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

Public and Private Preferences for Policies Related to Meat and Milk from Clones

This study compares consumer valuations of beef steaks from cattle produced without growth hormones or genetically modified corn in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In general, European consumers place a higher value on beef from cattle that have not been administered growth hormones and/or fed genetically modified corn than United States consumers. There is a larger divergence between the two cultures with regard to the issue of biotechnology and genetic engineering than with the issue of growth hormones. Results suggest that liberalizing trade policy for hormone-treated beef may be welfare reducing for the European Union.

Demand for beef from cattle administered growth hormones or fed genetically modified corn: a comparison of consumers in france, germany, the united kingdom, and the united states

Scientific, Ethical, and Economic Aspects of Farm Animal Welfare

Despite the existence of over 2.5 million Quarter Horses in the U.S., there has heretofore been little information available on the structural parameters underpinning the Quarter Horse market. In this paper, we compiled a unique data set, merging together information on registrations from the American Quarter Horse Association and price data from a large regional horse auction. The data is used to estimate the supply of yearling Quarter Horses using biological production lags to identify the key structural parameters; we find an own-price elasticity of short- and long-run supply of 0.32 and 0.27. An inverse demand function is also estimated, and after accounting for endogeneity, we find a price flexibility of own-price yearling demand of -0.71. Results reveal that demand shifted inward following the horse processing ban, resulting in deadweight annual losses of over $4 million in the yearling Quarter Horse market.

Quarter Horse Supply and Demand: Welfare Analysis and Impacts of the Equine Processing Ban

High profile cases of exploitative labor practices have increased concerns over agricultural working conditions. However, it is unclear whether and to what extent the public is willing to trade-off fair working conditions for higher prices and food imports. We implement a large-scale survey to uncover Greek consumer preferences for a food labeling system that certifies fair working conditions for the workers employed at all production stages of agricultural production. Empirical findings from several disciplines suggest that results from contingent valuation surveys can be susceptible to hypothetical bias, social desirability bias, and lack of consequentiality. To test these issues, we use the 'cheap talk' method (Kling et al., 2012), Lusk and Norwood's (2009) Inferred Valuation (IV) method and the consequentiality scripts employed in Vossler and Evans (2009) and Vossler and Watson (2013). We also test predictions of reference dependent theory by testing whether framing the valuation question as an 'Equivalent Loss' (EL) differs from classical 'Willingness-to-pay elicitation' (WTP). We collected responses from more than 3,800 consumers in the cities of Athens and Ioannina in Greece. Our results show that neither the cheap talk nor the consequentiality script had any effect on elicited valuations. In contrast, the IV method appears to mitigate social desirability bias. We also find that values elicited under WTP are larger than values elicited under EL, which rejects neoclassical preferences. When social desirability is taken out of our estimates, we find that consumers are willing to pay an average premium of 72 cents/Kg for strawberries with fair labor certification, which is equivalent to 49% of current market prices.

Jayson L. Lusk

Papers

Public and Private Preferences for Policies Related to Meat and Milk from Clones

Demand for beef from cattle administered growth hormones or fed genetically modified corn: a comparison of consumers in france, germany, the united kingdom, and the united states

Scientific, Ethical, and Economic Aspects of Farm Animal Welfare

Quarter Horse Supply and Demand: Welfare Analysis and Impacts of the Equine Processing Ban

Fair farming: Preferences for fair labor certification using four elicitation methods