Do Macroeconomic Variables Affect the Agricultural Trade Sector? An Elasticities Analysis

International Relations/Trade,

Geographical Indications and the Competitive Provision of Quality in Agricultural Markets

The economics of geographical indications (GIs) is assessed within a vertical product differentiation framework that is consistent with the competitive structure of the agricultural sector with free entry/exit. It is assumed that certification costs are needed for GIs to serve as (collective) credible quality certification devices, and production of high-quality product is endogenously determined. We find that GIs can support a competitive provision of quality that partly overcomes the market failure and leads to clear welfare gains, although they fall short of delivering the (constrained) first-best level of the high-quality good. The main beneficiaries of the welfare gains are consumers. Producers may also accrue some benefit if the production of high-quality products draws on scarce factors that they own.geographical indications; quality certification; Welfare; competitive industry; free entry/exit; Marshallian stability; trademarks

Labeling Policies in Food Markets: Private Incentives, Public Intervention, and Welfare Effects

This study considers the welfare impact of labeling policies of agricultural commodities with specific characteristics. Using a model of vertical differentiation, the effects on equilibrium and welfare levels are calculated. The introduction of the regulation and the emergence of two differentiated competitive markets leaves consumers and high-quality producers better off, while low-quality producers are worse off. With high costs and low quality differences, the total welfare impact of the regulation can be negative. Findings show that when high-quality producers can exercise market power, the regulation could be more easily accepted by producers, but it would have a negative effect on consumers.asymmetric information, food markets, labeling, market power, vertical differentiation, welfare effects, Agricultural and Food Policy,

DOES INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION RAISE PRODUCTIVITY IN FOOD INDUSTRIES?

This manuscript investigates the productivity-industrial concentration relationship in U.S. food industries. We identify a critical level of industrial concentration beyond which its relationship with productivity growth becomes negative. The welfare effects of an increase in concentration - productivity growth and deadweight loss- are computed. Welfare loss from increasing concentration is substantially offset by gains from productivity growth.Industrial Organization, Productivity Analysis,

Thinking about denial

This essay notes the frequent and varied uses of ‘denial’ in modern political discourse, suggests the specific psychoanalytic meanings the term has acquired and asks how useful such Freudian concept may be for historians. It notes the long and vexed debates that have occurred over the uses of psychoanalysis in historiography, before comparing and contrasting ‘denial’ with other terms that have particular psychoanalytic inflections, such as ‘disavowal’, ‘splitting’ and ‘negation’. The authors dwell, especially, on ‘disavowal’ and argue it may, sometimes provide a particularly useful basis for exploring how and why states of knowing and not knowing co-exist, in individuals and groups. This account also provide particular historical examples: most briefly, a fragment from a report about the war criminals, produced by an American psychiatrist at the Nuremberg Trial; at greater length, the political arguments and historical writings of an eighteenth-century slave owner; and finally, a case in a borough of London in the late-twentieth-century London, where the neglect, abuse and murder of a child was shockingly ‘missed’ by a succession of social agencies and individuals, who had evidence of the violence available to them. The essay refers more briefly to various more recent discussions, of denial and associated, relevant terms in the work of psychoanalysts, psychologists, and social theorists

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT MOTIVATIONS OF U.S. WINERIES

This study used personal and telephone interviews of wine industry executives and observers to examine the foreign direct investment motivations of U.S. wineries. Underlying most winery motivations was the recognition that U.S. wineries sense increasing pressure to offer a competitive range of wines that meet the price/quality needs of consumers and retailers in important markets and market segments. Wineries' marketing plans are often constrained by their ability to obtain adequate grape and juice supplies that meet important price and quality criteria, especially when domestic grape production drops. The importance of product portfolios and the industry's resource dependence have placed tremendous pressures on U.S. wineries to coordinate winegrape and juice acquisitions, especially as retailers consolidate their supply chains. Some U.S. wineries have invested abroad in response to these pressures while others have not. Interview results suggest that foreign investments by U.S. wineries were primarily motivated by the need for greater access to stable or adequate winegrape/juice supplies, the need for more control over the winegrape costs within given quality levels, and the desire to expand wine portfolios.International Relations/Trade,

EVALUATION OF EXPORT PROMOTION PROGRAMS ON TRADE OF HIGH-VALUED AND PROCESSED FOOD PRODUCTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NORTH CAROLINA AGRIBUSINESS

International Relations/Trade,

EXPORT SUPPLY AND IMPORT DEMAND ELASTICITIES IN THE JAPANESE TEXTILE INDUSTRY: A PRODUCTION THEORY APPROACH

Agricultural goods are often treated as final goods in applied agricultural trade models. However, many agricultural traded goods are intermediate in nature. In this paper a production theory approach is applied in deriving export supply and import demand functions for the Japanese textile industry. The production theory approach derives import demand and export supply functions from the assumption of profit maximizing (cost minimizing) behavior. The behavioral implications of the profit maximization framework are used to specify producer supply and demand functions which are consistent with economic theory. Flexible functional forms are estimated in the econometric model and the concavity restrictions implied by economic theory are checked and imposed. Elasticities derived from the production theory approach are also compared with results based on a single equation specification of the aggregate import demand equation. A major shortcoming of the single equation approach is the lack of theoretical guidance for choosing the appropriate specification.International Relations/Trade,

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE IN PROCESSED FOODS: PATTERNS AND CURIOSITIES

International Relations/Trade,