A gravity model to account for vertical linkages between markets with an application to the cattle/beef sector

A gravity model is developed to explain bilateral trade flows in primary and processed commodities within the same agri-food supply chain. It accounts for vertical production linkages, trade and domestic policies, and supply rigidities at the farm level. Our application focuses on cattle/beef trade flows between 42 countries. The estimated parameters of the model are used to simulate trade flows. We found large differences in the impacts of the full and partial liberalization scenarios. A parametric bootstrap procedure is used to generate confidence intervals around predicted trade liberalization outcomes.     

A conceptual framework for analyzing consumers' food label preferences: An exploratory study of sustainability labels in France,Quebec, Spain and the US

In a qualitative study of 375 consumers in France, Quebec, Spain and the US, respondents are asked to choose between pairs of actual food labels and to describe the reason(s) for their choice. The food labels included sustainability labels (eco‐labels, Fair Trade, origin) as well as product attribute (e.g. quality, kosher) and health/nutrition labels. Respondents' reasons were coded in the original language using the same coding system across all four nations to examine their preferences for label message, design and source. We also examined the role of consumers' values, beliefs and experiences on their label choices. The coding system was drawn from a review of theoretical and empirical literature and provides a conceptual framework we call the Label Consumer Interaction model for evaluating consumers' food label preferences. Although this is case study, the results point to substantial differences across nations in terms of preferred labels, as well as the rationale for their choice in terms of attributes of the labels and consumer characteristics.     

Liquidity Effects in Non‐Ricardian Economies

It has often been found difficult to generate a liquidity effect (i.e., a negative effect of monetary injections on the nominal interest rate) in the traditional “Ricardian” stochastic dynamic model with a single infinitely lived household. We show that moving to a non‐Ricardian environment where new agents enter the economy in each period allows such a liquidity effect to be generated.     

Merkmale erfolgreicher Marketingorganisationen — 5 Erfolgsfaktoren für resultatorientiertes globales Marketing

Sich laufend ?ndernde Kundenbedürfnisse, zunehmende Globalisierung und immer komplexere multikulturelle Strukturen: Marketingorganisationen sind stark gefordert und sind für die zukünftige Entwicklung der Unternehmungen zentral.Welche Marketing-Trends werden für den Erfolg ausschlaggebend sein, welche werden schnell wieder verschwinden? Die erarbeiteten praxisgeprüften Erfolgsfaktoren sollen helfen, die Komplexit?t zu reduzieren und auf Erfahrungen von anderen Unternehmen zu bauen. Sie sind die Basis für zukünftige Innovationen.     

Slave prices from succession and bankruptcy sales in Mauritius, 1825–1827

We construct a unique data set from succession and bankruptcy sales in Mauritius to investigate the determinants of slave prices between 1825 and 1827. We find that males, females sold with children, skilled slaves and slaves sold during the peak sugar cane harvest season all fetched higher prices. In comparison, handicapped and non-native slaves were sold at a discount. Moreover, the young child premium increased over the period. This may indicate that slave owners did not anticipate that slavery would be abolished in the near future or thought that they would be compensated in such an event.     

What keeps pensioners at work in Russia? Evidence from Household Panel Data

The proportion of working pensioners in Russia is high relative to what is usually observed in several Eastern and Western European countries. In this paper, we present an analysis of the determinants of pensioner employment, using panel data from the on-going Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the period 1994-99. Given the sharp deterioration in the safety net in recent years, a particular attempt is made to assess the role of inadequate pension benefits, along with other individual, household, and local labour market characteristics, in driving up the employment rate of older people during transition. Both the probability of holding a job and the number of hours worked are modeled. The microeconometric analysis confirms the role that family income and access to alternative coping mechanisms such as subsistence farming play in pensioner employment for women, but also stresses for both men and women the importance of age, education, and health status. Finally, the results show a low sensitivity of pensioner employment to pension arrears and pension benefits, indicating that even the full payment of benefits may be too low to significantly affect the decision to remain in employment.
JEL classification: C33, H55, J14, J21, P36.     

The role of the seller’s stock performance in the market reaction to divestiture announcements

Divestitures have the potential to create shareholder value. However, the extent of the market reaction should depend on the likelihood of finding more valuable uses for the divested assets or the ability on the part of the seller to eliminate negative synergies. We hypothesize that strong performers have less scope to achieve substantial improvements compared to poorly performing firms. Using the seller’s stock return in excess of the market return in the 1-year and 2-year periods preceding the divestiture announcement to expose the divesting firm’s inefficient use of its assets, we show that the market reaction to divestiture announcements is significantly higher for underperforming firms. The difference in abnormal returns can be as high as 4 %. In contrast, none of the accounting-based variables that have been used in previous studies are found to be significantly related to the announcement returns. These results suggest that the firm’s stock performance is a more useful indicator of the wealth effect associated with divestitures.