Does oligopsony power matter in price support policy design? Empirical evidence from the Thai Jasmine rice market

In the oligopsony market, farmers may receive low prices and policy analysis assuming perfect competition can yield serious bias results. In this paper, we estimate oligopsony power between processors and farmers and evaluate the welfare impact of the paddy pledging program (PPP), a generous price support program in the Thai Jasmine rice market, with an imperfect competition model. We develop a model that consists of rice supply equation and derived demand equation. We then simultaneously estimate these equations using system estimation methods to recover oligopsony power parameters. Finally, we use these parameters to assess the welfare impact of the price support program. Using annual panel data running from crop marketing year 2001/2002–2015/2016 and exploiting the institutional feature of the PPP, we find strong evidence of some oligopsony power, a moderate level of oligopsony price distortion, and a negative relationship between price support and oligopsony power. We also find that the PPP is inefficient but effective in income redistribution. Moreover, the program benefits both farmers and consumers. With better policymaking decisions, the PPP can be efficient by setting a suitable support price. Therefore, our results show that in the case of the Thai Jasmine rice market, the generally accepted “wisdom” about agricultural price support policy does not necessarily hold, and price support can be designed to improve the efficiency of the market.     

‘An Incomplete Contract Approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance’ – Commitment vs. Flexibility

In this paper, we take an incomplete contract approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance between the European Commission (EC) and any heavily debt member state, Greece in particular. Incomplete contract approach makes possible to put a long process of Eurozone Fiscal Governance into an extensive form game in which a renegotiation procedure is incorporated. We theoretically reveal the conflict of interests between the EC (Germany) and Greece over the Greek debt repayment plan proposed in 2015. We show that the Greek’s position is consistent with incomplete contract theory, but that the EC (Germany) does not allow the renegotiation for restructuring for growth-oriented debt repayment program proposed by the Greek government because the EC (Germany) judges that the commitment effect (on fiscal austerity) is greater than the flexibility one (pro-growth effect). This will undoubtedly provide a novel and interesting approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance.     

Defect Detection Using Unanimous Vote Among Mahalanobis Classifiers for Each Color Component

In manufacturing industries, product inspection is automated and the use of image data is increasingly being employed for defect detection. A manufacturing company in Japan produces an item and inspects the produced products using image data. Reducing the error rate is important in product inspection because poor inspection of products might lead to the delivery of defective products to consumers (consumer’s risk) and strict inspection increases production cost (producer’s risk). To reduce the error rate, we highlighted fault points using a two-dimensional moving range filter and discriminated defect production through a unanimous vote among Mahalanobis classifiers for each color component. For results, we achieved a lower error rate than the current system. This research is an empirical study of how to use image data in defect detection.     

Evaluating Industrial Relations Systems of OECD Countries from 1993 to 2005: A Two‐Dimensional Approach

This article uses both cross‐sectional and longitudinal methods to evaluate the national industrial relations systems of 30 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1993 to 2005. We adopt a pluralistic view of industrial relations that gives equal weight to efficiency and equity, along with a general systems model consisting of input, process and output. We rank each country in terms of a combined score of efficiency and equity. We find that the 30 OECD countries can be separated into three distinct groups (high on both equity and efficiency; high on efficiency but low on equity; moderate on equity and low on efficiency), and that these groups exhibit considerable stability over time.     

Relationship between the curriculum system and the understanding of nutritional terms in elementary school children

To clarify the relation between the curriculum system and the understanding of nutrition terms, 944 students aged 8–12 years living in Japan, the USA and the UK, were asked about the recognition, medium for recognition, and understanding of nutrition terms. The effect of nutrition education from an early stage in elementary schools in the UK and the USA was confirmed. These results suggest the possibility of beginning nutrition education earlier in the elementary school in Japan. American students had paid attention to food labels. These results showed that a learning and teaching strategy founded on comprehensively based subjects in the USA had influenced good behaviour for dietary life. On the other hand, there was not a relationship between an understanding of nutrition terms and a developmental stage. Many students in three countries were influenced by television commercials to buy candy or soda. We think that it is important to develop a curriculum that includes practical learning and ensures hours of teaching for the purpose of acquirement of nutritional knowledge. It is also necessary to encourage critical thinking skills to evaluate television commercial messages through school lessons.     

Disaster‐Relief Logistics With Limited Fuel Supply

Disaster‐relief logistics consists of providing adequate emergency supplies rapidly to the affected people so as to minimize human suffering and death. This study empirically examines the impact that the shortage of fuel, a commonly encountered problem in many disaster situations, can have on the effectiveness of disaster‐relief logistics operations. We focus on investigating the following two issues: (1) whether the shortage of fuel is more damaging in attaining logistical goals than the equivalent‐sized shortage in emergency supplies themselves, and (2) what types of vehicles should be used when the fuel supply is limited. Results suggest that the shortage of fuel may be more damaging than the shortage of emergency supplies, and that smaller trucks may be preferred to larger trucks when the shortage of fuel becomes severe.     

Optimal tracking for asset allocation with fixed and proportional transaction costs

This paper studies the asset allocation problem of optimally tracking a target mix of asset categories when there are transaction costs. We consider the trading strategy for an investor who is trying to minimize both fixed and proportional transaction costs while simultaneously minimizing the tracking error with respect to a specified, target asset mix. We use imupulse control theory in a continuous-time, dynamic setting to deal with this problem in a general and analytical way, showing that the optimal trading strategy can be characterized in terms of a quasi-variational inequality. We derive an explicit solution for the two-asset case, and we use this to provide a sensitivity analysis, showing how the optimal strategy depends upon individual input parameters. We also use some theory for one-dimensional diffusion processes to derive analytical expressions for various measures of performance such as the average time between transactions.     

Cost-effectiveness of omalizumab add-on to standard-of-care therapy in patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma in a Brazilian healthcare setting

Objective: Omalizumab add-on to standard-of-care therapy has proven to be efficacious in severe asthma patients for whom exacerbations cannot be controlled otherwise. Moreover, evidence from different healthcare settings suggests reduced healthcare resource utilization with omalizumab. Based on these findings, this study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the addition of omalizumab to standard-of-care therapy in patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma in a Brazilian healthcare setting.

Methods: A previously published Markov model was adapted using Brazil-specific unit costs to compare the costs and outcomes of the addition of omalizumab to standard-of-care therapy vs standard-of-care therapy alone. Model inputs were largely based on the eXpeRience study. Costs and health outcomes were calculated for lifetime-years and were annually discounted at 5%. Both one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results: An additional cost of R$280,400 for 5.20 additional quality-adjusted life-years was estimated with the addition of omalizumab to standard-of-care therapy, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of R$53,890. One-way sensitivity analysis indicated that discount rates, standard-of-care therapy exacerbation rates, and exacerbation-related mortality rates had the largest impact on incremental cost-effectiveness ratios.

Limitations: Assumptions of lifetime treatment adherence and rate of future exacerbations, independent of previous events, might affect the findings. The lack of Brazilian patients in the eXpeRience study may affect the findings, although sample size and baseline characteristics suggest that the modeled population closely resembles Brazilian severe allergic asthma patients.

Conclusion: Results indicate that omalizumab as an add-on therapy is more cost-effective than standard-of-care therapy alone for Brazilian patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma, based on the World Health Organization’s cost-effectiveness threshold of up to 3-times the gross domestic product.