Exploring costs and benefits of compliance with HACCP regulation in the European meat and dairy sectors

A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Program was introduced as a mandatory measure in the EU in the 1990s. Despite its impact on the food industry, only limited literature addresses the issue of cost and benefits of HACCP at the firm level in Europe. This paper illustrates the results of a pilot study on case studies in Italy, UK and The Netherlands, providing a first assessment of the order of magnitude of costs of compliance and a qualitative illustration of the main benefits perceived by producers.     

Consumer Welfare and the Loss Induced by Withholding Information: The Case of BSE in Italy

The paper develops a measure of consumer welfare losses associated with withholding information about a possible link between BSE and vCJD. The Cost of Ignorance (COI) is measured by comparing the utility of the informed choice with the utility of the uninformed choice, under conditions of improved information. Unlike previous work that is largely based on a single equation demand model, the measure is obtained retrieving a cost function from a dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System. The estimated perceived loss for Italian consumers due to delayed information ranges from 12 percent to 54 percent of total meat expenditure, depending on the month assumed to embody correct beliefs about the safety level of beef.     

The effect of family welfare support on the likelihood of having another child and parents’ labor supply

Governments have recently attempted to reverse the below-replacement fertility rates in Europe by reducing child-rearing costs through child benefits, grants and paid leaves. This article examines the causal effect of family allowances on the likelihood of having another child, and on the extensive and intensive margins of labor supply. Evidence from Switzerland suggests that higher child benefits incentivize parents to have more children but do not affect their employment choice. The effect is larger for low-income families. These findings imply that policies aimed at improving the economic well-being of families are likely to increase fertility rates without distorting labor market outcomes.     

Informal ties in organizations: a case study

Network techniques are applied to a case study. The results show that using a joint approach can help in giving further insight into the analysis of informal ties in an organization. Special emphasis is given to centrality. The concept of mutual awareness, both on an individual and a global levels, is introduced and illustrated.     

When customers disappoint: A model of relational internal marketing and customer complaints

The objective of this study is to examine internal marketing relationships and their influence on salesperson attitudes and behaviors in retail store environments. The authors investigate the moderating role of customer complaining behavior on the nature of these relationships. Specifically, they examine the relationship between organization-employee and supervisor-employee relationships and their association with salesperson job motivation and commitment to customer service. Customer complaints are expected to have differential moderating effects on the relationship between organizational and supervisory support and these salesperson outcomes. Our hypotheses were tested using a sample of 392 retail employees within 115 stores of a national retail organization. The model was partially supported. Theoretical and managerial implications are explored.     

Book Review

The authors present a simple diagrammatic exposition of a pollution-permit market in which both firms that generate pollution and consumers who are harmed by pollution are allowed to purchase permits at a single market price. They show that the market equilibrium is efficient if and only if the endowment of permits is equal to the efficient level of pollution. Furthermore, if consumers actually participate in the market, then the equilibrium is not efficient. Welfare can be improved by decreasing the endowment of permits and thereby pricing consumers out of the market.     

How “green” are North American hotels? An exploration of low-cost adoption practices

This study analyzed the so-called “green,” or environmentally friendly, practices of American hotels. As such, it examined how green hotels in the United States are regarding no-cost or low-cost practices. Respondents included 166 hotels, which were identified through a random sample of hotels from the American Hotel & Lodging Association and included chain and independent properties as well as properties of various sizes (based on the number of rooms). The study findings show that chain hotels were at the time of the study stronger adopters of green practices than independent hotels were, likely due to leveraging economies of scale through uniform corporate practices. In addition, hotels in the Midwest were found to be the most environmentally friendly in terms of their use of no-cost or low-cost green practices. Additional results indicated that size (classified by number of rooms) had little effect on the extent to which hotels were trying to manage energy consumption.     

Regional Differentiation and Farm Exit: A Hierarchical Model for Tuscany

We analyse the exit behaviour of Tuscan farms during the period 2000–2007 both at the farm and the territorial level. The study combines data from the 2000 National Census of Agriculture and three waves of the ‘Farm Structure Surveys’. The exit probability of the resulting sample, composed of 3,187 farms, is estimated through a Bayesian hierarchical probit model. Our results show that exits reflect the size and type of holdings. Likelihood of exit is higher in areas of higher population density that are not classified as ‘urban’ areas.