Economics: Research Guide

" Objective - systematically review the role of colors within branding and value creation in food packaging and offer a novelty overview related to brand identification and value creation. Methodology - The literature review is adopted by collecting data from three main databases addressing color and packaging in a food context. This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 Protocols guidelines. This paper aims to benefit the knowledge by analyzing 37 eligible articles in thematic analysis using the software NVivo12. Finding - The main two themes identified are message communication and taste perception or expectation. Consumers evalu..

Poor health at birth can have long-term consequences for children’s development. This paper analyses an important factor associated with health at birth: the time of year that the baby is born, and hence seasonal risks they were exposed to in utero. There are multiple potential explanations for seasonality in newborns’ health. Most previous research has examined these in isolation. We therefore do not know which explanations are most important – and hence which policy interventions would most effectively reduce the resulting early-life inequalities. In this paper, I use administrative data to estimate and compare the magnitudes of several seasonal risks, seeking to identify the most im..

The recognition of the necessity to reduce meat consumption in affluent nations is now widely acknowledged. A large body of literature examines the personal factors that lead to meat reduction or avoidance, including the motivations and profiles of individuals. While excluding meat consumption from ones' diet alone could be challenging, surprisingly, literature has sparsely examined the role of communities supporting this process, which includes both practices and convictions. This research seeks to make up for that and aims to investigate the impact of communities (both imagined and real) on the construction of vegetarian and vegan identities. To this end, nineteen semi-structured interview..

The recognition of the necessity to reduce meat consumption in affluent nations is now widely acknowledged. A large body of literature examines the personal factors that lead to meat reduction or avoidance, including the motivations and profiles of individuals. While excluding meat consumption from ones' diet alone could be challenging, surprisingly, literature has sparsely examined the role of communities supporting this process, which includes both practices and convictions. This research seeks to make up for that and aims to investigate the impact of communities (both imagined and real) on the construction of vegetarian and vegan identities. To this end, nineteen semi-structured interview..

Despite the existence of a legal framework defining the right to fair compensation, and notwithstanding the vast literature on transnational and domestic land deals, no theory has been developed so far to allow for a specific analysis of the economics of fair compensation in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), limiting our understanding of the underlying reasons of success or failure of this important legal protection mechanism. Building on the review of the existing literature on fair compensation and on the critical examination of several real-world case studies, this paper fills this gap by developing a three-player sequential game, which captures the peculiarities of fair compensation..

The frequency and severity of extreme wildfires are on the rise in Portugal, causing unprecedented disruption and increasingly challenging the country’s capacity to contain losses and damages. These challenges are set to keep growing in the context of climate change, highlighting the need to scale up wildfire prevention and climate change adaptation. This paper provides an overview of Portugal’s wildfire policies and practices and assesses the extent to which wildfire management in the country is evolving to adapt to growing wildfire risk under climate change.

In this paper, I study municipal price sensitivity of demand for disposal of residual waste (unsorted waste from households) and mechanisms underlying the relationship. First, I estimate the effect on households’ generation of residual waste with respect to municipal waste collection policies. Second, I estimate to what extent municipalities change waste policy in response to higher costs for disposal of municipal residual waste. The empirical analysis is based on data regarding Swedish municipalities’ waste management systems and disposal costs in the period 2010–2019. Results suggests that the price elasticity of demand is in the range 0.20–0.24. The effect is almost entirely drive..

Poor health conditions of livestock cause sizeable losses for many farmers in the Global South. Veterinary services, including vaccinations, could help but often fail to reach farmers under typical smallholder conditions. Here, we examine how the provision of a vaccine against East Cost Fever (ECF) – a tick-borne disease affecting cattle in Africa – can be designed to reduce typical adoption barriers. Using data from a choice experiment with dairy farmers in Kenya, we evaluate farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for various institutional innovations in vaccine delivery, such as a stronger role of dairy cooperatives, new payment modalities with a check-off system, vaccination at..

This paper contributes to the price discovery literature by establishing, for the first time, the role of commodity spot market auction data. Using the New Zealand whole milk powder market as an example, we show that auction-level data explain the price discovery dynamics above and beyond determinants previously identified as being relevant to spot and futures market price formation. In particular, the price discovery of the futures market rises with the volume of dairy products traded at the auction, signaling that the volume auctioned induces a change in the trading strategies of futures market participants. The whole milk powder discovery process is found to primarily take place in the sp..

This study examines the effects of temperature variability on long-run economic development. To identify causal effects, a novel econometric strategy is employed, based on spatial first-differences. Economic activity is proxied by satellite data on nightlights. Drawing on climate science, the study distinguishes between temperature variability on three time scales: day-to-day, seasonal, and interannual variability. The results indicate that day-to-day temperature variability has a statistically significant, negative effect on economic activity, while seasonal variability has a smaller but also negative effect. The effect of interannual variability is positive at low temperatures, but negativ..

Despite a vast literature documenting the harmful effects of climate change on various socioeconomic outcomes, little evidence exists on the global impacts of hotter temperature on poverty and inequality. Analysis of a new global panel dataset of subnational poverty in 134 countries finds that a one-degree Celsius increase in temperature leads to a 9.1 percent increase in poverty, using the US$1.90 daily poverty threshold. A similar increase in temperature causes a 1.4 percent increase in the Gini inequality index. The paper also finds negative effects of colder temperature on poverty and inequality. Yet, while poorer countries—particularly those in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa—are ..

In this work we update the regionalization and the calibration of the Regional dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (RICE) in its 1999 version developed by Nordhaus and Boyer (2000), with a focus on the Mediterranean countries. Our aim is to assess the impact of climate change damages on their main macroeconomic variables in a context where all economies are fossil fuel based. In addition, we extend the model by introducing the uncertainty associated with a possible future catastrophic event, triggered by the temperature increase and variation over time, following the approach of Castelnuovo et al. (2003). We then develop an empirical exercise to asses the impact of climate ch..

As Richard Day explained, expected utility theory suffers from procedural irrationality. This and other problems are illustrated here in the context of decision-making among low-income farmers. Farmers in developing countries are commonly thought to underinvest in modern techniques because their low incomes make them especially risk averse. In addition to the procedural leap of faith, highly restrictive assumptions are needed to apply expected utility theory to the problem. Nor does expected utility theory, as usually prescribed, fit the narrative of loss aversion. The reader is introduced to a procedurally rational substitute called lexicographic safety first. The model is illustrated for t..

Climate change is generating demonstrable harm around the world. Political and legal efforts have sought to associate climate impacts with specific emissions, including in recent international policy discussion of Loss and Damage (L&D). However, no quantitative definition of L&D exists, nor does there exist a framework for linking specific emissions to specific damages. Here we develop such a framework, linking it explicitly to recent efforts to calculate the social cost of carbon dioxide (SC-CO2), and demonstrate its use in a variety of applications. We calculate that future damages from past emissions, one component of L&D, are at least an order of magnitude larger than historical damages ..

Simplified nutrition labelling policies provide supplementary nutritional information in an easy-to-understand label displayed on food products at the front-of-pack. Forty-four countries have introduced these types of labelling schemes with a view to promoting positive public health outcomes. Preliminary insights on the impact of these schemes show that they can influence reformulation efforts by the food industry as well as consumers’ purchasing decisions. The schemes differ, however, across several dimensions including implementation methods (voluntary or mandatory), the extent to which they provide consumers with nutrient information versus nutrition advice, the conveyed message, target..

The war in Ukraine was associated with large changes in the prices of key food and fuel commodities (wheat, maize, coal, gas, and oil) in 2022 which produced macroeconomic gains for exporters and losses as import costs increased. Across 49 countries benefitting, these gains averaged about 8 percent of GDP and reach up to 36 percent of GDP. In contrast, 125 countries suffered direct losses between 0 percent of GDP and 5 percent of GDP, and 10 countries losses between 5 percent of GDP and 10 percent of GDP. Economic performance was significantly worse among countries experiencing losses from the commodity price shock. An increase in the costs of imports of 1 percent of GDP was associated with ..

Climate change and global warming have significant implications for people worldwide, necessitating an understanding of how extreme weather conditions affect individuals. This study investigates the relationship between individual affective well-being and extreme temperatures, using data from the American Time Use Survey's Well-Being Module for multiple years. The analysis focuses on daily variations in weather conditions at the county level in the United States. Findings reveal gender-specific outcomes, with males being more susceptible to extreme temperatures. On days with maximum temperatures exceeding 80oF, males experience higher levels of fatigue and stress, as well as reduced happines..

Every nation strives to establish its competitiveness in the global agri-food trade. However, defining and quantifying this concept remains a challenge, lacking a universally accepted description or a consolidated metric. Among the prevalent gauges in international research are the Balassa index and its adaptations (such as revealed trade advantage, revealed competitiveness, normalized revealed comparative advantage, and revealed symmetric comparative advantage), alongside diverse indicators tied to exports and imports (like the Grubel-Lloyd index or trade balance index). This comprehensive literature review identifies these metrics and highlights key determinants for bolstering competitiven..

Using unique primary survey data on 1100 Nigerian maize traders, we use probit models to estimate the probability of experiencing exogenous shocks and its relationship to trader characteristics (gender, size, and location), and traders vulnerability, measured as the probability of experiencing severe impacts. We study five types of exogenous shocks: climate, violence, price changes, spoilage, and COVID-19. We analyze the relationship among these shocks and the trader characteristics that make traders more vulnerable. We find traders are prone to experience more than one shock, which increases the intensity of the shocks. This is especially the case for price shocks, which are often accompani..

Population growth, industrialization, mining and plantations which are developing at a very high rate have had a very extraordinary impact on human survival, one of which is the clean water crisis, with the reason that economic development green lands have become settlements and offices, mountains have been dredged for minerals to be used as mines and what's sad is that forests are being burned to open plantations and what's worse is that forest burning is being carried out by big companies not by small communities and the impact is being felt now, the rivers are black because of industrial waste, the sea is filled with household waste and fog. the excruciating smoke caused by forest fires h..

Mixed Integer programming (MIP) is frequently used in agricultural economics to solve farm-level optimization problems, but it can be computationally intensive especially when the number of binary or integer variables becomes large. In order to speed up simulations, for instance for large-scale sensitivity analysis or application to larger farm populations, meta-models can be derived from the original MIP and applied as an approximator instead. To test and assess this approach, we train Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) as a meta-model of a farm-scale MIP model. This study compares different ANNs from various perspectives to assess to what extent they are able to replace the original MIP mod..

The expansion in farm size is an important contributor to agricultural productivity in developed countries where more productive farms are larger, but in less developed economies the allocation of factor inputs to more productive farms is hindered. How do distortions to factor-input allocation affect farm dynamics and agricultural productivity? We develop a model of heterogeneous farms making cropping choices and investing in productivity improvements. We calibrate the model using detailed farm-level panel data from Vietnam, exploiting regional differences in agricultural institutions and outcomes. We focus on south Vietnam and quantify the effect of higher measured distortions in the North ..

To assess the aggregate level of public policy support to Indian agriculture, this paper puts together different support measures extended by central and state governments and classifies those under three categories, namely, subsidies, public investment and green box support. The aggregate support, combining all three components, remains sizeable at about 22.4 per cent of agriculture gross value added (agri-GVA) in 2020-21. There is a distinct shift in the composition, away from input subsidies and in favour of green box support, which includes direct transfer to supplement farmers' income. The effective aggregate support index constructed after assigning different weights to the three compo..

Plant-based meats, like the Beyond Sausage or Impossible Burger, and cultivated meats have become a source of optimism for reducing animal-based meat usage. Public health, environmental, and animal welfare advocates aim to mitigate the myriad harms of meat usage. The price, taste, and convenience (PTC) hypothesis posits that if plant-based meat is competitive with animal-based meat on these three criteria, the large majority of current consumers would replace animal-based meat with plant-based meat. The PTC hypothesis rests on the premise that PTC primarily drive food choice. The PTC hypothesis and premise are both likely false. A majority of current consumers would continue eating primarily..

With climate events increasing in frequency and severity, effects on human life, particularly those most vulnerable, are projected to increase in coming decades. Defined as climate vulnerability, risks from climate events can take many forms, including flood damage to basic infrastructure, like household toilets. In this study of households in rural Cambodia, we investigate how climate vulnerability correlates with toilet dysfunction and abandonment using two household surveys, a latrine sales database, two flood-extent maps, and a composite climate vulnerability index. Using multiple linear regression and measures of association, we show that together and individually, increasing climate vu..

This study estimates the impact of carbon pricing on international trade in equipment used in the combustion of fossil fuels during the period 1995–2021. Using detailed data on bilateral trade combined with data on domestic carbon prices, we find that carbon pricing policies are associated with greater exports of this equipment. We provide a simple model of international trade in polluting technologies that can explain this outcome. Our results provide new evidence for this unexplored form of leakage due to more stringent climate policies.

We develop a quantitative spatial general equilibrium model with heterogeneous house-holds and multiple locations to study households’ vulnerability to food insecurity from cli-mate shocks. In the model, households endogenously respond to negative climate shocks by drawing-down assets, importing food and temporarily migrating to earn additional income to ensure sufficient calories. Because these coping strategies are most effective when trade and migration costs are low, remote households are more vulnerable to climate shocks. Food insecure households are also more vulnerable, as their proximity to a subsistence requirement causes them to hold a smaller capital buffer and more aggressive..

Climate change is not a cliché anymore but a burning reality with far reaching consequences for the very survival of humankind and the nature. India on the one hand is the third largest carbon emitter and on the other hand is susceptible to the high risks of climate change, ranging from heat waves to cyclones and urban and rural displacements. Though India is a major recipient of international climate finance, it is proven to be more than insufficient to meet the climate change adaptations as per Paris Agreement. The present study analyses the challenges and prospects of India with respect to the Green Climate Fund and the imperative for developing its own paradigm of climate finance.

This paper explores the potential of biomimetics to revolutionize medical and food waste management systems in the United States. By forging circular economies in these fields, biomimetics can provide robust financial benefits. Furthermore, biomimetics can mitigate waste accumulation and related health hazards from such systems. In light of this paper’s findings, ongoing and long-term financial investments in biomimetic technology are recommended to create sustainable medical and food waste systems on a nationwide scale.

It is now clear that anthropogenic climate change is having a negative impact on human health. In this paper, we provide the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of climatic stressors on child health in Burkina Faso. We undertake a rigorous empirical analysis of the impact of climate and weather shocks on mortality, stunting (height-for-age Z-score) and wasting (weight-for-age Z-score), using Demographic and Health Surveys, combined with high-resolution meteorological data, controlling for household and individual covariates. We find robust evidence that both lifetime and short-term exposure to high temperatures and droughts have a negative impact on child health, as do increased tem..