Consumers’ Appreciation of Regional Certification Labels: A Pan‐European Study

Successful regional products, such as Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes and Parma ham, often have to compete against products passing themselves off as the authentic product using the exact same name. This unfair competition misleads consumers, discourages small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from marketing products based on their region of origin, and may end up hurting rural economies. To protect consumers, and support SMEs and rural economies, many countries around the world have introduced regulations enabling SMEs to legally protect the names of their regional products. The success of these regulations largely depends on consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels that inform consumers that the name of the regional product is protected and that it denotes the authentic product. To gain an understanding about consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels, this paper investigates consumers’ image of these labels and proposes a model that relates this image to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for protected regional products. The model is tested based on Regulation No. 2081/92 that was introduced by the EEC allowing European SMEs to protect their regional products and market their products with a protected‐designation‐of‐origin (PDO) label. Structural equation modelling results suggest that consumers’ image of regional certification labels consists of a quality warranty dimension and an economic support dimension, which positively relate to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for the protected regional product. Protecting regional products and marketing them with regional certification labels may be beneficial for SMEs producing and marketing regional products. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.     

A Case Study in the Marketing of Wolf-Friendly Beef

This study examines an effort in New Mexico to establish a niche within the domestic beef market. The beef was marketed under environmental attributes with the slogan Wolf-Friendly. Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, endorsed the management practices of the ranch producing the beef. A kick-off event for the Wolf-Friendly Beef was held at the Albuquerque Zoo at the onset of the market test. Two retail grocery stores and the zoo participated in a month-long market test. A survey was conducted at the zoo kick-off to determine participants' views on public land use, riparian protection, and predator preservation issues, and consumer willingness to pay for beef products that foster these environmental attributes. Sales and survey data from the market test were analyzed.     

Consumer Demand For Butter, Margarine and Blends: The Role of Purchase and Household Characteristics

A U.S. household panel is used to estimate a model of household purchases of butter, margarine and butter/margarine blends. The econometric model accounts for the discrete purchase decisions process and the censored nature of disaggregated commodity demand. Observed market prices are "quality" adjusted for the three commodities investigated based on household and purchase characteristics. Over 90% of the reaction to a price change is found to occur with respect to the decision whether or not to consume.     

Measuring Perceived Performance of the Food System and Consumer Food‐Related Welfare

The paper explores the use of multi‐item summated scales for the measurement of the perceived performance of the food system and of an index to measure consumer food‐related welfare. Scales are developed that encompass a range of factors that influence the welfare consumers derive from food, including food safety, convenience, ethical issues, health and nutrition, taste and cost. These scales are applied to a national sample of food consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom. On the basis of the survey results, there is evidence that the scales are both reliable and valid measures of the perceived performance of the food system in both countries. An index of consumer food‐related welfare is developed that weights the various performance measures according to respondents' measure of importance. Survey respondents judge that the food system is not performing particularly well in either country. Although more work is required on the use of summated multi‐item scales for this purpose, the results suggest that this is a potentially useful approach that provides relevant information on the impact of different elements of the food system on consumer welfare.     

Agricultural and Economy‐Wide Effects of European Enlargement: Modelling the Common Agricultural Policy

The economic impact of extending the Common Agricultural Policy to the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) has become a major issue in the European enlargement debate. This paper provides an assessment of the economy‐wide effects of European enlargement using a global general equilibrium model where special attention is given to modelling the instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Agenda 2000 proposal and the EU budget. The results indicate a substantial potential for increasing agricultural production in the CEEC. The EU budget will increase significantly and the transfers from EU taxpayers to farmers in the CEEC result in significant welfare gains in the new member countries. In spite of these important transfers the macroeconomic costs for the EU are found to be limited.     

On the Segregation of Genetically Modified,Conventional and Organic Products in European Agriculture: A Multi‐market Equilibrium Analysis

Evaluating the possible benefits of the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops must address the issue of consumer resistance as well as the complex regulation that has ensued. In the European Union (EU), this regulation envisions the co‐existence of GM food with conventional and quality‐enhanced products, mandates the labelling and traceability of GM products and allows only a stringent adventitious presence of GM content in other products. All these elements are brought together within a partial equilibrium model of the EU agricultural food sector. The model comprises conventional, GM and organic food. Demand is modelled in a novel fashion, whereby organic and conventional products are treated as horizontally differentiated but GM products are vertically differentiated (weakly inferior) relative to conventional ones. Supply accounts explicitly for the land constraint at the sector level and for the need for additional resources to produce organic food. Model calibration and simulation allow insights into the qualitative and quantitative effects of the large‐scale introduction of GM products in the EU market. We find that the introduction of GM food reduces overall EU welfare, mostly because of the associated need for costly segregation of non‐GM products, but the producers of quality‐enhanced products actually benefit.     

Time‐varying Hedge Ratios: A Principal‐agent Approach

We use the classic agency model to derive a time‐varying optimal hedge ratio for low‐frequency time‐series data: the type of data used by crop farmers when deciding about production and about their hedging strategy. Rooted in the classic agency framework, the proposed hedge ratio reflects the context of both the crop farmer's decision and the crop farmer's contractual relationships in the marketing channel. An empirical illustration of the Dutch ware potato sector and its futures market in Amsterdam over the period 1971–2003 reveals that the time‐varying optimal hedge ratio decreased from 0.34 in 1971 to 0.24 in 2003. The hedging effectiveness, according to this ratio, is 39%. These estimates conform better with farmers’ interest in using futures contracts for hedging purposes than the much higher estimates obtained when price risk minimisation is the only objective considered.     

An Econometric Model of the Colombian Beef Sector: 1950–1970

Recent theoretical and empirical studies of beef cattle producers by Barros, Jarvis, Nores, Reutlinger, and Yver have focused on producers' supply response assuming cattle represent consumption goods and capital goods. To differentiate producer price response for cattle sold as consumption goods and cattle retained as capital goods requires data on herd and slaughter age-sex structure. This has limited the range of econometric work which could be carried out in many developing countries. This study utilizes a time series of the Colombian cattle herd which was recently constructed by Rivas and Valdes and which has the necessary age-sex and slaughter data to develop a complete system of structural equations representing the simultaneous determination of demand and supply for Colombian cattle over the 1950–1970 period.     

Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Locally Produced Ground Beef: A Case Study of the Rural Northern Great Plains

This study examined consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for locally produced ground beef with an emphasis on the impacts of product attributes and the heterogeneity caused by rural consumers’ characteristics. We applied the choice-based conjoint technique to analyze data collected from a typical rural town in the Northern Great Plains. The results indicate that location associated product brand differences and leanness were dominant components affecting consumers’ WTP. The premium of locally produced ground beef for consumers with a close tie to local production is $0.48/lb. Cut difference, grass-fed, and organic were trivial factors in determining consumers’ WTP.     

异质性信息对消费者购买意向的影响：以转基因大米为例

消费者对转基因食品的购买意向无论是对转基因食品商业化的可行性,还是对经济主体的决策,都具有重要影响。本文构建了一个信息如何影响消费者对转基因食品态度的分析框架,并基于2018年江苏省城市居民调查数据,采用多值Logit模型,估计了由3类信息发布主体、不同偏向的信息内容组成的异质性信息对消费者购买转基因大米意向的影响。调查结果显示,正反两方面信息均会明显降低消费者对转基因大米的购买意向,其中,负面信息的影响更为显著。实证结果表明,消费者对生物技术研发机构、转基因生物安全管理部门或转基因技术专家的信任能够显著提升他们购买转基因大米的意向,但消费者对环保组织的信任能够显著降低他们购买转基因大米的意向。此外,信息更容易影响初始意向为愿意购买或不清楚的消费者;初始意向为不愿意购买的消费者更容易坚持原始态度。     

On the Consumer Value of Complementarity: A Benefit Function Approach

The article develops a conceptual model of the consumer value of complementarity and illustrates its usefulness in an application to fisheries. Complementarity arises when some goods have a positive effect on the marginal value of other goods. We propose a measurement of the value of complementarity based on the benefit function. Our econometric analysis of fish consumption in Italy examines these issues, with special attention given to dynamics. Our results show that, while short-run fish demand is characterized by substitution relationships, complementarity does develop in the intermediate run and in the long run.     

Estimating the Implicit Prices of Beef Cattle Attributes: A Case from Alberta

Pressures on beef producers to provide lean beef of consistent quality have been mounting in recent years. Yet this requires beef breeders to alter and broaden cattle improvement objectives to include carcass merit traits. They need information on heritability and the values associated with genetic traits in order to effectively do this. This study estimates the implicit prices in east‐central Alberta, Canada, for bull attributes using a hedonic pricing model. The results indicate that the most important bull attributes to buyers (breeders) in this region are sale weight, birth weight and scrotal circumference. Also important are ribeye area and average daily gain. Selection of these attributes conforms with expectations because they are moderately to highly heritable and are associated with improved fertility and reproduction, reduced production costs and higher returns. In addition, the results suggest that breeders have been changing selection emphasis away from reproduction traits and toward carcass traits associated with improved production efficiency and consumer demand. Depuis quelques années, les producteurs subissent des pressions grandissantes pour fournir du b?uf maigre de qualité uniforme. Ces pressions contraignent les éleveurs à modifier et àélargir leurs objectifs d'hybridation en y incluant les caractères génétiques qui codent les paramètres de la carcasse. Pour y arriver, les éleveurs ont besoin de renseignements sur l'héritabilité et la valeur des caractères en question. Dans cet article, le prix implicite des attributs des taureaux dans le centre‐est de l'Alberta est estimé selon un modèle hédoniste. Les attributs les plus importants pour les acheteurs (éleveurs) de la région sont le poids à la vente, le poids à la mise bas et la circonférence du scrotum. Comptent aussi pour beaucoup la surface du faux‐filet et le gain quotidien moyen. La sélection de tels attributs est conforme aux prévisions, car il s'agit de caractères très héréditaires qu'on relie à une fertilité accrue et de meilleures aptitudes à la reproduction, done à une réduction des coûts d'élevage et à un rendement plus élevé. Par ailleurs, les résultats de l'analyse laissent croire que les éleveurs ont réorienté leurs programmes de sélection, laissant de côté les aptitudes à la reproduction pour les paramètres de la carcasse associés à un meilleure productivité et à la demande des consommateurs.     

Innovation and University‐Firm R&D Collaboration in the European Food and Drink Industry

In the National Innovation System (NIS), knowledge is produced and accumulated through interactive innovation processes that are embedded in a national context, which in turn may help determine innovation. This paper investigates how product and process innovations in the European food and drink industry are affected by: (i) NIS structure; (ii) NIS output in terms of scientific publications and the supply of graduates; (iii) NIS cohesion and coordination; (iv) NIS scientific impact and specialisation. The main source of data on innovation by firms is the EU‐EFIGE/Bruegel‐UniCredit dataset. This is supplemented by information from the International Handbook of Universities, Eurostat and a bibliometric analysis of academic research output. Our results suggest that large research institutions in the public sector may well be detrimental to interaction between university and industry and to process innovation. The indicators used for public research assessment are not necessarily the most appropriate proxies of local knowledge spillovers.     

江苏林农对杨树苗购买环节密切协作的意愿研究

本文以江苏省杨树产业为例，通过对林农的实地调查资料，集中分析了杨树苗购买环节林农的纵向协作形式选择行为，发现农户树苗主要通过市场购入，面临很大的苗质风险，因而对树苗品质最为关注。通过对林农参与集体合作采购方式的意愿及影响因素研究后发现，农户有积极的参加意愿，并受到户主的年龄、户主受教育程度、树苗品质、树苗价格、供应商声誉、距离远近和家庭中是否有人从事非农职业等因素的影响。     

影响农户购买农业保险决策因素的实证分析--以新疆玛纳斯河流域为例

本文以新疆玛纳斯河流域部分团场和乡镇棉农为对象,采用概率单位模型(ProbitModel)对影响其购买棉花保险行为的因素进行实证分析。研究表明,农户对农业保险的需求主要受农业生产风险的大小、棉花专业化生产程度、总耕地面积、户主务农时间长短等因素的影响。通过实证分析,探讨了农户水平上影响农业保险需求的各因素,为将来推行农业保险制度提供了科学依据。     

Report of the Editor‐in‐Chief

Submissions to the Journal have increased again and continue a strong international pattern. Our response times continue to meet our targets, with regrettable exceptions, for which our apologies. The JAE's citation impact factor has recovered to 1.8 in 2016 with current indications that our 2017 score will be similar. Wiley continue to provide a strong publishing platform with our full archive generating a continuing increase in the number of downloads.     

Report of the Editor‐in‐Chief

The year 2010 saw a substantial increase in submissions to the Journal, which show an increasingly international pattern, though with no corresponding increase in accepted papers. Response times continue to meet our target of four months, with fewer regrettable lapses, though with some increase in mean time to decision from 2009. The JAE’s citation impact factor has slipped a little to 1.15 in 2009, though we retain second place in the peer group ranking. Wiley‐Blackwell continues to provide a strong publishing platform with the full archive of JAE papers now on line.     

基于消费者认知失调的安全认证农产品选择行为研究

消费者对安全认证农产品的自述偏好与现实选择的不一致性表现为消费者的认知失调现象,认知失调程度越高的个体采取措施缓解认知失调情绪的动力就越强烈,因此深入探究消费者认知失调后对安全认证农产品的行为选择构成了本文的研究起点.本文基于江苏省和安徽省840份实地调研数据,结合认知失调理论和理性行为理论,运用二元Lo-gistic...