Benaissa Chidmi

Texas Tech University | TTU · Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics

This study explores the factors that impact residential energy usage and spending in the United States. Using data from the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), we investigate the significance of different energy consumption determinants at various analysis levels. Our analysis covers residential energy usage, electricity, natural gas...

This paper investigates the technical efficiency of cereal production in European Union (EU) countries from 2008 to 2018. The primary purpose is to estimate technical efficiency scores by country and crop and explain their variation using macroeconomic and agricultural policy variables using the stochastic frontier production function. The results...

This chapter attempts to provide an overview of estimating demand for differentiated products using the random coefficient multinomial logit model, also known as the BLP model. The chapter discusses reasons for the BLP’s superiority over traditional demand models, such as the AIDS models. It also describes recent development in the BLP-type literat...

Gasoline and crude oil price movements have been the focus of many studies in the last decade. We use the asymmetric error correction model (ERM) to examine the hypothesis of asymmetric pricing for both regular and premium gasoline markets at the US national level and in the four states with the highest gasoline consumption. Using weekly crude oil...

This paper investigates the forecasting accuracy of alternative time series models when augmented with partial least-squares (PLS) components extracted from economic data, such as Federal Reserve Economic Data, as well as Monthly Database (FRED-MD). Our results indicate that PLS components extracted from FRED-MD data reduce the forecasting error of...

Gasoline price in the United States has been characterized by extreme instability throughout the last two decades. Empirical literature commonly presumes a perfect symmetric reaction from consumers. However, there are reasons to believe that gasoline demand reductions following the price increases will not be entirely reversed by a price cut or vic...

Over the years, the US peanut butter industry has witnessed an increase in the production side and a decrease in average prices due to increased competition in this highly concentrated industry. The value shipments of peanut butter increased from $1 billion in 2002 to more than $1.7 billion in 2016. In terms of production, there is an upward trend...

A nutritional transition is occurring in Sri Lanka, which steers people away from nutrient-rich diets, contributing to diet-related disease and poor economic performance. This study examines demographic impacts on consumption of major food commodities and estimates price and expenditure elasticities for major food groups and nutrients. Data from th...

Although many industries have benefited from advances in data-driven technology, education is making small steps in capitalizing on the huge potential of data systems. Since 2005, the U.S. Federal Government has been making large grants to help states build statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) with the goal of improving programme and teacher...

Frozen seafood marketing in grocery stores in the United States (U.S.) has undergone substantial transformation as a result of the introduction of value-added and convenience products into the category. However, it is not yet clear whether consumers perceive these value-added products to be substitutes for the traditional unbreaded products. We mod...

Objective. The objective of this research is to determine if there is a bias that exists among the U.S. consumers of domestic versus foreign beer and to examine consumers’ attitude toward different product alternatives (categories) within each group.

In this article, Technical Efficiency (TE) of dairy farms is estimated and analysed with two methodologies: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Using DEA, the TE scores for different states are determined. Further, logistic regression is applied to TE scores to explain how known technical and policy variables aff...

A non-linear AIDS model was used to estimate substitution patterns across seafood categories at the US retail market level. Results indicate that demand for catfish, crawfish, clams, and salmon products is elastic, suggesting that consumers are sensitive to price changes. In contrast, demand for shrimp and tilapia, mostly imported products, is pric...

This study examines the vertical relationship between manufacturers and retailers in the ready‐to‐eat cereal (RTEC) industry in Boston. More precisely, the questions to be answered are, “What kind of vertical relationship exists between the manufacturers and the retailers?” “Does this relationship support the high price‐cost margins in the RTEC ind...

We estimate the effect of the supermarket chains promotional activities on the substitution pattern and market share of different aquaculture products. The result show negative effects of ownprice elasticities on its product’s market shares. Cross-price elasticities have small positive effects on other seafood products’ market share. Promotional ac...

In this paper, we estimate market power for supermarket chains by computing their price-cost margins for selling fluid milk. However, unlike most previous studies that assume Bertrand-Nash pricing conduct, we solve for pricing conduct, assuming a leader follower (Stackelberg) framework, and joint-profit maximization (monopoly) conduct, in addition...

An unbalanced panel data including 1,151 farm observations from 2004 to 2008 was used to analyze the determinants of technical efficiency (TE) for dairy farms in the State of Wisconsin. To account for farm heterogeneity in our analysis we implemented a two-step framework using a stochastic production frontier and a quantile regression analysis. The...

This study analyzed the impact of food safety information on food demand in urban China. The LA/AIDS model was estimated by using national province level food consumption data and quantities of articles about food safety event on public media from 2000 to 2008. The results of the study show that urban Chinese consumer food demand was influenced by...

This paper uses the results of ordinary least squares, bivariate vector autoregressive, and error correction models to estimate the hedge ratios for cotton production across different countries and to determine whether New York Cotton Exchange futures prices can serve as a hedging tool for cotton producers. Models com-parison shows that the error c...

Cotton price relationships between major cotton producers and New York cotton December future price are investigated by the regression model, the VAR model and the error-correction model, the error-correction model generates the hedge ratios that display the largest value in size in most of the cases except Australia. The results indicate that the...

In this paper technical efficiency of dairy farms is estimated using two alternative methods: data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. Both methods provided identical ranking of states based on technical efficiency (TE) scores. Further, logistic regression is applied to TE scores to explain how known technical and policy variable...

Despite much research on feed grains and oilseeds little is known about the dairy industry's influence on aggregate cottonseed demand. A transcendental logarithmic production model with regional dummy variables is used to estimate the US dairy industry's derived demand for cottonseed meal, corn, alfalfa hay and other grains. Own-price and cross-pri...

The Seattle-Tacoma consumers have been paying higher prices for fresh milk than consumers in other Western states of United States. For instance, the retail price for whole milk averaged $3.27/gallon during the period of April 1999- April 2003 in Seattle-Tacoma, while it did not go beyond $2.86/gallon in most of the large metropolitan areas in West...

The Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995) market equilibrium model is extended to the supermarket chain level to examine consumer choices and retail competition for thirty-seven brands of breakfast cereals in Boston. Estimated taste parameters for product characteristics vary significantly across consumers. Although consumers are price-sensitive with...

The increasing importance of services in industrialized economies is reflected in the relative importance of service in product offerings at the retail level. Yet, typical economic studies account only for physical product attributes in models of product differentiation even when conducted with retail data. In U.S. food retailing, the issue is very...

This paper estimates the effect of the price war on the fluid milk demand in the Dallas-Fort Worth market and assesses the supermarket pricing conduct through estimating the price-cost margins of the retailers in selling fluid milk, and how these margins vary with the price war. The findings that supermarket chains in Dallas-Fort Worth market exerc...

This study analyses the stochastic behavior of price-cost margins (PCMs) in the U.S. meat industry. It, first, develops and estimates a vertical relationship economic model to derive PCMs in the U.S. meat industry (Beef, Pork, and Poultry). Second it analyzes the behavior of PCMs by decomposing them into their seasonal, cyclical, and trend componen...

The material contained herein is supplementary to the article named in the title and published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, May 2007, Volume 89, Issue 2.

In this study, a discrete choice random coefficients brand level demand model for ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) is estimated at the supermarket chain level in the Boston area. The retail format of the supermarket chains is modeled as part of the brand characteristics, implying that consumers take into account the supermarket chain characteristics wh...

This paper applies the BLP approach to the demand for ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) at the supermarket-chain level in Boston using IRI monthly data. The Random Coefficient Model is used to estimate the demand for 37 brands of RTECs at the leading supermarkets in the Boston area. The empirical results provide a wealth of consumer behavior information...

In this paper we estimate a discrete choice demand model with random coefficients for 37 brands of ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) at the supermarket chain level in the Boston area. Then assuming a manufacturer Stacklberg model for vertical pricing, we decompose the market channel price-cost margins (PCMs) for individual brands at four supermarket cha...

This paper assesses the impacts of the Northeast Dairy Compact (NEDC) and retail oligopoly power on fluid milk prices in Boston. Empirical results reveal that price increases due to oligopoly power outweighed those caused by the NEDC by nearly seven times. In fact, markups are estimated at approximately 25% of the retail milk price, translating int...

The introduction of new products to US supermarket chains represents a strategic area of business conduct with significant economic implications for agribusiness companies, food manufacturers and retailers, and consumers. Development of new products by manufacturers and their subsequent evaluation by retailers absorbs enormous resources in the groc...

This paper assesses the independent and joint impacts of oligopoly power of market intermediaries and the Northeast Dairy Compact (NEDC) on fluid milk prices in Boston. Empirical results reveal that price increases due to oligopoly power far outweighed those caused by the NEDC by more than 10 times. In fact, markups are estimated at approximately 3...

Copyright 2010 by Lyford, Belasco, Chidmi, and Funtanilla. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

This research extends past work by Shonkwiler and Yen (1999) by allowing for distributional flexibility and nonlinear responses in the form of established semiparametric and nonparametric regressions. The proposed models are shown to outperform the parametric version typically used in demand analysis to characterize a system of censored equations i...

This study analyzes the determinants of TE among traditional dairy farms in the State of Wisconsin taking into account dairy farms’ heterogeneity. To do so, we first estimate a production frontier and the level of TE using the SPF framework. Then we analyze the determinants of TI using a quantile regression analysis. The results indicate that the d...

This article extends the Berry, Levinsohn, Pakes (1995) model to include retail services by Boston supermarkets in an equilibrium model of breakfast cereals and then tests alternative vertical pricing games between manufacturers and supermarkets to ascertain who’s got the pricing power. Empirical results show that retail services play a significant...

In this paper we estimate a discrete choice demand model with random coefficients for 37 brands of ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) at the supermarket chain level in the Boston area. Then assuming a manufacturer Stacklberg model for vertical pricing, we decompose the market channel price-cost margins (PCMs) for individual brands at four supermarket cha...

Despite much research on feed grains and oilseeds little is known about the US dairy industry's influence on aggregate cottonseed demand. A transcendental logarithmic production model with regional dummy variables is used to estimate the US dairy industry's derived demand for cottonseed meal, corn, alfalfa hay and other grains. Own-price and cross-...

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Connecticut, 2003. Includes bibliographical references.