Rural Retailing: Challenges to Traditional Handicrafts

ABSTRACT

The expansion of tourism into villages has provided craft traders of Kerala with significant opportunities in rural retailing. However, village artisans with limited resources fail to reach global consumers. This study aims to clarify the challenges faced by rural craft cooperatives in selecting retail channels for their products. Testing the hypotheses at two levels using primary and secondary data, the author identifies the retail channel that offers the maximum returns to producers and satisfaction to consumers. The results indicate that those cooperatives owning exclusive retail channels guarantee sustainable market relationships for rural artisans.     

Bilateral Trade Agreements*

Bilateral Trade Agreements (BTAs) have been proliferating. Why are they so popular? What are their impacts on multilateralism and the world trade system? The article identifies the general and specific factors driving the growth in BTAs, and examines how BTAs in general and different types of BTAs are affecting the world trade system. Although the sheer number of BTAs is fragmenting the world trade system, the impact of individual BTAs often depends on their underlying motivation. The article also portrays scenarios for the future landscape of world trade and possible responses. Is the consolidation of BTAs into region‐wide agreements a solution or simply a new problem? How can we multilateralise bilateralism and repair the world trade system? The article attempts to answer these questions, with or without Doha.     

An environmental marketing system – a proposed model based on Indian experience

This paper is based on a study conducted in India on venvironmental marketing practices of Indian companies. The study was set in the backdrop of a new environmental‐friendly culture in India in the early 1990s, primarily due to the complex environmental problems encountered in different parts of the country. The increased awareness and interest shown by Indian companies in respect of environmental management and marketing was evident in the sharp increase of ISO14001 certified companies in the country. However, an important question at this context was how effectively Indian companies were practicing environmental marketing for the benefit of their customers and other stakeholders. The present paper is an attempt to trace the extent and nature of environmental marketing practice in india and to propose a model for guiding the practice. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Exchange rates and prices of Australian manufactured exports

Zusammenfassung Wechselkurse und Preise australischer Industriegüterexporte.- Die Beziehung zwischen Wechselkursbewegungen und den Preisen für handelbare Güter steht im Mittelpunkt der gegenw?rtigen Debatte darüber, wie wirksam die Wechselkurspolitik für die Anpassung der Leistungsbilanz ist. Diese Beziehung ist Wechselkurs-“Durchlauf” (pass-through) genannt worden und betrifft das Ausma?, in dem die Preise handelbarer Güter auf Ver?nderungen des Wechselkurses reagieren. In diesem Artikel werden die Durchlauf-Koeffizienten für die Industriegüterexporte Australiens in den 80er Jahren gesch?tzt, und zwar disaggregiert nach den Bereichen der zweistelligen ASIC. Die Untersuchung betont die strukturellen Merkmale und den institutionellen Rahmen, in dem der Handel der einzelnen Industriezweige stattfindet.

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R é s u m é Le taux de change et les prix des exportations manufacturées australiennes.- La relation entre les fluctuations du taux de change et des prix des biens commercialisés est le point décisif dans la discussion actuelle concernant l’efficacité de la politique du taux de change en mettant l’ajustement de la balance des paiements courants. Cette relation souvent nommée transmission du taux de change se réfère au degré avec lequel les prix des biens commercialisés réagissent aux changements du taux de change. Dans cette étude l’auteur examine les coefficients de la transmission pour les exportations manufacturées australiennes dans les années 1980 au niveau du 2-digit ASIC. L’analyse met l’accent sur les caractéristiques structurelles et le cadre institutionel dans lequel le commerce des branches industrielles est exécuté.

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Resumen Tasas de cambio y precios de las exportaciones manufactureras de Australia. - La relatión entre los movimientos de la tasa de cambio y los precios de bienes transables esta en el centra del debate actual sobre la efectividad de la pol’⩼ica de cambio al ajustar el balance de cuenta corriente. Esta relatión ha sido llamada “pass-through” de tipo de cambio y se refiere al grado en el cual los precios de los bienes transables responden a movimientos de la tasa de cambio. En este trabajo se estiman los coeficientes de tipo de cambio “pass-through” para las exportaciones de productos manufactureras de Australia en los a?os 80, con una désagrégatión al nivel de dos dígitos de la ASIC. El análisis enfatiza las característícas estructurales y el entorno institutional dentro del cual se lleva a cabo el comercio en cada una de las industrias manufactureras.

     

加拿大卫生技术评估：20年的发展壮大？

在过去的40年中，加拿大的国家卫生保健制度是由公共资金支持的，无论公民的支付能力如何，均确保其通过“合理途径”获得“医疗必需”的卫生保健服务。然而与其他欧洲国家不同，加拿大的卫生保健体系在行政上是分权的，由13个独立的省和地方医疗保险计划组成。这些受共同价值（例如，公平与一致）引导并负责满足基本保险范围标准的计划决定了在行政区内如何组织、管理和提供卫生保健。     

Non-Conscious Influences on Consumer Choice

While consumer choice research has dedicated considerable research attention to aspects of choice that are deliberative and conscious, only limited attention has been paid to aspects of choice that occur outside of conscious awareness. We review relevant research that suggests that consumer choice is a mix of conscious and nonconscious influences, and argue that the degree to which nonconscious influences affect choice is much greater than many choice researchers believe. Across a series of research domains, these influences are found to include stimulus that are not consciously perceived by the consumer, nonconscious downstream effects of a consciously perceived stimuli or thought process, and decision processes that occur entirely outside of awareness.     

Audit Report Restrictions in Debt Covenants

While the debt‐contracting literature has extensively examined financial covenants, there has been little attention paid to audit‐related covenants. We focus on a covenant that restricts the borrower from receiving a going‐concern audit report (GCAR covenant). We hypothesize that a debt agreement is more likely to include a GCAR covenant as the borrower's credit quality decreases and the length of the loan period increases, and that it is more likely to impose a covenant restricting the choice of auditor when the debt includes a GCAR covenant. Also, we expect that an audit client with a GCAR covenant will be charged a higher audit fee and is more likely to receive a going‐concern audit report. We test these hypotheses on a sample of firms that issue private debt. Our results generally support our hypotheses. Our study suggests that lenders rely on the auditor's assessment in contracting, and audit‐related covenants influence auditor behavior.     

EXCHANGE RATE PASS-THROUGH

Abstract. The resilience of trade balances of the major industrialized economies to changes in their exchange rates has evoked interest in the exchange rate pass-through relationship. So far, there has not been a comprehensive survey of this literature. The paper aims to fill this gap in two ways. First, it pieces together the theoretical literature on exchange rate pass-through. Second, it provides a critical survey of the empirical literature on exchange rate pass-through. Emphasis is placed on the data and methodology employed in previous work. This is done in order to guide future work in this growing area of research.     

Two Decades of Declining Poverty but Rising Inequality in Laos

Over the past two decades consumption inequality has risen within Laos, while absolute poverty incidence has halved. The estimated Gini coefficient of private household expenditures per person rose from 0.311 to 0.364. This increase in the sample‐based estimate of inequality was statistically significant and occurred in all regions, in both rural and urban areas and among all major ethnic, educational and sectoral employment categories. Within‐group increases in inequality dominated between‐group changes. Official policy largely overlooks this point, focusing on reducing inequality between rather than within major groups. Economic inequality seems certain to become a more pressing policy concern.