standard. Moreover, we tested additional hypotheses from the political economy of standard formation and of mass media. Key results show that a higher share of public media reduces the probability of adopting GM-free private standards, while a higher heterogeneity in the GMO public standards increase this probability.

The paper develops a composite index of GMO standards restrictiveness for 60 countries, assigning objective scores to six different regulatory dimensions. Using this index and its components, we empirically investigate the political and economic determinants of GMO regulations. Results show that many of the determinants highlighted in the theoretical literature, such as the country trade position, the potential gains from GMO adoption, and the consumer risk aversion, are important determinants of the restrictiveness in GMO regulations. As a key result there emerges a prominent role for the market of information, showing that the structure of domestic mass media (public vs. private) is an important driver of GMO standards.

The impact of risk management on farm productivity is still being debated. Using survey data from French and Hungarian farms, we estimate the impacts of different risk management strategies and portfolios under varying levels of risk on total factor productivity. Results from a multinomial endogenous switching regression model show that the impacts can be positive or negative, depending on the risk management strategies adopted, the structure of the farming system, and the probability of risks. The choice of risk management strategies influences the farm's production costs and the allocation of resources. More complex risk management portfolios tend to have larger negative productivity impacts due to higher costs and the larger amount of resources subtracted from the production activity. Our results have important implications for risk management policies.

In 2016, the Council of the European Union called on all euro area Member States to set up an NPB. NPBs consist of sectoral institutions aiming to foster debate on matters related to productivity and competitiveness. Six years after the adoption of the Council recommendation on the establishment of NPBs, the network of NPBs is now well established, although still incomplete. NPBs publish regular reports, thus contributing to evidence-based policymaking. Existing literature on NPBs, such as the two progress reports published by the European Commission, has mostly analysed their institutional set-up. This paper, while also reviewing the NPBs' institutional characteristics and aspects to improve, in addition summarises the main findings of their annual reports, an area that has to date, received less attention. The topics discussed reflect a key challenge for EU economies, namely that of maintaining satisfactory rates of productivity growth, which is key not only to improve living standards sustainably and to foster real convergence, but also to address macrofinancial imbalances and more recently, to ease possible temporary tensions between addressing climate change and economic growth.

With policy ambitions at an all-time high, the green transition is set to accelerate over the next decade and trigger significant structural change in EU labour markets. While aggregate employment impacts of the green transition may remain contained, shifts are likely to occur between sectors, firms, occupations, and regions. This calls for policymakers to anticipate and address the distributional risks of climate policy. Three types of jobs ('green', 'white' and 'brown') are distinguished that would be differently affected. Brown jobs would be most negatively affected. While on aggregate, their share is relatively small, impacts may be concentrated in sectors and regions. As the ease of labour reallocation will crucially depend on the similarity of location and skills of the jobs that are newly created, demographic characteristics of workers in brown sectors are discussed. It is argued that with the right policy support, transition costs can be mitigated, particularly at the current juncture, where labour markets are tight. At the same time, regional socio-economic specificities need to be accounted for. Policy action should focus on providing inclusive social protection, education and training, individualised re-employment support, temporary job subsidies, and effective regional development policy. Acting in anticipation can improve policy effectiveness. Lessons should be drawn from past structural transformations aimed at economic diversification. At the same time, care should be taken to counter political backlash against climate policies based on job-killing arguments with evidence of positive employment effects in well-managed cases and clear communication on policy strategies to address distributional consequences.