Creativity and/or Alertness: A Reconsideration of the Schumpeterian Entrepreneur

The Review of Austrian Economics -     

Duopoly pricing and waiting lines

The paper deals with a model of duopoly pricing in the context of firms providing services to consumers. Each of the firms has a waiting line of customers arriving randomly. The service provided by both firms is identical and the service time of both firms is assumed to obey the same distribution. Different consumers have different time costs and have to decide whether or not to join one of the lines. It is shown that the Cournot-Nash equilibrium is such that the two firms charge in general different prices. One of the firms specializes in servicing individuals with high cost of time (and the other the rest). Moreover, some examples of non-existence of Cournot-Nash equilibrium and permanent oscillations of prices are shown.     

TRUCKING DEREGULATION AND MOTOR-CARRIER PERFORMANCE: THE SHAREHOLDERS' PERSPECTIVE

This paper utilizes an event study methodology to investigate the effects of deregulation on carriers' shareholders. This methodology compares the expected returns during a time period surrounding a particular event with actual returns during the same time period. These differences are referred to as prediction errors. The study investigates the prediction errors associated with individual trucking firms, as well as those associated with groups composed of regional carriers, national carriers, and the aggregate sample of firms used in the study. The results suggest that the passage of the Motor Carrier Reform Act on July 1, 1980, halted a serious 18-month downward trend in the aggregate sample's cumulative prediction error. Nearly all firms showed significant gains in the 18 months subsequent to deregulation. Using two control groups, the authors show that a large portion of this gain from the industry sample can be explained by lower and more stable fuel prices and a sharp upturn in the economy. The results also indicate that due to deregulation, the large regional trucking firms were able to outperform the small regional firms and the national firms in the more favorable economic environment present after deregulation.     

Census of population and housing, 1983. Households,marriage, couples,fertility: selected data

Results from the 1983 census of Israel are presented concerning households, marriage, married couples, and fertility. Data on households are based on the complete enumeration; the remaining data concern a 20 percent sample of households. Information is included on households by number of persons in household; sex, religion, and age of head of household; type of household; age at first marriage; age differences between husband and wife; and family size. Selected data are reported for Jews by continent of origin, and for non-Jews by religion.     

The impact of (un)conventional expansionary monetary policy on income inequality – lessons from Japan

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the impact of conventional and unconventional monetary policy on income inequality in Japan, using hitherto unexplored data from the Japan Household Panel Survey. Empirical evidence shows that expansionary monetary policy in Japan has contributed to diminishing the gender pay gap through an increase in working time of women relative to men, but also to increasing the education pay gap. These effects may have materialized via the aggregate demand channel and the labour productivity channel. In contrast, expansionary monetary policy has had no significant impact on the development of the age pay gap.     

How Significant Is Sub‐Saharan Africa's Demographic Dividend for Its Future Growth and Poverty Reduction?

Sub‐Saharan Africa will be undergoing substantial demographic changes over the next 15 years with the rising working‐age share of its population. The opportunity of African countries to convert these changes into demographic dividends for growth and poverty reduction will depend on several factors. The outlook will likely be good if African countries can continue the gains already made under better institutions and policies, particularly those affecting the productivity of labor, such as educational outcomes. If African countries can continue to build on the hard‐won development gains, the demographic dividend could account for 11–15% of gross domestic product (GDP) volume growth by 2030, while accounting for 40–60 million fewer poor in 2030. The gains can become more substantial with better educational outcomes that allow African countries to catch up to other developing countries. If the skill share of Africa's labor supply doubles because of improvements in educational attainment, from 25 to about 50% between 2011 and 2030, then the demographic dividends can expand the regional economy additionally by 22% by 2030 relative to the base case and reduce poverty by an additional 51 million people.     

Revisiting Country Image – Examining the Determinants towards Consumers' Purchase Intention of High Technological Products

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' perceptions towards a developed country image (e.g. USA) and a developing country image (e.g. China) in relation to evaluating and buying high technological products, more specifically, smartphones. In addition, the research also examines the effects of consumer aspirations and product knowledge as consumption traits towards buying behavior. A self-administered questionnaire was employed for this study using established scales with the questions formulated around two countries, USA and China. It was administered through a mall intercept method and a particular focus will be associated to the comparison of China and USA. The stark contrast between the two countries in terms of their image and stature presents an insightful inquiry into the relevancy of country image and country of origin image importance in modern day context. The results show that country image as an evaluation cue is still pertinent in a generation where globalization is present. Results further highlights that although possessing a positive country image leads to a positive evaluation of the product country image, it however does not ensure a successful purchasing intent. Additionally, it is beneficial to note that the results for both USA/IPhone and China/Xiaomi showed a significantly greater path coefficient as compared to other causal paths. Potential moderating factors such as product involvement or pricing can also be explored. Future research should attempt to account for socio economic or demographic factors such as important controls for education, social status and income that are bound to impact on the relationships at the heart of the proposed research hypotheses.     

The role of shorting,firm size,and time on market anomalies

We examine the role of shorting, firm size, and time on the profitability of size, value, and momentum strategies. We find that long positions make up almost all of size, 60% of value, and half of momentum profits. Shorting becomes less important for momentum and more important for value as firm size decreases. The value premium decreases with firm size and is weak among the largest stocks. Momentum profits, however, exhibit no reliable relation with size. These effects are robust over 86 years of US equity data and almost 40 years of data across four international equity markets and five asset classes. Variation over time and across markets of these effects is consistent with random chance. We find little evidence that size, value, and momentum returns are significantly affected by changes in trading costs or institutional and hedge fund ownership over time.     

Consumers' Attitudes Towards Intermission Time Utilization In Movie Theatres

This article discusses the issue of cinema screen commercials and suggests that it should be considered within the context of movie theatre intermission time utilization, where the other alternatives are short, commercially sponsored films or illuminated theatres. A two-stage attitudinal survey of movie goers shows that the majority prefer to have something on the screen during intermission time. Respondents expressed negative attitudes towards cinema screen commercials, resulting in short, commercially sponsored films being the most preferred alternative. Negative attitudes do not imply agreement with the banning of commercials, nor a willingness to share its costs. The relative ranking of illuminated theatres over cinema screen commercials changed after respondents were exposed to the economic implications of their choice.     

Optimal expenditure patterns for risky R&D projects with time-dependent returns

The basic Lucas model for risky R&D projects is revisited. New solutions for optimal expenditures are explored by exploiting the merits of the theory of differential equations. After applying the calculus of variations, a nonlinear differential equation is presented whose solution provides the optimal control for a constant conditional-completion density function and different time-dependent return models. New, exact, and approximate solutions are presented and discussed. It is found, for the class of risky R&D projects under study, that the behavior over time of the optimal expenditure is functionally similar to that of the expected return.