Behavioural and Territorial Performances in the Italian Agri-Food System: Micro-level Evidence from Consumers and Farms

This thesis examines behavioural and territorial performances in the Italian agri-food system by analysing how consumers evaluate food attributes and how farms generate profitability within heterogeneous territorial and spatial contexts. It combines behavioural analysis, structural assessment and spatial econometrics to understand how sustainability outcomes emerge across different segments of the system. The first paper investigates consumer behaviour in France and Italy using a large cross-sectional survey. It examines how hedonic and health-oriented eating styles influence the importance assigned to extrinsic food attributes such as labels, origin, packaging and brand. The results show that eating styles strongly shape attribute valuation and that cultural context contributes to differences in how consumers process food information. These findings highlight the importance of behavioural heterogeneity for public health communication and sustainability-oriented food policies. The second paper shifts to the production side and studies farm profitability in Italy using micro-level panel data from 2008 to 2022. It evaluates whether farms located in Inner Areas experience systematic economic disadvantages and assesses the role of Common Agricultural Policy First Pillar payments and new capital investments in reducing these disparities. The analysis reveals persistent territorial gaps in profitability, with policy instruments providing only partial compensation. These results contribute to the debate on territorial cohesion and the economic sustainability of structurally disadvantaged regions. The third paper incorporates spatial dependence into the analysis of farm performance by estimating a Spatial Durbin Model. The results show that farm profitability is shaped not only by internal structural characteristics but also by spatial interactions with neighbouring farms. The analysis reveals heterogeneous spatial mechanisms: some production factors mainly influence profitability at the individual farm level, while others generate spatial spillovers across neighbouring farms. In particular, investment and certain production specialisations display positive spatial effects, whereas land expansion is associated with negative spillovers reflecting competition for land resources. Once spatial interactions are accounted for, the profitability disadvantage associated with Inner Areas becomes statistically insignificant, suggesting that territorial gaps operate through spatially mediated mechanisms rather than through location alone. Taken together, the three papers provide complementary evidence on behavioural, structural and spatial dimensions of the agri-food system. Collectively, they highlight the importance of behavioural diversity on the demand side, structural and territorial disparities on the supply side, and spatial interdependencies among farms. These insights contribute to a broader understanding of the factors shaping economic performance and sustainability in agri-food systems and provide useful elements for the design of more territorially sensitive agricultural policies.