世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

A concern with the contingent valuation method (CVM) is the finding that hypothetical and real statements of value often differ. We test whether hypothetical bias, broadly defined, is independent of location by comparing real and hypothetical votes on a dichotomous choice referendum in China, France, Indiana, Kansas, and Niger. We find significant differences in hypothetical bias across locations and reject the hypothesis that hypothetical bias is independent of location. As opposed to the typical finding reported in the literature, subjects in Niger significantly understated their willingness-to-pay in the hypothetical referendum.

Is hypothetical bias a universal phenomenon? A multinational investigation

The Food Police

The net impact of pest-resistant GM crops on the welfare of both producers and consumers in developing countries is currently unknown and subject to speculation. This study uses choice-based conjoint protocol to estimate the net impact of pest-resistant Genetically Modified (GM) cowpea on net social welfare in Benin given price and income risks. Results imply that Bt cowpea will increase expected net social welfare by about $US 50 million per year in Benin given no inefficiencies in the seed sector. If inefficiencies in the seed sector are such that cowpea growers can access Bt cowpea seeds only 50% of the time, net benefits from Bt cowpea drop to about $US 11 million per year.

Ex Ante Economic Impact of Genetically Modified (GM) Cowpea in Benin

As a result of several judicial rulings, processing of horses for human consumption came to a halt in 2007. This article determines the change in horse prices resulting from elimination of horse-processing facilities. As expected, lower-valued horses were more affected by the ban than higher-valued horses. The analysis suggests the slaughter ban reduced horse prices, on average, by about 13% and resulted in a loss in producer surplus to sellers of approximately 14% at the sale we analyzed. We also show horse prices are affected by a myriad of factors including breed, gender, age, coat color, and sale catalog description.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A22B5FBCE2CFC0FB7A4D8C472F6735EC/S1074070814000030a.pdf/div-class-title-what-are-the-consequences-of-the-equine-slaughter-ban-on-horse-prices-div.pdf

What are the consequences of the equine slaughter ban on horse prices

Recent findings from behavioral economics suggest people are concerned about the fairness and inequality in simple distribution experiments. This study sought to determine whether such considerations also carry over to food choice. A conjoint-type experiment was developed and administered to a random sample of the U.S. population via mail survey to determine whether consumers, when purchasing food products, are concerned about the distribution of benefits across the participants in the agricultural supply chain (small farmers, large farmers, agribusiness, supermarkets, and the consumer) and to determine the extent to which the fairness models proposed in the general economics literature (and variants on these models) explain food choice. Results indicate that, aside from themselves, people prefer small farmers to receive the largest benefit from food purchase. The inequality aversion models proposed in the general economics literature do not exhibit much explanatory power, unless modified in non-trivial ways to fit the context of food. Finally, we find that preferences for distribution of benefits, along with measured beliefs about the relative distribution of benefits accruing to producers of organic and conventional foods, is a significant factor explaining consumer willingness-to-pay a premium for organic food.

Jayson L. Lusk

Papers

Is hypothetical bias a universal phenomenon? A multinational investigation

The Food Police

Ex Ante Economic Impact of Genetically Modified (GM) Cowpea in Benin

What are the consequences of the equine slaughter ban on horse prices

Concerns for Fairness and Preferences for Organic Food