Price determinants of bred heifers: Do reputations matter?

Replacement brood cows are among the most significant investments for cow-calf operations, thus crucial to profitability. Many cow-calf producers find it cost effective to purchase replacements from a reliable replacement heifer seller, though by doing so they increase risk of reproductive inefficiency due to unknown characteristics of the heifers. When important information about a product is missing to buyers, a seller can build a reputation over time that acts as signal for quality. Previous work has explored reputation effects in feeder cattle markets, but to our knowledge we are the first to explore reputation effects in bred replacement cattle markets. Using data from an annual replacement heifer sale, we analyze the values of heifer characteristics and test for premiums from reputation development. After controlling for reproductive practices, breed, and other characteristics, we find reputation does not play the role that Shapiro theorized. In this sale, the lot order is strategically chosen and may indicate bred heifer quality to buyers, replacing the need for reputation as a signal. This study highlights the importance of quality signals and regional preferences in bred replacement cattle marketing and lays the empirical groundwork for future studies to test Shapiro's theory.     

Alternative Firm Strategies for Signaling Quality in the Food System

Dynamics in the global food system, coupled with rapid advance in agricultural biotechnology, have resulted in additional demands for capturing information and sharing information vertically within the supply chain. Food safety and quality characteristics are a cornerstone of this information demand. Events such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), genetic engineering and animal welfare concerns have laid the foundation for additional information need.
Managers of private firms within the food supply chain must decide how to respond to the situation. A crucial component of the problem is what and how to provide information to downstream customers as well as stipulate what and how information is received from upstream suppliers. Alternative signaling mechanisms abound. The choice among these alternative signals, or combination of alternatives, has both short- and long-run implications for the reputation of the firm, its products or services, and the efficiency with which it conducts its business. The signaling problem in the supply chain is bidirectional and has three critical dimensions: information asymmetry, incentive asymmetry, and arduous measurability. From a broad perspective, the choice set for signaling includes: strategies that rely on third-party protocols and procedures; differentiation through branding and reputation; indemnification strategies such as insurance, warranties, and bonding; and coordination strategies such as strategic alliances and vertical integration (intemalization). Each mechanism for signaling differentially influences the three dimensions of the signaling problem. No globally optimal strategy solution exists. Differentiation through branding and reputation mitigate the signaling problem relatively well compared with the other alternatives.     

The impact of geographic reputation on the value created in Champagne

With asymmetric information, consumers need to rely on the reputation of wine to define quality before the purchasing. Amongst the tools available for underlining reputation, geographic location is considered to offer high potential. Today, some wines benefit from a country's reputation, some from the renown of a region and some from the local reputation of one specific vineyard, whilst conversely some providers suffer from a weak geographic reputation. There can be a split between producers within one vineyard or region based on varying geographic reputation. This kind of split appears in Champagne, with a range of well‐known and less well‐known brands and is particularly significant to the small growers who sell wine. This study used a representative sample of these growers to examine how their location impacts on their reputation. The results show that their selling price is influenced by the local system of grading vineyard quality, their distance from traditional regional centres and the presence in their village of growers cited in a national guide.     

Economic Loss Due to Reputation Damage: A New Model and Its Application to Fukushima Peaches

Consumers have responded negatively to agricultural products originating from the Fukushima prefecture after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incident. These consumers’ behavioural changes have caused substantial economic losses for the producers located in contaminated regions through reductions in market prices, consumption quantities and market shares. Remarkably, these losses are observed also for uncontaminated products, posing an opportunity for research in reputation damage. However, existing literature is very rare on empirical modeling of such losses. We utilise the Dixit–Stiglitz demand framework to derive a simple but efficient empirical model that uses market data to quantify reputation damage. This model estimates changes in the perceived quality of a product originating in contaminated regions in relation to those products originating from other competing regions. The model also measures subsequent loss in market share for those products grown in contaminated regions. In our application to Fukushima, results suggest that consumers’ valuation of peaches from Fukushima decreased dramatically (between 22.5% and 23.6%) in the year the nuclear accident occurred, but rapidly recovered in the following years. The results also show that the degree of impact varies across wholesale markets. Fukushima farmers lost about 13.1–18.9% of sales due to reputation damage. Estimates from our proposed models deliver meaningful information in the context of policy interventions such as transfer programmes financed by gainers to compensate reputation losses.     

Price determinants in top-quality e-auctioned specialty coffees

We analyze the price determinants of specialty coffees traded at e-auctions. We hypothesize that since specialty coffees are a highly differentiated product, prices will be determined by both sensory and reputation attributes. To test our hypotheses, we estimate a hedonic price function using data from Central and South American e-auctions and calculate the implicit prices of sensory and reputation attributes. The results show that market clearing prices are a function of sensory characteristics and reputation variables including third-party quality ranking, country of origin, coffee variety, and quantity. The additional attribute information disclosed at e-auctions results in substantially higher prices relative to conventional commodity coffee market prices.     

Reputation Leaders,Quality Laggards: Incentive Structure in Markets with Both Private and Collective Reputations

A theoretical model is developed to illustrate the economic incentives to invest in quality in markets with a dual reputation structure: private (firm reputation) and collective (regional reputation). Numerical dynamic programming techniques are then used to simulate firms’ strategic behaviour, and competitive outcomes are compared to the optimal investment of a regional planner. Market and product characteristics inducing asymmetric and/or sub‐optimal investment strategies, potentially destabilising for the region, are investigated.     

The Pricing of Experience Goods: The Example of en primeur Wine

The market for "primeur" wine in the Bordeaux region allows producers to sell wine that is still in barrels. As with all experience goods, producers send quality signals to uninformed buyers. Using original data on Bordeaux wines, we show that the pricing behavior of producers depends to a large extent on their reputation, and much less on short-term changes in quality (as measured by experts' grades). We also find that the primeur price has an informative role, since a 10% increase in primeur price leads to a 3% increase in prices on the market for bottled wine.     

You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya

The lack of a reliably safe food supply in developing countries imposes both health and economic costs. Food safety is one of several dimensions of food quality that are typically unobservable at the time of purchase. Branding can overcome this information problem by allowing firms to build reputations based on the quality of their products. If a reputation for food safety is valued directly by consumers, or if food safety is correlated with other valued attributes, firms producing safer food should be able to use their brand equity to charge higher prices. In addition, firms with stronger brand equity have stronger incentives to meet food safety standards in order to maintain that equity. Using data from more than 900 maize flour samples representing 23 distinct brands in eastern and central Kenya, we explore the relationship between price and contamination with aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a fungal toxin common in maize, groundnuts, and other crops around the world. We find a strong negative correlation between price and contamination at the brand level, consistent with the hypothesized positive relationship between brand equity and food quality.     

食品安全规制的博弈分析

食品是人类生存的基本条件,而食品的质量安全性则是食品的必备特性。针对食品安全的规制问题,利用静态和动态博弈模型分析食品生产企业与政府规制机构之间的各种博弈结果,说明政府监管成本变化和寻租行为对政府声望的影响,以及政府的监管罚金对食品生产企业成本和食品生产企业声望的影响。     

Geographic Indications and Farmer‐Owned Brands: Why Do the US and EU Disagree?

Geographic Indications (GIs) identify the geographic origin of products whose quality, reputation or other characteristic can be attributed to the geographic origin. We focus on a subcategory of GIs, Farmer Owned Brands. Like GIs in general, FOBs require governmental assistance to protect the property rights of the brand owners. GIs are receiving increased attention because many countries and producer groups realize the importance of property right protection for GIs, and are negotiating such rights in international forums like the World Trade Organization. Here we explore possible reasons for US opposition to EU policies conferring special property right protection to GIs. We conclude that the most plausible explanation for the US position is the lack of a domestic constituency advocating greater GI protection, which means that the US position represents the interests only of those who stand to lose from such protection. It will take a change in US property right regulations and a widespread understanding and adoption of the concept among producer groups before the political pendulum changes within the US. This process will take several years and until then we will have the unusual situation of the US opposing the only market-based solution to the US rural development problem that we are aware of.     

Hedonic wine price functions with different prices

This study examines the impact that recommended retail prices, actual market prices and the release of a prominent wine guide have on Australian wine hedonic price estimates, for attributes such as sensory quality, winery reputation and grape region. In general, hedonic price estimates appear to be independent of prices employed. The main identified differences in estimates relate to the size of the producer and some regional impacts. For market prices only, increases in producer size are estimated to reduce prices. This implies the existence of supply chain quantity discounting price practices. The impact of an authoritative wine guide appears to have a negligible influence on prices in Australia. In the absence of market transaction prices, the common practice of employing recommended prices for hedonic wine price estimation is defendable.     

Factors Influencing a Potato Farmer's Choice of Seed Supplier

Abstract

Empirical evidence collected from comprehensive personal interviews with potato farmers in the Philippines reveals five factors that best explain a farmer's choice of seed supplier. Seed quality and the seed supplier's reputation are the two most important factors. Given the high cost of seed and the impact seed quality has not only on the current crop but any future potato crops derived from that seed, such is not unexpected. Results suggest that by providing technical support, enhancing offer quality and facilitating regular communication, it is possible for a proximal seed supplier to differentiate their product offer from alternative suppliers. Fortuitously, such investments are most appreciated by the larger potato farmers.     

The impact of auction characteristics on prices of agricultural products traded online: evidence from cherries

This article provides an empirical study on the relationship between auction characteristics and prices using a data set on cherry sales from the online auction site Yahoo! Kimo. Using three alternative measures of the dependent variable, results indicate that reputation variables have a statistically important association with auction prices. The extent of reputation's impact on prices varies substantially depending on the model specification and estimation technique. The article highlights the effectiveness of a nonlinear specification for both measuring and interpreting the underlying reputation variables. The use of a “Buy It Now” option, size, and country of the origin is correlated with prices at statistically significant levels. Several econometric concerns regarding the empirical modeling strategy are discussed.     

冷鲜肉品牌建设要素研究——基于消费者视角的分析

通过消费者问卷调查，对冷鲜肉品牌建设要素假设进行了检验，结果表明：4大因素13＋-指标，即质量满意度（外观形象、品种标志、质量标志、口感风味），品牌联想美誉度（品牌信用度、品牌联想效果、企业责任感水平、品牌关誉度），品牌知名度（未提及知名度、提及知名度、市场占有率）和营销水平（价格适中度、专柜／专店销售水平），与冷鲜r8品牌建设存在较密切关系。     

Farm demand for quality potato seed in Indonesia

Seed is the one of the most costly components of potato production in developing countries. Since potato is a vegetatively reproduced crop, diseases such as viruses build up and yield declines as tubers are saved from one harvest for use as seed the next season. Replacing farm‐saved seed with clean seed is one means to increase yield, but information asymmetry between buyers and sellers on seed quality may restrict market supply of this input. In this article we develop a model of the seed market in which clean seed is treated as a capital good providing benefits over several seasons. To determine farm demand for clean seed, we conducted a survey of 182 potato farmers in the major potato growing areas of Indonesia to elicit their perceptions of seed quality from different sources, and derive farmers' “willingness‐to‐pay” for quality potato seed. Results indicate that the effects of information asymmetry on seed supply may be partially offset by the “reputation” of specialized seed producers. Nevertheless, marginal returns to disease‐free seed appear to significantly exceed marginal costs, indicating that improving supply of quality seed will contribute strongly to productivity growth in potato. We discuss several policy options to encourage supply and utilization of quality potato seed.     

PRICE-QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS IN A DURABLE ASSET: ESTIMATION OF A CONSTANT QUALITY PRICE INDEX FOR NEW FARM TRACTORS, 1948–1965*, †

Because of the many uses of price indices it is important that they be corrected for quality change. This paper presents a regression approach to the problem of extracting the influences of quality change on price and a price index for new farm tractors is calculated which allows for the considerable, post-war, quality improvements in the input. The results indicate that whilst the average price of tractors has risen rapidly over the post-war period, the true (constant quality) price has shown only a small increase. Some implications of these results are put forward—particularly with regard to the measurement of gross investment and capital stock, and to the importance of input quality change in explaining increasing agricultural productivity over time. Finally, firm level decision making leads to the observed changes over time in the quality demanded of an input: some consideration is given to the place of factor quality selection in firm theory.     

城市绿地树种规划在城市旅游形象塑造中的作用

城市旅游的兴起带动了城市旅游形象方面的研究,城市植物景观是城市旅游形象的重要载体,独具特色的植物景观对于塑造城市旅游形象与提升城市知名度具有举足轻重的作用。实施基于旅游功能的树种规划是营造和凸显城市旅游形象的有效途径,依据旅游"城市化"与城市休闲对树种规划的更高标准要求,提出具体的措施与建议,为传统基于生态功能的城市树种规划提供了有益的补充。     

An economic analysis of farm forestry as a means of controlling dryland salinity

Large areas of agricultural land under conventional crops and pastures are at risk of dryland salinisation in Australia. The salinisation problem can be controlled by strategic and large-scale planting of trees; however, farm forestry enterprises evaluated with conventional discounting techniques do not generally rank as an attractive alternative to annual crops on productive land. In this article, an optimal control model that explicitly accounts for decline or improvement in land quality over a period of 40 years is presented. The optimal area planted to trees and the optimal groundwater-table trajectory through time are determined under a variety of scenarios. Implications of the results for policy design are discussed.     

Country of origin labeling for complex supply chains: the case for labeling the location of different supply chain links

We investigate the value of a country of origin label (COOL) that separately identifies the geographic location of different stages in a food product's supply chain. We estimate the willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) of U.S. consumers for a packaged cereal product where the key grain ingredient may be grown in one country and processed in a second country (multicountry supply chain) and compare it to equivalent products that have both stages located in a single country. We find consumer WTP for products with single‐country and multicountry supply chains are statistically different, meaning that simplifying a multicountry label by listing only the country where the ingredients are grown or only the country where the ingredients are processed can result in different consumer values. We also find that for countries with a poor quality reputation, consumers respond more negatively when that country has the “last touch” than when that country's involvement is limited to upstream supply chain links.     

基于消费者视角的茶叶企业品牌资产模型构建和实证研究

采用问卷调查的方式,参考国内外学者的研究成果,提出了基于消费者视角的茶叶企业品牌资产的概念模型,在理论和实证相结合的情况下,得出茶叶企业品牌资产由品牌知晓度、品牌形象、感知质量和品牌忠诚度4个维度构成,非货币性销售促进方式对茶叶企业品牌资产的建立更有利。品牌资产是茶叶企业最重要的战略资源,企业应加强这四个维度的建设管理,并在营销活动中开发和应用更多的非货币性销售促进工具,从而茶叶企业才能在日益残酷的竞争环境中占有优势。