3,310 research outputs found
Geographic Differences in the Relative Price of Healthy Foods
No full textAlthough healthy foods can be affordable, if less healthy foods are cheaper, individuals may have an economic incentive to consume a less healthful diet. Using the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database, we explore whether a select set of healthy foods (whole grains, dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, whole fruit, skim and 1% milk, fruit juice, and bottled water) are more expensive than less healthy alternatives. We find that not all healthy foods are more expensive than less healthy alternatives; skim and 1% milk are less expensive than whole and 2% milk and bottled water is generally less expensive than carbonated nonalcoholic drinks. We also find considerable geographic variation in the relative price of healthy foods. This price variation may contribute to geographic variation in diet and health outcomes.Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database (QFAHPD), healthy food, price, geographic variation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Public Economics,
Price, inventories, and volatility in the global wheat market
No full textThe study estimates a conditional mean model for international wheat prices and inventories. Endogenous price volatility and exogenous shocks in the price and inventory series are controlled for in estimation. Redressing the empirical linkage between volatility, prices, and inventories is important because volatility increases returns to inventories, which in turn may imply prices. The problem is also important from the regulator perspective, because publicly funded inventory programs have been traditional measures in stabilizing prices and improving food security by providing a buffer against adverse yield shocks and stock-outs. The structural model underlying the estimating equations is based on a dynamic inventory optimization problem. The data suggest that the price of both wheat and wheat inventories is nonstationary and that they are significantly linked to each other in the short run but do not exhibit a stationary long-run equilibrium relationship. Price volatility is an important determinant in the short-run conditional mean processes for both the price and inventories. The pairwise causal relationships have only one direction each. Inventories imply price volatility, price volatility implies price, and price implies inventories, but not vice versa. The parameter estimates suggest that when inventories decrease, price volatility increases. Thus, low inventories have likely been among the necessary conditions, but have not been a sufficient condition by themselves, for the price surge observed in 2008. The price and inventory movements have a significant negative relationship in the very short run, but it is leveled off over time. A decreasing price implies either inventory build-ups or postponement of inventory withdrawals. Overall, the current and past inventory and price movements are not very valuable in predicting the future price movements, and it is likely that the inventory information announced each month is already in the prices.international price, inventories, volatility, Wheat,
Conversation with Lisa Garforth / Conversatorio con Lisa Garforth
No full text\ua9 2023, Universidad Compultense Madrid. All rights reserved. Julia Ram\uedrez-Blanco interviews Lisa Garforth, author of the book Green Utopias and specialist in environmental utopias. With her, we talk about the possible ways of defining ecotopias, and how they manifest themselves both in literature and in different forms of social practice
Symbols at war. The impact of corallium rubrum in the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent
No full textWhereas the implications of the limited inventory of classical sources on the trade in Mediterranean corals to India has been thoroughly and proficiently explored (De Romanis 2000), the much longer history of the exploitation and transformation of corals in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent is not (Vidale 2005; Del Mare and Vidale 2000). Without considering the common emphasis on Mediterranean corals as a reflection of “colonial indology” (over-emphasised nationalist views in Chakrabarti 1997, critical review in Vidale 2000), it is clear that the historical role of Indo-Pacific corals in the prehistoric and early historic periods of the Subcontinent has been grossly overlooked
Social networks: the future of marketing for small business
No full textPurpose – The authors review recent developments in online marketing strategy that demonstrate the growing power of online communities in building brand reputations and customer relationships. Design/methodologies/approach – This work draws upon the results of an ongoing research project that is investigating the use of new technologies by entrepreneurial growing businesses in the London area. A range of examples from our 30 case study businesses are drawn upon to illustrate some of the opportunities and threats associated with these new marketing priorities.<br/
Reference-based transitions in short-run price elasticity
No full textMarketing literature has long recognized that price response need not be monotonic and symmetric, but has yet to provide generalizable market-level insights on reference price type, asymmetric thresholds and sign and magnitude of elasticity transitions. In this paper, we introduce smooth transition models to study reference-based price response across 25 fast moving consumer good categories. Our application to 100 brands shows that 77% demonstrate reference-based price response, of which 36% reflects historical reference prices, 31% reflects competitive reference prices, and 33% reflects both types of reference prices. This reference-based price response shows asymmetry for gains versus losses on three levels: the threshold size, the sign and the magnitude of the elasticity difference. For historical reference prices, the threshold size is larger for gains (20%) than for losses (12%) and the assimilation/contrast effects for gains (-0.41) are smaller than the saturation effects for losses (0.81). For competitive reference prices, the threshold size is smaller for gains (3%) than for losses (16%), and the saturation effects are larger for gains (0.33) than for losses (0.15). These results are moderated by both brand and category characteristics that affect reference price accessibility and diagnosticity. Historical reference prices more often play a role for national brands, for planned purchases and in inexpensive categories with low price volatility and high purchase frequency. When price discounting, high-share brands face larger latitudes of acceptance. When raising prices, saturation effects set in later for brands with high price volatility and for categories with high price spread and for planned purchases. As for competitive reference prices, saturation effects set in later for expensive brands with high price volatility and in categories with lower price volatility, higher price spread and higher concentration. Sales, revenue and margin implications are illustrated for price changes typically observed in consumer markets.asymmetric price thresholds;competitive versus historical reference prices;empirical generalizations;kinked demand curve;saturation versus assimilation/contrast effects;smooth-transition regression models
Pentachlorophenol
No full text"Prepared by: Syracuse Research Corporation Under Contract no. 205-1999-00024; prepared for: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry."Chemical manager(s)/author(s): Lori L. Miller, ATSDR, Division of Toxicology, Atlanta, GA; Lisa D. Ingerman, Mona Singh, Syracuse Research Corporation, North Syracuse, NY.Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-306).205-1999-0002
Monénembo\u27s L\u27Aîné des orphelins and the Rwandan Genocide
No full textIn her paper, Monénembo\u27s L\u27Aîné des orphelins and the Rwandan Genocide, Lisa McNee discusses Tierno Monénembo\u27s L\u27Aîné des orphelins, a novel that offers a double discourse and a dual memory of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. McNee argues that L\u27Aîné des orphelins presents us with an extraordinary kind of fictional testimonial to genocide. Although Monénembo is not from Rwanda and did not participate in the tragedy, only someone who has paid the price of the clarity needed to distinguish between good and bad faith could have written a novel like L\u27Aîné des orphelins. Monénembo\u27s characterization of Faustin as a young man who feels guilty without reason is plausible, given what we know of victims of abuse and their reactions, or those of survivors of other humanitarian catastrophes. One can only speculate about Monénembo\u27s own experiences as an exile. In Monénembo, McNee proposes, we have a rare example of an intellectual who accepts the burden of a certain complicity, the complicity of those who did not speak out or intervene at the time of the genocide and who does not flinch at the cost of confronting that complicity. Of course, the Rwandan genocide recalls the shadows of other genocides and the reflections that others have shared may help us to better understand the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath
Microbial enrichment culture responsible for the complete oxidative biodegradation of 3‑Amino-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (ATO), the reduced daughter product of the insensitive munitions compound 3‑Nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO)
No full text3-Nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) is one of the main ingredients of many insensitive munitions, which are being used as replacements for conventional explosives. As its use becomes widespread, more research is needed to assess its environmental fate. Previous studies have shown that NTO is biologically reduced to 3-amino-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (ATO). However, the final degradation products of ATO are still unknown. We have studied the aerobic degradation of ATO by enrichment cultures derived from the soil. After multiple transfers, ATO degradation was monitored in closed bottles through measurements of inorganic carbon and nitrogen species. The results indicate that the members of the enrichment culture utilize ATO as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. As ATO was mineralized to CO₂, N₂, and NH₄⁺, microbial growth was observed in the culture. Co-substrates addition did not increase the ATO degradation rate. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the organisms that enriched using ATO as carbon and nitrogen source were Terrimonas spp., Ramlibacter-related spp., Mesorhizobium spp., Hydrogenophaga spp., Ralstonia spp., Pseudomonas spp., Ectothiorhodospiraceae, and Sphingopyxis. This is the first study to report the complete mineralization of ATO by soil microorganisms, expanding our understanding of natural attenuation and bioremediation of the explosive NTO.Journal ArticleFinal article publishe
Price Indexes for Acute Phase Treatment of Depression
No full textAlthough broad trends in medical spending in the U.S. over the last decade have received widespread attention from policymakers, very little attention has focused on the components of those changes. For many other industries, economists typically divide nominal expenditures by an official government price index to decompose these expenditures into price and quantity components. In this paper we construct a new price index for the treatment of one illness depression. Making use of results from the published clinical literature and from official treatment guideline standards, we identify therapeutically similar treatment bundles. These bundles can then be linked and weighted to construct price indexes for specific forms of major depression. In doing so, we construct CPI and PPI-like medical price indexes that deal with prices of treatment episodes rather than prices of discrete inputs, that are based on transaction rather than list prices, that take quality changes and expected outcomes into account employ current, time-varying expenditure weights in the aggregation computations. We find that regardless of which index number procedure is employed time period the treatment price index for the acute phase of major depression has hardly changed remaining at 1.00 or falling slightly to around 0.97. This index grows considerably less rapidly than the various official PPIs -- thus the price index for the treatment of the acute phase of major depression has fallen over the 1991-95 time period. A hedonic approach to price index measurement yields broadly similar results. These results imply that given a budget for treatment of depression accomplished in 1995 than in 1991. Our results suggest that at least in the case of acute phase major depression, aggregate spending increases are due to a larger number of effective treatments being provided.
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