Consumer Response to Integrated Pest Management and Organic Agriculture: An Econometric Analysis

While several studies have presented aggregate, descriptive illustrations of consumer response to IPM, the willingness-to-purchase and willingness-to-pay for IPM produce as a function of demographic characteristics has not received the exhaustive research attention that has focused on organic produce. The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate which demographic characteristics cause consumers to be more likely to purchase IPM grown produce. A hypothetical willingness-to-purchase model for IPM produce as well as willingness-to-pay models for both IPM and organic produce are presented. A non-hypothetical analysis also predicts consumers who strictly purchase only conventional produce. Income was found to be the most significant determinant of willingness-to-purchase IPM grown produce. Participants with higher annual incomes were more likely to express an interest in purchasing IPM produce and also appeared less likely to strictly purchase conventional produce. Those whose frequently purchase organic produce, those who visit farmers markets and those who live in suburban areas were all found to be more likely to purchase IPM grown produce. The results also indicate that females, those with higher annual incomes, younger individuals, and those who frequently purchase organic produce are all more likely to pay a premium for both IPM and organically grown produce. Overall, the results of this survey give insight into the likely consumer response to produce that is labeled as “IPM Grown.” However, before the average consumer exhibits the same level of interest in IPM as the sample in this study, some mechanism must be developed to educate the public about IPM.Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

SUPPLY RESPONSE IN THE NORTHEASTERN FRESH TOMATO MARKET: COINTEGRATION AND ERROR CORRECTION ANALYSIS

This paper reexamines supply response in the Northeastern fresh tomato market during the 1949-94 period by employing cointegration and error correction technique. It tests whether there has been a long-run equilibrium relationship between Northeastern production and a set of price and nonprice factors that influence it. Findings suggest that wage rate, imports from competing regions, and urban pressure have had significant negative impacts on regional production. The negative relationship between price and production may have resulted from the strong negative effects exerted by the nonprice factors.Demand and Price Analysis,

The Influence of Socio-Economic Characteristics on Food Advertisement Usage

Only 22 percent of surveyed consumers reported making frequent use of food advertisements when purchasing food products. However, certain demographic segments appear to place a greater emphasis on food advertisements than others. This study empirically evaluates which socio-economic characteristics encourage consumers to be more likely to take food advertisements into account when purchasing grocery products. The results indicate that those with lower annual incomes, those with lower levels of education, and those living in suburban and rural areas are the most likely to make use of food advertisements in the newspaper. The results also indicate that households with children, single individuals, and those over 65 years of age are less likely to use food advertisements.Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

Evaluating Consumer Usage of Nutritional Labeling: The Influence of Socio-Economic Characteristics

The majority of consumers report making frequent use of nutritional labeling when purchasing food products. However, certain segments appear to place a greater emphasis on food product labels than others. This study empirically evaluates which demographic characteristics encourage consumers to be more likely to take nutritional labels into account when purchasing grocery products. The results indicate that females, older individuals, and those living in suburban and rural areas are the most likely to make use of nutritional labeling. The results also indicate that larger households were less likely to use nutritional labeling.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Arbitrage and Equilibrium with Portfolio Constraints

We consider a multiperiod financial exchange economy with nominal assets and restricted participation, where each agent’s portfolio choice is restricted to a closed, convex set containing zero, as in Siconolfi (1989). Using an approach that dates back to Cass (1984, 2006) in the unconstrained case, we seek to isolate arbitrage-free asset prices that are also quasi-equilibrium or equilibrium asset prices. In the presence of such portfolio restrictions, we need to confine our attention to aggregate arbitrage-free asset prices, i.e., for which there is no arbitrage in the space of marketed portfolios. Our main result states that such asset prices are quasi-equilibrium prices under standard assumptions and then deduce that they are equilibrium prices under a suitable condition on the accessibility of payoffs by agents, i.e., every payoff that is attainable in the aggregate can be marketed through some agent’s portfolio set. This latter result extends previous work by Martins-da-Rocha and Triki (2005).Stochastic Financial exchange economies; Incomplete markets; Financial equilibrium; Constrained portfolios; Multiperiod models; Arbitrage-free asset prices

PREDICTING WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY A PREMIUM FOR ORGANICALLY GROWN FRESH PRODUCE

Consumers were surveyed at various grocery retail establishments in New Jersey to provide opinions on organic produce. The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate which demographic characteristics cause consumers to be more likely to pay a premium to obtain organically grown produce. The results indicate that females, those with higher annual incomes, younger individuals, and those who usually or always purchase organic produce are all more likely to pay a premium for organic produce. The results also indicate that the likelihood of paying a premium for organic produce decreases with the number of individuals living in the household.Consumer/Household Economics,

Building Water Models, A Different Approach

Simplified, classical models of water are an integral part of atomistic molecular simulations, especially in biology and chemistry where hydration effects are critical. Yet, despite several decades of effort, these models are still far from perfect. Presented here is an alternative approach to constructing point charge water models - currently, the most commonly used type. In contrast to the conventional approach, we do not impose any geometry constraints on the model other than symmetry. Instead, we optimize the distribution of point charges to best describe the "electrostatics" of the water molecule, which is key to many unusual properties of liquid water. The search for the optimal charge distribution is performed in 2D parameter space of key lowest multipole moments of the model, to find best fit to a small set of bulk water properties at room temperature. A virtually exhaustive search is enabled via analytical equations that relate the charge distribution to the multipole moments. The resulting "optimal" 3-charge, 4-point rigid water model (OPC) reproduces a comprehensive set of bulk water properties significantly more accurately than commonly used rigid models: average error relative to experiment is 0.76%. Close agreement with experiment holds over a wide range of temperatures, well outside the ambient conditions at which the fit to experiment was performed. The improvements in the proposed water model extend beyond bulk properties: compared to the common rigid models, predicted hydration free energies of small molecules in OPC water are uniformly closer to experiment, root-mean-square error < 1kcal/mol

Arbitrage and Equilibrium with Portfolio Constraints

We consider a multiperiod financial exchange economy with nominal assets and restricted participation, where each agent's portfolio choice is restricted to a closed, convex set containing zero, as in Siconolfi (1989). Using an approach that dates back to Cass (1984, 2006) in the unconstrained case, we seek to isolate arbitrage-free asset prices that are aloso quasi-equilibrium or equilibrium asset prices. In the presence of such portfolio restrictions, we need to confine our attention to aggregate arbitrage-free asset prices, i.e., for which there is no arbitrage in the space of marketed portfolios. Our main result states that such asset prices are quasi-equilibrium prices under standard assumptions and then deduce that they are equilibrium prices under a suitable condition on the accessibility of payoffs by agents, i.e., every payoff that is attainable in the aggregate can be marketed through some agent's portfolio set. This latter result extends previous work by Martins-da-Rocha and Triki (2005).Stochastic financial exchange economies, incomplete markets, financial equilibrium, constrained portfolios, multiperiod models, arbitage-free asset prices.

Consumer Willingness to Pay for GM Food Benefits: Pay-off or Empty Promise? Implications for the Food Industry

Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,