Investigation of factors affecting the diffusion of mobile telephone services: An empirical analysis for Vietnam

This paper analyzes the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services in Vietnam and examines how telecommunications regulation and potential substitute/complement services affect the growth of the number of mobile telephone subscribers. Using a logistic diffusion model, it is found that fixed telephone services are a complement while data services have a negative relation to mobile telephone services in Vietnam. As for regulation, the policy of introducing competition has been found to be the most effective in influencing the adoption of mobile services. Another important result is that the estimated potential market is roughly 76% of the total population. The findings suggest that suitable regulation that guarantees competition in the mobile telecommunications market in a developing country such as Vietnam is one of the most important factors for a positive diffusion process.     

The effect of expertise on consumers' satisfaction with the use of interactive recommendation agents

Based on cost‐benefit theory and the value‐percept diversity model, this study investigates the underlying mechanism that makes consumers feel satisfied with the use of interactive recommendation agents (IRAs). The format of IRAs was manipulated experimentally (attribute‐based format/benefit‐based format/no agent) and participants were classified as either expert or novice consumers. The dependent measures were the perceived costs and benefits of the information search process, the perceived costs and benefits of the decision‐making process, and the degree of satisfaction with the outcome. The results explain the mechanisms underlying consumers' satisfaction when using an IRA. The findings also suggest the presence of an interaction between the expertise of consumers and the preferred type of IRA on various dependent variables. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Affluent mature consumers: Preference and patronisation for financial services

Mature consumers have long been recognised as an important segment of market that no marketers of financial-service providers could ignore. The segment itself, however, is not homogeneous. Our study further segments the market basing on income and contrasts the differences between upscale mature consumers and lower scale ones in terms of their preference and patronisation for financial services. The study based on two large-scale studies designed to generate information that would fill gaps in our existing knowledge about upscale older consumers. Implications are discussed for marketers of financial services to fine-tune their differentiation strategies.     

STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE UK FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRIES

This paper analyses the structural characteristics of the food and drink industries and assesses their recent economic performance. Although classified among the less technologically intensive group of British manufacturing industries, the food and drink industries are found to share many of the features of the more technologically intensive group, such as product differentiation, product diversification and advertising intensity. They are also found to have achieved above-average growth in labour and total factor productivity through expansion in size, capital accumulation and shedding of labour.     

Trade Gains, Paretian Transfer and the Tragedy of the Commons

Consider trade liberalization between two countries, each of which produces two private goods and provides on a voluntary basis one public good (the common). In these circumstances, what are the consequences of trade liberalization on the production of the public good and on welfare in both countries? Using a Ricardian framework, we first show that the opening of trade increases the opportunity cost of producing the public good in both countries and will therefore reduce the aggregate supply of the public good. On the other hand, at the autarky equilibrium, only one country supplies the public good, the other “free rides”. The analysis of the welfare incidence of the opening of trade then reveals that the country which provides the public good under autarky always enjoys a welfare gain from trade while the free rider under autarky does not unless the terms of trade are sufficiently in its favour to compensate for the reduction in the supply of the common. Finally, if all countries involved in trade liberalization can without cost coordinate their supplies of the common, then the implementation of the first-best outcome is shown to be possible with a conditional Paretian transfer scheme.     

Modeling technical progress and total factor productivity: A plant level example

Shifts in the production frontier occur because of changes in technology. A model of how a firm learns to use the new technology, or how it adapts from the first production frontier to the second, is suggested. Two different adaptation paths are embodied in a translog cost function and its attendant cost share equations. The paths are the traditional linear time trend and a learning curve. The model is estimated using establishment level data from a non-regulated industry that underwent a technological shift in the time period covered by the data. The learning curve resulted in more plausible estimates of technical progress and total factor productivity growth patterns. A significant finding is that, at the establishment level, all inputs appear to be substitutes.This paper was processed by N.R. Adam.     

Analysis of the technical efficiency of state rubber farms in Vietnam

This study entails an analysis of the technical efficiency of natural rubber production by state farms in Vietnam. A time-varying stochastic frontier production function model for unbalanced data is estimated for 33 farms. Individual farm technical efficiencies are reported and discussed. One of the main results concerns the bimodal distribution of technical efficiency indices. A few farms operate near the production frontier while the bulk operate well away from the frontier. Some implications are drawn from the results as a guide to future policy research work in the rubber industry in light of recent moves by the Vietnamese government towards economic reform.     

Pricing foreign equity options under Lévy processes

This article investigates the valuation of a foreign equity option whose value depends on the exchange rate and foreign equity prices. Assuming that these underlying price processes are correlated and driven by a multidimensional Lèvy process, a method suitable for solving the complex valuation problem is developed. First, to reduce the number of dimensions of the problem, the probability measure is changed to embed some dimensions of the Lèvy process into the pricing measure. Second, to simplify the integral complexity of the discounted terminal payoff, the valuation problem is transformed to Fourier space. The main contribution of this study is that by combining these two methods, the multivariate valuation problem is significantly simplified, and very accurate results are obtained relatively quickly. This powerful method can also be applied to other multivariate pricing problems involving Lèvy processes. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 25:917–944, 2005     

THE ESTIMATED EFFECT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLING ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES USING PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING

This paper examines the effect of attending a Catholic high school on educational outcomes. The statistical analysis is based on data obtained from the US National Educational Longitudinal Study. Using propensity score matching methods to control for selection bias, we find that Catholic schooling improves maths test scores, with stronger effects for males than for females, but appears to have little effect (if any) on reading scores. Catholic schooling also raises high school graduation rates and substantially increases the likelihood of enrolment in a 4‐year college. Use of the difference‐in‐difference method suggests that the effect of Catholic schooling on changes in maths scores is more muted, though still statistically significant.