The deposit-refund system analysis of professors oishi and fujioka

Abstract

Professor Fujioka analyzed the optimization behavior of consumers in a Deposit-Refund System in his paper which he published in Studies in Regional Science, vol. 29 No.3, 1998. Professor Oishi criticized Professor Fujioka's two stage maximization analysis as the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in his paper which he published in Studies in Regional Science, vol. 32 No.1, 2002. Alternatively, he proposed a well-refined model of a unified Deposit-Refund Theory. In this paper, first we provide a new model for the Deposit-Refund System Analysis. Second we conclude the new model is a specified one of the Oishi model because the two stage maximization of a representative consumer in the new one is consistent with the one stage maximization of the Oishi model with strict assumptions. Thirdly we conclude the Fujioka's is also a specified kind of the Oishi model because the Fujioka model should be identified as the new one from my point of view. Finally, we note that the two stage maximization without strict assumptions in the new model may be closely related to the half-rationality, a new concept which Professor Sakai, the President of the Japan Section of Regional Science Association International, introduces into regional scientists. © 2002, JAPAN SECTION OF THE REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL. All rights reserved.