Social interactions and the contemporaneous determinants of individuals’ weight

Obesity and overweight are central issues in the public health debate in most developed countries. In this debate, some of the socio-economic determinants of obesity and overweight are still relatively unexplored. This paper presents an empirical examination of the possible influence of social interactions on contemporaneous obesity and (over)underweight. A joint estimation model for obesity and self-image is applied to a sample for Spain taken from the European Union household panel for 1998. The results suggest that obesity might be in part a social phenomenon connected to individuals’ social life.     

Lotteries vs. All‐Pay Auctions in Fair and Biased Contests

The form of contests for a single fixed prize can be determined by a designer who maximizes the contestants' efforts. This article establishes that, under common knowledge of the two asymmetric contestants' prize valuations, a fair Tullock‐type endogenously determined lottery is always superior to an all‐pay‐auction; it yields larger expected efforts (revenues) for the contest designer. If the contest can be unfair (structural discrimination is allowed), then the designer's payoff under the optimal lottery is equal to his expected payoff under the optimal all‐pay auction.     

Town size and the consumer behaviour of Spanish households: a panel data approach

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of town size on the Spanish demand for food. The methodological approach followed in the study is to use panel data built from the Spanish Quarterly National Expenditure Survey to estimate a demand system. The use of this type of data allows control for unobserved time invariant heterogeneity as well as to take into account the time and the cross-section dimension of data. Four locations are distinguished: (1) less than 10000 inhabitants; (2) between 10000 and 100000 inhabitants; (3) between 100000 and 500000 inhabitants; and (4) more than 500000 inhabitants. Eight broad food categories are considered: (1) cereals and potatoes; (2) meat; (3) fish; (4) dairy products; (5) fats and oils; (6) fruits; (7) vegetables; and (8) other food. Income and price elasticities are calculated for each location. In general terms, two general conclusions can be drawn. First, results indicate that only slight changes in tastes have taken place during the analysed period; second, income and price elasticities use to decrease as town size increases.     

Spanish Demand for Food Away from Home: Analysis of Panel Data

We analyse the Spanish demand for food away from home (FAFH). A panel dataset is built and appropriate techniques for estimating limited dependent variable models are applied. Results indicate that where there are zero expenditures, these are largely due to infrequency of purchase rather than to abstention, or for economic reasons. Furthermore, important differences appear among households. Households whose head is a highly educated person, male, young and living on a salary in a large town is more likely to purchase FAFH. FAFH expenditure responses to an increase in total per capita expenditure are markedly different depending on the age of the household's head, their employment status and also the size of the resident's town. The lowest elasticity is shown by single‐person households, between 36 and 55 years old, employed and living in large towns, for whom FAFH has become a necessity. On the other hand, FAFH remains a luxury for unemployed couples with one or two children.     

The King Never Emigrates

This paper uses a locational model of rent-seeking to describe incentives to emigrate. A country is considered in which how a person fares in privileged income redistribution is determined by proximity to a king. Contests for privilege determine whether the more or the less productive in the population are located closer to the king. A distinction is drawn between contests for privilege that are "easy" and "difficult." When contests are "easy," the more productive are furthest from the king and emigrate first. When contests are "difficult," the least productive emigrate first. In either case, the population begins to unravel.     

Brakes to organic market enlargement in Spain: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay

In Spain, consumption of organic products has not kept pace with production. Up till now, foreign markets have been a natural destination for excess supply. However, world trade liberalization might cause important commercial problems to Spanish producers that could be partially solved by enlarging the domestic market. The goal of this paper is to assess the opportunity for such enlargement focusing on two main aspects: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay for organic products. Concerns about health, natural diets or environmental issues could stimulate consumption, while retailing dynamism and competition to gain new market segments might favour distribution. Both aspects are investigated through two surveys addressed to consumers and retailers in two Spanish towns. The results confirm that only a small proportion of consumers and distributors show attitudes that might favour demand expansion. The most sensitized segments are willing to pay more for organic products, but this premium is still very far from the prevailing gap between conventional and organic food products.     

Testing PPP for the South African Rand/US Dollar Real Exchange Rate at Different Data Frequencies

This paper tests the PPP hypothesis for the South African rand/US dollar real exchange rate using a fractional integration framework. The results suggest that the real exchange rate of the South African rand with respect to the US dollar is a highly dependent variable with an order of integration very close to 1. This finding is not affected by the data frequency considered (daily, weekly or monthly). Also, there appears to be a single break in December 2001 (possibly corresponding to a change in the monetary policy framework), with the unit root null being rejected in favour of d > 1 for the periods before the break, but not afterwards. Thus, our results strongly reject the PPP hypothesis for the South African rand/US dollar rate across data frequencies, since shocks are found to affect the exchange rate forever.