No description available.

No description available.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第23941号 / 農博第2490号 / 新制||農||1090(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R4||N5376(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科生物資源経済学専攻 / (主査)准教授 三谷 羊平, 教授 伊藤 順一, 教授 梅津 千恵子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

No description available.

The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine Hispanic consumers’ preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for grass-fed beef. Two hundred and thirty-one Hispanic consumers in four experiment sites in Virginia (Galax, Roanoke, Richmond, and Blacksburg) participated in an experimental economics laboratory procedure. Taste tests and visual evaluations were conducted to understand Hispanic consumers’ sensory preferences for grass-fed beef in comparison to conventional grain-fed beef. A contingent valuation method, Multiple Price Lists (MPL) was used to measure Hispanic consumers’ WTP for grass-fed beef. In the study, MPL was put into a non-hypothetical environment due to real products, real money, and actual transactions involved. A bivariate Probit model was estimated to determine Hispanic consumers’ visual and taste preferences for grass-fed beef and to explore the relationship between their expected and experienced quality of grass-fed beef. A two-step decision process examined Hispanic consumers’ WTP and investigated the factors influencing their valuations on grass-fed beef. Approximately 50% of Hispanic consumers sampled preferred grass-fed to conventional grain-fed beef steak and the vast majority of grass-fed preferring consumers were willing to pay a price premium for it. Hispanic consumers were able to distinguish the appearance and taste between grass-fed and conventional grain-fed beef steaks. A positive correlation between visual and taste preferences for grass-fed beef was captured. / Ph. D.

Decisions made by individuals planning for retirement may be myopic. One way of capturing this myopia is with quasi-hyperbolic discounting. It is well known that such preferences may explain why individuals fail to provide an adequate retirement income for themselves. In this thesis, the quasi-hyperbolic discounting model is applied to a number of other decisions and outcomes related to planning for retirement. There are three main focuses. Firstly, the thesis considers a model where individuals are quasi-hyperbolic discounters over both retirement and saving, and extends the results of Diamond and Köszegi (2003). It argues that mechanisms designed to overcome myopic saving decisions may lead to unplanned early retirement. This may depend on the form of income in retirement -- regular income options such as annuities offer commitment over overconsuming early in retirement, which makes early retirement less desirable to myopic retirees. Secondly, it tests these predictions using a new laboratory experiment. Over a two-month period, participants were asked to attend weekly sessions, and could leave the experiment (or "retire") in any week of their choosing. Part of their payment for attending these sessions was put aside and paid only after they had left. The results indicated that more impulsive individuals left the experiment earlier, both overall and relative to plans made in the first week of the experiment. Finally, this thesis presents a model of rising wages as a forced saving mechanism. Assuming individuals face some borrowing constraints, deferred wages implicitly place some earnings aside until much closer to retirement, when quasi-hyperbolic discounters save a greater fraction of their income, increasing total retirement wealth. It also shows that demand for rising wages should disappear for people with access to more direct saving commitment mechanisms, although when these schemes offer less commitment (due to early withdrawal or early retirement options), a combination of both mechanisms is preferred.

The aim of this thesis is to determine the degree of discrimination of mothers in the Czech labor market during employee selection. We conduct an Internet field experiment which allows us to study the effect of the different lengths of parental leave on the probability of being invited for a job interview. We test three years long parental leave, a typical length in the Czech environment, against two years long parental leave as the shortest usual length, using a mother long after parental leave as our third control group. We found a slight preference for the three years parental leave, but we cannot confirm the hypothesis of three years leave being significantly preferred to two years leave at conventional confidence levels. The most significant is the result where resume of high-quality was sent. The results about the role of social norms from a survey among hiring specialists indicate that from two opposing effects - losing knowledge and working experience the longer a mother is on parental leave, versus losing flexibility at work the younger her child is - none is of higher concern if comparing three years leave and two years leave. JEL Classification C81, C93, J71, J13, M51 Keywords discrimination, decision making, experimental economics, hiring, mothers, parental leave Author's e-mail...

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'étudier les programmes de labellisation environnementale. Dans un premier temps nous différencions deux types de programmes de labellisation, les programmes de type ISO I qui donne une information discrète (les produits sont labellisés ou non), et les programmes de type ISO III qui eux révèlent l'information de manière continue (les cartes énergétiques). Nous montrons que les programmes de type de ISO III conduisent à des problèmes d'auto-sélection au sein de la ligne du produit du monopole alors que les programmes de type ISO I permettent à celui-ci de parfaitement discriminer entre ces produits. Ensuite dans un second chapitre, réalisé en collaboration avec J.W. Maxwell et R. Harbaugh, nous faisons l'hypothèse que le consommateur n'a qu'une idée incertaine de la difficulté du standard qu'un produit doit atteindre pour être labellisé. Nous montrons que la prise en compte de cette hypothèse diminue les incitations des entreprises à se faire certifier et l'efficacité des programmes de labellisation. Nous prouvons aussi que les entreprises choisissent de manière stratégique entre les différents labels disponibles sur le marché. Enfin dans un dernier chapitre réalisé en collaboration avec J. Rosaz et F. Poinas, nous choisissons d'utiliser l'économie expérimentale afin d'étudier le comportement du consommateur ou plus précisément la révision des croyances d'un sujet lorsque celui-ci reçoit un signal imparfait. Le signal envoyé au sujet consiste en une restriction des états possibles de la nature et s'apparente ainsi au label observé par le consommateur sur le marché. Nous montrons qu'en moyenne ces signaux permettent aux sujets d'améliorer leur estimation, cependant certains signaux trop incertains peuvent avoir des effets pervers. / This thesis has for goal to study environmental labeling programs. In the first chapter, I use a self-selection model to study environmental labelling program in a context of multiproduct monopoly. I show that the manner by which information is conveyed affects the firm strategies. I prove that programs, which disclose continuous information such as report cards, can lead to self-selection issues within the monopoly product line, whereas those which give discrete information such as the EU flower allow the monopoly perfectly discriminating among consumers. In the second chapter, joint with J. Maxwell and R. Harbaugh, we relax the assumption that consumers know the exact standard that the product has to meet to be labelled. The uncertainty over the standard leads the consumers to jointly estimate the product quality and the standard difficulty. This undermines the ability of voluntary certification to reduce information asymmetry. In the third chapter, joint with J. Rosaz and F. Poinas, we analyze belief updating behaviors with imperfect signals in an experimental setting. The novelty of the paper is to consider a signal that restricts the set of the possible states of the nature. One of the objectives of this chapter is to study the consumer updating behaviors when they observe a label on a product but with the methodologies developed in the Bayesian updating literature. We show that this kind of signals increases the correctness of the subject estimations. However these signals can also let the subjects very uncertain about their estimation which can conduct to adverse effects.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser les différents types de valeurs qui déterminent et expliquent les choix et comportements des consommateurs avec une attention particulière pour les produits innovants. Plus particulièrement, on cherche à déterminer leurs consentements à payer pour des produits innovants avec des caractéristiques durables d’une part, et comment les préférences du consommateur et les caractéristiques du produit interviennent dans le processus de la prise de la décision d’autre part.Dans le premier chapitre, nous affirmons que les préférences individuelles sont reflétées dans leurs consentements à payer pour un produit / service et sont basées sur les valeurs individuelles. Ces valeurs sont stables pour chaque individu, guident ses préférences et ses actions en tant qu'individu (valeurs personnelles) et en tant qu'agent économique (valeurs client et consommateur). En se focalisant sur la consommation de produits innovants et durables, cette thèse aborde également les valeurs environnementales et innovantes.L'analyse des valeurs pour les produits innovants est d'une grande importance pour les entreprises, car elle permet d'anticiper les préférences et leurs changements, et par là même, elle contribue à la définition des priorités dans les processus de développement de nouvelles offres de produits.Les systèmes complexes de ces valeurs entraînent des défis particuliers pour l'estimation, qui sont discutés dans le chapitre 2. Notamment, l'exactitude des estimations du CAP dépend du choix de la méthode utilisée par le chercheur.Les résultats obtenus montrent que les consommateurs ont une valorisation positive de produits innovants avec des caractéristiques durables. Ces valorisations sont basées sur les préférences des consommateurs et ses valeurs personnelles et de consommateur. Les études empiriques présentées dans les chapitres 3 et 4 proposent deux approches expérimentales qui contribuent à la compréhension des comportements des consommateurs à l'égard de produits innovants et à la compréhension des difficultés et défis des méthodes expérimentales d'élicitation de préférences pour ces produits/services. En outre, ils démontrent la validité du concept des valeurs dans le comportement des consommateurs. / The general purpose of this thesis is to analyze the different types of values that determine and explain the choices and behavior of consumers with a particular focus on innovative products. Specifically, we want to know whether consumers are willing to pay for innovative products with sustainable features and how consumer preferences and characteristics of the product are involved in the process of the decision-making. In addition, we test new methods for such estimations.In the Chapter 1 we claim that individual preferences are reflected in willingness to pay for a product/service and are based on individual’s values. These values are stable for each individual, guide his/her preferences and actions as an individual (personal values) and as an economic agent (customer and consumer values). With the focus on the consumption of innovative and sustainable products, this thesis discusses also environmental and innovative values.The importance of value analysis for innovative products is of a high importance for companies, because it allows to anticipate preferences and their changes, and by this, helps to define the priorities of new product development processes.The complex systems of these values result in particular challenges for the estimation, discussed in Chapter 2. Therefore, the accuracy of WTP estimates depends on the choice of the method used by the researcher.The obtained results show that consumers have positive valuations of innovative products with sustainable characteristics. These valuations are based on consumers preferences and values inherent to him/her are an individual and as a consumer. The empirical studies presented in Chapters 3 and 4 offer two experimental approaches, which contribute to the understanding of consumer behavior towards innovative products and to the understanding of the difficulties and challenges for experimental methods of preference elicitation for these products/services. In addition, they demonstrate the validity of value theory in consumer behavior.

Dans la plupart des situations concrètes de choix, les décideurs ne peuvent pas prédire le résultat de leur action avec certitude. La théorie de la décision distingue généralement entre le cas typique du risque, où les probabilités des différents événements sont connus objectivement, et la situation de l'ambiguïté, où le contexte informationnel ne permet pas d'établir de telles probabilités objectives.Cependant, les agents détiennent souvent de l'information partielle sous la forme d'ensembles d'observations passées, conduisant à des situations qui dépassent la dichotomie traditionnelle entre probabilités connues et inconnues.Cette thèse fournit une analyse empirique des comportements de décision en situation d'incertitude lorsque de l'information statistique est disponible. Les deux premiers chapitres portent sur les comportements de choix en présence d'information, c'est-à-dire lorsque les différentes options sont décrites par des ensembles de données ex ante. Ces chapitres étudient l'influence de la précision de l'information sur la perception de l'ambiguïté et sur les attitudes vis-à-vis du risque et de l'ambiguïté.Dans le troisième chapitre, je considère le cas dans lequel les agents ne sont pas informés et ont l'opportunité d'acquérir de l'information. Ce chapitre propose une expérience dont l'objectif est d'étudier la manière dont les individus évaluent l'information additionnelle. / In most real-life choice situations, decision makers cannot predict the outcome of their action with certainty. Decision theory generally distinguishes between the typical case of risk, in which the probabilities of the different events are objectively known, and the situation of ambiguity, in which the informational context does not allow such objective probability judgment. However, agents are often provided with partial information consisting of past observations, leading to situations beyond the traditional known-unknown probabilities dichotomy.This thesis empirically investigates decision-making under uncertainty when statistical information is available. The first two chapters focus on choice behaviors in the presence of information, i.e., when prospects are described by datasets ex ante. These chapters study the influence of information precision on the perception of ambiguity and on the attitudes towards risk and ambiguity. In the third chapter, I consider the situation in which agents are uninformed and have the opportunity to acquire information. This chapter proposes an experiment designed to explore the individual valuation for additional information.