Production Contracts and Buyer Market Power in the U.S. Broiler Chicken Industry

The motivations for this case study are recent developments in the U.S. broiler chicken industry involving allegations of an illegal exercise of buyer market power by the five largest broiler chicken processors in the country in the market for broiler grow-out services. This case study introduces economic, business, and legal issues related to the alleged input price-fixing cartel of the five largest broiler processors. The case study describes the broiler processors’ conduct and presents a theoretical framework that may explain market and price effects of the alleged input price-fixing cartel. In addition, the case study introduces a comprehensive analysis of a sample broiler production a..

Agricultural Economics

The 2022 Energy Crisis: horizontal and vertical impacts of policy interventions in Australia’s National Electricity Market

The war in Ukraine and the associated 2022 energy crisis has had far-reaching effects with seaborne prices for coal and gas reaching multiples (5-6x) of their historic averages. While Europe was the epicentre, countries as far away as Australia were impacted. As a major exporter of coal and gas, domestic markets are linked to seaborne prices. Consequently, forward prices for 2023 delivery in Australia’s National Electricity Market surged from ~$48 in 2021 to $156/MWh in 2022 at one point peaking at $247/MWh. Household electricity tariffs were set to in-crease by 11% in 2023 and 35% in 2024. In late-2022, the Commonwealth Government intervened by setting fuel price caps of $125/t and $..

Energy Economics

Inclusive growth and climate change adaptation and mitigation in Australia and China : Removing barriers to solving wicked problems

This reports aims to assist the Sino-Australian bilateral relationship adapt to meet China’s new policies and to facilitate a smoother transition to a low carbon future. Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), Chengdu, China and the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia held a workshop at SWUFE to develop a guide to China’s low-carbon policies and their implications for the Sino-Australian energy trade and sectors. This report results from the workshop. Chapter 3 contains the guide to China’s low emission policies and discusses market-based experiments within China’s command-and-control electricity sector. Chapter 4 discuses Australia’s poorly implemented neo..

Environmental Economics

Technology Boom, Labor Reallocation, and Human Capital Depreciation

We study the long-run effect on productivity of labor reallocation during a technology boom. Using French matched employer-employee data, we examine the large cohort of workers who enter the information and communication technology sector during the late 1990s boom. Despite starting with 5% higher wages, these workers experience lower wage growth and end up with 6% lower wages fifteen years out, relative to similar workers who started in other sectors. The long-run wage discount is concentrated on STEM occupations, consistent with a skill obsolescence mechanism. Other moments of the wage distribution are inconsistent with selectioneffects and negative demand shocks.

Macroeconomics

Strong Demand, Limited Supply, and Rising Prices: The Economics of Pandemic-Era Housing

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland regularly surveys a broad cross-section of businesses in the region it serves and convenes business advisory councils in eight of the region’s major metropolitan areas. The information collected through these surveys and conversations points to trends that are not yet apparent in the data and fills gaps in researchers’ understanding of our region’s economy. The information is helpful to Federal Reserve policymakers during their discussions about the nation’s monetary policy. Anecdotes herein have been edited for length and clarity.

Urban and Real Estate Economics

Childhood Welfare Exposure and Economic Outcomes for Adult Daughters and Sons

We investigate how length of time on welfare during childhood affects economic outcomes in early adulthood. Using intergenerationally linked mother-child pairs from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we adopt a nonlinear difference-in-differences framework using the 1990s welfare reform to estimate average and quantile treatment effects on intensity of welfare use and earnings in adulthood. The causal estimates indicate that additional childhood welfare exposure leads to more adulthood years on the broader safety net for both daughters and sons, yet this positive relationship only applies below moderate levels of adult welfare participation and reverses at greater levels of dependence. Incr..

Health Economics

Women Political Leaders as Agents of Environmental Change

This paper explores how female political leaders impact environmental outcomes and climate change policy actions using data from mixed-gender mayoral races in Brazil. Using a Regression Discontinuity design we find that, compared to male mayors, female mayors significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This effect is driven by a reduction in emissions intensity (CO2e/GDP) in the Land Use sector, without changes in municipal economic activity. Part of the reduction in emissions in the Land Use sector is attributable to a decline in deforestation. We examine potential mechanisms that could explain the positive environmental impact of narrowly electing a female mayor over a male counterpart ..

Positive Political Economics

Women Political Leaders as Agents of Environmental Change

This paper explores how female political leaders impact environmental outcomes and climate change policy actions using data from mixed-gender mayoral races in Brazil. Using a Regression Discontinuity design we find that, compared to male mayors, female mayors significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This effect is driven by a reduction in emissions intensity (CO2e/GDP) in the Land Use sector, without changes in municipal economic activity. Part of the reduction in emissions in the Land Use sector is attributable to a decline in deforestation. We examine potential mechanisms that could explain the positive environmental impact of narrowly electing a female mayor over a male counterpart ..

Agricultural Economics

Slowing Down, Heating Up: Economic Deceleration and Social Discontent in Latin America

There have been widespread public expressions of discontent throughout Latin America since the early 2010s. We exploit harmonized microdata from national household surveys covering nearly all Latin American countries to explore potential sources of discontent driven by income changes along the income distribution. We also estimate fixed-effects models that link discontent measures to changes in household incomes. Our results suggest that discontent may stem less from absolute economic performance during the 2010s than from the significant deceleration relative to the previous decade.

Business, Economic and Financial History

Recycling Regime, Environment, and Exclusion of Electronic Scrap Workers in Delhi

In recent years, the Indian e-waste sector has undergone a process of formalisation through the implementation of E-waste Management Rules (2016), leading to the creation of what I call recycling regime. The upper and middle classes, along with NGOs and industry actors, are frontrunners in thinking about e-waste policies. They were prompted by a twofold motive: the desire for a “world-class”, clean, and pollution-free city; and seizing business opportunities by extracting value from e-waste. Rather than replacing the State, they co-opted the State so that it would legislate to safeguard the environment, and address toxicity and health problems associated with e-waste. Recycling regime re..

CIAO > Working Paper

Socio-economic differences in receiving care by the over-80s in Germany and England: intensity of care needs as a moderator

The growing number of people aged 80 or older living in the community has raised concerns about meeting their care needs and about socio-economic inequalities in their care use. The study examines socio-economic status (SES) patterns in informal and formal care use, as well as unmet care needs, of people aged 80 or older living in the community in Germany and England. We propose that SES patterns in care use change with the intensity of care needs. The analyses use data from the Survey of Quality of Life and Well-Being of the Very Old in North Rhine-Westphalia and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Despite the differences in the long-term care systems (LTCSs) and cultural norms around..

Microeconomic European Issues

Will national renewable costs continue declining?

Since the 1980s, the global average of solar photovoltaic (PV) cost has decreased by about two orders of magnitude while the global average onshore wind cost has decreased by about one order of magnitude. But global averages are only part of the story: For both solar and wind, costs vary between countries by about an order of magnitude. We curate a comprehensive database of national costs and build predictive models for future costs by decomposing the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) into its components and modeling them separately. For solar PV we find that since 1990 the module cost and the balance of system cost (BOS) have both declined roughly exponentially at rates of 12% per year. ..

Environmental Economics

The effect of NFT visual quality on consumer evaluations of luxury goods in the metaverse

Luxury brands creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) often face technical constraints that compromise visual aesthetics, potentially conflicting with their high-end image. This study investigates how the visual quality of NFTs and the presence of price information influence consumer perceptions of luxury goods in the metaverse across three experimental studies. Study 1 compared consumer evaluations across three conditions: good-quality NFT, poor-quality NFT, and no NFT. The findings revealed that poor NFT visual quality negatively influenced evaluations of the original product, with perceived authenticity identified as the key underlying mechanism. Study 2 examined whether this negative effect ..

Cultural Economics

The effect of NFT visual quality on consumer evaluations of luxury goods in the metaverse

Luxury brands creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) often face technical constraints that compromise visual aesthetics, potentially conflicting with their high-end image. This study investigates how the visual quality of NFTs and the presence of price information influence consumer perceptions of luxury goods in the metaverse across three experimental studies. Study 1 compared consumer evaluations across three conditions: good-quality NFT, poor-quality NFT, and no NFT. The findings revealed that poor NFT visual quality negatively influenced evaluations of the original product, with perceived authenticity identified as the key underlying mechanism. Study 2 examined whether this negative effect ..

Experimental Economics

Interstate Conflict and International Trade

We provide a selective overview of the literature on the linkages between interstate conflict and international trade, paying special attention to how trade openness (i) affects arming incentives, (ii) the channels through which its effects travel, and (iii) its consequences for the emergence of war (or peace) as an equilibrium outcome. We also discuss how restrictive trade policies may interact with national security concerns and what they imply for welfare.

Business, Economic and Financial History

The hidden dimension of low-carbon public transport policies: From biodiversity conservation to user preferences

Transport infrastructures dedicated to low-carbon public transport are seen as a central tool in public policy strategies to mitigate climate change. Yet, the development of transport infrastructures has significant direct and indirect negative effects on biodiversity and social acceptability of these impacts remain little assessed. In this study, we analyse potential impacts of 20 tramway existing projects in France and social preferences with regard to their ecological and landscape integration. Using a discrete choice experiment on 1000 respondents, we show that users, even the most time constrained, are accepting an average travel time lengthening of 15 %, if tramway project integration ..

Transport Economics

The hidden dimension of low-carbon public transport policies: From biodiversity conservation to user preferences

Transport infrastructures dedicated to low-carbon public transport are seen as a central tool in public policy strategies to mitigate climate change. Yet, the development of transport infrastructures has significant direct and indirect negative effects on biodiversity and social acceptability of these impacts remain little assessed. In this study, we analyse potential impacts of 20 tramway existing projects in France and social preferences with regard to their ecological and landscape integration. Using a discrete choice experiment on 1000 respondents, we show that users, even the most time constrained, are accepting an average travel time lengthening of 15 %, if tramway project integration ..

Agricultural Economics

Peer learning and technology adoption in a digital farmer-to-farmer network

Information constraints rank high among barriers to agricultural technology adoption among small-scale farmers, particularly for complex bundles of complementary practices. Information communication technologies are emerging to extend the reach of agricultural training, with potential to deliver information through mobile and smartphones at little or no cost to farmers. In this study, we develop a low-cost digital extension platform that facilitates peer-to-peer learning through SMS-based chat groups on basic feature phones. Using a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate its effectiveness in promoting the adoption of beneficial agricultural practices compared to a one-way SMS extension pro..

Experimental Economics

Quantifying delay propagation in airline networks

We develop a framework for quantifying delay propagation in airline networks that combines structural modeling and machine learning methods together to estimate causal objects of interest. Using a large comprehensive data set on actual delays and a model-selection algorithm (elastic net) we estimate a weighted directed graph of delay propagation for each major airline in the US and derive conditions under which the estimates of the propagation coefficients are causal. We use these estimates to decompose the airline performance into “luck” and “ability.” We find that luck may explain about 38% of the performance difference between Delta and American in our data. We further use these e..

Network Economics

Quantifying delay propagation in airline networks

We develop a framework for quantifying delay propagation in airline networks that combines structural modeling and machine learning methods together to estimate causal objects of interest. Using a large comprehensive data set on actual delays and a model-selection algorithm (elastic net) we estimate a weighted directed graph of delay propagation for each major airline in the US and derive conditions under which the estimates of the propagation coefficients are causal. We use these estimates to decompose the airline performance into “luck” and “ability.” We find that luck may explain about 38% of the performance difference between Delta and American in our data. We further use these e..

Transport Economics

Quantifying delay propagation in airline networks

We develop a framework for quantifying delay propagation in airline networks that combines structural modeling and machine learning methods together to estimate causal objects of interest. Using a large comprehensive data set on actual delays and a model-selection algorithm (elastic net) we estimate a weighted directed graph of delay propagation for each major airline in the US and derive conditions under which the estimates of the propagation coefficients are causal. We use these estimates to decompose the airline performance into “luck” and “ability.” We find that luck may explain about 38% of the performance difference between Delta and American in our data. We further use these e..

Urban and Real Estate Economics