Preference Learning in Consecutive Experimental Auctions

This paper explores the origins of the strikingly high price premia paid for new food products in lab valuation exercises. Our experimental design distinguishes between two explanations of this phenomenon: novelty of the experimental experience versus the novelty of the good, i.e., preference learning—bids reflect a person's desire to learn how an unfamiliar good fits into their preference set. Subjects bid in four consecutive experimental auctions for three goods that vary in familiarity, candy bars, mangos, and irradiated meat. Our results suggest that preference learning is the main source of the high premia, and that novelty of the experimental experience does not in itself artificially inflate valuations.     

Posted Prices and Bid Affiliation: Evidence from Experimental Auctions

In most experimental auctions, researchers ask participants to bid on the same item in multiple potentially binding rounds, posting the price submitted by the top bidder or bidders after each of those rounds. If bids submitted in later rounds are affiliated with posted prices from earlier rounds, this practice could result in biased value estimates. In this article, we discuss the results of an experiment designed explicitly to test whether posted prices affect bidding behavior. We find that for familiar items, high posted prices lead to increased bids in subsequent rounds. Our results have implications for researchers conducting experimental auctions.     

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.     

Willingness to Pay versus Expected Consumption Value in Vickrey Auctions for New Experience Goods

Over the past two decades, Vickrey auctions have been widely used to elicit willingness to pay for new food products. This article shows that in a multiperiod context, it can be optimal for consumers to bid higher than the expected consumption value for a new experience good to obtain information about how the new good fits into their preference set. The degree of uncertainty about the consumption value, the purchasing frequency, and expected future market prices affect both the expected value of the quality information and the subgame perfect bidding strategy in Vickrey auctions for new experience goods.     

Buyer Collusion and Efficiency of Government Intervention in Wheat Markets in Northern India: An Asymmetric Structural Auctions Analysis

This article uses auction theory to analyze wholesale markets for wheat in Northern India. This approach enables us to characterize the market in terms of buyer asymmetries, to detect the existence of collusion, and to quantify its impact on market prices. We show that buyer asymmetries exacerbate the downward impact of collusion on prices. The article also considers whether the government paid too much for the wheat it procured at the minimum support price, and shows that for our sample it did not. The article is based on a primary survey of two wholesale markets in North India.     

European Consumers' Willingness to Pay for U.S. Beef in Experimental Auction Markets

Consumers' willingness to pay for Irish, Norwegian, U.S. hormone-free, and U.S. hormone-treated beef was studied in an experimental auction market. We ran four simultaneous second-price auctions to elicit efficiently the complete distribution of willingness to pay differences among our four alternatives. Most participants preferred domestic to imported beef, and half the participants preferred Irish to U.S. hormone-free beef. Hormone-treated beef received the lowest mean bid, but 28% of the participants were indifferent or preferred U.S. hormone-treated to U.S. hormone-free beef.     

The Usefulness of Experimental Auctions in Determining Consumers' Willingness-to-Pay for Quality-Differentiated Products

The validity and effectiveness of using experimental auctions to elicit consumers' willingness-to-pay for closely related, quality-differentiated products is examined. The effect of panelists' demographics on bid values and auction winners, and the impact of experimental procedures on auction prices are analyzed. Demographic variables are poor predictors of bids and auction winners. Experimental procedures such as panel size and initial endowment influence market price level. Relative bid differences for paired samples are primarily influenced by relative differences in taste panel ratings. Relative willingness-to-pay values elicited through experimental auctions appear valid, while actual willingness-to-pay values are influenced by experimental design.     

Comparative Advantage in Demand: Experimental Evidence of Preferences for Genetically Modified Food in the United States and European Union

The United States (US) exports more than US$6 billion in agricultural commodities to the European Union(EU) each year, but one issue carries the potential to diminish this trade: use of biotechnology in food production. The EU has adopted more stringent policies towards biotechnology than the US. Understanding differences in European and American policies towards genetically modified (GM) foods requires a greater understanding of consumers’ attitudes and preferences. This paper reports results from the first large‐scale, cross‐Atlantic study to analyse consumer demand for genetically modified food in a non‐hypothetical market environment. We strongly reject the frequent if convenient assumption in trade theory that consumer preferences are identical across countries: the median level of compensation demanded by English and French consumers to consume a GM food is found to be more than twice that in any of the US locations. Results have important implications for trade theory, which typically focuses on differences in specialization, comparative advantage and factor endowments across countries, and for on‐going trade disputes at the World Trade Organization.     

基于资源禀赋和经济发展区域分异的中国新增建设 用地指标分配研究

研究目的:新增建设用地指标合理分配是实现建设用地总量控制和减量化,建立节约集约用地激励和约束机制的重要途径之一。本文考虑资源禀赋和经济发展区域分异,构建包括人口、二三产增加值、固定资产投资、耕地保有量、建设用地可拓展空间的新增建设用地计划下达指标分配体系,并结合区域建设用地经济增长贡献率分配城乡建设用地增减挂钩折抵指标,为全国新增建设用地指标分配提供方法参考。研究方法:综合评价法、经济计量法和对比分析法。研究结果:(1)基于经济发展阶段和资源禀赋差异构建新增建设用地计划下达指标分配体系,既考虑社会经济发展的用地需求,又兼顾区域资源禀赋的供给约束,评价体系更为全面;(2)考虑不同区域建设用地对经济增长的贡献,分配城乡建设用地增减挂钩折抵指标,优化了新增建设用地供给结构,能够兼顾资源配置的效率。研究结论:本文为新增建设用地指标分配提供了更为科学的方法。     

Role of credence and health information in determining US consumers' willingness-to-pay for grass-finished beef

Consumer demand for forage- or grass-finished beef is rapidly emerging in the US. This research uses data elicited from consumer surveys and experimental auctions to provide insight on product attributes (taste/flavour, credence and nutritional characteristics) and socio-demographic factors that are most important in determining US consumers' preferences and willingness to pay premiums for grass-finished versus grain-finished beef. Information related to beef production processes increased the probability consumers would be willing to pay a premium for grass-fed beef. However, it appears that health-related messages are more important drivers of willingness-to-pay, on average, than the absence of antibiotics and supplemental hormones and traceability. Labelling information regarding grass-fed beef's nutritional content and related production processes is vital for maintaining and growing premium niche markets for grass-fed beef in the US. The relative size of the willingness to pay estimates compared to previous cost estimates suggest that the Australian beef industry may have a comparative advantage for finishing beef on forage and marketing premium grass-fed differentiated beef products in the US market.     

不同试验磨对小麦制粉品质和小麦粉品质特性的影响

对目前我国常用的15台由5个不同厂家生产的试验磨所制得的小麦粉品质状况进行了初步研究。结果表明:不同性能试验磨制粉对小麦的制粉品质和面团流变学特性都会产生一定的影响,尤其是对破损淀粉和小麦粉颗粒度以及表征面团筋力强弱的粉质稳定性参数和吹泡特征参数的影响较大;破损淀粉含量与粉质吸水率和稳定性都有极显著的正相关关系,与馒头品质评分相关性显著,有可能成为小麦试验制粉品质的评价指标之一,用于对试验制粉操作进行评定,但是具体评价方法尚需要深入研究。     

Experimental Auction Procedure: Impact on Valuation of Quality Differentiated Goods

Despite increased use of experimental auctions, a myriad of different procedures are being employed without formal consideration of how the procedures might affect results. This study investigates the effect of several procedural issues on valuation estimates from experimental auctions. Results indicate the second price auction generates higher valuations than English, Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) , and random n th price auctions, especially in latter bidding rounds, and that random n th price auction yields lower valuations than English and BDM auctions. We find that endowing subjects with a good prior to eliciting bids can have an impact on valuations, but the effect varies across auction mechanism.     

Effect of Experimental Design on Choice-Based Conjoint Valuation Estimates

In this article, we investigate the effect of several commonly used experimental designs on willingness-to-pay in a Monte Carlo environment where true utility parameters are known. All experimental designs considered in this study generated unbiased valuation estimates. However, random designs or designs that explicitly incorporated attribute interactions generated more precise valuation estimates than main effects only designs. A key result of our analysis is that a large sample size can substitute for a poor experimental design. Overall, our results indicate that certain steps can be taken to achieve a manageably sized experimental design without sacrificing the credibility of welfare estimates.     

The Australian experience in using tenders for conservation

Over the past 15 years Australia has been trialling conservation tenders and other market based instrument approaches to generate environmental outcomes, particularly on private lands. The best known of these is the BushTender auction for vegetation protection in Victoria, begun in the early 2000s. Subsequently, nearly 100 other tenders for biodiversity protection have been run in Australia with substantial variations in application and methodology generated by a mix of both intended design and case study differences. The number of separate conservation tenders that have been performed, and the variations in environmental targets, state jurisdictions, case study circumstances, design and implementation, provides a rich data base of projects for analysis – unique at the international level.The review section of the paper covers three broad areas. The first aim is to provide an overview of the various tenders and their history and design in different settings. The second is to review their application, particularly in relation to auction design, metric design and contract design aspects, while the third is to identify the extent to which tenders provided more cost-effective outcomes than alternatives such a fixed rate grants. An additional goal is to explain why, after so many trials, conservation tenders are not more widely used in Australia. Key conclusions are that the multiple trials show that tenders are robust, relatively simple to apply and deliver more cost-effective allocations of public funding than other grant mechanisms. The reasons for their limited use can be related more to political and bureaucratic forces and inertia rather than to economic and design limitations.     

体系与效果的辨证——民国时期江宁实验县乡村合作运动运作效果考析

为了改善农村金融、复兴农村经济,江宁实验县引入了合作运动,并为此建立了一套比较完备的合作体系,成为合作运动的运行基础,然而体系完备并不意味着就能达到它的预设目标,主观预设和客观效果之间必然存在一定的差异,因为这场运动所能达到的实际效果不仅取决于运动推广者的主观努力,也受制于当时客观的时代环境。作为一场经济运动,江宁的乡村合作运动在客观上还是取得了一定的社会经济效果,但从总体上来看,其效果又是有限的,乡村社会经济并未因此而发生太大的结构性变动。     

Market Performance of Potato Auctions in Bhutan

Abstract

Market performance with respect to a main horticultural export commodity in Bhutan is the subject of this paper. Imperfections in (market) infrastructure and market structure and conduct may prevent an optimal price for farmers. Market performance is assessed by testing the law of one price for this commodity. This is done by testing three series of auction price data on both long-run and short-run price integration. It is concluded that for the period 1996-2000 the auction prices were interrelated both in the long and short run with one of the three auctions as the price-leading market. In contrast, in the period 2001-2005 the market arbitrage process slowed down, indicating the rise of market imperfections. Policy implications are suggested.     

黑龙江省养老保险制度特点和存在问题的探讨

从2004年起,黑龙江省进行了社会养老保险制度的改革。改革后的新制度较之旧制度虽然更加科学,但依然存在着一些不可忽视的问题。这些问题主要体现在社会养老保险覆盖面不广,保险费收缴困难,个人账户空账问题严重等方面。这些问题大都是在全国范围内特别是在地质勘查行业内普遍存在的,但在黑龙江地区又有其特殊的地方性原因。     

The Impact of E‐Auctions in Adjusting Procurement Strategies for Specialty Coffee

Supply relationships and e‐auctions are complementary procurement forms that specialty coffee roasters can utilize when designing a procurement strategy. We model the roaster's optimal choice of procurement strategies using an extended newsvendor model. By comparing the optimal strategies in a benchmark case solely based on relationships to a case in which auctions can be utilized, we derive the impact of e‐auctions on the procurement quantity and profit under conditions of demand uncertainty. The two‐stage model predicts that the adjustment of procurement using e‐auctions is most beneficial under market circumstances of high demand variability and small firm size. We use industry data to illustrate the market conditions for specialty coffee and discuss the potential impact of e‐auctions on procurement strategies for specialty coffee based on our model. The theoretical propositions in conjunction with current industry data suggest that e‐auctions have great potential to become an integral part of and shape roasters’ procurement approaches in the specialty coffee market. Les ententes avec les fournisseurs et les enchèress électroniques sont des moyens complémentaires que les torréfacteurs de café de spécialité peuvent utiliser pour élaborer une stratégie d’approvisionnement. Nous avons modélisé les stratégies d’approvisionnement optimales des torréfacteurs à l’aide d’un modèle étendu du marchand de journaux. En comparant les stratégies optimales d’un cas fondé uniquement sur les relations avec les fournisseurs avec celles d’un cas où des enchères ont pu être utilisées, nous avons calculé l’impact des enchères électroniques sur la quantité des approvisionnements et les profits en présence d’incertitude de la demande. Selon le modèle à deux étapes, l’ajustement des approvisionnements à l’aide des enchères électroniques est plus bénéfique lorsque la variabilité de la demande est forte et la taille de l’entreprise est petite. Nous avons utilisé des données de l’industrie pour illustrer les conditions du marché du café de spécialité et avons examiné, à l’aide de notre modèle, l’impact potentiel des enchères électroniques sur les stratégies d’approvisionnement de café de spécialité. Les propositions théoriques combinées avec les données de l’industrie actuelles autorisent à penser que les enchères électroniques pourraient très bien modifier l’approche d’approvisionnement des torréfacteurs sur le marché du café de spécialité et en devenir partie intégrante.     

广州市土地利用效益评价

土地利用效益的评价一般具有模糊性。本文利用协调度函数，以量化方式评价土地利用效益的变化趋势。     

资源禀赋、经营方式与农户林地流入行为

基于2016年7~8月南方集体林区福建省三明、南平、龙岩地区512个样本农户的微观抽样调查数据,运用Probit模型分析林地转入户资源禀赋、经营方式对其林地流入行为的影响,并通过平均边际效应测其影响程度。结果表明:第一,资源禀赋中林地面积、林业劳动力数量、社会关系均正向显著影响农户林地流入行为,家庭总收入负向显著影响农户林地流入行为;第二,经营方式中营林形式、单位面积资金投入对其林地流入行为均有显著正向影响。鉴于此,为了更好地实现"森林资源增长"和"农户增收"双重目标,在集体林权制度改革中,政府应通过加快林地流转交易平台建设、鼓励"联户经营+集约化"经营方式、培育中青年林业经营主体及引导木材市场价格健康有序发展等方式来推进林地流转进程。