The Demand For Wet Fish in Great Britain

Conventional empirical demand systems normally take prices to be exogenous, and determine the quantities demanded. Although this is logical for the individual consumer, at the market level the aggregate quantity traded may be exogenously determined, while the price vector changes to ensure the markets clear. It is suggested that this alternative scenario is particularly attractive for foodstuffs, and especially for wet fish, the commodity under consideration. An empirical analysis of the demand for wet fish in the UK using both the direct and indirect Translog models suggest that in this market, quantities are determining prices rather than the other way round. Furthermore, the two models provide widely different estimates of consumer preferences. This would suggest that more attention should be paid to the direction of causality in markets when undertaking formal demand analysis.inverse demand systems, wet fish, causality, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Measuring the Cost-effectiveness of Conservation Auctions Relative to Alternate Policy Mechanisms

The principle motivation for using price-discriminating conservation auctions is that they are expected to be significantly more cost-effective than fixed-price mechanisms. This paper measures cost effectiveness for tenders from two rounds of the Auction for Landscape Recovery in Western Australia relative to counterfactual fixed-price mechanisms. If we assume that the bid equals the compliance cost, the auction gives a significant cost saving over fixed-price mechanisms. If instead we assume that bids include an element of rent, fixed-price mechanisms can be more cost effective than the auction. The significance of these results is that a fixed price scheme may achieve a similar level of cost effectiveness to a conservation auction, when one or more of the following apply: compliance costs do not vary significantly between producers, auction bids have a significant element of rent and the auction incurs a significant additional administrative cost.Auctions, conservation, bio-diversity, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q57,

Capturing Preference Heterogeneity in Stated Choice Models: A Random Parameter Logit Model of the Demand for GM Food

Analyses of data from random utility models of choice data have typically used fixed parameter representations, with consumer heterogeneity introduced by including factors such as the age, gender etc of the respondent. However, there is a class of models that assume that the underlying parameters of the estimated model (and hence preferences) are different for each individual within the sample, and that choices can be explained by identifying the parameters of the distribution from which they are drawn. Such a random parameter model is applied to stated choice data from the UK, and the results compared with standard fixed parameter models. The results provide new evidence of preferences for various aspects of the UK food system, particularly in relation to GM food but other environmental and technical aspects also. Indications of how random parameter models might be developed further are discussed on the basis of these results.random parameter logit, choice modelling, GMOs, food safety, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

First Principles Calculations of Ionic Vibrational Frequencies in PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3

Lattice dynamics for several ordered supercells with composition PbMg1/3Nb2/3O (PMN) were calculated with first-principles frozen phonon methods. Nominal symmetries of the supercells studied are reduced by lattice instabilities. Lattice modes corresponding to these instabilities, equilibrium ionic positions, and infrared (IR) reflectivity spectra are reported.Comment: 6 pages; Fundamental physics of Ferroelectrics 200