NEW ESTIMATES OF WELFARE AND CONSUMER LOSSES IN U.S. FOOD MANUFACTURING

In the past 15 years, industrial-organization economists have significantly expanded the range of algorithms for calculating welfare losses due to imperfect competition. We compare eleven empirical estimates of economic losses due to market power in 47 U.S. food manufacturing industries, almost all of them previously unpublished. Each of the studies incorporate different theoretical assumptions about demand conditions, supply conditions, or industry pricing behavior; or they utilize various data sources, time periods, and assumptions about the proper competitive benchmark. The estimates of average allocative losses due imperfect competition range from 0.2 percent to an impossibly high 289 percent of industry output; consumer losses range from 6.0 percent to 816 percent. However, there is a high degree of congruence in the rankings of economic losses due to market power. Hence, from the perspective of antitrust enforcement, the choice of industry targets has not been greatly altered by advances in estimation techniques.Agribusiness,

MARKET-STRUCTURE DETERMINANTS OF NATIONAL BRAND-PRIVATE LABEL PRICE DIFFERENCES OF MANUFACTURED FOOD PRODUCTS

This paper estimates the relationships between market structure and the Lerner index of monopoly constructed from price data on processed food products sold through grocery stores. A theoretical model of a differentiated oligopoly specifies two determinants of price-cost margins: the Herfindahl-Hirschman index of seller concentration adjusted for the elasticity of demand and the industry advertising-to-sales ratio. The results indicate that the three principal determinants of price-cost margin variation, in order of their impacts, are: advertising intensity, elasticity of demand, and concentration. Previous structure-performance studies that did not incorporate the elasticity of demand were probably misspecified.Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis,

Viewing Lepton Mixing through the Cabibbo Haze

We explore the hypothesis that the Cabibbo angle is an expansion parameter for lepton as well as quark mixing. Cabibbo effects are deviations from zero mixing for the quarks but are deviations from unknown mixings for the leptons, such that lepton mixing is veiled by a Cabibbo haze. We present a systematic classification of parametrizations and catalog the leading order Cabibbo effects. We find that the size of the CHOOZ angle is not always correlated with the observability of CP violation. This phenomenological approach has practical merit both as a method for organizing top-down flavor models and as a guideline for planning future experiments.Comment: References added, minor typos fixe

An Annotated List of the Fishes in the Streams Tributary to the Missouri River in Iowa

This paper is a report on the fishes collected in 17 streams draining the western and southern slopes of Iowa into the Missouri River. These streams include the Big and Little Sioux, Rock, Floyd, Ocheyedan, Otter, Soldier, Boyer, Maple, Willow, Plumb, Walnut, Nishnabotnas, Nodaway, Grand, 102 and Chariton Rivers. A total of 18 families represented by 74 species of fish arc reported

Decoherence Functional and Probability Interpretation

We confirm that the diagonal elements of the Gell-Mann and Hartle's decoherence decoherence functional are equal to the relative frequencies of the results of many identical experiments, when a set of alternative histories decoheres. We consider both cases of the pure and mixed initial states.Comment: 9 pages, UCSBTH-92-40 and MMC-M-

Icosahedral (A5) Family Symmetry and the Golden Ratio Prediction for Solar Neutrino Mixing

We investigate the possibility of using icosahedral symmetry as a family symmetry group in the lepton sector. The rotational icosahedral group, which is isomorphic to A5, the alternating group of five elements, provides a natural context in which to explore (among other possibilities) the intriguing hypothesis that the solar neutrino mixing angle is governed by the golden ratio. We present a basic toolbox for model-building using icosahedral symmetry, including explicit representation matrices and tensor product rules. As a simple application, we construct a minimal model at tree level in which the solar angle is related to the golden ratio, the atmospheric angle is maximal, and the reactor angle vanishes to leading order. The approach provides a rich setting in which to investigate the flavor puzzle of the Standard Model.Comment: 22 pages, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Reality in quantum mechanics, Extended Everett Concept, and consciousness

Conceptual problems in quantum mechanics result from the specific quantum concept of reality and require, for their solution, including the observer's consciousness into quantum theory of measurements. Most naturally this is achieved in the framework of Everett's "many-worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics. According to this interpretation, various classical alternatives are perceived by consciousness separately from each other. In the Extended Everett Concept (EEC) proposed by the present author, the separation of the alternatives is identified with the phenomenon of consciousness. This explains classical character of the alternatives and unusual manifestations of consciousness arising "at the edge of consciousness" (i.e. in sleep or trance) when its access to "other alternative classical realities" (other Everett's worlds) becomes feasible. Because of reversibility of quantum evolution in EEC, all time moments in the quantum world are equivalent while the impression of flow of time appears only in consciousness. If it is assumed that consciousness may influence onto probabilities of alternatives (which is consistent in case of infinitely many Everett's worlds), EEC explains free will, "probabilistic miracles" (observing low-probability events) and decreasing entropy in the sphere of life.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures in EP

Exclusion of Stellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars

Given the frequency of stellar multiplicity in the solar neighborhood, it is important to study the impacts this can have on exoplanet properties and orbital dynamics. There have been numerous imaging survey projects established to detect possible low-mass stellar companions to exoplanet host stars. Here we provide the results from a systematic speckle imaging survey of known exoplanet host stars. In total, 71 stars were observed at 692~nm and 880~nm bands using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) at the Gemini-North Observatory. Our results show that all but 2 of the stars included in this sample have no evidence of stellar companions with luminosities down to the detection and projected separation limits of our instrumentation. The mass-luminosity relationship is used to estimate the maximum mass a stellar companion can have without being detected. These results are used to discuss the potential for further radial velocity follow-up and interpretation of companion signals.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A