Are Standards Always Protectionist?

We analyze the effects of a domestic standard that reduces an externality associated with the consumption of the good targeted by the standard, using a model in which foreign and domestic producers compete in the domestic good market. Producers can reduce expected damage associated with the externality by incurring a cost that varies by source of origin. Despite potential protectionism, the standard is useful in correcting the consumption externality in the domestic country. Protectionism occurs when the welfare-maximizing domestic standard is higher than the international standard maximizing welfare inclusive of foreign profits. The standard is actually anti-protectionist when foreign producers are much more efficient at addressing the externality than are domestic producers. Possible exclusion of domestic or foreign producers arises with large standards, which may alter the classification of a standard as protectionist or non-protectionist. The paper provides important implications for the estimation and use of tariff equivalents of nontariff barriers

How to Promote Quality Perception in Wine Markets: Brand Advertising or Geographical Indication?

In the context of the wine industry, we investigate producers\u27 choice between geographical indications and brand advertising to convey information to consumers. Producers also decide whether or not to select an effort level for improving the quality of their products. We show that if this effort level is selected, a producer will prefer to rely on brand advertising for promoting its products and setting up its own reputation. Despite allowing the cost of promotion to be shared, a geographical indication does not sufficiently reward the effort to improve quality. Finally, the selection of both instruments by producers is examined

Possibilistic Uncertainty Handling for Answer Set Programming

In this work, we introduce a new framework able to deal with a reasoning that is at the same time non monotonic and uncertain. In order to take into account a certainty level associated to each piece of knowledge, we use possibility theory to extend the non monotonic semantics of stable models for logic programs with default negation. By means of a possibility distribution we define a clear semantics of such programs by introducing what is a possibilistic stable model. We also propose a syntactic process based on a fix-point operator to compute these particular models representing the deductions of the program and their certainty. Then, we show how this introduction of a certainty level on each rule of a program can be used in order to restore its consistency in case of the program has no model at all. Furthermore, we explain how we can compute possibilistic stable models by using available softwares for Answer Set Programming and we describe the main lines of the system that we have developed to achieve this goal

New Foods Produced with Genome-Editing Technique in the Global Marketplace

This Cornhusker Economics article builds upon a previous Cornhusker Economics article of September 8, 2021, on the heterogenous willingness to pay (WTP) for genome edited (GenEd) apples in France and the US (Beghin, 2022). Using graphical illustration, this new article summarizes in layman\u27s terms two related economic analyses by Marette et al. (2022) and (2023). These analyses investigate Research and Development (R&D) investment in food innovations based on New Plant Engineering Techniques (NPETs), such as GenEd and traditional hybridization methods, and then in the context of international trade. With trade, innovators compete globally with their food novelties in each other’s markets and in the rest of the world. Regulators in different countries may regulate these innovations and their use differently, affecting the scale of production and size of markets, hence the expected profitability of these innovations

Constructive thinking skills and impulsivity dimensions in conduct and substance use disorders: differences and relationships in an adolescents' sample.

Impact of conduct disorder (CD) and substance use disorder (SUD) on constructive thinking skills and impulsivity was explored. 71 offending adolescents were assessed for CD and SUD. Furthermore, the constructive thinking inventory, the immediate and delayed memory tasks and the UPPS impulsive behaviour scale were administered. Results showed that youths with CD, independently from SUD, presented higher personality impulsivity (urgency) and altered constructive thinking skills (categorical thinking and personal superstitious thinking). Furthermore, trait-impulsivity explained variation in constructive thinking skills. The implications of these results were discussed

Numeric and symbolic evaluation of the pfaffian of general skew-symmetric matrices

Evaluation of pfaffians arises in a number of physics applications, and for some of them a direct method is preferable to using the determinantal formula. We discuss two methods for the numerical evaluation of pfaffians. The first is tridiagonalization based on Householder transformations. The main advantage of this method is its numerical stability that makes unnecessary the implementation of a pivoting strategy. The second method considered is based on Aitken's block diagonalization formula. It yields to a kind of LU (similar to Cholesky's factorization) decomposition (under congruence) of arbitrary skew-symmetric matrices that is well suited both for the numeric and symbolic evaluations of the pfaffian. Fortran subroutines (FORTRAN 77 and 90) implementing both methods are given. We also provide simple implementations in Python and Mathematica for purpose of testing, or for exploratory studies of methods that make use of pfaffians.Comment: 13 pages, Download links: http://gamma.ft.uam.es/robledo/Downloads.html and http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/bertsch/computer.htm

Processus psychologiques de gestion du stress et régulation neuroendocrinienne chez les adolescents délinquants en institution fermée : une étude pilote [Psychological processes of stress management and neuroendocrine regulation in incarcerated adolescent offenders: A pilot study]

Adolescence is a stressful period where important biological, psychological and social changes occur. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable during this developmental period and can use various strategies to deal with daily stress, such as substance use or externalizing behaviors. In previous studies, stress in adolescents with externalizing behaviors was often linked to ineffective cognitive coping strategies (i.e., constructive thinking) and overlooking the biological aspects involved in stress management such as neuroendocrine regulation. Indeed, repeated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in chronic stress situations may have long-term effects on subsequent cortisol regulation and lead to psychological difficulties. It was also shown that basal cortisol levels are lower in adolescents with externalizing behaviors. This study aims to assess the links between constructive thinking and neuroendocrine regulation in adolescent offenders and their association with externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression, delinquency, psychopathic traits, substance use). Identifying particular biopsychological patterns can help to better understand stress management in youth with externalizing behaviors and to improve clinical treatments. Sixteen adolescent males aged from 12 to 18 years were recruited in an institution for juvenile offenders. Exclusion criteria were insufficient reasoning abilities assessed using the Raven Matrices Test. Regarding psychological dimensions, constructive thinking was assessed through the Constructive thinking inventory (CTI), psychopathic traits through the Youth psychopathic traits inventory (YPI), externalizing behaviors through 30 items (out of 113) and 2 subscales (aggressive behavior and delinquency problems) from the Child behavior checklist-youth self-report (CBCL), and substance use through the Dep-ado. Regarding biological dimensions, cortisol daily secretion and regulation were assessed through saliva samples that were collected during 3 consecutive days (4 samples per day: directly after awakening, at 10 a.m., at 4 a.m., and before going to bed). Adolescent offenders presented maladaptative thinking styles and a particular neuroendocrine regulation in their daily management with stress. In particular, their level of cortisol in the morning was higher than those expected in a general population (20.34 nmol/L while the norm is around 10 nmol/L). They also showed more agressive and delinquent behaviors (CBCL) as well as more psychopathic traits (YPI) than the general population. Moreover, constructive thinking style was associated with personality and behavioral dimensions. Indeed, results indicated positive and significant correlations between categorical thinking style (CTI), psychopathic traits (YPI) (r=0.57, P=0.021) and externalizing behaviors (CBCL) (r=0.55, P=0.028). In other words, the more adolescent offenders used categorical thinking, the more they presented psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors. With respect to the association between psychological and biological dimensions in stress management, we observed a significant and positive correlation between cortisol regulation and esoteric thinking (r=0.57, P=0.028) and a trend with superstitious thinking (r=0.47, P=0.075). The more adolescent offenders used esoteric and superstitious thinking, the poorer was their cortisol regulation. We also observed a trend between the life style scale of the YPI (i.e., impulsive, irresponsible) and the daily secretion of cortisol (r=0.51; P=0.052) as well as cortisol regulation (r=0.49, P=0.065). The more adolescent offenders presented psychopathic traits, the higher tended to be their daily secretion of cortisol and the poorer their cortisol regulation. Finally, cortisol regulation (r=0.54, P=0.038) and secretion (r=0.73, P=0.002) were significantly correlated with the DEP-Ado score. In other words, a poor cortisol regulation and a high secretion of cortisol seem to be associated with substance use. Adolescent offenders face an important amount of daily stress and do not always have the appropriate skills to deal with it. Indeed, we know from clinical experience that they often report a sense of hopelessness toward their lack of professional perspectives as well as familial conflicts which can be important stressors in addition to the incarceration in itself. Therefore, treatment aiming to improve psychic elaboration can help these adolescents to make their thinking styles more flexible and use more appropriate ways of coping with stress instead of externalizing behaviors and substance use. Moreover, considering the complex cases of these adolescents and the many changes of caregivers and institutions where they have lived, which can be important stressors as well, professionals working with these youth should be aware of their emotional reactions toward them and try to encourage continuity of care