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Over the past decades, there has been a deterioration of the age structure in the agricultural sector and an insignificant share of young farmers. The negative trends in recent years raise concerns about the future food security and competitiveness of the agriculture. The purpose of the survey is based on the analysis of the structural changes of young farmers to draw conclusions and recommendations on the possibilities to increase their role and importance in Bulgarian agriculture. The research approach includes various methods: analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction. Applied are a comparative, monographic, abstract-logical, graphical method, method of analytical groups, a method of average values, statistical methods of research and analysis. The study indicates that there is a number of challenges that have to be overcome. Negative processes not only in Bulgaria but almost in all EU Member States, require consistent and targeted action in order to support young producers and increase the attractiveness of farm activities.

The economic size of agricultural farms is defined by means of the standard output (SO). However, economic effects of these farms depend on the way of husbandry. The analysed family farms of the area ranging from 8.58 ha UAA to 150 ha UAA had economic sizes ranging from €9,737 to €24,9379. Such a range made it possible to create 4 groups of farms according to classes of the economic size ES6. Calculated developmental possibilities were from -1167 PLN·ha -1 UAA to 3880 PLN·ha -1 UAA. It was stated that with an economic increase of the economic size developmental possibilities increase which is indicated by positive average correlation between these variables. In the best situation, regarding developmental possibilities are large farms having 12 times more possibilities than small farms. Significant differences in developmental possibilities between analysed groups of farms were stated. Significant differences were not stated in the amount of direct subsidies. Significant differences were stated in received direct surplus between small and large farms.

Cross-country panel data are used to assess the effect of free-trade agreements on flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Free-trade agreements are found to have a significant positive effect on FDI flows, and free-trade agreements are found to matter more for the smaller members of the agreement. For example, the North American Free-Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) effect on FDI flows into Mexico is much larger than its effect on flows into the United States. These cross country results are used to assess NAFTA's effect on FDI flows into Mexico. After controlling for a set of other factors such as an increase in worldwide FDI flows the trade agreement is found to generate FDI flows nearly 60 percent higher than they would have been without the agreement.

Successful export growth and diversification require not only entry into new export products and markets but also the survival and growth of export flows. For a cross-country dataset of product-level bilateral export flows, exporting is found to be a perilous activity, especially in low-income countries. Unobserved individual heterogeneity in product-level export flow data prevails even when a wide range of observed country and product characteristics are controlled for. This questions previous studies that used the Cox proportional hazards model to analyze export survival. Following Meyer (1990), a Prentice-Gloeckler (1978) model is estimated, amended with a gamma mixture distribution summarizing unobserved individual heterogeneity. The empirical results confirm the significance of a range of product- as well as country-specific factors in determining the survival of new export flows. Important for policymaking is the finding of the value of learning-by-doing for export survival: experience with exporting the same product to other markets or different products to the same market is found to strongly increase the chance of export survival. A better understanding of such learning effects could substantially improve the effectiveness of export promotion strategies. Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / the world bank . All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

China’s economic ascendance over the past two decades has generated ripple effects in the world economy. Its search for natural resources to satisfy the demands of industrialization has led it to Sub-Saharan Africa. Trade between China and Africa in 2006 totaled more than $50 billion, with Chinese companies importing oil from Angola and Sudan, timber from Central Africa, and copper from Zambia. Demand from China has contributed to an upward swing in prices, particularly for oil and metals from Africa, and has given a boost to real GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese aid and investment in infrastructure are bringing desperately needed capital to the continent. At the same time, however, strong Chinese demand for oil is contributing to an increase in the import bill for many oil-importing Sub- Saharan African countries, and its exports of low-cost textiles, while benefiting African consumers, is threatening to displace local production. China poses a challenge to good governance and macroeconomic management in Africa because of the potential Dutch disease implications of commodity booms. China presents both an opportunity for Africa to reduce its marginalization from the global economy and a challenge for it to effectively harness the influx of resources to promote poverty-reducing economic development at home.

This article reveals the discrepancy and the non-convergence, still significant, between the Romanian agriculture and the agricultures of the EU states. Following the restitution of the agricultural land to the former owners at the beginning of 1990s, the small size holdings have reached a significant percentage in the Romanian agriculture. Although the total number of agricultural holdings in Romania diminished with 626,000 between 2005-2013, Romania is one of the EU countries with the most numerous agricultural holdings. In 2013, it had more than a third of the total number of agricultural holdings of the EU (33.5%), which perpetuates and amplifies the low economic performance. The particularities of the structural adjustment of the Romanian agricultural economy, compared to the evolution in the other EU member states, indicate a high level of structural divergences, that may lead to a low impact of common agricultural policies and it cannot act like a source of economic growth and improved productivity

National audience; The construction of the CAP second pillar, as it marks the emergence of a new compromise between the agriculture and the society, should result in an enlargement of the population benefiting from the extension service. However, a description of the farm population having regular contacts with extension services in the region Rhône Alpes, produced out of specific census data, shows that such evolution does not occur. Reasons and consequences of this statement are discussed.; La construction du deuxième pilier de la PAC, qui marque l’émergence d’un nouveau compromis entre l’agriculture et la société, devrait déboucher sur un élargissement du public bénéficiaire du conseil agricole. Cette hypothèse est infirmée par l’analyse de la population des exploitations ayant des contacts réguliers avec des techniciens dans la région Rhône-Alpes, telle qu’elle peut être réalisée des données du recensement de l’agriculture. Les raisons et les conséquences de ce constat sont discutées.