Covid-19-tested food labels

While the transmission of virus SARS-CoV-2 via food is rare, some Chinese food retailers are considering a Covid-19-tested food label. However, how consumers may support such a label is unknown. We quantify Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for food carrying a Covid-19-tested label using an online choice experiment. We find that the WTPs for such a label are always positive for all food products considered. The amount of WTP depends on the entities authenticating the labels, country of origin of the food, and consumers’ socio-demographic status. Contrary to expectation, the knowledge on Covid-19 does not affect consumer preferences for the Covid-19-tested food labels. Our benefit and cost analysis suggests a possible large benefit of creating and administering a Covid-19-tested food label. This study provides insights for policymakers, global food manufacturers, and retailers to create marketing strategies to alleviate consumer food safety concerns associated with Covid-19.     

Quantifying landscape externalities of renewable energy development: Implications of attribute cut-offs in choice experiments

Renewable energy is worldwide seen as a key element necessary to address climate change. However, finding socially acceptable locations for renewable energy facilities and the accompanying infrastructure increasingly often faces fierce opposition. This paper quantifies the landscape externalities of renewable energies employing a choice experiment. In addition, it is investigated how accounting for non-compensatory choice behavior, i.e. attribute cut-offs, affects welfare measures and subsequently policy recommendations. The empirical application is Germany where we conducted a nationwide survey on the development of renewable energies. We first show that cut-off elicitation questions prior to the choice experiment at least partially influence preferences. We further find that most participants state cut-off levels for attributes. Many are, however, at the same time willing to violate the self-imposed thresholds when choosing among the alternatives. To account for this effect, stated cut-offs are incorporated into a mixed logit model following the soft cut-off approach. Model results indicate substantial taste heterogeneity in preferences and in the use of cutoffs. Also, welfare estimates are substantially affected. We conclude that welfare changes from renewable energy development could be strongly underestimated when cut-offs are ignored.     

Conflicted financial advice: disclosure revisited

We examine the impact of disclosing an advisor’s conflict of interest in providing financial advice to a client in an experiment. We find that an advisor’s conflict of interest harms the client and that disclosing the conflict harms the advisor. Unlike earlier literature, we do not find that disclosure of the advisor’s conflict of interest results in moral licensing or strategic exaggeration behaviour by the advisor nor, relatedly, that disclosure disadvantages the client.     

Discouraging Rainforest Transformation: An Ex-ante Policy Impact Analysis

Despite extensive efforts made by national and international certification agencies, Indonesian smallholder farmers’ participation in palm oil certification schemes adoption remains low. A fundamental obstacle is the smallholder practice of rainforest transformation into oil palm plantation which is forbidden by the agencies. In this context, we investigate three policies that could lead to a reduction in rainforest deforestation by smallholders: price premium on certified palm oil; the provision of environmental information; contributor recognition. In order to evaluate the influence of the policies ex-ante, we conduct a social dilemma experiment involving rubber and oil palm smallholders in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. The findings indicate that the price premium and provision of context-specific environmental information could reduce rainforest transformation. However, a statistically significant effect of contributor recognition was not found.     

刺芪参胶囊的制备工艺研究

目的:探索刺芪参胶囊的制备工艺。方法:采用正交实验,以总皂苷质量为指标,优化提取工艺;采用单因素实验优化制剂工艺。结果:在最佳提取工艺条件下,刺芪参胶囊提取物中的总皂苷含量为12.19 mg·g-1;以糊精作为填充剂、硬脂酸镁为助流剂、95%乙醇为黏合剂制备胶囊剂。结论:刺芪参胶囊的制备工艺稳定可行。     

A classroom experiment in monetary policy

The authors propose a classroom experiment implementing a simple version of a New Keynesian model suitable for courses in intermediate macroeconomics and money and banking. Students play as either the central bank or members of the private sector. The central banker sets interest rates to meet twin objectives for inflation and the output gap or to meet only an inflation target. In both settings, private sector agents are concerned with correctly forecasting the inflation rate. The authors show that an experiment implementing this setup is feasible and yields results that enhance understanding of the New Keynesian model of monetary policy. They propose alternative versions where the central bank is replaced by a policy rule and provide suggestions for discussing the experimental results with students.     

Reports of Bed Bugs on Hotel Selection: A Choice Experiment

The resurgence of bed bugs in the United States creates challenges for hotels and motels. One aspect that is especially important to hospitality are reports of bed bugs and how they affect travellers’ selection and potential damage to hotel brands. To address this issue, we conduct a choice experiment of a national sample of US travellers. We find that consumers expectedly respond negatively to reports of bed bugs, and they are sensitive to the number of reports of bed bugs. Through consumer Willingness to Pay for a hotel room, we quantify the negative impact of reports of bed bugs on the hotel industry through lost room premium. Expectedly, avoiding bed bugs is more valuable among those who worry more about bed bugs, but prior knowledge and experience have no effect. How explicitly the reports of bed bugs are disclosed to travellers affects their reaction and Willingness to Pay greatly.     

桑叶配方颗粒物质基准研究

桑叶配方颗粒迄今尚没有统一的质量标准。为提升桑叶配方颗粒的内在质量,对其物质基准评价方法进行了研究。选取具有代表性产地的15批桑叶制备物质基准,采用高效液相色谱法,以芦丁、异槲皮苷、紫云英苷作为评价指标,确定桑叶物质基准的出膏率范围、标志性成分含量及转移率范围,采用超高效液相色谱法,建立物质基准UPLC特征图谱,并对其主要成分进行指认。结果表明:15批物质基准中,芦丁转移率为19.94%～34.05%,异槲皮苷转移率为11.67%～43.58%,紫云英苷转移率为10.73%～43.05%;物质基准特征图谱中,标定了14个共有峰,指认出7个色谱峰,分别为新绿原酸、绿原酸、咖啡酸、芦丁、异槲皮苷、槲皮素-3-O-(6″-O-丙二酰基)-β-D-葡萄糖苷、紫云英苷。所建立的基准评价方法为桑叶配方颗粒质量标准的制定及其后续大规模生产提供了数据基础。     

Customer reactions to self-checkout discontinuance

Self-service technologies (SSTs) increasingly permeate retail space. Yet, sometimes retailers decide to revert to human-delivered service mode by discontinuing their incumbent SST. In this study, we examine how self-checkout (SCO) discontinuance affects customers’ perceptions of SCO technology and purchase behavior. We conduct a natural field experiment by surveying two groups of customers pre- and post- SCO discontinuance: treatment group (who experience discontinuance) and control group (who do not experience discontinuance). Leveraging difference-in-differences analyses, we find that SCO discontinuance results in decreases in customers’ satisfaction with technology, intentions to use technology, perceived simplicity of technology, and basket size. Our results inform managers of the potential downsides of discontinuing SST and provide corroborating evidence of the technology’s benefits.     

Factors affecting classroom participation and how participation leads to a better learning

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we analyze various course- and student-related factors that affect participation grades within several college accounting classes. The second purpose is to determine whether in-class participation grades have an effect on exam performance in these classes. We find that, unlike in liberal arts and sciences courses, in accounting courses, participation grades for female students do not differ from participation grades for their male counterparts, regardless of class level. Overall, course level and student major have no direct effect on participation grades; however, the accounting majors and students in the lower level courses have better attendance than do non-accounting majors and students in more advanced courses. We observe that class schedule, in particular class duration and semester, affects students’ participation performance. Lastly, we find that students who participate more in classroom discussions perform 25% better on exams than do those with lower participation grades. This relationship holds for the three elements of participation grading: frequency of participation, consistency of participation, and attendance.