Description: The Università degli Studi di Parma (UNIPR) is one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in the 10th century. As of 2016, it accounted for 26,000 students. The university is divided into nine academic departments of which two participate in this proposal: The Department of Economics and Management (DEA) and the Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability (SCVSA) one. Accordingly, UNIPR brings together a strong interdisciplinary team comprising agricultural economists that have a long and successful track of participation to EU and National Framework Program, but also cooperation with EU Institutions (DG-Agri, JRC) and national Institution (Ministry of Agriculture) on the field of agricultural policy impact assessment. This team has particular expertise in assessing the economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural and rural policy by means of quantitative methods (mainly mathematical programming and econometrics) applied to micro-information. Members of this unit have publications on reference journals on the topics of Mathematical Programming models for farm management, environmental studies and agriculture and rural policies.

Main tasks in AGRICORE: Given the extensive experience of UNIPR in fields related to the impact assessment of agricultural policies, their participation in the AGRICORE project extends across all the WPs. UNIPR leads WP1 which covers the characterisation of the potential and useful data sources and also the development of the socio-economic impact assessment module (WP5). In addition, taking advantage of their existing and previous relationship with policymakers at national and European level, UNIPR is in charge of the coordination (WP8) with this group, in order to ensure a proper interaction within the project. They are also involved in plenty of the other technical developments of the project, including the development of the non-linear model and the definition of its interactions (WP3). Lastly, UNIPR leads the drafting of the project conclusions on policy-making (WP8) and the use of the available data sources for such purpose.

Personnel involved:

Prof. Filippo Arfini
Prof. Filippo Arfini, Full Professor in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma. His research activity is related to the assessment of Agricultural and Rural Policy at the farm and regional level by means of mathematical programming models based on FADN information. He has developed specific skills by participating in several EU and National research projects and specific research contracts with the EU Commission, EU Parliament, Italian Parliament, Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Emilia-Romagna Ministry of Agriculture. Currently, it is the Deputy Coordinator of the H2020 Project “Strength2Food” (Grant Agreement No 678024)
Prof. Marco Riani, Full Professor in Statistics at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma and head of the interdepartmental centre of the robust statistics academy Rosa (http://rosa.unipr.it) of the University of Parma. His research activity is related to Robust Statistics (regression and multivariate), Time Series Econometrics (non-stationarity, structural changes), Statistical inference (asymptotic theory and model selection) and Software development. He is author or co-author of more than 150 publications, 70 of which have appeared in international journals of statistics and 2 books published by Springer Verlag New York. He was principal investigator of several projects financed by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research. Since 2009 he is External expert in the project Automated Monitoring Tool on External Trade of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
Prof. Andrea Lasagni, Associate Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma. His research activity is related to the study of firms heterogeneity, firm growth analysis, immigrant entrepreneurship, intangibles assets and firm performance.
Prof. Maria Cecilia Mancini
Prof. Maria Cecilia Mancini, Associate Professor in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma. Her research activity concerns the socio-economic impact of voluntary and mandatory food quality schemes on the supply chains and consumers. She has developed specific skills by participating in several EU and National research project and specific research contracts with the EU Commission, EU Parliament, Italian Parliament, Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Emilia-Romagna Ministry of Agriculture.
Dr. Michele Donati
Dr. Michele Donati, Researcher (Tenure Track) in Environmental Economics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability Department, University of Parma. His research activity is related to the assessment of Agricultural and Rural Policy at the farm and regional level by means of mathematical programming models based on FADN information for the evaluation of both socio-economic and environmental impact assessment. He has developed specific skills by participating in several EU and National research projects and specific research contracts with the EU Commission, EU Parliament, Italian Parliament, Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Emilia-Romagna Ministry of Agriculture.
Dr. Mario Veneziani
Dr. Mario Veneziani, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) in Agricultural Economics, Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma. His research activity is related to the assessment of Agricultural and Rural Policy at the farm and regional level by means of econometrics on FADN information. Furthermore, he is interested in consumer behaviour and attitude for novel food as well as New Empirical Industrial Organisation (NEIO). He has developed specific skills by participating in the EU FP7 Projects Factor Markets and FADNTOOL and the EU H2020 Project “Strength2Food” (Grant Agreement No 678024)

Lisa Baldi: PhD candidate in Ecology at the Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, where she gained her second master’s degree, in Sciences and Technology for the Environment and the Resources. Her field of research focus on predicting the effect of the Common Agricultural Policy measures on the supply of ecosystem services through positive agent-based modelling. She holds a master’s degree in Political Sciences and International Economics from the University of Milan. She has extensive working experience as Project and Team Manager, gained through several consulting assignments in the private sector, where she worked for almost 20 years as IT Consultant, located in Brussels.

Sara Calzolai: Research Fellow in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma. Her main research interests are related to agro-environmental sustainability, impact assessment of agricultural and environmental European policy tools, and modelling of agent-based decisions.  She has acquired specific skills by developing an agent-based PMP model for CAP reforms assessment.

Matteo Rasponi: Post-graduate Research Fellow in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Parma. He worked on the characterisation of European datasets on ARDIT inside the AGRICORE project. His research activities focus on the study and implementation of agent-based models to support the assessment of the economic and environmental impacts of agricultural policies.

Donatella Baiardi is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Parma. Previously, she was Post-Doc Research Fellow at the University of Pavia and Milan Bicocca. She graduated from the University of Pavia, where she also obtained a PhD in Economics. Her research interests include environmental and energy economics, applied macroeconomics (with a particular attention to the interconnection of financial and economic cycles and their impact on income distribution) and international trade. Her empirical studies employ the most recent estimation techniques characterizing panel data analysis. She has published more than 15 articles in academic journals on the above topics, including Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Environment and Development Economics, Journal of Agricultural Economics and Economic Modeling.

  • Gianluca Morelli (CV and profile picture to be provided)

Web page: http://www.unipr.it