Guanlong Fu, University of Connecticut
Seminar Title: "Optimal land development pattern under a Water Supply Capacity Credits Trading Scheme"
Abstract:
Land development damages undeveloped land’s role in supplying water quantity to the whole watershed. In this research, we proposed a water supply capacity credits (WSCC) trading policy to capture the value of undeveloped land in sustaining the water supply capacity for the watershed. We developed simulation models for the Pomperaug watershed in Connecticut to analyze the optimal development pattern in the watershed from the social planner’s perspective as well as under the WSCC trading market. The simulation results suggest that Landowners whose land has a large hydrological degrading factor become sellers of WSCC and whose land has a small hydrological degrading factor turn to be net buyers of WSCC. Therefore the WSCC trading scheme tends to shift new development to the land which plays a relatively smaller role in supplying the water quantity of the whole watershed so the land with a higher hydrological role in the watershed is preserved. Simulation results also indicates that the social optimal of aggregate net benefits from land development is achieved by the WSCC trading scheme.
Giulia Tiboldo, University of Connecticut
Seminar Title: "Welfare Implications of Private Labels Withdrawal"
Abstract:
In many modern food markets, retailer use Private Label to capture part of consumers demand, increase sales and to gain relative power of all agents involved in the supply chain. The objective of this paper is to simulate how the disappearance of Private Labels from a differentiated product market affect consumers’ and producers’ welfare. Using a scanner dataset of yogurt purchases in Italy, we estimated consumers’ demand using a discrete choice demand and, using a Nash-Bertrand equilibrium assumption, we recovered marginal costs and price-cost margins of the products in the market. Using the estimated demand parameters and marginal costs, we simulate the change in producers’ profits and consumers’ welfare due to Private Label withdrawal showing that, in the absence of Private Labels, equilibrium prices would be lower but manufacturers’ profit would be higher, due to the expanded sales. For consumers, we find a decline in welfare due to the smaller number of products in the market (i.e. variety effect) and contrary to the conventional economic wisdom an increase in welfare due to lower prices.
Friday, November 10, 2017
11:30am - 12:45pm
W.B. Young Building, room 132
View the full Fall 2017 ARE Seminar Schedule
For more information, contact: Tatiana Andreyeva at tatiana.andreyeva@uconn.edu