Facing it: assessing the immediate emotional impacts of calorie labelling using automatic facial coding

Although there has been a proliferation of research and policy work into how nudges shape people's behaviour, most studies stop far short of consumer welfare analysis. In the current work, we critically reflect on recent efforts to provide insights into the consumer welfare impact of nudges using willingness to pay and subjective well-being reports and explore an unobtrusive approach that can speak to the immediate emotional impacts of a nudge: automatic facial expression coding. In an exploratory lab study, we use facial expression coding to assess the short-run emotional impact of being presented with calorie information about a popcorn snack in the context of a stylised ‘Cinema experience’. The results of the study indicate that calorie information has heterogeneous impacts on people's likelihood of choosing the snack and on the emotions they experience during the moment of choice which varies based on their level of health-consciousness. The information does not, however, affect the emotions people go on to experience while viewing movie clips, suggesting that the emotional effects of the information are short-lived. We conclude by emphasising the potential of automatic facial expression coding to provide new insights into the immediate emotional impacts of nudges and calling for further research into this promising technique.

Environmental Taxation

The environment as a policy issue has increased dramatically in importance in recent decades. The issues extend from global challenges, such as climate change, access to water and soils, ozone emissions, and biodiversity loss, to issues with a smaller geographical scope, such as water quality and congestion, to the impact of the environment on health. Environmental policy measures, including environmental regulations, taxes, and emission trading schemes, have been proposed to reduce pollution. This chapter focuses on environmental taxes, as they are most amenable to simulation using a microsimulation model, requiring both the behavioural response to the policy to be measured and the distributional impact. In particular, the focus is on the modelling and design of Pigouvian taxes that aim to reduce environmental pollution such as a carbon tax. The chapter presents methodological issues in terms of modelling pollution. It also describes how to use an input-output model to simulate the direct and indirect impact of environmental taxation. The chapter then undertakes an example analysis assessing the welfare impact of a carbon tax.

Indirect Taxation and Consumption Behaviour

Indirect taxation refers to taxation that is levied on expenditure rather than on income and is one of the most important sources of revenue for governments, particularly in middle- and low-income countries. As a result, indirect taxation is frequently included in microsimulation models. These models differ from those described thus far in that they involve the use of data that contains expenditures in addition to incomes. This chapter describes the theoretical structure of a number of different types of indirect taxation. A challenge to the simulation of indirect taxation arises in that the base datasets of microsimulation models typically do not include expenditure data. A relatively simple method for combining income and expenditure data is described. As changes in indirect taxation affect the relative prices of goods, there will either be a change in consumption patterns or a change in savings. A method to model behavioural response when modelling indirect taxation is discussed. These methods are then utilized to describe some descriptive measures for the distributional attributes of consumption and some directions for policy reform. The framework developed in this chapter is then used to model the welfare impact of changes to indirect taxation in an example simulation.

Frequency and predisposing factors for canine otitis externa in the UK – a primary veterinary care epidemiological view

Background Otitis externa is a commonly diagnosed disorder in dogs and can carry a high welfare impact on affected animals. This study aimed to report the prevalence and explore the role of breed and aural conformation as predisposing factors for canine otitis externa in the UK. The study used a cohort design of dogs under UK primary veterinary care at clinics participating in the VetCompass Programme during 2016. Risk factor analysis used multivariable logistic regression modelling. Results The study included a random sample of 22,333 dogs from an overall population of 905,554 dogs under veterinary care in 2016. The one-year period prevalence of otitis externa was 7.30% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.97 to 7.65). Breed and ear carriage were the highest ranked risk factors. Compared with crossbred dogs, sixteen breed types showed increased odds, including: Basset Hound (odds ratio [OR] 5.87), Chinese Shar Pei (OR 3.44), Labradoodle (OR 2.95), Beagle (OR 2.54) and Golden Retriever (OR 2.23). Four breeds showed protection (i.e. reduced odds) of otitis externa: Chihuahua (OR 0.20), Border Collie (OR 0.34), Yorkshire Terrier (OR 0.49) and Jack Russell Terrier (OR 0.52). Designer breed types overall had 1.63 times the odds (95% CI 1.31 to 2.03) compared with crossbred dogs. Compared with breeds with erect ear carriage, breeds with pendulous ear carriage had 1.76 times the odds (95% CI 1.48 to 2.10) and breeds with V-shaped drop ear carriage had 1.84 times the odds (95% CI 1.53 to 2.21) of otitis externa. Conclusions Breed itself and breed-associated ear carriage conformation are important predisposing factors for canine otitis externa. Greater awareness of these associations for both predisposed and protected breeds could support veterinary practitioners to promote cautious and low-harm approaches in their clinical advice on preventive care for otitis externa, especially in predisposed breeds.

Welfare Impact of Organic Fertilizer Adoption: Empirical Evidence From Nigeria

Soil fertility depletion is acknowledged to adversely influence agricultural productivity and welfare status of rural farming households. Studies have shown that organic fertilizer utilization tends to rejuvenate the soil, thereby enhancing its productive capacity. This study seeks to estimate the welfare impact of organic fertilizer adoption among agricultural households using the 2018/2019 Nigeria General Household Survey (GHS). The novelty of this study is in the use of propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous treatment regression (ETR) to address biases that may arise from both observed and unobserved factors. Results show that the adoption of organic fertilizers positively and significantly impacts the welfare of farmers, particularly when sources of unobserved characteristics of agricultural households are accounted for. The heterogeneity impact results show that female household heads, agricultural households that had access to credit, and farm household residents in the southern region of Nigeria significantly gained more from the adoption of organic fertilizers. In addition, a check for time effect reveals that the adoption of organic fertilizers does not result in an immediate welfare effect; the effect is, however, positive and significant over time. This suggests that adoption does not only improve soil and mitigate against climate impact, but it also has a higher likelihood of providing long-term and sustainable welfare impact for agricultural households. The results point to the need for policies and programs to promote and sustain the adoption of organic fertilizers among agricultural households through addressing existing institutional barriers such as extension and credit facilities.

Cognitive and Composite Behavioural Welfare Assessments of Pet Cats between the Ages of 9–22 Months, Living in Single and Multi-Cat Households

Although agonistic interactions between cats are often regarded clinically as a source of stress, there is currently limited research evidence regarding the welfare impact of keeping multiple cats as pets. The aim of this study was to compare welfare indicators between cats living in domestic single and multi-cat households, as well as between multi-cat households where agonistic behaviour was/was not reported by owners. Indicators included a spatial judgment bias task (JBT), where longer latencies to ambiguous probes are interpreted as being related to a more ‘pessimistic’ mood state, and the cat stress score (CSS), where high scores are indicative of high stress levels. Of 128 focal cats between the ages of 9–22 months, 94 were from multi-cat households, 126 had useable CSS data and 42 had JBT results suitable for analysis. CSSs were significantly lower for cats showing a more ‘pessimistic’ response in the JBT. It is possible that the cats that appeared to be the most relaxed may have been showing inactivity relating to negative affective states and/or were the least active/food motivated, and therefore slower in the JBT. CSSs were significantly higher in cats from single compared with multi-cat households, and did not vary with reports of agonistic interactions in multi-cat households. JBT results did not vary depending on the presence of, or reports of agonistic behaviours between, cohabiting cats. These data suggest that cats from single-cat households may be more likely to show signs of acute stress than those in multi-cat households. Alternative explanations are possible. For example, lower CSSs in the multi-cat group may reflect ‘relief’ effects resulting from separating cats for the test period, or inactivity relating to negative affective states. Due to the narrow sample population and broad scope of husbandry conditions, the potential for confounding variables limits the degree by which results can be used to inform causation of the relationships identified. Further research is warranted to replicate this work and explore potential confounders.

Construction of Household Welfare Index and Welfare Impact of International Remittances in Rural Bangladesh

This paper mainly focuses on the construction of a household welfare index to examine the welfare impact of international remittances in rural Bangladesh. This paper, in achieving this objective, uses primary data and several methods. This paper constructs a household welfare index newly to measure the level of household welfare. Besides, a linear regression and Chi-square test is used to examine the welfare and poverty impact of international remittances, respectively. Remittance receiving households enjoy the higher level of welfare more than non-recipient households in the study area. Household welfare is augmented by 0.116 if the household is under the shade of international remittances. A significant impact of international remittances on the reduction of household poverty is also found in this study. Therefore, this paper suggests policymakers for utilizing international remittances as a significant tool to enhance household welfare and to reduce household poverty.