Cost-effectiveness of beef slaughterhouse decontamination measures in the Netherlands

The cost-effectiveness of seven decontamination measures to reduce Escherichia coli O157:H7 (VTEC)-contaminated carcass quarters in a typical Dutch dairy-beef industrial slaughterhouse were explored. To estimate the effectiveness a stochastic epidemiological-simulation model was used and to estimate the net cost a deterministic-economic model. The estimated baseline prevalence of daily-contaminated quarters was 9.16% (with a 90% confidence interval 4.40-13.10%). A reduction in the prevalence of VTEC-contaminated quarters to 2% using decontamination measures is achieved at costs of €0.20 to €0.50 per quarter, which is 16-40% of the net profit per carcass. A reduction to a prevalence of 1% will cost €0.50-€1.00 per quarter. Additional carcass trim and carcass steam-pasteurization are considered as the most cost-effective decontamination measures with costs of €16,340 and €20,243 per year to achieve a 1% prevalence reduction. Nevertheless, the lowest level of VTEC prevalence, less than 1%, is achieved using a set of measures that costs between €1.00 and €2.00 per quarter or, by implementing irradiation, which costs €4.65 per quarter.     

How Economists Form Their Views: Reaction to Professor Pryor's Millennium Survey

This comment is in response to Frederic L. Pryor (2000). "The Millennium Survey: How Economists View the U.S. Economy in the 21^st Century." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 59 (January), pp. 3-33.     

Local contexts as activation mechanisms of market development: contemporary art in emerging markets

The paper studies how local contexts contribute to the emergence of markets. In particular, it explains how potential entrepreneurs are motivated to become active in establishing new markets. Empirically, the focus is on contemporary art markets in two emerging countries: India and Russia. The paper draws upon qualitative interviews with 65 contemporary art dealers conducted in New Delhi, Mumbai, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We show how different socio-cultural contexts function as activation mechanisms: in India, family backgrounds predominantly structure the decision-making processes, among others through the economic, social and cultural capital which these families provide. In Russia, by contrast, such family background is non-existent. Instead, the socio-economic turmoil of 1990s and 2000s as well as the strong involvement of the state function as activation mechanisms. We suggest that these different activation mechanisms contribute to explaining the diverging market performance in both countries.     

The Changing Relationship Between Economic Sociology and Institutional Economics

A bstract In his early work. Talcott Parsons severely criticized Old Institutional Economists like Thorstein Veblen and Clarence Ayres. Parsons'main objection was that institutional economics had a misconceived view on the scope of economics: institutions, being the embodiment of values, were the proper subject of sociology rather than economics. By arguing for a clear-cut division of labor between economics and sociology. Parsons legitimated the divide between the two disciplines that came into being in the years to follow. Recently however, the relationship between economic-sociology and institutional economics has changed dramatically. New Economic Sociology (advocated by scholars like Mark Granovetter and Richard Swedberig) rejects the division of labor proposed by Parsons. By-providing substitutes rather than just complements to economics, it tries to counter economic imperialism. This creates significant similarities between New Economic Sociology, Old Institutional Economics and the recent return of institutionalism in economic theory. However, the quest for a division of labor between economics and sociology remains unfinished.