This paper proposes a selective review of the classical economics-based literature on climate change and migration, focusing on the extent to which agriculture might be considered a key mediating channel linking climate change to migration. Overall, climate change is expected to have large and negative effects on the global economy. These effects are even more evident whenever the economic sector considered is the agricultural one, particularly in developing countries. Hence, migration can be viewed as a specific form of adaptation implemented by individuals and households, enabling them to cope, among other things, with weather-induced risk. We show that the importance of agriculture emerges from both plenty of micro-level country studies and relatively few macro-level analyses using cross-sectional data over longer time periods. Thus, policy actions targeted to sustainable agriculture and rural development can both help tackle the challenges posed by climate change and create opportunities in the face of growing migration issues. However, we also stress that much of the current evidence is based on statistical associations that have nothing to do with causal inferences. This calls for the use of a more structural approach and more sophisticated research designs, enabling the researchers to better discriminate among different mechanisms concurrently at work. In addition, further research should be addressed to the role played by food security, a complex dimension largely missing in the current debates on climate change and migration.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the role of the main socioeconomic and demographic factors in affecting the consumption frequency of specific food categories with a view to highlighting differences across population segments. Second, to analyze whether socioeconomic status (SES) is ultimately related to the overall level of adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) of the Italian population. Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from the Italian Household Survey covering about 36.000 individuals (18 years old and older). The Household Survey includes questions aimed at eliciting the consumption frequency of the main food items of the MD pyramid. Moreover, to assess the degree of adherence to the MD, the authors constructed an index (MDI) aimed at reflecting how much individuals follow the MD pyramid recommendations. Findings: The results show that both socioeconomic and demographic factors play a relevant role in affecting the consumption frequency of the main food categories of the MD pyramid. More affluent people consume fish, fruit and vegeFis, wine and beer more frequently than their poorer counterparts. Moreover, higher income is associated with the lower consumption of meat and eggs, dairy products, cereals and starchy vegetables as well as legumes. Originality/value: The results foster the debate on how to guarantee healthy food accessibility to all population segments, thus having relevant implications in terms of food and health policies. The issue of MD adherence in Italy and its relationship with SES has been previously investigated on the basis of regional data, which make it difficult to extend the results to larger contexts, particularly in a country like Italy with remarkable socioeconomic differences between northern and southern regions.

Sustainable development is more often considered by media, public opinion, and politicians to be the main goal our society should attempt to pursue in the coming years. To this aim, academic researchers have made sustainability one of the main objects of their studies. This work focuses on environmental sustainability and presents a brief overview of how it is taken into consideration in the agricultural economics field by considering this topic from different perspectives and thus highlighting how this field is gradually broadening its scope to include sustainable development objectives. Our analysis shows that the path towards sustainable development is strongly correlated to the protection of the environment. Therefore, agricultural policies aimed at protecting and preserving the environment, and, more in general, innovation along the agri-food chain, together with consumer attention towards environmental issues, can play an important role in achieving this objective.

In this paper I critically analyse the view that John Hicks sought to establish, according to which Walras’ and Marshall’s approaches to price theory, while differing in scope (that is, general vs. partial analysis), are basically similar in their aims, presuppositions and results. By focusing on a special kind of economy (the pure-exchange, two-commodity economy), which has been formally studied by both economists with the help of similar tools, we can precisely identify the differences between the two approaches. In particular, I am able to prove that there exists a definite trade-off between observability of the disequilibrium process and generality of the equilibrium concept: for Marshall can succeed in modelling a process of exchange in ‘real’ time with observable out-of-equilibrium trades only at the cost of confining his analysis to a partial equilibrium framework; whereas Walras can succeed in developing a truly general equilibrium model only at the cost of accepting that the underlying equilibration process be downgraded to a virtual process in ‘logical’ time.