Protest Responses in Contingent Valuation

A significant number of respondents to contingent valuation surveys tend to either state a zero bid, or refuse to state a bid at all, for reasons associated with the process of valuation. These protest responses are routinely removed from contingent valuation samples because it is assumed that they are not indicative of respondents true values. The censoring of protest responses has led to the emergence of a definitional controversy. One view is that the definition of protest responses and the rules for censoring them are dependent on whether the practitioner conceives of the contingent valuation survey as a market or as a referendum. However, what is not acknowledged is the possibility that protest responses and their meaning may vary according to the type of good being valued, the elicitation format, and the interaction between these elements and external factors. This potential renders the development of unambiguous rules for censoring protest responses difficult. Moreover, when willingness to pay is viewed as a behavioural intention, it becomes important to determine what the responses actually mean. This approach does not assume an interpretative position a priori against which the responses should be judged, but seeks to inform an existing understanding which is inadequate.     

Collective Investment Schemes: The Role Of The Trustee

There has been a lack of analysis of the justification for trustees in collective investment schemes, although a study of the topic is pertinent because of the prominent position occupied by trustees in certain schemes. One possible justification, considered in this paper, is the existence of a collective action problem. Four types of schemes are examined: debentures, public unit trusts, life-insurance firms and superannuation funds. While each of these schemes can exhibit a considerable collective action problem, only the first three typically involve a trustee. We conclude that even where a collective action problem exists, there is not necessarily the need for a trustee. There may be more efficient solutions to the problem.     

Random prices and estimation of the elasticity of substitution

Summary We have examined the profit-maximizing specification for estimating the elasticity of substitution from the CES production function under conditions of random output prices. The results added further support to the suggestion that a cost-minimizing specification is preferable. But the main purpose of the paper was to offer a sample of one instance where the recent developments in the uncertainty literature cause econometric difficulties. Much further study needs to be done on other estimation problems. After all, the purpose of estimation is to shed light on the values of “real world” parameters and the real world is filled with uncertainty to one degree or another.     

Buyer cartels and private enforcement of antitrust policy

Collusion among buyers leads to social welfare losses, which provide the economic rationale for public enforcement of the antitrust law. This conduct also imposes losses on the victimized sellers, which provide the foundation for private enforcement through private damage actions. In this paper, we present a rigorous economic analysis of buyer cartels. This effort includes both full participation and partial conspiracies. We review the antitrust treatment of collusive monopsony in the United States, the European Union, and Asia, offer a measure of antitrust damages, and examine the necessary precision of the damage estimate. We also suggest that the proper use of modern econometrics should allay judicial concerns with speculation.     

Utilizing Ultrasound Technology to Improve Livestock Marketing Decisions

This study estimates the value of using ultrasound technology to improve cattle marketing decisions by optimally choosing a particular marketing method. For the particular group of cattle analyzed, results indicate that using ultrasound information to selectively market cattle could have increased revenue by $25.53/head, $4.98/head, or $32.90/head, compared with simply marketing all animals on a live weight, dressed weight, or grid basis, respectively. Even if producers incorporate such information as placement weight, days on feed, and breed into their expectations about final carcass characteristics, our results indicate that ultrasound measures could improve average revenue by $4.16/head.     

Using GIS to visualise and evaluate student travel behaviour

Using GIS to evaluate travel behaviour is an important technique to increase our understanding of the relationship between accessibility and transport demand. In this paper, the activity space concept was used to identify the nature of participation in activities (or lack of it) amongst a group of students using a 2 day travel-activity diary. Three different indicators such as the number of unique locations visited, average daily distance travelled, and average daily activity duration were used to measure the size of activity spaces. These indicators reflect levels of accessibility, personal mobility, and the extent of participation, respectively. Multiple regression analyses were used to assess the impacts of students socio-economic status and the spatial characteristics of home location. Although no differences were found in the levels of accessibility and the extent of participation measures, home location with respect to a demand responsive transport (DRT) service was found to be the most important determinant of their mobility patterns. Despite being able to travel longer distances, students who live outside of the DRT service area were found to be temporally excluded from some opportunities. Student activity spaces were also visualised within a GIS environment and a spatial analysis was conducted to underpin the evaluation of the performance of the DRT. This approach was also used to identify the activity spaces of individuals that are geographically excluded from the service. Evaluation of these results indicated that although the service currently covers areas of high demand, 90% of the activity spaces remained un-served by the DRT service. Using this data six new routes were designed to meet the coverage goal of public transport based on a measure of network impedance based on inverse activity density. Following assessment of public transport service coverage, the study was extended using a spatial multi criteria evaluation (SMCE) technique to assess the effect of service provision on patronage.     

Airports and the air transportation system: Functional refinements and functional discovery

This paper examines the technological development of the airport and the air transportation system in order to identify opportunities for increased growth and development. The paper identifies two approaches to accomodating growth, which it terms functional refinement and functional discovery. The former refers to incremental improvements, the latter to the discovery of new technological forms and functions. Functional refinements condition and frequently constrain efforts towards functional discovery. For example, efforts to advance “demand management” may not be beneficial for the exploration of new uses for air transportation technology. The paper examines how efforts towards functional refinement might be reoriented towards fostering functional discovery, identifies parallels between the air transportation system and other infrastructure systems, and examines how efforts towards functional refinement that lock out functional discovery run counter to powerful social pressures for flexible, specialized production.     

Employee voice to supervisors

This article reports the results of two studies examining some factors that increase the likelihood that employees will voice to their supervisors. The way employees perceive that their supervisors manage employee voice was identified as a major cause of the likelihood that employees will voice upward. The Supervisor as Voice Manager Scale is presented along with data demonstrating its reliability and validity. Theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.Faculty of Management, McGill University.Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.Mathematics & Computer Science, Meredith College.School of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology.     

A Survivor Test of the American Agency System of Distributing Property Liability Insurance

In earlier work byjoskow and by Cummins and VanDerhei, the American Agency system of distribution has been deemed inefficient, i.e. excessively costly. We test this in a natural way by examining whether the system survives in competition with more efficient systems. We find that it survives, but is in steady decline.