William F. Hahn

Elasticities in AIDS Models: Comment

Green and Alston have written two articles (1990, 1991) for the Journal on the correct method of calculating elasticities for the Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS). Their articles are a departure from the typical approach to the LA/AIDS. The LA/ AIDS is generally used to estimate the parameters of Deaton and Muellbauers Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS). The elasticity formulae for the AIDS are known; Green and Alstons formulae are relevant only if the LA/AIDS is treated as a system in its own right. Such a treatment has merit. However, after checking the implications of treating the LA/AIDS as a system in its own right, we discover that the LA/AIDS itself lacks merit.

Comparing Two Sources of Retail Meat Price Data

The livestock industry uses information on meat prices at different stages in the marketing system to make production decisions. When grocery stores began using electronic scanners to capture prices paid for meat, it was assumed that the livestock industry could capitalize on having these point-of-sale data available as a measure of the value of its products. This report compares scanner price data with publicly available data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of the two data types, scanner data provide more information about retail meat markets, including a wider variety of meat-cut prices, multiple measures of an average price, the volume of sales, and the relative importance of discounted prices. The scanner data sample, however, is not statistically drawn, and complicated processing requirements delay its release, which makes scanner data less useful than BLS data for analyzing current market conditions.

Economic and demographic factors affecting US demand for lunch meats

Abstract Consumer demand analyses of meats have seldom included processed meats, particularly lunch meats. In this study, we examine retail lunch meat data from Nielsen 2006 Homescan. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of retail prices, expenditure, and demographic variables on eight lunch meat products. A censored AIDS model is used to estimate the demand for lunch meat products. Results reveal that own-price elasticities are elastic for all lunch meat categories. The expenditure elasticities are elastic for four lunch meat products and inelastic for the remaining products and demographic variables have statistically significant impacts on lunch meat purchases.