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Agribusiness
Selected AbstractsAnalysis of the demand for imported meat in Switzerland using a dynamic specification: Implications for the European UnionAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007Shiferaw T. Feleke The study identifies the long-run equilibrium (steady-state) relationship of the demand for imported meat in Switzerland and the speed of adjustment of the short-run demand using the Error Correction Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System (EC-LA/AIDS). Results indicate that imports of meat into Switzerland have a long-run equilibrium relationship with price and real expenditure. The study also finds that the demand for pork is price elastic, while the demand for beef, chicken, and mutton is price inelastic. Results will have important implications for the EU meat industry to adjust its export supply in response to changes in prices resulting from the bilateral trade agreements in which Switzerland is expected to reduce or abolish nontariff barriers, further open its market, and reduce or abolish all duties and export subsidies. [EconLit citations: Q110, Q130, Q170 © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 497,510, 2007. [source] Household vegetable demand in the Philippines: Is there an urban-rural divide?AGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007Maria Erlinda M. Mutuc A Nonlinear Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (NQAIDS) that accounts for censoring and endogeneity problems is used to assess the vegetable demand behavior of rural and urban households in the Philippines. Detailed household consumption data for a number of vegetable commodities are utilized in the analysis. The results show that most of the expenditure and own-price elasticities of the vegetables analyzed are near or larger than unitary in both rural and urban areas. For majority of the vegetable commodities examined, only the expenditure elasticity is significantly different between rural and urban households. On the other hand, own-price and cross-price elasticities of most vegetables do not significantly differ between rural and urban households. The disaggregate vegetable demand elasticities in this study, as well as the insights from the rural/urban comparisons, provide valuable information that can be utilized for the analysis and design of various food-related policies in the Philippines. [JEL Classification: R21; Q11] © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 511,527, 2007. [source] Food consumption and demographics in Japan: Implications for an aging populationAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007Mauricio V.L. Bittencourt This study estimates a cross-sectional model based on the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) to examine the determinants of food consumption patterns in Japan over life-cycle periods. The test of structural changes, the analysis of the effects of demographic characteristics, and the estimation of expenditure and price elasticities are conducted from a random sample of 1,281 households from a Japanese household survey in 1997. Results show that each economic or noneconomic factor has a different impact on food consumption over a lifetime. Changes in consumption of some food groups can be explained by price and income effects where others can be explained by demographic characteristics. Financial constraint is not binding and residential location is likely to have little or no impact on predicting consumers' food choices at different periods of their lives. Other key factors that affect consumption pattern include family size, number of children, lifestyle, and health concern. [EconLit citations: C310, D120, D910.] © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 529,551, 2007. [source] Beef safety shocks and dynamics of vertical price adjustment: The case of BSE discovery in the U.S. beef sectorAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007Sayed H. Saghaian This article addresses the dynamic impact of the 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy discovery on the U.S. beef sector. Time series analysis and historical decomposition with weekly feedlot, wholesale, and retail beef price series is used to address the dynamics of price adjustment and causality along the U.S. beef marketing channel. The results show price transmission is bidirectional, determined through interaction between the different stages, and price adjustment is asymmetric with respect to both speed and magnitude. The results reveal a differential impact of the exogenous shock on producers and retailers, which leads to widening of price margins and points to imperfect price transmission, specifically at the retail level, with consequences for the efficiency and equity of the marketing channel. [EconLit citations: Q11, Q13]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 333,348, 2007. [source] Testing for market power in the Australian grains and oilseeds industriesAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007Christopher J. O'Donnell We formally assess competitive buying and selling behavior in the Australian grains and oilseeds industries using a more realistic empirical model and a less aggregated data set than previously available. We specify a duality model of profit maximization that allows for imperfect competition in both input and output markets and for variable-proportions technologies. Aggregate input-output data are used to define the structure of the relevant industries, and time series data are then used to implement the model for 13 grains and oilseeds products handled by seven groups of agents. The model is estimated in a Bayesian econometrics framework. We find evidence of flour and cereal food product manufacturers exerting market power when purchasing wheat, barley, oats and triticale; beer and malt manufacturers exerting market power when purchasing wheat and barley; and other food product manufacturers exerting market power when purchasing wheat, barley, oats and triticale. [EconLit citations: C11, L66, Q11]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 349,376, 2007. [source] Large mergers and acquisitions of European brewing groups,event study evidence on value creationAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007Oliver Ebneth Acquisitions have been the growing trend in recent years, giving brewers the opportunity to enhance their degree of internationalization and market share remarkably through diverse one-off deals. Larger brewers are faced with low prospects for volume growth in developed markets leading them to seek growth either via acquisition of other brewers or by aggressive participation in developing markets or both. This study employs event study analysis to examine 31 mergers and acquisitions among leading European brewing groups. Differences regarding the brewers' corporate success can be determined within the European peer group. The results are discussed by additionally comparing the performance of companies that experienced M&As and companies that did not. Managerial implications as well as future research propositions conclude this article. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 377,406, 2007. [source] Economic analysis of Campylobacter control in the dutch broiler meat chainAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2007Marie-Josée J. Mangen The goal of the CARMA (Campylobacter risk management and assessment) project was to advise the Dutch government on the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions aimed at reducing campylobacteriosis cases in the Netherlands. The burden of disease, expressed in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) and the corresponding cost-of-illness, were estimated using data from epidemiological studies. With the help of a risk assessment model, the reduction in the incidence of Campylobacter infections due to a set of possible interventions in the broiler meat (chicken) chain was modeled. Separately, costs related to the implementation of these interventions in the broiler meat chain were estimated. For each intervention to be modeled, the net costs of an intervention,additional costs in the broiler meat chain minus reduced cost-of-illness,were related to the reduced burden of disease. This resulted in a cost-utility ratio, expressing the relative efficiency of several policy options to reduce Campylobacter infections. [EconLit Citations: Q180, I180] © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 173,192, 2007. [source] Food safety approaches to examining HACCP costs and performance and technologiesAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2007Michael Ollinger In this article, the authors describe the survey methodology needed to obtain data to support several empirical analyses dealing with food safety issues. The most striking finding about the survey methodology was the much higher response rate due to the use of priority mail and an incentive payment of $5 versus priority mail only or first-class mail only. Letters of support from the major meat and poultry trade associations and the up to five contacts of potential survey respondents by the surveying organization also appear to have improved the response rate. Overall, the survey methodology yielded nearly 1,000 responses from 1,705 possible meat and poultry plants on their costs of compliance with the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point rule of 1996, plant characteristics, and use of food safety technologies and practices. [EconLit Citations: L250, L510, L150] © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 193,210, 2007. [source] Market power in tobacco: Measuring multiple marketsAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Kellie Curry Raper Traditional market power analyses of the U.S. cigarette manufacturing industry consider monopoly power exertion by manufacturers in selling cigarettes to consumers. Market characteristics combined with government policy make it plausible that manufacturers exert monopsony market power in procuring tobacco. We investigate this possibility in the U.S. and international tobacco markets by extending nonparametric tests to include simultaneously potential monopoly market power with potential monopsony market power in multiple input markets, allowing both Hicks-neutral and biased technical change. We use annual data from the cigarette manufacturing industry from 1977 to 1993. Results indicate substantial departures from competitive pricing in the procurement of domestic tobacco, supporting the postulate that cigarette manufacturers appropriate monopsony rents despite, and perhaps at times through, U.S. tobacco farm policy. Results are less clear with respect to monopsony market power exertion in imported leaf tobacco procurement by cigarette manufacturers. Finally, results indicate that monopoly market power exertion is relatively small and that, when the possibility of monopsony market power exertion is admitted, monopoly market power exertion is no longer problematic.[EconLit citations: L100, L660]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 35,55, 2007. [source] Composite price expectations: An empirical analysis for the Spanish horticultural sectorAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Emilio Galdeano-Gómez This article aims to determine the extent to which available information is used to formulate price expectations in the horticultural sector in southeastern Spain. In recent decades this sector, which exports mainly to European Union (E.U.) food distribution centers, has witnessed a greater correlation between production and marketing due to the influence of cooperatives. This has led to an increase in the availability and use of information for forecasting the different variables. This analysis proposes the combination of rational expectation models and lagged price expectation models. It also compares the proposed model with other traditional expectation models. The results suggest that current market information (rational expectation viewpoint) is being used complementary to lagged prices and show the suitability of a rational composite expectation model. [EconLit classification: D840, Q110, Q130]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 57,83, 2007. [source] Quantity versus quality effects of generic advertising: The case of Norwegian salmonAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Řystein Myrland In this article, a two-equation sample selection model is used to estimate a household demand function for salmon incorporating domestic generic advertising. The two-equation estimation procedure, based on purchase and unit value equations, allows us to handle heavily censored panel data for salmon purchases by Norwegian households and the quality effects simultaneously. Unit values of the aggregated salmon commodity calculated from the observed expenditures and quantities are hypothesized to represent the average quality of the purchased commodity. Advertising effects on both purchases and unit values are investigated. The model also allows us to separate the effects of conditional purchases and purchase probabilities. Results indicate that most (76%) of the advertising effect is through the change of nonpurchase occasions to purchase occasions, and that generic salmon advertising induces Norwegian households to spend more money on salmon. However, advertising causes households to select more expensive products rather than increasing their purchased quantities. [EconLit citations: D12, C24]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 85,100, 2007. [source] Predicting food safety losses in turkey processing and the economic incentives of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) interventionAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006William E. Nganje Turkey is an important food commodity whose total value of U.S. production amounted to $2.72 billion in 2003. Empirical evidence suggests that among broilers, eggs, turkeys, and chickens, Salmonella contamination of ground turkey is highest at 49.9% prior to hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) implementation and 26.6% after HACCP implementation. Salmonella and other microbial outbreaks have greatly contributed to the large number of food recalls in the meat and poultry industry; therefore, processed turkey constitutes a prime commodity for HACCP intervention analysis. Value-at-risk provides a framework for assisting firm management to assess food safety risks in monetary terms, and to evaluate the economic incentives of control measures like HACCP. Results show that food safety losses as measured by downside risk significantly declined following HACCP implementation. Medium- and large-scale turkey processors are more likely to derive more benefit from implementing an augmented HACCP plan than a generic HACCP plan. [EconLit citations: C150, Q180] © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 475,489, 2006. [source] The big picture: Obesity, consumption, and food productionAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006Robert C. Johansson Reducing the percentage of Americans who are either overweight or obese to meet public health objectives may influence agricultural production. The authors' results show that reducing aggregate consumption by 6% to meet public health objectives with no increase in overall physical activity could reduce production of agricultural commodities and reduce net returns to producers by $3.5 billion. However, if consumption is reduced by 2% concomitantly with a marginal increase in physical activity, similar health outcomes could be achieved at much less cost ($1.3 billion). Conversely, continuing obesity trends may enhance returns to agricultural production by $1.3 billion annually. Changes in agricultural activities would likely be variable across the landscape. Results indicate that the largest potential changes in agricultural producer net returns (positive or negative) would occur in the Corn Belt and the Lake States. There, crop acreage could fall by as much as 650,000 hectares. [EconLit citations: Q130, Q180] © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 491,503, 2006. [source] The impact of cross-sectional data aggregation on the measurement of vertical price transmission: An experiment with German food pricesAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel The impact of cross-sectional aggregation over individual retail stores on the estimation and testing of vertical price transmission between the wholesale and retail levels is investigated using a unique data set of individual retail prices in Germany. Systematic differences between the results of estimations using aggregated data on the one hand, and disaggregated data on the other, are discussed theoretically and confirmed empirically. The results suggest that estimation with aggregated data can generate misleading conclusions about price transmission behavior at the level of the individual units (i.e., retail stores) that underlie these aggregates. [JEL classifications: C22, L11, D40] © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 505,522, 2006. [source] The influence of wine attributes on region of origin equity: An analysis of the moderating effect of consumer's perceived expertiseAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006Jean Philippe Perrouty This research addresses the interaction between the components of brand. More specifically, the authors evaluate how the region of origin as a component of a wine brand adds value to a wine purchaser. Previous research suggests that the region of origin equity is significantly moderated by the other wine attributes with which it is combined on the wine label: commercial brand, level of price, type of bottler, grape variety. The authors test whether the moderating effects depend on self-perceived consumer expertise. They use a discrete choice method to survey 1,162 European wine purchasers, about equally selected from France, Austria, Germany, and the UK. Results show that the region of origin equity is indeed significantly moderated by the other wine attributes. They also show these moderating effects are more important for consumers who perceive themselves as "more expert" than for consumers who feel they are "novices." [EconLit citation: M310]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 323,341, 2006. [source] Spanish wine consumer behavior: A choice experiment approachAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006Nadhem Mtimet Overall wine consumption in Spain is decreasing, while at the same time, designation of origin (DO) wine consumption is increasing gradually. This study examines Spanish DO wine consumer behavior by the use of a choice experiment technique. A main-effects model as well as an interaction-effects model is estimated based on four attributes: designation of origin, price, wine aging, and grape variety. Willingness-to-pay estimates, depending on the price segment, is derived for switching from one attribute level to another. Consumer segmentation is undertaken based on purchase frequencies. Market simulations are presented for consumer segments. Empirical results indicate the importance of the DO and the wine aging attributes on wine selection. The interaction-effects model shows the importance of attribute interactions on consumers' choice process. Differences as well as similarities are detected among consumer segments. [EconLit citations: D120, Q120, Q130]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 343,362, 2006. [source] Estimating price and income elasticities in the presence of age-cohort effectsAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Hiroshi Mori Individual consumption of most food products varies by age, and in countries like Japan that have experienced drastic social and economic changes during the past several decades, it also differs from generation to generation. Unless proper measures are taken to account for these factors, estimates of demand elasticities could be severely biased. In this study, individual consumption of fresh fruit was derived from Japanese household data classified by age of household head for the years 1979,2001. Individual consumption was then decomposed by age, cohort, and period effects using Bayesian cohort analysis. Pure period effects thus determined were regressed against changes in price and income, to obtain less biased estimates for demand parameters than non- or partially age-compensated analysis. [Econlit citations: Q110]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 201,217, 2006. [source] Valuing food-borne risks using time-series data: The case of E. coli O157:H7 and BSE crises in JapanAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Shunji Oniki This study evaluates changes in consumers' concerns on food safety after the outbreaks of E. coli O157 and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan using household consumption time-series data. A food demand system for Japanese households is estimated using the linear approximate almost-ideal demand system (AIDS) model to evaluate the willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for risk. The Kalman filtering method is applied to produce estimates without a priori assumption regarding timing of the changes. The WTA value rises immediately after a food safety crisis occurs and declines in a short time. However, it does not return to previous levels for an extended period. A possible explanation for remaining effects of a crisis might be that they are the results of habit formation and learning effects of consumption. [EconLit citations: D12, D18, Q13]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 219,232, 2006. [source] The impact of exchange rate volatility on U.S. poultry exportsAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Titus O. Awokuse Existing empirical evidence on the effect of exchange rate uncertainty on trade is generally conflicting and inconclusive. While some studies found a positive relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade, others argue for the opposite. Furthermore, the vast majority of past studies only focused on aggregate trade flow data. The lack of extensive literature on studies based on disaggregated and commodity-level data may partially explain the ambiguity in past empirical evidence. This paper re-examines the relationship between exchange rate volatility and U.S. poultry exports using a panel data for 49 importing nations over two subperiods: 1976,1985 and 1986,2000. The analysis uses a fixed-effects model specification and three alternative measures of exchange rate volatility. The empirical results suggest that the choice of volatility measure matters as there is a positive relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and poultry exports. These findings are consistent with those from several previous studies. [JEL classification: F310, Q170]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 233,245, 2006. [source] Branding behavior in the Danish food industryAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Derek Baker Cross-sectional data from a survey of Danish firms are used to examine branding behavior in 2002 and its change between 1997 and 2002. Summary data from the survey are presented. Branding behavior is defined and relevant literature is reviewed. Based on hypotheses developed from this literature and supporting features of the Danish food marketing chain, six econometric models are specified. Specification accounts for dependent variables' characteristics (count and fractional data, and truncated samples). Missing values are replaced using Griliches' method (Griliches, 1986). Large firms are found to own and introduce the most brands, although few associations with the commodity sector are identified. Firms' use of retail brands is found to substitute for brand introduction in the long run and to increase with ownership by retail firms. Conclusions are drawn regarding the strategic stance of retailers in the Danish food system and its employment of retailers' own-label brands. [ECONLIT Classifications: Q120; Q130; L190]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 31,49, 2006. [source] Do psychological prices contribute to price rigidity?AGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Evidence from German scanner data on food brands A substantial degree of price rigidity has been reported for branded foods in various studies with scanner data. One possible explanation for price rigidity is the existence of psychological pricing points. The authors analyze to what extent psychological pricing plays a role in grocery retailing and whether it contributes to the price rigidity of branded foods in Germany. Psychological pricing,defined here as just-below-the-round-figure-pricing,is empirically analyzed with scanner data of weekly prices for 20 food brands in 38 retail outlets from September 1996 to June 1999. Psychological pricing turned out to be extremely important in German food retailing. Branded food prices are remarkably sticky and psychological pricing points contribute strongly to price rigidity. Other factors like the sales phenomenon and firm-specific effects are additionally important. [EconLit Classifications: Q110, Q130]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 51,67, 2006. [source] Food safety performance in European union accession countries: Benchmarking the fresh produce import sector in HungaryAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Marian Garcia Martinez Countries that accede to the European Union face a complex and urgent task to adopt and implement the Acquis Communautaire on food safety. For the food industries in such countries, this implies that the European Union's standards of food production and processing, food quality and safety have to be met to ensure a high level of consumer protection and satisfaction. The authors assess the level of food safety performance in one accession country, Hungary, in one food sector (the fresh produce importing chain), and evaluate the capacity of the system to demonstrate quality assurance to the satisfaction of private customers and public regulators. The analysis of food safety performance has been undertaken through gap analysis using a novel application of a benchmarking methodology taking the United Kingdom fresh produce importing chain as the benchmark. The insights are relevant to other accession countries and to other candidate countries for European Union enlargement. [EconLit Classifications: Q130, Q180]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 69,89, 2006. [source] Effects of government programs to raise milk prices: Academic economists and public policyAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005Daniel A. Sumner The Northeast Dairy Compact benefited milk suppliers (and allied input suppliers) and harmed those on the fluid milk demand side in the Compact region, while having opposite impacts on these groups outside the Compact region. These simulation results leave many questions unanswered, but seem relatively robust. Simulations require many assumptions, but so do all other approaches to policy analysis. The specific policy question addressed and available data determine the most promising approach. In some cases, as with the evaluating effects of the Compact, a variety of approaches to policy analysis are complementary. [EconLit citations: Q18, Q13, L10, L43]. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 473,476, 2005. [source] Retail oligopoly power, dairy compact, and Boston milk pricesAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005Benaissa Chidmi This paper assesses the impacts of the Northeast Dairy Compact (NEDC) and retail oligopoly power on fluid milk prices in Boston. Empirical results reveal that price increases due to oligopoly power outweighed those caused by the NEDC by nearly seven times. In fact, markups are estimated at approximately 25% of the retail milk price, translating into approximately a little less than $0.75/gallon. We also estimated that only around two-thirds of the raw milk price changes were passed forward to consumers. This helps explain why consumer prices have come down only little after elimination of the NEDC. In fact, the new milk income-loss contract program, which basically provides partial price subsidies to farmers, has contributed to low raw milk prices that have generated substantial benefits to milk processors and retailers, modest benefits to farmers and consumers, all at the expense of taxpayers. [JEL classification: L66, L11, L13]. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 477,491, 2005. [source] Asymmetric response of retail milk prices in the northeast revisitedAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005Daniel A. Lass Retail milk price responses to farm price changes were analyzed for Boston, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut. Prior research concluded that asymmetries did not exist in the response of retail fluid milk prices to changes in farm prices. This study finds transmission rates are greater for the Compact period (100,120%) than the pre-Compact period (66,88%). Short-run asymmetries are apparent. Retail prices respond rapidly to farm price increases, but slowly to farm price decreases. This study also finds evidence of long-run asymmetry. When equivalent farm price increases and decreases occur, retail prices do not return to the same levels that were observed before the price changes. Such long-run asymmetry was not observed in prior empirical studies of retail prices in the Northeast. [EconLit Classification: Q110, Q130, L110]. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 493,508, 2005. [source] Product-country images and preference heterogeneity for Mediterranean food products: A discrete choice frameworkAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005Riccardo Scarpa Despite the importance of region of origin (ROO) as a quality indicator and EU recognition of territorial specificity in food products, there is still a dearth of work investigating the importance of regional (both national and territorial) identity in consumer perceptions for specific food product categories. Employing nationwide discrete choice data for Italy, we investigate the strength of the ROO attribute across three food product categories. Moreover, in addition to treating taste heterogeneity as conditional on socioeconomic factors, we employ recent advances in discrete-choice modeling to test for unobserved heterogeneity in consumer preferences for domestic and territorial origin of production certification. The results show evidence of home bias in preference across all three food products, while preference heterogeneity is exhibited for table grapes and oil, but not for oranges. The analysis shows that unobserved heterogeneity, as represented by mixed logit models, appears to explain more of the observed choice variation than heterogeneity associated to socioeconomic characteristics. [JEL classification: Q120,Q130, Q180]. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 329,349, 2005. [source] Recall event timing: Measures of managerial performance in U.S. meat and poultry plantsAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005Ratapol Teratanavat This study investigates the performance of meat and poultry plant managers in discovering and responding effectively to food safety problems that lead to product recalls. Timing is used as a performance measure of managers' response to recalls of food, using survival distributions of times between production and recall, and recall case duration. The objectives are to understand how these time periods vary across plants and to determine factors explaining such variability. Survival distributions are estimated using the Kaplan-Meier and life table methods. Subgroups of the population are compared using plots of the estimated survival functions and statistically compared using log-rank and Wilcoxon tests. Managers at large plants, in multi-plant firms, and at plants with prior recall experience do not perform better. Cox regressions indicate that government agency sampling programs enhanced the speed of discovery, and that national distribution networks contributed to the risk that cases remained open for a longer period. [EconLit citations: D210, Q180.] © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 351,373, 2005. [source] Multinomial logit models comparing consumers' and producers' risk perception of specialty meatAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005E. William Nganje There is a dichotomy of risk perception between consumers and processors of specialty meats. Studies show that consumers continue to resist these meats and perceive them as somewhat unsafe while processors perceive them to be safe. This study uses survey data from 401 consumers and 22 bison processors to evaluate the determinants of food safety risk perception gaps. Results indicate that significant food safety risk perception gaps exist between consumers and producers of bison meat. Outrage, among other factors, accounts for consumer risk perception while the number of years in business is a major determinant of producer risk perception. Consumers' food safety risk perception affects the frequency of consumption of bison meat. This creates difficulties in formulating marketing strategies and policy initiatives aimed at moving specialty meats beyond niche markets. [EconLit citations: Q180, D190, C140.] © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 375,390, 2005. [source] Constrained price, address, or logit brand demand models: An econometric comparison in the Boston fluid milk marketAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005Li Tian This article estimates a general linear demand model for three fluid milk brands. It finds perverse signs and complementarity among these substitutes. We develop three constrained models to eliminate perverse signs: a price conduct constraint in the linear model that links private label and Garelick pricing, a generalized Mills address model, and the logit model. Statistical tests indicate that each of the three constrained models produces acceptable substitution patterns and that none is preferred to the other two. On nonstatistical grounds, however, the Mills and price-constrained models perform best. This is the first empirical study of the Mills address model of private-label pricing. Finally, we demonstrate that estimated price-reaction functions and the corresponding total elasticities, which capture only strategic non-collusive interaction in these Nash Bertrand models, provide interesting insight into competition among brands. EconLit citation: L670, L130.] © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 149,166, 2005. [source] Determining the causality between retail price and consumer demand in a linear function when demand-shift variables are missing but wholesale prices are availableAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005W. Erno Kuiper A test procedure is proposed to test for the simultaneous nature of the relationship between price and quantity with respect to consumer demand of fresh products at the level of an individual retail chain. It is argued in the literature that, on the sector level, inverse demand systems in which quantities are exogenous and prices are the dependent variables are better able to describe consumer demand behavior in case of perishable products whose quantities may be treated as fully price inelastic in the short run. Nevertheless, applying our test procedure to six fresh vegetable products sold by a Dutch supermarket chain reveals that consumer demand for fresh products is better described by a simultaneous price,quantity relationship. [EconLit citations: C320, D420, Q110.] © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 21: 167,176, 2005. [source] | ||||||||||||||||