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on Marketing |
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Issue of 2016‒08‒21
seven papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Thierry Magnac (Toulouse School of Economics); Pierre Dubois (Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We construct a tractable structural dynamic model of consumption, purchase and stocks by consumers for whom stockpiling is unobserved and for whom preferences are isolastic and affected by independent and identically distributed shocks. Consumers purchase in stores which they meet randomly and which are supposed to maximize short run profits. We show that a two-price mixed strategy by stores satisfies conditions for an equilibrium in which consumers and stores coordinate their expectations on this stationary solution. We derive a simple and tractable estimation method using log linearized demand equations and equilibrium conditions. We estimate parameters using scanner data registering soda purchases by French consumers during 2005-2007. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:451&r=mkt |
| By: | Kumar, Anjani; Roy, Devesh; Tripathi, Gaurav; Joshi, Pramod Kumar; Adhikari, Rajendra Prasad |
| Abstract: | This study is undertaken to quantify the benefits of contract farming (CF) on farmers’ income in a case where new market opportunities are emerging for smallholder farmers in Nepal. CF is emerging as an important form of vertical coordination in the agrifood supply chain. The prospect for CF in a country like Nepal with accessibility issues, underdeveloped markets, and a lack of amenities remains ambiguous. Contractors find it difficult to build links in these cases, particularly when final consumers have quality and safety requirements. However, a lack of other market opportunities makes the contracts more sustainable. The latter happens if there are product-specific quality advantages because of agroecology and, more important, lack of side-selling opportunities. Concerns remain about monoposonistic powers of the buyers when small farmers do not have outside options. Results of this study show that CF is significantly more profitable (81 percent greater net income) than independent production, the main pathway being higher yield and price realization. The positive impact of CF on farmers’ profits can help Nepal in harnessing the growing demand for pulses, especially in neighboring international markets, like India. |
| Keywords: | NEPAL, SOUTH ASIA, ASIA, contract farming, smallholders, small farmers, income, lentils, households, markets, pulses, monoposonistic, Q12 Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets, Q13 Agricultural Markets and Marketing, Cooperatives, Agribusiness, Q17 Agriculture in International Trade, Q18 Agricultural Policy, Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1533&r=mkt |
| By: | Carlson, Andrea; Jaenicke, Edward |
| Abstract: | Organic foods are one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the retail food market. This study applies a hedonic model to 2004-10 Nielsen Homescan data to estimate the organic price premiums for 17 products. Eggs and dairy products generally have the highest premiums, while fresh produce has the widest spread of premiums (ranging from 7 percent of the nonorganic price for spinach to 60 percent for salad mix). Processed food premiums range from 22 percent for granola to 54 percent for canned beans. The strong organic premiums, combined with increased sales, suggest that there is continued room for growth in the organic supply. |
| Keywords: | organic food, organic price premiums, organic label, Homescan data, fruit and vegetable prices, milk prices, egg prices, processed food prices, hedonic price model, organic consumers, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersrr:242448&r=mkt |
| By: | Boneva, Lena (Monetary Policy Committee Unit, Bank of England); CLoyne, James (Monetary Policy Committee Unit, Bank of England); Weale, Martin (Monetary Policy Committee Unit, Bank of England); Wieladek, Tomasz (Monetary Policy Committee Unit, Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | In many forward-looking macroeconomic models, such as the New Keynesian model, firms’ expectations about the future play a key role in determining outcomes today. We examine this hypothesis using a novel panel dataset on firms actual and expected price changes collected by the Confederation of British Industry. Our microeconometric approach overcomes the identification issues faced by previous empirical studies. The results suggest that firms’ expectations play a key role in their price-setting behaviour, with a coefficient on firm’s expectations consistent with the discount factor typically assumed in macroeconomic models. |
| Keywords: | Pricing-setting; survey data; inflation expectations; New Keynesian Phillips Curve |
| JEL: | C23 C26 E31 |
| Date: | 2016–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpc:wpaper:0048&r=mkt |
| By: | Frank A. Wolak |
| Abstract: | This paper formulates and estimates a household-level, billing-cycle water demand model under increasing block prices that accounts for the impact of monthly weather variation, the amount of vegetation on the household’s property, and customer-level heterogeneity in demand due to household demographics. The model utilizes US Census data on the distribution of household demographics in the utility’s service territory to recover the impact of these factors on water demand. An index of the amount of vegetation on the household’s property is obtained from NASA satellite data. The household-level demand models are used to compute the distribution of utility-level water demand and revenues for any possible price schedule. Knowledge of the structure of customer-level demand can be used by the utility to design nonlinear pricing plans that achieve competing revenue or water conservation goals, which is crucial for water utilities to manage increasingly uncertain water availability yet still remain financially viable. Knowledge of how these demands differ across customers based on observable household characteristics can allow the utility to reduce the utility-wide revenue or sales risk it faces for any pricing plan. Knowledge of how the structure of demand varies across customers can be used to design personalized (based on observable household demographic characteristics) increasing block price schedules to further reduce the risk the utility faces on a system-wide basis. For the utilities considered, knowledge of the customer-level demographics that predict demand differences across households reduces the uncertainty in the utility’s system-wide revenues from 70 to 96 percent. Further reductions in the uncertainty in the utility’s system-wide revenues in the, range of 5 to 15 percent, are possible by re-designing the utility’s nonlinear price schedules to minimize the revenue risk it faces given the distribution of household-level demand in its service territory. |
| JEL: | L38 L5 L51 L95 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22503&r=mkt |
| By: | Johannes Spinnewijn |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how biased beliefs about employment prospects affect the optimal design of unemployment insurance. Empirically, I find that the unemployed greatly overestimate how quickly they will find work. As a consequence, they would search too little for work, save too little for unemployment and deplete their savings too rapidly when unemployed. I analyze the use of the "sufficient-statistics" formula to characterize the optimal unemployment policy when beliefs are biased and revisit the desirability of providing liquidity to the unemployed. I also find that the optimal unemployment policy may involve increasing benefits during the unemployment spell. |
| Keywords: | biased belief; unemployment; optimal insurance; moral hazard |
| JEL: | D83 G22 H30 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:59165&r=mkt |
| By: | Shabnam, Nadia; Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano; Seccia, Antonio; Asghar, Zahid |
| Abstract: | The global economic crisis in 2007-08 resulted in a tremendous food price increase that is likely to have adversely affected food security and nutritional status in many developing countries. Understanding how nutritional intakes may have changed as a result of the food price crisis is important, especially for Pakistan, the country under scrutiny which, despite of being a large producer of staple food, suffers severe problems of undernourishment. We use two survey rounds, 2005-06 and 2010-11, to investigate how calorie and macro nutrient intakes have evolved. The analysis was carried out with the use of a time varying model is enriched by an in-depth investigation for different quantiles. The results show that food security deteriorated because of the food price crisis. In the light of this outcome, policy implications will be discussed |
| Keywords: | Food-price crisis; Nutrient consumption; Quantile regression; Pakistan |
| JEL: | F61 F63 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72971&r=mkt |