Who is Looking for Nutritional Food Labels?: Wer sucht nach Nährwertangaben auf Lebensmitteln?: Mais qui donc s'occupe du contenu nutritionnel sur les étiquettes?

Who is Looking for Nutritional Food Labels? Obesity amongst the population in Europe is increasing at an alarming rate. Consequently, nutritional and lifestyle factors are implicated in the huge increase in several chronic diseases in Europe. The Southern Europeans tend to be amongst the worst, mth Greece being first in adult obesity mainly due to the replacement of the Mediterranean diet with ready‐made and fast foods. People want to see change towards an environment that makes it easier to make healthy choices. The EU, in order to assist consumers make healthy food choices, tried to make nutritional information available to consumers through a food labelling law framework, which currently works on a voluntary basis with the perspective to change towards a mandatory system. We conducted a study in Greece in order to assess consumer use of nutritional food labels and determine which consumers use certain types of nutrient content information. We found that almost a third of consumers often use food labels and these are the more educated, who are more nutritionally knowledgeable. Many others do not, and to increase their chances of reading the labels one should improve their knowledge of nutrition havlng in mind that they are not big users of the media but get their information from informd sources. Mais qui donc s'occupe du contenu nutritionnel sur les etiquettes? La prevalence de I'obesitk augmente a un t a u toujours plus preoccupant en Europe. Les facteurs nutritionnels et les styles de vie sont par consequent impliquks dans l'Cnorme accroissement constati: de diverses pathologies chroniques. La situation est specialement mauvaise en Europe du sud, ou la Grece detient le record du taux d'obesite dans la population adulte, en particulier du fait du remplacement du fameux ‘regime mediterraneen’ par les plats prepares et la restauration rapide. Les gens souhaitent un environnement susceptible de leur faciliter le choix d'une alimentation saine. C'est pour cela que l'Union europkenne a tente de mettre des informations nutritionnelles a la disposition des consommateurs, en instituant un cadre legal pour l'etiquetage alimentaire Il fonctionne actuellement sur la base du volontariat, mais il a pour vocation d'evoluer vers un systeme obligatoire. Il est rendu compte ici d'une enquOte effectuee en Grkce pour determiner quels types de consommateurs utilisent quels genres dindications de contenu nutritionnel portees sur les etiquettes alimentaires, et dans quelle mesure. Environ un tiers des consommateurs utilisent souvent les contenus nutritionnels. Ce sont les plus eduques et les mieux informks. La plupart des autres negligent les etiquettes. Pour accroitre les chances que ces dernieres soient lues, il faudrait donc arneliorer les connaissances nutritionnelles, en gardant a l'esprit que les personnes concernkes utilisent peu les mkdias et tirent leurs informations de sources informelles. Wer sucht nach Nährwertangaben auf Die Fettleibigkeit in der europaischen Bevolkerung nimmt alarmierend schnell zu. Folglich spiegeln sich Ernahrung und Lebensstil in dem hohen Anstieg zahlreicher chronischer Erkrankungen in Europa wider. Fur die Sudeuropaer ergeben sich einige der schlechtesten Werte, wobei in Griechenland die Erwachsenenfettleibigkeit am ausgepriigtesten ist. Dies liegt hauptsachlich daran, dass die mediterrane Erniihrung von Fertiggerichten und Fast‐Food abgelost wurde. Die Bevolkerung wiinscht sich eine Veriinderung hin zu einer Umgebung, die sie darin unterstutzt, der Gesundheit zutr;dgliche Entscheidungen zu treffen. Die EU wollte den Verbrauchern gesundheitlich relevante Informationen durch eine Kennzeichnung der Inhaltsstoffe der Lebensmittel verschaffen. Dieses System sieht gegenwartig lediglich eine freiwillige Kennzeichnung vor, ist aber als obligatorisch geplant. Wir fiihrten in Griechenland eine Studie durch, um zu beurteilen, inwiefern Nahrwertangaben auf Lebensmitteln den Verbrauchern nutzen, und um festzustellen, welche Verbraucher auf bestimmte Nahrwertangaben achten. Wir fanden heraus, dass beinahe ein Drittel aller Verbraucher auf die Lebensmittelkennzeich nung achten. Diese Verbraucher verfiigen uber eine hohere Bildung und kennen sich in Erniihrungsfragen relativ gut aus. Ein großer Anted der Verbraucher verfiigt uber keinerlei gesundheitliche Grundkenntnisse; um diesen Verbrauchern das Lesen der Etiketten zu ermoglichen, sollte man ihre Kenntnisse in Sachen Ernahrung verbessern und sich dabei vor Augen fiihren, dass diese Verbraucher die Medien nicht allzu intensiv nutzen, sondern ihre Informationen aus informellen Quellen beziehen.     

Boosting confidence: Is there a role for fiscal policy?

This paper investigates the widely held view that expansionary fiscal policy can boost consumer and business confidence, which will stimulate private spending and sustain economic activity. We find evidence in favor of this conjecture, i.e., cuts in direct taxes generate a positive effect on consumer and business confidence, while the same applies in cases of higher non-wage government consumption. However, higher government wage bills and government investment reduce confidence, with the effect being more pronounced when the Debt to GDP ratio is high, possibly because they entail a permanent increase in the size of the public sector, which would have to be financed by higher future taxes.     

A Consistent Econometric Test for Bid Interdependence in Repeated Second-Price Auctions with Posted Prices

In repeated second-price experimental auctions, the winning bid is normally posted after each round. The posting of these winning prices after each round can result in bids submitted in later rounds to be interdependent with posted prices from earlier rounds. Several approaches in the past have tried to scrutinize their experimental data for value interdependence by regressing bids on lagged market prices or lagged bids and ignoring the inherent endogeneity problem. This paper introduces a formal test for bid interdependence in repeated second-price auctions with posted prices using a dynamic panel model. We then apply this test to formally check the presence of bid interdependence in three datasets used in previous studies.     

A Comparative Simulation Study of Wavelet Shrinkage Estimators for Poisson Counts

Using computer simulations, the finite sample performance of a number of classical and Bayesian wavelet shrinkage estimators for Poisson counts is examined. For the purpose of comparison, a variety of intensity functions, background intensity levels, sample sizes, primary resolution levels, wavelet filters and performance criteria are employed. A demonstration is given of the use of some of the estimators to analyse a data set arising in high-energy astrophysics. Following the philosophy of reproducible research, the M atlab programs and real-life data example used in this study are made freely available.     

Triangulation Approach to Costing in Higher Education Institutions

This study presents a triangulation approach to the investigation of costing possibilities in Greek higher education institutions. The historical data contained in the financial statements of universities provide the expenditures of the latter. These expenditures are then re-determined with the use of independent variables （Jacobian determinants）, as well as with activity-based costing （ABC） and interviews, in order to obtain certainty of accuracy of the calculations and an indication of the cost of educational services, which can help determine magnitudes and improve the long-term planning of university resources. The above process can be used to create cost drivers and cost pools for the new financial burden of academic departments （cost centres） and to calculate the cost per student for each department. This information does not function at variance with or as a substitute for traditional accounting systems but in parallel （or supplementally）, providing administrators with more comparative data and a clearer picture of a university＇s economic operations which will facilitate its decision planning. Thus, it can provide higher education institutions with a decision-making tool for the following tasks： （1） allocation of national and community funds to university departments; （2） financing of textbooks, food, and accommodation; and （3） determining the optimum number of new enrolments.     

The effect of extrinsic rewards on public and private sector employees' psychological empowerment: a comparative approach

This paper examines the impact of five extrinsic rewards (financial incentives, promotion opportunities, organisational prestige, relations with supervisor and relations with peers) on employees' psychological empowerment. Further, the present study compares these effects and the level of psychological empowerment between public and private employees. The results demonstrated that extrinsic rewards differentially affected both samples. Financial incentives, promotion opportunities and organisational prestige had a stronger effect on private employees' psychological empowerment, whereas relations with supervisor and peers were significant predictors of public employees' psychological empowerment. The results also indicated that private employees experience greater psychological empowerment, meaning and impact than public counterparts.     

Ownership structure,information asymmetry and growth of the firm: Implications from nonfinancial firms listed in S&P500

This paper investigates the association between growth of the firm and ownership structure under conditions of information asymmetry. The objective is to show the effects of information asymmetry (favorable vs. adverse selection) on the choice of the ownership structure that helps firms grow. Our sample includes nonfinancial firms listed in the S&P500 over the period 2000 to 2016. The dependent variable is growth of the firm measured by growth in sales. The independent variables are proxies for changes in ownership structure, individual investors, investment managers, and brokerage firms. Observations are grouped according to level of information asymmetry (high or low) using three proxies for information asymmetry: beta of return on equity (ROE), probability of default of ROE, and q ratio. The results conclude that (a) changes in ownership structure affect growth of the firm positively and (b) the effect of ownership structure is more significant and consistent at low level of information asymmetry. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, it extends the arguments of corporate governance by showing the impact of ownership structure on growth of the firm. Second, the paper offers robust evidence that growth of the firm is associated with low level of information asymmetry. Third, the paper shows that fundamental financial information can help lessen the level of information asymmetry and thus help firms grow.     

Performance evaluation of retail banking services: Is there a trade-off between production and quality?

We propose a two-stage data envelopment analysis model to give an insight on the internal structure of the banking sector and study the important role of service quality in the production process. The first stage deals with the production performance and is related with the optimal use of resources to produce banking services, whereas the second stage deals with the service quality performance using customer-reported satisfaction and loyalty measures. This paper analyzes the efficiency and productivity of 36 branches of a single bank of Greece over the period 2016–2018. The results indicate the existence of a strong trade-off between production and service quality. Further insights of the study indicate that the branch size significantly affects the service quality and overall efficiency. Moreover, the employee assessments by the performance appraisal system of the bank are mainly associated with the service production and not with service quality. Finally, this study presents a managerial decision-making matrix and makes recommendations to help bank managers to improve the retail network performance.     

Estimating ‘gamma’ for tail-hedge discount rates when project returns are cointegrated with GDP

Martin Weitzman has suggested a method for calculating social discount rates for long-term investments when project returns are covariant with consumption or other macroeconomic variables, so-called ‘tail-hedge discounting’. This method relies on a parameter called ‘real project gamma’ that measures the proportion of project returns that is covariant with the macroeconomic variable. We compare two approaches for estimation of this gamma when the project returns and the macroeconomic variable are cointegrated. First, we use Weitzman’s own approach, and second a simple data transformation that keeps gamma within the zero to one interval. In a Monte-Carlo study, we show that the method of using a standardized series is better and robust under different data-generating processes. Both approaches are examined in a Monte-Carlo experiment and applied to Swedish time-series data from 1950–2011 for annual time-series data for rail freight (a measure of returns from rail investments) and GDP.