This dissertation has four interrelated studies, namely (1) the characterization of
milk purchase choices which included the purchase of organic milk, both organic and
conventional milk and conventional milk only; (2) the estimation of a single-equation
household demand function for organic and conventional milk; (3) the assessment of
binary choice models for organic milk using the Brier Probability score and Yates
partition, and (4) the estimation of demand systems that addresses the censoring issue
through the use of econometric techniques.
In the first paper, the study utilized the estimation of both multinomial logit and
probit models in examining a set of causal socio-demographic variables in explaining the
purchase of three outcome milk choices namely organic milk, organic and conventional
milk and conventional milk only. These crucial variables include income, household
size, education level and employment of household head, race, ethnicity and region.
Using the 2004 Nielsen Homescan Panel, the second study used the Heckman
two-step procedure in calculating the own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities by estimating the demand relationships for both organic and conventional milk. Results
indicated that organic and conventional milk are substitutes. Also, an asymmetric pattern
existed with regard to the substitution patterns of the respective milk types.
Likewise, the third study showed that predictive outcomes from binary choice
models associated with organic milk can be enhanced with the use of the Brier score
method. In this case, specifications omitting important socio-demographic variables
reduced the variability of predicted probabilities and therefore limited its sorting ability.
The last study estimated both censored Almost Ideal Demand Systems (AIDS)
and Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) specifications in modeling nonalcoholic
beverages. In this research, five estimation techniques were used which
included the usage of Iterated Seemingly Unrelated Regression (ITSUR), two stage
methods such as the Heien and Wessells (1990) and the Shonkwiler and Yen (1999)
approaches, Generalized Maximum Entropy and the Dong, Gould and Kaiser (2004a)
methods. The findings of the study showed that at various censoring techniques, price
elasticity estimates were observed to have greater variability in highly censored nonalcoholic
beverage items such as tea, coffee and bottled water.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-12-7449 |
| Date | 2009 December 1900 |
| Creators | Alviola IV, Pedro A. |
| Contributors | Capps, Jr, Oral |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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