Speculative attacks to currency target zones: A market microstructure approach

This paper develops a simple optimization model to characterize the behaviour of market participants during currency attacks and tests it empirically. Specifically, we test for the determinants of the timing, magnitude and chance of success of an attack. The empirical part is carried out using Mexican data, as this market provides us with an appropriate target zone framework and with a very rich dataset. We find empirical support for a set of microeconomic determinants which include: daily order flow, inventory management, intra-day price volatility, and the forward intervention-price differential. Finally, we test for the role of central bank reserves in speculative attack dynamics.     

Too poor to be green consumers? A field experiment on revealed preferences for firewood in rural Guatemala

The paper reports on a field experiment that investigates whether households in Guatemala are willing to surrender a small material gain in order to buy legal rather than illegal firewood. Given the ineffectiveness of command-and-control policies to curb the problem of illegal logging in Guatemala, the experiment assesses the potential viability of market-oriented solutions. Local consumers in developing countries are generally believed to be too poor to pay a premium for green/ethical products. Therefore, little information has been gathered on willingness-to-pay (WTP) for such products and its determinants in non-affluent consumer markets. While our experiment on firewood consumption in central Guatemala only implies a weak and indirect test of WTP for green products, the results indicate that it is premature, if not unwarranted, to assume that the poor are not ready to make pro-ethical choices in the marketplace. Moreover, we find that information on the legal procedures for firewood extraction significantly affects consumer choice between legal and illegal firewood.     

Animal foods and climate change: shadowing eating practices

Animal farming exceeds all forms of transport in terms of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Despite the implications of the seriousness of addressing animal farming in relation to mitigating the effects of GHG emissions, to date, the relationship between consumer behaviour and climate change has tended to neglect the role of animal foods. This paper reports on a pilot study in which six UK households were ‘shadowed’ to facilitate the investigation of the relationship between animal food practices and environmental practices, as they emerge in day‐to‐day life. Results indicate that most participants make no connection between the two issues at present, in terms of awareness or practice. However, animal foods do have an ambiguous and complex status in most participants' food practices; for instance, being viewed as problematic for reasons of health or animal welfare. This finding suggests that further research is needed into the potential for raising awareness of the link between animal‐based foods and climate change. This might have a role to play in shifting food practices towards more plant‐based, less GHG intensive, foods.     

Proactive personality and work performance in China: The moderating effects of emotional exhaustion and perceived safety climate

Grounded in the interactionist paradigm, this study shows that emotional exhaustion and perceived safety climate constitute important moderators of the relationship between proactive personality and work performance. More specifically, the study analyzes the relationship between proactive personality and its behavioural outcomes—organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and job performance—and investigates the interactive effects of emotional exhaustion and perceived safety climate. The study involves 485 Chinese airline employees including pilots, flight attendants, engineers, and service employees. Proactive personality positively predicted OCB and individual performance. Emotional exhaustion and perceived safety climate moderated the relationship between proactive personality and individual performance both independently and jointly. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internet user behaviour in France and Britain: exploring socio‐spatial disparity among adolescents

The Internet has radically transformed society – although its diffusion has been uneven. Various studies of digital inequality have been undertaken in Anglo‐Saxon communities. Few studies have investigated digital inequality from a socio‐spatial perspective (urban vs. suburban, rather than urban vs. rural) in a French setting. This absence underscores a gap in knowledge and methodology. It highlights the complexities of gathering comparable data on Internet user behaviour beyond national borders. This paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to investigate emerging trends in Internet use across different territories (inner‐city and suburban, as opposed to urban vs. rural) by means of in‐depth interviews with Internet users aged 13–15 years old in France and Britain. The aim is to provide a broad understanding of the way in which teenage Internet users behave online in different territories. The investigation reveals a number of converging trends that are common to both France and Britain and some unexpected disparity.     

Women,men and organic food: differences in their attitudes and willingness to pay. A Spanish case study

The main purpose of this work consists of displaying the different attitudes of men and women towards organic food, and their willingness to pay for it, in three different consumer intensities: usual, occasional and potential consumers. Several surveys have been carried out to obtain a representative sample of regular food purchasers living in Castilla‐La Mancha (Spain). Statistic analysis previously detecting significant differences with regard to gender and type of consumer has been conducted by univariate analysis to describe attitudes, and multivariate analysis, through ‘logit’ models, to calculate maximum willingness to pay. Results show that women have a more favourable attitude (directly related to their lifestyle) to the purchase and consumption of organic food than men, whereas men are inclined to pay a higher price for organic food than women. In general, men are disposed to pay a higher increase in price than women.     

Consumers’ Appreciation of Regional Certification Labels: A Pan‐European Study

Successful regional products, such as Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes and Parma ham, often have to compete against products passing themselves off as the authentic product using the exact same name. This unfair competition misleads consumers, discourages small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from marketing products based on their region of origin, and may end up hurting rural economies. To protect consumers, and support SMEs and rural economies, many countries around the world have introduced regulations enabling SMEs to legally protect the names of their regional products. The success of these regulations largely depends on consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels that inform consumers that the name of the regional product is protected and that it denotes the authentic product. To gain an understanding about consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels, this paper investigates consumers’ image of these labels and proposes a model that relates this image to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for protected regional products. The model is tested based on Regulation No. 2081/92 that was introduced by the EEC allowing European SMEs to protect their regional products and market their products with a protected‐designation‐of‐origin (PDO) label. Structural equation modelling results suggest that consumers’ image of regional certification labels consists of a quality warranty dimension and an economic support dimension, which positively relate to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for the protected regional product. Protecting regional products and marketing them with regional certification labels may be beneficial for SMEs producing and marketing regional products. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.     

我国居民消费和储蓄行为分析

通过建立消费和储蓄模型分析我国居民的消费和储蓄行为。居民当年的总收入对消费品零售总额的影响起决定作用；居民储蓄不等于结余购买力，结余购买力也不是现实的购买力。     

Factors that influence the consumption of food outside the home in Brazil

The food sector has taken on an unprecedented dynamism in recent years. The processing and distribution of food, although heavily influenced by tradition, have seen intensive innovations, leading to changes in the way individuals consume. One of these changes is the consistent growth of the habit of eating outside the home. Consuming food outside the home involves a number of practices such as eating at commercial establishments that specialize in food (restaurants, fast food restaurants and snack bars) and those that offer food as a part of their services (hotels, in‐flight meals), and non‐commercial alternatives such as the homes of family and friends. In order to describe the eating habits of consumers in the town of Lavras in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, especially when it comes to eating outside the home, a quantitative study was conducted, with 413 questionnaires being distributed by convenience sampling. Among the main results are: (a) a search for variety as a motivator for eating outside the home; (b) convenience as an important element on many occasions of consumption; (c) more intensive consumption and more favourable attitudes towards eating out on the part of younger people, people with higher incomes, no children and a higher degree of schooling; (d) importance of paying for food by the kilo. When compared with a study conducted in England, important similarities were identified in socio‐demographic influences, although the cultural factors are notable when it comes to dishes and the types of eating establishment. The growing habit of eating out has therefore become a worldwide phenomenon, but with cultural and regional differences that have led to different rhythms in terms of change and the way food is supplied. The recovery of embedded cultural habits, with increased value being given to slow food, traditional dishes and tradition itself, appears to co‐exist with a productivity model of food courts, pasteurization and accessible prices. The occasion for consumption, which may be understood as the dichotomies of ‘weekday versus weekend’ or ‘convenience versus leisure’, is an important element that influences consumer behaviours. The undertaking of a cross‐cultural comparative study can be seen as an important step in this field of research.     

Who buys newspapers in Spain? An analysis of the determinants of the probability to buy newspapers and of the amount spent

In this paper, we examine the determinants of household consumption of newspapers and the amount spent on their purchase by considering several explanatory variables related to household characteristics and the main household wage earner. Results show that the variables have quite similar effects on both the relative probability of buying newspapers and the amount spent. The key variables are the age and occupational status of the main wage earner, the number of household members, income and having to pay for the house, as well as a number of geographical variables. However, certain differences are also observed. The most important is the education of the main wage earner: while its effect on buying newspapers is very small (only those who did not complete primary education are less likely to buy), its effect on the amount spent increases with the level of education. As other studies of cultural goods and services consumption have suggested, education and occupational status are more relevant determinants than income.