Inside the black box: How important is the credit channel relative to the interest and exchange rate channels?

This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model to assess the importance of the credit channel relative to the interest and exchange rate channels. It is motivated by increasing theoretical and empirical evidence that credit market conditions affect the propagation of cyclical fluctuations in the economy. The relative contribution of each channel is determined by comparing the impulse responses when the relevant channel is suppressed with the impulse responses when all three channels are operating. The analysis shows that all three channels affect business cycle dynamics. But the interest rate channel has the largest effects in the transmission of shocks to the economy. The results suggest that it is substantially more important than the credit channel.     

Female self-perception as barrier to international careers?

It is a matter of fact that women are underrepresented in international management. In most of the articles on female expatriates, the companies' reluctance to send women abroad is usually named as first justification why female managers are rare in the international arena. The reasons cited are manifold, ranging from stereotypical views of the personnel managers to the prejudices women are expected to face abroad. Some authors tried to find additional causes such as dual career couples, cultural factors or the general lack of women in top management. However, only little has been written about the women's own fault for not being selected. Literature on gender-based stereotypes, female self-perception or traditional role models is broad. Typical issues are a perceived lack of self-confidence, stereotypical behaviour or underestimation. But a relation to expatriation is rarely found. Therefore, the aim of this article is to answer if and how women themselves contribute to their under-representation in international management.     

The Neighbourhood Policy of the European Union

The European Neighbourhood Policy aims at creating a ring of stable, friendly and democratic countries surrounding the European Union. While this aim is generally accepted across the Union, major differences persist as to how it should be achieved. Where does the ENP stand today? What is its profile, potential and perspective?     

From Theory to Practice: Policy Analysis,Cultural Bias and Organizational Arrangements

This article discusses the inter-relation between policy analysis (PA) in public policy making, cultural bias and organizational arrangements. It provides a theoretical explanation for differences of PA approaches based on adherance to various organizational contexts and political cultures and lays the ground for future research on an important but rather neglected study area.     

Decomposing trust and trustworthiness

What motivates people to trust and be trustworthy? Is trust solely “calculative,” based on the expectation of trustworthiness, and trustworthiness only reciprocity? Employing a within-subject design, we run investment and dictator game experiments in Russia, South Africa and the United States. Additionally, we measured risk preferences and expectations of return. Expectations of return account for most of the variance in trust, but unconditional kindness also matters. Variance in trustworthiness is mainly accounted for by unconditional kindness, while reciprocity plays a comparatively small role. There exists some heterogeneity in motivation but people behave surprisingly similarly in the three countries studied.     

Wage determination in the UK

This paper offers a sysnthesis of a number of important complementary theories of wage determination.The model is estimated and tested with respect to its long-run and dynamic properties.Applying johansen's(1998)FIML estimation procedure,the maximum eigenvalue and the trace tests suggested two cointegrating vectors and estimated and another the underlying theoritical model.We combined both vectors and estimated in a second step an error correction model which was satisfactory with regard to its in sample and out-of-sample performance.None of the assumptions for OLS estimation were violated and the recursive estimation revealed model stability.additionally,the forecasting ability of the model was satisfactory.The main feauture of this model is that conflict elements are of parmount in the UK wage determination.     

Cutting through the clutter: purchase intentions as a function of packaging instrumentality,aesthetics, and symbolism

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the impact of packaging in marketing, and confirms the importance of perceived instrumentality, aesthetics, and symbolism in this process. This study examined two types of packaging used by a firm that makes chilled meals. One package had a transparent cover showing the food inside and the other had an opaque wrapper showing a picture of the food. Sales for the product with the transparent cover were 30% lower than for the same product packaged in the opaque wrapper. An experimental study examined the effects of packaging on buying intentions. Supermarket shoppers (n = 100) were shown the same product in one of the two packages and answered a survey about the mediating variables: perceived instrumentality, aesthetics, and symbolism, and the dependent variable, purchase intentions. As predicted, participants expressed more interest in buying the product with the opaque packaging. In addition, the transparent packaging was perceived as more instrumental, less aesthetic, and less symbolic of quality than opaque packaging. Perceived aesthetics and symbolism, but not instrumentality, were documented to mediate this process. Analyzing packaging using the instrumentality, aesthetics, and symbolism model can help marketers and designers develop more effective packaging for various products, contexts, and consumer groups. The study views packaging as a critical marketing tool and not merely a logistic tool, and identifies one psychological mechanism that underlies the impact of packaging on purchase intentions.     

Marketplace metaphors: communicating authenticity through visual imagery

While the concept of authenticity is commonly linked to the market exchange process, it also assists in the pursuit of political, social and economic objectives. Authenticity provides a legitimating function that serves the needs of specific groups and individuals. Establishing authenticity remains culturally and contextually dependent and requires an understanding of prevailing power relationships and historical events. This is demonstrated by reference to a series of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century images of retailing and the marketplace. Using iconological interpretive techniques, the paper identifies how works of art served a propagandist role designed to influence and modify public opinion. Developments in both production and consumption led to a commodification of artistic works and afforded a means of communication that both challenged and empowered established institutions. The paper highlights the contemporary significance of these findings and suggests that modern marketing imagery may seek to authenticate sociopolitical as well as economic meaning.