Multiple sectors within U.S. crop industries - - -growers, elevators, handlers/shell- ers, processors, distributors, and consumers - - -are affected by aflatoxin contamination of commodities, and have the potential to control it using methods developed at both the pre- and postharvest levels....

Forward-looking behavior of consumers is important for modeling consumer response to promotions of frequently purchased consumer products as well as manufacturer's optimal promotion schedule. The first essay studies consumer's promotion timing expectations and promotion response. In previous...

Due to the complexity of business transactions andgrowing business automation demands from the B2B e-businesscommunity to swiftly respond to the ever-changing environment,workflow technology has been receiving more attention recently.The increasing popularity and adoption of workflow...

In modern enterprises, workflow technology is commonly used for business processautomation. Established business processes represent successful business practice andbecome a crucial part of corporate assets. In the Internet era, electronic business is chosenby more and more organisations as a...

Recent social spending inflation in China has led to its growth rate far exceeding that of income and other consumption. In this paper, we estimate private returns to social spending, such as higher social status and larger social network that serve as certain functions. In almost all...

This paper is based on an ongoing joint work with David Sahn and Xiaobo Zhang.

This paper is Selected for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 3, 2009. The research is partially funded by ERS/USDA China Project and Social Science Fund of Jiangsu Province in China. The authors are grateful for...