Assessing Public Priorities for Experiment Station Research: Contingent Value and Public Preferences for Agricultural Research

Laws concerning government accountability mandate that agencies weigh constituent interests in setting priorities. This study extends literature on the value of research by considering the public's stated preferences for scientist-effort allocated across an Agricultural Experiment Station's research portfolio. Over 75% of respondents expressed a willingness-to-pay exceeding $20 per household for allocations of at least 139 scientist-months. The mean household is willing to pay about $25 for a 25% increase in effort. Marginal analysis identifies topic areas where an additional scientist-month provides above- or below-average benefits. The distribution of effort across research topics significantly affects respondents' values.     

Consumer Benefits of Labels and Bans on GM Foods—Choice Experiments with Swedish Consumers

The European Union has been relatively cautious about using biotechnology in food production. A label regime combined with the right of individual member states to ban introduction of new genetically modified (GM) strains means that GM food products in effect are banned in many countries. We show how it is possible to empirically test whether a ban can be motivated by reference to potential negative externalities. This is followed up by results from a choice experiment. We cannot reject the hypothesis of equal WTP for a ban and a labeling scheme.     

Books Reviewed

Books reviewed:
Singer, S. Fred. Hot Talk Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate
Hogg, Dominic, ed. Technological Change in Agriculture: Locking in to Genetic Uniformity
Ingersent, Ken A., and A. J. Rayner. Agricultural Policy in Western Europe and the United States
Smil, Vaclav. Feeding the World: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century
Yang, Yongzheng and Tian, Weiming, eds. China's Agriculture at the Crossroad
Lal, Deepak. Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance
Opschoor, J(Hans). B., Kenneth Button, and Peter Nijkamp, eds. Environmental Economics and Development
Hamilton, James T., and W. Kip Viscusi. Calculating Risks? The Spatial and Political Dimensions of Hazardous Waste Policy     

Modeling Recreation Site Choice: Do Hypothetical Choices Reflect Actual Behavior?

We examine the ability of revealed preference (RP), site-specific stated preference (SP), transferred SP, and joint RP–SP models to predict aggregate and individual recreation site choice in a holdout sample. For two statistical comparisons, the RP model provided the most accurate predictions of individual choices. However, the transferred SP model, applied directly or estimated jointly with the RP data, performed best in three aggregate and one individual prediction test. These findings suggest that data from well-designed and conducted SP surveys from one site can be combined with site-specific RP data from another site to generate improved models of recreation site choice.     

A Cautionary Note on Designing Discrete Choice Experiments: A Comment on Lusk and Norwood's Effect of Experiment Design on Choice-Based Conjoint Valuation Estimates

Recent Monte Carlo work on choosing experimental designs for discrete choice experiments seemed to greatly simplify this choice for applied researchers. It suggested that ( a ) commonly used designs can generate unbiased estimates for indirect utility function specifications with main effects only and main effects plus higher order terms, and ( b ) random designs are more efficient than main effects designs. We show that these results are very specific to the particular indirect utility specifications studied and do not generalize well. We further show that conclusions drawn concerning random designs are problematic and potentially dangerous for applied researchers.     

Consumer willingness to pay for farm animal welfare: mobile abattoirs versus transportation to slaughter

Consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for certainnon-market food process attributes were investigated using achoice experiment. Swedish consumers were found to be willingto pay a price premium for the use of mobile abattoirs for cattlebut not for broilers. We used two different survey versions,with and without an opt-out alternative. There is no evidencethat omission of the opt-out alternative leads to biased choices.In addition, respondents who chose to opt-out were no differentfrom those making trade-offs between attributes. The inclusionof an opt-out alternative has no significant effect on the marginalWTP. Based on estimated distributions of WTP and available costestimates, the market share for mobile abattoirs is predicted.Here we do find differences between the two survey versions:the version with an opt-out alternative revealed greater unobservedheterogeneity.     

Serial Nonparticipation in Repeated Discrete Choice Models

We consider alternative econometric strategies for addressing serial nonparticipation, that is, repeated choice of the same alternative or same type of alternative across a series of choice occasions, in data typically analyzed within the repeated discrete choice framework. Single and double hurdle variants of the repeated discrete choice model are developed and applied to choice experiment and multisite seasonal recreation demand data. Our results suggest that hurdle models can generate significant improvements in statistical fit and qualitatively different policy implications, particularly in choice experiment applications where the proper treatment of serial nonparticipation is relatively more ambiguous.     

Effects of Label Information on Consumer Willingness-to-Pay for Food Attributes

Choice experiments (CEs) are often used to elicit consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food attributes. A concern about these approaches is that food attributes provided to respondents are assumed independent of attributes not provided. We use surveys containing a series of CEs to investigate effects of adding beef steak attributes. WTP for important attributes in the CEs decrease when the number of attributes increases from three to four, while WTP increases when the number of attributes increases from four to five. Changes in WTP for attributes depend on their relationships with newly added attributes and the number of attributes presented.     

Comparing Open-Ended Choice Experiments and Experimental Auctions: An Application to Golden Rice

We use two experimental valuation methods to estimate consumer demand for genetically modified golden rice. The first is an open-ended choice experiment (OECE) where participants name the quantities of golden rice and conventional rice demanded at each of several price combinations, one of which will be randomly chosen as binding. This allows us to estimate market demand by aggregating demand across participants. This estimate of market demand also allows us to estimate own-price elasticity and consumer surplus for golden rice. Comparing willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates from the OECE with those from a uniform-price auction, we find that OECE WTP estimates exhibit less affiliation across rounds, and the effects of positive and negative information under the OECE are more consistent with prior expectations and existing studies. We also find that, while auction WTP estimates more than double across five rounds, OECE WTP estimates are stable across rounds and are always roughly equal to those from the final auction round.     

地理标志使用对农户农地质量提升行为影响研究 ——基于市场激励的中介效应分析

研究目的：探索地理标志使用对农户农地质量提升行为的影响及其作用机理,以期为中国实施农地质量提升行动提供参考。研究方法：基于层级回归法的中介效应分析。研究结果：（1）地理标志使用对农户的农地质量提升行为有显著的促进作用;（2）市场激励在地理标志使用对农户农地质量提升行为影响中有显著的中介效应;（3）相较于短期生产性技术,农户采纳长期保护性农地质量提升技术更多来自于地理标志溢价的市场激励作用。研究结论：应当充分发挥农产品地理标志溢价的市场激励作用,促使农户主动参与农地质量提升行动,推动农户转变生产方式,实现农业经济与环境的协调发展。     

房地产市场有效性研究综述

研究目的:综述房地产市场有效性的研究成果。研究方法:文献回顾法、归纳法。研究结论:有效性是市场研究的重要内容。自从市场有效性概念提出后,尤其是Fama将市场有效性分为三类后,关于市场有效性的实证检验渐多。但主要是集中在对金融市场有效性的研究上。国外对房地产市场有效性的研究主要是从投资角度进行的,研究主要集中在两个方面:一是对采用数据的研究;二是对某一市场的有效性进行检验。国内对市场有效性的研究历史很短,主要是运用已有的方法对中国资本市场有效性的研究。对房地产市场有效性的研究,多半将重点放在规范性研究上,主要集中在制度完善和发展趋势的定性研究上,对房地产市场有效性达到什么程度还没有正面的定量研究。     

Contractual choice and food safety strategy: Empirical findings in the Italian poultry sector

Analysis of contract choice is related here to the contracting nature of hybrid governance structures. First, recent research results on the organization of food safety supply are summarized and some remarks about contracting are proposed, providing the theoretical premises of the study. The approach of empirical analysis is concerned with transactions between farmers and processors in Italian poultry supply chains. The contract arrangement is classified as a hybrid structure, and growers' preferences regarding contract terms are analysed by a choice experiment. Final remarks take into account the role of contract attributes in ensuring the degree of food safety, and give a tentative organizational explanation of the degree of safety supplied. Potential lines of future research are mentioned.