Cooperative Growth and Decline: A Game Theoretic Approach to Understanding Members' Allocation Choices

In the present research, the agent's choice to leave or join a cooperative is modeled to be a function of alternative investment opportunities and choices made by other agents who are faced with an identical set of possible strategies. Once the agent has made the decision to join a cooperative, the agent may reevaluate available alternatives in each period. The result is a multi-period repeated game in which the growth or decline of a cooperative is determined.Agribusiness,

Consumer Preferences for Locally Made Specialty Food Products Across Northern New England

Does willingness to pay a premium for local specialty food products differ between consumers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont? Two food categories are investigated: low-end ($5) and high-end ($20) products. Premia estimates are compared across states and across base prices within states using dichotomous choice contingent valuation methods. Results suggest that the three states of northern New England have many similarities, including comparable price premia for the lower-priced good. However, there is some evidence that the premium for the higher-priced good is greater for the pooled Vermont and Maine treatment than for the New Hampshire treatment. Vermont and New Hampshire residents are willing to pay a higher premium for a $20 than for a$5 food item, while the evidence suggests that Maine residents are not.local specialty foods, willingness to pay, contingent valuation, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

What to Choose? The Value of Label Claims to Produce Consumers

This paper addresses three key empirical questions related to health, nutrient, and process claims on front-label packaging; namely, 1) How do consumers value alternative claims on product and process-based attributes for fresh produce; 2) Are these values additively separable; and 3) To what degree is there heterogeneity between consumers on these values? We use a hypothetical choice experiment on red leaf lettuce attribute bundles, and estimate several logit models (MNL and ML) that provide estimates of marginal utilities (and with the inclusion of varying prices, marginal values) of various attributes related to general health claims, specific nutrition and health claims, certification logos related to health and nutrition currently found in the marketplace, as well as certified organic claims (relative to the conventional reference group). The results showed that consumers do distinguish between competing claims and logos, though the impacts are not always as expected, likely due to the information set used at the time of the choice. We found some evidence of attribute bundling between the health claims and the familiar Five-a-day program logo, and between organic production and a claim regarding vitamin C content. Finally, we found that use of the unconditional distributions (relative to the conditional)in a ML model overstates the degree of preference heterogeneity across the sample and overstates the magnitude of the marginal effects of the random parameters. This may create misleading impressions regarding the existence and size of specialized niche markets, the response of consumers to varying health, nutrition, or process claims, and/or the response of consumers to the introduction of new products with these (or similar) claims.Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

Direct Marketing of Fresh Produce: Understanding Consumer Purchasing Decisions

Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13,

A Case Report of Case Report Pursuit by Medical Student

Medical students often seek case reports as vehicles for academic writing opportunities, conference presentation avenues, and residency/fellowship application highlights. Here we review a case where, due to unfortunate circumstances, a student made a unique diagnosis central to proper patient clinical care, wished to write up the case subsequently, but was ultimately excluded from the final work stemming from the patient case. We review the pitfalls that occurred in the process of pursuing publication of an interesting case, the educational value of pursuing case reports for students, the necessity for strong mentorship in this process, and general principles that medical students can follow regarding case report creation to avoid being burned

Principled Exclusion: A Revised Approach to Article1(F)(a) of the Refugee Convention

The focus of this contribution is Article 1(F)(a), a section of the exclusion clause that has increased in both use and profile in recent years. Article 1(F)(a) applies to individuals who may be implicated in crimes against peace (more commonly known today as crimes of aggression), war crimes, or crimes against humanity as such crimes are defined in relevant international instruments. Where a decision maker finds that “there are serious reasons for considering that” an asylum seeker has committed one of these acts, the remainder of the Refugee Convention does not apply, and any protections to which the claimant would otherwise be entitled are consequently unavailable. Article 1(F)(a) is a particularly important part of the exclusion clause because it applies to those who have committed acts so wrongful that the international community has agreed to standards of universal applicability. It is a provision committed to ensuring that perpetrators of the worst international crimes do not subsequently benefit from the robust international protections available to refugees. The 2013 Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law brought together experts committed to articulating a principled approach to exclusion under Article 1(F)(a). This paper was drafted as the background study for that meeting and was designed to provide general principles for study and debate. In particular, the paper calls for a revised paradigm for determining when an asylum seeker ought to be denied protection on the basis that he or she is individually responsible for the international crimes listed in Article 1(F)(a)

Industry Leaders' Perspectives on Communicating the Cooperative Value Package

Communication, Cooperatives, Value Package, Agribusiness, Q13, P13,

Inculcating a Gendered Christian Internationalism: The Student YWCAs of China

Taking the little-studied Student Young Women’s Christian Associations of China as a case study, this article dissects how gendered Christian international identities were inculcated in Chinese girls at a variety of scales—local, national, and international—in the interwar years. This article highlights how Christianity, for Chinese Student YWCA members in the 1920s, provided a key tool for constructing internationalism. The Christian, patriotic, and gendered rhetoric of “duty,” “service,” and “sacrifice” enabled Chinese girls to salve tensions between their national and international identities in an era of mounting antiforeign hostility. YWCA members also drew on women’s peacemaking roles to step into the international public sphere. The YWCA provided students with training in leadership, organizational skills, and, in some cases, international diplomacy. While they drew on the rhetorical devices, skills, tactics, and training provided by entry into international women’s networks, YWCA members adapted the message to suit their own needs and objectives