Disaggregated welfare effects of agricultural price policies in urban Indonesia

This paper presents a theoretically consistent methodology that could be used to measure changes in different income groups' welfare level caused by alternative price policies. The paper details the basic stages of the methodology: classification of households in income groups, estimation of demand systems for each income group, and measurement of welfare changes using compensating variation measures. The methodology was applied to data related to expenditure and socioeconomic characteristics of Indonesian Urban households. A simulation analysis measuring the welfare changes under different pricing scenarios showed that the welfare of the low-income households was affected most by increases in the prices of rice and fish

Estimating demand for food commodities by income groups in Indonesia

An analysis of the structure of demand was performed on household data, classified into income groups for urban Indonesia. A demographically augmented Linearized Almost Ideal Demand System was used to estimate the structural parameters of the demand equations. Endogenous switching regressions techniques yielded unbiased and consistent demand parameter estimates for the low income group, which had a large number of zeros for some food groups. Standard seemingly unrelated equation techniques were used to estimate the demand parameters for the other income groups. The results showed demands for the medium-high and high income households to be responsive to prices, income and demographic variables. Demands for the medium-low income households were responsive to income and prices only. Demands for lowincome households were responsive to income and prices of rice and fish only

Manipulation of optically fabricated particle arrays using broadband radiation

Consideration is given to methods of manipulating optically fabricated particle arrays using broadband radiation and a superposition of optical fields. Specifically, the changes that the optical binding energy experiences, when part of the spectrum of this light is filtered, are analyzed. It is then shown that these optically induced arrays can be reordered by the introduction of additional fields with transverse Poynting vectors. Subsequently, it is shown how pairs of particles can be reordered on a surface by modifying the form of the optical binding interaction. Finally, the effect of particle size on these methods is briefly discussed

A methodology for the development of a sustainability index for construction works in Spain

The present paper tries to describe in a systematic way the process followed to develop a methodology to obtain a Sustainable Index for Construction Works in Spain. Given the complexity of the task at hand, and having into account that this is the first attempt within the Spanish construction sector to create an integrating index, the description of the process becomes indispensable in order to replicate the index in a different context –e.g. another European country-. On the other hand, the development of an index with a triple focus -economic, environmental and social-, transcending the interests of the different activities which coexist inside this sector, and joining efforts towards a common objective fills an existing gap in the Spanish construction sector, as it will be shown. The proposed index aims at establishing, on a permanent basis, a common reference for the assessment of sustainability within this sector, to the improvement of which all parties involved could and should contribute