Pasture-based livestock farming generates income in regions with limited resources and is key to biodiversity conservation. However, costs derived from fighting disease can make the difference between profit and loss, eventually compromising farm survival. Animal TB (TB), a chronic infection of cattle and other domestic and wild hosts, is one of the primary limitations of beef cattle farming in some parts of Europe. When an animal tests positive for TB, a loss of profit is caused in the farm, which is due mainly to the animal’s slaughter, replacement of the slaughtered animal and the need to immobilize the rest of the herd. We estimated the economic impact in terms of loss of profit as a result of incremental costs and forgone incomes. We show that farms with a larger number of heads are more capable of dealing with the loss of profit caused by the disease. The quantification of the loss of profit contributes to the ongoing debate on the co-sharing of TB costs between government and farmers. The compensation farmers receive from the public administration to mitigate the economic effects of the disease control interventions is only intended to balance the loss due to slaughter of the infected cattle, being the loss of profit a more global concept.

This study presents an analysis of the entrepreneurial competences of second- and fourth-year undergraduate students at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), under the framework of the Entrepreneurial Teachers Network, an ongoing project at this institution. The analysis of a sample of 1874 students identified three profiles of competences of students at the UCLM. The first profile is related to competences in performing and resolving activities, the second is related to risk aversion and uncertainty management and the third is associated with the capacity for teamwork. Furthermore, it was found that the competences related to implementing and performing activities significantly influence job creation as they exhibit a positive relationship with the intention of creating a company in the first three years after graduation. Emotion-related competences also exhibit a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention, although this association is negative. Finally, relation-based competences were found to have no impact on entrepreneurial intention.

This article explores the possibility that common standards for performance audit reports may result in increased objectivity and accountability, and that this could narrow the ‘audit expectations gap’ and contribute to good governance within local government. Inspired by the UK's external performance auditing model and considering the current scenario in Spain, a number of hypotheses are formulated whereby the audit of a set of aspects in the areas of managing finances , governing the business and managing resources leads to higher accountability as a result of the audit reports. These hypotheses are tested through a survey to internal and external auditors of the Spanish local government. The strong endorsement of these aspects in the survey responses leads to their inclusion in the content of the audit reports. In addition, this content is simplified through a factor analysis of the suitability of smaller municipalities, and a practical contribution is offered by providing a template for external audit reports. Points for practitioners: In this article we identify a minimal content for the external audit reports issued for Spanish local government, providing a possible template. This content gathers a set of aspects of public management that should be reviewed by external auditors. The proposal originates in international experience and is validated for the Spanish context by the results of the survey. We believe that this could increase the capacity of the reports to achieve accountability and help to narrow the ‘audit expectation gap’. The simplification of the content of the reports undertaken pursues a greater adaptation of the audit work to the conditions of small municipalities.