Wine Taxes, Production, Aging and Quality

We consider the impact of taxes on the quantity and quality produced of goods, such as wine, for which market value accrues with age by a competitive producer. Any pair of taxes that includes a volumetric sales tax and any one of three other types of tax – an ad valorem sales tax, an ad valorem storage tax, or a volumetric storage tax – spans the full range of feasible tax revenues with positive tax rates. For any tax system that reduces quality relative to the firm’s no-tax equilibrium, there is another tax system that increases tax revenues, eliminates the quality distortion, and does not increase the quantity distortion. Many wine industry observers believe that most, if not all, existing tax systems tend to result in the suboptimal provision of quality. Our results suggest that the wide variety of wine tax systems is not prima facie evidence that these systems, or most of them, are inefficient. Provided the system includes a volumetric sales tax it may be efficient, regardless of which of the other instruments, or how many of them, are used. Assertions regarding inefficiency must be evaluated on an empirical case-by-case basis. Our analysis provides a theoretical framework for such research.aging, Alchian-Allen effect, tax policy, wine

Milk Marketing Order Winners and Losers

Determining the impacts on consumers of government policies affecting the demand for food products requires a theoretically consistent micro-level demand model. We estimate a system of demands for weekly city-level dairy product purchases by nonlinear three stage least squares to account for joint determination between quantities and prices. We analyze the distributional effects of federal milk marketing orders, and find results that vary substantially across demographic groups. Families with young children suffer, while wealthier childless couples benefit. We also find that households with lower incomes bear a greater regulatory burden due to marketing orders than those with higher income levels.Milk, marketing orders, dairy industry regulation

Milk Marketing Order Winners and Losers

Do milk marketing orders affect various demographic groups differently? To answer this question, we use supermarket scanner data to estimate an incomplete demand system for dairy products. Based on these estimates, we simulate substitution effects among dairy products and the welfare impacts of price changes resulting from changes in milk marketing orders for various consumer groups. While we find little difference in own- and cross-price substitution elasticities of demand, the welfare effects of price changes vary substantially across demographic groups, with some losing and others winning from this government program. Families with young children suffer from marketing orders, while wealthier childless couples benefit. Additionally, we find that households with lower incomes pay a larger percentage of their income due to marketing orders than those with higher income levels.Consumer/Household Economics,

Milk Marketing Orders: Who Wins and Who Loses?

Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13, Q18,

Femicide and the politics of acknowledgement : a feminist analysis of news representations of lethal male violence against women

vii, 323 leaves ; 28 cm.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-323).In analyzing four specific cases of femicide covered in Canadian national newspapers through a feminist poststructuralist framework, this thesis demonstrates that femicide cases are regularly explained as isolated acts of violence. This thesis examines how specific language and discourses chosen by the news media obscure the gendered and sexist meanings of the violence taken out on women's bodies. This project challenges the dominant patriarchal discourses implicit in newspaper coverage and questions how false, problematic, representations of femicides perpetuate ignorance of systemic gender inequalities in our society. The argument presented throughout the thesis explains that if the media used the gender-specific terminology of "femicide," they would be directing attention to women's inequality in society and the politics underlying women's deaths. Redefining language and recreating language in feminist terms, therefore, is not only a form of resistance to patriarchal power but it also allows for creating and taking part in new political spaces of power

Face the Music and Glance: How Nonverbal Behaviour Aids Human Robot Relationships Based in Music

It is our hypothesis that improvised musical interaction will be able to provide the extended engagement often failing others during long term Human Robot Interaction (HRI) trials. Our previous work found that simply framing sessions with their drumming robot Mortimer as social interactions increased both social presence and engagement, two factors we feel are crucial to developing and maintaining a positive and meaningful relationship between human and robot. For this study we investigate the inclusion of the additional social modalities, namely head pose and facial expression, as nonverbal behaviour has been shown to be an important conveyor of information in both social and musical contexts. Following a 6 week experimental study using automatic behavioural metrics, results demonstrate those subjected to nonverbal behaviours not only spent more time voluntarily with the robot, but actually increased the time they spent as the trial progressed. Further, that they interrupted the robot less during social interactions and played for longer uninterrupted. Conversely, they also looked at the robot less in both musical and social contexts. We take these results as support for open ended musical activity providing a solid grounding for human robot relationships and the improvement of this by the inclusion of appropriate nonverbal behaviours

Imperfect Price Deflation in Production Systems

Numeraire prices that are measured with error create challenges for econometric estimation. A straightforward approach for a model with linear input demands, such as generated from a quadratic normalized profit function, is proposed where the numeraire price is measured with error. Numeraire measurement error is likely because expected output price is measured imperfectly by actual output price. An approach using generalized method of moments is developed to estimate such errors-in-variables systems that avoids use of extra-sample data or additional structural specifications. Monte-Carlo examination of small sample properties shows promise. Measurement error is statistically significant using aggregate U.S. agricultural data

Research applications of primary biodiversity databases in the digital age.

Our world is in the midst of unprecedented change-climate shifts and sustained, widespread habitat degradation have led to dramatic declines in biodiversity rivaling historical extinction events. At the same time, new approaches to publishing and integrating previously disconnected data resources promise to help provide the evidence needed for more efficient and effective conservation and management. Stakeholders have invested considerable resources to contribute to online databases of species occurrences. However, estimates suggest that only 10% of biocollections are available in digital form. The biocollections community must therefore continue to promote digitization efforts, which in part requires demonstrating compelling applications of the data. Our overarching goal is therefore to determine trends in use of mobilized species occurrence data since 2010, as online systems have grown and now provide over one billion records. To do this, we characterized 501 papers that use openly accessible biodiversity databases. Our standardized tagging protocol was based on key topics of interest, including: database(s) used, taxa addressed, general uses of data, other data types linked to species occurrence data, and data quality issues addressed. We found that the most common uses of online biodiversity databases have been to estimate species distribution and richness, to outline data compilation and publication, and to assist in developing species checklists or describing new species. Only 69% of papers in our dataset addressed one or more aspects of data quality, which is low considering common errors and biases known to exist in opportunistic datasets. Globally, we find that biodiversity databases are still in the initial stages of data compilation. Novel and integrative applications are restricted to certain taxonomic groups and regions with higher numbers of quality records. Continued data digitization, publication, enhancement, and quality control efforts are necessary to make biodiversity science more efficient and relevant in our fast-changing environment