Retailing in the 21st century: reflections and prologue to research

Retailing in the 21st century will no doubt be very different from retailing in the 20th century, just as retailing in the 20th century was very different from retailing in the 19th century. To understand and explain current retailing phenomena and retailing-related phenomena, and accurately predict such phenomena, it is necessary to have a coherent and consistent definition of retailing as well as comprehensive retailing theories based on this definition. This introduction to the special issue argues for such a definition and related comprehensive theories.     

Arbitrage pricing with information

The Arbitrage Pricing Theory is extended to a setting where investors possess information about future asset returns. A no-arbitrage pricing restriction is obtained with arbitrage conditioned on an investor's information. The pricing restriction contains unconditional factor loadings and either conditional or unconditional expected returns. Thus, tests of the theory can be based solely on time-series estimates of unconditional moments. Additional tests based on conditional expected returns are also appropriate.     

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Today the land economists of yore have either gone to their reward or else been transmuted into resource economists who, with a few exceptions, spend their time in airy disputations about externalities, shadow prices and the choice of appropriate discount rates to be applied to future benefits (Campbell 1982, p. 9).