SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Labarthe, Pierre; Laurent, Catherine E..

This paper examines the consequences of the transformations of extension services for small scale farms. It presents the results of investigations embedded in regulation theory, which combine a comparative institutional analysis, statistical data processing (national agricultural census) and direct surveys. We describe the transformations in the EU and show that they make it more difficult for small farms to access extension services and to benefit from “front office” support (i.e. direct advice from extensionists). Finally, we emphasize that due to the modification of the knowledge production regime, these small farms may also suffer new specific adverse effects resulting from the re-organization of the "back-office" R&D activities of these extension...

Applications and Interviews. A Structural Analysis of Two-Sided Simultaneous Search

Palavras-chave: Agricultural extension services; Small-scale farms; Institutional Analysis; Europe; Knowledge; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q16; Q12; B52; P51; D83.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52859

Can Information Costs Affect Consumer Choice?—Nutritional Labels in a Supermarket Experiment—

Wolthoff, Ronald P..

Much of the job search literature assumes bilateral meetings between workers and firms. This ignores the frictions that arise when meetings are actually multilateral. I analyze the magnitude of these frictions by presenting an equilibrium job search model with an endogenous number of contacts. Workers contact firms by applying to vacancies, whereas firms contact applicants by interviewing them. Sending applications and interviewing applicants are costly activities but increase the probability to match. In equilibrium, contract dispersion arises and workers spread their applications over the different contract types. Estimation of the model on the Employment Opportunities Pilot Projects data set provides values for the cost of an application, the cost of an...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Directed Search; Recruitment; Stable Matching; Labor Market Frictions; Structural Estimation; Efficiency; Policy Analysis; Labor and Human Capital; J64; J31; D83.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/119114

Kiesel, Kristin; Villas-Boas, Sofia Berto.

This paper investigates whether information costs under currently regulated nutritional labeling prevent consumers from making healthier food choices. We implement five nutritional shelf label treatments in a market-level experiment. These labels reduce information costs by highlighting and summarizing information available on the Nutritional Facts Panel. Following a difference-in-differences and synthetic control method approach, we analyze weekly store-level scanner data for microwave popcorn purchases from treatment and control stores. Our results suggest that consumer purchases are affected by information costs. Implemented low calorie and no trans fat labels increase sales. In contrast, implemented low fat labels decrease sales, suggesting that...

An Evolutionary Edge of Knowing Less (or: On the "Curse" of Global Information)

Palavras-chave: Nutritional labeling; Information cost; Scanner data; Market-level experiment; Difference-in-differences; Synthetic control method; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; C93; D01; D18; D83; L51.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116433

Stark, Oded; Behrens, Doris A..

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his two adjacent neighbors. The trade is governed by a prisoner’s dilemma “rule of engagement.” A farmer’s payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the two prisoner’s dilemma games played with his two neighbors. When a farmer dies, his son takes over. The son decides whether to cooperate or defect by considering the actions taken and the payoffs received by the most prosperous members of the group comprising his own father and a set of his father’s neighbors. The size of this set, which can vary, is termed the “span of information.” It is shown that a larger span of information can be detrimental to the stable coexistence of cooperation and defection, and that in...

CAN INCOME EQUALITY INCREASE COMPETITIVENESS?

Palavras-chave: Span of interaction; Span of information; Imitation; Social welfare; Community/Rural/Urban Development; D83; R12; O4.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49924

Fishman, Arthur; Simhon, Avi.

This paper explores the relationship between income distribution, prices, production efficiency and aggregate output in a decentralized search economy. We show that income distribution determines how competitive the market is, and thereby affects production efficiency and aggregate output. It is shown that it is generally possible to engineer a judicious transfer of income from high to low income individuals which simultaneously increases income equality, competitiveness, and aggregate output.

Networks as determinants of rural migration

Palavras-chave: Search; Price Dispersion; Income Inequality; Consumer/Household Economics; D83.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/14983

Zarnekow, Nana; Henning, Christian H.C.A..

This paper focuses on networks as determinants of rural migration and the importance of networks in a rural development perspective. Furthermore the impact of public goods and amenities on migration decisions in rural regions is investigated. Special attention is paid on heterogeneity in peoples migration-decisive components. Data base is a non-farm household-survey of four rural communities in Poland. The estimations show that migration decisions are influenceable in different ways: Social networks as well as socio-economic components and the regional public-good endowment are important drivers of migration, but the direction and amount of influence depends on individual-preferences and on individual network-structures - among other things especially on...

Naive Learning in Social Networks: Convergence, Influence and Wisdom of Crowds

Palavras-chave: Migration; Rural development; Social networks; Latent class model; Community/Rural/Urban Development; R23; D83; H41.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94829

Jackson, Matthew O.; Golub, Benjamin; Jackson, Matthew O..

We study learning and influence in a setting where agents communicate according to an arbitrary social network and naively update their beliefs by repeatedly taking weighted averages of their neighbors' opinions. A focus is on conditions under which beliefs of all agents in large societies converge to the truth, despite their naive updating. We show that this happens if and only if the influence of the most influential agent in the society is vanishing as the society grows. Using simple examples, we identify two main obstructions which can prevent this. By ruling out these obstructions, we provide general structural conditions on the social network that are sufficient for convergence to truth. In addition, we show how social influence changes when some...

How Homophily Affects Learning and Diffusion in Networks

Palavras-chave: Social Networks; Learning; Diffusion; Bounded Rationality; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; D85; D83; A14; L14; Z13.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9101

Golub, Benjamin; Jackson, Matthew O..

We examine how three different communication processes operating through social networks are affected by homophily - the tendency of individuals to associate with others similar to themselves. Homophily has no effect if messages are broadcast or sent via shortest paths; only connection density matters. In contrast, homophily substantially slows learning based on repeated averaging of neighbors' information and Markovian diffusion processes such as the Google random surfer model. Indeed, the latter processes are strongly affected by homophily but completely independent of connection density, provided this density exceeds a low threshold. We obtain these results by establishing new results on the spectra of large random graphs and relating the spectra to...

Mobile telephony as a change drivers in rural areas

Palavras-chave: Networks; Learning; Diffusion; Homophily; Friendships; Social Networks; Random Graphs; Mixing Time; Convergence; Speed of Learning; Speed of Convergence; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; D83; D85; I21; J15; Z13.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50718

Michailidis, Anastasios; Loizou, Efstratios; Nastis, Stefanos A.; Mattas, Konstadinos.

The aim of the paper is to reveal the most important causes of mobile telephony use by rural residents. In particular, the examination of the expected changes due to use of mobile phones and the assessment of the major causes that drive rural residents to desire mobile telephony access constitute the main objective of the paper. In addition, the study extends the employment of binomial econometric methodologies into rural development issues. Interesting results are revealed from the three discrete segments of rural populations regarding the drivers of mobile phone use. The majority of the users belong to the so-called “farmers”, where the dominant causes of mobile phone use are different from the rest ones. More specifically, causes such as region and...

Hog Producers' Risk Management Attitudes and Desire for Additional Risk Management Education

Palavras-chave: Binomial logit model; Change facilitation; Mobile telephony; Rural areas; Survey; Community/Rural/Urban Development; C01; D83; R11; R58.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/95312

Patrick, George F.; Peiter, Amy J.; Knight, Thomas O.; Coble, Keith H.; Baquet, Alan E..

Hog producers in Indiana and Nebraska were surveyed about sources of risk, effectiveness of risk management strategies, and prior participation in and desire for additional risk management education. Ownership of hogs by the producer, size of the operation, and age did have significant effects on ratings of both sources of risk and effectiveness of risk management strategies. Probit analysis found age, prior attendance, knowledge and prior use of the tool, level of integration, and concern about price and performance risk have significant effects on interest in further education about production contracts, futures and options, packer marketing contracts, and financial management.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Financial management; Futures and options; Packer marketing contracts; Production contracts; Risk attitudes; Risk management; D81; D83; Q12; Q16.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37110

Unpacking the Meaning of “Market Access”

Chamberlin, Jordan; Jayne, Thomas S..

Improving farmers’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved market access. This paper attempts to “unpack” the dimensions of market access and, in the process, uses farm survey data from Kenya to investigate changes in multiple indicators during the post-liberalization period. Findings show that market access conditions experienced by rural Kenyans exhibit considerable variation across time, space, and indicator type. We suggest ways in which structured hypothesizing and sensitivity analysis may strengthen empirical treatments...

The Relevance of Information Sources on Adoption of Precision Farming Technologies by Cotton Producers

Palavras-chave: Market access; Remoteness; Smallholders; Africa; Kenya; Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; International Development; Marketing; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C81; D01; D63; D83; H41; H54; R58; L99.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/110014

Garcia-Jimenez, Carlos I.; Mishra, Ashok K.; Paxton, Kenneth W.; Lambert, Dayton M.; Velandia, Margarita M.; Rejesus, Roderick M.; Segarra, Eduardo.

Replaced with revised version of paper 02/16/11.

WHEN DOES THE PRICE AFFECT THE TASTE? RESULTS FROM A WINE EXPERIMENT

Palavras-chave: Strategic communication; Competitiveness; Extension; Economics of information; Technology diffusion; Technology supply; Communication methods; Knowledge management; Production Economics; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession; D22; D80; D82; D83; Q12; Q16.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/98123

Almenberg, Johan; Dreber, Anna.

We designed an experiment that examines how knowledge about the price of a good, and the time at which the information is received, affects how the good is experienced. The good in question was wine, and the price was either high or low. Our results suggest that hosts offering wine to guests can safely reveal the price: much is gained if the wine is expensive, and little is lost if it is cheap. Disclosing the high price before tasting the wine produces considerably higher ratings, although only from women. Disclosing the low price, by contrast, does not result in lower ratings. Our finding indicates that price not only serves to clear markets, it also serves as a marketing tool; it influences expectations that in turn shape a consumer’s experience. In...

Performance of Services: A Framework to Assess Farm Extension Services

Palavras-chave: Price-Quality Heuristic; Attribute Information; Role of Expectations; Marketing; Blind Tasting; Wine; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; C91; D03; D83; M31.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51755

Labarthe, Pierre.

There is in Europe a trend for privatisation and commercialisation of technical extension services for agriculture. At the same time, extension is supposed to support the contribution of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) to rural development. This article proposes an analytic framework to test whether performances of commercial extension enable to enhance the effectiveness of intangible investments in MFA context. Empirical investigations were realised about technical extension for cereal production in Ain (France) and Zeeland (Netherlands). It appears that [A] private extension providers hardly invest in R&D relevant to MFA context; [B] some farmers who contribute to MFA may lack technical knowledge when provided by commercial extension.

In search of an evolutionary edge: trading with a few, more, or many

Palavras-chave: Agricultural extension services; Information and knowledge; Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession; D83; Q16.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24712

Stark, Oded; Behrens, Doris A..

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his m adjacent neighbors, where m is termed the "span of interaction." Trade is governed by a prisoner’s dilemma "rule of engagement." A farmer’s payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the m prisoner’s dilemma games played with his m/2 neighbors to the left, and with his m/2 neighbors to the right. When a farmer dies, his son takes over. The son who adheres to his father’s span of interaction decides whether to cooperate or defect by considering the actions taken and the payoffs received by the most prosperous member of the group comprising his father and his father’s m trading partners. Under a conventional structure of payoffs, it is shown that a large span of...

Media Impact of Nutrition Information on Food Choice

Palavras-chave: Local interaction; Span of interaction; Imitation; Cooperation; Social welfare; Farm Management; D83; R12; O4.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94280

Shiratori, Sakiko; Kinsey, Jean D..

This study estimated the impact of nutrition information provided by popular media on consumers’ purchases in U.S. grocery stores, taking omega-3 fortified eggs as an example. The media index was constructed from multiple information sources by utilizing computer-coded content analysis. Their probability of purchasing omega-3 eggs between 1998 and 2007 based on household-level scanner data was analyzed by logistic regression models to incorporate elements of information effects. The results showed the significant positive impact of nutritional information from the popular media on consumers’ food choices, thus publishing in popular media can be an effective communication approach to promote consumers’ health.

Marketing via Friends: Strategic Diffusion of Information in Social Networks with Homophily

Palavras-chave: Consumer Economics; Content Analysis; Functional Food; Information economics; Logit; Omega-3 Fatty Acids; Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; D12; D83.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103850

Chuhay, Roman.

The paper studies the impact of homophily on the optimal strategies of a monopolist, whose marketing campaign of new product relies on a word of mouth communication. Homophily is a tendency of people to interact more with those who are similar to them. In the model there are two types of consumers embedded into a social network, which differ in friendship preferences and desirable design of product. Consumers can learn about the product directly from an advertisement or from their neighbors. The monopolist chooses the product design and price to influence a pattern of communication among consumers. We find a number of results: (i) for low levels of homophily the product attractive to both types of consumers is preferred to specialized products; (ii) the...

Global Warming and Hyperbolic Discounting

Palavras-chave: Networks; Word of Mouth; Viral Marketing; Homophily; Diffusion; Social Networks; Random Graphs; Monopoly; Pricing Strategy; Product Design; Marketing; Advertisement; Environmental Economics and Policy; D21; D42; D60; D83; L11; L12.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/96667

Karp, Larry S..

The use of a constant discount rate to study long-lived environmental problems such as global warming has two disadvantages: the prescribed policy is sensitive to the discount rate, and with moderate discount rates, large future damages have almost no effect on current decisions. Time-consistent quasi-hyperbolic discounting alleviates both of these modeling problems, and is a plausible description of how people think about the future. We analyze the time-consistent Markov Perfect equilibrium in a general model with a stock pollutant. The solution to the linear-quadratic specialization illustrates the role of hyperbolic discounting in a model of global warming.

Asymmetric Search and Loss Aversion: Choice Experiment on Consumer Willingness to Search in the Gasoline Retail Market

Palavras-chave: Stock pollutant; Hyperbolic discounting; Global warming; Time consistency; Environmental Economics and Policy; D83; L50.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25069

Castilla, Carolina; Haab, Timothy C..

Price search enables consumers to overcome information asymmetries, it can lead to a reduction in price dispersion and it can increase consumer surplus, but search is costly. In this paper, an internet survey is conducted among a random sample of 490 drivers in the State of Ohio to answer the question, when are consumers more likely to search? The internet survey affords us the opportunity to impose exogenous price changes in a random sample of gasoline consumers to examine the decision-making process behind intended search decisions. Results indicate that among the respondents who faced prices below their expected price, only 12% chose to search, whereas 45% searched when prices were above. Results suggest that asymmetric search can be explained by...

Palavras-chave: Price search; Choice experiment; Search cost; Gasoline market; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; D83; D03.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61672

Time-Consistent Policies

Karp, Larry S.; Lee, In Ho.

In many cases the optimal open-loop policy to influence agents who solve dynamic problems is time-inconsistent. We show how to construct a time-consistent open-loop policy rule. We also consider an additional restriction under which the time-consistent open-loop policy is stationary. We use examples to illustrate the properties of these tax rules.