Macmillan economics

Tim Farmiloe (publishing academic division) and Stephen Rutt (publisher, higher-education division) outline Macmillan's publishing plans for economics books.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Procedural Justice and Distributive Justice: Implications for Justice Research

Although there are many studies that utilize the constructs of procedural and distributive justice, this research tends to ignore the implications of the bivariate relationship between the two constructs. The stronger the relationship between the two constructs, the more problematic ignoring this relationship becomes. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the relationship between procedural and distributive justice. We also conducted an initial assessment of extent to which the relationship between procedural and distributive justice was context sensitive. Finally, a series of methodological moderators was evaluated. Results indicated that the relationship between procedural and distributive justice is strong (= .64) across all studies. However, this relationship was moderated by research context, and even within research context, there was substantial evidence of variability. The results of the meta-analysis were discussed in terms of implications for theory, research methods, and construct measurement in justice research.     

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FRONTIER MODELLING AND EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT

In this paper recent developments in the estimation of frontier functions and the measurement of efficiency are surveyed, and the potential applicability of these methods in agricultural economics is discussed. Frontier production, cost and profit functions are discussed, along with the construction of technical, allocative, scale and overall efficiency measures relative to these estimated frontiers. The two primary methods of frontier estimation, econometric and linear programming, are compared. A survey of recent applications of frontier methods in agriculture is also provided.     

Price-discriminating Marketing Board with Imperfect Supply Control: A Case of B.C. Mushrooms

The board that has had monopoly marketing powers over B.C.-produced mushrooms can sell either into the fresh market, or to processors, and can prevent arbitrage between consumers equalizing the price in the two markets. It must pay growers a 'pooled' price based on the average revenue received. The board controls growers' square footage through quotas but growers have some discretion over output from varying other inputs. It is shown that the combination of price pooling and imperfect supply control can generate very substantial welfare losses, especially in the context of the depressed market for processing mushrooms that existed in 1986. Full monopolization of the industry would actually reduce the welfare costs.
L'Office, qui détient le monopole de la commercialisation des champignons produits en Colombie-Britannique, peut vendre ces produits soit sur le marche du frais, soit aux transformateurs, et il peut empêcher l'arbitrage entre les consommateurs voulant équilibrer les prix sur les deux marchés. Il doit verser aux producteurs un prix commun basé sur les recettes moyennes resues. L'Office contrôle la superficie allouée aux producteurs, par le biais de contingents, mais les producteurs peuvent dans une certaine mesure varier leur production en modifiant d'autres facteurs de production. Il a été démontré que l'effet combiné de la mise en commun des prix et d'un mécanisme imparfait de gestion des approvisionnements peut entraîner des pertes de bien-être très substantielles, en particulier dans le contexte d'un marché en baisse, comme celui qui existait en 1986 dans le secteur de la transformation des champignons. La monopolisation complète de l'industrie réduirait en fait les coûts du bien-être.