Trump’s Trade Policy Agenda

President Donald Trump espouses “America First” positions which are commonly interpreted as protectionist. However, a closer reading of Donald Trump’s business interests, of his administration’s published trade agenda and of US trade negotiation history calls into question whether “America First” means protectionism. Trump will use large trade deficits to pressure trading partners to further open up their markets. Companies that are successful in exporting to the US market from those countries will be alarmed by protectionist announcements and will therefore most likely pressure their governments to give in to the demands of the Trump administration.     

Children and the Changing World of Advertising

Concerns about children's ability to fully comprehend and evaluate advertising messages has stimulated substantial research and heated debate among scholars, business leaders, consumer advocates, and public policy makers for more than three decades. During that time, some very fundamental questions about the fairness of marketing to children have been raised, yet many remain unresolved today. With the emergence of increasingly sophisticated advertising media, promotional offers and creative appeals in recent years, new issues have also developed. This paper provides a basis for further examination of some the key questions in this area, and suggests how children's advertising research can be employed to illuminate them.     

Economics at the FTC: Office Supply Retailers Redux,Healthcare Quality Efficiencies Analysis,and Litigation of an Alleged Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

We discuss in this essay three of the matters on which economists in the Bureau of Economics (BE) at the Federal Trade Commission have worked this past year. BE revisited familiar ground in the first matter, a proposed merger of office supply retailers. The second part of the essay considers efficiency claims in health care mergers, with focus on the acquisition of a physician group by a health care system in Idaho. The final part of the essay discusses empirical work that was undertaken by the Bureau to investigate claims made by marketers of an alleged get-rich-quick scheme.     

Health as a consumption object: research notes and preliminary investigation

Through the processes of commodification and marketization, materials and human activities are brought within the domain of market exchange. The results of these accelerating processes are observed in the consumer culture centred on objects of consumption. We contend that, in addition to healthcare, health itself has become yet another object incorporated within consumption space. This contention is consistent with the perspective of consumption as the dominant social paradigm in the structuring of health and healthcare practices. In this paper we present the conceptual backdrop for our contentions, together with details of a heuristic study. Our findings support the view that people regard health as a consumption object. Furthermore, the evidence suggests a patterning of responses by social grade and gender. Given our wider interest in class‐based health inequalities, we use our results to comment on the broader policy debate concerning this phenomenon in relation to consumerism.     

Sexuality and holiday choices: conversations with gay and lesbian tourists

This paper is an exploratory investigation of the travel motivations of gay and lesbian tourists. Based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, it investigates the interrelationships between sexuality, tourism behaviour and tourism spaces. Given that public space is controlled and heterosexualized, the paper suggests that whilst gay and lesbian people are motivated to travel for a range of reasons, such is the power of the dominant heterosexual milieu that their sexuality has a critical impact on their tourism choices. The need for safety, to feel comfortable with like-minded people, and to escape from heterosexism – often to specifically gay spaces – emerge as key influences on their choice of holiday.     

The influence of relative values of outside director stock options on firm strategic risk from a multiagent perspective

Prior work has examined the effects of absolute levels of outside director stock option grants on risk behavior without recognizing that relative stock option values could differentially affect risk taking. Drawing from the house money effect perspective, we extend this literature by examining how positive deviation from prior outside director option grants values influences firm strategic risk. Additionally we draw from the behavioral agency model and the power literature to develop a multiagent contingency framework suggesting the effect of positive director pay deviation depends on the incentives and power of CEOs reflected in CEO stock ownership and CEO duality, respectively. Our empirical results indicate positive pay deviation has a positive effect on firm risk taking while high ownership and duality independently and jointly weaken this base relationship. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Domestic tourists to Elmina Castle,Ghana: motivation,tourism impacts,place attachment,and satisfaction

Abstract

Current research on dark tourism lacks an in-depth investigation of the relationships between the various psychological factors that influence tourist satisfaction. Using the cognitive-affective-behavior system, this paper evaluates a theoretical model that postulates relationships between four constructs, namely: motivation, perceptions of tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction. The study extends the tourism literature on cultural sustainability by showing the psychological connections of domestic tourists to a dark heritage site, and the implications for perceptions of tourism impacts on this heritage. Based on a sample of 414 domestic tourists at a dark heritage site in Elmina, Ghana, PLS-SEM confirmed several inter-relationships among the four constructs. Motivation had a positive relationship with perceptions of positive and negative tourism impacts, suggesting that the tourists who were more motivated to visit the site for cultural/learning experiences were also more inclined to perceive both positive and negative tourism impacts. Implications for dark tourism and how heritage site management can influence tourists’ perceptions of impacts are offered.     

Attitudes toward outdoor recreation development: An application of social exchange theory

A research project was undertaken within a multi‐county region in southeastern Ohio to ascertain the attitudes of local residents toward future outdoor recreation development within the area. A systematic random sample of 1493 respondents was drawn from a five‐county region to test a theoretical perspective developed from selected components of social exchange theory. The findings demonstrated that the respondents held very favorable attitudes toward outdoor recreation development. Multivariate analysis of the data revealed that the theoretical model was basically supported. The findings are discussed from both applied and theoretical perspectives.     

Non-fatal violence-related injuries in Kingston,Jamaica: a preventable drain on resources

Using data for a one-year period from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) in Jamaica, we describe patterns of non-fatal violence-related injuries, and carry out simulation analysis to estimate rates of hospital admission under various injury reduction scenarios, and the potential savings that can be realized by reducing violent crimes. In this period there were 6107 registered violence-related visits to the KPH representing 11.5% of all recorded visits. Of these 16.6% (1001) were admitted. The most common methods of inflicting injury was by stabbing (52.1%), blunt injuries (37.9%) and gunshot wounds (7.3%). Multivariate analyses indicated that gunshot injuries, stab injuries, being male between the ages of 15 and 44 years, receiving the injury in November or December, and being injured by a stranger or unknown assailant, were significant correlates of a higher probability of admission. Simulation analysis with various injury reduction scenarios indicated decreases in the probability of admission ranging from 12% to 44%, with estimated savings of up to 31% of the annual supplies budget of KPH.