Women,men and organic food: differences in their attitudes and willingness to pay. A Spanish case study

The main purpose of this work consists of displaying the different attitudes of men and women towards organic food, and their willingness to pay for it, in three different consumer intensities: usual, occasional and potential consumers. Several surveys have been carried out to obtain a representative sample of regular food purchasers living in Castilla‐La Mancha (Spain). Statistic analysis previously detecting significant differences with regard to gender and type of consumer has been conducted by univariate analysis to describe attitudes, and multivariate analysis, through ‘logit’ models, to calculate maximum willingness to pay. Results show that women have a more favourable attitude (directly related to their lifestyle) to the purchase and consumption of organic food than men, whereas men are inclined to pay a higher price for organic food than women. In general, men are disposed to pay a higher increase in price than women.     

Are Flexible Exchange Rate Regimes more Volatile? Panel GARCH Evidence for the G7 and Latin America

This paper investigates empirically the relationship between exchange rate (ER) regimes and volatility of real exchange rate depreciation (RERD), comparing the G7 and 17 Latin American (LA17) countries, during 1970–2010. We estimate a panel autoregressive model with generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) errors and regime‐specific effects on both the conditional mean and conditional variance. For the G7, we find that, relative to the fixed ER regime, only the freely floating regime shows higher RERD volatility; under the managed floating regime the RERD is equally volatile and under the crawling peg it is actually less volatile. Instead, in the case of the LA17, more flexible ER regimes are associated with more volatile RERD rates, with higher volatility under the managed floating regime than under the crawling peg and with extremely high volatility under the “freely falling” ER regime.     

Partial credit guarantees and firm performance: evidence from Colombia

This paper studies the effect of government-backed partial credit guarantees on firms’ performance in Colombia. These guarantees are automatically granted by the National Guarantee Fund (NGF) to firms without enough collateral to lift their credit constraints. We put together a panel of firms covering the period 1997–2007 that allows us to control for observed and unobserved firm characteristics potentially affecting both the selection of firms into the program and firms’ performance. We find that firms that gain access to credit backed by the NGF were able to grow in terms of both output and employment. However, we do not find any effect on productivity, wages, or investment.     

A rejoinder

Abstract

This paper reflects on the influence of Vilfredo Pareto's letters on Ricardian equivalence and fiscal theory to Benvenuto Griziotti and Guido Sensini. The letters are important for emphasizing the need for fiscal studies to consider equilibrium, particularly social equilibrium, at a time when Italian fiscal sociology was in its formative stage. Griziotti came to accept fiscal sociology, albeit in an eclectic form that focused directly on political and legislative matters rather than social equilibrium. In contrast, Sensini progressively developed a framework for fiscal theory that focused primarily on the fundamental relationship between fiscal phenomena and social equilibrium.     

A sample selection model for prepared food expenditures

The factors affecting household expenditures on four types of prepared food products from a sample selection model estimated using a two-step method are explored. Results suggest that several variables affect household expenditures on various prepared food products. Factors examined are presence of children, number of earners, region, household size, seasonality, age, race, education, and income.     

Fluctuations in convex models of endogenous growth, II: Business cycle properties

Using ideas from the endogenous growth literature, we present a model of the endogenous determination of productivity growth based on individual worker decisions about human capital investment. We calibrate a version of the model to match long run growth facts from the US and study the business cycle properties of this model. This approach offers improvements along several dimensions over standard exogenous growth methodologies. Most importantly, our stochastic endogenous growth model generates much greater serial correlation in output growth and labor supply volatility relative to its real business cycle counterpart. We conclude that using the extra discipline of reproducing the trend productivity growth features of the data endogenously constitutes an important missing component from the real business cycle approach.     

Information Effects on Consumers' Willingness to Purchase Irradiated Food Products

This study assessed the effect of information related to the food irradiation process on consumers' willingness to purchase irradiated food products and the perceived consumer segment to which they belonged ("strong buyer,""interested,""doubter," or "rejector" of irradiated food). Two types of information were presented: the nature and benefits of food irradiation and information about two ways in which food can be irradiated. Positive shifts in the responses were observed in both the consumer segment to which they belonged and willingness to buy after the presentation of information about food irradiation technology.     

Do consumers value nutritional labels?

The European Union is contemplating making the provision ofnutritional labels in food products mandatory. Using data collectedfrom food shoppers, we assessed consumers' valuation of nutritionallabels by analysing their willingness to pay a premium for abox of cookies with a nutritional label. On average, the meanwillingness to pay (WTP) for a box of cookies with a nutritionallabel is estimated to be about 11 per cent above the price ofthe box of cookies without a nutritional label. Consistent withprior expectations, our results also indicate a difference betweenthe WTP of individuals suffering from diet-related health problems(estimated mean 13 per cent) and those who do not suffer anydiet-related health problems (estimated mean 9 per cent).