NEGATIVE MILK SUPPLY RESPONSE UNDER CONSTRAINED PROFIT MAXIMIZING BEHAVIOR

A conceptual model is formulated that shows that a downward sloping supply function may exist for a profit maximizing firm facing a cash-flow constraint. The necessary requirement is that at least one factor must be a non-cash input. The model is tested using analysis of variance on two groups of producers from farm record data, one group facing a binding budget constraint the other group not. The results indicate that farms facing a cash flow constraint increase output more than farms not restricted by a cash flow constraint in response to a price decrease.Livestock Production/Industries,

Symmetrization and enhancement of the continuous Morlet transform

The forward and inverse wavelet transform using the continuous Morlet basis may be symmetrized by using an appropriate normalization factor. The loss of response due to wavelet truncation is addressed through a renormalization of the wavelet based on power. The spectral density has physical units which may be related to the squared amplitude of the signal, as do its margins the mean wavelet power and the integrated instant power, giving a quantitative estimate of the power density with temporal resolution. Deconvolution with the wavelet response matrix reduces the spectral leakage and produces an enhanced wavelet spectrum providing maximum resolution of the harmonic content of a signal. Applications to data analysis are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, minor revision, final versio

CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS BOVINE SOMATOTROPIN

This article investigates the possible negative effects of bovine somatotropin (bST) and antibiotic use in cows on fluid-milk consumption in New York State. Based on data from a consumer survey, the potential change in milk consumption due to bST and antibiotic use is estimated. In addition, the current perceptions of consumers about bST and antibiotics are measured, and the significant socioeconomic, demographic, and attitudinal characteristics of consumers that are related to their milk-consumption response to bST are identified. Depending upon consumer awareness of bST, the results indicate that milk consumption in New York State could decrease by 5.5% to 15.6% if bST is approved. The results also suggest that antibiotic use in cows could decrease milk consumption by 1.6% to 7%, depending upon consumer awareness. A major implication is that education will likely play an important role in influencing consumers' attitudes and perceptions about both bST and antibiotics.Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries,

Scales in nuclear matter: Chiral dynamics with pion nucleon form factors

A systematic calculation of nuclear matter is performed which includes the long-range correlations between nucleons arising from one- and two-pion exchange. Three-body effects from $2\pi$-exchange with excitations of virtual $\Delta(1232)$-isobars are also taken into account in our diagrammatic calculation of the energy per particle $\bar E(k_f)$. In order to eliminate possible high-momentum components from the interactions we introduce at each pion-baryon vertex a form factor of monopole type. The empirical nuclear matter saturation point, $\rho_0 \simeq 0.16$fm$^{-3}$, $\bar E_0\simeq -16$MeV, is well reproduced with a monopole mass of $\Lambda \simeq 4\pi f_\pi \simeq 1.16$GeV. As in the recent approach based on the universal low-momentum $NN$-potential $V_{\rm low-k}$, the inclusion of three-body effects is crucial in order to achieve saturation of nuclear matter. We demonstrate that the dependence of the pion-exchange contributions to $\bar E(k_f)$ on the ''resolution'' scale $\Lambda$ can be compensated over a wide range of $\Lambda$ by counterterms with two ''running'' contact-couplings. As a further application we study the in-medium chiral condensate $(\rho)$ beyond the linear density approximation. For $\rho \leq 1.5 \rho_0$ we find small corrections from the derivative $d \bar E(k_f)/d m_\pi$, which are stable against variations of the monopole regulator mass $\Lambda$.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Measuring and Testing Advertising-Induced Rotation in the Demand Curve

Advertising can rotate the demand curve if it changes the dispersion of consumers valuations. We provide an elasticity form measure of the advertising-induced demand curve rotation in five demand models and test for its presence in the U.S. non-alcoholic beverage market. The AIDS model reveals that doubling advertising spending rotates the demand curves clockwise for milk, and coffee and tea with associated slope changes of 7.3% and 11.6%. Soft-drink advertising rotates its demand curve counterclockwise. Our policy suggestion is that milk and soft-drink firms might enhance profits by timing advertising to coincide with high- and low-price periods, respectively.Demand and Price Analysis,

ADVERTISING, STRUCTURAL CHANGE, AND U.S. NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE DEMAND

The dominant trend in U.S. non-alcoholic consumption over the past two decades has been a steady increase in soft-drink consumption, largely at the expense of milk and coffee and tea consumption. Our analysis suggests that the primary factors affecting this is that the price, advertising, and demographic elasticities estimated from the Rotterdam model are much smaller than the adjusted trend coefficients and the expenditure elasticities.Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Reconstructing Positions \& Peculiar Velocities of Galaxy Clusters within 25000 km/sec: The Bulk Velocity

Using a dynamical 3-D reconstruction procedure we estimate the peculiar velocities of $R\ge0$ Abell/ACO galaxy clusters from their measured redshift within 25000 km/sec. The reconstruction algorithm relies on the linear gravitational instability hypothesis, assumes linear biasing and requires an input value of the cluster $\beta$-parameter ($\beta_c \equiv \Omega_{\circ}^{0.6}/b_c$), which we estimated in Branchini \& Plionis (1995) to be $\beta_c\simeq 0.21$. The resulting cluster velocity field is dominated by a large scale streaming motion along the Perseus Pisces--Great Attractor base-line directed towards the Shapley concentration, in qualitative agreement with the galaxy velocity field on smaller scales. Fitting the predicted cluster peculiar velocities to a dipole term, in the local group frame and within a distance of $\sim 18000$ km/sec, we recover extremely well both the local group velocity and direction, in disagreement with the Lauer \& Postman (1994) observation. However, we find a $\sim 6\%$ probability that their observed velocity field could be a realization of our corresponding one, if the latter is convolved with their large distance dependent errors. Our predicted cluster bulk velocity amplitude agrees well with that deduced by the POTENT and the da Costa et al. (1995) analyses of observed galaxy motions at $\sim 5000 - 6000$ km/sec; it decreases thereafter while at the Lauer \& Postman limiting depth ($\sim 15000$ km/sec) its amplitude is $\sim 150$ km/sec, in comfortable agreement with most cosmological models.Comment: 8 pages, uuencoded compressed tarred postscript file uncluding text and 3 figures. Accepted in ApJ Letter