A retail demand model measured the impact of the Food and Drug Administration's 2006 announcement warning consumers about E. coli O157: H7 contamination in spinach. Model results indicated that bulk lettuces were shock substitutes (in contrast to price substitutes) as consumers purchased fewer spinach products and more bulk lettuce of all types. Results also showed that consumers initially moved away from bagged salads without spinach; but consumer confidence rebounded quickly and expenditures rose. Over a period of sixty-eight weeks, retail expenditures decreased 20% for bagged spinach and 1% for bulk spinach. Retail expenditures for all leafy greens declined just 1%.

Multifactor agricultural productivity for seventy countries is calculated using a programming method. Productivity measures are divided into indices that measure technical efficiency and technical change. Agriculture in many developing countries is technically inefficient but technical change has had a greater impact on agricultural productivity. Multifactor productivity is declining in many developing countries where both agricultural output and the use of some agricultural inputs has rapidly grown. The level of education in a country and research services are factors which can explain differences in agricultural productivity growth between countries.

To analyze U.S. consumers' brand choices for cheese purchases, we derive a set of discrete-choice models from dynamic utility maximization. ACNielsen Homescan Survey data on U.S. households is used to estimate a dynamic probit model for each of the top brands for cheddar, shredded, and sliced cheese in four U.S. regions. We find that households have strong brand inertia, a result robust across alternative specifications. Predicted probabilities confirm greater inertia in the top brands and consumers are more likely to switch into them. Brand inertia is relatively larger in cheddar and sliced cheese especially in the Central and Southeast regions. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

This paper examines the causal relationship between agricultural productivity and exports for selected Asian and Latin American countries. Alternative views about the causal relationship between these variables of economic interest exist. Economic theory provides no firm basis to judge whether productivity causes exports or exports cause productivity (export‐led growth). Since this issue is empirical, econometric tests are utilised to investigate the nature of this causality. Test results are mixed although the export‐led growth hypothesis is validated in a few cases.

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