Export Demand Function Estimation for U.S. Raisins

Raisins are one of important products of California. Almost all U.S. raisins are produced near Fresno California’s central valley due to its hot growing season and abundant water supply. U.S. is the leading exporter of raisins in the world. This paper investigates the export demand function of U.S. raisins for the top five importer countries. The relationship of quantity exported with export price, other exporters’ prices, real income, and exchange rate is estimated. The model used is a logarithmic panel data model for the 1992-2008 periods. The model used is in log-log format to determine own- price, cross price, and income elasticities for the commodity.International Relations/Trade,

US Seafood Exports and HACCP Regulatory System

This study investigates how the implementation and standards harmonization of HACCP regulation affects U.S. seafood exporting based on the method of Gravity Model and Spatial Error model. The analysis includes top 32 countries that importing seafood from U.S. The results indicate that HACCP standards benefit U.S. seafood exporting in the long time period but do not have significant impact in the short term period. Moreover, the way of performance standards is better for HACCP implementation and standards harmony.HACCP, U.S. seafood exports, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade,

MEASURING THE DEGREE OF MARKET POWER AMONG BEEF EXPORTERS TO JAPAN

A residual-demand model for beef exporters to Japan is specified to estimate market power. The analysis is disaggregated by beef cut and form. The results indicate U.S. frozen-ribs category enjoys the highest markup of price over marginal cost, while Australia and New Zealand have some market power, which includes five chilled-beef categories.International Relations/Trade,

Demand for quality-differentiated beef in Japan

In this article, we apply a model of vertical product differentiation to the Japanese beef market. We theoretically derive a system of consumer demand functions for quality-differentiated beef in Japan. We choose a particular utility function which is nonlinear in the consumption of the quality-differentiated product and linear in the consumption of all other goods. We employ a seemingly unrelated econometric model to estimate Japanese consumer demand functions for four beef types from the four origins. The empirical results show Japanese consumers prefer domestically produced beef to imported US and Australian. We also find seventeen substitution and two complementary effects among the various origins.vertical quality differentiation, consumer demand, beef, Japan, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

EXPORT DEMAND ESTIMATION FOR U.S. CORN AND SOYBEANS TO MAJOR DESTINATIONS

The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn and soybeans in the world. The United States exports 20% of the world’s corn and 30% of soybeans in a typical year (USDA, ERS). The U.S., being the top producer and exporter of these commodities, is also confronting major rivals such as Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine, which are increasing their exports and causing the U.S. to lose some of its market share. In order to stop this decline in market share, the U.S. can adopt and implement different policies to manage resources and employ advanced technology more effectively. In this study, we empirically estimate the export demand function of U.S. corn and soybeans to the top four export destinations: China, Japan, European Union, and Mexico in the current context of energy and agriculture linkages and production of ethanol from corn. A log-linear, panel data equation is used to estimate the U.S. corn and soybeans export demand function. Own price, cross price, income and exchange rate elasticities are estimated econometrically. Data for the U.S. and its top four importer countries were gathered for the 1980-2012 period. A Hausman test implies that a random effects estimator is better for the estimations. Elasticity analysis indicates that U.S. corn demand is elastic to own price, cross price, income and poultry inventory, while inelastic to real exchange rate and pig inventory. The positive cross price elasticity reveals that corn and soybeans are substitutes in these countries. Conversely elasticity analysis for the U.S. soybean demand shows elastic cross price, real exchange rate, and pig and poultry inventory effects, while inelastic own price and income effects. Consequently, for the U.S. to gain more international market share, U.S. corn and soybean producers need to take advantage of their advanced technology and high management skills to increase quality and have more competitive pricing compared to rivals. The U.S. can gain more market share by employing better regulation to increase the quality of products, and provide incentives to U.S. farmers and exporters that could help boost their advantages in a highly competitive international environment. Higher quality and more product differentiation could help in this regard. This could help U.S. farmers increase exports to currently existing foreign destinations and access new markets, to expand market shares

SHAPE MEMORY BEHAVIOR OF SINGLE CRYSTAL AND POLYCRYSTALLINE Ni-RICH NiTiHf HIGH TEMPERATURE SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS

NiTiHf shape memory alloys have been receiving considerable attention for high temperature and high strength applications since they could have transformation temperatures above 100 °C, shape memory effect under high stress (above 500 MPa) and superelasticity at high temperatures. Moreover, their shape memory properties can be tailored by microstructural engineering. However, NiTiHf alloys have some drawbacks such as low ductility and high work hardening in stress induced martensite transformation region. In order to overcome these limitations, studies have been focused on microstructural engineering by aging, alloying and processing. Shape memory properties and microstructure of four Ni-rich NiTiHf alloys (Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20, Ni50.7Ti29.3Hf20, Ni51.2Ti28.8Hf20, and Ni52Ti28Hf20 (at. %)) were systematically characterized in the furnace cooled condition. H-phase precipitates were formed during furnace cooling in compositions with greater than 50.3Ni and the driving force for nucleation increased with Ni content. Alloy strength increased while recoverable strain decreased with increasing Ni content due to changes in precipitate characteristics. The effects of the heat treatments on the transformation characteristics and microstructure of the Ni-rich NiTiHf shape memory alloys have been investigated. Transformation temperatures are found to be highly annealing temperature dependent. Generation of nanosize precipitates (~20 nm in size) after three hours aging at 450 °C and 550 °C improved the strength of the material, resulting in a near perfect dimensional stability under high stress levels (\u3e 1500 MPa) with a work output of 20–30 J cm– 3. Superelastic behavior with 4% recoverable strain was demonstrated at low and high temperatures where stress could reach to a maximum value of more than 2 GPa after three hours aging at 450 and 550 °C for alloys with Ni great than 50.3 at. %. Shape memory properties of polycrystalline Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20 alloys were studied via thermal cycling under stress and isothermal stress cycling experiments in tension. Recoverable strain of ~5% was observed for the as-extruded samples while it was decreased to ~4% after aging due to the formation of precipitates. The aged alloys demonstrated near perfect shape memory effect under high tensile stress level of 700 MPa and perfect superelasticity at high temperatures up to 230 °C. Finally, the tensioncompression asymmetry observed in NiTiHf where recoverable tensile strain was higher than compressive strain. The shape memory properties of solutionized and aged Ni-rich Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20 single crystals were investigated along the [001], [011], and [111] orientations in compression. [001]-oriented single crystals showed high dimensional stability under stress levels as high as 1500 MPa in both the solutionized and aged conditions, but with transformation strains of less than 2%. Perfect superelasticity with recoverable strain of more than 4% was observed for solutionized and 550 °C-3h aged single crystals along the [011] and [111] orientations, and general superelastic behavior was observed over a wide temperature range. The calculated transformation strains were higher than the experimentally observed strains since the calculated strains could not capture the formation of martensite plates with (001) compound twins

Consumer Response to Food Safety Events: An Interaction Between Risk Perception and Trust of Information in the Chicken and Beef Markets

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

The Impacts of Atlantic Bonito Rush and the Avian Influenza on Meat Products in Turkey

The Atlantic bonito rush experienced in Turkey in the Fall of 2005 coincides with the avian influenza food scare that happened exactly at the same time-period in the country. In this research using time-series techniques, we investigate how the food scare and the excess fish caught jointly influence the demand for meat products in Turkey.

Integrating Marginal Cost into Pricing-to-market Models for U.S. Agricultural Products

This article investigates the markup pricing behaviour of U.S. exporters of agricultural products. Agricultural products studied are feed, flour, frozen potatoes, frozen orange juice, five categories of beef, five categories of pork, and two categories of chicken. The popular pricing-to-market (PTM) approach of Krugman (1987) is used to examine market power and imperfect competition for the markets under study. The PTM model can directly investigate whether there is any evidence of market power in international trade.The sensitivity of U.S. export prices to exchange rate fluctuations may indicate price discrimination and imperfect competition in the international markets. The PTM approach is popular because of its relatively simple specification and empirical testing.Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

An Institutional Framework for Meeting International Food-Safety Market Standards from a Developing-Country Perspective

This paper examines problems being faced by agribusiness firms in developing countries in meeting the food-safety standards imposed by importing countries in their respective markets. Based on existing institutional frameworks in developing countries such as India, it is suggested that in order to meet the prescribed standards in international markets there is a need to establish inter-linkages across different institutions not only within developing countries but also with respected international standard-setting organizations for better and smoother implementation of WTO measures related to international food-safety market standards.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,