The new middle class in emerging markets: How values and demographics influence discretionary consumption

The rise of new middle‐class consumers in rapidly transforming emerging markets has attracted the attention of Western business executives. What they know about this growing segment of customers will determine whether they succeed or fail in these markets. The present study examines the factors that drive the discretionary consumption of this new middle class, including the effects of consumerist values, religious values, occupation, education levels, and ownership of fixed assets. The study draws its insights from data gathered from 391 new middle‐class consumers in Ankara, the second‐largest city in Turkey. The findings provide important implications for businesses, both indigenous and foreign. An overall implication is that managers ought to understand and qualify the new middle class in emerging markets not simply by their access to disposable income but by deeper attitudinal and behavioral characteristics.     

Material weakness disclosures and restatement announcements: The joint and order effects

We examine differences in stock price, option volatility, and litigation reactions to restatement announcements that are associated with a material weakness (MW) disclosure. Contrasted with restatements that are not associated with any MW disclosure, our analyses reveal that firms that announce both a restatement and an associated MW experience significantly more negative market returns, greater implied volatility, and higher likelihood of class action lawsuits. Separating the restatements into timely reporters, where the MW precedes the restatement, and non‐timely reporters, where the MW is concurrent with or follows the restatement, we find that timely reporters experience more negative returns at the time of the restatement, relative to non‐timely reporters, suggesting that investors perceive the early MW disclosure to signal more pervasive control‐related problems. Interestingly, we find that timely and non‐timely reporters are equally likely to be sued, consistent with the argument that wrongdoing (through either a timely or non‐timely MW disclosure) provides stronger grounds for establishing scienter. However, timely reporters appear to secure more favorable litigation outcomes: they face higher likelihood of lawsuit dismissals and pay much lower settlements, compared to non‐timely reporters. Overall, our evidence provides new insights into how market participants incorporate information about internal control weaknesses into their perceptions regarding the economic implications of financial restatements, and financial reporting quality.     

Income Polarization of the U.S. Working Class: An Institutionalist View

We provide an institutional insight into the trend of income polarization within the U.S. working class. In contrast to the previous industrial waves, the current and ongoing industrial revolution is characterized by the replacement of “creative destruction” with jobless growth. Instead of replacing the lost jobs with new ones, new disruptive technologies eliminate more jobs in traditional labor and capital-intensive sectors than create jobs in new idea-intensive sectors. By examining the relationship between the income share of the bottom 50 percent, the middle 40 percent, and the top 10 percent and technological progress, we obtain robust econometric results. According to our results, the income polarization among U.S. workers can be associated with the shift of R&D activities from the public to the corporate sector. The concentration of innovations by corporate capital limits the power of society to reduce inequality and to provide greater social stability through “the incredible productivity” of technological progress.     

Identifying cycling-inducing neighborhoods: A latent class approach

Understanding how spatial attributes of cities and neighborhoods induce cycling is relevant for urban planning and policy making. In this work, ordered logit and latent class models are specified and estimated to analyze how the built environment affects bicycle-commuting frequency. Data come from a survey to 1,487 people in the city of Santiago, Chile, including sociodemographic information, travel behavior patterns and place of residence and work. Using geographic information systems tools, the built environment was characterized with variables calculated for a 500-m-radius buffer around the residential and work locations of each individual. Two models are estimated, first an ordered logit model confirms that built environment variables effect on cycling is similar to what has been reported in the literature, with some new findings such as an increase in cycling when public transport accessibility is low and the role of built environment attributes at the destination. Second, a latent class ordered logit is used to identify two classes of neighborhood in term of their cycling patterns, as a function of their density, presence of cycling infrastructure and distance to the main activity center of the city. This result allows to map the class membership probabilities, potentially helping to identify neighborhoods that encourage cycling and providing relevant information for policy making and infrastructure decisions.     

The Class Dynamics of Food Sovereignty in Mexico and Ecuador

This paper examines the class dynamics of food sovereignty in Mexico and Ecuador. It argues that the nature of contemporary demands for food sovereignty is heavily influenced by the outcomes of peasant movements’ historical and ongoing internal class dynamics. Processes of class differentiation within peasant organizations in both countries have led to the interests of certain classes predominating over or at the expense of others. Despite La Vía Campesina's projection of ‘unity in diversity’, incorporating sometimes conflicting class interests into the movement is particularly challenging. As such, class analysis must be brought back into debates around food sovereignty in order to gauge (and potentially further) the movement's transformative potential.     

改造我们的教学

进入"双高时代",我们距离新时代高等职业教育"舞龙头"的教学还有问题和"短板",应该改造教学方法和学习与研究制度。在剖析改造教学原因的基础上,厘清看待教学中存在问题的两种互相对立的态度,提出改造教学的革故鼎新路径,如强化"课堂教学为王"的意识,强化学习与专业研究,强化教学的职业素养,强化教师的课堂教学治理。     

Recognition in India’s new service professions: gym trainers and coffee baristas

ABSTRACT

How do employees in “new services”, such as coffee baristas and gym trainers in India, see their jobs? In this paper, we build on extensive fieldwork in gyms and coffee chains that cater to the emerging Indian middle classes. Our research highlights the importance of respect and recognition in making service interactions more meaningful for new service workers. Generally hailing from the lower middle classes, new service work offers important opportunities to interact with and learn from English-speaking upper middle-class customers and clients. Besides the opportunity to interact and learn, the acknowledgement they receive for their skills and (bodily) accomplishments make such professions attractive as well. Even if this holds the potential for upward socioeconomic mobility, our findings also point at the resilience of social hierarchies. Drawing on literature on service interactions and new middle-class formation in India, this paper provides important insight into how young Indians navigate and negotiate the opportunities and pitfalls that come with the country's changing socioeconomic landscape.     

The financial advice puzzle: The role of consumer heterogeneity in the advisor choice

We investigate motivational drivers of financial advisor use, accounting for investor heterogeneity, with the goal of helping institutions increase the use of financial advisor services. The results from a latent class choice model reveal two distinct segments that differ in their approach to the financial advice decision. While higher levels of risk tolerance, trust, and self-efficacy increase financial advice use for both segments, albeit at much higher propensities for Segment 1, personality only matters for Segment 1. Moreover, their regulatory focus differs with Segment 1 being promotion and Segment 2 being prevention focused. Using these results, we offer suggestions for marketing strategies.     

新型监管政策下我国保险资金的资产配置研究——基于大类资产监管和“偿二代”的政策背景

近年来我国保险资金运用监管开始实行“放开前端、管住后端”的政策理念，在前端实行的是资产大类监管政策，在后端实行的是“偿二代”政策。在此新的政策背景下，保险公司如何优化投资结构是一项非常重要的问题。考虑到我国保险业实际监管政策内容，以投资组合的风险最低资本的最小化为优化目标，以大类监管政策中的投资比例限制为约束条件，建立了一个新的投资组合模型，用来计算出各种最优投资组合比例。研究结果表明：在新监管政策下，协议存款、基础设施和不动产的理论配置比例较高, 债券类投资和权益类投资的理论配置比例较低。与理论投资比例相，债券类产品的实际投资比例偏高，而不动产类投资品的实际投资比例偏低，所以我国保险资金在今后的大类资产配置中，应当降低债券的投资比例，适当提高不动产的投资比例。     

Food values and heterogeneous consumer responses to nanotechnology

Agricultural applications of nanotechnology are at a relatively early stage and little is known about consumer responses to the technology. Canadian consumer responses to food nanotechnology are examined through the lens of the Food Value Scale. Data from a survey of Canadian consumers are used to evaluate the relative importance of eleven food values to food purchase decisions. We find that taste, safety, nutrition, and price are among the most important food values to Canadians, however, consumers exhibit considerable heterogeneity with respect to the priority placed on these values. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) explores the effect of food values on choice behavior. The DCE is positioned as a sliced apple product with non-browning and antioxidant-enhanced features introduced through the use of nanocoating or a conventional coating method. Random parameters logit (RPL) and latent class models (LCM) confirm the existence of significant preference heterogeneity. The LCM identifies three classes of consumers: “supporters,” “doubters,” and “opponents” who differ in their reaction to nanotechnology and in the relative importance placed on food values such as naturalness, novelty, and convenience. The analysis shows that food values provide additional insights into consumers’ food choices and their attitudes toward novel food technologies.