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

Current restrictions on the food stamp program include alcohol and cigarettes among other things, and present research on food stamp effects focuses on adding more restrictions to the program like not allowing soda or sugary fruit juice to be purchased with the funds. The goal is to encourage this population to lead a healthier life, or at least limit the prevalence of obesity and resulting obesity-related mortality. However, current restrictions have not eliminated the consumption of the items of interest in this paper, alcohol and tobacco products, which are also leading causes of mortality. Despite efforts to keep participants from consuming certain products and before more restrictions are enforced, understanding consumption of items already restricted like alcohol and tobacco could be beneficial.	 This paper will consider if food stamp participation could affect alcohol and tobacco, and determine the consumption level differences as well.

Could the Net Health Effect of Food Stamps be Negative

Consumers often form beliefs about credence attributes unsupported by the best available evidence. In particular, prior research has revealed many consumers have overly-optimistic beliefs about the environmental and nutritional impacts of organic food. We propose and study the effects of a sustainability facts label (SFL), which displays quantitative environmental information related to global warming potential, land use, and energy use per serving size of the product. The SFL is akin to a nutrition facts label (NFL), which we also study. We surveyed a nationally representative sample of milk consumers in the United States (USA) to measure their choices and beliefs about organic vs. conventional milk under one of three different label information treatments; the NFL only, the SFL only, and both labels relative to a control without any nutrition or sustainability information. Unexpectedly, our results show that the SFL increased the likelihood of organic purchases. Facts panels altered beliefs; The participants exposed to the SFL increased their perception that organic performs better on environmental metrics, despite the fact the information contained in the label provided a nuanced picture with organic better in some dimensions and worse in others. Consistent with the information provided, consumers exposed to the NFL decreased their perception that organic had fewer calories and more protein than conventional milk. Prior beliefs about organic were found to be important determinants of choice and information acquisition. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/aepp.13350

Can a sustainability facts label reduce the halo surrounding organic labels?

Plastic straws are banned in the Chinese catering industry since 2021, and the main alternative, paper straws, gained a lot of unfavorable comments for their poor performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of this national top-down environmental policy that brings inconvenience to daily life on the environmental attitudes of Chinses general public. A controlled experiment was conducted: the treatment group was exposed to details about the ban, whereas the control group was not. From there, they went through a choice experiment by imagining buying a cup of bubble tea and choosing plastic straw alternatives of different price levels; they then answered a series of questions to assess their environmental attitudes. Results indicate exposure to policy details increased subjects’ acceptance of the major alternative – paper straws. Treatment and control groups both showed a strong positivity towards general environmental protection, but those supportive attitudes were restrained when the individual ‘ s lives were more directly affected. Between-subject comparison indicated that the subjects attitudes toward the environment were insensitive to the policy exposure. All the above provides implications for business owners, researchers, and policymakers.

Research on the Impacts of Banning Plastic Straws in Catering Industry on Chinese Consumers’ Environmental Attitudes

This paper examines the Multi-Product Asymptotically Ideal Production Model as an alternative to the translog and normalized quadratic functional forms using farm level data. Factors such as ease of estimation, imposition of regularity conditions, and quantitative differences in empirical estimates are compared.

Jayson L. Lusk

Papers

Could the Net Health Effect of Food Stamps be Negative

Can a sustainability facts label reduce the halo surrounding organic labels?

Research on the Impacts of Banning Plastic Straws in Catering Industry on Chinese Consumers’ Environmental Attitudes

The Multi-Product Asymptotically Ideal Model: An Application to Agriculture

Impacts of Food Safety Events on Consumer Awareness and U.S. Meat Demand