Willingness-To-Pay for Food of the Own Region: Empirical Estimates from Hypothetical and Incentive Compatible Settings

The ongoing liberalisation of the European food market provides incentives to producers to seek for innovative strategies of product differentiation. One possibility to differentiate the own product from competing ones is its region-of-origin. In this paper, we investigate consumers' willingness-to-pay and underlying preferences for food of the own region. We consider fresh milk as an example. Underlying data stem from a hypothetical contingent valuation and from an incentive compatible experimental setting with real payoffs. We find that consumers perceive fresh milk from local farmers as a trustful, high quality product, and that consumers are interested in supporting local producers. Given that price premiums are small, both methods suggest a substantial demand for local products. However, compared to contingent-valuation estimates, the inclusion of real payoffs leads to a significant decrease in the willingness-to-pay stated. This decrease can mainly be assigned to "pretending altruists": free riding subjects who respond according to social norms as long as no costs are involved.Consumer/Household Economics,

Using Sequential Injection Analysis to Improve System and Data Reliability of Online Methods: Determination of Ammonium and Phosphate in Coastal Waters

This article summarises the advantages of the sequential injection analysis (SIA) for the online determination of nutrients in coastal waters. It concentrates on techniques to improve the reliability of the gained data by continuously monitoring one or more standards and on the advantages of online standard additions and offline determination of manually collected samples with the online SIA system. These measures are advantageous during method development and validation and can be used to verify the system performance on a regular base to reduce the amount of erroneous results. No changes in the flow system are necessary and the sample throughput is only slightly reduced. These techniques have been applied to a SIA system which is able to simultaneously determine ammonium and phosphate at a rate of more than 100 samples per hour each and detection limits (3σ) of 0.06 μM and 0.05 μM. Results from a campaign in summer 2005 are shown

Economies of Scale in der Produktion versus Diseconomies im Transport: Zum Strukturwandel im Molkereisektor

In this article, we simulate structural change within the German dairy sector employing a sector-wide optimization model. As a result, we obtain cost minimizing structures of the dairy sector for various scenarios differentiated by time horizon and level of transportation cost. We demonstrate that the model is capable of explaining the current trend which is characterized by a decrease in the number of dairies while average capacity is increasing. However, this development is less pronounced if transportation cost rises relative to other costs.capacitated facility location problem, market structure, transportation, Agribusiness, Production Economics,

Swine zoonosis risk assessment with new herd seroprofiling assays from QIAGEN

QIAGEN Leipzig developed the pigtype product line of ELISA tests for screening for swine zoonoses. This product line now includes ELISA for detection of salmonella-, Yersinia-, Trichinella-, and Toxoplasma-antibodies in swine. These pigtype assays are validated for serum and meat juice samples and are officially approved by the German Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut

Preferences for Nuclear Power in Post-Fukushima Japan: Evidence from a Large Nationwide Household Survey

Utilizing the data of a large nationwide household survey conducted in 2014, we investigate public preferences on nuclear power in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the role of four sets of factors: (1) household/individual socioeconomic characteristics, (2) psychological status, (3) geographical aspects, and (4) Fukushima accident-related experiences. The preferred energy mix, according to the averaged responses from the survey, includes 0.59 for renewables, 0.29 for fossil fuels, and 0.12 for nuclear—much more skewed towards the renewables than the actual national share of renewables of less than 0.2. Male, older, unmarried, less educated, high-income people, and government party supporters have a preference towards a higher share of nuclear power, except if they live near nuclear power plants. The experience of blackout and aversion to nuclear power during the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 lowers the share of nuclear power in the preferred mix

Zahlungsbereitschaften für Frischmilch aus der Region: Ergebnisse einer Kontingenten Bewertung und einer experimentellen Untersuchung

In this paper we present the results of a contingent valuation study and an experimental approach to estimating the willingness to pay for fresh milk produced in the consumer's own region. In contrast to the fictitious contingent valuation study, responses in the experimental investigation are connected with real demand decisions and real financial payoffs in an incentive-compatible way. The experimental setup allows to quantify the bias in stated willingness to pay that results from the contingent valuation’s hypothetical character. In essence, the data suggest that there exists a considerable demand for milk from the consumers` home region. Yet, significantly less demand is found in the experimental investigation. At the same time, subjects accept significantly higher mark-ups for regional provenance of ecologically produced milk compared to regional provenance of conventionally produced milk. However, the convex shape of aggregate demand indicates that there is a substantial demand for fresh milk of the consumers` home region only when mark-ups are fairly low.willingness-to-pay, contingent valuation, experiment, incentive compatibility, food of the own region, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

This open access collection of AI ethics case studies is the first book to present real-life case studies combined with commentaries and strategies for overcoming ethical challenges. Case studies are one of the best ways to learn about ethical dilemmas and to achieve insights into various complexities and stakeholder perspectives. Given the omnipresence of AI ethics in academic, policy and media debates, the book will be suitable for a wide range of audiences, from scholars of different disciplines (e.g. AI science, ethics, politics, philosophy, economics) to policy-makers, lobbying NGOs, teachers and the educated public

Injectable autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in acetabular cartilage defects—three-year results

To evaluate the clinical outcome after arthroscopic matrix-associated injectable autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in patients with large full-thickness acetabular cartilage defects. ACI was performed in young patients with full-thickness acetabular cartilage defects >= 2 cm(2) in a two-step arthroscopic procedure. The patients were followed closely with clinical examinations and pre- and postoperative scores. The modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), iHOT33 questionnaire (iHOT33) and the Subjective Hip Value (SHV) were surveyed. Demographic patient data was evaluated for influencing factors for the pre- and postoperative results. Thirty-two consecutive cases (4 female, 28 male, mean age 33 years) were included. The average defect size was 4.9 (range: 2-6) cm(2). They were followed at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months postoperatively. Patients had improved significantly from 64 to 91 points (P < 0.001) in the mHHS, from 44% to 86% (P < 0.001) in the iHOT33 and from 54% to 87% (P < 0.001) in the SHV. No surgery related complications were noted. Cell cultivation failed in two cases (7%) and the patients decided for a repeated harvesting of cartilage cylinders followed by a successful ACI. Patients age and size of the cartilage defect showed no significant correlation with the pre- or postoperative results. Injectable ACI is a reliable procedure treating full-thickness acetabular cartilage defects leading to promising results 3 years postoperatively with a significant increase in all scores despite large acetabular cartilage defects in the weight-bearing zone

Do Demographics Prevent Consumption Aggregates From Reflecting Micro-Level Preferences?

Most simulated micro-founded macro models use solely consumer-demand aggregates in order to estimate preference parameters of a representative consumer, for use in policy evaluation. Focusing on dynamic models with time-separable preferences, we show that aggregation holds if, and only if, momentary utility functions fall in the Identical-Shape Harmonic Absolute-Risk Aversion (ISHARA) utility class, identifying which parameters of ISHARA utility functions are allowed to vary over time. Given this theoretical result, it should be easy to empirically reject the aggregation properties that the macroeconomic representative-consumer identification approach requires: it suffices to show that permanent incomes guaranteeing the same living standard across households of different size violate an affine relationship. In order to test the validity of this affine equation, we develop a vignette survey that produces appropriate data without demand-estimation restrictions imposed by models. Surprisingly, in six countries, this equation is not rejected, lending support to using consumer-demand aggregates

Correlation of the Subjective Hip Value with Validated Patient-Reported Outcome Measurements for the Hip

Background: The subjective hip value (SHV) was developed as a patient-reported outcome measurement (PROM) that is easily and quickly performed and interpreted. The SHV is defined as a patient's subjective hip measurement tool expressed as a percentage of an entirely normal hip joint, which would score 100%. The hypothesis is that results of the subjective hip value correlate with the results of the modified Harris hip score and the International Hip Outcome Tool in patients with hip-related diseases. Methods: 302 patients completed the modified Harris hip score (mHHS), the International Hip Outcome Tool (iHot-33) as well as the SHV. The SHV consist of only one question: "What is the overall percent value of your hip if a completely normal hip represents 100%?". The patients were divided into five different groups depending on the diagnosis. Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between the different PROMs and linear regression analysis was used to calculate R2. Results: 302 complete datasets were available for evaluation. There was a high correlation between the SHV and the iHOT-33 (r = 0.847; r2 = 0.692, p < 0.001) and the mHHS (r = 0.832; r2 = 0.717, p < 0.001). The SHV showed a medium (r = 0.653) to high (r = 0.758) correlation with the mHHS and the iHOT-33 in all diagnosis groups. Conclusion: The SHV offers a useful adjunct to established hip outcome measurements, as it is easily and quickly performed and interpreted. The SHV reflects the view of the patient and is independent of the diagnosis. Further research with prospective studies is needed to test the psychometric properties of the score