Could Packers Manipulate Cash Markets by Linking Contract and Futures Prices?

Marketing,

The economics of Communist Party membership - The Curious case of rising numbers and wage premium during China’s transition

Why is it that, as the Chinese Communist Party has loosened its grip, abandoned its core beliefs, and marketized the economy, its membership has risen markedly along with the economic benefits of joining? We use three national household surveys, spanning eleven years, to answer this question with respect to labour market rewards in urban China. We conceptualize individual demand for Party membership as an investment in “political capital” that brings monetary rewards in terms of higher wages. This wage premium has risen with the growing wage differentials associated with the emergence of a labour market and the continuing value of political status in the semi-marketized transitional economy. However, a demand-side explanation does not explain the fact that the wage premium is higher for the personal characteristics that reduce the probability of membership. We develop an explanation in terms of a rationing of places and a scarcity value for members with those characteristics.China, Communist Party, labour market, economic transition, wages

Competition, Bargaining Power, and the Cattle Cycle

Cattle production follows a dynamic cycle that has often been analyzed, and cattle markets receive much scrutiny because of the potential for buyer market power. The relationship between the two has been little studied, however. This paper provides a simple conceptual framework to study how the cattle cycle and market concentration jointly affect the bargaining power of producers and packers yielding the following main results. Not surprisingly, a larger cattle stock reduces producers' bargaining position, which results in a lower fed cattle price. More importantly, however, the cattle stock's negative effect on price is magnified by the market concentration in beef packing. Thus, the cycle itself is very importantly related to a posited cycle of bargaining power between cattle producers and beef packers. Secondly, the model also shows how beef packers may use the special feature of cattle as both consumption and capital goods to lower the cattle price by influencing cattle inventories.Livestock Production/Industries,

High resolution, low temperature photoabsorption cross-section of C2H2 with application to Saturn's atmosphere

New laboratory observations of the VUV absorption cross-section of C2H2, obtained under physical conditions approximating stratospheres of the giant planets, were combined with IUE observations of the albedo of Saturn, for which improved data reduction techniques have been used, to produce new models for that atmosphere. When the effects of C2H2 absorption are accounted for, additional absorption by other molecules is required. The best-fitting model also includes absorption by PH3, H2O, C2H6 and CH4. A small residual disagreement near 1600 A suggests that an additional trace species may be required to complete the model