Metamorphosis in hospitality: A tradition of sexual harassment

This study measures the incidence and tolerance of sexual harassment in hospitality in an effort to understand its causes. It examines the tradition of sexual behaviour in hospitality, exacerbated by hierarchical structures, the nature of hospitality work, the characteristics of typical front line workers, customers’ reduced sense of responsibility, and an emphasis on meeting customers’ needs. Customer contact is shown to be a key predictor of harassment, especially for young European women. The typical profiles of hospitality staff and the nature and traditions of the industry are considered important causes of harassment in hospitality.     

消费者对生态标识食品的多层面认知行为:基于MVP模型的实证分析

笔者基于山东省693个样本数据,以绿色食品为例,将消费者认知行为划分为知晓、识别与使用三个层面,构建多变量Probit模型,分析在消费者认知程度提高过程中起主要作用的因素。研究发现,男性或年轻受访者在知晓层面的认知率较高,而女性、年长受访者在识别和使用层面的认知率相对较高;收入和卷入程度的影响在知晓层面不显著,而在识别和使用层面显著;学历、子女状况与环境保护意识的影响在各层面皆显著;食品安全意识与信息渠道的影响在较低层面显著,而在较高层面不显著。消费者认知行为的异质性为市场细分与开发提供了空间。厂商应针对不同群体采取差异化营销战略,引导消费者认知行为,促进潜在需求向现实需求转化。     

On the Sources of Inflation in Kenya: A Model‐Based Approach

We develop a semi‐structural new‐Keynesian open‐economy model – with separate food and non‐food inflation dynamics to study the sources of inflation in Kenya in recent years. To do so, we filter international and Kenyan data (on output, inflation and its components, exchange rates and interest rates) through the model to recover a model‐based decomposition of most variables into trends (or potential values) and temporary movements (or gaps) – including for the international and domestic relative price of food. We use the filtration exercise to recover the sequence of domestic and foreign macroeconomic shocks that account for business cycle dynamics in Kenya over the last few years, with a special emphasis on the various factors (international food prices, monetary policy) driving inflation. We find that while imported food price shocks have been an important source of inflation, both in 2008 and more recently, accommodating monetary policy has also played a role, most notably through its effect on the nominal exchange rate. We also discuss the implications of this exercise for the use of model‐based monetary policy analysis in sub‐Saharan African countries.     

欧盟食品安全技术法规体系的产生、发展现状及展望

欧盟食品安全体系被誉为全球最为成功的食品安全体系之一,而欧盟健全的食品安全技术法规体系,成为整个欧盟食品安全体系建设的重要基石。本文深入研究了欧盟食品安全技术法规产生和发展的各个阶段,阐述欧盟食品安全立法的运作模式,分析了欧盟现行“从农场到餐桌”全过程的食品安全技术法规体系建设的重点和所发挥的作用,并对今后欧盟食品安全技术法规体系建设的重点做了展望。     

Private labels and public quality standards: How can consumer trust be restored after the mad cow crisis?

In those sectors faced with questions of food safety (meat, fruit, vegetables), new private labels have been set up in Europe in order to restore consumer trust. In this paper, we perform a theoretical analysis of these private labels. We propose an original model of vertical relationships between producers and retailers which takes into account two supply sources through (i) a competitive spot market on which the retailers buy a minimum quality standard product and (ii) supply contracts aimed at marketing higher quality private labels. We study how producers and retailers could cooperate in setting up these new labels. From a public point of view, we show the complementarity of a moderate increase in public quality standards and the creation of these new private labels. JEL Classification L22. L23. Q13. Q18     

Subjective food-risk judgements in tourists

Sources of risk in contemporary tourism vary over a long array of phenomena ranging from the risk of terror attacks to risks related to food and consumption. Currently, alleged food-risk sources such as Creutzfeldt–Jacobs Disease (CJD; commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”), Salmonella, Scrapie disease and even genetically modified food are salient in mass media.In the present study, we addressed the pervasiveness of tourists’ judgements of such food-related risks. As part of a larger study, some 1880 individual tourists (from 48 different nations) answered a questionnaire pertaining to food-risk issues. Based on the logics of the availability heuristic, we expected that food risks would be judged to be lower in one's own home country than abroad. We also expected that people would rate various sources for food risk differently when rating food risks at home and abroad.The results indicate that risks linked to food are indeed perceived to be higher abroad than at home, regardless of where the respondents’ homes are, although attributions of risk to the various risk sources seem to vary between at home and abroad. The results also show a significant, but moderate correlation between travel experience and food-risk judgements abroad and at home. The results also indicate cultural differences in risk judgements concerning food.     

The effect of concentration and market power on food prices: evidence from Finland

This research examines empirically the relationship between economies of scale, concentration, and market power in food retailing. With unique, local market data available Finland, the analysis could investigate the impact of both local concentration and industry-wide concentration (which can be interpreted as multimarket contact) are taken into account in the evaluation of grocery retail competitiveness. The results show that the main factor affecting market power is the size of the retail firm. Larger share grocery retailers, for both the local and the national markets, carried higher mark-ups. At the same time, no firm-level scale economies were found from these larger firms. I conclude from these findings that the main purpose of large grocery retail mergers is to gain market power not efficiency.     

Demand for meat and dairy products by Turkish households: a Bayesian censored system approach

We extend the Tobit (censored) linear equation system procedure to utility‐theoretic demand functions, along with a mapping mechanism to impose the adding‐up restriction implied by consumer utility maximization theory—a theoretical restriction very often ignored in previous empirical studies with censored demand systems. In this context, the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedure is applied to the censored linear approximate almost ideal demand system (LAIDS) for 12 food products, using data from the Turkish Household Expenditure Survey. All own‐price elasticities are negative and expenditure elasticities positive. Uncompensated own‐price elasticities for rural households are generally much higher than those for their urban peers, though demand for most food products are own‐price elastic for both types of households. The differential patterns in demand elasticities between urban and rural households become even more evident (almost twice) as relatively more expensive foodstuffs are consumed, showing that accessibilities to alternative products have made rural Turkish households more cognizant toward price changes in foods. Household characteristics play a key role in food expenditures, notably so in urban areas, and regional and seasonal differences are also present.     

Aquaculture imports from Asia: an analysis of U.S. consumer demand for select food quality attributes

The increasing share of imported food in the United States, coupled with highly publicized incidents of food contamination and adulteration in Asia, particularly China, is posing new challenges for consumers and food safety regulators. In this study, we focus on imported shrimp and tilapia, to evaluate consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for enhanced food safety, use of antibiotics, and eco‐friendly environmental practices. Results show that U.S. consumers were willing‐to‐pay more for enhanced food safety, followed by the use of no antibiotics and environmental friendly production practices. American consumers in our sample were found to have a higher WTP for domestic products and placed more trust on U.S. government verification of product attributes followed by third‐party certification.     

应用DNA彗星电泳法检测辐照食品

通过彗星电泳法检测样品单细胞DNA损伤从而鉴别辐照食品。[方法]选取12种食品基质,经1KGy、3KGy、5KGy、7KGy、10KGy剂量辐照后,进行彗星电泳检测,并对检测时效性进行研究。[结果]除熟制鸡肉外,其他样品均可通过彗星电泳法检测到辐照状况,检测灵敏度达lKGy辐照剂量;辐照产生的DNA损伤具有明显的剂量-效应关系,以TL、TDNA％指标分析存在平台期,以TM、OTM指标分析则不存在平台期：辐照后6h-5d均可检测到明显的彗星图像。[结论]彗星电泳法适用于除熟制食品外的含DNA食品的辐照检测,方法稳定性好,检测灵敏度高。