Keiko Aoki

Do Consumers Select Food Products Based on Carbon Dioxide Emissions

This study investigates whether consumers select foods based on the levels of carbon dioxide emissions by a real choice experiment. Respondents are asked to purchase one orange based on price and level of CO2 emissions under no monetary incentives. The willingness to pay estimate for the reduction of 1g of CO2 emissions per orange is significantly lower for the low environmentally conscious group than it is for the high environmentally conscious group.

Immunofluorescent Studies of Urinary Casts

Immunofluorescent staining of urinary casts of patients with chronic glomerulonephritis or with acute renal failure was performed. Urinary and cast Tamm-Horsfall mucoproteins were purified by a modified McQueens method. Rabbits were immunized by both of these materials to obtain antisera. The antigenic specificity of the prepared material was examined by Ouchterlony gel diffusion method and immunoelectrophoresis. Indirect and direct immunofluorescent staining methods were done using Tamm-Horsfall mucoprotein antiserum and FITC-GARG, FITC-labelled IgG, IgA, IgM, C3 and albumin. Hyaline casts of both chronic glomerulonephritis and acute renal failure demonstrated fluorescence with Tamm-Horsfall mucoprotein antiserum. The nature of the granular casts of chronic glomerulonephritis seemed to be different from those of acute renal failure because the granules of the former fluoresced for some serum protein fractions, but the latter fluoresced only for Tamm-Horsfall mucoprotein. The absence of fluorescence with epithelial casts for any serum protein fractions implied a different pathogenesis for epithelial casts as compared to granular casts, contrary to Lippmans assumption. A routine technique of immunofluorescent staining of urinary casts was developed. The interpretation of urinary casts should be more specific by this new technique.

Does the Carbon Footprint Enhance the Sustainability Food Production and Transportation Service System? Real Buying Experiment in Japan

To examine whether the carbon footprint induce the sustainability local food production and service system, this study investigate the relationship between consumers’ environmental consciousness and willingness to pay for carbon dioxide emissions on food products by using a choice experiment under the real buying experiment. The results show that consumers with higher environmental consciousness value the higher WTP for the reduction of carbon dioxides.

Do Consumers Select Food Products Based on Carbon Dioxide Emissions? Evidence from a Buying Experiment in Japan

This study investigates whether consumers select foods based on the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by using a choice experiment in the laboratory. Respondents are asked to purchase a few Satsuma mandarin oranges based on price and the levels of CO2 emissions during different stages of their life cycle of production until packing and to answer questions on environmental consciousness, knowledge, and behavior. The following results are obtained: (i) the result for the high and low groups with respect to environmental consciousness is only significant different. (ii) the willingness to pay (WTP) estimate for the reduction of 1g of CO2 emissions per Satsuma mandarin orange is significantly lower for the low environmentally conscious group than it is for the high environmentally conscious group; (iii) the choice reasons selected by the respondents indicate that the low environmentally conscious group is less likely to select foods based on their CO2 emissions, whereas the high environmentally conscious group is indifferent to both price and the levels of CO2 emissions; and (iv) socioeconomic characteristics such as gender, age, and education influence the selection of foods on the basis of CO2 emissions in the low environmentally conscious group. However, this is not the case in the high environmentally conscious group. Therefore, this study implies that regardless of consumers’ environmental knowledge and behavior, the higher their environmental consciousness, the greater their likelihood of selecting foods with lower environmental loads.

An Apology for Lying

We investigate what types of social factors affect apology behavior for a previous lie and credibility levels for that apology. We abruptly provide subjects an opportunity to send an apology message after completion of the deception game (Gneezy, 2005) and investigate the effects of three main variables: burden of guilt based on the difference of stakes to be earned from lying and those from telling the truth (large vs. small), socio-economic background (students vs. non-students), and social distance (anonymity vs. face-to-face). The results show that none of these variables affect lying behavior. Students trust their counterparts less than non-students. After the deception game, students are less likely to send the message of having told a lie than non-students, but neither the burden of guilt nor social distance affects the motivation for sending such a message. Students give lower credibility levels to the additional messages sent after the deception game than non-students. Lifting anonymity raises credibility levels. The most powerful variables to affect apology behavior and credibility levels are subjects own previous decisions: whether to lie or not and whether to trust or not. That is, liars are more likely to send the message of having told a lie or keep silent than honest subjects, and trustors grant higher credibility than non-trustors.This study investigated lying behavior and the behavior of people who are deceived by using a deception game (Gneezy, 2005) in both anonymity and face-to-face treatments. Subjects consist of students and non-students (citizens) to investigate whether lying behavior is depended on socioeconomic backgrounds. To explore how liars feel about lying, we give senders a chance to confess their behaviors to their counter partner for the guilty aversion of lying. The following results are obtained: i) a frequency of lying behavior for students is significantly higher than that for non-students at a payoff in the anonymity treatment, but that is not significantly difference between the anonymity and face-to-face treatments; ii) lying behavior is not influenced by gender; iii) a frequency of confession is higher in the face-to-face treatment than in the anonymity treatment; and iv) the receivers who are deceived are more likely to believe a sender’s message to be true in the anonymity treatment. This study implies that the existence of the partner prompts liars to confess their behavior because they may feel remorse or guilt.

An Economic Lab Experiment for the Best Offer and Approval in Face-to-Face Service Interaction Situation.

This article investigates what types of social distance affect the best offer from an employee and its approval from a customer in general service situation. We conduct the deception game (Gneezy, 2005) and investigate the effects of the social distance (face-to-face vs. anonymous interaction) in a laboratory experimental economics method. We observed increases in the rate at which employees made best offers and the rates at which customers accepted offers when face-to-face interactions were conducted. But a statistically significant difference was not observed. Also, the level of trust in others reported by the subject playing the role of the employee had a statistically significant positive effect in cases in which the employee made a best offer. It was also observed that, regardless of whether the interaction was conducted face to face or anonymously, if the subject playing the role of the customer exhibited a low level of tolerance for falsehood, he or she was less likely to accept offers.

The Value of Community for Resolving Social Isolation

This study investigates the value of belonging to community for resolving social isolation problem. To examine this purpose, we employ the choice experiment used to estimate the willingness to pay for services and conduct it in internet survey. The estimation results show that the isolation group more prefers relationship with neighborhoods to that with relative and anonymity than non-isolation group does.

Does an Information Service Provider Improve the Market

This study aims to theoretically analyze whether the information service provider improves the market efficiency. We construct a model where a good supplied by a producer has a risk to be harmful for a consumer because of an accident and it brings monetary losses to both consumers and producers. The accident risk is endogenously determined by the efforts of producers and consumers and the information of safety provided by the producers. The information service provider requires producers to provide information and certifies the credibility of information. In the equilibrium, if the entry cost for the information service provider is small, the optimal effort levels spent by the consumer and producer increase and the risk of accident decreases, which improves the market efficiency.

A Choice Experiment for Air Travel Services

Our purpose of this study is evaluating preferences for air travel services connected between the east and west central cities in Japan, Tokyo and Osaka, to consider the appropriate re-allocation design of airports in Japan. We employ a choice experiment and recruit more than 500 respondents in east and west areas in Japan and investigate their preferences. Our results are as follows. The existing airline connected west hub airport, Itami, in Osaka and east hub airport, Haneda, in Tokyo is much preferred to the other lines connected cities surrounding Osaka and Tokyo. Kobe and Kansai international airports are preferable to Itami airport, while Haneda is the much preferable to Ibaraki and Narita international airports. Increasing the mileage program and the availability of web check-in have positive significant effects but these impacts are small. These results imply that the most important factor for using air travel services is convenience for traveling by using the nearest airports. In this meaning, if the new airlines can be connected to Haneda, the government’s re-allocation plan from Itami airport to Kobe and Kansai international airports has a chance to succeed to minimize the economic efficiency loss for the people traveling between east and west areas in Japan.