Payment Limitations and Acreage Decisions under Risk Aversion: A Simulation Approach

Payment limits have played an important role in U.S. farm policy deliberations for the last thirty years. Current limits are largely nonbinding. Proposals to strengthen and enforce limits are currently in discussion. We evaluate the likely effects of such proposals on acreage for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice in several important producing states. Our results generally indicate that payment limits are unlikely to significantly affect acreage in most cases; exceptions occur for cotton and rice, where the probability that limits would be binding is much greater and thus more likely to affect production.     

Spatiotemporal Modeling of Asian Citrus Canker Risks: Implications for Insurance and Indemnification Fund Models

Asiatic citrus canker is a disease that poses a significant hazard to commercial citrus production. This article examines spatiotemporal models of the risks of citrus canker transmission. Models evaluate risks and are used to price annual contracts, which would pay producers a prespecified indemnity in the event that their grove is found to be infected with canker. Implications for risk management policy are discussed.     

Accelerating the Durable Replacement Cycle with Marketing Mix Variables

In many established product categories, a large component of sales is due to the replacement of existing units. Because of the long expected lifetime of durables, replacement decisions can often be postponed by the consumer. In light of this, one marketing strategy for manufacturers of such products may be to accelerate the timing of product replacement decisions for buyers planning to replace. In this article, Barry Bayus presents the results of his investigation of the effect of marketing efforts on shortening the replacement cycle. Such information can be used by new product managers to forecast more accurately long-term sales and to help decide when to introduce new products (e.g., with enhanced features). Using data on color television purchases, he shows that the marketing variables of price, advertising, new features and styling are related to the timing of discretionary replacements. Further, these data suggest that price has the most impact in accelerating replacement purchases.     

An empirical model of attendance factors at major sporting events

Sports events represent a major category of event revenue contributing economic benefits to cities and regions. Whilst attendance at sports events is recognised as an important leisure and entertainment activity (Shamir and Ruskin, 1984), over the past 20 years sports event attendance expenditure has been declining as a percentage of total recreation expenditure (Ross, 2006). Consequently, an understanding of the factors that influence sports event attendance is crucial to the sustainability of these events. This study identifies the antecedents of sports event attendance among 460 respondents who were surveyed in Melbourne, a city that was recognised as the Ultimate Sports City in 2008 (Church-Sanders, 2008). Structural Equation Modelling was used to create an empirical model of attendance motivations. The model identifies constructs relating to emotional responses and facilities, as the predictors of event attendance and provides a discussion of the implications of this research for sporting event and hospitality managers.     

Replicating the Effect of Advertised Specials at Regular Price on Food Shopper Price Evaluation

This study verifies a previous finding that food shoppers can correctly identify the advertised price level for items featured at the regular price in the context of a newspaper ad. Morever, advertising regular-priced items in prominent positions did not materially affect their price accuracy scores.     

International Activity of Japanese Department Stores

Japanese retailers have embarked on a number of overseas developments. Department store operators have instituted wide networks of representative oflces in locations chosen primarily as sources of luxury goods. Additionally, they have developed overseas branches to service Japanese tourists and, increasingly, local populations, particularly in the Far East. The location and nature of these operations are identified. Consideration is given to the stated globalisation policies of some firms, and the implication of new competitors for occidental companies highlighted. The internationalis     

Reprint of: Stock salience and the asymmetric market effect of consumer sentiment news

We document asymmetric announcement effects of consumer sentiment news on United States stock and stock futures markets. While a negative market effect occurs upon the release of bad sentiment news, there is no market reaction for the counterpart good news. This supports the “negativity effect” hypothesis. Notably, this effect seems most likely to occur in salient stocks, which is consistent with the availability heuristic.