Vertical differentiation via multi-tier geographical indications and the consumer perception of quality: The case of Chianti wines

We derive and estimate a model of demand for Geographical Indications allowing for subjective and heterogeneous quality perceptions, and study vertical differentiation based on multi-tier quality labels within the context of the strategy adopted by the Chianti Consortium. Quality perceptions and wine choices are elicited in an online experiment where the number of quality tiers is augmented incrementally in a between-subject design. The empirical model includes subjective quality perceptions as an (endogenous) explanatory variable, and unexplained heterogeneity in WTP for quality as a random parameter. We find that quality perceptions are endogenous to the labeling regime, and adding a high-quality label (Chianti Classico Gran Selezione) decreases the perceived quality of all other Chianti wines, but not the competitor wines. However, the market shared lost to perception restructuring is small compared to the benefits of increased vertical differentiation.     

金融周期、行业技术周期与经济结构优化

本文首先采用马尔科夫区制转移模型测算金融周期和12类行业的技术投入周期,进而采用交叉谱分析法和OLS法分析金融周期对行业技术周期的影响,结果发现:不同金融变量的周期具有异步性,各行业的技术投入周期具有明显差别;不同金融变量周期与行业技术投入周期之间存在不同的数量关联性,对不同的行业技术投入具有不同的影响作用;在繁荣阶段,金融市场和银行对各行业的技术投入都具有正向推动作用,但金融市场对高密度创新行业技术投入的推动作用更为显著,银行对低密度稳定行业技术投入的推动作用更为显著;在紧缩阶段,金融市场对高密度创新行业技术投入的紧缩效应更为剧烈,银行却对低密度稳定行业的技术投资下行起到缓解作用。根据这些事实和规律,可以引导利用各金融变量对具有发展前景的行业强化技术投资助推作用,提升经济结构优化效率。     

Corruption in space: A closer look at the world's subnations

Corruption levels differ not only between but also within countries. In this paper we analyze spatial interdependencies in corruption levels for a large sample of 1232 subnational regions from 81 countries. Based on a spatial autoregressive model, which controls for country-fixed effects and corrects for spatial autocorrelation in the error term, we find that a subnational region's corruption level is positively correlated with neighboring subnational regions' corruption levels. Extending the core model and allowing for heterogeneous spatial effects, we find that most spillovers among subnational regions occur within national borders. Moreover, in particular high income subnational regions and subnational regions with relative low corruption levels tend to spill in space. This is due to their high degree of connectivity in terms of economic, sociocultural and political exchange with other subnational regions. Our estimation results underline the importance to consider not only a subnational region's own characteristics, but also spatial interdependencies when implementing efficient anti-corruption policies at the local level.     

Integration of and Deliveries among the World Zionist Organization,Israel, and Diaspora Countries: System Articulation with the Social Fabric Matrix

Abstract:

The religious economics (not economics of religion) concern here is the relationship between the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Israel, which is known as a geopolitical power in its region and which is also known as an economic success story. Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Polanyi explained how the political economy of medieval Europe was influenced and guided by Christian morality. This paper extends the analysis of religious economics by using the social fabric matrix of original institutional economics to define and structure the integration of the WZO, Israel, and the Diaspora countries. This allows us to observe how to conduct such work and to learn how Israel is guided and influenced by the WZO. It also helps to explain Israel’s “risk of tearing itself apart” as noted in a recent article in the New York Times.     

Macroeconomic implications of modeling the Internal Revenue Code in a heterogeneous-agent framework

Tax policy analysis in heterogeneous-agent models typically involves the use of smooth tax functions to approximate complex present tax law and proposed reforms. In this paper, we explore the extent to which the tax detail omitted under this conventional approach has macroeconomic implications relevant for policy analysis. To do this, we develop an alternative approach by embedding an internal tax calculator into a large-scale overlapping generations model that, while conditioning on idiosyncratic household characteristics, explicitly models key provisions in the Internal Revenue Code applied to labor income. We find that for a debt-constant steady state analysis of a given tax policy change, both approaches generate similar policy-induced patterns of macroeconomic activity despite variation in the underlying patterns of household tax-preferred consumption and labor supply behavior. However, this variation in underlying behavior is associated with significant quantitative and qualitative differences in macroeconomic aggregates along a debt-financed transition path immediately following a policy change. Consequentially, although the use of unconditional smooth tax functions may be a reasonable modeling simplification for steady state analysis of tax policy, caution should be taken for their use in transition path analysis within heterogeneous-agent models.     

Capital accumulation through studying abroad and return migration

This paper examines the interplays among studying abroad, return migration and capital accumulation, in a dynamic general equilibrium model featuring heterogeneous ability. Households invest in education and make two migration decisions: whether to study abroad and subsequently whether to return home. The model predicts that the highest, middle and lowest-ability people choose respectively permanent migration, return migration and no migration. More interestingly, we find a novel migration cycle: returnees bring back learned-knowledge and over time, capital accumulates, attracting more return migration. Further, the usual “brain drain” in the literature can be turned into “brain gain”, by providing a subsidy to studying abroad and returning home.     

Heterogeneous beliefs with herding behaviors and asset pricing in two goods world

We construct a incomplete information equilibrium model with heterogeneous beliefs and herding behaviors to identify their joint effects on the dynamics of asset prices. Herding behaviors make investors revise some of their estimations about expected growth rates of goods streams toward to the other one’s by a manner of weighted average of their own forecast and the other’s. As we expected, herding behaviors generate influences on the Radon Nikodym derivative, that is so-called “sentiment” as in Dumas et al. (2009), and in turn not only impact the dynamics of asset prices but also generate influences on investors’ survivals. We also show that introducing heterogeneous beliefs with herding behaviors permits to explain both the Backus–Smith puzzle and the mixed results about the influences of herding behaviors on asset prices. Moreover, we uncover that herding behaviors have positive influences on stocks’ risk premiums.     

Interactive effects of consumers’ ethical beliefs and authenticity on ethical consumption and pro-environmental behaviors

The current study examined the relationships of ethical beliefs (i.e., idealism and relativism) with pro-environmental behaviors (direct and indirect) and ethical consumption behavior. The study further examined the moderating role of consumer authenticity in these relationships. Data were collected from individuals (N = 302) using field surveys within three major metropolitan cities of Pakistan. The findings revealed that idealism had a positive relationship with ethical consumption behavior and pro-environmental direct behavior. However, it was not related to pro-environmental indirect behavior. Relativism was positively related to ethical consumption behavior but it was not related to both types of pro-environmental behaviors. Furthermore, consumer authenticity significantly moderated the relationships of idealism with all ethical outcomes. Finally, implications for organizations, marketers and policy makers are discussed.     

Speculative dynamics and price behavior in the Shanghai Stock Exchange

This article examines the extent to which the trading behavior of heterogeneous investors manifests in stock price changes of asset portfolios which constitute the Shanghai Stock Exchange. There are three major findings that materialize. Firstly, reliable statistical evidence of a negative relation between the conditional first and second moments of the return distributions of stock prices lends support to the volatility feedback effect. Secondly, ‘feedback’, or momentum-type investors, are not present in this market as is often detected from the daily price changes of other industrialized markets. Finally, trade volume as a proxy for ‘information-driven’ trading suggests that such investors play a statistically significant role in stock price movements. Parameter estimates from this latter group of investors imply that a rise in stock prices from a high volume trading day is more likely than a rise resulting from a low volume trading day.     

Monetary policy,doubts and asset prices

Asset prices and the equity premium might reflect doubts and pessimism. Introducing these features in an otherwise standard New-Keynesian model changes optimal policy in a substantial way. There are three main results: (i) asset-price movements improve the inflation-output trade-off so that average output can rise without much inflation costs; (ii) a “paternalistic” policymaker – maximizing the expected utility of the consumers under the true probability distribution – chooses a more accommodating policy towards productivity shocks and inflates the equity premium; (iii) a “benevolent” policymaker – maximizing the objective through which decisionmakers act in their ambiguous world – follows a policy of price stability.