Reduction

Reduction and reductionism have been central philosophical topics in analytic philosophy of science for more than six decades. Together they encompass a diversity of issues from metaphysics and epistemology. This article provides an introduction to the topic that illuminates how contemporary epistemological discussions took their shape historically and limns the contours of concrete cases of reduction in specific natural sciences. The unity of science and the impulse to accomplish compositional reduction in accord with a layer-cake vision of the sciences, the seminal contributions of Ernest Nagel on theory reduction and how they strongly conditioned subsequent philosophical discussions, and the detailed issues pertaining to different accounts of reduction that arise in both physical and biological science (e.g., limit-case and part-whole reduction in physics, the difference-making principle in genetics, and mechanisms in molecular biology) are explored. The conclusion argues that the epistemological heterogeneity and patchwork organization of the natural sciences encourages a pluralist stance about reduction

DOES PRIVATE LABEL OWNERSHIP AND PRICING STRUCTURE MATTER?

This article provides an analysis of the two-stage game between manufacturers and retailers. Response functions showing how prices are set are derived for the case of a manufacturer producing one and multiple goods and for a retailer selling multiple goods. The functions are expressed in terms of elasticities, budget shares, and variable production costs. An application using ready-to-eat cereals is conducted to investigate the pricing structure and ownership of private label cereals.Demand and Price Analysis,

A STRATEGIC RATIONALE FOR CAPTIVE SUPPLIES

Partial backward integration is prevalent in many agricultural and natural resource processing industries. A strategic rationale for partial backward integration is developed for a dominant firm with a competitive fringe purchasing from competitive input suppliers. A partially backward integrated dominant firm potentially can increase profit through production efficiency gains and through a lower price for externally purchasing input. The optimal degree of backward integration results when the dominant firm's profit from exerting monopsony market power in the external spot market equals its profit from producing raw input internally, less the incremental cost of acquiring internal raw input production capacity. Comparative statics results are consistent with recent empirical studies of the beef packing industry.Agribusiness,

MONOPSONY POWER IN MULTIPLE INPUT MARKETS: A Nonparametric Approach

Cigarette manufacturers' monopsony power exertion in procuring domestic and imported tobacco is investigated using nonparametric methods. While it is often assumed that tobacco program rents are captured by growers, results indicate the opposite actually occurs. Cigarette manufacturers appear to exert significant monopsony power in the domestic leaf tobacco market and capture a large portion of program rents. Cigarette manufacturers appear to exert monopsony power of much smaller magnitude in the international leaf tobacco market, but with increasing magnitude in more recent years.market power, tobacco, nonparametric, monopsony, imports., International Relations/Trade, L1,

A REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE EXPECTATIONS REGIMES IN COMMODITY MARKETS: SPECIFICATION, ESTIMATION, AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING USING STRUCTURAL MODELS

Price expectations play a critical role in commodity markets where producers must make input decisions well before output is realized. This paper brings together alternative expectations regimes, their estimation, and hypothesis tests for use in structural commodity models to determine their use by commodity producers. Extrapolative mechanisms and rational expectations are considered under risk neutrality and risk aversion. The assumptions implicit in the use of aggregate data in these models are made explicit. Structural models using individual survey data are discussed. While Muth's rational expectations hypothesis has found widespread acceptance in the macroeconomic literature, empirical results from industry studies indicate that commodity producers may have heterogeneous price expectations, with no single expectations hypothesis dominating. This is not surprising given that different producers possess different information and have different costs associated with information collection and processing.Demand and Price Analysis,

COMMODITY PROGRAM SLIPPAGE RATES FOR CORN AND WHEAT

Slippage rates for corn and wheat are estimated using a simultaneous system explaining per-acre yields, input usage, technical change, and levels of participation in government programs. Soybeans are included due to cross-compliance requirements and because they substitute for corn in production. Slippage rates for wheat are in the range of 29-37% and for corn in the range of 48-58%. The results imply that efficient design of commodity programs must account for the slippage of aggregate yields due to changes in land quality and the use of constrained resources over fewer acres.Crop Production/Industries,

A RATIONALE FOR CAPTIVE SUPPLIES

Captive supplies, concentration, meat industry, poultry industry, Agribusiness,

Protection of Intellectual Property while Outsourcing

Food and Beverage companies need to share their Intellectual Property (IP) when they outsource production and/or R&D to contract agents. IP sharing can facilitate misappropriation and the contractor may eventually start competing with the client. We design an incentive compatible contract that can protect company IP. A two-pronged strategy is proposed: Companies should share less know-how and give high incentive payments to deter IP misappropriation. Strategies like product differentiation may be highly useful to deter piracy.Intellectual Property Protection, Outsourcing, Product Differentiation, R&D, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization, Risk and Uncertainty, L14, L21, L23, L66, 031, 032, 034,

Session 4: Evolutionary Indeterminism

Proceedings of the Pittsburgh Workshop in History and Philosophy of Biology, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, March 23-24 2001 Session 4: Evolutionary Indeterminis

I. Studies Toward the Synthesis of Echinodithianic Acid and II. The Temperature Dependent NMR Spectrum of Methyl N-Acetylsarcosinate

Approaches to the preparation of echinodithianic acid (5) from 2, 5-dicarbomethoxy-1, 4-dithiane (1) were not successful, due to the inability to carboxylate or carboalkoxylate 1 at carbons 2 and 5. Studies toward the synthesis of 5 utilizing methyl 2-acetamidoacrylate (8) have been investigated. The electrophilic addition of sulfur dichloride to 8 yielded bis-( 2-acetamido-2-carbo-methoxyvin- 1-yl) sulfide, while the addition of thiocyanogen chloride to 8 produced methyl 2-acetamido-J-thiocyanato-acrylate. As electrophilic additions of unsymmetrical dipolar reagents to methyl 2-acetamidoacrylate (8) are not reported in the literature, the addition of hydrogen bromide to 8 was studied to determine the orientation effect of the acetamido group. Methyl 2-acetamido-2-bromopropionate (69) was found to be the kinetically favored adduct, while under equilibrium conditions the Michael addition product, methyl 2-acetamido-3- bromopropionate (68), was favored. The rates of exchange of the acetyl (a) and the N-methyl (b) protons from the cis to the trans form of methyl N-acetylsarcosinate (72) were measured by a total NMR lineshape method and found to be the same within the limits of the experimental method. Thermodynamic activation parameters are reported, From these data it was concluded that the exchanges of each of the four types of protons (a, b, c, d) in 72 depend solely on hindered rotation about the amide C-N bond