The Regional Incidence of European Agricultural Policy: Measurement Concept and Empirical Evidence

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Markets Segmented by Regional - Origin Labeling with Quality Control

It is the objective of this paper to provide a methodological framework for the analysis of regional marketing programs which include regional-origin labeling as well as quality assurance and control. Such programs are increasingly introduced in Europe and other parts of the world as a means against quality uncertainty in globalized markets. An equilibrium - displacement model is developed for a segmented market with differential qualities that can be utilized for a broad variety of marketing programs. It is applied to one selected European case, i.e. "Gepruefte Qualitaet - Bayern". It is shown that the price impacts on high-quality and low-quality segments depend crucially on substitutive relationships between the markets and the advertising elasticities. Welfare implications for producers in a program depend strongly on advertising elasticities, too, but also on the costs of participation including quality control and on the co-financing mechanism between government and producers.regional-origin labeling, segmented markets, generic promotion, Gepruefte Qualitaet - Bayern, economic welfare, Marketing,

Regional-Origin Labeling with Quality Control: An Economic Analysis

Marketing,

Natural conditions in agriculture and the regional distribution of EU producer support

The redistributive implications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) have regained a strong interest in recent years since economic and social cohe-sion has become a major goal of European policy. The empirical evidence is surprisingly di-verse and ranges from a clearly positive to a clearly negative regional redistributive impact of the CAP. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are threefold. First, the interregional alloca-tion of EU producer support under the CAP is measured at the NUTS III-level in the period 1986-2002 for 26 regions of the German Bundesland Hesse. Second, the role of the measure-ment concept for the magnitude and distribution of the regional transfers is elaborated. Third, the interregional allocation of EU producer support is explained by natural conditions and farm structure variables within a quantitative analysis. A major result is that the interregional allocation of producer support is unequal, depends on the measure of protection used and is affected by a number of variables characterizing farm structure and natural conditions

Patients' subjective concepts about primary healthcare utilisation: the study protocol of a quality comparative study between Norway and Germany

Background In Germany, utilisation of ambulatory healthcare services is high compared with other countries: While a study based on the process data of German statutory health insurances showed an average of 17.1 physician-patient-contacts per year, the comparable figure for Norway is about five. The usual models of healthcare utilisation, such as Rosenstock's Health Belief Model and Andersen's Behavioural Model, cannot explain these differences adequately. Organisational factors of the healthcare system, such as gatekeeping, do not explain the magnitude of the differences. Our hypothesis is that patients’ subjective concepts about primary healthcare utilisation play a major role in explaining different healthcare utilisation behaviour in different countries. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore these subjective concepts comparatively, between Germany and Norway. Methods/design With that aim in mind, we chose a comparative qualitative study design. In Norway and Germany, we are going to interview 20 patients each with qualitative episodic interviews. In addition, we are going to conduct participant observation in four German and four Norwegian primary care practices. The data will be analysed by thematic coding. Using selected categories, we are going to conduct comparative case and group analyses. Ethics and dissemination The study adheres to the Declaration of Helsinki. All interviewees will sign informed consent forms and all patients will be observed during consultation. Strict rules for data security will apply. Developed theory and policy implications are going to be disseminated by a workshop, presentations for experts and laypersons and publications.publishedVersio

Comparing Customer Satisfaction across Industries and Countries

Although aggregate satisfaction measures continue to proliferate, their value in making broad-based comparisons remains unclear. This study uses arguments from the economics, psychology, sociology and marketing domains to predict systematic differences in aggregate customer satisfaction across both industries and countries. These predictions are tested using a database created from three broad-based national satisfaction surveys in Sweden, Germany and the United States. The results reveal that, across countries, satisfaction is highest for competitive products, lower for competitive services and retailers, and lower still for government and public agencies. However, the differences vary by country. Satisfaction is also predictably lower in Sweden and Germany compared to the US, and shown to change systematically in Sweden over time. Methodological differences do not appear to limit the comparability of the aggregate satisfaction measures. Overall the study supports the use of national indices for making meaningful comparisons of satisfaction on a broad scale

Ökonomische Analyse des Biosiegels

In our study we are planning to analyse panel data econometrically in order to elabo-rate determinants of the demand for organic products. The aim of this survey is to investigate demand elasticities for eco-labelled products. By means of these elastic-ities, we will derive the impact of the “Biosiegel” on prices, quantities, expenditures and welfare. Finally, we expect conclusions from our evaluation about the efficiency of merchandising organic foods by advertising the ecolabel

Bi-Laplacian Growth Patterns in Disordered Media

Experiments in quasi 2-dimensional geometry (Hele Shaw cells) in which a fluid is injected into a visco-elastic medium (foam, clay or associating-polymers) show patterns akin to fracture in brittle materials, very different from standard Laplacian growth patterns of viscous fingering. An analytic theory is lacking since a pre-requisite to describing the fracture of elastic material is the solution of the bi-Laplace rather than the Laplace equation. In this Letter we close this gap, offering a theory of bi-Laplacian growth patterns based on the method of iterated conformal maps.Comment: Submitted to PRL. For further information see http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/ander

Improving efficiency of supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers by direct degenerate four-wave-mixing

We numerically study supercontinuum (SC) generation in photonic crystal fibers pumped with low-power 30-ps pulses close to the zero dispersion wavelength 647nm. We show how the efficiency is significantly improved by designing the dispersion to allow widely separated spectral lines generated by degenerate four-wave-mixing (FWM) directly from the pump to broaden and merge. By proper modification of the dispersion profile the generation of additional FWM Stokes and anti-Stokes lines results in efficient generation of an 800nm wide SC. Simulations show that the predicted efficient SC generation is more robust and can survive fiber imperfections modelled as random fluctuations of the dispersion coefficients along the fiber length.Comment: Submited to Journal of the Optical Society of America B on 16 September 200