The costs of shortages and rationing are not captured by standard consumer price indices. Thus the change in real GDP per capita is an over estimate of welfare losses in transition economies. In this study virtual prices are used to calculate new cost of living indices (CLI). The results for...

Controversy surrounds the introduction of genetically modified foods. One key issue relates to tolerance levelsï¾—the impurity rate tolerated before a commodity must be labeled. Currently, the United States has not defined a tolerance level for genetically modified foods. This paper uses...

In most environments, information is critical to consumersï¾’ decision making. Consumers have prior beliefs about quality and price of goods and services and obtain new information which is used to update these prior beliefs or to form posterior beliefs, i.e., Bayesian learning. New food...

With the continuing controversy over genetically modified (GM) foods, some groups advocate mandatory labeling of these products, while other groups oppose labeling. An important issue is how GM labels affect consumers' willingness to pay for these food products in the market. Using a...

To be effective, groups that disseminate information need the trust of consumers. When multiple groups provide conflicting information on a new product or process like GM-foods, consumers place different levels of trust in the various sources. We present a model of the contributions of personal...

Rousu, M., W.E. Huffman, J.F. Shogren, and A. Tegene. ﾓEstimating the Public Value of Information: Genetically Modified Foods,ﾔ Land Economics, forthcoming.

Food products containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients have entered the market over the past decade. The biotech industry and environmental groups have disseminating conflicting private information about GM foods. This paper develops a unique methodology for valuing independent...

A model of optimal dynamic agricultural supply is derived and hired assuming farmers have two annual stochastic crop production activities, a joint limitation on production capacity, interdependencies between past acreage utilization and current productivity, and rational expectations. A...

Public debate continues over whether the United States should regulate genetically modified (GM) foods by imposing a mandatory labeling policy. This paper develops a model that shows that a voluntary GM-labeling policy results in higher welfare than a regulated mandatory GM-labeling policy, if...

Two interested parties dominate the current debate on genetically modified (GM) foods: environmental groups and agribusiness companies. For the average consumer to arrive at an informed decision on these new foods, they must rely on information from interested parties. Unfortunately, information...