Income Redistribution and Direct Taxes and Transfers in New Zealand

This article examines the redistributive effects of direct taxes and transfers in New Zealand. First, it reports summary measures of the income tax-and-transfer system using the NZ Household Economic Survey. Second, the article examines the characteristics of low-income NZ taxpayers. A decomposition by individual and household characteristics shows that different groups of low-income taxpayers can be affected quite differently by various aspects of the tax-and-transfer system. In particular, reforms involving tax-free zones do not appear to be well targeted to help those most in need.     

WHAT'S TO KNOW ABOUT LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION IN ECONOMICS?

Abstract Experimental economics has grown as a discipline from near non‐existence 50 years ago to a full‐fledged field within economics in the present. Much of experimental economics research involves experimental methods as a tool, applied to problems in other fields of economics. However, some of this research is inward looking, focusing on questions of the methodology of experimental economics. In this note, I briefly discuss two methodological issues in experimental economics that might benefit from meta‐analysis: the pool from which experimental participants are drawn (university undergraduate students versus other populations) and the scale of monetary incentives faced by participants (large, small or hypothetical).     

Valuation Effects of Greek Stock Dividend Distributions

This study analyses the price reaction to stock dividend distributions by firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange on both the announcement and the ex‐dividend day. It also analyses earnings per share, dividends per share and trading volume in the pre‐ and post‐announcement periods. The findings show statistically insignificant abnormal returns on both the announcement and the ex‐dividend day. The analysis does not reveal any significant change in earnings per share and dividends per share, but it does reveal a significant decline in the market‐adjusted trading volume in the post dividend period. The findings, based on a different institutional environment, expand the empirical evidence on the value effects of stock dividends.     

Constructing identities in Indian networks: Discourses of marketing management in inter-organizational relationships

This paper explores business-to-business (B2B) marketing values and knowledge systems in India and their impact on identity construction in industrial networks. Our study moves methodological approaches into more interpretive territory by acknowledging the processes of social construction in networks as articulated by the IMP Group. We bring an interdisciplinary perspective to B2B marketing studies by recognizing cultural influences on managers' constructions of Indian modernity and explore what these linguistic moves may mean for the management of buyer–seller relationships. We highlight the dexterity with which individual actors discursively position themselves, their (and other) firms and countries by drawing upon a range of interpretive repertoires in their accounts of relationship management. Our chief contribution is to conceptually synthesize some of the discursive forces at work in identity processes within Indian business networks and to empirically illustrate the inherent tensions within managers' talk as they construct individual, organizational and national identities.     

360-Grad-Kommunikation und Customer Touchpoint Management — Die Pepsi-Kampagne „I CAN be a Star“

Fragmentierte Kommunikationskan?le, sich fast t?glich wandelndes Informationsverhalten der Konsumenten und immer neue Optionen für Ansprache und Dialog mit den Konsumenten: Marken artikler stehen vor immer komplexeren Aufgabenstellungen. Wie Markenverantwortliche die Vielzahl m?glicher Kommunikationskan?le am effizientesten orchestrieren und die Customer Touchpoints am wirksamsten gestalten, um ihre Marke nachhaltig in den K?pfen der Zielgruppe zu verankern, zeigt dieses Fallbeispiel.     

Mergers, welfare, and concentration: Results from a model of stackelberg-cournot oligopoly

This paper explores the relationship between mergers, welfare, and concentration, using a two-stage oligopoly model that generalizes the Cournot and Stackelberg models. This model has been used to show that some profitable mergers raise welfare and that some welfare-lowering mergers are unprofitable. Based on this, one might conclude that policy designed to restrict mergers is unnecessary or even counterproductive. This present paper examines in greater detail the implications of this model and finds that a merger's effects depend not only on the reduction in the number of firms, but also on premerger and postmerger firm behavior. In fact, most mergers lower welfare, and many of these are profitable. Usually, but not always, changes in concentration and welfare are negatively related.     

Mind the gaps: a political economy of the multiple dimensions of China's rural–urban divide

China's impressive growth has been accompanied by high inequality and a wide rural–urban divide. This paper identifies and examines some of the major dimensions of this divide: income, consumption, education, employment, health care, pensions, access to public services, and the environment. The paper attributes the main causes of the divide to China's urban‐biased development strategies and the resulting lack of social provision of public goods in rural areas. It also highlights the severe and multidimensional constraints on the Chinese peasantry and argues that increased equality and efficiency can now be pursued simultaneously.