The wine hedonic price models in the "Old and New World": : state of the art

The basic hedonic hypothesis is that goods are valued for their utility-bearing characteristics and not for the good itself. Each attribute can be evaluated by consumers when making a purchasing decision and an implicit price can be identified for each of them. Thus, the observed price of a certain good can be analyzed as the sum of the implicit prices paid for each quality attribute. Literature has reported hedonic models estimates in the case of wines, which are excellent examples of differentiated goods worldwide.The impact of different wine attributes (intrinsic or extrinsic) on consumers’ willingness to pay has been analyzed with dissimilar results. Wines coming from "New World" producers seem to be appreciated for different attributes than wines produced in the "Old World". Moreover, "Old and New World" consumers seem to value differently the wine’s characteristics. To our knowledge, no cross country analysis has been done dealing with "New World" wines in "Old World" countries, leaving an important gap in understanding underlying attributes influencing buying decisions.

Cultural convergences in world wine consumption

This paper addresses the dynamics of world wine consumption over the past 50 years in 26 countries, verifying whether or not there is a macro-tendency towards a common consumption style, despite differences in taxation, economic policies and distribution systems among countries. From an empirical point of view, the σ and β convergence hypotheses were formally tested. Model results confirm the existence of both types of convergences. Per capita consumption of wine first experienced a reduction in differences between countries and then converged toward a central value. "Traditional" countries, with historically high levels of consumption, showed a decrease in wine consumption, while emerging countries with historically lower consumption levels showed an increase. These findings not only provide further support to the theory of international convergence of wine consumption on a volume basis, as already observed by other researchers in the European market, but they also offer support for the theory in major world markets. Furthermore, convergence appears to be happening not only at a quantitative level but at qualitative level as well, and this phenomenon may very well reflect the changing tastes of worldwide consumers towards a generalized structure of wine consumption.

Fauna composition of benthos communities in bottom sediments from the edge and the central part of the shelf in the California upwelling zone

Two shelf communities from the central part off the California Peninsula are described. The community of Amphiodia urtica - Nephtys ferruginea develops in the central part of the shelf within the depth range 95-105 m. The community of Nephtys ferruginea - Amphiura acrystata develops on the shelf edge at depth 110 m. Biomasses of both communities are very low (about 10 g/m**2). Species richness of the shelf community is high; more than 60 species occur in samples (43-51 species per a community). Various echinoderms and some other groups are abundant on the Californian shelf; these groups are absent in shelf areas of Peruvian and Benguela upwellings. Species structures of the communities were analyzed; the communities were shown to consist of coexisting, but not interacting guilds; this indicates that the communities are undersaturated with individuals. At the same time values of ABC-indices indicate that the communities are stable. We suggest that in this case adaptation to unfavorable but stable environment is observed (selection of species-stressolarents). An explanation seems to lie in the penetrating type of the upwelling in the Californian upwelling zone. Low biomass values seem to result from mass development of necto-benthic carnivorous crustaceans-galateids Pleuroncodes planiceps.

Sea surface reconstruction for sediments of the California continental margin

Organic matter in sediment samples from three ODP sites (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 167) that form a south-north transect was investigated to reconstruct the paleoclimatic and oceanographic conditions on the California continental margin during the last 160 kyr. Alkenone-derived paleosea surface temperatures (SST) are 3 to 6°C colder in glacial stages and reveal a clear relationship with global climate changes; the differences are greater in the north. Latitudinal SST comparison exhibits water mixing of the colder California Current with warmer waters from the south, particularly in the southern central California borderland area. Organic matter accumulation on the California continental margin indicates an interplay between climatic and atmospheric glacial-interglacial variations and spatially and temporally changing nutrient availability along the California coastline. Climatic and atmospheric dependent circulations apparently caused variations in the intensity of coastal upwelling along the southern central California margin and this suggests, due to the close connection of the California Current to the local wind patterns, that the California Current was weaker during glacial and stronger during interglacial periods.

Corg, CaCO3, bulk densities, accumulation rates and ages of ODP Leg 167 sites and three piston cores, California margin

Sediments from five Leg 167 drill sites and three piston cores were analyzed for Corg and CaCO3. Oxygen isotope stratigraphy on benthic foraminifers was used to assign age models to these sedimentary records. We find that the northern and central California margin is characterized by k.y.-scale events that can be found in both the CaCO3 and Corg time series. We show that the CaCO3 events are caused by changes in CaCO3 production by plankton, not by dissolution. We also show that these CaCO3 events occur in marine isotope Stages (MIS) 2, 3, and 4 during Dansgaard/Oeschger interstadials. They occur most strongly, however, on the MIS 5/4 glaciation and MIS 2/1 deglaciation. We believe that the link between the northeastern Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic is primarily transmitted by the atmosphere, not the ocean. Highest CaCO3 production and burial occurs when the surface ocean is somewhat cooler than the modern ocean, and the surface mixed layer is somewhat more stable.

El cooperativismo y la financiación agrícola en Baja California, México (1930-1950) : Una aproximación inicial

Para la teoría neoclásica convencional el funcionamiento de los mercados de crédito soporta dos dificultades básicas: la información imperfecta o asimétrica y la selección adversa del prestatario aunada al riesgo del no pago. En el otro extremo, más heterodoxo, el colectivismo, el capital social y la formación de redes informales y sociedades de crédito suelen reducir los costes de transacción ligados al problema de la financiación. Este tipo de organización facilita el desenvolvimiento del cooperativismo en la economía. En México, después de la Revolución y la conformación de un régimen político autoritario y vertical, el cooperativismo se constituyó en uno de los referentes de la organización campesina para conseguir crédito de la banca pública y privada. En el noroeste del país y la península de Baja California, la existencia de cooperativas pesqueras, ganaderas, agrícolas y de transporte significó un despunte de la actividad económica y uno de los canales del desarrollo de la región. El propósito del artículo es perfilar qué tipo de cooperativismo se articuló en el Distrito Norte de la península de Baja California y qué tipo de relación guardó con el movimiento cooperativista nacional entre 1930 y 1950

El cooperativismo y la financiación agrícola en Baja California, México (1930-1950) : Una aproximación inicial

Para la teoría neoclásica convencional el funcionamiento de los mercados de crédito soporta dos dificultades básicas: la información imperfecta o asimétrica y la selección adversa del prestatario aunada al riesgo del no pago. En el otro extremo, más heterodoxo, el colectivismo, el capital social y la formación de redes informales y sociedades de crédito suelen reducir los costes de transacción ligados al problema de la financiación. Este tipo de organización facilita el desenvolvimiento del cooperativismo en la economía. En México, después de la Revolución y la conformación de un régimen político autoritario y vertical, el cooperativismo se constituyó en uno de los referentes de la organización campesina para conseguir crédito de la banca pública y privada. En el noroeste del país y la península de Baja California, la existencia de cooperativas pesqueras, ganaderas, agrícolas y de transporte significó un despunte de la actividad económica y uno de los canales del desarrollo de la región. El propósito del artículo es perfilar qué tipo de cooperativismo se articuló en el Distrito Norte de la península de Baja California y qué tipo de relación guardó con el movimiento cooperativista nacional entre 1930 y 1950