Does Market Concentration Promote or Reduce New Product Introductions? Evidence from US Food Industry

This study analyzes the relationship between market concentration and new product introductions using an extensive annual panel data set covering the period 1983 to 2004 from the US processed food industry. We test the new theory, which argues that new product introductions are influenced by the anticipation of future mergers. The evidence suggests that market concentration increases new product introductions and product introductions spur subsequent mergers in the US processed food industry. Hence it provides evidence in support of the anticipatory mergers theory.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Bi-Directional Links Between Population Growth and the Environment: Evidence From India

This paper presents an empirical study of population growth and environmental change using cross-sectional district-level data from South, Central and West India. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based "greenness" index. Unlike prior work, the analysis treats population and environmental change as jointly determined, distinguishes between rural and urban populations, and identifies distinct roles of fertility and migration. Among key findings are that population and "greenness" are jointly endogenous; increased rural fertility leads to environmental decline, which in turn prompts increased fertility; environmental scarcity spurs out-migration and environmental improvement; and increased urban fertility may lead to increased environmental quality, which in turn may spur increased fertility.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Is There a Nexus between Poverty and Environment in Rural India?

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between rural poverty and environmental change using district-level data from South, Central and West India. Unlike prior works, this study puts the hypothesis of bi-directional link between poverty and environment to econometric test. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based vegetation index. Consonant with the dominant view in the literature, the evidence suggests that rural poverty spur vegetation degradation. The results also indicate that the vegetation degradation spurs rural poverty but the magnitude of the effect varies across sub regions classified on the basis of geographic and climatic factors. Thus these results provide evidence in support of existence of a poverty-environment nexus in rural India.Food Security and Poverty,

Perceptions of Violence against Women among College Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam and China

Violence against women is a global health issue that threatens the health and human rights of women. Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence are the most common forms of violence against women. While previous studies examined incidence of IPV and other forms of violence against women in the United States (US), little is known about variations in the perceptions of violence against women among college students in other countries. This study explored differences in perceptions of violence against women among college students in the US, Japan, India, Vietnam and China. A total of 1,136 college students from these countries participated in a self-administered survey in 2012-2013. The students’ perceptions about the prevalence of domestic violence is in their country varied across countries. Furthermore, more than half of the students across the countries perceived alcoholism and drug addiction to be causes of domestic violence against women. It was also found that the levels of knowledge about laws on domestic violence in their country varied among the students. These findings show the importance of understanding country level variations that may affect violence against women. The results of this study provide important insights by documenting cross country variations in students’ perceptions about violence against women that can provide helpful inputs in framing country-specific programs and policies to prevent violence against women. Keywords: Violence against women, perceptions, college students, the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, Chin

Development and the Environment: Empirical Evidence from India

The studies in this dissertation present empirical analyses of the relationship between environmental change and two important aspects of the development process - population growth and poverty. The studies have been conducted using cross-section district level data from South, West and Central India during the decade of 1990's. The use of satellite image based vegetation indices to represent environmental quality enabled accurate and reliable assessment of change in vegetation 'quality' that traditional measures like area under forests lack. The first chapter analyzes the relationship between population growth and vegetation change. It is the first study to account for the endogeneity in the relationship between population growth and environmental change in a literature that has predominantly focused on unidirectional impact of population growth on deforestation. This is also the first study to distinguish between rural and urban population growth as well as natural population growth and migration in a unified framework. The second chapter analyzes the impact of rural poverty on vegetation change while the third chapter looks at the other direction of the relationship i.e. the effect of vegetation change on rural poverty change. These two are the pioneering studies to account for the endogeneity in the relationship between rural poverty and environmental change. These studies not only shed light on the environmentally sustainable development challenges facing the developing world, they also provide ground for further investigation into the role of institutional setups in shaping these relationships

Does Market Concentration Promote or Reduce New Product Introductions? Evidence from US Food Industry

This study analyzes the relationship between market concentration and new product introductions using an extensive annual panel data set covering the period 1983 to 2004 from the US processed food industry. We test the new theory, which argues that new product introductions are influenced by the anticipation of future mergers. The evidence suggests that market concentration increases new product introductions and product introductions spur subsequent mergers in the US processed food industry. Hence it provides evidence in support of the anticipatory mergers theory

Index Insurance and Common Property Pastures

This paper presents a theoretical model to investigate the potential environmental consequences of weather index based insurance, a tool for mitigating weather risk that is gaining momentum in developing countries. We model potential effects of index insurance for pastoralists on animal stocking decisions and the resulting effects on common property resource quality. We find that although this proposed financial tool has the potential of significantly enhancing the welfare of pastoralists by enhancing expected payoffs and reducing the exit of pastoralists, under certain conditions the insurance can worsen overstocking problems in low rainfall states of nature. In these cases, the insurance has an unintended negative effect on pasture quality that can undermine the long run sustainability of the common pool resource. Model extensions show that low error seasonal climate forecasts and/or reduction in ex-post stock readjustment costs arising from market imperfections can help in mitigating this potential negative effect.Index Insurance, Pasture, Common Property

AJAE Appendix for “An Empirical Exploration of the Population-Environment Nexus in India”

This article presents an empirical study of population growth and environmental change using cross-section district-level data from South, Central, and West India. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based vegetation index. Unlike prior work, the analysis treats population growth and environmental change as jointly determined, distinguishes between rural and urban populations, and distinguishes between two components of population growth, natural growth and migration. Among key findings are that environmental decline spurs rural population growth and net rural in-migration, which prompt further environmental decline; environmental improvement spurs urban population growth and net urban in-migration; and environmental scarcity spurs environmental improvement. Key words: environmental degradation, population growth, satellite data. Links between population growth and the en-vironment are debated in many realms of so-cial science. In the long run, opposing view

Is There a Nexus between Poverty and Environment in Rural India?

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between rural poverty and environmental change using district-level data from South, Central and West India. Unlike prior works, this study puts the hypothesis of bi-directional link between poverty and environment to econometric test. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based vegetation index. Consonant with the dominant view in the literature, the evidence suggests that rural poverty spur vegetation degradation. The results also indicate that the vegetation degradation spurs rural poverty but the magnitude of the effect varies across sub regions classified on the basis of geographic and climatic factors. Thus these results provide evidence in support of existence of a poverty-environment nexus in rural India