What Am I Drinking? The Effects of Serving Facts Information on Alcohol Beverage Containers

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with numerous adverse health conditions and is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Unlike manufacturers of most other packaged food and beverage products, alcohol beverage producers are not required to disclose product nutrition information. This situation may soon change. On July 31, 2007, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposed a rule that will require a Serving Facts panel containing a statement that includes levels of calories, carbohydrates, fat, and alcohol content on all alcohol beverage containers. The primary purpose of this research was to test predictions and provide insight regarding consumers’ potential responses to the provision of Serving Facts information on alcohol beverage labels. Implications of the results for public policy makers and consumer welfare are offered.     

A Model of the Commercial Loan Rate

This paper explores the theoretical and empirical determinants of the commercial loan rate charged by commercial banks based on a model of financial intermediary behavior which assumes monopolistic competition in asset and liability markets. The model incorporates the constraint that banks must maintain at least a minimum quantity of bonds in asset portfolios. Equations are estimated on a time series basis to explain the behavior of commercial loan rates over the period 1953 to 1980. The evidence appears consistent with the hypothesis that commercial banks operate in a market characterized by imperfect competition and that they explicitly set loan rates.     

HOME ECONOMICS IN CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES 1978

This paper outlines the development of programmes in home economics education in Canadian Universities in this century. It also considers the work done at postgraduate level and Home Economics enrolment statistics for 1976–1977 are included. Opportunities for graduates in Home Economics in Canada are also discussed.     

Labour Market Programs and the Australian Beveridge Curve: 1978 to 1997

Labour market programs are often advocated on the basis that by re-introducing unemployed people to the culture of the workplace, they will re-skill and motivate them enough to make them suitable employees to prospective employers. Accordingly, total employment should rise and vacancy rates fall. If programs work in this manner, we should be able to detect a systematic relationship between labour market program expenditure and the distance of the Beveridge curve from the origin ceteris paribus. There are few studies in the world that have directly tried to assess the impact of labour market program expenditure on the Beveridge curve. Our estimates for Australia over the last 19 years give limited support to the view that most labour market programs nave moved the Beveridge curve inwards.     

What Consumers Don't Know Can Hurt Them: Consumer Evaluations and Disease Risk Perceptions of Restaurant Menu Items

Legislation that mandates the provision of nutrition information on restaurant meanus has been proposed in several states. This research presents findings from an experiment that investigates how the provision of nutrition information and a health claim influence consumers’ attitudes towards the product, nutrition‐related attitudes, disease risk perceptions, source credibility judgements, and nutrient value estimates for restaurant menu items. In addition, how the nutrition frame (or context) within which a menu item is evaluated moderates these effects is examined. The results indicate that providing target item nutrition information, as well as a nutritional context, affects consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, and judgments. In addition, the context interacts with the provision of both a health claim and nutrition information for the target item. The theoretical, managerial, consumer welfare, and public policy implications of our research findings are discussed.     

Trading Off Fish Health and Safety: Female Decision‐Making Processes toward the Risk of Methylmercury in Fish

This study takes a qualitative, point‐in‐time look at 26 females’ decision‐making processes toward trading off the risks of mercury and the health benefits of a seafood diet. The data revealed five different decision‐making processes, with 17 of the 26 participants indicating their fish consumption patterns did not change. Of the nine who changed their fish consumption in some way, six specifically reduced the amount of tuna they ate. Similarly, participants who were most at risk—women of childbearing age and those with young children—expressed fish consumption changes more frequently than others, especially in the amount of tuna they consumed.     

Stock Exchange Disclosure and Market Development: An Analysis of 50 International Exchanges

This study examines associations between measures of stock exchange disclosure and market development at 50 of the member stock exchanges of the World Federation of Exchanges. We focus on stock exchange disclosure systems (rather than actual company disclosures) because this approach links stock exchange policy with desired outcomes related to market development (such as liquidity, trading activity, and market size relative to gross domestic product). We find strong support for the hypothesis that the strength of the disclosure system (disclosure rules, monitoring, and enforcement) is positively associated with market development, after controlling for legal system, legal protection of investors, market size, and several other potentially relevant explanatory variables.     

Does the Progressivity of Income Taxes Matter for Human Capital and Growth?

We develop a model with heterogeneity in skills to study the effect of tax progressivity on economic growth. The probability of becoming skilled depends positively on expenses on teacher time. We consider growth resulting from an externality due to skilled workers and from their employment in research and development. We show changes in the progressivity of taxes can have growth effects even when changes in flat rate taxes have none. The response is stronger with externality‐driven growth. Progressive taxation, often suggested to reduce inequality, can increase the long‐run skill premium and decrease the upward mobility of the poor.     

Perceptions and Price: Evidence from CEO Presentations at IPO Roadshows

This paper examines the relation between cognitive perceptions of management and firm valuation. We develop a composite measure of investor perception using 30‐second content‐filtered video clips of initial public offering (IPO) roadshow presentations. We show that this measure, designed to capture viewers’ overall perceptions of a CEO, is positively associated with pricing at all stages of the IPO (proposed price, offer price, and end of first day of trading). The result is robust to controls for traditional determinants of firm value. We also show that firms with highly perceived management are more likely to be matched to high‐quality underwriters. In further exploratory analyses, we find the impact is greater for firms with more uncertain language in their written S‐1. Taken together, our results provide evidence that investors’ instinctive perceptions of management are incorporated into their assessments of firm value.     

Consumers' Use of Debit Cards: Patterns, Preferences, and Price Response

Debit card use at the point of sale has grown dramatically in recent years in the United States and now exceeds the number of credit card transactions. However, many questions remain regarding patterns of debit card use, consumer preferences when using debit, and how consumers might respond to explicit pricing of card transactions. Using a new nationally representative consumer survey, this paper describes the current use of debit cards by U.S. consumers, including how demographics affect use. In addition, consumers' stated reasons for using debit cards are used to analyze how consumers substitute between debit and other payment instruments. We also examine the relationship between household financial conditions and payment choice. Finally, we use a key variable on bank-imposed transaction fees to analyze price sensitivity of card use, and find a 12% decline in overall use in reaction to a mean 1.8% fee charged on certain debit card transactions; we believe this represents the first microeconomic evidence in the United States on price sensitivity for a card payment at the point of sale.