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.     

An Empirical Analysis of and Policy Recommendations to Improve the Nutritional Quality of School Meals

The National School Lunch Program is not meeting its nutritional goals. Data for 330 Minnesota school districts are analyzed to derive recommendations for improving the nutritional quality of school lunches. This study finds, contrary to widely held views, that lunch sales do not decline when healthier meals with less fat, for example, are served and that more nutritious lunches do not necessarily cost more. Healthier meals have higher labor costs, but lower costs for processed foods. Indirect costs, paid by the food service to the school district, negatively affect meal quality by decreasing funds to upgrade kitchens and train staff to prepare more nutritious meals.     

新中国70年的农村养老保障:历史演进与现实困境

基于制度变迁和福利文化的相关理论,本文对我国农村养老保障70年的历史演进与现实困境进行了讨论。分析表明,70年来,我国农村养老保障体系主要经历了"传统家庭养老-集体养老-新型家庭养老-社会化养老"等四个阶段的演化过程。尽管我国养老保障体系的"二元"架构具备一定的历史合理性,但农村养老保障产品长期供给不足,引致养老保障体系的运行成本持续增长,进行城乡统筹的所谓"转轨"成本较高。市场化参与力量相对缺失,农村养老保障的多元主体供给体系难以构建。由于可能存在的"小农意识"和短视行为以及关于养老保险产品的悲观预期,农民群体的主动参与意愿相对不足,引致这一群体广泛参与的可持续的农村养老保障体系并未有效构建。     

Agricultural policy reform in the United States: an unfinished agenda

The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) contained important breaks with a tradition of crop–by–crop subsidies dating back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. Farmers with recorded base acres were given the opportunity (which nearly all accepted) to sign a seven–year 'contract' with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), under which payments will be continued on the merged base acres on a declining schedule until the year 2002. FAIR is an unfinished agenda. First, the coverage of 'freedom to farm' is only partial, with numerous commodities left out of the decoupling programme. Second, the largest producers will augment their already significant receipts with generous lump sum transfers from USDA. This will further reinforce the concentration of roughly 90 per cent of receipts and payments in the hands of the 100 000 to 200 000 largest producers of field crops. An alternative would be to make payments in times of low marketing receipts which recede when prices are high.     

Ex-post Analysis of the TeliaSonera-Chess 2005 Merger

De Economist - We provide an ex-post analysis of the 2005 TeliaSonera-Chess merger in the Norwegian mobile telecommunication market. Applying a difference-in-difference approach and a synthetic...     

American agricultural assistance and the new international economic order

Combining ethical, political and economic elements, this paper studies the relationship between American food aid and agricultural assistance and the evolution of demands made by developing countries for a new international economic order. The ethical viewpoint is based on John Rawls' theory of ‘distributive justice’ and argues that the ‘Right to Food Resolution’ does not meet the developing countries' calls for redistribution. After analysing the political and economic differences in outlook of the developed and developing countries, it is concluded that the conduct of American agricultural assistance policies towards the developing countries has failed to appreciate the needs expressed in their demands for a new order.