Social Marketing of a Fortified Staple Food at Scale: Generating Demand for Fortified Rice in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the social marketing strategy implemented by PATH and GAIN to create a sustainable market for rice fortification in Brazil and develop a replicable model relevant to other geographies. It draws on market research on consumer attitudes and practices, as well as key demand and consumer metrics before and after execution of the social marketing campaign in Brazil. This marketing endeavor succeeded in establishing the viability of introducing fortified rice in a country through a purely market-based approach. Whereas social marketing is vital to the introduction and scale-up of fortified staple foods through commercial markets, it is not sufficient to achieve meaningful scale and sustainability. Engagement from the public and social sectors, clear governance, and other factors are critical to substantial and long-term impact. Lessons from this first attempt to introduce a fortified staple food through a market-based approach are relevant to similar initiatives elsewhere.     

Determinants of smallholder farmers' participation in banana markets in Central Africa: the role of transaction costs

A bivariate probit model was employed to jointly and separately estimate banana market participation decisions of buying and selling households in Rwanda and Burundi using household survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for estimating the transacted volumes using Heckman's procedure. The results showed that transaction cost‐related factors such as geographical location of households, market information sources, and travel time to the nearest urban center influence market participation. Non‐price‐related factors such as security of land tenure, labor availability, off‐farm income, gender of the household head, and years of farming experience had a significant influence on the transacted volumes. Output prices had a significant correlation with sales volume, indicating price incentives increased supply by sellers. Generally, the findings suggest that policies aimed at investments in rural road infrastructure, market information systems, collective marketing, and value addition of banana products may provide a potential avenue for mitigating transaction costs and enhancing market participation and production of marketed surplus by rural households.     

NYSE execution quality subsequent to migration to hybrid

In October 2006, the NYSE began rolling-out phase three of a four-phase plan initiate its new Hybrid trading mechanism. The results show that this new trading platform introduced a much larger proportion of electronic transactions relative to floor auction transactions. This migration to electronic transactions is further evidenced by a mirror shift in price discovery from floor trades to trades marked for automatic electronic execution. In addition, the move to Hybrid trading introduced a significant decrease in inventory control costs, as well as a noticeable increase in trade persistence. Finally, the new trading platform has increased the speed with which orders are met, and has also decreased the proportion of executed shares which receive price improvement.

Merger Speculation in Financial Media: The Valuation of Investigative Reporting

The authors study abnormal returns and volume in the days surrounding takeover speculation by financial media. Significantly positive price and volume responses 2 days after publication are observed. While most of this effect dissipates shortly thereafter, some excess returns remain impounded into the stock price. A study of the ex post takeover probabilities suggests that a positive response is justified, as takeover probabilities for such firms subsequently increase. This evidence is consistent with the idea that financial media speculation can facilitate the release of useful private information to shareholders. However, significantly positive excess returns and volume in the few days before publication also suggests that certain shareholders may benefit disproportionately.     

Inequality and criminality revisited: further evidence from Brazil

The objective of this study is to shed light on the determinants of criminality rates in Brazil. A panel data model was estimated using Brazilian states’ data. Our main result suggests that income inequality plays an important role in the determination of the crime rate. Furthermore, there are evidence suggesting that both unemployment and urbanization rates are positively related to crime. Based on a GMM approach we find the existence of an “inertial effect” on criminality. Besides that, the GMM results show that public security spending is effective in reducing criminality rates. Contrary to the common wisdom, we could not find evidence that poverty increases violent crimes. Finally, we have evidence that income inequality Granger causes crime, but not the reverse.     

Sustainability through food and conversation: the role of an entrepreneurial restaurateur in fostering engagement with sustainable development issues

Food justice, food cultures and people's engagement with healthy food production and consumption are key contemporary concerns, with a growing sustainable hospitality and tourism literature. Efforts range from narrowly focused initiatives, such as promoting organic produce and fair trade, to more holistic challenges to current systems through initiatives like the slow food and locavore movements, which may represent systemic alternatives. However, little analysis is available on how cafés and restaurants might become sites for experimentation in profitable and just sustainable hospitality, and places for sustainability engagement and education. Focusing on the evolution of a sustainable café in Adelaide, South Australia, this article explores how one entrepreneurial restaurateur uses his café to engage customers and community in a collaborative conversation about sustainable development, food, hospitality and tourism, helping transform our food culture and even lifeways. Our findings indicate the value of deep local embedding as a pathway to meaningful sustainability. The study offers insights into how hospitality and tourism can contribute to dialogues on alternative consumption which may offer visionary pathways to alternative futures. It also explores the role of pioneers in sustainable business and hospitality, their drivers and their views. A forthcoming global research initiative is discussed.     

Re-thinking Anne: representing Japanese culture at a quintessentially Canadian site

ABSTRACT

The Anne of Green Gables National Heritage Site in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada, centers around the farmhouse where author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, was raised, and serves as the setting for her classic novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908). This is thus a heritage site about a fictional character, but very real and historical to the author of the well-loved book. This paper centers on a 2015 visit to the site, where I encountered not only the expected thousands of Canadian pilgrims traipsing up and down ‘Lover’s Lane’, but a half-dozen Japanese college students interning for the summer – in costume, scattered around the site, demonstrating Japanese crafts and games for tourists. As a visitor to the site, I found myself asking: How do these Japanese traditions fit into the interpretation of this most quintessential of Canadian sites? And, how does their presence alter the touristic encounter for both Canadian and Japanese visitors? The presence of Japanese interpreters at the site will thus be used to interrogate notions of the production of knowledge about ‘the other’, as well as pointing to the creation of new narratives about cultural tourism, challenging traditional notions of heritage and authenticity.     

Does excessive buying for self relate to spending on pets?

Using two studies, this article explores how a tendency to buy excessively for self relates to spending on one's pet. Existing research on excessive buying reports that these buyers spend money primarily on themselves. Excessive buying is the tendency to be preoccupied with buying and, consequently, to buy relatively more and more often than others. The first study, using a qualitative research approach, provides insights into the relationship of excessive buying for self and for pets. This study reveals that excessive buyers consider their pets as full family members and extensions of themselves. The second study, a national survey conducted via the Internet, provides a quantitative test of the relationship between excessive buying for self and spending on pets. Respondents who score high on an excessive buying index also tend to spend more on their pets for toys, food treats, clothing, accessories, and grooming products.