Stacking Subsidies in Factor Markets: Evidence from Market Experiments

Government policies employ different support programs such as subsidies to reduce risks, increase efficiency in markets, and enhance societal welfare. In markets such as ethanol markets, where multiple agents receive subsidy, it is often difficult to determine whether recipients of these support programs will transfer some of their payments to other agents in the market. In this study, we use laboratory market experiments to understand subsidy incidence in markets where both buyers and sellers receive subsidies, and there are few buyers relative to sellers. Our results show that when subsidizing both sides of the market, framing effects matter, and when markets are buyer concentrated, subsidy distributions generally tend to favor buyers. With a per-unit subsidy of 20 tokens to both sides and an equal number of buyers and sellers in the market, we find that buyers increase their earnings by 13.4% while seller earnings decrease by 16.1%. On a per-schedule basis, buyer earnings in the concentrated market are similar to what we observed in the competitive market.

UPDATES IN PROTOCOL FOR HUMAN SEMEN EXAMINATION

Currently, the WHO laboratory manual for the examination and processing of human semen (5th edition, 2010) provides updated, standardized, evidence-based procedures and recommendations for laboratory managers, scientists and technicians to follow in examining human semen in a clinical or research setting. Despite the fact, there are several gaps and limitations in the interpretation of this compendium. Mostly, the WHO-protocol of estimation of peroxidase-positive cells and spermatozoa, as well as evaluation of their viability and morphology are not so affordable and applicable in Russia due to peculiarities of laboratory market. Furthermore, most of Russian manuscripts do not reflect a unified approach to the analytical stage of semen analyses. In order to standardize the protocol for human semen examination which adopted to Russian lab it was developed packing of reagents (GEMSTANDART-SEMEN ANALYSES, LLC ‘GEMSTANDART’, Saint Petersburg, Russia) allowing to obtain an accuracy and completeness of the examination. In summary, this approach is a necessary step in male fertility evaluation. Together with a clinical information, it is indispensable for planning the appropriate clinical management and tacking care in male health.

Sustainable Development of Cosmetic Products in the Frame of the Laboratory Market

The main objective of the current study is to highlight sustainable development from the perspective of the cosmetics industry producing ‘eco-friendly’ products. In the last decades an enhancing interest is being experienced towards sustainable development among cosmetics manufacturing companies, scientific research and development (R & D) laboratories as well as green consumers in the need for natural products safer for health and less toxic for the environment. Several international studies show that cosmetic products formulated with natural ingredients developed by cosmetic industry has a higher annual market growth than for synthetic products. R & D puts special focus on new innovative technologies in green cosmetic products to meet the frequently updated requirements of regulations in compliance with the current legislation. Scientific laboratory market has an increasing importance to evaluate natural and organic raw materials. In this work the authors attempt to focus on the growing importance of research activities to sustainable cosmetics production in life cycle assessment methodology. Naturally, the conceptual scope and extent of this study do not permit all the possible issues to be examined from every aspects due to lack of data, thus it will be endeavored to point out merely the most relevant considerations in the field of cosmetic industry.