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Studies concerning Soviet taxation demonstrate a diversity of opinions on the nature of turnover taxes. Four major views on the subject have emerged: (1) turnover taxes are simply a sales (excise) tax on articles' of consumption sold to the Soviet consumer; (2) not all turnover taxes are a sales tax, some of them are a substitute for rent on production of certain industrial materials; (3) in addition to being a sales (excise) tax on consumer goods and rent on some industrial materials, there exists a third type of turnover tax which is levied on agricultural production of the peasantry; (4) turnover taxes are a portion of the surplus product produced in industry and agriculture.

This research analyses the main structural factors of the organic olive oil sector in Sicily, and the effects of the European sustainable development policy (EEC Regulation 2092/91, EEC Regulation 2078/92). It examines the trade marketing of organic producers of olive oil like the initiatives to exploit European branding, typicalness, and European recognition of PDO (protected denomination of origin).

The so-called “oil price war” of 2014-2016 took place between several main global oil producers; OPEC (led by Saudi Arabia), Russia and the newcomer; American tight oil or fracking oil. These oil producers were competing against each other over market shares in the global oil market, by maintaining their high oil production rates, even if this led to a decline in oil prices and a reduction in revenues from oil sales. As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper aims to argue that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

This paper tests for neomercantilism by testing three of its main definitional components. The first definitional component is that the state, as the political authority, intervenes in the economic decisions. The second component is the primacy of the state interests over business corporate profits, or the primacy of political and security considerations over short-term economic and corporate profit considerations. The third is the zero-sum or relative gains nature of dealings between states. Afterwards, this paper tests for neomercantilism in the Saudi policy by examining how each of these definitional components is reflected in the Saudi policy during the oil price war.

As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper argues that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper argues that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

The main purpose of this paper is to propose a model of economic development able to generate a cross‐border sustainable economic development, in regions in conflict. The Italian industrial district model implements a community industry synergy process led by the authorities according to a top‐down approach. The cluster model implements a clustering specialization process led, in the American version, by a bottom‐up approach and in the European version by a top‐down approach. The regional innovation system (RIS) provides the regional and international innovation networking required for both models in order to confront the global competition. The proposed progressive model creates the industrial specialization (industrial district) required for the development of the clustering process supported by the RIS.

The authors have selected, from the list of producers (growers and producers of olive oil), a random sample of 103 growers of olives and producers of olive oil from both groups from the Northern regions (Galilee in Israel and the Northern West Bank): 26 Palestinian growers, 25 Palestinian producers, 13 Israeli growers and 39 Israeli producers of olive oil, and interviewed them.

The results show that the community‐industry synergy of the industrial district model is supported by the economic actors from both sides of the border but refused for political reasons by the regional authorities and professional associations. The raw material (olives), the human capital and the knowledge required in order to start the clustering process exist.

The study has evaluated the Israeli‐Jewish and Arab and the Palestinian olive sector, and clearly indicates that bottom‐up decision‐making process is the only way for the moment for initiating the cluster and RIS models in the olive sector. The intervention of a third party is required in order to start the bottom‐up implementation of the industrial district model and launch the clustering process.

The main contribution of this paper lies in organizing the industrial district in such a way that it will generate a cluster in the long run. Thus, it is called progressive model.

This paper attempts to determine effective push‐pull marketing strategies concerning olive oil in Greece, based on the analysis of consumers' and distributors' values and the comparison of importance that each group gives to different product characteristics.

In this paper, multicriteria analysis is used in order to identify olive oil market segments and the factors that affect the purchase behaviour of olive oil consumers. Consumers' preferences, attitudes and perceptions with regard to special characteristics of olive oil such as quality, packaging, image, odour, colour, etc. are explored. In addition, description and analysis of the marketing channels of olive oil in Greece is presented. Finally, consumers' preferences are compared to the judgments of distributors in order to identify useful similarities‐dissimilarities in their perceptions and attitudes, concerning the attributes of the product.

The study of the olive oil market in Greece shows the importance of the product for the Greek market. Findings also suggest that the olive oil market in Greece is very complex. The qualitative analysis shows that perceived quality is the only attribute of the product that is considered very important for both consumers and distributors. In addition, perceptual maps can be a useful tool for the comparative analysis of preferences between consumers and distributors.

The paper identifies key factors that influence the behaviour of Greek consumers and distributors regarding olive oil purchases. These factors and the comparison between the two groups have a great influence on the marketing decisions of agricultural products and food industry in general.

The oil-growth nexus is studied in a panel of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPECs), for a long time span (1960-2011), controlling for the specific context of oil production. Their membership in the cartel put them under a common guidance, which originates phenomena of cross-section dependence/contemporaneous correlation in the panel.

Recent panel data estimators and co-integration analyses are both pursued and discussed, namely, dealing with the heterogeneity of panels and the countries’ specific effects. The Driscoll–Kraay estimator proves to be appropriate in handling the panel properties.

Full understanding of the oil-growth nexus requires the short- and long-run effects to be broken down. The growth hypothesis was found only in the short run. The results suggest the presence of the resource curse phenomenon and prove that the cartel’s long-run growth goal could not being fully accomplished. Actually, both oil production and prices are not promoting economic growth in OPEC countries.

The focus is on a group of countries which, besides being oil exporters, have an institutional connection between them, i.e. the OPEC cartel. The paper also contributes by framing the relationship between oil consumption and economic growth within a context of countries that are primary energy producers. Additionally, the paper uses a novel econometric approach and a long time span (52 years) not tested.

The price of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is highly subjected to variability. In this way, the consumer is not able to perceive a price of reference. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this topic, trying to define a range suitable for the selling of EVOO.

A mathematical model is applied to the three price levels (i.e. production, intermediate and selling). It studies the relationship among main variables: purchase cost of olives, the production cost of olive oil, the yield of olives obtained by the technological process and the profit margin. To define the input data, 25 producers of olives and 25 owners of olive oil mills are involved.

The production of EVOO depends strictly on the production of olives, which typically is subdivided in a year of “high production” and in a year of “low production.” The price of EVOO is subjected to a great variability; however, it is possible to propose a range that varies from €7.0 per liter to €8.7 per liter.

The level of acidity influences significantly the quality of olive oil, and this model has the limit to not analyze the variation of the price in function of this parameter.

This study is the first to propose a pricing model to evaluate EVOO. The literature section supports this assumption.

The second part of a two‐part article which examines the dominant strategic factors which are developing and may develop in trading conditions of the oil industry's general environment and their likely influences on the key structural assumptions inbuilt in the “strategic cycling” perspective of the integrated operations approach presented in the first part.

Oil exporters have been identified as having problems in the friendliness and performance of their logistics sector, particularly in general cargo group. The purpose of this research is to identify, through proposed data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, those oil exporters with most potential to develop (who have resources for this through their economic prosperity). Benchmarks of improvement are not only identified among top oil exporters, but also from larger group of emerging countries.

The research uses two different DEA models, and quantitative data available from economic prosperity and general cargo logistics performance. Models are input oriented, and use the most recent data from year 2009.

Major oil exporters are not homogeneous group in their performance turning logistics competence on prosperity. Actually, there could be one group of very low performance identified in general cargo logistics performance as compared to the DEA models, and other group with similar or slightly above performance with general cargo handling. Those performing at the lower end, and with most development potential, include such countries as Russia, Venezuela, Algeria, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (possibly also including Iran, Kuwait and UAE). From the group of major oil exporters, these countries should learn exceptional logistics competence from Malaysia and Canada. Similarly, this research shows that the emerging economies, particularly China, but also India as well as Philippines, Thailand and South Africa are useful benchmarks to develop general cargo logistics performance further (to some extent Korea (South), Taiwan, Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey and Lebanon also could be included).

The research is not based on longitudinal data, and should be enlarged to take into account earlier logistics performance index ratings from the World Bank studies (year 2007); this not only to verify the results, but also to highlight possible progress in the development of the logistics sector. Also, other global logistics performance ratings (e.g. from infrastructure) should be taken into account, and DEA models be developed further (often infrastructure drives other layers of performance).

Research work is seminal to study in respect to identifying which countries “lower performing oil producers” include, and which have potential in better developing their logistics sector (general cargo). Among this, research also proposes benchmarks for these countries, not only among oil exporters, but also from other emerging economies. The research findings give a unique and fresh perspective on the logistics performance of oil exporters and emerging economies in general.