A STRATEGIC RATIONALE FOR CAPTIVE SUPPLIES

Partial backward integration is prevalent in many agricultural and natural resource processing industries. A strategic rationale for partial backward integration is developed for a dominant firm with a competitive fringe purchasing from competitive input suppliers. A partially backward integrated dominant firm potentially can increase profit through production efficiency gains and through a lower price for externally purchasing input. The optimal degree of backward integration results when the dominant firm's profit from exerting monopsony market power in the external spot market equals its profit from producing raw input internally, less the incremental cost of acquiring internal raw input production capacity. Comparative statics results are consistent with recent empirical studies of the beef packing industry.Agribusiness,

A REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE EXPECTATIONS REGIMES IN COMMODITY MARKETS: SPECIFICATION, ESTIMATION, AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING USING STRUCTURAL MODELS

Price expectations play a critical role in commodity markets where producers must make input decisions well before output is realized. This paper brings together alternative expectations regimes, their estimation, and hypothesis tests for use in structural commodity models to determine their use by commodity producers. Extrapolative mechanisms and rational expectations are considered under risk neutrality and risk aversion. The assumptions implicit in the use of aggregate data in these models are made explicit. Structural models using individual survey data are discussed. While Muth's rational expectations hypothesis has found widespread acceptance in the macroeconomic literature, empirical results from industry studies indicate that commodity producers may have heterogeneous price expectations, with no single expectations hypothesis dominating. This is not surprising given that different producers possess different information and have different costs associated with information collection and processing.Demand and Price Analysis,

A RATIONALE FOR CAPTIVE SUPPLIES

Captive supplies, concentration, meat industry, poultry industry, Agribusiness,

The implications of performance management for teacher professionalism

In the UK over the past twenty years, notions of teacher professionalism have shifted in response to a series of changes to teachers\u27 work processes wroughtby successive governments. Increasing emphasis on accountability, curriculum prescription and performance indicators has diminished teacher autonomy and eroded personal responsibility for professional development. It is argued in the paper that the current Performance management agenda legitimates this erosion through the rhetoric of raising standards

ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION ON PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY STRUCTURE

Environmental regulations are hypothesized to have an impact on industry structure in manufacturing industries. A nonstationary Markov chain analysis shows that the capital expenditures required to meet environmental regulations is a statistically significant variable explaining increasing concentration of production capacity in the pulp and paper industry.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Quantitative approach for the risk assessment of African swine fever and Classical swine fever introduction into the United States through legal imports of pigs and swine products.

The US livestock safety strongly depends on its capacity to prevent the introduction of Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs). Therefore, accurate and updated information on the location and origin of those potential TADs risks is essential, so preventive measures as market restrictions can be put on place. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the current risk of African swine fever (ASF) and Classical swine fever (CSF) introduction into the US through the legal importations of live pigs and swine products using a quantitative approach that could be later applied to other risks. Four quantitative stochastic risk assessment models were developed to estimate the monthly probabilities of ASF and CSF release into the US, and the exposure of susceptible populations (domestic and feral swine) to these introductions at state level. The results suggest a low annual probability of either ASF or CSF introduction into the US, by any of the analyzed pathways (5.5*10-3). Being the probability of introduction through legal imports of live pigs (1.8*10-3 for ASF, and 2.5*10-3 for CSF) higher than the risk of legally imported swine products (8.90*10-4 for ASF, and 1.56*10-3 for CSF). This could be caused due to the low probability of exposure associated with this type of commodity (products). The risk of feral pigs accessing to swine products discarded in landfills was slightly higher than the potential exposure of domestic pigs through swill feeding. The identification of the months at highest risk, the origin of the higher risk imports, and the location of the US states most vulnerable to those introductions (Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin for live swine and California, Florida and Texas for swine products), is valuable information that would help to design prevention, risk-mitigation and early-detection strategies that would help to minimize the catastrophic consequences of potential ASF/CSF introductions into the US

Effect of Plant Location Decisions on Raw Material Input Prices

In processing industries, plant location decisions are costly and have consequences for firm profitability. When raw materials are heavy or perishable, transportation costs limit shipping distances and processors must compete locally for raw material inputs. To determine the likely profitability of a new plant, a processor must forecast the effect entry will have on local post-entry raw material price. This requires anticipating how entry will affect market structure and intensify competition for raw materials. Using an econometric representation of game-theoretic Nash equilibria relating input prices to processor competition in local procurement areas, an empirical model is developed to ex ante forecast the likely impact of entry on input price. The methods developed are applicable to a wide variety of industries where historic data are available.input price, entry, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries,

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SOUTHERN FORESTS

A multiperiod regional mathematical programming model is used to evaluate the potential economic impacts of global climatic change on the southern U.S. forestry sector. Scenarios for forest biological response to climate change are developed for small and large changes in forest growth rates. Resulting changes in timber supply have economic impacts on producers and consumers in forest products markets, both nationally and regionally. Conclusions include outer dimensions of global climate change impacts and potential effects of smaller biological responses on the forestry sector both nationally and in the U.S. South. Relative impacts are found to be larger for producers than for consumers, and southern producers experience relatively greater changes in economic welfare.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Successful Downstaging of High Rectal and Recto-Sigmoid Cancer by Neo-Adjuvant Chemo-Radiotherapy

© 2008 Libertas Academica Ltd. All rights reserved.Purpose: The benefit of neoadjuvant therapy for tumours above the peritoneal reflection is not clear. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility and downstaging of treating locally advanced tumours from high rectum to distal sigmoid with preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT).Methods and Materials: Seventeen patients with high rectal, rectosigmoid or distal sigmoid tumours above the peritoneal reflection received neoadjuvant CRT, selected on MRI findings indicating T4 disease or threatened circumferential resection margin. All patients were administered neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with Oxaliplatin or Mitomycin C and a Fluoropyrimidine. The pelvis received long-course CT-planned conformal RT, 45 Gy in 25 fractions, with a boost of 5.4–9 Gy in 3–5 fractions. Thirteen patients were treated with concomitant oral or intravenous Fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy.Results: Median follow-up was 37 months. Overall survival was 82.35% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 54.7–93.9) and disease free survival 81.25% (95% CI 52.5–93.5). Only 1 patient suffered loco-regional relapse. Chemotherapy regimens were well tolerated, though some patients required dose reductions. Nine patients (52.9%) lowered pathologic disease AJCC stage, i.e. ‘downstaged’. Six patients (35.3%) achieved complete pathological response. Clear margins were attained in all but 1 patient. Three patients were converted from cT4 to ypT3. No patient required a gap during CRT. One patient suffered a grade III acute toxicity, but no grade IV (RTOG). There were 3 grade III and 3 grade IV late toxicities (LENT-SOMA).Conclusions: Locally advanced high rectal and recto-sigmoid tumours may be treated with pre-operative CRT with acceptable toxicity, impressive down-staging, and clear surgical margins

Integrated Disposal Facility FY2011 Glass Testing Summary Report

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was contracted by Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the engineered portion of the disposal facility (e.g., source term). Vitrifying the low-activity waste at Hanford is expected to generate over 1.6 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3} of glass (Certa and Wells 2010). The volume of immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) at Hanford is the largest in the DOE complex and is one of the largest inventories (approximately 8.9 x 10{sup 14} Bq total activity) of long-lived radionuclides, principally {sup 99}Tc (t{sub 1/2} = 2.1 x 10{sup 5}), planned for disposal in a low-level waste (LLW) facility. Before the ILAW can be disposed, DOE must conduct a performance assessment (PA) for the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) that describes the long-term impacts of the disposal facility on public health and environmental resources. As part of the ILAW glass testing program PNNL is implementing a strategy, consisting of experimentation and modeling, in order to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the glass waste form in support of future IDF PAs. The purpose of this report is to summarize the progress made in fiscal year (FY) 2011 toward implementing the strategy with the goal of developing an understanding of the long-term corrosion behavior of low-activity waste glasses