Policy Decision Making Framework for Considering the Economic and Non-Economic Effects of Changing Animal Welfare Regulations

Animal welfare policies are often dealing with complex issues that are value laden and quite complex for New Zealand society to consider and evaluate. As a result, it may be difficult for agencies to converge upon policies that provide equally desirable and universally popular solutions. In some cases, achieving a consensus about what constitutes the most socially desirable course of action to follow may simply not be possible. The 4-Windows strategy originally developed by Bob Flood can provide a systems framework that brings together differing policy paradigms and methodologies. Each window has been further developed in this study for examining a particular type of policy question about the central issue. Economic analyses can be incorporated as a component within these approaches. When applied to farming practices of concern to animal welfare agencies, such as lamb castration, bringing the results from each of the windows can be brought together in a decision matrix can providing new insights into different world views and ways of incorporating a range of world views in the development of new policy.Policy, animal welfare, world views, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Resale Price Maintenance After Monsanto: A Doctrine Still at War With Itself

In this article, two enforcement officials at the Federal Trade Commission reexamine resale price maintenance in light of the Supreme Court\u27s recent decision in Monsanto Co. v. Spray-Rite Service Corp. Commissioner Calvani and Mr. Berg consider both antitrust law and economic policy in their review of the history of resale price maintenance; they point out the chronic inconsistencies to which this antitrust regime has been subject, and identify these same inconsistencies at work in Monsanto. The authors set forth three theses with respect to Monsanto: first, that the Court intimated a willingness to reconsider at some future time the per se standard of illegality for resale price maintenance; second, that the Court recognized the continuing vitality of the Colgate doctrine, which had been seriously questioned in recent years; and, third, that the Monsanto Court unsuccessfully attempted to delineate a workable evidentiary standard applicable to communications between sellers and resellers when it is alleged that such communications constitute an illegal contract, combination, or conspiracy under section one of the Sherman Act. The authors suggest that, taken together, these elements in Monsanto display a doctrine at war with itself. The authors conclude by examining the possible implications of the Monsanto decision for the future direction of the law of resale price maintenance

Views of Primary Producers in the Taupo and Rotorua catchments: implications for water quality policy

Lakes Taupo and Rotorua are important to New Zealand, but declining lake water quality is increasingly becoming a problem. Primary producers are said to be impacting heavily on the lakes' water quality through discharges that reach them through streams and ground water. The paper discusses the results of ongoing social research in the lakes' catchments. Data gathering was through literature reviews, interviews and workshops. The views, farming goals and perceived mediocre to poor adoptability of new environmental practices and technologies by primary producers in the lakes' catchments indicate that policy instruments encouraging voluntary change are unlikely to positively impact on water quality.Adoptability, policy instrument, farming goals, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Learning Model of Technology Transfer for the Kiwifruit Industry

In July 2003, ZESPRI International merged the Technology Transfer team that had historically been focused on achieving uptake of new technologies with ZESPRI Innovation, the team that had been responsible for the development of new technologies. This change has combined skills in research, development and extension into a single, co-ordinated grouping to improve grower profitability through a greater contribution to supply chain developments and grower learning. The Industry Development strategy of ZESPRI Innovation is based upon a model of industry learning. The model takes into account the needs of a range of stakeholders in the supply chain, the technologies, the necessity for the industry to have clear market signals, and the different learning styles of growers. Applying the model will involve ZESPRI staff in traditional industry development events such as field days and industry development communiqués (e.g. newsletters) and a website, together with new technology development projects e.g. monitor orchards and “industry is the lab” projects. ZESPRI Innovation is moving beyond a historical “recipe-based” approach in technology transfer, to one that empowers industry participants to make effective commercial decisions based upon their own learning and knowledge. The application of developments in learning theory is an important component to the new strategy and to its on-going development.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Industrial Organization, Land Economics/Use,

Time on the Market: The Impact of Residential Brokerage

IThis paper examines the impact of brokers, brokerage firms and marketing strategy on time on the market (TOM) in the residential housing market. Using a duration model methodology, the study finds duration dependence to be positive, suggesting that the probability of sale increases with TOM. Pricing-related marketing strategies are found to strongly influence TOM, but individual agent and firm characteristics are not statistically significant. These results are consistent with an efficient market within a multiple listing serviceÐÐno group of agents or firms appears to possess special advantages enabling them to sell homes more quickly than their rivals.

Thermalization and Return to Equilibrium on Finite Quantum Lattice Systems

Thermal states are the bedrock of statistical physics. Nevertheless, when and how they actually arise in closed quantum systems is not fully understood. We consider this question for systems with local Hamiltonians on finite quantum lattices. In a first step, we show that states with exponentially decaying correlations equilibrate after a quantum quench. Then we show that the equilibrium state is locally equivalent to a thermal state, provided that the free energy of the equilibrium state is sufficiently small and the thermal state has exponentially decaying correlations. As an application, we look at a related important question: When are thermal states stable against noise? In other words, if we locally disturb a closed quantum system in a thermal state, will it return to thermal equilibrium? We rigorously show that this occurs when the correlations in the thermal state are exponentially decaying. All our results come with finite-size bounds, which are crucial for the growing field of quantum thermodynamics and other physical applications.Comment: 8 pages (5 for main text and 3 for appendices); v2 is essentially the published versio