Is Local Food More Environmentally Friendly? The GHG Emissions Impacts of Consuming Imported versus Domestically Produced Food

With the increased interest in the ‘carbon footprint’ of global economic activities, civil society, governments and the private sector are calling into question the wisdom of transporting food products across continents instead of consuming locally produced food. While the proposition that local consumption will reduce one’s carbon footprint may seem obvious at first glance, this conclusion is not at all clear when one considers that the economic emissions intensity of food production varies widely across regions. In this paper we concentrate on the tradeoff between production and transport emissions reductions by testing the following hypothesis: Substitution of domestic for imported food will reduce the direct and indirect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with consumption. We focus on ruminant livestock since it has the highest emissions intensity across food sectors, but we also consider other food products as well, and alternately perturb the mix of domestic and imported food products by a marginal (equal) amount. We then compare the emissions associated with each of these consumption changes in order to compute a marginal emissions intensity of local food consumption, by country and product. The variations in regional ruminant emissions intensities have profound implications for the food miles debate. While shifting consumption patterns in wealthy countries from imported to domestic livestock products reduces GHG emissions associated with international trade and transport activity, we find that these transport emissions reductions are swamped by changes in global emissions due to differences in GHG emissions intensities of production. Therefore, diverting consumption to local goods only reduces global emissions when undertaken in regions with relatively low emissions intensities. For non-ruminant products, the story is more nuanced. Transport costs are more important in the case of dairy products and vegetable oils. Overall, domestic emissions intensities are the dominant part of the food miles story in about 90 % of the country/commodity cases examined here.     

新客户的网站感知和信任对其在线购买行为影响的实证研究

结合心流体验理论,依据438份样本数据,运用结构方程模型进行检验假设,分析了新客户的网站感知、信任与其在线购买行为之间的关系。研究结果显示:在客户网站感知因素中,感知有用性对体验因素的影响最大;在体验因素中,购物乐趣对在线购买行为的影响作用更强;不同类型的信任对在线购买行为的影响路径不同,能力信任对在线购买行为的影响比正直信任大。     

Fashionable food: a latent class analysis of social status in food purchases

A framed field experiment combined with a latent class econometric approach was used to investigate how prestige-seeking behaviour influences food choices. We propose a theoretical framework to test conspicuous consumption of specialty food products. We test the hypothesis empirically by categorizing individuals into unobserved latent classes according to their general prestige-seeking behaviour. We find evidence of food consumption driven by prestige to the point of becoming a symbol of social status. The prestige-seeking behaviour seems to be motivated by invidious comparison or higher-class individuals seeking to differentiate themselves from lower-class individuals; and pecuniary emulation, or lower-class individuals buying prestigious goods in order to be perceived as members of a higher class. Findings from this study revealed that the effects of differentiating labelling attributes had a higher impact for individuals classified into classes with prestige-seeking behaviour to attain an elevated social status.     

城市居民生态消费行为的影响因素分析

文章利用黑龙江省哈尔滨市289个城市居民样本数据,分别建立居民购买对环境和自身都有利的生态环保型商品和对环境有利而对自身无影响的生态环保型商品的Logistic模型,分析了影响城市居民生态消费行为的主要因素。研究结果表明,居民对生态消费的认知水平、对环保标识的信任水平、政策宣传状况、商品质量的可靠程度对居民购买两类生态环保型商品都有显著影响,而且为正方向影响。性别和文化程度分别是居民购买第二类生态环保型商品和第一类生态环保型商品的比较显著的人口统计学影响因素。     

More or better? Measuring quality versus quantity in food consumption

As people become richer they get the opportunity of consuming more but also qualitatively better goods. This holds for a basic commodity like food as well. We investigate food consumption in Russia, taking into account both expenditure and nutrition value in terms of calories. We analyse how food consumption patterns change with increasing income by considering both “quantity Engel curves” and “quality Engel curves.” The former describe the functional dependence of calories consumed on total expenditure. The latter trace out the dependence of unit value per calorie on total expenditure. We compare income elasticities of quantity with income elasticities of unit value and quality. In Russian household survey data for years 2000–2002 the reaction of quality to income changes is significantly stronger than the reaction of quantity to income changes suggesting that Russian households tend to choose higher quality food items as income rises.     

异质性能源消耗强度变化及其影响因素分解——基于四川省可比价能源投入产出表

基于2002—2007年四川省可比价能源投入产出表,分析了四川省6部门的异质性能源的完全能耗系数的变化趋势;采用因素分解法,将能耗强度总量变动的影响因素分解为直接能耗变化、产品技术变化和最终需求结构变化,并分析了不同因素对能源消耗强度变化的影响程度。结果表明:2002—2007年间,除农业外,其他产业部门的煤炭完全能耗系数均呈下降趋势;除了建筑业的天然气完全能耗系数呈上升趋势外,其他产业部门的该系数均呈先升后降的趋势;最终需求结构变动促使各类能源的消耗强度总量呈正向变化;直接能耗变动是影响4类能源的消耗强度变动的最主要因素。     

同种商品中外价格差的形成原因及应对策略

中国用最低的成本为世界制造高端产品,而中国人在购买这些商品时却享受不到低廉的价格,而是用最高的价格购买自己生产的产品,这一话题,引起人们的关注。此种情况已经给我国经济造成了较大影响,分析出现这种情况的原因,一是由从生产者到消费者手中的流通环节产生的,二是由于我国消费者不成熟的消费观念所导致的,三是国内缺乏竞争对手,进口商品的垄断所形成的。当前我国应通过努力降低流通环节成本,注重国内产品的品牌培育,增加日用消费品的进口等方面着手改变中外同种商品差价过大这一现象。     

TIME VS. GOODS: THE VALUE OF MEASURING HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

We take U.S. and Israeli household data on expenditures of time and goods, generate an exhaustive set of commodities that households produce/consume using them, and calculate their relative goods intensities. Leisure activities are uniformly relatively time intensive, health, travel and lodging relatively goods intensive. We demonstrate how education and age alter the goods intensity of household production. The results of this accounting can be used as guides to: understanding how goods and income taxation interact to affect welfare; expanding notions of the determinants of international flows of goods; generating models of business cycles and endogenous growth to include interactions of goods and time consumption; and obtaining better measures of the distribution of well being.     

突发事件下个体抢购物品现象的经济学分析

利用前景理论建立突发事件下信息对个体心理预期影响的理论模型,可对危机中的“抢购”行为进行理论分析。结果表明:危机事件下的“抢购”行为直接与人们的心理预期有关;私人信息会影响个体心理预期并产生过度反应;尽早公开信息有利于遏制私人信息影响;信息对个体风险感知的影响取决于个体接受信息的状态。     

Population, consumption and resources: ethical issues.

This article offers several models that test concepts of optimum population and consumption: classical or utilitarian models, contractual models, and generation-relative ethical models. This article is based on a lecture presented in August 1995, at a conference organized by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences. It is posited that classical utilitarianism casts the optimum population and consumption problem as a Genesis Problem. The authors argue that the Genesis problem is the wrong problem to study because there are no actual people. The Genesis problem asks how many people there ought to be ideally at what living standards. The unborn are not a class of people, just as mud on a river bank is not a mud hut. Actual persons and potential persons are categorically different. Actual persons have a claim that potential persons do not have. An overall ethical ordering over alternatives can only be conceived for each generation of actual people. The ethical point of view inevitably changes over time. For example, a generation in the first period consumes what they are given to consume by the older generation. In the second period, the younger generation is now the older generation who decide how many children to have and how to share nonstorable, all purpose consumption goods among themselves and future generations. Procreation is a means of making one's values durable. Human development is unfair. Those who live later benefit from the labor of their predecessors without paying the same price. Procreation and ecological preservation are a matter of ethics.     

论消费成本--消费研究与政策的新视野

在整个消费中,无一不涉及消费成本问题。但对消费成本在理论上却还没有十分明确与恰当的认识。将消费成本定义为"购买商品后在消费(使用)中所支付的一切费用及代价",由此,探讨其界定、形成、构成、特点、有关变动规律和对消费及其研究与政策的作用。如此等等,对于资源利用的提高、社会福利的增进、消费需求的扩大,社会经济中的任何一方,都是具有不可忽视的意义的。     

The environmental effect of car-free housing: A case in Vienna

A case-control study of the car-free model housing project in Vienna was conducted to evaluate whether people living in this settlement have more ‘sustainable lifestyles’ than people living in comparable buildings in Vienna. Another aim was to identify the lifestyle characteristics and household activities which significantly influence the environmental impact of the residents of the car-free housing project and a control group. The control group, referred to as the reference settlement, was chosen from a nearby building complex, with similar characteristics, but without the car-free feature. Household consumption patterns were estimated based on interviews in combination with data from the Austrian consumer expenditure survey and the national accounts. The evaluation of household environmental impacts uses emissions estimates from the Austrian national accounting matrices including environmental accounts and data from life-cycle assessments. Households from the car-free settlement have substantially lower environmental impacts in the categories of ground transportation and energy use; their CO₂ emissions of these two categories are less than 50% of those living in the reference settlement. The households in the car-free settlement have somewhat higher emissions in the categories air transport, nutrition, and ‘other’ consumption, reflecting the higher income per-capita. As a result, the CO₂ emissions are only slightly lower than in the reference settlement, but the emissions intensity is 20% lower. Both household groups have significantly lower environmental impacts than the Austrian average reflecting less car use and cleaner heating energy in Vienna.     

Light fuel demand and public policies in Brazil, 2003–2013

The main objective of this article is to evaluate determinants of demand for light fuels in Brazil between 2003 and 2013. Through a vector autoregression analysis, an effort was made to identify and quantify the impact of different economic variables and public policy measures adopted during this period on the surprising increase in energy consumption by Brazil’s light-vehicle fleet. The results suggest that demand for energy by the light-vehicle fleet was influenced by an increase in income, by a decrease in fuel prices associated with a policy designed to prevent increases in the price of gasoline from pushing the inflation rate up, by a higher availability of credit for buying vehicles, and by a drop in the real price of those goods, with emphasis on countercyclical measures to waive the tax on industrialized products levied on new vehicles during economic downturns in the automotive industry.     

我国经济发展方式转变的动力结构分析

消费、投资、出口是宏观经济运行的三大动力,也是转变经济发展方式的三大动力模式,三者在国民经济中的地位和作用各具特色。从我国近年来经济发展的动力结构来看,投资需求、消费需求和出口需求之间存在严重的不均衡,已成为制约我国经济又好又快地持续发展的主要问题。因此,进行经济发展动力结构的调整,各种动力结构的协调是实现经济发展方式转变的关键。     

What Does it Take to Sell Environmental Policy? An Empirical Analysis of Referendum Data

We analyze the factors that influence the support for environmental policy proposals. Swiss referendum data show that proposals obtain more yes-votes if they do not restrict consumption possibilities directly, if they are endorsed by the largest business association, if environmental preferences are strong and economic conditions are favorable at the time of the referendum. Also, there are more pro-environmental votes in cantons with higher population density. On the other hand, yes-votes do not seem to depend on whether a proposal involves a tax or not.     

Consumption patterns in Sri Lanka: a decomposition analysis

Knowing consumer reaction to changes in prices and income is important in formulating microeconomic policies, such as public utility prices and commodity taxation. This paper analyses the consumption patterns of consumer goods grouped into eight broad commodities in Sri Lanka during the period 1975–2016, using a system-wide framework. The analysis indicates that Sri Lankan consumers allocate more than half of their income to food and nearly four fifths of their income to food, housing, and transport combined. The estimated income and own-price elasticities reveal that food, housing, medical care, and transport are necessities; clothing, durables and recreation are luxuries; and demand for all commodities is price inelastic except for recreation. To investigate the consumption growth pattern, we decomposed the growth in consumption and change in budget shares of the eight commodities into income, relative price, and change in taste. We also simulated per capita consumption expenditure of the eight commodities under various policy scenarios and found that income growth has played a significant role in Sri Lankan consumption patterns.     

Travel patterns and environmental effects now and in the future:: implications of differences in energy consumption among socio-economic groups

Travel patterns among different socio-economic groups in Sweden are investigated. It is shown that elderly persons, persons with low incomes and women in general do not travel extensively. Middle-aged persons, persons with high incomes and men travel much farther. Cars are the dominant transportation mode for all population groups. Aeroplanes are used mostly by high-income earners and men, while public transportation is mostly used by young people and women. Energy consumption for the different travel patterns differs substantially. Men with high incomes consume the most energy, with 94 000 MJ during one year, while elderly women consume 12 000 MJ. When compared to a calculated sustainable level of energy consumption for travel, most population groups are in excess. The level for sustainable energy consumption is calculated based on an assumed global potential for renewable energy of 360 EJ per year, divided equally among the global population. A certain share of this energy potential is supposed to be used for travelling. A scenario for 2020 is presented in which vehicle energy efficiency has increased and travel patterns have changed from what they are today. Sustainability can only be reached when both travel patterns and vehicle technology have changed radically. Differences in energy consumption for travel due to age and gender are likely to remain in the future. Scientific knowledge from the social domains seems to be important for devising efficient strategies for a sustainable society. Current focus on policy measures has been mainly on technical issues.     

A cross-country analysis of consumption patterns

This paper uses the system-wide approach to analyse the consumption patterns in 18 OECD countries. The results show that, on average, the OECD per capita consumption increased by 3% per annum and prices increased by about 7% per annum; OECD consumers spend about half of their income on food, housing and transport. It is also shown that, in most OECD countries, food, housing and medical care are necessities and clothing, durables, transport and recreation are luxuries, and that the demand for all goods considered are price inelastic. The controversial hypothesis of Stigler and Becker (1977) that tastes are the same across countries is also tested and it is found that the OECD consumption data do not support their claim.     

Giving is a Question of Time: Response Times and Contributions to an Environmental Public Good

Does it matter whether contribution decisions regarding environmental public goods are arrived at through intuition or reflection? Experimental research in behavioral economics has recently adopted dual-system theories of the mind from psychology in order to address this question. This research uses response time data in public good games to distinguish between the two distinct cognitive processes. We extend this literature towards environmental public goods by analyzing response time data from an online experiment in which over 3400 subjects from the general population faced a dichotomous choice between receiving a monetary payment or contributing to climate change mitigation efforts. Our evidence confirms a strong positive link between response times and contributions: The average response time of contributors is 40 % higher than that of non-contributors. This suggests that reflection, not intuition, is at the root of pro-environmental contributions. This result is robust to a comprehensive set of robustness checks, including a within-subjects analysis that controls for potentially unobserved confounds and recovers the relationship at the individual level.     

有机食品购买的主要影响因素分析——基于城市消费者的调查统计

通过梳理有机食品消费研究的相关文献,从而建立影响有机食品购买决策的理论模型,然后运用相关分析和Logit模型对城市消费者有机蔬菜消费的调研数据进行数理统计分析。研究结果显示,消费者受教育程度、消费者收入、消费者对有机食品认知水平、消费者在食品购买中对安全性的要求、消费者对有机食品的感知价值、消费者对有机食品的态度是影响消费者购买有机食品的主要因素。