Timing of the Early Retirement Decisions of Farming Couples

The retirement decisions of individuals are strongly influenced by spousal retirement, financial incentives and institutional constraints such as access to early retirement benefits. In the European Union (EU), farm retirement is encouraged by early retirement provisions for farmers. As exit from farming determines the characteristics of structural change in agriculture, it is important to find out how spousal retirement and economic incentives affect the timing and type of retirement decisions among elderly farmers. This paper analyses the timing of early retirement decisions of farming couples using duration analysis and different exit channels. The empirical analysis is based on Finnish farm-level panel data for the period 1993-1998. The results suggest that an expected pension particularly advances farm transfers. Farming couples are found to co-ordinate their early retirement decisions. However, farmers are not found to co-ordinate their early retirement according to spousal retirement under other pension schemes.Duration, early retirement, farming couple, farm transfer, succession, Farm Management,

Spousal Effect and Timing of Farmers' Early Retirement Decisions

The retirement decisions of individuals are strongly influenced by spousal retirement, financial incentives and institutional constraints such as access to early retirement benefits. In the European Union (EU), farm retirement is encouraged by early retirement provisions for farmers. As exit from farming determines the characteristics of structural change in agriculture, it is important to find out how spousal retirement and economic incentives affect the timing and type of retirement decisions among elderly farmers. This paper analyses the timing of early retirement decisions of farming couples using duration analysis and different exit channels. The empirical analysis is based on Finnish farm-level panel data for the period 1993-1998. The results suggest that an expected pension particularly advances farm transfers. Farming couples are found to co-ordinate their early retirement according to spousal retirement under other pension schemes.duration, early retirement, farming couple, succession, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, J26, Q12, C41,

Learning for a Change: Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place

A survey of handover algorithms in DVB-H

Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) is a standard for broadcasting IP Datacast (IPDC) services to mobile handheld terminals. Based on the DVB-T standard, DVB-H adds new features such as time slicing, MPE-FEC, in-depth interleavers, mandatory cell id identifier, optional 4K-modulation mode and the use of 5 MHz bandwidth in addition to the usually used 6, 7, or 8 MHz raster. IPDC over DVB-H is proposed for ETSI to complement the DVB-H standard by combining IPDC and DVB-H in an end-to-end system. Handover in such unidirectional broadcasting networks is a novel issue. In the last few years since the birth of DVB-H technology, great attention has been given to the performance analysis of DVB-H mobile terminals. Handover is one of the main research topics for DVB-H in mobile scenarios. Better reception quality and greater power efficiency are considered to be the main targets of handover research for DVB-H. New algorithms for different handover stages in DVB-H have been the subject of recent research and are currently being studied. Further novel algorithms need to be designed to improve the mobile reception quality. This article provides a comprehensive survey of the handover algorithms in DVB-H. A systematic evaluation and categorization approach is proposed based on the problems the algorithms solve and the handover stages being focused on. Criteria are proposed and analyzed to facilitate designing better handover algorithms for DVB-H that have been identified from the research conducted by the author

The consolidation phase: Survival strategies of farmers stabilizing and developing their businesses

In earlier studies, past succession is found to contribute positively to the farm growth. However, there is lack of information on how are the farms succeeding after the starting phase. In this study, it is analysed how farmers that have recently started their farm enterprise differ from more experienced farmers in some key farm management areas such as farm and farmer characteristics, strategic objectives and development plans. The data were collected by postal survey from Salo region in South-Western Finland. In the study, farmers are divided in to three different groups according to the farmer’s age and experience. According to the results, early phase farmers are in certain areas better equipped than older generations. They have better education and better networks than others. Moreover, the younger entrepreneurs consider their networks more important than their senior colleagues. Like expected, at early phase farmers had invested significantly more and have more liabilities than the others. In addition, the early phase farmers are the most active also for developing their farms. The late phase farmers were the least active, even if they were going to have succession within the next years. This might be problematic for the successor, too. However, in order to improve the viability of whole farming sector, the farms should be developed as continuum.farm management, multivariate data analysis, Farm Management,

Farmers' Exit Decisions and Early Retirement Programs in Finland

This paper estimates farmer decisions between three discrete occupational choices: exit and close down the farming operation (1), exit and transfer the farm to a new entrant (2), or continue farming and retain the option to exit later on (3). The farmer optimisation problem is formulated as a recursive optimal stopping problem. The unknown parameters are first estimated by a switching-type, reduced form Probit models and, then by the Simulated maximum likelihood (SML) method, controlling for serial correlation in the errors. Serial correlation in the errors is controlled for by the Geweke-Hajivassiliou-Keane (GHK) simulation technique. The results suggest that the timing and the type of farmer exit decisions respond elastically to farmer characteristics, farm characteristics, and economic environment. Early retirement programs and the level of farmer retirement benefits are predicted to play a key role in steering structural development and enhancing family farms in the Nordic agricultural sectors.exit, entry, dynamic programming, switching-type Probit, Simulated Maximum Likelihood, Labor and Human Capital,

Peripankreaatiline pseudoaneurüsm

Eesti Arst 2021; 100(6):386–38

In Search of Mercian Law

There are five extant English law codes from the sixth to the ninth century but, despite Mercia's having been an independent polity in the period, none are Mercian. Three seventh century Kentish royal law codes survive in a single twelfth century manuscript and two West-Saxon law codes survive elsewhere. The early English legal record is, therefore, thin and there are no extant law codes from the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, or Mercia. As such, this article discusses possible answers to two questions: what Mercian law was and whether a Mercian law code ever existed. &nbsp

Caste Composition in a Telangana Village, South India : Segmentation and Interdependence

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