Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce: Some Remarks on the Jordanian Electronic Transactions Law

It has become increasingly certain that the success of e-commerce in any country depends mainly on the predictability and suitability of the legal framework and whether such framework copes sensibly with the needs of online consumers. For e-commerce to reach its full potential, consumers must have effective protection when shopping online, and their primary rights must be adequately protected. This paper thus explores the way in which the Electronic Transactions Law deals with such rights and determine whether or not this law gives due attention to consumer protection in an online environment. Furthermore, this paper encourages debate of what such law should be in order to enhance legal certainty as well as increase trust in e-commerce in Jordan. This paper, however, is not intended to provide the final answer to all questions and challenges in this regard, but to identify the main components, and provide perspectives on how to deal with such issue.     

Typologies of Banner Advertisements’ Attributes: A Content Analysis

The web has received significant amount of attention from advertising and consumer researchers investigating the impact of banner advertisement on consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses. However, no typology of banner advertisement has been identified yet, and the selection of banner advertisements as advertising stimuli has been carried out on the premise of personal judgment rather than scientific methodology. The identification of typology is important because different banner advertisement, such as static and pop-up, elicit different consumers’ responses. In addition the identification of a typology constitutes an advance to mid-range theory in a research domain. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the typologies of banner advertisements’ attributes such as type, number, shape, location, and size using content analysis. Specifically, nine banner advertisement types are identified as well as the typology of number, shape, location, and size of banner advertisements. Contributions of the research are discussed.     

Risk factors and geographical heterogeneity in unintentional home injuries incidence rate: new evidence based on Multiscopo survey in Italy

Home injuries together, with road traffic accidents, are estimated to be the third cause of death in Italy (Arokiasamy and Krishnan 1994). However, as in most other countries, in Italy there is a lack of information on home injuries and on how differences in geographical patterns may influence the scope and magnitude of this phenomenon. By analysing a multipurpose large survey (Multiscopo) carried out annually, geographical heterogeneity in home injuries incidence rate can be investigated. The aim of this study is the assessment of possible differences in geographical patterns among the Italian regions making use of a re-analysis of Multiscopo home injury data. The study results show that Italian regions differ greatly in the number of home injuries. The geographical heterogeneity may be due to the unemployment rate and the incidence of poverty that is greater in the Southern and Insular regions than in other zones. Other socio-economic variables such as alcohol consumption can increase the risk of injury in the home. To prevent them it could be useful to organize campaigns aimed at increasing the awareness among people about this problem.     

Wealth effects of convertible-bond and warrant-bond offerings: a meta-analysis

The literature on wealth effects associated with the announcements of convertible-bond and warrant-bond offerings is reviewed. The findings of 35 event studies, which include 84 sub-samples and 6310 announcements, are analysed using meta-analysis. We find a mean cumulative abnormal return of?1.14% for convertibles compared with?0.02% for warrant bonds, the significant difference confirming a relative advantage for warrant bonds. Abnormal returns for hybrid securities issued in the USA are significantly more negative than those issued in other countries. In addition, issuing hybrid securities to refund debt does not seem to be favoured by investors. Finally, several factors identified as important by theory or in prior research are not significant within our cross-study models, suggesting that more evidence is needed to confirm whether they are robust.     

Inflation-indexed swaps and swaptions

This article considers the pricing and hedging of inflation-indexed swaps, and the pricing of inflation-indexed swaptions, and options on inflation-indexed bonds. To price the inflation-indexed swaps, we suggest an extended HJM model. The model allows both the forward rates and the consumer price index to be driven, not only by a standard multidimensional Wiener process but also by a general marked point process. Our model is an extension of the HJM approach proposed by Jarrow and Yildirim [Jarrow, R., Yildirim, Y., 2003. Pricing treasury inflation protected securities and related derivatives using an HJM model. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 38, 409–430] and later also used by Mercurio [Mercurio, F., 2005. Pricing inflation-indexed derivatives. Quantitative Finance 5 (3), 289–302] to price inflation-indexed swaps. Furthermore we price options on so called TIPS-bonds assuming the model is purely Wiener driven. We then introduce an inflation swap market model to price inflation-indexed swaptions. All prices derived have explicit closed-form solutions. Furthermore, we formally prove the validity of the so called foreign-currency analogy.     

Determinants of Capital Flight: An econometric case study of Bangladesh

While Bangladesh remains steeped in staggering external debt, it is also concurrently witnessing a substantial outflow of domestic capital. This situation raises serious policy concerns for its development prospects. This paper applies the Bounds testing and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag procedures to confirm the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between capital flight and its determinants, and to estimate the long-run and short-run behavior of capital flight from Bangladesh. The estimated results suggest that political instability is the single most significant cause of capital flight from Bangladesh, while increases in corporate income taxes, higher real interest rate differentials between the capital-haven countries and Bangladesh, and lower GDP growth rates also significantly contribute to capital flight.     

The impact of the meal situation on the consumption of ready meals

The context in which a meal is eaten is known to affect intake and choice of food. The purpose of this study was to investigate in what typical situations ready meals are consumed and if consumer demands vary according to different situations. With a market survey four typical ready meal eating situations were identified, and the respondent's ready meal consumption was shown to be affected by situational factors. In the different eating situations there were dissimilar reasons for consumption. Two ready meal eating situations were investigated in greater detail in order to establish what triggered the ready meal consumption in these situations. One of these meal situations proved to be convenience driven and the other time driven. A situation‐oriented approach is suggested for further ready meal product development.     

History of microfinance in Bangladesh: A life cycle theory approach

This study aims to conceptualise and document the historical evolution of microfinance in Bangladesh using the life cycle theory (LCT). Based on the LCT nomenclature, the microfinance sector in Bangladesh shows characteristics broadly consistent with the saturation phase (2006–2015) – which potentially has adverse impacts on both microfinance clients and institutions. The maturity phase (1996–2005) of microfinance has corresponded with competition and several innovations (financial and non-financial). However, the saturation phase sees increasing presence of uncoordinated microfinance institutions and expansion of multiple borrowing, as well as commercialisation and ‘mission drift’, which constitute important challenges for the regulatory authority and management of microfinance institutions.