Victory margins and the paradox of voting

This paper addresses a simple question: why do people vote? Though simple, this question remains unanswered despite the considerable attention it has received. In this paper, I show that purely rational–instrumental factors explain a large fraction of turnout variations, provided that the effect of the margin of victory on implemented policy is considered. I extend Myerson's models of elections based on Poisson games, and show that, when platforms are responsive to vote shares, the predictions of the model become consistent with several stylized facts, including the secular fall in turnout rates in the US.     

Public finance and the optimal speed of transition*

We develop a general equilibrium model that jointly considers the influence of capital accumulation constraints and of labour market frictions on the process of transition. We endogenize the economic and budgetary costs of different government policies and show that, early in transition, governments ought to subsidize state firms. Provided that intertemporal commitment is feasible, this policy limits the initial output fall, which relaxes capital accumulation constraints, accelerates transition, and increases welfare. Moreover, by resorting to indirect – instead of direct – taxes, governments can bring the path of transition closer to the first best. Yet, political pressures may induce a policy of suboptimal subsidization.     

Refinery mix in the U.S., Canada,and the E.E.C.

This paper examines the response of gasoline's share of a barrel of crude oil to changes in relative petroleum product prices. An inter-country comparison of the U.S., Canada, and the E.E.C. allows investigation of different parts of the production possibility frontier. In the U.S. and Canada, with relatively large amounts of cracking capacity, there is price responsiveness of the product mix to changes in relative product prices. In the U.S., both residual and distillates are substitutes in production for gasoline, but for Canada, only distillate is a substitute. Part of this difference is attributed to the U.S. oil quota. For the E.E.C. with relatively small amounts of cracking capacity there was no discernible effect of product prices on product mix.     

The combined impact of managerial and relational capabilities on innovation in firms

In this paper, a survey of more than 1600 firms in the five largest city regions of Norway is described in order to examine how a firm's innovative capacity is affected by three types of factors: factors related to the manager, the structure of the firm and the broader geographical location. By combining perspectives from the fields of management and economic geography in a logistic regression analysis, we find that the two key drivers of firm-level innovation in Norway are the presence of open-minded managers and evidence of collaboration with international partners. Moreover, these two factors are mutually reinforcing, as firms with open-minded managers also tend to engage more with international partners and vice versa.     

Imagination Difficulty and New Product Evaluation

This research examines the role of imagination difficulty on the evaluation of really new products (RNPs) in comparison with incrementally new products (INPs). We extend past research on accessibility utilizing an anticipatory approach where consumers look forward and generate mental images for future product usage. We found that the role of imagination changes based on the newness of the product. Specifically, for RNPs, imagination difficulty is perceived to be diagnostic in product assessment, and thus, higher imagination difficulty leads to lower product evaluations. However, for INPs, which are shown to be less susceptible to context effects, imagination difficulty has a limited impact on product evaluations. In addition, we show that the effect of imagination difficulty on the evaluation of RNPs is moderated by the level of involvement of the consumer. Research and managerial implications are discussed.     

The Economics of Grain Cleaning on the Prairies

In the Canadian grain marketing system, grains have typically been cleaned to very tight levels at port elevators. In recent years, changes in rail rates, livestock production and grain handling technology are pressuring the system for change. A mathematical programming model of vertical marketing functions in western Canada is developed to determine optimal locations for cleaning. Cleaning margins are positive in all regions of the prairies. Grain cleaning is found generally to be more efficient on the prairies than at the ports. However, grain cleaning will continue at ports to some extent because of inadequate capacity at country positions and sunk costs at port facilities and because primary elevators will likely clean only the dominant grains. Dans le système canadien de commercialisation des céreales, les grains passent généralement par un nettoyage très rigoureux aux silos portuaires. Ces dernières années, les changements affectant les tarifs ferroviaires, les productions animales et la technologie de manutention des céréales rendent cependant nécessaire un changement du système. Les auteurs utilisent un modéle mathématique de programmation des fonctions verticales de mise en marché pour déterminer les emplacements idéaux pour le nettoyage du grain. Les marges commerciales des nettoyeurs étaient positives dans toutes les régions des Prairies et le nettoyage était généralement plus efficient dans cette partie di pays qu'aux situations portuaires. Il continuera cependant à sefaire à ces derniers endroits dans une certaine mesure, en raison du manque de capacités suffisantes aux emplacements de campagne, des coûts irrécupérabies aux installations portuaires et du fait que les élévateurs primaires ne nettoieront vraisemblablement que les céréales commercialement le plus importantes.     

Logistical Strategies and Risks in Canadian Grain Marketing

Logistics management in grain marketing has become very important with the maturity of the industry. This is particularly critical in the Canadian grain marketing system, which has experienced disruptions for various reasons over many years. These problems have been the topic of numerous industry evaluations, have resulted in a complaint about service obligations during the 1996–97 crop year, and were addressed by the Estey Commission. A detailed model of the Canadian grain logistics system is developed in this paper to evaluate factors that cause disruptions, as well as the effect of several important logistics and marketing strategies on system performance. The results illustrate that there is sufficient randomness throughout the various functions of the system that it is expected that demurrage at the west coast would periodically be an important cost. The frequency of service disruptions and demurrage are affected by several factors, including the distribution of tough and damp grains, mis‐graded grain and the level of exportable supplies. Several strategic variables affect system performance. These include the aggressiveness in selling relative to capacity and the level of beginning port stocks. La gestion de la logistique dans le commerce des céréales a acquis une grande importance maintenant que ce secteur a atteint la maturité. C'est particulièrement important dans le système canadien de mise en marché des céréales lequel, pour diverses raisons, a essuyé bien des perturbations ces dernières années. Les problèmes en cause ont fait l'objet de nombreuses évaluations du secteur. Ils ont même abouti au dépôt d'une plainte sur les obligations de service dans la campagne agricole 1996–1997 et ont étéétudiés par la Commission Estey. Dans la présente communication nous avons construit un modèle détaillé du système canadien de logistique du marché des céréales ainsi que de l'effet de plusieurs stratégies importantes de logistique et de commercialisation sur la performance du systeme. Les résultats obtenus montrent qu'il y a suffisamment d'aléatoire dans les diverses fonctions du systeme pour conclure que les frais de séjour à quai sur la côte ouest seraient périodiquement un important poste de dépense. La fréquence des perturbations des services et les coûts a quai sont associés à plusieurs facteurs dont la livraison de grain gourd et humide, de grain mal classé et le niveau des disponibilités exportables. Plusieurs variables stratégiques influent sur le fonctionnement du système, notamment l'agressivité manifestée dans la vente par rapport aux stocks disponibles et le niveau des stocks disponibles dans les ports au début de la campagne d'exportation.     

Innovation Aesthetics: The Relationship between Category Cues,Categorization Certainty,and Newness Perceptions

Recent research notes a disconnect between what marketers deem new and innovative versus what consumers actually perceive. Many factors may contribute to this; however, the factor that has significant potential to first attract a consumer to a new product, visual aesthetic design, is investigated in this research. Findings from four studies indicate that if a consumer cannot affix a category label to a new product with certainty, as can happen with innovative aesthetics, a product's newness will be underappreciated and product evaluations will suffer. By utilizing a categorization framework and specifically accounting for the role of categorization certainty, insight into the effects of innovative visual aesthetics and why newness perceptions are inherently subjective, and therefore, potentially hazardous to new product adoption, is provided.     

Regulation,recession, and bank lending behavior: The 1990 credit crunch

This article utilizes a pooled time-series and cross-section sample of banks to investigate the causes of the credit contraction which occurred during the 1990–1991 period. The methodology involves an econometric model which recognizes that banks' decisions regarding lending and capital are simultaneously determined. Bank lending behavior is modeled as being determined by a combination of economic conditions, loan quality problems, and capital growth. The results of the econometric tests are consistent with a multiplicity of factors contributing to the reduction in lending. The evidence suggests that the credit contraction of 1990–1991 cannot be explained solely as a result of recession and low capital levels. Changes in the supervisory climate and in bank capital regulation, perhaps coupled with independent changes in bankers' assessments of the risk climate, were likely responsible for a substantial part of the credit contraction.