Television Advertising and Beef Demand: An Econometric Analysis of "Split-Cable" Household Panel Scanner Data

The Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 led to significant increases in the generic promotion of beef in the United States. Widely familiar television advertising campaigns. distributed throlgh national television networks, have been among the most visible outgrowths of this vigorous promotional effort. This study reports the results of econometric analysis of fresh beef consumption data for households participating in a controlled, experimental investigation of the television advertising's effects on beef demand. While factors such as price, income and household demographics are shown to be significant determinants of fresh beef purchases, the advertising campaigns apparently did not increase, and may even have decreased, the panelists' demand for beef.
La Loi américaine sur la promotion et sur la recherche sur la viande bovine (1985) a entrainé un accroissement significatif de la promotion du boeuf aux États-Unis. Des campagnes télévisées de publicité très suivies, réparties sur les grands réseaux de télévision du pays, ont été I'un des aspects les plus visibles de ces vigoureux programmes de promotion. L'étude fait rapport sur les résultats d'une analyse économétrique de la consommation de boeuf frais chez les ménages participant à une enqueCte expérimentale, controClée, sur les effets de la publicité télévisée sur la demande de boeuf. Alors que des facteurs comme le prix, les revenus et la structure des ménages se réevèlent comme des déterminants importants des achats de viande de boeuf, les campagnes publicitaires ne semblent pas avoir accrula demande chez les foyers participants; ils l'auraient meCme dans certains cas diminuée.     

Stochastic Growth and Factor Income Risk

Abstract. This paper examines the effects of aggregate factor income risk in a tractable version of the stochastic Romer endogenous growth model. Labor supply is endogenous. The presence of labor income risk unambiguously increases savings and growth due to precautionary motives. Households not only underaccumulate but also work less along the balanced growth path of the competitive economy when compared with the Pareto-efficient allocation. The paper also discusses distributive disturbances for the case of inelastic labor supply. Here, growth effects are negative for empirically plausible correlations of the underlying shocks.     

THE ROLE OF TIME‐VARYING PRICE ELASTICITIES IN ACCOUNTING FOR VOLATILITY CHANGES IN THE CRUDE OIL MARKET

There has been a systematic increase in the volatility of the real price of crude oil since 1986, followed by a decline in the volatility of oil production since the early 1990s. We explore reasons for this evolution. We show that a likely explanation of this empirical fact is that both the short‐run price elasticities of oil demand and of oil supply have declined considerably since the second half of the 1980s. This implies that small disturbances on either side of the oil market can generate large price responses without large quantity movements, which helps explain the latest run‐up and subsequent collapse in the price of oil. Our analysis suggests that the variability of oil demand and supply shocks actually has decreased in the more recent past, preventing even larger oil price fluctuations than observed in the data. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identification, screening and stereotyping in labour market discrimination

According to social-psychological research, feelings of uncertainty in decision-making evoke two opposite responses: (i) reduction of uncertainty by information search, leading to less stereotyping of people, and hence less discrimination; (ii) social identification with an ingroup, inducing more reliance on stereotypic perceptions and prejudices, and hence more discrimination against an outgroup. We integrate both responses in a microeconomic model of hiring and pay decisions by an employer. Increasing competition in the product market makes the employer feel more uncertain about his profits, but also raises the opportunity cost of screening expenditures. This elicits substitution of ingroup identification for screening expenditures, and hence enhances discrimination.     

Does travel inspire? Evidence from the superstars of modern art

This paper investigates whether travel increases the value of paintings produced by modern visual artists. The analysis is based on the 214 most prominent modern visual artists born between 1850 and 1945 and auction records of their paintings over the past 20 years. We find that artworks produced in the year of a journey are 7% more valuable than paintings produced in periods with no travel. We attribute this effect to human capital investments, knowledge spillovers and inspiration from the travel destination itself. There are persistent, but declining benefits to travel over the subsequent 4 years. The analysis shows that the impact of travel is smaller for later periods as modern art becomes more abstract. The effect on the value of paintings differs depending on the purpose of a journey: work-related, recreational and politically motivated journeys have a positive contemporaneous effect on value, whereas educational journeys have a negative effect. In addition, we find that France, Germany and the United States are the most frequently visited destinations for modern artists and also yield considerable benefits during times of strong innovation.     

Zur Wirksamkeit der Regulierung interner Kontrollsysteme – empirische Ergebnisse der Wirkung des KonTraG

Zusammenfassung Seit der Verabschiedung des KonTraG 1998 gibt es in Deutschland eine gesetzliche Vorschrift zur Erweiterung des internen Kontrollsystems um Aspekte des Risikomanagements. Die Erweiterungen der Verlautbarungen des IDW zeigen, dass damit auch ein ge?ndertes Verst?ndnis und eine intensivere Auseinandersetzung mit internen Kontrollsystemen seitens der Wirtschaftsprüfer und Unternehmen einhergehen. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht, inwieweit das KonTraG und die damit verbundene Ausweitung und Versch?rfung der Prüfungspraxis Einfluss auf Best?tigungsvermerke von Unternehmen, die nach dem HGB bilanzieren, haben. Darüber hinaus werden zus?tzliche, in der einschl?gigen Literatur best?tigte, Einflussfaktoren auf die Qualit?t von internen Kontrollsystemen sowie auf die Art der Best?tigungsvermerke als Kontrollvariablen einbezogen. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf einen positiven Effekt des KonTraG hin und zeigen mit Hilfe der Difference-in-Difference Methodologie nach der Berücksichtigung von St?rvariablen eine signifikante Zunahme von beschr?nkten Best?tigungsvermerken nach Einführung des KonTraG.

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Summary Since the issuance of KonTraG in 1998 Germany has regulatory requirements to supplement internal control systems with a risk management component. The extensions of IDW’s standards indicate also the need for an altered understanding and a more intense analysis with internal control systems by auditors and companies. This research tries to investigate to what degree the KonTraG and the related expansion and intensification of the audit affect HGB following companies’ audit opinions. Furthermore, we control for other confounding factors affecting the quality of internal control systems and internal audit opinions as indicated in prior literature. The results imply a positive effect of KonTraG and show, based on a difference-in-difference approach including potentially confounding variables, a significant increase in qualified audit opinions post-KonTraG.