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This paper investigates the economic implications of animal welfare considerations in egg production. Rising production costs associated with improved animal welfare pose a challenge for a sustainable livestock industry. To address this, we estimate production costs and retail prices across four egg production systems: conventional battery cages, enriched cages, aviaries, and barn-farming systems. Our analysis reveals a significant cost increase for animal welfare-friendly systems compared to battery cages. Barn-farming production, for example, incurs 2.4 times higher production costs and double the retail price compared to battery cages. The cost differences primarily stem from increased facility requirements, chick procurement, feed needs, and labor costs. The findings highlight the need for a multifaceted approach to promote animal welfare in the egg industry. This may involve certification schemes, alongside government regulations and cost-sharing mechanisms, to ensure economic viability for egg producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of economic growth in Indonesia has become more urgent. Indonesian government always attempts to maintain a reasonably low price for rice to guarantee that all segments of society have access to their primary staple food. The rice import policy has been debated. This study investigates whether or not the current Indonesian rice sector needs to import rice. For that purpose, we investigate the producers, consumers, middlemen, and the influence of rice import policy towards price stabilization at the consumer level. This study uses primary and secondary data. Primary data comes from observation and survey activities. The areas of study belong to West Java, Central Java, Special Region of Yogyakarta, and East Java Province. Secondary data is sourced from the Ministry of Trade, Statistics Indonesia, and FAO, as well as from the official websites of several related agencies. The results indicate that Indonesia does not need to import rice based on the investigation of farmers, traders, and consumers. However, the results of the Vector Error Correction Model show that the rice import policy affects stabilization prices at the consumer level. Rice imports can reduce the retail and wholesale prices of rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of the competitive interdependence among power consumers in power trading system contributes to pursuing efficient power supply and suppressing peak–valley load differences. Even though Stackelberg–Nash game approach has been applied to retail electricity trading with a single utility company and a group of end-users under competitive interdependence, the extension to multi-cluster retail electricity markets is not focused yet and the best strategies of end-users are still decoupled to each other. To bridge this gap this paper investigates the price-based demand response problem in multi-cluster retail electricity markets to coordinate the energy consumption behavior of the end-users and the retail price behavior of the utility companies. Adopting the structure of hierarchical game theory, the cluster retail price is controlled by the utility company to affect the energy consumption demand of end-users within the corresponding cluster and hence increase the income of both the utility companies and the end-users. In order to describe the coupled competition relationship among the bottom end-users in the system, the Cournot competition model of the differentiated oligopoly market is constructed by taking energy consumption as the individual strategy of end-users. The existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg Nash equilibrium in such a hierarchical game system are proved, and a seeking algorithm is proposed to seek the Stackelberg Nash equilibrium, which is regarded as the extension from the existing algorithm for multi-cluster setup. This work gives an insight to theoretically check whether the utility companies need to redesign the contract with the power generator to ask for larger maximum supply.

The purpose of this study is to identify the implicit price of the fruit quality attributes in Bangladesh. In total, 700 consumers were interviewed from twelve districts of Bangladesh during the period of July–October 2020 with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. The semi-log functional form of the regression model was estimated to find out the important quality attributes for a consumer purchase decision. The study revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic attributes are important for imported and local fruit purchase decisions; however, "whole fresh" is the most important factor for fruit purchase decisions as consumers pay 19% less if the hog plum is whole rather than its other forms, i.e., sliced, pickled, etc. The purchase decisions of imported fruit over locally produced fruit differ by size and traceability information. The policy for the retail business of fruit is that the fruit may be traded as value-added products, such as slices, pickles, juice, and desserts, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that cigarette costs significantly impact tobacco use, yet the effect of state-level cost variations on cigarette sales per capita in the US remains uncertain. This study investigates how state-level cigarette costs affect pack sales per capita consumption. This was an observational study of cigarette-pack sales per capita consumption in the United States. We used the tobacco tax burden data (1989–2019) and a two-way fixed-effects model to analyse how cigarette costs affect consumption. Our predictor variables were average cost per pack, state tax per pack, and combined federal and state tax as a percentage of the retail price. Additionally, we compared the percentage change in state cigarette taxes per pack for each state in five-year intervals, adjusting for inflation. Regression analysis revealed that a 10% increase in the average cost per pack was related to a 9.59% decrease in per capita cigarette consumption (β_average cost = −0.959, P < 0.001). Similarly, a rise in state tax per pack and a higher tax as a proportion of the retail price per pack were related to a decline in consumption (β_ state tax = −0.176, P < 0.001), (β_retail price = −0.323, P < 0.001). States that raised cigarette taxes beyond the rate of inflation had a higher reduction in cigarette per capita sales than those maintaining stable tax rates. Some states have not raised their cigarette taxes sufficiently to account for inflation. It appears that cigarette costs have significantly reduced cigarette consumption in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to recognition changes in the consumption of raw poultry meat (chilled and frozen) in households according to socio-economic groups of the population, with particular attention to self-supply. In the long term, self-supply of poultry shows a tendency to decrease its level, and it varies among the studied groups, which is confirmed by the research. To achieve the purpose of the study, descriptive statistics methods (analysis of changes over time and structure analysis) and household budget surveys conducted by the Central Statistical Office were used. The study covers the years 2005, 2010 and 2015-2022. Natural consumption of poultry meat (including meat from hens, cockerel and chickens as well as other poultry) decreased in all household groups. The decreasing self-consumption of this meat was accompanied by a lower share of self-supply in its consumption. During the period under study, the largest amount of self-supplied poultry was consumed in farmers’ households, the least in self-employed households. In higher-income households, part of the self-supply of poultry is probably more often replaced by niche and processed products and meals eaten away from home, while in low-income households – by products from conventional poultry. Reducing the number of farms keeping poultry will not contribute to increasing self-supply.

Was the rapid increase and collapse of commodity prices in 2007–2009 passed through to supermarket prices symmetrically? This study is the first to address this issue for an everyday-low-price (EDLP) supermarket chain, which infrequently changes its prices and rarely has sales. We also reexamine the question for typical firms that set a usual high price and have frequent sales. We examine 25 goods that use a primary commodity (such as rice in a bag of rice). We fail to reject symmetric adjustments for very few goods for both types of stores. In addition, we find that the probability an EDLP chain adjusts its prices in response to even a large commodity price shock is low for most goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using information on the geographical locations of exporting firms, we transform a national‐level dataset into a quasi‐firm‐product‐level dataset. First, by restricting the dataset to the two exporting ports out of over 100 ports, consistent with the multiproduct exporter model, we find heterogeneity in the exchange rate pass‐through (ERPT) among the auto models of a single automaker. We find weak evidence that the core product has a lower ERPT. Second, coupled with the manufacturer's suggested retail price in the US market, we find that the sales margins of US distributors have shrunk substantially, particularly when the US dollar depreciated after the global financial crisis. We find supporting evidence that a higher‐quality product has a lower ERPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural & Agribusiness Economists is the property of Polish Association of Agricultural & Agribusiness Economists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Replacing conventional CO2 intensive generation with green electricity from RES constitutes an essential prerequisite of sustainable development. Renewables play a vital role in achieving the UN's goals for clean low-cost energy production and the reverse of climate change process. Based on a comprehensive dataset including observations for 17 European countries between 2003 and 2020, the present research attempts to unveil the fundamental determinants of RES deployment. A panel FMOLS approach was utilized to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of electricity prices, energy taxes and competition level in both power generation and the retail electricity market on each country's RES percentage participation in electricity production fuel mix. The final econometric outcomes verified the strong statistical significance of all examined variables for the vast majority of the countries, constituting them crucial aspects of national energy strategies. However, both the actual effects as well as the impact size were found to differ significantly across Europe, signifying the complexity of the EU's task to develop a unified, autonomous and eco-friendly electricity market based on the principals of a fundamental energy strategy. Contributing to state authorities' and EU's colossal effort to deal with the crucial challenges of RES power generation, the paper proposes a series of targeted individual and groupwise policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of the competitive interdependence among power consumers in power trading system contributes to pursuing efficient power supply and suppressing peak–valley load differences. Even though Stackelberg–Nash game approach has been applied to retail electricity trading with a single utility company and a group of end-users under competitive interdependence, the extension to multi-cluster retail electricity markets is not focused yet and the best strategies of end-users are still decoupled to each other. To bridge this gap this paper investigates the price-based demand response problem in multi-cluster retail electricity markets to coordinate the energy consumption behavior of the end-users and the retail price behavior of the utility companies. Adopting the structure of hierarchical game theory, the cluster retail price is controlled by the utility company to affect the energy consumption demand of end-users within the corresponding cluster and hence increase the income of both the utility companies and the end-users. In order to describe the coupled competition relationship among the bottom end-users in the system, the Cournot competition model of the differentiated oligopoly market is constructed by taking energy consumption as the individual strategy of end-users. The existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg Nash equilibrium in such a hierarchical game system are proved, and a seeking algorithm is proposed to seek the Stackelberg Nash equilibrium, which is regarded as the extension from the existing algorithm for multi-cluster setup. This work gives an insight to theoretically check whether the utility companies need to redesign the contract with the power generator to ask for larger maximum supply. • A power-system trading model for multi-cluster retail electricity markets is presented, where both the utility function and its best-response strategy are mutually independent of the game participants. • Using the backward induction, the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg Nash equilibrium in such a hierarchical game system is shown with a proper seeking algorithm. • The influence of the retail price of the utility company and the cap price of end-users in multi-cluster retail electricity markets are examined for the first time using a Cournot oligopoly game. • The proposed model helps to theoretically check whether the utility companies need to redesign the contract with power generator asking for a larger maximum supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In 2017, a new programme was created for recovering and reusing (i) unexpired Class A medicines (i.e. dispensed either by community pharmacies or by hospitals) in hospital settings and (ii) medicines for hospital use only (Class H). The aim of this study was to describe a three-year reuse programme and assess its impact on medicines cost savings. Methods: The setting was AOU Città della salute e della Scienza—in Turin (Italy). All the collected data referred to packages of medicines collected by/assigned to AOU for reuse over the 1 December 2017/1 December 2020 period. Retail prices were used to calculate the financial value of the medication. Costs for the time required for the reuse programme (a working group comprising a pharmacist, an administrative and a warehouse worker) were estimated. Key findings: A total of 10 450 boxes were recovered for reuse (corresponding to 52% of donated boxes). The total value was €1 300 000. Class H accounted for 73% (€952 000) of the total value of the recovered medicines, while they represented only 9% of the packages collected by/assigned to AOU. Estimated cost for the reuse programme was €75 806. Conclusions: Medicine recycling programmes with appropriate checks can be implemented to facilitate reuse of medications in hospital settings. This study provides evidence that a reuse programme reduced drug expenditures, especially regarding the Class H medications. These results contribute to the debate regarding opportunity for recycling and sustainability in medicines management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: For many producers, introduction of improved animal welfare systems is a turning point in their future production strategies as it increases production costs. The increase in egg retail prices is of growing concern not only for producers, but also for retailers and consumers. However, no report has calculated the estimated production costs or retail prices associated with introducing practices that support improved animal welfare in poultry farms in Japan. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the production costs and table egg prices of 6 types of laying hen systems: conventional cage (CC): 8- and 12-tiers (CC8, CC12), enriched cage (EC): 8- and 12-tiers (EC8, EC12), aviary (AV), and barn systems (BR). Production costs include land purchases, construction costs of facilities, equipment and machinery, quantity of feed provided, farming materials invested, and wages.As a result, farm gate prices were estimated as CC8 = 12.19, CC12 = 12.19, EC8 = 14.52, EC12 = 14.52, AV = 21.14, and BR = 28.74 [yen/egg], and the production cost, including building the new farm, increased by EC8 = 19.1%, EC12 = 19.1%, AV = 73.4%, and BR = 135.7%, respectively, referring to the value of CC. The results show that the prices increase in systems between CC and BN. The retail price or table egg price was estimated to be CC8 = 24.68, CC12 = 24.68, EC8 = 28.07, EC12 = 28.07, AV = 37.27, and BR = 48.53 [yen/egg]. The retail price of BR is approximately twice that of CC. In addition, assuming that all of Japan's eggs were produced in the BR system, the soaring cost of eggs would likely affect the prices of factory eggs, such as liquid eggs and other products, thus affecting the prices of various food products.Understanding the significant management costs that affect the retail price of eggs would facilitate improved policies and practical approaches to support poultry farms and sustainable farming activities while addressing public concerns.

Replacing conventional CO2 intensive generation with green electricity from RES constitutes an essential prerequisite of sustainable development. Renewables play a vital role in achieving the UN’s goals for clean low-cost energy production and the reverse of climate change process. Based on a comprehensive dataset including observations for 17 European countries between 2003 and 2020, the present research attempts to unveil the fundamental determinants of RES deployment. A panel FMOLS approach was utilized to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of electricity prices, energy taxes and competition level in both power generation and the retail electricity market on each country’s RES percentage participation in electricity production fuel mix. The final econometric outcomes verified the strong statistical significance of all examined variables for the vast majority of the countries, constituting them crucial aspects of national energy strategies. However, both the actual effects as well as the impact size were found to differ significantly across Europe, signifying the complexity of the EU’s task to develop a unified, autonomous and eco-friendly electricity market based on the principals of a fundamental energy strategy. Contributing to state authorities’ and EU’s colossal effort to deal with the crucial challenges of RES power generation, the paper proposes a series of targeted individual and groupwise policy implications.

Petrol directly impacts the ability of and extent to which households can engage in day-to-day activities and ultimately directly influences the aggregate economic activity. Petrol price increases can lead to major economic disruption, especially among the most vulnerable, such as low-income families. In Australia, petrol prices differ substantially between metropolitan and regional areas, and regional drivers must pay more for purchasing petrol than those in capital cities. This research explored why retail petrol prices vary from one city to another within and between Australian regions. In this study, clustering methods and panel models will be used to identify factors that cause price differences. The findings revealed that a considerable part of the price differences arose from specific characteristics of cities that influence the demand and supply of petrol, thereby causing variations in price decisions. Petrol prices were substantially influenced by wholesale petrol prices, oil prices, petrol and diesel vehicles, population density, station density, and public transport accessibility. These factors are the main determinants that contribute significantly to price variations between Australian cities. The findings provide critical information for economic agents that interact in this market. From a social welfare perspective, government authorities can consider these factors to improve living standards and consumers' welfare under price pressure in regional cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the importance of energy for societies, this study examines the characteristics of the petrol price cycle in Perth, Australia. Given the micro-and macro-economic changes, the study's purpose was to determine whether the Edgeworth features of the cycle are robust and resilient to market changes. The contribution is to extend previous studies, evaluate Edgeworth's consistency, and capture several episodes of economic activity that have been unexplored. The findings showed a frequent and asymmetric weekly cycle that is characterized by decreasing prices over six consecutive days, followed by a large price jump in one day. The average price rise in the relenting phase for major stations was 14.10 cents per liter (CPL) and 13.14 CPL for independents. For the major and independents, the daily average price drops in the undercutting phase were 2.25 and 1.92 CPL, respectively. Despite the market changes, Edgeworth's cycle characteristics, cycle duration, and the stations' role have remained stable during the last 15 years, but peak and trough days have changed. The study is crucial as it provides insights into the robustness of price cycles and competition during significant downturns and prolonged periods of growth. This analysis is critical from a regulatory, policy, and consumer welfare perspective. Furthermore, this paper investigates future petrol consumption in light of renewable energy developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a single-manufacturer single-retailer closed-loop supply chain with stochastic product returns considering worker experience under learning and forgetting in production and inspection of returned items at the manufacturer. Customer demand is assumed to be dependent linearly on the retail price, and it is fulfilled by using both manufactured and remanufactured products. The manufacturer delivers the buyer's order quantity in a number of equal-sized batches. The optimal number of shipments, the shipment size and the retail price are determined by maximising the average expected profit of the closed-loop supply chain. It is observed from the numerical study that high learning effects in production and inspection lead to high recovery rates of used products, which, besides an economic advantage, may have a positive effect on the environment. Even though forgetting has an adverse effect, the average expected profit of the closed-loop supply chain is much higher than that of the basic model which ignores worker learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate whether there exists market inefficiency in the distribution channel of pork by estimating a developed partial adjustment model that captures the asymmetric price transmission from wholesale to retail prices. The estimation results show that market efficiency exists for the wholesale and two types of retail markets in the distributional channel of pork in Korea. The government's regulation on Sunday sales by hypermarkets plays a significant role in increasing market efficiency, forcing more competition among hypermarkets, and changing the structure of asymmetric price transmission from wholesale to traditional market prices. The results suggest that the policy goal has been achieved in the traditional market by leading to a more efficient price forming due to a lessened degree of asymmetric price transmission from the wholesale price. Although market inefficiency has been maintained in the distribution channel between wholesale market and hypermarket, the behavior of price setting by hypermarkets has not been influenced by the policy.

This special section is the result of an effort by several scholars to move marketing academic research toward greater practical relevance. This initiative, called Theory + Practice in Marketing (TPM), started with a conference at Columbia Business School in 2011, and the five papers published in this special section were presented at the second TPM conference held at Harvard Business School in 2012. © 2014 INFORMS.

Petrol directly impacts the ability of and extent to which households can engage in day-to-day activities and ultimately directly influences the aggregate economic activity. Petrol price increases can lead to major economic disruption, especially among the most vulnerable, such as low-income families. In Australia, petrol prices differ substantially between metropolitan and regional areas, and regional drivers must pay more for purchasing petrol than those in capital cities. This research explored why retail petrol prices vary from one city to another within and between Australian regions. In this study, clustering methods and panel models will be used to identify factors that cause price differences. The findings revealed that a considerable part of the price differences arose from specific characteristics of cities that influence the demand and supply of petrol, thereby causing variations in price decisions. Petrol prices were substantially influenced by wholesale petrol prices, oil prices, petrol and diesel vehicles, population density, station density, and public transport accessibility. These factors are the main determinants that contribute significantly to price variations between Australian cities. The findings provide critical information for economic agents that interact in this market. From a social welfare perspective, government authorities can consider these factors to improve living standards and consumers’ welfare under price pressure in regional cities.

The aim of the current study was to compare pricing methodologies at the manufacturer, wholesale, and retail levels, and to estimate the price differences of AT1-receptor blockers (sartans), Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)—inhibitors, and their fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) in four countries using similar methodologies: Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania (SK, GR, BG, and RO, respectively). The methodologies for manufacturer, wholesale, and retail price establishment have been compared using nationally implemented rules. Overlapping trademarks were established retrospectively on the manufacturer and retail levels in November 2017. The average price per tablet, percentage of price deviation, and statistically significant differences were calculated. The selected countries apply external reference pricing at the manufacturer level. A wide variation in the number of referent countries was observed (from 12 to 27). Despite the use of a regressive scale for price calculation, large variations between margins and value-added tax (VAT) are established, thus leading to different final medicine prices. This study found that medicine prices were lower in RO than in other selected countries. It was caused by the fact that 15 products had the lowest manufacturer price and 14 products had the lowest retail price in RO. Results of Kruskal–Wallis test showed that there were no significant differences between prices per tablet on the manufacturer and retail levels. In the group of fixed-dose combinations, ramipril/hydrochlorothiazide, and irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide showed more than 100% deviation. The prices of cardiovascular medicines differed within the observed countries. The differences in pricing methodologies (e.g., margins, VAT) at the national level did not significantly affect retail prices, as a low manufacturer price usually leads to a low retail price.

This paper develops a game-theoretic model in a two-echelon supply chain composed of one manufacturer and two retailers to study the effect of pricing structure and cooperative-advertising decisions on the supply chain coordination performance. In the proposed model, different pricing structures are analyzed and then, two types of pricing structure in supply chain coordination mechanisms are presented, in addition to considering four possible scenarios for pricing structure. For the first two scenarios, retailers determine the retail prices, while in the other two ones, the sales price is set by the manufacturer. Therefore, the retailers are obliged to comply with this rule. The manufacturer-Stackelberg and the cooperative games are formulated for each scenario by considering key assumptions associated with advertising expenditures to maintain the potential demand size. This paper also presents some analytical results and determines the equilibrium of the models for each scenario. Finally, a numerical analysis is conducted to illustrate the impact of pricing structure on the optimal decision variables and the profit of the supply chain members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomika APK is the property of Economy of Argo-Industrial Complex and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The belief that the formation of "psychological" prices would be efficient in increasing sales and generating profits, could be translated into the three hypotheses of the present work: Ha) retail uses psychological prices to achieve greater gains, Hb) size of the retailer reflects the frequency of use of psychological prices and Hc) communication and promotion intensify the use of psychological prices. Prices in retail food channels in the city of Salvador, Bahia, between August and September 2015 were analyzed through the approach in stores with more than ten checkouts, (supermarket chains) and two other neighborhood stores (one checkout). An analysis was made of the frequency of prices in small and large retailers and their possible differences between store prices and promotional inserts. The results showed that the practice of psychological prices is used and all hypotheses were accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]