Distributional effects of international commodity price stabilization: Do the aggregate gains apply to individual producing countries?

This paper demonstrates the different producer gains and losses that can occur from a price stabilization scheme in a same market. An international buffer stock model integrated in a trade flow model of commodity exports of the Latin American economies is used to simulate two representative products: coffee, where instability in the world market has originated mainly from changes in supply, and copper, where the major source of world market disturbances have been demand shifts. The results show that global generalizations as to the net benefits or costs of price stabilization are erroneous at the producer country level in supply or supply/demand dominated instability, a condition that typifies many primary commodity markets.     

Economic,social and environmental effects of reducing dairy methane emissions through market-based policies: An application of the Livestock Policy Simulation Model

Several technological approaches to mitigate methane dairy emissions are available; however, assuming that technological change alone generates the necessary incentives to accelerate emissions reduction is risky. Without adequate market signals, producers might choose not to use the technologies available or to the desired extent. Addressing this economic problem requires altering producers’ and consumers’ behaviour by introducing incentives or constraints. Employing the livestock policy simulation model, we examine the effects of reducing methane emissions in the dairy sector under different market-based policy instruments. We used the primary dairy sector in Uruguay as a case study. The results show that a policy mix combining a set of market-based instruments can be more effective than a single policy instrument alone.     

Commodity buffer stock redux: The role of International Cocoa Organization in prices and incomes

This paper utilizes linear demand and supply models, with additive independent shocks, to derive producer price and income variances of a typical commodity during and after a buffer stock control. It proceeds to use the models to evaluate International Cocoa Organization's (ICCO) Buffer Stock's decision to purchase excess stock from the market a floor price and re-sell it, in periods of low supply, at the ceiling price. The results show that cocoa producer prices and incomes were more stable during periods of ICCO buffer stock intervention than after the demise of the buffer stock. The results further indicate that stock-buying operations induced greater stability in producer incomes than buying stock-selling operations.     

Does product complexity matter for competition in experimental retail markets?

We describe a first experiment on whether product complexity affects competition and consumers in retail markets. We are unable to detect a significant effect of product complexity on prices, except insofar as the demand elasticity for complex products is higher. However, there is qualified evidence that complex products have the potential to induce consumers to buy more than they would otherwise. In this sense, consumer exploitability in quantities cannot be ruled out. We also find evidence for shaping effects: consumers’ preferences are shaped by past experience with prices, and firms may in principle exploit this to sell more.     

Nondegenerate Intervals of No-Trade Prices for Risk Averse Traders

According to the local risk-neutrality theorem an agent who has the opportunity to invest in an uncertain asset does not buy it or sell it short iff its expected value is equal to its price, independently of the agent's attitude towards risk. Contrary to that it is shown that, in the context of expected utility theory with differentiable vNM utility function, but without the assumption of stochastic constant returns to scale, nondegenerate intervals of no-trade prices may exist. With a quasiconcave expected utility function they do if, and only if, the agent is risk averse of order one.     

Automobile prices and protection: The U.S.-Japan trade restraint

We examine the effects of the U.S.-Japan trade restraint on automobile prices and quality upgrading, for both Japanese imports and American small cars. From April 1981 to April 1984 the suggested retail price of all Japanese models increased by 15.8 percent, or 5.3 percent per year. We find that nearly the entire amount of this rise can be explained by the upgrading of individual models. This upgrading may benefit consumers who would purchase a luxury import in any case, but harms those who desire the basic imports. In addition to upgrading, we conclude that a second cost of the trade restraint has been to prevent the yen depreciation from being passed onto American consumers, in terms of lower imported auto prices. For U.S. small cars we find a 9.1 percent rise in the suggested retail price, or 3 percent per year, with a fraction of this amount due to model upgrading. If the yen depreciation had led to lower import prices without the trade restraint, then we expect that U.S. auto prices would have been lower, too.     

Comparing the effectiveness of market-based and choice-based environmental policy

This paper examines the welfare effects of market-based (permits, taxes) and choice-based (voluntary emission certifications, eco-labels) environmental policy. My analysis shows that choice-based eco-labels can be a welfare-improving policy. However, these welfare gains occur through “green” consumer surplus as opposed to (social benefiting) emission reductions while emission taxes and permits increase welfare by causing “dirtier” or less efficient firms to leave the market. Although greater environmental conscientiousness makes eco-labeling an effective tool to improve overall welfare, eco-labels are not as effective at reducing environmental damage relative to traditional market-based emission taxes or permits. Using research on consumer preferences and previously implemented environmental policies, the effectiveness of traditional emission taxes and eco-labeling programs are estimated. The results suggest that consumers participation in the eco-labeled product market benefits producers, but overall, eco-labeling programs are an inefficient policy tool relative to traditional market-based emission taxes or permits.     

Whisper campaigns: market risks through online rumours on the Chinese Internet

The rapid growth of the Chinese Internet has brought about the emergence of many new channels of communication between businesses (B2B), between businesses and consumers (B2C and C2B) and between customers (C2C). Amidst this growth, Chinese Internet users have demonstrated a fondness for online rumours that has become dangerous for a variety of organisations and businesses. Within the Chinese market consumers have emerged as actors whose interactions are posing a new form of risk for companies wishing to enter the Chinese market. Since 2009, companies have repeatedly been harmed by fast-spreading online rumours that called the quality of products into question, or attacked their ethics in dealing with the general public. Starting in 2010, online rumour campaigns have also been on sale to harm rivals, or to promote one’s own product. Using a few example cases from food-related incidents, this article will argue that companies operating in this highly suspicious and fraught environment should shift their focus from pure marketing to a much deeper level of engagement with their customers, and also keep track of the online chatter about their brand, their products and their image so as to minimise risks to their enterprise and to successfully sell their products and services.     

Is the insurance aspect of producer liability valued by consumers? Liability changes and childhood vaccine consumption

Standard economic theory predicts that the forced tying of an insurance policy to the purchase of a risky product cannot be welfare enhancing. At best, such insurance is redundant due to cheaper methods of insuring against loss, and, at worst, such coverage is not demanded at all. Exploiting the change in the liability environment which occurred in the vaccine market in the early 1980s, this article seeks to identify the value that consumers place on the insurance component of producer liability. The principal finding is that the demand for immunization is not increased, and may have been reduced, by liability. This implies that consumers place no value on the insurance which they are forced to buy under this regime, leaving them worse off than they would have been without producer liability for vaccine injuries. The best estimate is that by 1985, the change in liability environment had reduced the number of children properly immunized with the DPT and polio vaccines by approximately 1 million.     

唐代市场管理制度探析

唐代市场管理制度的内容包括市场管理法律关系的主体,即市场行为主体与管理者,市场管理的内容,主要有商品的计量和质量管理、物价管理、市场秩序管理、中外贸易管理等。唐代的市场管理制度与同时期西方国家相应的制度相比并不落后,对于我国现今经济立法亦有一定的借鉴意义,我们应严格限制市场管理者及与管理者有特殊关系的主体参与市场交易与竞争,同时对于市场管理者的不当乃至违法行为应当严格依据法律加以制裁,这样才能保证我们的经济管理行为真正法制化。     

An analysis of International Bulfer Stocks for cocoa and copper through dynamic optimization

Optimal control theory is used to analyze buffer stock price stabilisation. Linear econometric models of the world cocoa and copper markets are estimated over the period 1956-75 and the simulated to determine the “systematic” price for each commodity—the price when stochastic sources of market variation are suppressed. Stabilization at this price reduces the instability of producer revenue and also increases total revenue for both commodities. However, the buffer stocks are expensive. Net costs over the period 1966-76 are estimated at $1.7 billion for cocoa and $0.9 billion for copper.     

An economic analysis of nanofood labeling

The paper examines the economic effects of labeling food nanotechnology products using an analytical framework of heterogeneous consumers and imperfectly competitive suppliers. Labeling results in increased costs for nanofood producers (the cost effect of the labeling policy), reduced consumer uncertainty regarding the nature of the food product (certainty effect), and can affect consumer attitudes towards nanofoods by being perceived as a warning signal (stigma effect). In this context, nanofood labeling can change the perceived quality differences between nanofoods and their conventional and organic counterparts, with such changes being more salient when the stigma effect is large, when consumers have low awareness of food nanotechnology in the absence of labeling, and/or when competition among nanofood suppliers is more intense. Despite its empirical relevance, the impact of a labeling policy on consumer preferences (and the economic ramifications of such impact) has largely been ignored by the theoretical literature on the economics of labels. Our analysis shows that it matters. Specifically, our study shows that the market and welfare effects of labeling are case-specific and dependent on consumer awareness of, and attitudes towards food nanotechnology before and after the introduction of the policy as well as the relative magnitude of the cost, certainty and stigma effects of nanofood labeling. Our analytical findings also suggest that the effects of nanofood labels on consumer welfare are asymmetric with certain groups of consumers benefiting even when labeling has a stigma effect on nanofoods.     

论农业产业化向国际化迈进

农业产业化若局限国内市场,当各类农产品的供需达到均衡后,专业化、规模化生产就难以进一步增加农民的收入。农业产业化只有进一步向国际化迈进,充分利用自己的资源的优势,生产劳动密集型的农副产品,我国农民才能从扩大出口中增加收入。农产品在质量、安全、卫生以及口味、色泽等方面必须达到国际标准时,才能开拓国际市场,扩大出口,增加收入。     

Food security, consumption diversification and foreign exchange balances in Indonesia: Results from a multi-commodity simulation

Many countries adopt economic development strategies, within which an important element is the maintenance of low and stable food prices. In Indonesia, this is achieved principally through government subsidies to consumers of imported rice, the total cost of which fluctuates considerably from year to year, depending on world price movements and domestic production performance. Higher and possibly less stable domestic food prices appear inevitable in Indonesia, however, as the spectre of reduced oil revenues increases the government's concern with the cost of its food policy. Results from a stochastic simulation model of the agricultural sector show that the food price risk to which consumers and producers would be exposed in the absence of the stabilizing component of Indonesia's food policy would be considerable, rendering this component an unlikely area for significant change. A viable policy option appears to be the continuance of rice and wheat price stabilization, but with a graduated increase in the relative price of rice, reaching a total of 10% by 1985. Such a policy could result in net self-sufficiency in foreign exchange from staple food trade by 1990 and an improvement in aggregate economic surplus, although the expected decade improvement in food-energy consumption per capita would fall from 10% to 8%.     

The Simplest Dynamic General-Equilibrium Model of an Open Economy

This paper presents the simplest possible general-equilibrium model of an open economy in which producer and consumer decisions are both intra- and intertemporally consistent. Consumers maximize the present value of the utility of consumption; producers maximize the present value of profits. The model solves for the set of intertemporally consistent prices. The parsimonious structure of the model is achieved by dividing the economy into two producing sectors—exports and domestic goods—and two consumed goods—imports and domestic goods. As a result, there is only one endogenous price per period to be solved for (the price of the domestic good), although “structural” questions, such as the evolution of the real exchange rate, can be posed with the model. Furthermore, with this structural breakdown, the model can be calibrated with national accounts data only. In the paper, we show how to calibrate such a model (including specification of an adjustment-cost function, to avoid “bang-bang” behavior) and use the model to examine various questions where intertemporal issues are important, including terms-of-trade shocks and tariff reform.     

Social work and sustainable rural development: The practice of social economy in China

The impact of globalisation on local agriculture and food systems has brought issues such as food security and rural sustainability to the forefront of policy‐making in developing countries. In China, the restructuring of domestic agriculture and liberalisation of trade following accession to the World Trade Organization have led to the growing reliance on imported food and raised concerns for food self‐sufficiency and safety. Inspired by the concept of social economy, social workers in China have explored alternative pathways towards sustainable food production and consumption through local initiatives. Based on participatory action research in a Chinese village, this study examines the potential contribution of social work intervention in responding to China’s agrarian challenges. It is shown that by linking rural cooperatives with the local food system and allowing farmers to sell directly to urban consumers at fairer prices, social economy initiatives provide a viable pathway for sustainable transformation by empowering rural producers while giving urban consumers access to sustainably produced food.     

Revisiting the residential electricity demand in the United States: A dynamic partial adjustment modelling approach

In recent years, price policies and price changes derived from environmental regulations have played a more important role to promote residential energy conservation. Using recent annual state-level panel data for 48 states, we estimate a dynamic partial adjustment model for electricity demand elasticities on price and income in the residential sector. Our analysis reveals that in the short run, one unit price increase will lead to 0.142 unit of reduction in electricity use after controlling for the endogeneity of electricity price. Thus, raising energy price in the short run will not give consumers much incentive to adjust their appliances to reduce electricity use. However, in the long run, one unit price increase will lead to almost one unit consumption reduction, ceteris paribus. In addition, we find new evidence that for states of higher per capita GDP, raising the electricity price may be more effective to ensure a cut in consumption.     

A small forecasting model of the world oil market

An annual, small-scale econometric model of the world oil market was developed to analyze oil market conditions and oil prices for the period 1986–1991. The model determines the oil price by a market-clearing condition, given world economic activity and the strategic supply behavior of the OPEC core countries. The effects of OPEC production cut in 1987 upon oil prices are evaluated, and alternative oil price profiles are provided. A simulation experiment suggests that if the OPEC core is pressed to defend the OPEC share in oil supply, then wide price swings may become inevitable.     

商品社会使用价值与市场价格规律论

现代经济理论的两大体系 ,都对价格的有关理论做出了说明。有一种说法 ,把马克思主义经济学的劳动价值论与当代西方主流经济学派的供求论综合起来 ,就应当可以得到较为完美的价格理论。但这是不可能的。解决问题的出路 ,只能是按马克思主义经济学的内在逻辑 ,深入研究商品的使用价值 ,通过商品价值和使用价值对商品价格做出完整的说明 ,同时破解在供求与价值决定上的相互循环论证 ,发展以劳动价值为基础的价格理论。商品的使用价值 ,具有自然使用价值和社会使用价值两重属性。商品的社会使用价值深刻地反映着商品交换的经济关系 ,由自然使用价值等一系列因素决定。商品社会使用价值 ,在量上最终表现为某一商品的社会需求量与生产供给量的比率 ,在不同的条件下具有不同的值。商品的市场价格 ,由商品价值或其转化形式与商品社会使用价值共同决定。社会使用价值比价值或其转化形式更复杂、更多样、更易变 ,是市场价格变化的主导因素。社会使用价值为 1的市场价格 ,即是市场均衡价格。所谓市场价格围绕商品价值或其转化形式上下波动 ,实质上应是围绕市场均衡价格上下波动。调节市场供求关系的根本因素 ,表面上看是商品价格 ,而实质上是市场供求的相互作用。