Evaluating Teaching Methods: Is It Worth Doing Right?

Reviewers of manuscripts on classroom experiments often ask the authors to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the method, presumably to justify substituting experiments for lectures. After reviewing the current state of evaluation methodology, we argue that such evidence may be neither sufficient nor even necessary for the purpose.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

PRICING STRATEGY UNDER MONOPOLY CONDITIONS: AN EXPERIMENT FOR THE CLASSROOM

This classroom experiment allows students to explore pricing strategies available to the monopolist. Students are given full information about their costs but know nothing about demand except that it is simulated by the instructor. They submit their price-asked and quantity-offered records on one day and receive the quantity-sold response from the instructor on the next day, continuing this routine until they discover the profit-maximizing price and quantity. One of the objectives is to demonstrate that search strategies based on economic principles (MC=MR) can be more efficient than trial-and-error.Experimental economics, Games, Monopolistic, Teaching, Demand and Price Analysis, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

U.S. Preferences for Fish and Seafood: An Evoked Set Analysis

This study used the concept of an "evoked set" to test hypotheses about the determinants of consumer preferences for seafood. Results indicate consumer preferences for seven major fish species (shrimp, lobster, catfish, cod, flounder, scallops, and salmon) are mainly a function of the consumer's geographical location and ethnicity. Consumer beliefs about fish product attributes (e.g., quality, flavor, nutrition) and product category use-experience (frequency of fish consumption) in general are not significant preference determinants, although important exceptions are noted. The composition of the evoked set may have different behavioral implications depending on whether fish consumption occurs in the home or in a restaurant setting.Evoked set, lens model, consumer preferences, seafood demand, marketing, aquaculture, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

COOPERATIVE ADVERTISING RENT DISSIPATION

Generic advertising is used by fish producers to accelerate demand growth to alleviate temporary surpluses. Whether this cooperative promotional venture is profitable depends on a number of factors including industry supply response. A rent-dissipation model applied to the U.S. catfish industry suggests the quasi-rents generated by increased advertising are more than sufficient to cover incremental costs over any reasonable time horizon.Marketing,

Price Level Convergence Among United States Cities: Lessons for the European Central Bank

We study the dynamics of price indices for major U.S. cities using panel econometric methods and find that relative price levels among cities mean revert at an exceptionally slow rate. In a panel of 19 cities from 1918 to 1995, we estimate the half-life of convergence to be approximately nine years. These estimates provide an upper bound on speed of convergence that participants in European Monetary Union are likely to experience. The surprisingly slow rate of convergence can be explained by a combination of the presence of transportation costs, differential speeds of adjustment to small and large shocks, and the inclusion of non-traded good prices in the overall price index.

Eurasian watermilfoil biomass associated with insect herbivores in New York

A study of aquatic plant biomass within Cayuga Lake, New York spans twelve years from 1987-1998. The exotic Eurasian watermilfoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum L.) decreased in the northwest end of the lake from 55% of the total biomass in 1987 to 0.4% in 1998 and within the southwest end from 50% in 1987 to 11% in 1998. Concurrent with the watermilfoil decline was the resurgence of native species of submersed macrophytes. During this time we recorded for the first time in Cayuga Lake two herbivorous insect species: the aquatic moth Acentria ephemerella , first observed in 1991, and the aquatic weevil Euhrychiopsis lecontei , first found in 1996 . Densities of Acentria in southwest Cayuga Lake averaged 1.04 individuals per apical meristem of Eurasian watermilfoil for the three-year period 1996-1998. These same meristems had Euhrychiopsis densities on average of only 0.02 individuals per apical meristem over the same three-year period. A comparison of herbivore densities and lake sizes from five lakes in 1997 shows that Acentria densities correlate positively with lake surface area and mean depth, while Euhrychiopsis densities correlate negatively with lake surface area and mean depth. In these five lakes, Acentria densities correlate negatively with percent composition and dry mass of watermilfoil. However, Euhrychiopsis densities correlate positively with percent composition and dry mass of watermilfoil. Finally, Acentria densities correlate negatively with Euhrychiopsis densities suggesting interspecific competition

Evaluation of Risk Management Methods for Satsuma Mandarin

Simulation of production budgets were used to compare net discounted returns and the distribution of returns under alternative risk-mitigation scenarios. Results indicate that the combination of freeze protection and crop insurance increases expected net discounted 20-year returns while decreasing the downside risk. Break-even prices ranged from $.257 to$.289 per pound. Crop insurance returns were constant across price.Satsuma oranges, freeze protection, crop insurance, production budget, simulation, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, C63, D81, Q12,

Mandarin Market Segments Based on Consumer Sensory Evaluations

Ninety-five consumers in seven grocery stores tasted unidentified peeled sections of three mandarins (a tangerine, a satsuma, and a clementine), and provided demographic and purchase information. Forty-four percent of the respondents preferred tangerines, 34 percent satsumas, and 22 percent clementines. The probability of preferring each of type of mandarin was estimated from internal quality analysis of paired samples, as well as from demographic and purchase responses. Model simulations were used to recommend harvest standards for satsumas based on Brix-to-acid ratios.Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Utilizing remote sensing of thematic mapper data to improve our understanding of estuarine processes and their influence on the productivity of estuarine-dependent fisheries

The land-water interface of coastal marshes may influence the production of estuarine-dependent fisheries more than the area of these marshes. To test this hypothesis, a spatial model was created to explore the dynamic relationship between marshland-water interface and level of disintegration in the decaying coastal marshes of Louisiana's Barataria, Terrebonne, and Timbalier basins. Calibrating the model with Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery, a parabolic relationship was found between land-water interface and marsh disintegration. Aggregated simulation data suggest that interface in the study area will soon reach its maximum and then decline. A statistically significant positive linear relationship was found between brown shrimp catch and total interface length over the past 28 years. This relationship suggests that shrimp yields will decline when interface declines, possibly beginning about 1995

Utilizing remote sensing of Thematic Mapper data to improve our understanding of estuarine processes and their influence on the productivity of estuarine-dependent fisheries

The purpose of the project is to refine and validate a probabilistic spatial computer model through the analyses of thematic mapper imagery. The model is designed to determine how the interface between marshland and water changes as marshland is converted to water in a disintegrating marsh. Coastal marshland in Louisiana is disintegrating at the rate of approximately 40 sq mi a year, and an evaluation of the potential impact of this loss on the landings of estuarine-dependent fisheries is needed by fisheries managers. Understanding how marshland-water interface changes as coastal marshland is lost is essential to the process of evaluating fisheries effects, because several studies suggest that the production of estuarine-dependent fish and shellfish may be more closely related to the interface between marshland and water than to acreage of marshland. The need to address this practical problem has provided an opportunity to apply some scientifically interesting new techniques to the analyses of satellite imagery. Progress with the development of these techniques is the subject of this report