This Little Piggy Went to Market with a Passport: The Impacts of U.S. Country of Origin Labeling on the Canadian Pork Sector

This paper examines the potential impacts of U.S. mandatory country of origin labeling. North American hog and pork markets are represented as vertically related in a partial equilibrium non-spatial model. A synthetic model is calibrated to historic data and then used to trace the program's added costs as they are passed through the market to determine who wins and who loses. The transactions costs reduce the welfare of all agents in the United States. Canadian welfare depends primarily on whether mixed supply chains continue to be accepted in the United States and trade in hogs continues. A closed border significantly reduces the welfare of Canadian hog producers and increases the welfare of Canadian pork processors.
Le présent article porte sur les répercussions éventuelles de l'étiquetage obligatoire du pays d'origine réclamée par les États‐Unis. Les marchés nord-américains du porc vivant et de la viande de porc sont représentés comme étant verticalement liés dans un modèle non spatial d'équilibre partiel. Un modèle synthétique est étalonné avec des données historiques et est ensuite utilisé pour déterminer les coûts supplémentaires qu'occasionne le programme à mesure qu'ils sont répartis sur le marché pour déterminer les gagnants et les perdants. Les coûts de transaction diminuent le bien‐être de tous les agents aux États‐Unis. Le bien-être au Canada dépend principalement de l'acceptation ou non des chaînes d'approvisionnement mixtes et de la continuité ou non du commerce du porc vivant. La fermeture des frontières diminue considérablement le bien-être des producteurs de porcs canadiens et augmente celui des transformateurs de porcs canadiens.     

A rational foundation for wishful exchange rate forecasts

Professor Takatoshi Ito in a recent American Economic Review paper documents that exporters and importers have biased exchange rate forecasts and the biases are in opposite directions. At first glance, it is difficult to provide a rational foundation for such behavior. Professor Ito hypothesizes that these forecasts are the result of wishful expectations. However, if forecasts are stochastic, then minimization of a quadratic loss function results in a rational hedge applied to either $/¥ or ¥/$. The different perspectives of importers and exporters determines which form is hedged and determines the direction of the bias.     

The structure of marketing channel relationships

Distribution channel research has been advanced in recent years by contributions based on the political economy paradigm, transaction cost analysis, and relationship marketing. Drawing on these bodies of thought, we propose a new conceptualization of the structure of marketing channel relationships. Relationship structure is defined in terms of decision-making structure and operational integration. The proposed model of channel structure antecedents and consequences is consistent with the major research paradigms but extends beyond simple categorical assemblages of constructs to provide an ordered set of relationships based on theory and empirical research. This conceptualization reconciles some apparent contradictions in the literature and provides a clear focus for structure, process, and performance research in channels. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Louisiana State University. He has published in the areas of marketing channels, retailing, and logistics. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Channels, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Materials Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and others. He served as the managing director of public relations with the Federal Express Corporation before entering the Ph.D. program at Alabama. He holds a B.B.A. in accountancy from the University of Mississippi and an M.A. in marketing from the University of Alabama.     

Updating the Determinants of Firm Performance: Estimation using the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey

We examine the determinants of establishment performance in the UK, using cross‐sectional data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to replicate research by Fernie and Metcalf (1995) who used data from the 1990 Workplace Employee Relations Survey; specifically, we test whether employee representation, contingent pay and efforts to boost employee participation affect a set of economic and industrial relations outcome indicators in the manner they suggest. We also re‐estimate the influential WERS90‐based study of Machin and Stewart (1996) on the links between union status and financial performance. In both cases we report very different results.     

A Comparison of Cost of Equity Estimates of Local and Global CAPMs

Cost of equity estimates are compared for three pricing models: the traditional local CAPM, the single (market) factor global CAPM, and the two‐factor global CAPM, with both market and currency index factors. For 2989 US stocks, the average difference in the cost of equity estimates is about 48 basis points between the local CAPM and the single‐factor global CAPM, and is about 61 basis points between the two global models. For 70 developed‐market ADRs, the corresponding average differences are 76 and 47 basis points, respectively. For 48 emerging‐market ADRs, the corresponding average differences are 57 and 70 basis points.     

Polynomial approximations in cross-sectional models

The time-series distributed lag techniques of econometrics can be usefully applied to cross-sectional, spatial and cross-section time-series situations. The application is perfectly natural in cross-section, time-series models when regression coefficients evolve systematically as the cross-section grouping variable changes. The evolution of such coefficients lends itself to polynomial approximation or more general smoothing restrictions. These ideas are not new, Gersovitz and McKinnon (1978) and Trivedi and Lee (1981) providing two of the earliest applications of cross-equation smoothing techniques. However, their applications were in the context of coefficient variation due to seasonal changes and this may account for the non-diffusion of these techniques. The approach here is illustrated in the context of age-specific household formation equations based on census data, using Almon polynomials when the regression coefficients vary systematically by age group. A second application is provided, using spatial data, explaining the incidence of crime, by region; using polynomial and geometric smoothing to model distance declining regional effects.     

CAP Reforms in the 1990s and their Price and Welfare Implications: The Case of Wheat

We use a nonlinear commodity market model to assess, theoretically and empirically, the impacts of recent reforms of the CAP on prices and economic welfare in the EU. The empirical analysis is based on an aggregate structural econometric model of the EU wheat economy and its links to the rest of the world. Instability issues are also investigated. Impacts of CAP reforms on the variance of domestic and world prices are analysed and a Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate uncertainty in the model's welfare computations. Recent reforms led to a net welfare gain within the EU during the period 1993–2000. Additional budgetary costs are less than the welfare gains of consumers and producers. Producers gained as lower price support was overcompensated by additional direct payments.