Market and Cost Structure in the U.S. Beef Packing Industry: A Plant-Level Analysis

A resurgence of consolidation in the U.S. meat packing industry in the past few decades has stimulated academic and policy debate. Issues raised include the role of cost economies in driving these patterns, and the effects on the agricultural sector (cattle producers) from market power. Here, plant level cost and revenue data for U.S. beef packing plants are used to estimate a cost-based model incorporating cattle- and output-market pricing behavior. The robust results indicate little market power exploitation in either the cattle input or beef output markets, and that any apparent evidence is counteracted by cost efficiencies such as utilization and scope economies.     

关于工业用地“招拍挂”的研究

本文简要分析了当前工业用地中存在的主要问题和实行工业用地“招拍挂”的意义,对实行工业用地“招拍挂”中应解决的几个关键性问题,以及实行工业用地“招拍挂”的制度建设和技术条件进行了重点剖析,在此基础上对开展工业用地“招拍挂”工作提出建议。     

“限地价,竞配建”土地出让方式的理论分析与实证研究

研究目的:对中国土地市场中新兴的"限地价,竞配建"挂牌方式进行研究,并与"定配建,竞地价"招标方式相对比。研究方法:建立有限价的两阶段拍卖和封闭式拍卖模型,分析开发商和地方政府的最优策略。研究结果:(1)在限制拍卖起始价的前提下,结合"溢价率超50%需上报"的规定,"限地价,竞配建"方式可有效控制地价并促进保障房的开发;(2)"限地价,竞配建"挂牌方式可通过相应的招标方式实现,但并不同于"定配建,竞地价"的招标方式。研究结论:"限地价,竞配建"挂牌方式和"定配建,竞地价"招标方式是促进保障房建设的重要手段。地方政府若希望落实保障房建设,挂牌方式更好;若希望降低地价,招标方式更好。     

Slotting Allowances as a Facilitating Practice by Food Processors in Wholesale Grocery Markets: Profitability and Welfare Effects

Slotting allowances, which are lump-sum transfers paid by food manufacturers to grocery retailers in return for various retail concessions, are becoming increasingly common in wholesale grocery markets. This article extends the literature on slotting allowances by considering two features that previously have been ignored: the role of food processors in determining these pricing arrangements, and the effect of slotting allowances on the size and distribution of economic surplus. Slotting allowances motivated by food processors increase procurement quantities and farm prices, and this raises farm surplus, increases total producer surplus, and improves consumer welfare in the food system.     

Nonparametric Estimation of Oligopsony Power in First‐Price Auction

This paper proposes a nonparametric procedure to estimate market power for first‐price auction data and applies the procedure to cattle procurement markets. Most previous studies have used parametric methods, which require specific functional forms for retail demand, input supply and processors’ cost equations. However, researchers often find that market power estimates from parametric methods are sensitive to the choice of functional forms and specifications. An application to data from cattle procurement experiments shows that our nonparametric approach greatly outperforms commonly used parametric methods in estimating the degree of market power. While parametric estimates are sensitive to functional form specification and are at least 90% smaller than ‘true’ market power indices, estimates from our nonparametric procedure deviate from the actual value by no more than 25%.     

Water markets in Australia: an experimental analysis of alternative market mechanisms

Formal water markets in Australia began as uniform price open call markets. As water markets in Australia continue to expand and mature, water managers are introducing double auction water markets, believing that such markets will produce more efficient outcomes. It is therefore timely and policy relevant to explore the relative merits of the two auction mechanisms in context. To date, experimental comparisons of these auction mechanisms have been based on balanced, single unit designs with defined buyers and sellers. However, many resource markets involve trade in multiple unit, often thin, double auction markets. This paper questions whether a multiple unit double auction performs as well as the more traditional open multiple unit call auction in a series of thin water market experiments.     

杭州市土地招标出让博弈实证分析

在土地使用权出让3种方式中,招标是富有良性竞争的一种方式.以杭州市为实例结合博弈论建立的土地使用权招标出让不完全信息静态博弈模型,通过对博弈均衡的分析指出土地招标出让时投标人越多,越有利于充分实现土地价值;同时城市与城市之间以及大城市内部不同片区之间竞相出让土地的博弈结果,导致土地供给总量过大、土地价格下跌、土地资源浪费、土地效益降低,故土地出让宜采用束放策略.     

Time-varying Armington elasticity and country-of-origin bias: from the dynamic perspective of the Japanese demand for beef imports

Elasticities of substitution, often called Armington elasticities, reflect incomplete substitutability because of perceived product characteristics. This study divides the determinants of the Japanese demand for beef imports into two factors: (i) substitution elasticity and (ii) country-of-origin bias, and demonstrate how these measurements are associated with trade policy and food scare events. The Japanese beef industry serves as a case study to evaluate the multifold impact of import liberalisation and a series of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreaks. A time-varying parameter model is used to shed light on the dynamic effects of the import liberalisation and BSE outbreaks on the measurements. The estimation results reveal that the estimated substitutability and country-of-origin bias are very sensitive to the BSE cases, but not to the process of trade liberalisation. The results also confirm that as a result of the BSE outbreaks, the major factor of the Japanese demand for beef imports has changed from relative prices to the country-of-origin effect, thereby emphasising the importance of a traceability system and promotional activities, which would help in the formation of the country-of-origin effect.     

Shared Agents and Competition in Laboratory English Auctions

At livestock auctions, the same purchasing agent can represent more than one processor. Repeated multiple-unit English auctions are created in a laboratory to measure the impact of shared agents on trade prices under alternative treatments with six, and as few as two, agents representing six principals. Treatments are constructed in which the agents either know or do not know quantity for sale, and in which there are progressively fewer agents bidding. Knowledge of quantity for sale can be anticompetitive. Evolution toward increased market concentration leads to consistent anticompetitive pricing, resulting in prices significantly lower than the predicted competitive equilibrium prices.     

Valuing traceability of imported beef in Korea: an experimental auction approach*

The major objective of this study is to estimate Korean food shoppers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for imported beef with traceability. We use an experimental elicitation method, the random nth price auction, to identify consumers’ valuation for traceable imported beef. We also analyse the effect of different types of information on these valuations. Results indicate that consumers are generally willing to pay a 39 per cent premium for the traceable imported beef over similar beef without traceability. Results also suggest that in contrast to the insignificant effect of positive information, negative and two‐sided information about traceability significantly reduces WTP.     

对随机性复合标底法投标报价策略的研究

基于博弈论中的混合战略纳什均衡,采用概率理论和数值分析理论研究随机性复合标底法中最优投标报价,利用二次多项式等效非线性函数,给出连续型随机性复合标底法下最优报价的解析计算式,对于离散型随机性复合标底法可采用连续型等效,也可采用枚举法结合Matlab编程求解,通过工程实际竞标案例,验证该理论具有极好的工程实际应用价值。     

1999年度我院自然科学基金项目中标率高的几点思考

国家自然科学基金申报是科学性与艺术性高度结合的创造性劳动。高中标率背后离不开高效务实的科技管理。思想重视、措施得力、主攻目标明确,迎来了我院 1999年基金项目申报的大丰收。     

基于信号博弈的土地使用权出让中围标“蜜罐”行为的分析

研究目的:依据土地使用权招标出让活动的特征,构建围标"蜜罐"行为的动态贝叶斯博弈模型,找出促使均衡结果合理化的因素变化差异和关系。研究方法:信号博弈。研究结果:(1)由分开均衡的求解可知,在土地使用权招标中,当招标人看到投标人报低价时将检查,看到投标人报高价时则不检查;投标人围标时将选择报低价,不围标时将报高价。(2)由合并均衡求解可知,无论投标人围标与否,投标人报低价时,此博弈有两个完美贝叶斯均衡。研究结论:为遏止投标人进行围标合谋这一"吃蜜罐"的行为,要增加围标成本、合理控制检查成本、降低投标人预期收益和完善惩罚形式、加大惩罚力度。     

集约用地呼唤土地资源市场配置

研究目的:探讨土地资源市场配置对土地集约利用的重要作用。研究方法:政策分析法。研究结果:从微观经济角度来讲,集约利用土地是企业经营中的生产要素组合问题。只有企业经营者根据各种要素的相对价格自主决策才能确定最佳要素组合方式。政府只能通过土地价格来影响、促使企业做出节约土地的要素组合决策。从宏观经济角度上讲,集约用地的标志是要最大限度地提高土地利用效率,实现土地资源在产业部门间、企业间、地域间和区位上的优化配置,而要达此目标,离不开开放、竞争、统一、有序的要素市场。研究结论:现行的行政一计划配置制度不能实现土地资源优化配置。为集约利用土地,提高社会总体的土地利用效率,需要尽快转变土地资源计划配置为市场配置,同时在市场配置的基础上建立有效的国家宏观管理体系。     

The effects of housing preference for an apartment on residential location choice in Seoul: A random bidding land use simulation approach

This study evaluates the impact of medium- and high-income households’ preference for apartments on residential location choice by constructing a random utility-based land use simulation model of the Seoul metropolitan area. The simulation results imply that apartment preference of medium- and high-income groups would have contributed to providing more apartment units (about 14.2% of total apartment units supplied), more housing units in the suburbs (61,000 more housing units in the suburbs), and higher apartment rent premiums in wealthy communities than the assumed housing market under the counterfactual scenario in terms of housing type, location, and rents.     

Demand for Beef from Cattle Administered Growth Hormones or Fed Genetically Modified Corn: A Comparison of Consumers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States

We compare consumer valuations of beef ribeye steaks from cattle produced without growth hormones or genetically modified corn in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results suggest that French consumers place a higher value on beef from cattle that have not been administered added growth hormones than U.S. consumers; however, valuations of non-hormone-treated beef are statistically indistinguishable across Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results also suggest that European consumers place a much higher value on beef from cattle that have not been fed genetically modified corn than U.S. consumers.     

Optimisation and the selection of conservation contracts*

This paper explores alternative techniques for the selection of conservation contracts under competitive tendering programs. Under these programs, purchasing decisions are often based on the benefits score and cost for proposed projects. The optimisation problem is to maximise the aggregate benefits without exceeding the budget. Because the budget rarely permits all projects to be funded, there is a binary choice problem, known in the operations research published work as a knapsack problem. The decision‐maker must choose which projects are funded and which are not. Under some circumstances, the knapsack problem can be unsolvable because computational complexity increases exponentially with the number of projects. This paper explores the use of several decision rules for solving the optimisation problem including the use of advanced meta‐heuristics. It is shown that commonly applied techniques for project selection may not be providing the optimal solution. Improved algorithms can increase the environmental programs benefits and staying within budget. The comparison of algorithms is based on real data from the Western Australian Conservation Auction.     

行政配置与市场配置：基于城乡统筹背景之下的宅基地使用权制度研究

研究目的：探讨源于中国推进工业化目的的宅基地使用权制度在城镇化中演化的特征和原因。研究方法：历史研究法、法和经济学与产权博弈论。研究结果：近年来行政配置取向的宅基地使用权制度得到固化和强化,既是由于中央政府基于耕地保护的政策目的,也是由于这种宅基地使用权制度能让地方政府获得城镇化收益。但是,随着城乡人口流动和城镇化持续推进,使得农村地区的宅基地利用越来越需要市场配置取向。研究结论：当前阶段推进市场配置取向代替行政配置取向,可以结合区域特点实施双轨化配置。     

南水北调中线水市场机制的实验研究

南水北调工程的复杂性要求其水资源配置应适度利用价格杠杆等利益调节机制,遵循政府宏观调控与市场机制相结合的原则。以中线工程为例,采用实验经济学方法,对基于国情和水情的、改进的水市场双向竞价机制进行实验研究,并根据实验案例及结果分析提出几点建议,供南水北调水资源管理制度设计参考。