Consumption Inertia and Asymmetric Price Transmission

We propose consumption inertia as a new explanation for asymmetric price transmission. Inertia in consumer demand enlarges retailers’ gains in gross profits from raising prices in response to higher wholesale prices and reduces gains from decreasing prices in response to lower wholesale prices. Thus, consumption inertia can cause asymmetries in price transmission whereby retailers are more willing to change their prices, and change them more quickly, in response to wholesale price increases as opposed to wholesale price decreases.asymmetric price transmission, consumption inertia, market power, retail pricing, Demand and Price Analysis,

Asymmetric Price Transmission and Demand Characteristics

Through analyzing the effect of a demand characteristic, this paper investigates the reasons for the market phenomenon that farm and/or wholesale price changes are transmitted asymmetrically to retail markets.asymmetric price transmission, demand characteristics, Industrial Organization,

Agricultural Tariff Rate Quotas: Impacts on Market Access

We study the impacts of the implementation of agricultural tariff rate quotas on market access. A doble-censored Tobit model is specified to examine factors that affect the performance of tariff rate quotas. The results show that both in-quota tariff rates and administrative methods restrict market access and lower quota fill rate. The effect of over-quota tariff, however, is insignificant during the study period.International Relations/Trade,

Consumer Preferences for Attributes of Organic Processed Foods: The Case of Soymilk In the United States

Organic soymilk has been one of the fastest growing products in the organic food sector in recent years. Due to the shortage of domestically grown organic soybeans, outsourcing became a practice in the industry. It was estimated by some industry insiders that about 50% of organic soybeans consumed in the United States were imported from China (Cornucopia Institute, 2009). In 2009, the Organic Consumers Association called for a boycott of Silk products because it was reported that Silk, the dominant national brand in organic soymilk market, sourced organic soybeans from China and Brazil based on disputable standards. Under public pressure, Silk brand soymilk started to substitute U.S. grown non-genetically modified (GM) soybeans for imported organic soybeans. Correspondingly, the organic label on the product packaging was changed to ―all natural. The same behavior is also observed for soymilk by other brands. Another notable trend in the soymilk industry is that the dominance of national brands is challenged by a boom of private labeled soymilk products offered by stores across these marketing channels. The impacts of these changes in the organic soymilk industry could be significant for the distribution of economic benefits among the supply chain players. Our primary focus is to find whether US consumers distinguish organic processed foods by the origin of ingredients and brand types. We expect our findings to have wider implications to other processed foods. Preliminary results show consumers are willing to pay premiums for processed food like soymilk with organic and non-GM ingredients. The premium for organic soybeans is significantly higher than that for non-GM beans. The results also indicate that US consumers perceive the product with ingredients sourced from different origins distinctively, with a strong preference for organic soymilk produced with domestically produced soybeans. In terms of brand preferences, respondents are willing to pay more for national brands relative to store brands. Responses suggest that taste is a major factor in differentiating brands of soymilk. The willingness to pay for attributes varied with income and demographic characteristics of the households. Female and higher income groups appear more willing to pay for soymilk with organic ingredients. Older people are less likely to purchase organic soymilk. Moreover, older and female consumers perceive domestically produced ingredients better than imported ones. Yet, the more educated consumers are less willing to pay a premium for domestically produced organic ingredients.Organic Processed Food, Willingness to Pay Estimation, Country of Origins, Brand Preferences, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Application of Ant Colony Algorithm in Multi-objective Optimization Problems

In actual application and scientific research, multi-objective optimization is an extremely important research subject. In reality, many issues are related to the simultaneous optimization under multi-objective conditions. The research subject of multi-objective optimization is getting increasing attention. In order to better solve some nonlinear, restricted complex multi-objective optimization problems, based on the current studies of multi-objective optimization and evolutionary algorithm, this paper applies the ant colony algorithm to multi-objective optimization, and proves through experiments that multi-objective ant colony algorithm can converge the real Pareto front of the standard test function more quickly and accurately, and can also maintain the distributivity of the better solution

Stability and slow-fast oscillation in fractional-order Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction with two time scales

The fractional-order Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction with different time scales is investigated in this paper. Based on the stability theory of fractional-order differential equation, the critical condition of Hopf bifurcation with two parameters in fractional-order BZ reaction is discussed. By comparison of the fractional-order and integer-order systems, it is found that they will behave in different stabilities under some parameter intervals, and the parameter intervals may become larger with the variation of fractional order. Furthermore, slow-fast effect is firstly studied in fractional-order BZ reaction with two time scales coupled, and the Fold/Fold type slow-fast oscillation with jumping behavior is found, whose generation mechanism is explained by using the slow-fast dynamical analysis method. The influences of different fractional orders on the slow-fast oscillation behavior as well as the internal mechanism are both analyzed

Simulations of the Visible, Infrared and Terahertz Properties of Doped Cyclo[18]carbon Molecules Using Tuned Exchange-Correlation Potential

Cyclocarbon molecules are critical in understanding the carbon structure formation and the nature of the interaction between carbon atoms. In cyclocarbons, light elements such as H, O and N may interplay with rings to form doped cyclocarbon molecules. Such molecules show unique optical properties that have never been reported before. In this study, density functional theory with a tuned PBE functional (39% HF exchange) is employed to study the ground and excited states of a cyclo[18] carbon molecule (C18) and its doped variants C18M (M = H, Be, B, N, and O). The doping is shown to either make the UV-Vis spectra of C18 blue- or red-shifted depending on the spin brought by the dopant. Furthermore, introducing extra-atoms is found to cause the emergence of a new set of infrared modes in the structure under investigation. Finally, applying the molecular dynamic simulations enables one to observe the terahertz characteristics of C18M with frequencies up to 1.5 THz due to the propagation of a particular pattern along the carbon ring.Comment: 10 pages,5 figures,1 tabl

Effect of fractional-order PID controller with acceleration feedback on a linear single degree-of-freedom oscillator

A linear single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillator with fractional-order PID controller of acceleration feedback is investigated by the averaging method, and the approximately analytical solution is obtained. Moreover, the numerical solution of the system is obtained by the step-down order method and the power series method progressively. The effects of the parameters in fractional-order PID controller on the dynamical properties are characterized by some new equivalent parameters. The proportional component of fractional-order PID controller is characterized in the form of equivalent mass. The integral component of fractional-order PID controller is denoted in the form of the equivalent linear damping and equivalent mass. The differential component of fractional-order PID controller is denoted in the form of the equivalent linear negative damping and equivalent mass. Those equivalent parameters could distinctly illustrate the effects of the parameters in fractional PID controller on the dynamical response. A comparison between the analytical solution with the numerical results is made, and their satisfactory agreement verifies the correctness of the approximately analytical results. The effects of the parameters in fractional-order PID controller on control performance are further analyzed by some performance parameters of the time response. Finally, the robustness of the fractional-order PID controller based on acceleration feedback is demonstrated through the control of a SDOF quarter vehicle suspension model