Judging quality by price,snob appeal,and the new consumer theory

Conclusion The analysis contained in this paper has served two purposes. First, it has demonstrated the richness of the new consumer theory by showing how this new approach can incorporate the questions of judging quality by price and price-snob appeal. And second, the paper has derived analytically the conditions under which these phenomena will yield a positively sloping demand curve in a two-commodity, two-attribute world.In traditional theory the consumer's response to a change in the price of a good is conceptually divided into an income effect and a substitution effect. The new approach to consumer theory partitions the consumer's response differently, namely, into an efficiency substitution and a utility substitution. When a general price attribute is introduced each of these divisions retains its individual validity. The conclusion that the efficiency substitution is always non-positive also remains valid. But, the traditional substitution effect may now be positive and of sufficient magnitude to make theentire response to an own-price changepositive,x _i /p _i >0. We have shown analytically, then, as the verbal discussions of traditional consumer theory lead us to believe, that judgment of quality by price and price-snob appeal can result in positively sloped demand curves.The research described in this paper was supported in part by the Econometric Research Program at Princeton University. The authors would like to thank Professors W. J. Baumol, O. Morgenstern, and R. E. Quandt, Messrs. F. D. Gately and R. J. Sweeney, and other members of the Seminar on Research in Progress, Department of Economics, Princeton University, for their helpful comments and suggestions. Of course, any errors that may remain are solely our responsibility.     

Statistics on food and agriculture in China

During a recent visit to the People's Republic of China, the author was able to observe the way in which information about food production is collected and used. This article describes the statistical system operating in the Chinese countryside and compares it with methods of collecting agricultural statistics used in some countries in Africa.     

Barriers to Innovation: Intraorganizational Dislocations

In this editorial PERSPECTIVE, Roger More asks that researchers and managers address explicitly some of the barriers to innovation that we build into the innovation process by the way we organize and manage new product development. He calls these barriers "dislocations" and suggests that they need to be recognized explicitly and addressed by a fundamental restructuring of our human systems.     

Labour intelligence and industrial relations policy 1886–1914*

This article examines the contribution of labour intelligence to the policy-making process during a formative period of modern British industrial relations. It concludes that the experience of 1886–1914 has important lessons for current policy-makers in the use of labour intelligence.     

The maturation of the science of media selection

The historical development of models in the field of media scheduling is traced. The models are identified as to which have dominated certain stages of development over the last twenty five years. A general discussion is also provided of the less sophisticated models of the preceding period. Overall, the evolution is described in terms of the development of a science to maturity. This paper was invited and has not been subject to our blind review process.     

The nature and extent of the market for soybeans and soybean products

Summary This paper addresses the question of whether soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil produced in the United States and exported were part of a single, world geographic market during the decade of the 1980s. An answer to this question is sought using an approach to defining a geographic market based on the notion of instantaneous causality. The empirical results, based on prices for soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil for three spatially diffuse locations, suggest that there was but a single identifiable world market for these commodities over the period of study.The authors are with the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the views of other U.S. Department of Agriculture staff members. Senior authorship is not assigned. The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions.