The economic costs and benefits of a participatory project to conserve maize landraces on farms in Oaxaca,Mexico⋆

Conventional methods were used to assess the benefits and costs of an unconventional project whose purpose was to test whether participatory crop improvement can encourage Mexican farmers to continue growing maize landraces by enhancing their current use value. Findings suggest that farmers as a group earned a high benefit‐cost ratio from participating, though from the perspective of the private investor the returns were low. The project also generated social benefits, but these would be difficult (and costly) to measure. There was a gender bias in both participation and benefits distributions, though there is some evidence of a welfare transfer to maize deficit households. Application of other valuation approaches will be necessary in order to assess both the private and social benefits of similar projects.     

Examining Medical Decision Making from a Marketing Perspective

This paper explores how consideration of the medical context can add newelements to marketing thought. Differences between the medical context andother consumer contexts are reviewed. The effects that the medical contexthas on the way traditional constructs such as involvement, affect andstress, uncertainty and satisfaction affect choice are discussed. Finally,emerging research in medical contexts where future discoveries could enhanceconsumer choice theory are presented.     

Multi‐Criteria Analysis of Input Use in Agriculture

In this paper we present a methodology for the analysis of input use in the agricultural sector. The novelty of the theoretical model described here is that it has been developed considering a multi‐criteria environment. Thus, the optimal input use condition is determined by evaluating “multi‐attribute utility” and “multi‐attribute marginal utility”. We show how the approach adopted in this paper is a generalisation of the single‐attribute expected utility theory. The theoretical model developed is thereafter implemented in an empirical application that studies water for irrigation use as a particular case. The results show how multi‐attribute utility functions elicited for a sample of 52 irrigators explain differences in irrigation water use in relatively homogeneous agricultural systems, albeit exhibiting dissimilar partial utility functions for water use. We conclude that these differences come from the dissimilar weights that farmers attach to each attribute in the aggregate utility function.     

Aggregation Bias in Estimates of Conditional Conservatism: Theory and Evidence

This paper documents a study about the influence of the aggregation effect on the estimates of models based on the original Basu model – specifically the Ball, Kothari and Nikolaev model (Ball et al., 2013b). We provide an analytical study of the effect, showing that it can produce two biases: an omitted‐variable bias and a truncated‐sample bias. Using separate proxies for good and bad news for each company and year, we estimate the empirical sign and magnitude of those biases. Our results show that the estimates of conditional conservatism based on regressions of (unexpected) earnings on (unexpected) returns, as in the paper by Ball et al., are contaminated by substantial aggregation bias. More specifically, the aggregation effect causes these models to underestimate good‐news timeliness and overestimate bad‐news timeliness, thereby overestimating differential timeliness. Moreover, when we use proxies that provide better control for the aggregation effect, the differential timeliness coefficient tends to 0, showing that the influence of conditional conservatism on the returns–earnings relationship is, at best, marginal.     

Tourists’ travel time values using discrete choice models: the recreational value of the Teide National Park

Abstract

The value of travel time is one of the most important factors in recreation demand models. Traditionally, the most common approach for its calculation has been the use of different proportions of the wage rate; however, criticisms of this method abound because in a recreational trip the relevant measure is the opportunity cost of leisure time rather than work time. In this paper, we adopt a novel approach in the literature using discrete choice models based on short-term decisions and independent of the labor market. We obtain the value of travel time through the trade-off between time and money considered by the tourist visitors when choosing the transport mode and we present the first calculation of the recreational value of the Teide National Park. Specifically, using a Revealed Preference survey of 801 park visitors, we estimate Mixed Logit models accounting for random preference heterogeneity, derive travel time values and incorporate them into a Zonal Travel Cost Method. This approach allows us to estimate different time values depending on transport mode and stage of the trip and shows that the use of discrete choice models instead of the wage rate approach has a strong impact on the recreational value calculated.     

Co-Integration and Error Correction Estimation to Forecast Tourism in El Salvador

Using co-integration and error correction models, the objective of this study was to systematically analyze the factors affecting the international tourism demand for El Salvador. The results indicate that the degree of responsiveness of tourist arrivals to El Salvador due to a change in income is elastic and quite differs from country to country. Residents from Honduras appeared to be less responsive to prices than residents from the other origin countries. The dynamic specification of error correction models further confirms the majority of the results obtained in the co-integration relationships. The findings are useful for private developers and public tourism planners in El Salvador. Marketing of specific tourism attributes could enable El Salvador to gain comparative advantage over its competitors.     

Virtue and Commerce in Domingo de Soto’s Thought: Commercial Practices, Character, and the Common Good

This paper draws from the work of sixteenth century theologian, philosopher, and ethicist Domingo de Soto and considers his virtue-based approach to the ethical evaluation of commerce within an Aristotelian–Thomistic framework for the articulation of business and the common good. Particular attention is given to the fundamental emphasis placed by Soto in distinguishing between commerce as an activity and the specific conduct of persons engaging in commercial activity. The distinction between the material and the formal parts of the common good is then employed to shed light on the way Soto articulates commercial practices, virtuous character, and the common good. It is concluded that Soto’s major contribution for business ethics is clarifying that the key element for the ethical evaluation of commerce is the embodiment of virtuous personal conduct in the exercise of commercial activity. In this framework, the fulfillment of commerce’s potential to contribute to the common good is thus fundamentally interconnected with putting virtues into practice.     

A robustness study of a multi-echelon inventory model via simulation

This paper examines the robustness of a standard model of multi-echelon inventory systems, specifically the models discussed in Axsäter (Oper. Res. 48(5) (2000) 686). A simulation model was developed to explore the model's ability to predict system performance for a two-echelon one-warehouse, multiple retailer system using (R,Q) inventory policies under conditions that violate the model's fundamental modeling assumptions. In particular, the impact of non-stationary demand on this stationary demand inventory model was examined. The model performs well at the low demand and large retailer order batch size situations, but our testing of the model indicated that care must be taken when applying this model to situations that violate its fundamental assumption. These results should help practitioners to better understand the assumptions of these models and to determine when or when not to apply these models in practice.     

The use of gamification in higher technical education: perception of university students on innovative teaching materials

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Education for sustainable development is considered a key element of quality. However, nearly-graduated students of architecture perceive...