IMPROVING THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

TAXATION, FINES, AND PRODUCER LIABILITY RULES: EFFICIENCY AND MARKET STRUCTURE IMPLICATIONS

This paper addresses the comparative efficiency of liability rules and regulatory policy in competitive equilibria with endogenous product safety. Pigouvian taxation fails to achieve long-run social optimality. A policy involving accident fines and safety subsidization can achieve efficiency, although the optimal policy may involve taxation, not subsidization, of product safety.Public Economics,

Slotting Allowances and Retail Product Variety under Oligopoly

Slotting fees are fixed charges paid by food manufacturers to retailers for access to the retail market. The role of the practice and its effects on market efficiency are highly controversial. To date, the literature has focused on the effect of the practice on retail prices; however, slotting allowances also have the potential to alter the range of products available to consumers. Our analysis reveals that the strategic use of slotting allowances by oligopoly firms leads to a superior allocation of product variety among retailers. Indeed, absent price effects, we show that slotting allowances lead to the socially optimal provision of product variety.Slotting fees, vertical contracts, monopolization., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization, Marketing, L13, L14, L42, D43,

BACKWARD IMPLICIT CONTRACTS, PRE-COMMITMENT AND MARKET POWER IN THE INTERNATIONAL DURUM WHEAT MARKET

We devise a formal test of market power that is applied to the international durum market. The model captures the asymmetric cost structure brought about the initial payment system of the Canadian Wheat Board. The model generates testable hypotheses about market conduct and optimal strategic positioning.Crop Production/Industries, Industrial Organization,

Product Liability, Entry Incentives, and Industry Structure

Industrial Organization,

Tax Incidence Under Oligopoly: A Comparison of Policy Approaches

This paper presents a methodological approach for the analysis of tax incidence that encompasses familiar forms of taxation in a general and analytically convenient model. In oligopolistic industries, the performance of a tax depends on the sensitivity of the unit tax rate to changes in industry output. Output-elastic tax schedules are less likely to be over-shifted and have superior welfare properties relative to regulatory instruments that are less responsive to the equilibrium market quantity. For revenue neutral tax reforms, the finding of Delipalla and Keen (1992) that ad valorem taxes welfare-dominate specific taxes under oligopoly is derived as a special case of this general result

Research-Based Outreach: Albert Bandura\u27s Model

Knowledge based on research is the most distinctive resource that universities have to share. The traditional approach has been simply communicating the results of research. The psychologist Albert Bandura has participated in a far more sophisticated and efficacious form of outreach in which his pathbreaking research on influencing human behavior is reinforced by multi-disciplinary and multi-investigator research in aid of writers, actors, and communication specialists. Research identifies critical issues and illuminates the causes and conditions surrounding them, guides the planning of responses, and tests their efficacy. Research-based outreach requires the theoretical and methodological tools of a multi-disciplinary team

Spatial Competition in Private Labels

Previous studies find that private labels increase retailers' bargaining power with manufacturers and allow retailers to price discriminate. We use a spatial discrete choice model to show that retailers also use store brands to create market power through store differentiation, but not as a means of building market share.Marketing,

Obesity and Hyperbolic Discounting: An Experimental Analysis

Behavioral economists maintain that addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and over-eating represent examples of present-bias in decision making that is fundamentally irrational. In this article, we develop a model of present bias and apparently hyperbolic discounting that is fully consistent with rational behavior. We construct an experiment to test our hypothesis and to determine whether discount rates differ for individuals who engage in behaviors that could endanger their health. Our results show that discount functions are quasi-hyperbolic in shape, and that obesity and drinking are positively related to the discount rate. Anti-obesity policy, therefore, would be best directed to informing individuals as to the long-term implications of short-term gratification, rather than taxing foods directly.addiction, discounting, experiments, hyperbolic, obesity, time-inconsistency., Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, C91, D12, D91, I18.,

OBESITY AND HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Behavioral economists maintain that addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and over-eating represent examples of present-bias in decision making that is fundamentally irrational. In this article, we develop a model of present bias and apparently hyperbolic discounting that is fully consistent with rational behavior. We construct an experiment to test our hypothesis and to determine whether discount rates differ for individuals who engage in behaviors that could endanger their health. Our results show that discount functions are quasi-hyperbolic in shape, and that obesity and drinking are positively related to the discount rate. Anti-obesity policy, therefore, would be best directed to informing individuals as to the long-term implications of short-term gratification, rather than taxing foods directly.addiction, discounting, experiments, hyperbolic, obesity, time-inconsistency, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, C91, D12, D91, I18,