Detecting Asymmetric Price Transmission with Consistent Threshold along the Fish Supply Chain

The present study deals with asymmetric price transmission (APT) along the fish value chain by using a consistent threshold autoregressive (consistent TAR and momentum‐threshold autoregressive [M‐TAR]) model. A nonzero threshold captures strategic behaviors and adjustment costs that are not observable with small price changes around a zero threshold. Fish farming, because of greater control over supply, is expected to produce less asymmetry than wild harvesting. Asymmetry is notwithstanding found for both wild cod and farmed salmon marketed in France, but only with consistent thresholds and operating in opposite ways. The results are discussed with regard to the trade restrictions imposed by the Common Fisheries Policy. Cet article traite de l’asymétrie de transmission des prix (ATP) dans la filière des produits de la mer en utilisant un modèle autorégressif à effet de seuil (consistent TAR et M‐TAR). Un seuil non nul permet de révéler certains comportements stratégiques et des coûts fixes d’ajustement qui ne seraient pas observables sur de faibles variations de prix autour d’un seuil nul. On s’attend à ce que l’aquaculture, en vertu d’un degré de contrôle supérieur sur l’offre, engendre une plus faible asymétrie comparativement à la production halieutique. Une asymétrie de transmission est néanmoins observée à la fois dans le cas du cabillaud sauvage et du saumon d’élevage commercialisés en France, mais uniquement à partir de seuils endogènes et l’ATP agissant en sens opposé. Les résultats sont commentés au regard des restrictions commerciales imposés par la Politique Commune des Pêches européenne.     

Creating the right customer experience online: The influence of culture

The effective role of experiential marketing in the differentiation of brands has been documented in both traditional and online services. The digital context of e-retailing makes it both a suitable platform for experiential consumption and an easily accessible shopping method across cultures. In spite of this, investigation of the impacts of cultural differences on the desire for experiential benefits has been very limited in the e-retailing literature. Using Hofstede's (2001) cultural dimensions, this article studies how two student samples of North American and Chinese customers react differently to the experiential values offered on the websites of e-retailing services. The findings support our hypotheses and suggest that offering experiential values on a company's website is more influential for North American than for Chinese customers. More specifically, the influences of experiential values on site involvement and customers' patronage intentions are stronger for North Americans than for Chinese visitors. On the other hand, the impacts of site involvement on site attitudes and the influence of site attitudes on patronage intentions are stronger for Chinese compared with North American customers.     

Fewer Fish for Higher Profits? Price Response and Economic Incentives in Global Tuna Fisheries Management

This paper evaluates industry-wide economic incentives arising from changes in product prices in an industry exploiting a common renewable resource (tropical tunas) that is regulated via output limits. Changes in prices alter economic incentives by affecting revenues, profits, conservation, and nonmarket public benefits. Economic incentives in industries exploiting common resources have been examined from multiple angles. However, industry level variation in market prices arising from changes in public regulation has not been explored. We analyse the impact on economic incentives due to changes in output limits and market prices through estimation of ex-vessel price and scale flexibilities for imported skipjack and yellowfin in Thailand’s cannery market. The unitary scale flexibility, estimated from the General Synthetic Inverse Demand Systems, indicates no loss in revenue and even potential profit increases resulting from lower harvest levels that could arise from lower catch limits. However, for a revenue neutral or positive outcome to be achieved, the three inter-governmental tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, which manage the majority of the yellowfin and skipjack tuna in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, would have to coordinate multilaterally to set the catch limits for both species.     

Bernoulli speculator and trading strategy risk

In a continuous‐time model of a complete information economy, we examine the case of a “pure” speculator who chooses to trade only on forward or futures contracts written on interest‐rate‐sensitive instruments. Assuming logarithmic utility, we assess whether his strategy exhibits the same structure as when he uses primitive assets only. It turns out that when interest rates follow stochastic processes, as in the model of Heath, Jarrow, and Morton (1992), where the instantaneous forward rate is driven by an arbitrary number of factors, the speculative trading strategy involving forwards exhibits an extra term vis‐a‐vis the one using futures or primitive assets. This extra term, different from a Merton–Breeden dynamic hedge, is novel and can be interpreted as a hedge against an “endogenous risk,” namely the interest‐rate risk brought about by the optimal trading strategy itself. Thus, only the strategy using futures (or the cash assets themselves) involves a single speculative term, even for the Bernoulli speculator. This result illustrates another major aspect of the marking to market feature that differentiates futures and forwards, and thus has some bearing on the issue of the optimal design of financial contracts. Real financial markets being, in fact, incomplete, the additional “endogenous” risk associated with forwards cannot be hedged perfectly. Since using futures eliminates the latter, risk‐averse agents will find them attractive in relation to forward contracts, other things being equal. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20: 507–523, 2000     

Does Agricultural Productivity Actually Matter for Food Security in a Landlocked Sub‐Saharan African Country? The Case of Burkina Faso

This paper makes use of a Computable General Equilibrium model to analyze the impact of two agricultural productivity trends on poor households’ food security in Burkina Faso: a negative trend that could arise from many different factors, including land degradation, climate change, and harmful agricultural practices; and a positive trend which may result from enhanced public investment in agriculture, notably in research and development, extension, irrigation, rural roads, rural electrification, and rural education. The results point to a high sensitivity of the poor's consumption to agricultural productivity as well as to stronger impacts on the urban poor than on the rural poor. The current situation is already characterized by severe food insecurity, such that a decline in agricultural productivity is likely to further plunge the urban poor into a deep food crisis. By contrast, positive agricultural productivity trends may help alleviate poverty and food insecurity. Agricultural productivity may indeed affect the poor's food consumption mainly through large changes in agricultural prices and real incomes. Cet article utilise un modèle d’Équilibre Général Calculable pour analyser l'impact des différentes tendances de la productivité agricole sur la sécurité alimentaire des ménages pauvres au Burkina Faso. D'une part, les tendances négatives peuvent résulter de plusieurs facteurs, y compris la dégradation des terres, le changement climatique, et les pratiques agricoles nuisibles. D'autre part, la tendance positive peut résulter de l'investissement public accru dans l'agriculture, notamment dans la recherche et développement, la vulgarisation, l'irrigation, les routes rurales, l′électrification rurale et l′éducation rurale. Les résultats montrent une sensibilité élevée de la consommation des pauvres à la productivité agricole, ainsi que des impacts plus forts sur les populations urbaines pauvres. La situation actuelle est déjà caractérisée par une insécurité alimentaire grave de sorte qu'une baisse de la productivité agricole est susceptible de plonger davantage les pauvres en milieu urbain dans une crise alimentaire profonde. En revanche, la tendance positive sur la productivité agricole peut contribuer à atténuer la pauvreté et l'insécurité alimentaire. La productivité agricole peut en effet affecter la consommation alimentaire des pauvres principalement par le biais de grandes variations des prix agricoles et des revenus réels.     

The Effects of Union and Nonunion Forms of Employee Representation on High‐Performance Work Systems: New Evidence from French Microdata

This article investigates the effects of union and nonunion employee representation (ER) on the use of high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) in the French context. We use microdata from a nationally representative survey (REPONSE 2010–11) and estimate models dealing with the potential endogeneity of ER. After controlling for endogeneity and for a range of workplace characteristics, regression analyses suggest that neither union nor nonunion representatives are inherently against the use of HPWSs. Moreover, these forms of ER cannot be regarded as substitutes for one another. Results vary, depending on what type of bundle of practices is considered. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An economic assessment of the Common Market Organization for bananas in the European Union

The main objective of this paper is to provide some estimates of how the world banana market has been affected by the Common Market Organization (CMO) for bananas established in the European Union (EU) on 1 July 1993, and modified in April 1994. We quantify the effects of the new EU regulation on world and EU prices, on the structure of EU imports from Latin American countries, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and EU regional suppliers, on the pattern of consumption in the various EU member states, and on consumers' and producers' welfare using a static partial equilibrium model of the world banana market. Simulation results suggest that the two key variables in determining the effects of the CMO are the size of the tariff quota on dollar and non-traditional ACP bananas and the capacity of ACP countries to exhaust their ACP contingent share.     

Do Ethical Values Work? A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Fair Trade Coffee on Consumer Behavior

This study investigates the large French fair trade (FT) market and the importance of FT coffee within it, in an attempt to identify some general features of FT consumers. On the basis of 7,587 transactions, the authors also determine the impact of FT characteristics on customer behavior. The main result is somewhat surprising: FT coffee purchases seem to involve a temporary commitment as FT coffee consumers appear less loyal than traditional coffee consumers. The authors derive some business and academic implications.     

Valuation of Equity-Linked Insurance and Annuity Products with Binomial Models

Abstract

In this paper we develop a valuation method for equity-linked insurance products. We assume that the premium information of term life insurances, pure endowment insurances, and endowment insurances at all maturities is obtainable within a company or from the insurance market. Using a method similar to that of Jarrow and Turnbull (1995), we derive three martingale probability measures associated with these basic insurance products. These measures are agedependent, include an adjustment for the mortality risk, and reproduce the premiums of the respective insurance products. We then extend the martingale measures to include the financial market information using copulas and use them to evaluate equity-linked insurance contracts and equity-indexed annuities in particular. This is different from the traditional approach under which diversification of mortality risk is assumed. A detailed numerical analysis is performed for various existing equity-indexed annuities in the North American market.