SOURCES OF IRREVERSIBLE CONSUMER DEMAND IN U.S. DAIRY PRODUCTS

Irreversible demand is relevant to pricing strategy and demand modeling with weekly data. Competing explanations include loss aversion and stockpiling. Irreversible models for U.S. cheese and table spreads suggest that stockpiling dominates loss aversion. Price smoothing may be an inappropriate strategy in this case. Reversible demand models applied to weekly data may overestimate own-price elasticities.Demand and Price Analysis,

Optimal stockpiling policies for resource-dependent economies

In this paper we derive optimal stockpiling policies for an economy that faces an embargo threat with respect to essential resources. The properties of the optimal program depend crucially on the access of this country to a perfect capital market and on the factor allocation in embargo periods. This paper is similar to Bergstrom/Loury/Persson (1985) but in contrast to them focuses on the relationship of stockpiling to domestically produced resources and on the use of these resources as an input in production.

EU solidarity and policy in fighting infectious diseases: state of play, obstacles, citizen preferences and ways forward

In this paper we confront the role the EU traditionally plays in the domain of health with the urgent need for collective action triggered by the corona virus pandemic. In the face of such a crisis, we argue that the joint procurement, stockpiling and allocation of medical countermeasures is a key component of true European solidarity, besides maintaining the integrity of the Single Market. We present the first results of a survey experiment taken before the current crisis on citizens’ attitudes towards centralizing at the EU level of policies to combat infectious diseases, which indicates considerable support. We conclude that a more robust policy framework with substantial centralization of procurement, stockpiling and allocation is warranted

On the economics of consumer stockpiling

Consumer stockpiling is a crucial retail phenomenon that has received wide academic attention. However, some related issues still remain unaddressed, with implications for many areas of economics policy. By focusing on consumer stockpiling, this thesis provides four theoretical essays to better understand these topics. The first essay analyses the implications for demand elasticities. It proposes a general foundation to understand how empirical estimates of own- and cross-price elasticities of demand can be biased when the effects of consumer stockpiling are not fully considered. It suggests that both the own- and cross-price elasticity biases can be positive, negative, or zero depending upon intuitive theoretical conditions. The second essay then places more structure on the above-mentioned general framework by developing a duopoly model of stockpiling with differentiated products. Within this model, the results show that the equilibrium measures of the own- and cross-price elasticity biases are both (weakly) positive. This essay then analyses when such biases matter most. The third essay considers market entry. It introduces consumer stockpiling behaviour into an n-firm oligopoly with differentiated products. First, we show that for any finite number of firms, any symmetric equilibrium involves a positive level of consumer stockpiling. Second, by introducing free entry, we show that the excess entry theorem continues to hold under consumer stockpiling. Finally, we show how consumer stockpiling can result in biased empirical estimates of demand elasticities, and how this varies with the numbers of firm in the market. The fourth essay introduces Behavioural-Based Price Discrimination (BBPD) into a storable product market. It shows that, in equilibrium, consumer stockpiling behaviour can be used as a device for the firm to perform BBPD. The results show that consumer stockpiling improves consumer surplus and profit despite the associated BBP

Comparison of different strategies to measure medication adherence via claims data in patients with chronic heart failure

Medication adherence correlates with morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), but is difficult to assess. We conducted a retrospective methodological cohort study in 3,808 CHF patients, calculating adherence as proportion of days covered (PDC) utilizing claims data from 2010 to 2015. We aimed to compare different parameters’ influence on the PDC of elderly CHF patients exemplifying a complex chronic disease. Investigated parameters were the assumed prescribed daily dose (PDD), stockpiling, and periods of hospital stay. Thereby, we investigated a new approach using the PDD assigned to different percentiles. The different dose assumptions had the biggest influence on the PDC, with variations from 41.9% to 83.7%. Stockpiling and hospital stays increased the values slightly. These results queries that a reliable PDC can be calculated with an assumed PDD. Hence, results based on an assumed PDD have to be interpreted carefully and should be presented with sensitivity analyses to show the PDC's possible range

Digestibility, perloline content, and year-round production of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea schreb) as influenced by soil fertility and stock-piling schemes

The in vitro digestible dry matter (DDM), perloline content, yield, and chemical composition of Kentucky 31 tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), grown on an Etowah clay loam soil, were determined in two experiments involving various fertility and stockpiling management practices. The chemical composition included analyses for NO3-N, N, P, K, Mg, and Ca. Samples also were taken to determine the percent dry matter. Nitrogen fertilization rates were 0, 50, 63, 125, and 250 kg of N/ha, applied from one to seven times per year, depending on the rate. Phosphorus and K rates, when applied, were 30 kg of P and 60 kg of K/ha. Stockpiling schemes consisted of spring, summer, late summer, fall, and spring/fall stockpiling periods. Nitrogen fertilization increased the yield and the contents of perloline, NO3-N, N, and K of tall fescue forage. High rates of N fertilization increased the DDM of tall fescue. Nitrogen fertilization decreased the percent dry matter and had variable effects on the P, Ca, and Mg contents. Phosphorus and K fertilization had little effect on any of the variables analyzed. Spring stockpiling resulted in the highest yields of the stockpiling schemes. The summer regrowth after spring stockpiling was higher in DDM and content of perloline, N, and K than the continuously clipped fescue. Fall stockpiling resulted in lower yields than the other schemes. Stockpiled forage was lower in DDM and content of N and P, but variable in contents of K, Mg, and Ca. Nitrogen fertilization was the only variable that increased the perloline content other than the increase observed in the regrowth after spring stockpiling. The higher levels of perloline did not affect DDM

Securing circulation pharmaceutically: antiviral stockpiling and pandemic preparedness in the European Union

Governments in Europe and around the world amassed vast pharmaceutical stockpiles in anticipation of a potentially catastrophic influenza pandemic. Yet the comparatively ‘mild’ course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic provoked considerable public controversy around those stockpiles, leading to questions about their cost–benefit profile and the commercial interests allegedly shaping their creation, as well as around their scientific evidence base. So, how did governments come to view pharmaceutical stockpiling as such an indispensable element of pandemic preparedness planning? What are the underlying security rationalities that rapidly rendered antivirals such a desirable option for government planners? Drawing upon an in-depth reading of Foucault’s notion of a ‘crisis of circulation’, this article argues that the rise of pharmaceutical stockpiling across Europe is integral to a governmental rationality of political rule that continuously seeks to anticipate myriad circulatory threats to the welfare of populations – including to their overall levels of health. Novel antiviral medications such as Tamiflu are such an attractive policy option because they could enable governments to rapidly modulate dangerous levels of (viral) circulation during a pandemic, albeit without disrupting all the other circulatory systems crucial for maintaining population welfare. Antiviral stockpiles, in other words, promise nothing less than a pharmaceutical securing of circulation itself

Summer Stockpiling

The downloadable document includes these components: Stockpiling Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue for Summer Grazing The Yield and Nutritive Value of Tall Fescue Stockpiled for Summer Grazing Using a Summer Stockpiling System to Extend the Grazing Seaso

Biocontrol Agents and Plant Inoculants: Implications for Strengthening the BTWC

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Preamble

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