Oxford Journals Medicine Health Promotion International Volume 24, Issue 4 Pp. 344-352.

Impact of front-of-pack traffic-light nutrition labelling on consumer food purchases in the UK 2009

1. 2. 3.

Gary Sacks1,*, Mike Rayner2 and Boyd Swinburn3

+Author Affiliations

1. 2. 3. 1.
*

School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and

British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK and
2 3

WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Corresponding author. E-mail: gary.sacks@deakin.edu.au

Abstract

Front-of-pack traffic-light nutrition labelling has been widely proposed as a tool to improve public health nutrition. This study examined changes to consumer food purchases after the introduction of traffic-light labels with the aim of assessing the impact of the labels on the healthiness of foods purchased. The study examined sales data from a major UK retailer in 2007. We analysed products in two categories (ready meals and sandwiches), investigating the percentage change in sales 4 weeks before and after traffic-light labels were introduced, and taking into account seasonality, product promotions and product life-cycle. We investigated whether changes in sales were related to the healthiness of products. All products that were not new and not on promotion immediately before or after the introduction of traffic-light labels were selected for the analysis (n = 6 for ready meals and n = 12 for sandwiches). For the selected ready-meals, sales increased (by 2.4% of category sales) in the 4 weeks after the introduction of traffic-light labels, whereas sales of the selected sandwiches did not change significantly. Critically, there was no association between changes in product sales and the healthiness of the products. This short-term study based on a small number of ready meals and sandwiches found that the introduction of a system of four traffic-light labels had no discernable effect on the relative healthiness of consumer purchases. Further research on the influence of nutrition signposting will be needed before this labelling format can be considered a promising public health intervention.

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Oxford Journals Medicine Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation Volume 10, Issue 2 Pp. 167-174.

Impact of legislative measures on the sales of analgesics and the subsequent prevalence of analgesic nephropathy: a comparative study in France, Sweden and Belgium 1995

1. 2. 3. 1.

L. M. Noels, M. M. Elseviers and M. E. de Broe

+Author Affiliations

1.

Department of Nephrology-Hypertension, University of Antwerp Belgium

Correspondence and offprint requests to: Marc E. De Broe, MD, PhD, University of Antwerp, Department of Nephrology-Hypertension, p/a University of Antwerp, Wilrijkstraat 10, B-2650 Edegem/Antwerpen, Belgium.

Abstract

Received March 31, 1994. Accepted October 12, 1994.

In a number of European countries (e.g. Belgium), analgesic nephropathy continues to be a highly prevalent renal disease, whereas in other countries (e.g. Sweden) the problem has been resolved after legislative measures were taken. In still other countries, e.g. France, the official prevalence of analgesic nephropathy has always been low.

The aim of the present study is to detect whether specific legislation in particular countries has played a role in the prevalence of analgesic nephropathy. Hence, we compared analgesic legislation in Belgium, France and Sweden, and then compared it with the respective sales data of non-narcotic analgesics and with the prevalence data of analgesic nephropathy in the dialysis population. Each investigated country represents a different evolution pattern in the prevalence of analgesic nephropathy. This study indicates that legislation restricting the over-the-counter availability of the majority of analgesic components and resulting in the absence of analgesic mixturescontaining two analgesic substances and one potentially addictive substanceon the market, has effectively resulted in a substantially lower prevalence of analgesic nephropathy. Moreover, it shows that permissive legislation could be associated with very different sales data, depending on the marketing strategy of the pharmaceutical industry and the subsequent purchasing behaviour of the population. These findings indicate that, in order to eradicate analgesic nephropathy, there is a need to elaborate legislation that prohibits the availability of analgesic mixtures containing two analgesic components and at least one potentially addictive substance.

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Oxford Journals Economics & Social Sciences Industrial and Corporate Change Volume 8, Issue 2 Pp. 289-351.

From utilities to mental models: a critical survey on decision rules and cognition in consumer choice 1999

1.

MG Devetag

+Author Affiliations

1.

S. Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

Abstract This work critically discusses a selected body of (mainly experimental) studies on consumer behavior in the light of two general questions. First, can one identify within the vast literature from psychology, marketing, etc., a few stylized facts which might be the grounds of a behavioral theory of consumption parsimonious enough to be useful to economic theorizing, and, at the same time, not in open violation of the evidence on how consumers actually behave? Second, to what extent should such theories be nested into an explicit account of the cognitive processes leading to particular consumption acts? Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x Oxford Journals Economics & Social Sciences CESifo Economic Studies Volume 55, Issue 2 Pp. 306-325. On the Impact of Digital Music Distribution 2009

+Author Affiliations

1. 2.

Illtae Ahn* and Kiho Yoon

1. 2.
Abstract

* Department of Economics, Chung-Ang University, Heuksuk-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea 156756. e-mail: illtae@cau.ac.kr
Department of Economics, Korea University, Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea 136-701. email: kiho@korea.ac.kr

We present a framework to evaluate the impact of digital music distribution. We set up a representative model that enables the comparative static analysis. We then interpret two empirical observations about the music industry, the sales decline and the price constancy, and fit the model to these observations. We find that, while the impact of digitalization on the producers profits is probably negative, it may not be as severe as the observed impact on the

quantity. On the other hand, the impact of digitalization on the consumer surplus is unambiguously positive. The impact on the social welfare is rather ambiguous in general, but the social welfare may increase for plausible parameter values. (JEL codes: K11, L86, O34)

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oxford Journals Medicine Health Education Research Volume 23, Issue 3 Pp. 543-548. Can even minimal news coverage influence consumer health-related behaviour? A case study of iodized salt sales, Australia 2008

1. 2. 3. 4. 1.

Mu Li*, Simon Chapman, Kingsley Agho and Creswell J. Eastman 1.School of Public HealthUniversity of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
*

+Author Affiliations Correspondence to: M. Li. E-mail: muli@health.usyd.edu.au

Received October 25, 2006.

Accepted April 13, 2007.

Abstract

Lack of iodine in the diet can cause a spectrum of conditions, known as iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). While iodized salt has been retailed in Australia since the 1960s, sales have remained low, at 10% of total edible salt sales. Salt has never been promoted, advertised or discounted by retailers or manufacturers. Extensive news coverage of health issues has often been shown to influence consumer behaviour. But can even modest news coverage generate changes in consumer health-related behaviour? We report a significant increase (5.2%) in national iodized salt sales after a brief period of television and newspaper reports about IDD and the benefits of using iodized salt during and after the Australian National Iodine Nutrition Study in 2003 and 2004. We conclude that even brief news media exposure can influence health-related decisions.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oxford Journals Economics & Social Sciences Review of Economic Studies Volume 78, Issue 1 Pp. 356-393. Social Learning and Peer Effects in Consumption: Evidence from Movie Sales 2011
+Author Affiliations

1.

Enrico Moretti 1.University of California, Berkeley, NBER, CEPR, and IZA

Abstract

Received August 1, 2008. Accepted January 1, 2010.

Using box-office data for all movies released between 1982 and 2000, I quantify how much the consumption decisions of individuals depend on information they receive from their peers, when quality is ex ante uncertain. In the presence of social learning, we should see different box-office sales dynamics depending on whether opening weekend demand is higher or lower than expected. I use a unique feature of the movie industry to identify ex ante demand expectations: the number of screens dedicated to a movie in its opening weekend reflects the sales expectations held by profit-maximizing theatre owners. Several pieces of evidence are consistent with social learning. First, sales of movies with positive surprise and negative surprise in opening weekend demand diverge over time. If a movie has better than expected appeal and therefore experiences larger than expected sales in Week 1, consumers in Week 2 update upward their expectations of quality, further increasing Week 2 sales. Second, this divergence is small for movies for which consumers have strong priors and large for movies for which consumers have weak priors. Third, the effect of a surprise is stronger for audiences with large social networks. Finally, consumers do not respond to surprises in first-week sales that are orthogonal to movie quality, like weather shocks. Overall, social learning appears to be an important determinant of sales in the movie industry, accounting

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Oxford Journals Economics & Life Sciences & Social Sciences European Review of Agricultural Economics Volume 30, Issue 2 Pp. 173-192.

for 32% of sales for the typical movie with positive surprise. This implies the existence of a large social multiplier such that the elasticity of aggregate demand to movie quality is larger than the elasticity of individual demand.

The effect of the BSE outbreak in Japan on consumers' preferences 2003

+Author Affiliations

1. 2.

Hyun J. Jin and Won W. Koo 1.North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

Abstract

Received January 1, 2003.

Revision received April 1, 2003.

A nonparametric approach was used to test whether there was a structural change in Japanese consumers' demand for meat as a result of the BSE outbreak in the country. The axiom of revealed preference was utilised to test the stability of preferences in Japanese meat consumption. The matrix of the weak form of revealed preference (WARP) was partitioned and KruskalWallis statistics were derived to evaluate whether the preference switches found are transitory or due to a structural change. Empirical results show that Japanese meat demand is currently unstable and has undergone structural change, synchronised with the BSE outbreak in Japan in midSeptember 2001.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oxford Journals Economics & Social Sciences American J. of Agricultural Economics Volume 65, Issue 3 Pp. 493-501. The Impact of Forced Deliveries on Egyptian Agriculture 1983

1. 1. 2.

Alain de Janvry, professor of agricultural and resource economics

1.
Berkeley

University of California,

Gamal Siam, associate professor and Osman Gad, assistant professor +Author Affiliations

1.
Egypt

agricultural economics, University of Cairo,

Abstract

Received February 1, 1982. Accepted January 1, 1983.

The consequences of terminating the current system of forced deliveries of rice for domestic subsidized consumption in Egypt are analyzed with farm-level data. Under the conditions prevailing in 197981, impact on the marketed surplus would have been negligible due to the existence of free sales beyond quota. Producers would benefit marginally from liberalization, and part of the cost of consumer subsidies would be shifted to the government. The key source of financing consumer subsidies is the defense of rice exports and the continued price wedge between domestic and world prices, not the enforcement of deliveries for domestic consumption.

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The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Advance Access 10.1093/geronb/gbr159

Impacts of Suppression on Emotional Responses and Performance Outcomes: An Experience-Sampling Study in Younger and Older Workers 2012

1. 2.

Dannii Y. Yeung1 and Helene H. Fung2

+Author Affiliations

1. 2. 1.

Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Correspondence should be addressed to Dannii Y. Yeung, PhD, Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China. E-mail:dannii.yeung@cityu.edu.hk.

Abstract

Received August 11, 2010. Accepted December 12, 2011.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx Oxford Journals Social Sciences Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 69, Issue 3 Pp. 393-416. Social Trust and E-Commerce
Experimental Evidence for the Effects of Social Trust on Individuals Economic Behavior 2005

Objectives. Past studies have demonstrated that older adults used less emotional suppression to regulate their emotions than did younger adults, but the effectiveness of using this emotion regulatory strategy on psychosocial well-being across age remains largely unexplored. The present study adopted an experience-sampling method to examine whether the impacts of momentary employment of emotional suppression on momentary positive and negative emotions and job performance would be different by age. Method. Eighty-seven Chinese insurance workers, aged between 18 and 61 years, participated in a 5-day sampling study. Their affective responses at work, momentary task performance, and sales productivity were recorded. Results. Results showed that older workers greater use of suppression at work was associated with lower intensity of negative emotions, whereas such association was not found among younger workers. Moreover, greater use of suppression over the sampling period was significantly predictive of sales productivity of older workers, but such a positive association was not shown in younger workers. Discussion. These findings reveal that the use of suppression at work may be more effective for older workers than for younger workers.

1.

Diana C. Mutz

+Author Affiliations

1. 1.

DIANA C. MUTZ is the Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. This article was originally prepared for presentation to the 2003 annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research in Nashville, TN. The author is grateful to the National Science Foundation and to the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center for funding portions of this study.

Address correspondence to the author; e-mail: mutz@sas.upenn.edu.

Abstract

In this study, an experimental design embedded in a national survey is used to examine the impact of social trust on participation in e-commerce. To what extent does generalized trust in people influence economic behavior, particularly in newly established realms such as the Internet? Although some previous work has posited a role for social trust in encouraging both e-commerce and economic development more generally, evidence has been based on cross-sectional associations and, primarily, at the aggregate level of entire countries. While these relationships have been suggestive, studies have yet to confirm a causal role for social trust in influencing e-commerce. Would increasing levels of social trust actually encourage greater e-commerce participation? This study combines the representativeness of a national survey with the internal validity of an experimental design to answer this question.