The purpose of the study is to understand the profile (if any) of the typical Prosecco wine consumer, for both Controlled Denomination of Origin (CDO) and Controlled and Guaranteed Denomination of Origin (CGDO) types, with a twofold objective. First, the study aims at contributing to the economics literature dealing with opening the “black box of preferences” and understanding consumers’ behavior. Second, more practically, the study aims to advise producers on the design of more targeted industrial strategies and policies. Using Homescan data collected from large-scale retail trade transactions in the period 2009-2011, we adopt a probit model and test a set of simple relationships between the probability that Prosecco (in both Geographical Indications) is purchased and selected consumers’ socio-economic characteristics and product attributes. The results allow us to draft a profile of the typical consumer of Prosecco. The Prosecco CDO consumer lives in the North of Italy, is wealthy, relatively young, lives in a small (2-3 people) household and reacts to price changes. In addition to the latter feature, the typical Prosecco CGDO consumer has a preference for selected brands and extra-dry wine taste. Marginal effects are computed and predict that a 1% increase in Prosecco CDO price will decrease the probability that a consumer purchases the product by 0.36%. In addition, a 1% increase in Prosecco CGDO price will decrease the probability that a consumer purchases the product by 0.26%. The different sensitivity to price changes is corroborated by the fact that Prosecco CGDO consumers express a preference for the product characteristics (brand and taste) and might be more “loyal to the product” than Prosecco CDO purchasers. Further research will broaden the scale of analysis and adopt multinomial probit models in order to simultaneously assess the profile of different consumers for other types of sparkling wines, including Champagne and Franciacorta.

Formal written land leasing contracts offer an alternative to land purchase for those farmers wishing to expand their land area and provide greater security relative to informal short-term rental agreements and are particularly important for beginning farmers with resources insufficient to purchase land. Formal land leasing contracts vary in terms of their duration, but there is limited understanding about the determinants of contract duration in developed countries. In this research, we use econometric techniques and transaction level data to explore the determinants of duration for agricultural land lease contracts for two regions in Ireland. Under the transaction cost economics approach, the research explores the role of legal status, price and non-price conditions in influencing the contract duration. Results indicate that the legal status of the tenant is a significant factor in influencing the duration. Provisions such as break clauses appear positively related to duration and confirm the theoretical expectation that long-term contracts create a demand for processes that enable adaptation over the course of long-term exchange.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) includes a set of natural capital-based measures to adapt to climate change. UN Environment has called for measuring EbA costs and benefits before promoting the adoption of such a policy. Within such policy input, the paper objective is twofold. It first performs a critical survey of economic and valuation studies that measure the costs and benefits of undertaking EBA measures. It then proposes an integrated valuation approach, based on a set of 54 economic indicators that include ecological aspects and encompass the technical, financial and academic difficulties to perform thorough cost-benefit exercises, by providing policymakers with simple, though rigorous evidence.

In this paper, we focus on the institutional setting where Old Masters’Paintings (OMP) markets transactions are carried. We develop a preliminary attempt to embody legal provisions in econometric, hedonic pricing models. We consider a particular regulation applicable only in Italy, the “export veto” for art objects that are particularly relevant for the national cultural patrimony. We proxy such legal provision in order to include it in the statistical analysis and to check whether it affects the OMP price differentials between pre-auction estimated price and post-auction hammer price. Preliminary results show that the price differential is affected by the legal variable, therefore suggesting that the country’s institutional framework plays an important role in price dynamics.