I. Allgemeine Wirstchaftslehre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Estimating Investment Rigidity within a Threshold Regression Framework: The Case of U.S. Hog Production Sector

This article addresses the issues of investment/disinvestment asymmetry and a possible existence of a sluggish regime in the demand for a quasi-fixed input in the U.S. hog production sector. Adopting a new threshold estimation procedure, quarterly data from 1970 through 2002 are used to estimate a regime-dependent investment demand equation for a quasi-fixed input, taking sows as a proxy. The results support the existence of three regimes over alternative specifications precluding the sluggish regime, confirming the existence of asset fixity in hog production. The results also highlight the importance of accounting for investment rigidity when estimating hog supply and variable input demands.     

Index of Perceived Inflation or EU Consumer Surveys?

After the euro changeover at the beginning of 2002, a marked discrepancy emerged between perceived inflation and inflation as measured by the consumer price index. To what extent are consumers still overestimating price developments even now? How reliably is this phenomenon measured by the “Index of perceived inflation” developed by Professor Brachinger? What are the findings of the consumer surveys conducted on behalf of the European Commission?

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This article represents the personal opinions of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Deutsche Bundesbank.     

Konsumentenanimosität: State of the Art und Entwicklung eines kontextsensitiven Erklärungsansatzes

Research on consumer animosity indicates that consumers reject products because they hold hostile attitudes towards the products’ country of origin. As companies operating in foreign markets are facing serious challenges, marketing research has focused on the mechanisms by which animosity influences consumer perception and behavior. The present article reviews 44 relevant empirical studies to illustrate antecedents, moderators, and behavioral consequences of the animosity effect. The analysis reveals a lack of a sound theoretical foundation and it shows that prior studies disregard social influences. To overcome this gap, the present article develops a theory-driven model which suggests that the social animosity context interacts with feelings of animosity at an individual level. Based on this new approach, directions for future research and managerial implication are discussed.     

Product differentiation in the German soft drink market: which attributes matter?

In this study, we apply a hedonic pricing model to a unique data set of the German carbonated soft drink market. We distinguish between traditional brands and private label brands and include a variety of product attributes such as flavour, sugar content and bottle size in our analysis. Our results show that most traditional brands yield highest price premiums. However, organic niche products seem to be even more profitable. Also, unconventional flavours, small bottle sizes and retailing in supermarkets lead to higher price premiums. Private label brands are associated with highest negative price premiums.     

Equity fund ownership and the cross-regional diversification of household risk

We explore the link between portfolio home bias and consumption risk sharing among Italian regions using household-level information on consumption, income and portfolio holdings. Since equity funds are typically diversified at the national or international level, we use data on equity fund ownership to proxy for regional home bias. Cross-regional patterns of equity fund ownership are qualitatively consistent with simple portfolio theory: regions with more asymmetric business cycles are more diversified because they have higher fund participation rates (the extensive margin of diversification) and higher average holdings of equity funds (diversification’s intensive margin). Also, fund holdings increase with the exposure of non-tradable income components (such as labor or entrepreneurial income) to regional shocks. Finally, interregional consumption risk sharing increases with fund holdings and this effect seems strongest when participation is widespread. Increased equity market participation could substantially improve interregional risk sharing.     

Flip a coin or vote? An experiment on the implementation and efficiency of social choice mechanisms

Experimental Economics - Corporate boards, experts panels, parliaments, cabinets, and even nations all take important decisions as a group. Selecting an efficient decision rule to aggregate...     

Material and nonmaterial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a low-income country

How have COVID-19-related restrictions affected consumption levels and life satisfaction in low-income countries? We conducted phone surveys with 577 households in Liberia to compare consumption patterns across three points in time: November 2019 (pre-COVID-19), May 2020 (short term), and September 2020 (medium term). This article analyzes the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related restrictions on food and nonfood consumption, which we categorize as “material” welfare and life satisfaction, which we categorize as “nonmaterial” welfare. We find differences between food and nonfood consumption patterns under pandemic conditions. In particular, consumption by households dependent on food and labor markets was negatively affected by the pandemic. In terms of life satisfaction, we find that most respondents perceived their lives to have worsened due to the pandemic.