Demand for dairy products in the EU

In the EU dairy sector, given the remaining high protective tariffs and the quota system, the main factor that drives dairy product market prices is the demand. This paper evaluates the development of demand in the EU and presents estimates of consumption trends and forecasts for the future as well as estimates of elasticity with respect to prices and income in two major EU consumer countries: France and Italy. We use two methods to estimate the development of demand for dairy products, one based on a multi-stage demand system and another based on a single trend equation. The two methods generally lead to the same qualitative results but trend projections are larger using the demand system approach which is based on a shorter data period. This difference is thus partly explained by the fact that high trend projections are not sustainable over a long period. The results show a decreasing consumption of butter and fluid milk and an overall growth in protein and fat consumption. Nevertheless, the increase in fat consumption should be more moderate than the consumption of protein. The results also show that the demand for dairy products is relatively price inelastic but is more sensitive to changes in income (especially for butter and cheese categories). As shown by the use of a partial equilibrium model of dairy markets, the likely impact of the CAP reform strongly depends on the development of demand for dairy products in the EU. More research effort on demand analysis is therefore crucial in order to assess the impact of reforms or trade negotiations more accurately and effectively.     

Guidelines-based treatment associated with improved economic outcomes in nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTMLD) in the US has increased; however, data characterizing the associated healthcare utilization and expenditure at the national level are limited.

Objective: To examine associations between economic outcomes and the use of anti-Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) guidelines-based treatment (GBT) for newly-diagnosed NTMLD in a US national managed care claims database (Optum^® Clinformatics^® Data Mart).

Methods: NTMLD was defined as having ≥2 claims for NTMLD (ICD-9 031.0; ICD-10 A31.0) on separate occasions ≥30?days apart (between 2007 and 2016). The cohort included patients insured continuously over a period of at least 36?months (12?months before initial NTMLD diagnostic claim and for the subsequent 24?months). Treatment was classified as GBT (consistent with American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines), non-GBT, or untreated. All-cause hospitalization rates and total healthcare expenditures at Year 2 were assessed as outcomes of the treatment prescribed in Year 1 after NTMLD diagnosis.

Results: A total of 1,039 patients met study criteria for NTMLD (GBT, n?=?294; non-GBT, n?=?298; untreated, n?=?447). After adjustment for baseline characteristics, GBT was associated with a significantly lower all-cause hospitalization risk vs non-GBT (odds ratio [OR]?=?0.53; 95% CI = 0.33–0.85, p?=?0.008), and vs being untreated (OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.35–0.91, p?=?0.020). Adjusted total healthcare expenditure in Year 2 with GBT ($69,691) was lower than that with non-GBT ($77,624) with a difference of ?$7,933 (95% CI = ?$14,968 to ?$899; p?=?0.03).

Conclusions: Patients with NTMLD in a US managed care claims database who were prescribed GBT had lower hospitalization risk than those who were prescribed non-GBT or were untreated. GBT was associated with lower total healthcare expenditure compared with non-GBT.     

Eco-Frontier and Place-Making: The Unexpected Transformation of a Sustainable Settlement Project in the Amazon

An important issue today is the compatibility of agricultural frontiers, which are driven by economic objectives, with conservationist views. In the Amazon, family farmers are concerned with this issue since they are at the same time actors of the agricultural frontier and considered as potential actors of the preservation of the forest. Through the study of a highly symbolic settlement project in the State of Pará, this paper focuses on the role that family farmers can play in meeting sustainability goals. The central argument which is developed in this paper is that this objective may be achieved when projects do not presuppose social and spatial relationships; rather, it advocates an approach which is attentive to place-making processes.     

Documenting Territory: Passportisation,Territory, and Exception in Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Despite the crucial role it played in the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, the phenomenon of passportisation has not received a great deal of scholarly attention. Much of the literature has treated the mass distribution of Russian passports to the residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as little more than a strategy to manufacture an excuse to go to war with Georgia. Drawing on recent scholarship on territory and territoriality, as well as with literature addressing Agamben's theories of exceptional spaces, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of passportisation by analysing the territorial effects it produced. It argues that the wholesale conversion of Abkhazians and South Ossetians into Russian citizens did not merely manufacture a casus belli, it also produced exceptional spaces within the territory of the Republic of Georgia, where the norms of international law and the modern state system were effectively suspended.     

The process of entrepreneurial action at the base of the pyramid in developing countries: a case of vegetable farmers in Benin

The assumption that entrepreneurship is a critical factor in expanding employment, creating wealth and contributing to poverty alleviation at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in developing countries has led to the development of many initiatives to strengthen the entrepreneurial activities of poor people. Despite the fact that entrepreneurship is seen as a strategy in combatting poverty, the process that leads to entrepreneurial action in a BoP context is still unclear. In this paper, we illustrate the possibilities a multi-layered perspective offers to understand the complexity of entrepreneurship in poverty settings. Based on five focus group discussions and 36 in-depth interviews with vegetable farmers in Benin, we examined the entrepreneurship of poor people. We learned that entrepreneurial action is the nexus of individual and exogenous factors in complex relationships. Based on this, we elaborate on the characteristics of the process model of entrepreneurial action. We provide a process-based view of entrepreneurship at the BoP, suggesting a need for consistency between individual, behavioural strategies and contextual elements. We discuss the implications of our findings for BoP practice and provide a framing perspective that we hope will encourage a greater focus on the complexity of entrepreneurship phenomenon.     

COOPERATION: THE POWER OF A SINGLE WORD? SOME EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE ON WORDING AND GENDER EFFECTS IN A GAME OF CHICKEN

Framing has been widely shown to affect decision making. In this paper, we investigate experimentally whether, and to what extent, cooperative behaviour in a Game of Chicken may be impacted by a very basic change in the labelling of the strategies. Our within‐subject experimental design involves two treatments. The only difference between them is that we introduce either a socially‐oriented wording (I cooperate/I do not cooperate) or colours (red/blue) to designate strategies. The level of cooperation appears to be higher in the socially‐oriented context, but only when uncertainty as regards the type of the partner is manipulated, and especially among females.     

Paternalistic Capitalism

Brazil’s political-economic structure has rapidly evolved over the past decade, shedding its shallow policy alignment with neoliberalism of the 1990s. Brazil’s large, diversified industrial base was painfully constructed over the course of the twentieth century. A major and sustained political realignment, which began in 2003, has resulted in two essential thrusts in development policy: (i) a “growth with equity” strategy that has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality; and (ii) a state-led “industrial policy” designed to upgrade manufacturing and direct the accumulation process toward specific sectors, highlighting and consolidating the National Innovation System (NIS). Nonetheless, as a result of the commodity boom that swept through Latin America, Brazil’s natural resource sector achieved outsized growth from 2002 to 2012. One result has been a shift toward resource intensive activities and a broad opening to low-cost Chinese manufactures. Utilizing an institutionalist framework and method, this article analyzes the cohesion of the NIS and the emergence of the “deindustrialization” debate. Also, it assesses the instrumental nature of the “growth with equity” strategy. The article hypothesizes the viability of an endogenous “neo-developmentalist” strategy, while acknowledging the emergence of fundamental exogenous forces and structural ceremonial/institutional factors that have impeded the consolidation of a Brazilian social structure of accumulation.     

Trends and volatilities in foreign patents registered in the USA

This study analyses the patent trends and volatilities for the top 12 foreign patenting countries in the US market from 1975 to 1997. Japan is ranked first in terms of foreign patents registered in the USA, followed by Germany. Patent registrations from each of these countries have increased steadily over time, but at different rates. Using monthly time series data for 1975–1997, the time-varying volatility of Australian, Japanese and German patents registered in the USA is examined in detail. The asymmetric AR(1)-GJR(1,1) model is found to be suitable for Australia and Japan, while the best fitting model for Germany is the symmetric AR(1)-GARCH(1,1) model.