How Online Product Reviews Affect Retail Sales: A Meta-analysis

A growing body of research has emerged on online product reviews and their ability to elicit performance outcomes desired by retailers; yet, a common understanding of the performance implications of online product reviews has eluded us. Scholars continue to navigate an array of studies assessing different design elements of online product reviews, and various research settings and data sources. We undertake a meta-analysis of 26 empirical studies yielding 443 sales elasticities to examine how these variables relate to retail sales. Building on well-established meta-analytical methods, we address the following questions: How does review valence influence the elasticity of retailer sales? What about review volume? For which product types and usage situations do online product reviews have a greater impact on retailer sales elasticity? Which types of online reviewers and websites exert the greatest influence on retailer sales elasticity? Our study answers these important questions and provides a much needed quantitative synthesis of this burgeoning stream of research.     

Naturally designed for masculinity vs. femininity? Prenatal testosterone predicts male consumers' choices of gender-imaged products

In this paper, we find that a proxy of prenatal testosterone exposure (i.e., digit ratio) is a significant predictor of preferences for products that differ in perceived masculinity vs. femininity. A more masculine (feminine) digit ratio predicts choice of products that have an increasingly masculine (feminine) image. This relationship is statistically significant for male consumers, but not for females.     

民族自治地区三公经费公开问题研究

针对民族自治地区这一特殊行政区域,指出“三公经费”公开目前存在公开意识不足、公开内容简单、真实性偏低、公开渠道受限及反馈性不足等问题。提出了应从思想意识上深入开展群众性教育、规范三公经费公开内容,严格要求随表附上说明、严格监督、建设多渠道公开平台并建立交流反馈机制等完善思路。     

劳动力流动与中国农村居民消费结构——基于LAIDS模型的实证研究

使用1992~2011年的时间序列数据,采用线性几乎理想需求系统模型(LAIDS),重点检验了劳动力流动对农村居民消费结构的影响。研究发现,劳动力流动会使衣着、文教娱乐及服务、医疗消费有所增加,会减少食品、居住消费,对家用几乎没有影响。为此,应增加工资性收入,完善劳动力流动政策和供给结构。     

经济发展方式转变下扩大我国消费对策研究

本文首先分析了改革开放以来我国消费率的变动趋势,然后对制约我国消费增长的因素进行剖析,最后提出要从供给和需求两方面来扩大我国消费,更重要的是转变经济增长方式和进行结构调整,着力培育促进消费持续增长的长期机制.     

人民银行金融消费权益保护监督检查机制研究

作为国家的中央银行,人民银行承担着维护金融稳定的职责,加强金融消费权益保护是维护金融稳定的重要环节.2012年成立金融消费权益保护局以来,人民银行已初步完成了金融消费权益保护工作的组织构架、法律制度框架和投诉处理机制建设.随着金融消费权益保护工作的深入推进,必须建立金融消费权益保护工作评估体系和监督检查机制.本文结合我国当前监管现状,借鉴国外先进经验,提出构建人民银行金融消费权益保护监督检查机制的建议,以供参考.     

互联网金融发展及对我国居民金融理财行为影响——柳州视角

当前互联网金融的迅速发展正在改变着整个金融生态,也在不断影响并改变着居民的理财行为.本文简要介绍互联网金融的含义,并总结当前互联网金融发展的特点,根据随机调查结果,分析了互联网金融对我国居民金融理财行为的影响.由于互联网金融并未被全民接受,相关政府监管部门应加强宣传,明确职责,完善监管体制,发挥互联网金融对经济金融发展的积极作用.     

PPP模式在城乡居民医保一体化建设中的应用——以湛江为例

在基本公共服务均等化的大背景下,湛江市引入PPP模式,在城乡居民医保一体化建设中取得了显著成效。通过对湛江经验的分析,文章认为,确立政府的主导地位,在此基础上积极发挥市场的作用,构建多元主体的公私合作伙伴关系,实现经济效益和社会效益的统一,是适应市场经济发展要求,构建城乡一体化医疗保障制度的必然选择。     

Buying a Home with a Resale Value: Location,Location, Location*

We develop a dynamic multiregion model, where a household's choice of housing location depends on its current wealth and its current type, and involves both consumption and investment considerations. The relative strength of the consumption motive and the investment motive determines the equilibrium pattern of residential sorting. A strong investment (consumption) motive implies sorting according to household type (wealth). The model predicts that large house‐price fluctuations are associated with a low degree of sorting by type. This prediction is consistent with evidence from US metropolitan areas when income, education, and age are used as proxies for household type.     

Checkmating the Consumer: Passive Consumption and the Economic Devaluation of Culture

Early neoclassical economics embodied a gendered symbolic system that devalued consumption and enabled economists to ignore a basic contradiction underlying their treatment of consumption. According to consumer-sovereignty dogma, the consumer determined which firms would survive by actively pursuing maximum individual utility. While this consumer retained the culturally masculine attributes of initiative and agency, consumption itself was devalued because, from a systemic point of view, it is not important which firms survive. At the macro level, consumption was marginalized through Say's law, which holds that excessive acquisition of commodities for consumption is potentially dangerous, because saving and investment drive the economy. The rise of mass consumption and Keynesian macroeconomics threw into question the cultural gendering of consumption – which had acquired feminine attributes like passivity and frivolity – and rendered the neoclassical devaluing of it increasingly untenable. The postwar, neoclassical synthesis and subsequent developments have reinstated the pre-Keynesian gendering of consumption and devaluation of culture.