Stefan Mann
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3703537 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Stefan Mann |
| NOMBRES | Stefan |
| APELLIDO | Mann |
| FIRMA | MANN S |
| AFILIACIONES | Agroscope |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3654-8644 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 57 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 87 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 57 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2003 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Chains of Social Sustainability and the Potential of the DPSIR Framework
For more than 20 years, the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐Impact‐Response (DPSIR) framework has contributed to clarifying causal chains for environmental sustainability issues. This study aims to answer the question of whether the framework can extend its usefulness to structuring social sustainability issues, to which it has not been applied so far. It shows that based on some simple conceptual foundations, it is possible to distinguish between drivers …
Land-use change and long-term socioeconomic outcomes
Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) dynamics are often evaluated primarily through environmental and ecological perspectives, yet their long-term socioeconomic outcomes remain underexplored. This study analyses global data from 1960 to 2023 to examine how changes in key LULUCF indicators – such as forest area, agricultural land, arable land, and permanent cropland – are linked to socioeconomic indicators across fifteen thematic domai…
Drivers, pressure or state – comparing different options for incentivizing nitrate leaching mitigation in agriculture
South Africa’s land redistribution
South Africa’s land redistribution aims to redress the historical injustices of apartheid. This paper evaluates the efficacy of an agent-based model to support and refine the process. Using the Impacts of Land Use Patterns in South Africa model, developed from surveys of 658 commercial farmers and 833 commercially oriented smallholders, we simulate three scenarios: the current willing seller, willing buyer mechanism as our baseline, a second scen…
Contrasting Prosumption Models
Agricultural prosumption is a transformative pathway, enabling individuals to reconnect to nature whilst producing food for their own consumption. Allotment gardens (AGs) and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are two main types of this practice, forming opposing sides on a continuous prosumption scale, ranging from prosumption-as-consumption (p-a-c), as in consumption focused CSA initiatives, to prosumption-as-production (p-a-p), as in the pr…
Community-supported agriculture and allotment gardens as collective forms of food production – Investigating the effect of social capital on perceived benefits
The impacts of nutrient- and health-optimal diets on the food system in Switzerland
We use an ex-ante model to analyze the impacts of dietary shifts on the food system. • Healthy diets increase consumption of plant-based foods. • Dietary shifts increase the crop area and reduce the livestock number. • Import dependency increases with healthy diets. • Environmental impacts result in trade-offs. Current dietary choices deviate from the recommended diet and are unhealthy. Food consumption is interlinked with the food system, and im…
Is eating meat the new smoking? Exploring the dynamics between meat consumption and education in Switzerland
Purpose This study aims to test Singer’s suggestion that ‘over the next 20 years meat could follow smoking into disrepute” using the findings of the recent literature on meat consumption, education and smoking and data from consumers in Switzerland in 1990–2017. Design/methodology/approach We hypothesise that meat consumption in developed countries has increasingly shifted to people with less education, as has been observed for smoking in previou…
From multifunctionality and ecosystem services to a just transition of agri-food systems
Purpose We aim to compare multifunctionality, ecosystem services and just transition as overall conceptual approaches to understand agri-food systems. Design/methodology/approach This is a theory-motivated literature study. Findings This paper argues that the concepts of multifunctionality and ecosystem services are unsuitable for considering the systemic complexities of today’s food system in order to tackle its grave environmental and social pr…
Forecasting food trends using demographic pyramid, generational differentiation and SuperLearner
The objective of this paper is to predict food consumption patterns for future decades by different social groups while taking generational change into account in the modelling. Using over 20 million observations of households in Switzerland from 1990 to 2017, we develop and apply four forecasting techniques that shift from referenced linear forecasts to population-driven forecasts. Each method considers values of selected household characteristi…
Sweet home or battle of the sexes
By analysing big data collected from 1990 to 2017 on the consumption behaviours of men and women living alone and in heterosexual couples in Switzerland, we classified 75 food items in terms of their consumption within couple versus single households. We defined and quantified the gender dominance exhibited in the food purchasing activities of couples. Our results showed that to form consumption of couples, the average consumption of single women…
Farming without farms? Challenges for organisational behaviour research in an upcoming transformation process
Purpose The paper intends to show why farms as we know them today may soon be a thing of the past and that organisational behaviour research has an important contribution to make in assisting the upcoming transformation. Design/methodology/approach Two strains of literature are reviewed and then synthesised: the literature on robots replacing humans in agricultural production and the literature on vertical integration that shifts decisions to agr…
A Capability Indicator for Family Farms in the Global North – Concept and Test from Switzerland
Amartya Sen’s capability approach suggests assessing people’s well-being by examining whether they are able to do and be what they value, instead of merely looking at their income. People’s well-being is the basic theme of social sustainability. This study intends to operationalise social sustainability by developing a capability indicator for family farms in the Global North. Therefore, this study develops a conceptual approach that was tested t…
On the Interplay Between Duration of Employment, Relational Quality and Wages—Results About Non-Family Farm Workers in Switzerland
Our knowledge on non-family farm workers has been hampered by a lack of reliable and relevant data. This study tackled this problem by asking Swiss managers of fruit, wine and vegetable farms about their employees. Using a dataset of 921 employees, we explain the duration of the labour contract, the level of wages and the relational quality between employers and workers. The level of wages and other resources like shelter are linked to employment…
Exploring heterogeneity in meat consumption and eating out by using a latent class model
Purpose While it is incontestable that eating in restaurants leads to a higher energy intake than eating at home, this paper explores the even more environmentally relevant connection between meat intake and the location of eating. Design/methodology/approach Based on secondary data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the authors apply a latent class model (LCM), combining latent profile analysis (LPA) and regre…
Banning markets for moral reasons
Purpose The market for slaves is one of the few cases where trade is banned for moral reasons in every country. While animal activists often link animal production to slavery, they fail to answer the question about why animal production persists in every country, while slavery is banned everywhere. Design/methodology/approach The purpose of this paper is to show both parallels and differences between slavery and animal production, both from a his…
Confident or captured? Commercial producers in South Africa
Purpose Among the many things that land reform in South Africa suffers from is the lack of scientific attention paid to the willingness of commercial producers to exit or contract. This research aims to contribute to literature on this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach The interplay between the business confidence and the opportunity costs of a farming enterprise represented in a survey sample of 450 commercial farm owners is investigated, …
Prosuming Alone or Together
The aim of this study was to combine the concept of prosumerism with the theory of the commons to develop the concept of commons prosumer (co-prosumer) in distinction to private prosumer (p-prosumer). While the p-prosumer prosumes for himself, the co-prosumer creates a social environment for social capital. We use energy and agriculture as two cases in point to illustrate that the concept of the prosumer‘s role appears in different contexts with …
The effect of wolves on the exit and voicing exit of Swiss mountain farmers
Wolves are perceived as a threat by small ruminant farmers in Switzerland. In this study, we examined whether there is an association between exit from small ruminant farming and wolf prevalence. We drew on Hirshman's “exit, voice, and loyalty” theory to shed light on (1) farmers' exit strategies in the past and (2) famers' voice on future intentions of exiting (“voicing exit”), when dealing with wolves. Using farm panel data from Swiss small rum…
Reduction of nitrogen pollution in agriculture through nitrogen surplus quotas
Nitrogen (N) pollution has mostly been controlled using command-and-control instruments. However, nitrogen surplus permits (NSPs), which are tradeable, can be more cost-efficient in addressing the problem. To model this instrument, we calculated the individual marginal abatement cost curve for a sample of about 3,400 Swiss farms using farm-optimization models implemented in the agent-based agricultural sector model SWISSland. We also used SWISSla…
Occupational choices in art and agriculture – a mixed-method web scraping approach
Purpose Empirical studies on occupational choice have typically concentrated on a specific sector. The purpose of this study is to compare two sectors wherein there are grounds to hypothesise that lifestyle reasons play a key role for occupational choice. Design/methodology/approach Arguing that the potential for qualitative web scraping is still underused, the hypothesis is tested through qualitative web scraping for occupational choices. Findin…
How effective are national quality strategies for business – empirical evidence from Switzerland
Purpose Over the last decades, Swiss core actors in the administration, the parliament and the food chain, have developed a national quality strategy for the agri-food sector. The effectiveness of such symbolic actions is unclear. Design/methodology/approach By dividing the average export prices by the average import prices of commodities on a four-digit tariff-line level, the study tests how price ratios have evolved between 1997 and 2017. Findi…
Identifying Wright's “cowboys” among Swiss farmers
Economists would assume that farmers with a net benefit will adopt programs incentivizing the delivery of public goods. Farmers who reject participation in such programs for principled reasons challenge this wisdom. This paper borrows from Will Wright's description of the North American cowboy to illustrate the motives and beliefs of this group. A survey in Switzerland about possible incentivizing programs in the realm of animal health is used to…
Cultural innovation, aspirations and success among smallholders in former homelands of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa
Purpose After unsuccessful attempts of South African governments to carry out a land reform that distributes farmland more justly, this study aims to undertake a stronger segmentation of potential beneficiaries for a better targeting of future reforms. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model has been developed along the axes of cultural innovation and aspirations that identifies the segment of current smallholders who would most likely re…
Are vegetarianism and veganism just half the story? Empirical insights from Switzerland
Purpose Per capita meat consumption in Switzerland has been rather consistent for decades, although the percentage of vegetarians has risen to 14 per cent according to a recent survey. This study tries to resolve this apparent contradiction Design/methodology/approach The study is based on household consumption data from Switzerland and focuses on the distribution of consumption rather than on average amounts, using descriptive statistics and a m…
Social sustainability in agriculture – A system-based framework
Institutional causes of urban and rural sprawl in Switzerland
Tracing the process of becoming a farm successor on Swiss family farms
Prosuming Alone or Together
The aim of this study was to combine the concept of prosumerism with the theory of the commons to develop the concept of commons prosumer (co-prosumer) in distinction to private prosumer (p-prosumer). While the p-prosumer prosumes for himself, the co-prosumer creates a social environment for social capital. We use energy and agriculture as two cases in point to illustrate that the concept of the prosumer‘s role appears in different contexts with …
Does Libertarian Paternalism Reconcile Merit Goods Theory with Mainstream Economics
In the wake of Musgrave's move to question the absolute hegemony of individual preferences for normative economics in the 1950's by propounding the existence of merit goods, a recent book by Thaler and Sunstein is now making a similar claim under the label of ‘libertarian paternalism’. This paper tackles the question of why the framework of libertarian paternalism has received a so much more friendly reception among economists than the theory of …
Grabbing or investment? On judging large-scale land acquisitions
Why organic food in Germany is a merit good
Diversification and Work Satisfaction
In conventional economics, a great deal of energy has been devoted to empirical validation of the benefits of specialization in terms of efficiency, in fields including the agricultural sector. Marx and Engels's claim that the diversification of working lives would increase work satisfaction has gained attention among social scientists but has never been verified for the agricultural sector, despite a growing body of literature on the determinant…
Understanding Farm Succession by the Objective Hermeneutics Method
While farm succession has been well explored using quantitative data, we use the qualitative, case-oriented method of objective hermeneutics to explore important issues in succession processes. Objective hermeneutics makes use of short text sequences from interviews, exploiting the relationship between societal norms and the constitutive rules resulting from personal biographies. A case study including an intra-family succession, an almost-failed…
On the acceptance of animal production in rural communities
The effect of wolves on the exit and voicing exit of Swiss mountain farmers
Wolves are perceived as a threat by small ruminant farmers in Switzerland. In this study, we examined whether there is an association between exit from small ruminant farming and wolf prevalence. We drew on Hirshman's “exit, voice, and loyalty” theory to shed light on (1) farmers' exit strategies in the past and (2) famers' voice on future intentions of exiting (“voicing exit”), when dealing with wolves. Using farm panel data from Swiss small rum…
Hot cognition in agricultural policy preferences in Norway
Merit goods in a utilitarian framework
Merit goods are defined here as goods for which government interference with the aggregated willingness to pay increases utility. The paper argues that three cases exist where consideration for merit goods would lead to a Pareto improvement and where merit goods should therefore be reintegrated into the public economics framework. The state may be better informed about the conditions for the possibility of certain consumer wants. In cases of mult…
On the Interplay Between Duration of Employment, Relational Quality and Wages—Results About Non-Family Farm Workers in Switzerland
Our knowledge on non-family farm workers has been hampered by a lack of reliable and relevant data. This study tackled this problem by asking Swiss managers of fruit, wine and vegetable farms about their employees. Using a dataset of 921 employees, we explain the duration of the labour contract, the level of wages and the relational quality between employers and workers. The level of wages and other resources like shelter are linked to employment…
Exploring Draheim's three dimensions of success in cooperative organizations—the case of collective Alpine summer farms
The important distinction among an organization's profits, the economic benefits generated for its members and the generation of social capital, as the three functions of a cooperative, goes back to the German economist Georg Draheim. We explore these dimensions in a survey of 793 Alpine summer farming collectives in Switzerland and in subsequent in‐depth interviews. Exclusive institutional choices, such as restricted membership, decrease economi…
Using the Objective Hermeneutics Method in Policy Evaluation
At the outset of a policy evaluation, it is often necessary to gather data from the few personnel charged with responsibility for the policy in order to better understand the policy and its objectives. The objective hermeneutics method provides a tool for deriving the maximum benefit from several core text sequences of such interviews. Two examples of interviews with administrative officials are provided: the first on the subject of investment su…
Framing Obesity in Economic Theory and Policy
This paper explores several explanatory approaches for the rise and the prevalence of obesity in society. Both rationalist approaches and explanations involving information problems or weakness of will are considered. It is shown that many world religions take a united stance against obesity. While the recent rise in obesity can be explained rationally by a changed environment, information deficiencies and akrasia contribute to explaining its fre…
Implicit Social Policy in Agriculture
The current agricultural policy instrument of direct payments to farmers is also very much a form of social policy. This applies particularly for agricultural systems based on small family farms. Taking Switzerland as an example, the main weaknesses of the present system are outlined. A quantitative analysis reveals massive income differences among Swiss farmers, with the richest receiving more direct payments than the poorest. Potential improvem…
Ethological farm programs and the “market” for animal welfare
Meritorik und Transaktionskosten
In response to conventional agricultural economists, who criticize state-subsidized organic farming by arguing that ecological benefits can be attained more efficiently, this paper presents two new arguments for policy support of organic farming. First, it presents the widely-held positive opinion of organic products and the apparent contradiction that few people are willing to buy them. Along with the calls for support of organic farming, this m…
Why organic food in Germany is a merit good
On the acceptance of animal production in rural communities
Schleiermacher
The index volume provides an alphabetical and a chronological index of the Schleiermacher texts contained in the first section of the complete critical edition; further, it contains an index of names or persons (including biblical and mythological figures), an index of biblical passages as well as an index of place-names. It also includes a bibliography of literature quoted by Schleiermacher and the editors' secondary literature. Schleiermacher's…
Sustainability Indicators for Swiss Dairy Farms and the General Implications for Business/Government Interdependencies
This article explores the relevance of sustainable business development for society and the state. Sustainability of enterprises can be defined as demonstrating the ability to be capable of continuing the same type of business in the lifetime of the next generation. In the case of Swiss dairy farms, this type of sustainability may also depend on the willingness of the government and society to make the necessary financial adjustments. Sustainabil…
Implicit Social Policy in Agriculture
The current agricultural policy instrument of direct payments to farmers is also very much a form of social policy. This applies particularly for agricultural systems based on small family farms. Taking Switzerland as an example, the main weaknesses of the present system are outlined. A quantitative analysis reveals massive income differences among Swiss farmers, with the richest receiving more direct payments than the poorest. Potential improvem…
Ethological farm programs and the “market” for animal welfare
Merit goods in a utilitarian framework
Merit goods are defined here as goods for which government interference with the aggregated willingness to pay increases utility. The paper argues that three cases exist where consideration for merit goods would lead to a Pareto improvement and where merit goods should therefore be reintegrated into the public economics framework. The state may be better informed about the conditions for the possibility of certain consumer wants. In cases of mult…
Tracing the process of becoming a farm successor on Swiss family farms
Comparing Interpersonal Comparisons in Utility Theory and Happiness Research
Social scientists are reluctant to make explicit interpersonal comparisons of well-being. However, implicit comparisons are made on a surprisingly regular basis. These comparisons are based on the wealth and the Kaldor–Hicks concept in utility theory and on self-reported well-being in happiness research. Taking a utilitarian stance, this paper tests the ethical foundations of both principles. While self-reported well-being serves as an acceptable…
Beyond Böhm-Bawerk
Although, in the nineteenth century, Böhm-Bawerk remarked that relations as a category are distinct from goods, economists today increasingly subsume relations as a particular category of goods, both semantically and by applying methods like Contingent Valuation. This paper shows where the main distinctions between goods and relations lie. It categorizes economically relevant relations along the lines of symmetry and relevance for bystanders. The…
Understanding Farm Succession by the Objective Hermeneutics Method
While farm succession has been well explored using quantitative data, we use the qualitative, case-oriented method of objective hermeneutics to explore important issues in succession processes. Objective hermeneutics makes use of short text sequences from interviews, exploiting the relationship between societal norms and the constitutive rules resulting from personal biographies. A case study including an intra-family succession, an almost-failed…
Framing Obesity in Economic Theory and Policy
This paper explores several explanatory approaches for the rise and the prevalence of obesity in society. Both rationalist approaches and explanations involving information problems or weakness of will are considered. It is shown that many world religions take a united stance against obesity. While the recent rise in obesity can be explained rationally by a changed environment, information deficiencies and akrasia contribute to explaining its fre…
Using the Objective Hermeneutics Method in Policy Evaluation
At the outset of a policy evaluation, it is often necessary to gather data from the few personnel charged with responsibility for the policy in order to better understand the policy and its objectives. The objective hermeneutics method provides a tool for deriving the maximum benefit from several core text sequences of such interviews. Two examples of interviews with administrative officials are provided: the first on the subject of investment su…
Institutional causes of urban and rural sprawl in Switzerland
Does Libertarian Paternalism Reconcile Merit Goods Theory with Mainstream Economics
In the wake of Musgrave's move to question the absolute hegemony of individual preferences for normative economics in the 1950's by propounding the existence of merit goods, a recent book by Thaler and Sunstein is now making a similar claim under the label of ‘libertarian paternalism’. This paper tackles the question of why the framework of libertarian paternalism has received a so much more friendly reception among economists than the theory of …
How Green are Communities? Explaining Differences between Swiss Municipalities in Environmental Stewardship on Farmland
Zingg E., Mann S. and Ferjani A. How green are communities? Explaining differences between Swiss municipalities in environmental stewardship on farmland, Regional Studies. While a lot of research has explained on-farm factors for the adoption of environmental stewardship, this paper focuses on local factors that explain both the subscription to agri-environmental programmes and the prevalence of organic farms. It is shown and explained that a hig…
Co-financing and Principal–Agent Relationships in a Swiss Agri-environmental Programme
Co-financing political programmes between different administrative levels opens the door for principal–agent situations. The lower administrative level may have an incentive to overspend and to modify the nature of the programme. These challenges are empirically tested for a co-financed Swiss programme that supports agri-environmental networks. For ten cantons, the legal implementation of federal requirements was examined and interviews were carr…
Individual Utility Effects of Minimum Wages in a New Activity-Choice Framework
A new model combining occupational and consumption choices into activity choices is applied to estimate the effect of a minimum wage on utility levels. It is shown that utility is affected negatively by a minimum-wage boundary, regardless of whether the individual concerned switches to a different job or to self-employment, or whether he leaves the working sector to pursue activities in the unpaid or consumer sector. So long as wages remain the m…
Alpine Farming in Switzerland
This paper deals with the labor supply for alpine farming—a sector in which employees obtain at best seasonal employment and work extremely long hours for very little pay, but nevertheless often return year after year. Based on data obtained from 120 interviews carried out in 2011, we implemented a logistic regression model to discover which factors influence an employee's decision to return to an alpine summer pasture. Results are presented quan…
Pathways to Truth
Simulation results can be highly sensitive to the way agents are upscaled to a larger organizational and spatial level. This paper tests an ex-post validation method for forecasting models by using old base years and forecasting into recent years for which observed data is already available. Our case in point is a comparison between different upscaling methods in the agent-based agricultural sector model SWISSland. It is shown that individual-far…
Hot cognition in agricultural policy preferences in Norway
Grabbing or investment? On judging large-scale land acquisitions
Children’s Snacks, their Ads and Consumer Sovereignty
The concept of sovereign consumer preferences is challenged from three sides: child consumers, unhealthy food and advertising. The two theoretical concepts of merit goods and libertarian paternalism are implemented in order to classify situations in which full consumer sovereignty does not apply. An empirical analysis of ads for children’s snacks reveals the libertarian paternalist perspective as helpful for understanding the demand for and justi…
Direct and Indirect Economic Incentives to Mitigate Nitrogen Surpluses
The reduction of nitrogen (N) surplus is an ongoing topic in the agri-environmental policies of many countries in the developed world. The introduction of N balance estimation in agricultural sector models is therefore pertinent and requires an interdisciplinary approach. We extended the agent-based agricultural sector model SWISSland with an N farm gate balance estimation to pre-evaluate the introduction of a levy on N inputs, particularly a lev…
Economics (47 obras) · Business (28 obras) · Geography (27 obras) · Agriculture (23 obras) · Political science (22 obras) · Sociology (20 obras) · Organic Food and Agriculture (18 obras) · Computer Science (14 obras) · Microeconomics (13 obras) · Public economics (13 obras)