Browsing by Author "Driscoll, Paul J."

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    An analytic model of the food consumption behavior of health-conscious individuals
    Kambhampaty, S. Murthy (Virginia Tech, 1994-05-05)
    Evidence of changing patterns of food consumption behavior is presented. Previous attempts at explaining these changes are critically reviewed and the need for an alternate approach is identified. A model of consumer behavior in which utility from food consumption is maximized subject to outlay for foods and limits on the consumption of fat, cholesterol, sodium, and/or other food components is proposed. This model yields a system of demands that are functions of prices and outlay as well as the composition of food and limits on the consumption of these components. The structure of this model is examined and restrictions on consumer food demands are derived. The derivation of individual demands based on the proposed model is demonstrated using a specific indirect utility function. Tests of the joint hypotheses that fat or cholesterol consumption determines food demand are defined. The computation of aggregate food demand elasticities with respect to changes in prices and changes in attributes such as fat or cholesterol consumption is demonstrated. Data necessary for estimating the parameters of the model and testing hypotheses are identified. The model proposed in this study allows tests of the hypothesis that food demands are not affected by food composition as well as measurement of these effects
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    Essays on the Political Economy of Domestic and Trade Policies in the Presence of Production and Consumption Externalities
    Schleich, Joachim (Virginia Tech, 1997-08-01)
    This dissertation extends the Grossman-Helpman models of endogenous trade policy formation to incorporate local and global production and consumption externalities, and to allow governments to choose domestic production or consumption policies together with trade interventions. The models presented are among the first to allow environmental quality and the structure of industry protection to be simultaneously evaluated in a political economy framework, when some industry groups lobby their governments for higher output prices. The equilibrium tax and subsidy policies are implicitly expressed as the sum of distinct political support, terms-of-trade, and local and global environmental effects. Whether these effects reinforce or counterbalance each other depends on whether an industry is organized, whether the good is imported or exported, whether the externality is caused by production or consumption, and, in the large-country models, on whether governments set policies noncooperatively or cooperatively. The model results imply a political economy version of Bhagwati's normative targeting principle: governments use the most efficient policy available to satisfy the lobbies, to address the externalities, and, in the noncooperative large-country model, to exploit international market power. All of the initial Grossman-Helpman results (for the small-country model and the noncooperative and cooperative large-country models) are shown to be special cases where governments have only trade policy available and there are no externalities. In the small-country model and the cooperative large-country model, when there are production externalities, the lobbying of a polluting industry usually leads to lower environmental quality than socially optimal, but with terms-of-trade effects or for particular preferences cases the equilibrium policies may induce environmental quality higher than socially optimal. When there are consumption externalities, and the government has consumption (or production) as well as trade policy available, environmental quality will be socially optimal (again, unless governments exploit market power). Thus, depending on the policies available, a local or global consumption externality will be fully internalized, even though polluting industries lobby and production may be distorted. This dissertation also shows that--in contrast to standard economic theory--the use of trade policy alone can lead to higher environmental quality than a more direct domestic policy alone.
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    An exploration of the effects of data aggregation and other factors on empirical estimates of market power
    Jones, Rodney D. (Virginia Tech, 1995-01-05)
    Econometric studies of firm-level behavior are gaining acceptance among some industrial organization economists. This is a potentially useful tool for detecting noncompetitive behavior. Policy makers and antitrust enforcement officials are interested in the results of these studies as they are applied to specific industries to help enforce current antitrust regulations and develop new policies. These New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) econometric behavioral studies typically require detailed price, quantity, and cost data regarding the industry being studied. The models used are derived from the profit maximization problem of individual firms. In spite of this fact, many previous studies have relied on publicly available industry aggregate data, often also aggregated over time to the quarterly or yearly-level. This study investigates the sensitivity of empirical estimates of market power obtained from econometric conjectural variations studies to the level data aggregation used for the analysis. In addition, the sensitivity of the results to model specification is also explored. The focus of this study is on measurement of oligopsony power in the U. S. beef packing/processing industry. Using Monte Carlo techniques, weekly plant or firm-level data are simulated to be representative of the U. S. beef packing industry in two broadly defined geographical procurement regions. To broaden the scope of the experiment, the assumed underlying technology of the beef packing industry is varied across a broad range of possibilities. In addition, alternative assumptions regarding the conduct of industry participants in the live cattle procurement market are imposed on the data generation process. The disaggregate data sets are aggregated over plants and firms to weekly industry aggregates, and over time to quarterly industry aggregates. At each level of aggregation, the data are tested using 3 alternative specifications of an NEIO econometric market power testing model, that differ by functional form. Results of the tests are compared across aggregation levels, and across model specifications. The results reveal that in general the actual size of the test of the null hypothesis of no market power is much higher than the chosen nominal size of the test. The power of the test for market power is quite high. Data aggregation tends to bias the results of tests for market power. In addition, an adequately flexible functional form must be specified to capture the underlying technology of the industry when using econometric methods to test for market power. Therefore, in order to be useful for antitrust policy enforcement, econometric behavioral studies must make use of detailed firm (or plant )-level disaggregate data, and must use carefully specified models.
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    Income and harvest effects of alternative management policies on commercial crab potters in Virginia
    Giuranna, Anne M. (Virginia Tech, 1993-07-05)
    In recent years, the blue crab fishery has become the main source of income for Virginia's watermen. This fact, along with growing concerns of overharvesting and uncertainty about the amount of effort in the fishery, has led to calls for more complete data on the fishery. This study examined the characteristics of Virginia's blue crab fishery, through an extensive survey of crab pot license holders conducted on a monthly basis from March to November of 1992. Along with a description of the people in the fishery, this study also modeled prices, harvest levels, and income levels for the blue crab industry. Because the models were interactive in nature, the effects of various fishery management strategies were also analyzed. The main emphasis of the policy simulations was to discover what impacts the different strategies had on harvest and income levels. The results of the simulations showed that many of the policies currently under consideration will have only a small impact on overall harvest and income levels, but there are some larger distributional effects among different firm classes. The findings of this study suggest that in order to gather accurate and useful data on the fishery, the random surveying techniques of this study should be continued over a period of years.
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    The influence of communications infrastructure on agricultural growth
    Deaton, Brady J. (Virginia Tech, 1993-06-05)
    Increased access to communications infrastructure is theorized to influence both the productiveness of the agricultural sector and the direction of technical change. The purpose of this thesis is to empirically examine the effects of the level of communications infrastructure on agricultural production and the direction of technical change. A Cobb-Douglas production function was used to estimate an inter-country production function for fifty developing countries over a fifteen year period, 1970 to 1985. The production function estimates were then used to assess the influence of the communications variables, roads and radios, on the level of agricultural production and the direction of technical change. Increased levels of radios and roads increased the level of agricultural production in developing countries. Increased levels of radios did not significantly affect technical change. However, increased levels of roads led to an increase in the labor-saving bias associated with research expenditures.
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    Modelling structural change in the U.S. demand for meat
    Huang, Huilin (Virginia Tech, 1991-11-05)
    Recent empirical research on meat demand has debated whether or not the effects of changing meat prices can explain all the observed changes in meat consumption patterns. This thesis provides a framework for modelling and testing for structural change using three commonly used demand system — a linear demand system, an inverse demand system, and the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS). Emphasis is placed on the statistical adequacy of the models. Two specific issues are carefully addressed: consumer concern for cholesterol and its effect on meat demand, and the dynamics of adjustment in meat consumption. When modelling the demand for beef, pork, chicken and turkey, none of the three demand systems are found to be statistically adequate, and consequently, cannot be used to address structural change issues for these particular data and commodities. The AIDS models are re-estimated in an attempt to model the demand for beef, pork, chicken and fish instead of turkey. The dynamic versions of the AIDS models using either a gradual shift spline path, a Farley-Hinich path, a variable measuring cholesterol awareness, or the log of the cholesterol awareness variable are all statistically adequate. Likelihood ratio tests on these models indicate that structural change has occurred. The significance of the cholesterol variable in the demand models indicates that health concern is an important factor in meat purchasing decisions.
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    Monte Carlo Examination of Static and Dynamic Student t Regression Models
    Paczkowski, Remi (Virginia Tech, 1997-09-01)
    This dissertation examines a number of issues related to Static and Dynamic Student t Regression Models. The Static Student t Regression Model is derived and transformed to an operational form. The operational form is then examined in a series of Monte Carlo experiments. The model is judged based on its usefulness for estimation and testing and its ability to model the heteroskedastic conditional variance. It is also compared with the traditional Normal Linear Regression Model. Subsequently the analysis is broadened to a dynamic setup. The Student t Autoregressive Model is derived and a number of its operational forms are considered. Three forms are selected for a detailed examination in a series of Monte Carlo experiments. The models’ usefulness for estimation and testing is evaluated, as well as their ability to model the conditional variance. The models are also compared with the traditional Dynamic Linear Regression Model.
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    Some new approaches to measuring willingness to pay: a case study of flood risk reduction in Roanoke, Virginia
    Dietz, Brian C. (Virginia Tech, 1992-07-14)
    Benefits from a flood control project that accrue to a landowner are defined as the amount the landowner is willing to pay for the reduction in flood risk. The primary method utilized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to estimate a residential landowner's benefits is the property damages avoided method. Only under a set of restrictive assumptions will this method accurately estimate landowner willingness to pay. Therefore, several alternative techniques, such as the hedonic price method, are approved for use by the Corps but it is not known how they compare. The purpose of this study is to examine the benefit measures from the property damages avoided and hedonic price methods and two new measures, restricted willingness to pay (RWTP) and restricted willingness to accept (RWTA). The measures RWTP and RWTA are biased estimates of willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) where the direction of the bias is known. In addition, the methods that calculate these measures, the RWTP and RWTA methods, do not require data on income or an aggregator for the prices of all goods not in the analysis. Benefit estimates from the hedonic price and RWTP methods provide upper and lower bounds on WTP for non-marginal reductions in flood risk and converge for marginal reductions.
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    Value of information for targeting agro-pollution control: a case study of the lower Susquehanna watershed
    Carpentier, Chantal Line (Virginia Tech, 1996-05-05)
    Targeting farms with low costs of reducing agro-pollution has been suggested as a means to reduce control costs. The potential to use better information to reduce costs of achieving a regulatory performance standard was evaluated. Using the Lower Susquehanna watershed as a case study, three strategies to target reductions in nitrogen runoff from dairy farms were studied: 1) no information -- uniform allocation, 2) perfect information -- cost-effective allocation, and 3) partial information - estimated cost-effective allocation. From no information to perfect information, more detailed information about the farms’ marginal compliance costs with a reduced nitrogen runoff standard was collected. Two strategies to target the performance standards, the private and social cost-effective allocation (private cost-effective allocations minimized farm compliance costs while social cost-effective allocations minimized the sum of compliance plus transaction costs) were also compared. Each strategy's total control cost (compliance plus transaction costs) were estimated for a 237 dairy farm sample with a modified micro parameter (bieconomic) model which preserves the watershed heterogeneity. Because cost-effective performance standards involve large transaction costs, they were compared to two design standards which have lower transaction costs. It was found that targeting problem farms in the Lower Susquehanna watershed could save nearly $3 million for the sampled 237 farms. Extrapolating this result to the 6,662 dairy farms in the watershed could save the state more than $55 million over a uniform allocation of responsibility. Results also show that the social cost-effective allocation of control responsibilities (based on marginal compliance plus transaction costs) in targeting policies targets only 50 percent of the dairy farms with a mean control cost per pound of $11 compared to $47 per pound with the uniform performance standard applied to all the farms. This study suggests that a few farms in the Lower Susquehanna should be targeted a large reduction burden. Criteria to target these farms should be: somewhat larger farms with steep and long slopes, on soil hydrological groups C and D, close to surface water, that have no or few best management practices in place, and grow large amounts of corn. Cost-effective practices for dairy farmers in the Lower Susquehanna are manure incorporation and storage, eliminating or reducing winter manure spreading, and using more strip-cropping. The value of perfect information was found to exceed the value of partial information in the study area because the total control costs were lower. Compliance costs for perfect information under the social cost-effective allocation were $853,911 compared to $968,121 under the partial information strategy. Total transaction costs were $126,996 for the perfect information and $74,368 for the partial information strategy. Total control costs were $980,907 for the perfect information and $1,042,489 for the partial information strategy. Results for the private cost-effective allocation were similar. The private cost-effective targeting strategy did not differ significantly from the social cost-effective targeting strategy mainly because aggregate compliance costs make up 99% of the total control costs. The two regulatory design standards requiring manure storage and stripcropping on more erosive soils were also evaluated. However, neither design standard achieves the 40 percent nitrogen delivery reduction goal in the watershed.