Australian consumer attitudes to health claim – food product compatibility for functional foods

This study with Australian consumers investigated how appealing different health claims combined with particular food carriers were to Australian consumers, and compared the results of a similar study with Dutch consumers. 149 shoppers considered up to 30 different food concepts, rating how ‘attractive’, ‘believable’, and ‘new and different’ they found each concept and their ‘intention to try’. Each variable was significantly related to intention to try (p < 0.001) and together explained 56% of the intention score. Claims and carriers independently had a significant effect on ratings of attractiveness and intention to try but, unlike the Dutch study, the carrier was a more important predictor of intention to purchase than the claim. Implications for regulation of health claims for food are discussed.     

SOLUTION OF SPATIAL TRADING SYSTEMS WITH CONCAVE CUBIC PROGRAMMING*

Standard spatial equilibrium activity analysis models, as developed by Takayama and Judge (1971), are based on linear supply and demand functions and fixed input-output coefficients. Such models are suitable for multiple market level trading systems where the fixed input-output coefficients are appropriate. A primal-dual price form of these models is developed in which the assumption of constant per unit costs of transformation is relaxed. In the case when the average cost curves of transformation are quadratic in nature the problem becomes one that will be termed cubic programming (that is, a cubic objective function and linear and/or quadratic constraints) which is solved in a concave region of the solution space. In the paper, the formulation of a simplified spatial equilibrium model with quadratic average costs of transformation is presented and solved. A discussion of possible applications of such a model is also presented.     

PRICE-LINKED FARM AND SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELS

The integration of detailed farm supply models with the basic spatial equilibrium model, is outlined. The direct linking of farm linear programming models with the spatial equilibrium model is achieved so that both prices and quantities are endogenous. Both the farm model and the spatial equilibrium model must be specified in primal-dual form to make the linkages. Limited details of the use of such a model in a study of a segment of the grain handling system in New South Wales are presented along with conclusions relating to the pricing of grain handling services.     

Demand for food in Myanmar (Burma)

Aggregate quarterly time series data from 1975 to 1987 on government procurement prices and open (black) market prices were used in estimating an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) and double-log models for consumption of foodstuffs in Myanmar. The results from the AIDS model were superior to those from the double-log models. The estimated income elasticity of demand for non-meat foodstuffs was high, even for low-quality rice, which has been shown to be an inferior good in other Asian countries. The income elasticities for the non-cereals (groundnut oil, sesame oil, pulses, potato and onion) are positive and less than one. Contrary to expectation, the income elasticities for all meat items are low. Own-price elasticities for most foodstuffs were less than one. The estimated cross-price elasticities indicate the complementary nature of the basic food items to rice. A brief analysis of the effects of taxing Myanmarese rice exports and subsidising consumers indicated that there are net costs to government, unevenly distributed welfare gains to consumers and welfare losses to farmers.     

NONPRICE RATIONING OF AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BY TWO TRADING BANKS

The non price mechanism used by the trading banks to ration credit among farmers was studied using a survey designed along the lines of a factorial experiment. Of the farmer characteristics studied, managerial ability emerged as being most important in affecting the amount a farmer could borrow. Banking history and, to a lesser extent, security were also influential. However, the research indicated that there is great variability in the amounts that individual bank managers are prepared to lend.