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Consumption and production of proteins derived from animals have more significant environmental and health impacts than proteins derived from plants. This raises concerns mainly in consideration of the predictable increased consumption of animal proteins at the expense of vegetal ones due to growing income, especially in developing countries. Animal protein consumption, and particularly meat consumption, seems to start to decrease at a high level of income, which may suggest that economic growth solves or attenuates the environmental and health problems of animal food consumption. To test this possibility, the relationship between per capita income and animal and vegetal protein consumption is explored. Using a cross-country regression for 142 countries in 2017, animal-based protein, meat protein, and vegetal-based protein consumption are specified as dependent variables. In addition to per capita income, other potential drivers of protein choices, including ecological, demographic and social factors are controlled for. Apart from income, which still seems to be the most important driver of any type of protein consumption, the results suggest that protein consumption from animal sources and meat sources have different determinants. Though there is actually some evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita income and animal protein consumption, the peak is at such high levels as to make economic growth irrelevant to curb animal protein consumption.
Vania Andreoli; Marco Bagliani; Alessandro Corsi; Vito Frontuto. Drivers of Protein Consumption: A Cross-Country Analysis. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7399 .
AMA StyleVania Andreoli, Marco Bagliani, Alessandro Corsi, Vito Frontuto. Drivers of Protein Consumption: A Cross-Country Analysis. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (13):7399.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVania Andreoli; Marco Bagliani; Alessandro Corsi; Vito Frontuto. 2021. "Drivers of Protein Consumption: A Cross-Country Analysis." Sustainability 13, no. 13: 7399.
This chapter describes the design of a reform scheme for public water abstraction charges aimed at implementing the Water Framework Directive principles of (i) internalising the externalities associated with water use (or at least recover the cost of measures implemented to protect water resources); (ii) inducing an efficient allocation among competing uses; and (iii) achieving water and environmental protection without excessively hampering economic activities. We provide a simulation of the resulting water pricing systems based on data from the Piedmont Region, in north-western Italy. The reform design grounds water charges on the impacts on ecosystem services caused both by subtracting resources to freshwater ecosystems and by returning water to ecosystems, after human use, in a qualitatively degraded state. The system takes into account that the marginal damage of water uses may also depend on the quantitative and qualitative status of the concerned water body, and controls for incidence of the resulting charges.
Vito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Paolo Mancin; Alessia Giannetta; Davide Attilio Calà. Environmental and Resource Costs Assessment and the Case for Reforming the Italian System of Water Abstraction Charges. Freshwater Governance for the 21st Century 2021, 433 -459.
AMA StyleVito Frontuto, Silvana Dalmazzone, Paolo Mancin, Alessia Giannetta, Davide Attilio Calà. Environmental and Resource Costs Assessment and the Case for Reforming the Italian System of Water Abstraction Charges. Freshwater Governance for the 21st Century. 2021; ():433-459.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Paolo Mancin; Alessia Giannetta; Davide Attilio Calà. 2021. "Environmental and Resource Costs Assessment and the Case for Reforming the Italian System of Water Abstraction Charges." Freshwater Governance for the 21st Century , no. : 433-459.
The evolution of farm size and land use are important determinants of the efficiency and profitability of agriculture and the configuration of the territory. In this paper, a conceptual framework of the evolution of the number of farms and land use is presented, arguing that a major determinant of the change in the number of farms is the presence or absence of successors to ageing farmers and that these socio-demographic variables shape the evolution of the sector in terms of farm size, while they do not significantly affect the changes in the farmed area. This hypothesis was empirically tested with data drawn from individual farm records of the Italian Agricultural Censuses of 2000 and 2010—aggregated at the municipality level for an Italian region—by estimating regressions on the decrease rates of the number of farms, the utilised agricultural area and the total agricultural area. The results support the conclusion that the change in the number of farms was largely determined by the absence of successors in family farms and by the average operators’ age, unlike the change in the farmed area, for which natural land conditions were the main drivers.
Alessandro Corsi; Vito Frontuto; Silvia Novelli. What Drives Farm Structural Change? An Analysis of Economic, Demographic and Succession Factors. Agriculture 2021, 11, 438 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Corsi, Vito Frontuto, Silvia Novelli. What Drives Farm Structural Change? An Analysis of Economic, Demographic and Succession Factors. Agriculture. 2021; 11 (5):438.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Corsi; Vito Frontuto; Silvia Novelli. 2021. "What Drives Farm Structural Change? An Analysis of Economic, Demographic and Succession Factors." Agriculture 11, no. 5: 438.
While floods and other natural disasters affect hundreds of millions of people globally every year, a shared methodological approach on which to ground impact valuations is still missing. Standard Cost-Benefit Analyses typically evaluate damages by summing individuals’ monetary equivalents, without taking into account income distribution and risk aversion. We propose an empirical application of alternative valuation approaches developed in recent literature, including equity weights and risk premium multipliers, to a case study in Ecuador. The results show that accounting for inequality may substantially alter the conclusions of a standard vulnerability approach, with important consequences for policy choices pertaining damage compensation and prioritization of intervention areas.
Vito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Francesco Salcuni; Alessandro Pezzoli. Risk Aversion, Inequality and Economic Evaluation of Flood Damages: A Case Study in Ecuador. Sustainability 2020, 12, 10068 .
AMA StyleVito Frontuto, Silvana Dalmazzone, Francesco Salcuni, Alessandro Pezzoli. Risk Aversion, Inequality and Economic Evaluation of Flood Damages: A Case Study in Ecuador. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (23):10068.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Francesco Salcuni; Alessandro Pezzoli. 2020. "Risk Aversion, Inequality and Economic Evaluation of Flood Damages: A Case Study in Ecuador." Sustainability 12, no. 23: 10068.
New rural and industrial sheds cause significant transformations determining a negative change in landscape perception. In this paper the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents to mitigate the visual impact of sheds in the rural areas of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato” is estimated through a Choice Experiment (CE). The CE survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews involving 400 residents. The set of mitigation attributes was selected by means of a landscape analysis and presented to respondents using a set of images (close and distant views). Conditional Logit (CLogit) and Mixed Logit (MXL) models both in preference and in WTP space were estimated. From the empirical point of view, the study shows that sheds are generally perceived as negative landscape elements, and that residents are willing to pay for mitigation solutions, such as tree lines and formal hedgerows. The results are relevant for policy makers since they suggest how agricultural sheds are perceived and which mitigation strategies are preferred by local residents. From the methodological point of view, we estimate and test different models for assessing the effect of the visual treatment (close vs distant view). We show the theoretical equivalence of a fully interacted model (i.e., estimated on the whole sample and including interaction terms with the treatment), with split models of the choice for separate subsamples submitted or not to the treatment. We find that in estimation the equivalence holds in the results of Conditional Logit models, but not in Mixed Logit models. The reasons and implications are discussed.
Vito Frontuto; Alessandro Corsi; Silvia Novelli; Paola Gullino; Federica Larcher. The visual impact of agricultural sheds on rural landscapes: The willingness to pay for mitigation solutions and treatment effects. Land Use Policy 2019, 91, 104337 .
AMA StyleVito Frontuto, Alessandro Corsi, Silvia Novelli, Paola Gullino, Federica Larcher. The visual impact of agricultural sheds on rural landscapes: The willingness to pay for mitigation solutions and treatment effects. Land Use Policy. 2019; 91 ():104337.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVito Frontuto; Alessandro Corsi; Silvia Novelli; Paola Gullino; Federica Larcher. 2019. "The visual impact of agricultural sheds on rural landscapes: The willingness to pay for mitigation solutions and treatment effects." Land Use Policy 91, no. : 104337.
This paper uses a multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model with perfect and imperfect substitutes to study residential energy demand. A non-linear utility function is employed within a Kuhn-Tucker multiple-discrete economic model of consumer demand, estimated on Italian expenditure data. The simulation algorithm measures demand elasticity with respect to price variations and the marginal effects of other covariates. Results show that household energy demand (space and water heating and transportation) is relatively inelastic with respect to prices (−0.55 and −0.67, respectively), meaning that pricing policies can induce a reduction in the demand for fuels less than proportional to the price variation. The model also allows to forecast the energy demand for space and water heating within a global warming scenario: an increase of 2 degrees Celsius would lead, for example, to a reduction in household energy consumption of 4.07%.
Vito Frontuto. Forecasting household consumption of fuels: A multiple discrete-continuous approach. Applied Energy 2019, 240, 205 -214.
AMA StyleVito Frontuto. Forecasting household consumption of fuels: A multiple discrete-continuous approach. Applied Energy. 2019; 240 ():205-214.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVito Frontuto. 2019. "Forecasting household consumption of fuels: A multiple discrete-continuous approach." Applied Energy 240, no. : 205-214.
Vito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Elena Vallino; Sergio Giaccaria. Earmarking conservation: Further inquiry on scope effects in stated preference methods applied to nature-based tourism. Tourism Management 2017, 60, 130 -139.
AMA StyleVito Frontuto, Silvana Dalmazzone, Elena Vallino, Sergio Giaccaria. Earmarking conservation: Further inquiry on scope effects in stated preference methods applied to nature-based tourism. Tourism Management. 2017; 60 ():130-139.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone; Elena Vallino; Sergio Giaccaria. 2017. "Earmarking conservation: Further inquiry on scope effects in stated preference methods applied to nature-based tourism." Tourism Management 60, no. : 130-139.
The externalities produced by high-voltage transmission lines are multidimensional, may strongly depend on the local context, and are thus difficult to capture through standard environmental valuation exercises. We experiment a GIS approach to design a geographically stratified contingent valuation sample of the population resident in infrastructure corridors in a whole region. We estimate, by means of a binary choice logit model, the perceived marginal damage from impacts of power lines on human health, the landscape and the environment. Specific treatment is given to qualitatively different forms of impact, namely real estate depreciation versus diffused perception of damage, arising at different distances from the lines. The set of GIS-based variables (proximity to power lines, presence of other infrastructure, endowment of natural and built heritage and other local context variables) prove to be significant predictors in the utility function of resident households. Finally, we compute simulated values that combine information on individual’s willingness to pay, population density and the dimension of the considered corridor around the infrastructure, so as to generalize the outcomes of case-specific studies for use in policy choices such as infrastructure localization, undergrounding and negotiation of compensations.
Sergio Giaccaria; Vito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone. Valuing externalities from energy infrastructures through stated preferences: a geographically stratified sampling approach. Applied Economics 2016, 48, 1 -16.
AMA StyleSergio Giaccaria, Vito Frontuto, Silvana Dalmazzone. Valuing externalities from energy infrastructures through stated preferences: a geographically stratified sampling approach. Applied Economics. 2016; 48 (56):1-16.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSergio Giaccaria; Vito Frontuto; Silvana Dalmazzone. 2016. "Valuing externalities from energy infrastructures through stated preferences: a geographically stratified sampling approach." Applied Economics 48, no. 56: 1-16.
Taxation for urban waste management has been reformed in Italy by the introduction of an environmental law in 2006. In the planning phase of waste management, externalities generated by new facilities remain widely unaccounted, with a consequent distortion for prices, often raising local conflicts. The paper presents a survey based on the choice modelling methodology, aimed to evaluate on a monetary scale the disamenity effect perceived by incinerator and landfills in an Italian urban context: the city of Turin. In a random utility framework the behaviour of respondents, whose choices are found to be driven by the endowment of information about technological options, socio-economic characteristics as income, education, family composition, and also by their health status was modelled. Furthermore, empirical evidence that the behaviour in residential location choices is affected by different aspects of the respondent life and in particular by the health status was found. Distinct estimates of willingness to accept compensation for disamenity effects of incinerator (€2670) and landfill (€3816) are elicited. The effect of health status of the respondents, their level of information about the waste disposal infrastructure, the presence of a subjective strong aversion (NIMBY) and the actual endowment and concentration of infrastructures are demonstrated to be significant factors determining the choice behaviour, but differentiated and specific for incinerators and landfills.
Sergio Giaccaria; Vito Frontuto. Perceived health status and environmental quality in the assessment of external costs of waste disposal facilities. An empirical investigation. Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy 2012, 30, 864 -870.
AMA StyleSergio Giaccaria, Vito Frontuto. Perceived health status and environmental quality in the assessment of external costs of waste disposal facilities. An empirical investigation. Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy. 2012; 30 (8):864-870.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSergio Giaccaria; Vito Frontuto. 2012. "Perceived health status and environmental quality in the assessment of external costs of waste disposal facilities. An empirical investigation." Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy 30, no. 8: 864-870.