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

Austin, David H.; MacAuley, Molly K..

This paper describes a model for estimating, in a probabilistic framework, expected future consumer surplus from planned new product innovations. The model has been applied to estimations of taxpayer benefits from NASA's New Millenium Program (NMP), which develops new technologies for space science, and to the digital data storage technologies being supported by the Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The model uses cost index methods based on consumers' estimated marginal valuation for quality improvements in the technology. Probabilistic values for performance increases are taken from the innovators' own expectations. The analysis reveals the sensitivity of welfare increases to these values, which are assumed to be biased upward....

A REGIONAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS OF THE WELFARE IMPACT OF CASH TRANSFERS: AN ANALYSIS OF PROGRESA IN MEXICO

Palavras-chave: Quality-adjusted cost index; Consumer surplus; Innovation; Environmental Economics and Policy; O32; H43; D60.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10655

Coady, David P.; Harris, Rebecca Lee.

Using a regionally disaggregated computable general equilibrium model, we analyze the differential welfare impacts of a cash transfer program targeted at rural areas. The direct effect of the transfers decreases regional income differentials, but the indirect effects depend on how the program is financed. Financing the program with a more efficient tax system is also less regressive and has favorable urban impacts. The less efficient instruments result in relatively higher incomes in all rural regions, but are more regressive. The increasing share of urban poverty highlights the shortcomings of rural targeting and raises the issue of horizontal equity.

A SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF QUALITY OF LIFE INDICES ACROSS COUNTRIES

Palavras-chave: General equilibrium; Targeted transfers; Regional impacts; Tax incidence; Food Security and Poverty; D3; D58; D60; H2; O10; O54; R13.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16303

Rahman, Tauhidur; Mittelhammer, Ronald C.; Wandschneider, Philip R..

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of interrelationships among the determinants of the Quality of Life (QOL). We show that various measures of well-being are highly sensitive to domains of QOL that are considered in the construction of comparative indices, and how measurable inputs into the well-being indicators are aggregated and weighted to arrive at composite measures of QOL. We present a picture of conditions among the 43 countries of the world with respect to such interrelated domains of QOL as the relationship with family and friends, emotional well-being, health, work and productivity, material well-being, feeling part of one's community, personal safety, and the quality of environment. On the basis of Borda Rule and the...

Agricultural Trade Liberalisation and Strategic Environmental Policy

Palavras-chave: Quality of life; Domains; Borda rule; Principal components; And rankings; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; I31; D60; D63.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/22045

Glebe, Thilo W.; Latacz-Lohmann, Uwe.

We use an extended partial equilibrium trade model to derive optimal environmental policy responses to tariff reduction requirements and assess the impact of such policies on the welfare of trading partners. We find that countries which attribute preferential political weights to farmers' welfare have an incentive to implement environmental policies that deviate from the Pigouvian solution - even if production is not de facto linked to environmental externalities. We clarify the conditions under which trading partners do not gain from unilateral trade liberalisation if trade concessions are accompanied by strategic environmental policy changes. We postulate a role for the WTO in overseeing the process of domestic policy formulation.

Análisis económico de la “bio-carbonización” como práctica de manejo agrícola

Palavras-chave: Trade liberalisation; Strategic environmental policy; Multifunctionality; Agri-environmental policy; WTO; Environmental Economics and Policy; D60; F11; F18; Q17.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24609

Ramirez, Juan Andres; Rosales Alvarez, Ramon.

Las altas concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero, específicamente CO2, han sido señaladas como la principal causa del cambio climático. La adopción de prácticas agrícolas capaces de incrementar el contenido de carbono en el suelo, ha sido propuesta como una estrategia de bajo costo y disponibilidad inmediata para enfrentar este fenómeno. La Bio-carbonización es una de estas prácticas agrícolas, la cual implica la aplicación de carbón vegetal al suelo, de modo que el carbono queda capturado en una forma altamente recalcitrante al tiempo que se mejora la calidad del suelo. Este artículo es el primero en evaluar la viabilidad financiera y considerar algunos de los efectos económicos de la práctica, estimados para una finca tipo en la altillanura...

Being Poor, Feeling Poorer: Combining Objective and Subjective Measures of Welfare in Albania

Palavras-chave: Agricultura sostenible; Altillanura colombiana; Análisis costobeneficio; Programación lineal; Secuestro de carbono; Servicios ambientales.; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; C6; D60; O30; Q10; Q24; Q50.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/60734

Carletto, Calogero; Zezza, Alberto.

As shown empirically for many transition economies, even small changes in assumptions on economies of size and adult equivalence scales are likely to produce significant changes in the analysis of poverty and its distribution across households and individuals. Since such exercises are then used to orient and prioritize policy actions (e.g. the targeting of scarce social assistance resources) it is important to refine our understanding of the extent to which poverty measures and the resulting profiles are sensitive to specific assumptions. In this paper we investigate how combining objective and subjective measures of welfare can provide insights that are helpful in addressing these questions, particularly with respect to the presence of economies of scale...

Consumer Surplus Estimates and the Source of Regression Error

Palavras-chave: Poverty; Poverty Measurement; Subjective Poverty; Equivalence Scales; Economies of Scale in Consumption; Albania.; Food Security and Poverty; I31; I32; O52; D60.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/23801

Beatty, Timothy K.M.; Brozovic, Nicholas; Ward, Michael B..

Contrary to widely held belief, we show that the source of regression error does not matter when calculating Marshallian surplus. A misspecified demand curve, not the assumed source of regression error, leads to differences in estimates of consumer surplus.

Consumer Welfare and the Loss Induced by Withheld Information: The Case of BSE in Italy

Palavras-chave: Regression Error; Marshallian Surplus; Welfare Analysis; Consumer/Household Economics; D60; C24; Q51.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19477

Mazzocchi, Mario; Stefani, Gianluca.

The paper develops a measure of consumer welfare losses associated with withheld information about BSE linkage with vCJD. food safety. The Cost of Ignorance (COI) is measured by comparing the utility of the informed choice with the utility of the uninformed one, under condition of improved information. Unlike previous work, based on a single equation demand model, the measure is obtained retrieving a cost function from a dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System. The results indicate that Italian consumers bore a significant loss because of the delayed release of information.

Contribution of Economics to Design of Sustainable Cattle Breeding Programs in Eastern Africa: A Choice Experiment Approach

Palavras-chave: Food safety; Welfare analysis; Information; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; BSE; D80; D60; D12.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24927

Ouma, Emily Awuor; Abdulai, Awudu.

Although livestock forms a very important component of the livelihoods of rural populations of developing countries, productivity remains very low. Livestock keepers are beset by various constraints. In sub-Saharan Africa, cattle are exposed to a number of tropical diseases and other environmental stresses. Breed improvement programs provides key entry points for increasing productivity in cattle populations, especially those plagued by animal diseases. However, breed improvement programs have tended to focus on single, market-driven production traits in isolation of broader livestock system functions. This potentially leads to genotypes that are not well adapted to the environment and not suitable for performing the multiple roles of cattle in developing...

Efficiency under a Combination of Ordinal and Cardinal Information on Preferences

Palavras-chave: Choice experiment; Cattle production system; Trait preferences; Trypanotolerance; Livestock Production/Industries; D12; D60; C35.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25587

Athanassoglou, Stergios.

Replaced with a revised version of paper 10/05/11.

Estimating Future Consumer Welfare Gains from Innovation: The Case of Digital Data Storage

Palavras-chave: Random Assignment; Efficiency; Duality; Linear Programming; Environmental Economics and Policy; C61; D01; D60.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/101288

Austin, David H.; MacAuley, Molly K..

We develop a quality-adjusted cost index to estimate expected returns to investments in new technologies. The index addresses the problem of measuring social benefits from innovations in service sector inputs, where real output is not directly observable. We forecast welfare gains from two U.S. Advanced Technology Program innovations equaling 25%-50% of expected price, and aggregate consumer benefits of $1-$2 billion, relative to trends in existing technologies. Our model's probabilistic parameters reflect uncertainty about prospective outcomes and in our hedonic estimates of shadow values for selected product attributes. The index can be readily adopted by research and development (R&D) managers in industry and government.

Fat Taxes and Thin Subsidies: Distributional Impacts and Welfare Effects

Palavras-chave: Quality-adjusted cost index; Consumer surplus; Innovation; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; O32; H43; D60.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10814

Salois, Matthew J.; Tiffin, J. Richard.

The extant literature on fat taxes and thin subsidies tends to focus on the overall effectiveness of such fiscal instruments in altering diets and improving health. However, little is known about the welfare impacts of fiscal food policies on society. This paper fills a gap in the literature by assessing the distributional impacts and welfare effects resulting from a tax-subsidy combination on different food groups. Using the methods derived from marginal tax reform theory, a formal welfare economics framework is developed allowing the calculation of the distributional characteristics of various food groups and approximate welfare measures of prices changes caused by a tax-subsidy combination. The distributional characteristics reveal that many of the food...

Impact of Free Trade Agreements on the Colombian Beef Sector

Palavras-chave: Distributional characteristic; Fat tax; Obesity; Thin subsidy; Welfare.; Health Economics and Policy; D30; D60; H20; I10; I30..

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91754

Gomez, Miguel I.; Frank, Julieta; Parra, Tatiana.

Colombia negotiated bilateral Trade Agreements (TAs) with the United States and with the MERCOSUR region (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay). Colombian cattle and beef interest groups argue that TAs hurt the local beef supply chain. We employ a partial equilibrium framework to assess the impact of these TAs on the welfare of cattle producers, beef marketers and meat consumers in Colombia. Our results suggest that with free imports of chicken parts from the U.S, beef consumption and retail prices of beef both decrease and the derived demand and prices of fed cattle decrease. With beef imports from the MERCOSUR region, domestic beef prices and beef production fall, but total beef consumption increases. Overall, consumers are better off and there are...

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

Palavras-chave: Beef; Colombia; Partial equilibrium; Trade liberalization; International Relations/Trade; F14; D60; Q17.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61670

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...

Measuring market power in the Greek food and beverages manufacturing industry

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

Rezitis, Anthony N.; Kalantzi, Maria A..

This paper measures the degree of market power of the Greek food and beverages manufacturing industry over the period 1983–2007 at the three-digit SIC level. The present study also estimates the “deadweight” loss and the reduction of consumers’ income due to the possible existence of market power in the Greek food and beverages manufacturing industry. Based on Bresnahan’s (1989) conjectural variation model, three different approaches are used to investigate competitive conditions of the Greek food and beverages manufacturing industry. The first approach assesses the extent of market power of the whole industry over the period 1983–2007; the second approach tests the degree of market power in each one of the nine sectors of the industry over the whole...

Measuring Social Welfare: A Dog's Hind Leg Possibility Postulate

Palavras-chave: Conjectural variation; Greek food and beverages manufacturing industry; Market power; Welfare losses; Agribusiness; D43; D60; L66; Q10.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/114809

Hertzler, Greg.

Our current methods of analysing policies and the distributions of wealth insure that society is on an efficient frontier. This is not the same as a social optimum. To choose the optimal point on the frontier we need a social welfare function. Following the ordinal revolution in demand theory, a large body of research concluded that social welfare functions don't exist. The intensity of people's preferences cannot be observed and hence interpersonal comparisons are essentially impossible. This paper argues that the intensity of people's preferences can be observed and could be incorporated into a social welfare function.

Measuring Welfare Effects of an FMD Outbreak in the United States

Palavras-chave: Social welfare; Welfare analysis; Demand systems; Duality; Dynamic optimisation; Consumer/Household Economics; D60; D63.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10386

Paarlberg, Philip L.; Lee, John G.; Seitzinger, Ann Hillberg.

Questions have been raised regarding the economic costs of food-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the United States. This analysis examines how welfare changes are measured and argues that they must be decomposed by groups. Producers with animals quarantined and slaughtered because of FMD measure their welfare change using lost sales. Producers not quarantined measure their welfare change using producer surplus. The change in national sales revenue is accurate when the supply elasticity is low. Welfare changes for consumers also must be decomposed because the change in aggregate consumer surplus hides important shifts in welfare among groups of consumers.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Economic effects; Foot-and-mouth disease; Livestock; Meat; D60; Q13; Q17; Q18.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37832

Quality Adjustment for Spatially-Delineated Public Goods: Theory and Application to Cost-of-Living Indices in Los Angeles

Banzhaf, H. Spencer.

This paper illustrates how public goods may be incorporated into a cost-of-living index. When public goods are weak complements to a market good, quality-adjusted prices for the market good capture all the welfare information required. They are also consistent with a Laspeyres index that maintains the bound on a true cost-of-living index. The paper recovers this information from a discrete-choice model, using a simulation routine to solve for the appropriate price adjustments. These concepts are applied to the case of housing, education, crime, and air quality in Los Angeles for 1989 to 1994. Over a period of time when they are improving, incorporating pubic goods into the index lowers the estimated change in the cost of living by 0.5 to 2.6 percentage...

Real Options and the WTP/WTA Disparity

Palavras-chave: Air quality; Discrete choice models; Green accounting; Nonmarket valuation; Price index; Public Economics; C51; D12; D60; E31; H40; R10.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10833

Zhao, Jinhua; Kling, Catherine L..

We present a real options model of an agent's decision to purchase or sell a good under conditions of uncertainty, irreversibility, and learning over time. Her WTP and WTA contain both the intrinsic value of the good and an option value associated with delaying the decision until more information is available. Consequently, the standard Hicksian equivalence between WTP/WTA and compen-sating and equivalent variation no longer holds. This helps to explain the WTP/WTA disparity often observed in laboratory experiments and surveys because subjects may have limited learning time and opportunities, thus generating option values. In contrast, the disparity may decrease or disappear entirely in real markets since agents are free to choose when to stop gathering...

Referendum Design and Contingent Valuation: The NOAA Panel's No-Vote Recommendation

Palavras-chave: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; D60; D83; C90.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/18416

Carson, Richard T.; Hanemann, W. Michael; Kopp, Raymond J.; Krosnick, Jon A.; Mitchell, Robert C.; Presser, Stanley; Ruud, Paul A.; Smith, V. Kerry; Conaway, Michael; Martin, Kerry.

In 1992 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) convened a panel of prominent social scientists to assess the reliability of natural resource damage estimates derived from contingent valuation (CV). The product of the Panel's deliberations was a report that laid out a set of recommended guidelines for CV survey design, administration, and data analysis. One of the Panel's recommendations was that CV surveys should employ a referendum approach. This method describes a choice mechanism that asks each respondent how they would vote if faced with a particular program and the prospect of paying for the program through some means, such as higher taxes. The Panel also recommended that CV referendum questions which commonly use only "for" or...