Endogenous integration and welfare in complementary goods markets

This paper analyzes the strategic decision to integrate by firms that produce complementary products. Integration entails bundling pricing. We find out that integration is privately profitable for a high enough degree of product differentiation, that profits of the non-integrated firms decrease, and that consumer surplus need not necessarily increase when firms integrate despite the fact that prices diminish. Thus, integration of a system is welfare-improving for a high enough degree of product differentiation combined with a minimum demand advantage relative to the competing system. Overall, and from a number of extensions undertaken, we conclude that bundling need not be anti-competitive and that integration should be permitted only under some circumstances.

Between specialization and globalization. The marketing of agrarian products and its environmental impacts seen from a historical perspective: the province of Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century

Ecological economics has five good reasons to consider that economic globalisation, spurred by commercial and financial fluxes, to be one of the main driving forces responsible for causing environmental degradation to our planet. The first, is the energy consumption and the socio-environmental impacts which long-distance haulage entails. The second, is the ever-increasing flow of goods to far-away destinations which renders their recycling practically impossible. This is particularly significant, because it prevents the metabolic lock of the nutrients present in food and other agrarian products from taking place. The third, is that the high degree of specialization attained in agriculture, forestry, cattle, mining and industry in each region, generates deleterious effects not only on the eco-landscape structure of the uses of the soil, but on the capability to provide habitat and environmental functions to maintain biodiversity as well

Direct and indirect subsidies in markets with system goods in the presence of externalities. Preliminary version

This paper derives a model of markets with system goods and two technological standards. An established standard incurs lower unit production costs but causes a negative externality. The paper derives the conditions for policy intervention and compares the effect of direct and indirect cost-reducing subsidies in two markets with system goods in the presence of externalities. If consumers are committed to the technology by purchasing one of the components, direct subsidies are preferable. For a medium-low cost difference between technological standards and a low externality cost it is optimal to provide a direct subsidy only to the first technology adopter. As the higher the externality cost raises, the more technology adopters should be provided with direct subsidies. This effect is robust in all extensions. In the absence of consumers commitment to a technological standard indirect and direct subsidies are both desirable. In this case, the subsidy to the first adopter is lower then the subsidy to the second adopter. Moreover, for the low cost difference between technological standards and low externality cost the fi rst fi rm chooses a superior standard without policy intervention. Finally, a perfect compatibility between components based on different technological standards enhances an advantage of indirect subsidies for medium-high externality cost and cost difference between technological standards. Journal of Economic Literature Classi fication Numbers: C72, D21, D40, H23, L13, L22, L51, O25, O33, O38. Keywords: Technological standards; complementary products; externalities; cost-reducing subsidies; compatibility.

Assessing the impact of high-pressure processing on selected physical and biochemical attributes of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata alba)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of combined pressure/temperature treatments (200, 400 and 600 MPa, at 20 and 40 °C) on key physical and chemical characteristics of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata alba). Thermal treatment (blanching) was also investigated and compared with high-pressure processing (HPP). HPP at 400 MPa and 20–40 °C caused significantly larger colour changes compared to any other pressure or thermal treatment. All pressure treatments induced a softening effect, whereas blanching did not significantly alter texture. Both blanching and pressure treatments resulted in a reduction in the levels of ascorbic acid, effect that was less pronounced for blanching and HPP at 600 MPa and 20–40 °C. HPP at 600 MPa resulted in significantly higher total phenol content, total antioxidant capacity and total isothiocyanate content compared to blanching. In summary, the colour and texture of white cabbage were better preserved by blanching. However, HPP at 600 MPa resulted in significantly higher levels of phytochemical compounds. The results of this study suggest that HPP may represent an attractive technology to process vegetable-based food products that better maintains important aspects related to the content of health-promoting compounds. This may be of particular relevance to the food industry sector involved in the development of convenient novel food products with excellent functional properties

Effectiveness of antioxidants in preventing oxidation of palm oil enriched with heme iron: A model for iron fortification in baked products

Bakery products such as biscuits, cookies, and pastries represent a good medium for iron fortification in food products, since they are consumed by a large proportion of the population at risk of developing iron deficiency anemia, mainly children. The drawback, however, is that iron fortification can promote oxidation. To assess the extent of this, palm oil added with heme iron and different antioxidants was used as a model for evaluating the oxidative stability of some bakery products, such as baked goods containing chocolate. The palm oil samples were heated at 220°C for 10 min to mimic the conditions found during a typical baking processing. The selected antioxidants were a free radical scavenger (tocopherol extract (TE), 0 and 500 mg/kg), an oxygen scavenger (ascorbyl palmitate (AP), 0 and 500 mg/kg), and a chelating agent (citric acid (CA), 0 and 300 mg/kg). These antioxidants were combined using a factorial design and were compared to a control sample, which was not supplemented with antioxidants. Primary (peroxide value and lipid hydroperoxide content) and secondary oxidation parameters (p-anisidine value, p-AnV) were monitored over a period of 200 days in storage at room temperature. The combination of AP and CA was the most effective treatment in delaying the onset of oxidation. TE was not effective in preventing oxidation. The p-AnV did not increase during the storage period, indicating that this oxidation marker was not suitable for monitoring oxidation in this model.

Effectiveness of antioxidants in preventing oxidation of palm oil enriched with heme iron: A model for iron fortification in baked products

Bakery products such as biscuits, cookies, and pastries represent a good medium for iron fortification in food products, since they are consumed by a large proportion of the population at risk of developing iron deficiency anemia, mainly children. The drawback, however, is that iron fortification can promote oxidation. To assess the extent of this, palm oil added with heme iron and different antioxidants was used as a model for evaluating the oxidative stability of some bakery products, such as baked goods containing chocolate. The palm oil samples were heated at 220°C for 10 min to mimic the conditions found during a typical baking processing. The selected antioxidants were a free radical scavenger (tocopherol extract (TE), 0 and 500 mg/kg), an oxygen scavenger (ascorbyl palmitate (AP), 0 and 500 mg/kg), and a chelating agent (citric acid (CA), 0 and 300 mg/kg). These antioxidants were combined using a factorial design and were compared to a control sample, which was not supplemented with antioxidants. Primary (peroxide value and lipid hydroperoxide content) and secondary oxidation parameters (p-anisidine value, p-AnV) were monitored over a period of 200 days in storage at room temperature. The combination of AP and CA was the most effective treatment in delaying the onset of oxidation. TE was not effective in preventing oxidation. The p-AnV did not increase during the storage period, indicating that this oxidation marker was not suitable for monitoring oxidation in this model.

Heterogeneous products and tests for an appropriate aggregation level considering different qualities: evidence from fresh hake at Barcelona’s wholesale market

[cat] Aquest estudi destaca la importància de considerar un nivell d’agregació adequat en els anàlisis de demanda, ja que treballar utilitzant un nivell d’agregació inadequat pot donar lloc a estimacions esbiaixades. Aquest fet es mostra a través de l’anàlisi de diferents productes de lluç fresc comercialitzats a Mercabarna, el mercat majorista de Barcelona. La literatura sobre la demanda de peix tracta al lluç com un únic producte i espècie. No obstant això, en el mercat espanyol, es comercialitzen molts peixos com a lluç, els quals mostren comportaments molt diferents (des de béns inferiors fins a béns de luxe). Els resultats obtinguts, en concordança amb les observacions empíriques, demostren que l’anàlisi s’ha de realitzar amb un major grau de detall que a nivell d’espècie. Això qüestiona els resultats d’anteriors estudis de demanda i la majoria de les bases de dades, on l’observació del nivell d’agregació adequat dels productes no es té en compte.

Heterogeneous products and tests for an appropriate aggregation level considering different qualities: evidence from fresh hake at Barcelona’s wholesale market

[cat] Aquest estudi destaca la importància de considerar un nivell d’agregació adequat en els anàlisis de demanda, ja que treballar utilitzant un nivell d’agregació inadequat pot donar lloc a estimacions esbiaixades. Aquest fet es mostra a través de l’anàlisi de diferents productes de lluç fresc comercialitzats a Mercabarna, el mercat majorista de Barcelona. La literatura sobre la demanda de peix tracta al lluç com un únic producte i espècie. No obstant això, en el mercat espanyol, es comercialitzen molts peixos com a lluç, els quals mostren comportaments molt diferents (des de béns inferiors fins a béns de luxe). Els resultats obtinguts, en concordança amb les observacions empíriques, demostren que l’anàlisi s’ha de realitzar amb un major grau de detall que a nivell d’espècie. Això qüestiona els resultats d’anteriors estudis de demanda i la majoria de les bases de dades, on l’observació del nivell d’agregació adequat dels productes no es té en compte.

A note on the application of integrals involving cyclic products kernels

A l'estadística de processos estocàstics i camps aleatoris, una funció de moments o un cumulant d'un estimador de la funció de correlació o de la densitat espectral sovint pot contenir una integral amb un producte cíclic de nuclis. En aquest treball es defineix i s'investiga aquesta classe d'integrals i es demostra la desigualtat de Young-Hölder que permet estudiar el comportament asimptòtic de les esmentades integrals en la situació quan els nuclis depenen d'un pàràmetre. Es considera una aplicació al problema d'estimació de la funció de resposta en un sistema de Volterra.

Double implementation in a market for indivisible goods with a price constraint

I consider the problem of assigning agents to objects where each agent must pay the price of the object he gets and prices must sum to a given number. The objective is to select an assignment-price pair that is envy-free with respect to the true preferences. I prove that the proposed mechanism will implement both in Nash and strong Nash the set of envy-free allocations. The distinguishing feature of the mechanism is that it treats the announced preferences as the true ones and selects an envy-free allocation with respect to the announced preferences.

Manipulation via endowments in exchange markets with indivisible goods

We consider exchange markets with heterogeneous indivisible goods. We are interested in exchange rules that are efficient and immune to manipulations via endowments (either with respect to hiding or destroying part of the endowment or transferring part of the endowment to another trader). We consider three manipulability axioms: hiding-proofness, destruction-proofness, and transfer-proofness. We prove that no rule satisfying efficiency and hiding-proofness (which implies individual rationality) exists. For two-agent exchange markets with separable and responsive preferences, we show that efficient, individually rational, and destruction-proof rules exist. However, for separable preferences, no rule satisfies efficiency, individual rationality, and destruction-proofness. In the case of transfer-proofness the compatibility with efficiency and individual rationality for the two-agent case extends to the unrestricted domain. For exchange markets with separable preferences and more than two agents no rule satisfies efficiency, individual rationality, and transfer-proofness.

Social capital and government in the production of public goods

As a response to the rapidly growing empirical literature on social capital and the evidence of its correlation with government performance, we build a theoretical framework to study the interactions between social capital and government's action. This paper presents a model of homogeneous agents in an overlapping generations framework incorporating social capital as the values transmitted from parent to child. The government's role is to provide public goods. First, government expenditure is exogenously given. Then, it will be chosen at the preferred level of the representative agent. For both setups the equilibrium outcomes are characterized and the resulting dynamics studied. Briefly we include an analysis of the effect of productivity growth on the evolution of social capital. The results obtained caution caution against both the crowding out effect of the welfare state and the impact of sustained economic growth on social capital.

Distortion of wreath products in some finitely presented groups

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