IS THE EFFICACY OF AGRICULTURAL PROMOTION PROGRAMS OVERESTIMATED? THE IMPORTANCE OF DYNAMICS IN ADVERTISING DEMAND SYSTEMS

This article outlines the shortcomings of current techniques to assess the effectiveness of agricultural commodity promotion campaigns; particularly their neglect of the dynamic nature of the underlying demand system. The dynamics that affect advertising effectiveness over time are illustrated, and the importance of cointegration in commodity markets is outlined. A dynamic, error-correction Almost Ideal Demand System is developed to accommodate the aforementioned dynamics and this model is applied to US meat data. Short and long-run elasticities for the dynamic model using Stone's price index are derived and estimated. The article also includes a discussion of the use of elasticities in policy decisions.Marketing,

Food Aid and the WTO: Can New Rules Be Effective?

A new Agreement on Agriculture from the Doha Development Agenda negotiations is certain to contain binding rules on food aid shipments. Negotiating parties are concerned that food aid has been used as a form of export competition policy, and they seek the use of coercive WTO legislation to prevent the disposal of surplus agricultural commodities as food aid. Current Uruguay Round food aid guidelines are contrasted with the most recent Doha Development Agenda proposals, and the prospective effectiveness of new rules is assessed. Food aid rules will be difficult to enforce within the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding. Also, exogenous policy changes in donor countries are reducing the relevance of rules that target food aid as a means of surplus disposal. The future of international food aid governance in the event of a Doha Round collapse is also discussed.agricultural trade, development economics, export competition, food aid, WTO, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, O13, O19, Q17, F13,

THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS ON THE CANADIAN CHICKEN MARKET: TWO REPRESENTATIONS OF CHICKEN AND STOCHASTIC WORLD PRICES

Current Doha Development Agenda (DDA) World Trade Organisation negotiations include proposals that would affect the trade barriers that protect Canada’s chicken producers from foreign competition. This research analyses the effects of the most recent proposals to emerge from the DDA negotiation on Canada’s chicken industry. We develop a partial-equilibrium model that generates welfare effects for the Canadian chicken industry supply chain. We also introduce stochastic prices to evaluate the effects of world price instability on the Canadian chicken industry. The model is also adapted to represent chicken as two distinct products; white meat and dark meat. Simulation results suggest that the welfare effects of the DDA proposals on the Canadian chicken industry would be small, providing that chicken receives the sensitive products designation. Liberalisation leads to higher total welfare in the chicken industry, which is accounted for by consumer welfare that increases by a larger amount than producer welfare decreases. These results hold across models that incorporate risk and that differentiate products.WTO, chicken, Canada, model, trade, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

The effects of the TRIPS Agreement on international protection of intellectual property rights

Draft version ‐ final version forthcoming in International Trade JournalInternational Relations/Trade,

High Food Prices and Developing Countries: Policy Responses at Home and Abroad

food aid, trade, policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade,

Multilateral Trade Liberalisation and FDI: An Analytical Framework for the Implications for Trading Blocs

The proliferation of regional integration agreements (RIAs) over the past several years has led to significant changes in the global configuration of trade and investment activity. Multinational enterprises now face the prospect of multilateral trade liberalisation that could significantly affect the foreign direct investment (FDI) incentive structures that were established within the range of current RIAs. RIAs that provide preferential market access to member countries modify firms’ incentives to undertake FDI activities and can lead to various permutations of trade and investment creation and diversion. This article provides an analytical framework for understanding the implications of multilateral trade liberalisation for the incentive structures of firms to conduct FDI and discusses how multilateral liberalisation could undo many of the FDI activities that were initiated in response to previous RIAs.foreign direct investment, incentives, multilateral trade liberalisation, regional integration agreements, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,

Food Aid as Surplus Disposal? The WTO, Export Competition Disciplines and the Disposition of Food Aid

The empirical investigation suggests that there exists an endogenous relationship between subsidy/credit shipments and food aid for wheat in the US. The empirical VAR demonstrates a contemporaneous increase in food aid shipments as alternative vents constrict. This result suggests that a trade agreement that disciplines export subsidies and credits may put upward pressure on food aid shipments as agricultural exporters vent the pressure of their domestic surpluses. The empirical results suggest that in the US wheat market the effects are not large. The same phenomenon has been noted in the case of skim milk powder by Margulis; skim milk powder would provide another interesting empirical case, were the data available.Food Security and Poverty,

Food Aid as Surplus Disposal? The WTO, Export Competition Disciplines and the Disposition of Food Aid

Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade,

Nano-composite single grain YBa2Cu3O 7-δ/Y2Ba4CuBiOy bulk superconductors

We have succeeded recently in synthesizing a chemically stable, inert family of materials of composition Y2Ba4CuMOy (Y-2411 where M Nb, Ta, Mo, W, Zr, Hf) within the superconducting YBa 2Cu3O7-δ (Y-123) phase matrix that forms effective flux pinning centers of nano-scale dimensions. In this paper we report the synthesis of the Y2Ba4CuBiOy phase with nano-scale dimensions that is similarly compatible with the Y-123 matrix and which does not impair the properties of the bulk superconductor. YBa 2Cu3O7-δ/Y2BaCuO5 (Y-123/Y-211) precursor powders enriched with various amounts of Bi 2O3 and Y2Ba4CuBiOy have been fabricated successfully in the form of large, single grains by the top seeded melt growth (TSMG) process. Microstructural studies of these composites reveal the presence of nanometer-sized Y2Ba4CuBiO y and much larger Y-211 phase particles (∼1 νm) embedded in the Y-123 phase matrix. The critical current density of the nano-composites is observed to increase significantly compared to undoped YBCO. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd

Hiraeth

This paper will present the ideas behind ‘Hiraeth’, a collaborative artwork currently in development by S. Mark Gubb and Tom Cardwell, which proposes an album and performance for an invented Black Metal band. ‘Hiraeth’ is an untranslatable Welsh word that describes a sense of longing for home. The album will comprise of songs based on a series of Welsh, pre-Christian, tales called 'The Mabinogion'. First compiled in the C12th-13th, they are the source of much Welsh folklore and, for many years, were never written down, being passed on through the oral tradition of the bards. For the artists, this relates to the fiercely underground early Black Metal scene – a scene remarkable for its conscious adoption of noise and lo-fi recordings - and how it was developed through word-of-mouth and fan-to-fan exchanges. It also places this Celtic mythology in a relationship with the Norse mythology so often referenced in the lyrics and ideologies of early exponents of Black Metal. It is envisaged that the completed project will centre around a live performance of the album, complete with stage costumes and sets, as well as further visual outcomes including record sleeves, patches, etc. which will subsequently be shown in an exhibition context. In specific relation to the conference theme, we also draw influence from Hugh Lupton’s historical fiction ‘The Assembly of the Severed Head’; a fictitious account of the first transcription of the tales by monks and their transgression of the, by then, dominant Christian moral position. Both Gubb and Cardwell share a research interest in art practice that responds to metal and punk subcultures. Previous projects include ‘Metal Militia’ a live music performance at Berwick Visual Arts (Gubb) and ‘Still Life and Death Metal’ a battle jacket research project (Cardwell)