Change in Hay-to-Milk Price Responsiveness with Dairy Industry Expansion

The dairy industries in California, Idaho, and New Mexico expanded rapidly during the early 2000s. This study focuses on the expansion effects on milk-to-hay price responsiveness. Dairy industry expansion makes hay markets tighter, with less available marketable supply in most periods. The empirical models account for the expansion effect as well as those from hay exports and low stocks-to-use ratios that also cause changes in hay market demand characteristics. The results show that hay-to-milk price responsiveness increased after dairy expansion in all analyzed states. Low stocks-to-use and high exports dampened the responsiveness, but were not statistically significant for all analyzed states.

Temporal Distance and Price Responsiveness: Empirical Investigation of the Cruise Industry

Temporal distance refers to the time between purchase and consumption in advanced-sales industries. We explore how the response of aggregate demand to price changes with temporal distance in a large, proprietary data set of Florida cruise prices, bookings, and product attributes. We offer the first evidence that cruise demand becomes more sensitive to price during the advance sales period, unlike extant findings in other settings. The results also show that demand is greatest late in the advance sales period, providing the first finding that a late-season high-demand period coincides with a late-season increase in aggregate price sensitivity. The high-demand effect more than offsets the high-price-responsiveness pattern, leading the firm to increase prices throughout the advance sales period. Although the data do not disentangle multiple competing explanations for the main findings, they are large enough to appear in simple data visualizations and robust enough to replicate across many model specifications, parameterizations, and partitions of the data. This paper was accepted by Matthew Shum, marketing.

Generic promotion of Norwegian seafood exports

The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) works cooperatively with its seafood industry to develop foreign demand for Norwegian seafood through generic promotion and advertising. The generic promotion activities are financed through fees levied on all Norwegian seafood exports. Using an econometric simulation approach, the study addresses two key questions regarding the NSC generic seafood export promotion programs over time: (1) What have been the effects of those programs on the Norwegian seafood export volume, price, and revenue in the aggregate? (2) Have Norwegian seafood producers, exporters, and other stakeholders benefitted from the export-levy-funded generic export promotion programs? Examining potential scenarios for a likely range of the price responsiveness of the Norwegian seafood export supply, the study finds that NSC promotion added about 12% to the aggregate export value of Norwegian seafood between 2003 and 2017 resulting from an addition to the export price and volume of 10% and 4%, respectively. About 17% of stakeholder profits over that period was due to the promotion programs resulting in an industry profit benefit to cost ratio of about 12 to 13 to one.

The Bundling Strategy: The One-Click Effect on Loss Aversion

This research aims to determine different levels of loss aversion in the context of price responsiveness and service bundling. Considering that nonlinearities in price responses may exist in a bundling strategy, this research tests the existence of different degrees of loss aversion, depending on whether an individual books one service independently of another (e.g., an airline ticket independently of accommodation) or as part of a bundle (e.g., a package that includes an airline ticket plus accommodation). We estimate a random parameter logit model. Empirical application shows that people who book a flight independently of accommodation are more loss averse than those who book a package that includes flight and accommodation. To explain this result, we propose the one-click effect so that people who find a price higher than expected (loss aversion) are more willing to accept it if the product is included in a bundle.

Global patterns in price elasticities of sugar-sweetened beverage intake and potential effectiveness of tax policy: a cross-sectional study of 164 countries by sex, age and global-income decile

ObjectiveTo quantify global relationships between sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake and prices and examine the potential effectiveness of tax policy.DesignSSB intake data by country, age and sex from the Global Dietary Database were combined with gross domestic product and price data from the World Bank. Intake responsiveness to income and prices was estimated accounting for national income, age and sex differences.Setting164 countries.PopulationFull adult population in each country.Main outcome measuresA consumer demand modelling framework was used to estimate the relationship between SSB intake and prices and derive own-price elasticities (measures of percentage changes in intake from a 1% price change) globally by age and sex. We simulated how a 20% tax would impact SSB intake globally. Tax policy outcomes were examined across countries by global income decile for representative age and sex subgroups.ResultsOwn-price responsiveness was highest in lowest income countries, ranging from −0.70 (p<0.100) for women, age 50, to −1.91 (p<0.001) for men, age 80. In the highest income countries, responsiveness was as high as −0.49 (p<0.001) (men, age 20), but was mostly insignificant for older adults. Overall, elasticities were strongest (more negative) at the youngest and oldest age groups, and mostly insignificant for middle-aged adults, particularly in middle-income and high-income countries. Sex differences were mostly negligible. Potential intake reductions from a 20% tax in lowest income countries ranged from 14.5% (95% CI: 29.5%, −0.4%) in women, 35 ≤ age < 60, to 24.9% (44.4%, 5.3%) in men, age ≥60. Intake reductions decreased with country income overall, and were mostly insignificant for middle-aged adults.ConclusionsThese findings estimate the global price-responsiveness of SSB intake by age and sex, informing ongoing policy discussions on potential effects of taxes.