Partial carryover of advertising

A model that combines advertising carryover with purchase reinforcement is presented. It accommodates the possibility that certain members of the consumer population rely only on their experience with the product, while others are also affected by past advertising. Empirical results with two product categories indicate that for bimonthly data advertising retention does not exist at all.     

Modeling Methods for Discrete Choice Analysis

This paper introduces new forms, sampling and estimation approaches fordiscrete choice models. The new models include behavioral specifications oflatent class choice models, multinomial probit, hybrid logit, andnon-parametric methods. Recent contributions also include new specializedchoice based sample designs that permit greater efficiency in datacollection. Finally, the paper describes recent developments in the use ofsimulation methods for model estimation. These developments are designed toallow the applications of discrete choice models to a wider variety ofdiscrete choice problems.     

More on the role of switching costs in service markets: A research note

The present paper focuses on several important and under-researched issues related to switching costs (SC) as a defensive marketing tool in retaining customers with complaint handling. While most previous research analyzed the effects of SC on the behavioral intent of customers, our findings have focused on the actual behavior of bank customers; that is, staying with or leaving the bank to which they had complained previously. The findings show that, of the six potential facets of SC, only two significantly affect the actual behavior of complainants, one directly (i.e., Continuity Costs) and the other as a moderator (i.e., Learning Costs). Likewise, a customer's evaluation of the complaint handling affects behavior directly.     

The market turn: from social democracy to market liberalism

Social democracy and market liberalism provide different solutions to the same problem: how to provide for life‐cycle dependency. Social democracy makes lateral transfers from producers to dependents by means of progressive taxation. Market liberalism uses financial markets to transfer financial entitlement over time. Social democracy came up against the upper limits of public expenditure in the 1970s. The ‘market turn’ from social democracy to market liberalism was enabled by liberalized credit in the 1980s. Much of this was absorbed into homeownership, which attracted majorities of households (and voters) in the developed world. Early movers did well, but eventually easy credit drove house prices beyond the reach of younger cohorts. Debt service diminished effective demand, which instigated financial instability. Both social democracy and market liberalism are currently in crisis.     

Counterfactual analysis of bank mergers

We introduce a counterfactual analysis of banks mergers, combining the pre-merger equilibrium setting with post-merger environmental characteristics, while accounting for endogenously propagated changes in market structure. Using this procedure we are able to estimate the effects on loan flows and interest rates that would have been observed if the pre-merger equilibrium was not altered. Results are obtained for firms, households, and banks inside and outside the merging circles separately. We find that mergers increased firms’ access to credit, but had an opposite effect on households and led to a widespread decrease in interest rates.     

A proposal for a more objective measure of de facto constitutional constraints

In this paper we propose two new indicators of de facto constitutional constraints. The indicators are based on the presence or the absence of easily observable political events. This makes the proposed measures relatively objective and easy to verify relative to the most widely used indicators of de jure and de facto constitutions. This paper describes the indicators and demonstrates their usefulness for research on economic development.     

Diminishing effects of location? Some evidence from Swiss municipalities, 1950–2000

This paper analyzes how location has affected, in the second half of the twentieth century, the population growth of 2889 municipalities in Switzerland. The analysis demonstrates the temporal relativity of location attributes, even for small territorial divisions, such as the Swiss cantons. However, we also show that, both absolute and relative location attributes have weakened over time as population growth predictors, apparently due to improving road infrastructures, and growing motorization. The study has been made possible by a detailed historical population and accessibility database available for Swiss municipalities. To the best of our knowledge, no database of such scope and quality is available for any other European country.     

Ethno‐cultural considerations in negotiation: pretense,deception and lies in the Greek workplace

A retrospect into ethos, this study examines the impact of individualism, collectivism, ethical idealism and interpersonal trust on negotiators' attitudes toward questionable negotiation tactics in Greece. A thousand survey questionnaires were administered to Greek employees, of which 327 usable responses were collected. Our findings empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretense, deception and lies. Individualism–collectivism and ethical idealism were found to be related, and interpersonal trust was found to be unrelated, to attitudes toward questionable negotiation tactics. Emphasizing the non‐US and non‐Western European nature of the empirical data collected, the originality of this research further stems from the development of a comprehensive research framework about questionable negotiation tactics in Greece.     

Time Series Analysis of Repeated Surveys: The State–space Approach

Cross sectional estimates from repeated surveys form a time series { y_t }. These estimates can be viewed as the sum y _t = Y _t + e _t of two processes, { Y _t }, the population process and { e _t }, the survey error process. Serial correlations in the latter series are usually present, mainly due to sample overlap. Other sources of data such as censuses, administrative records and demographic population counts are also available. The state–space modelling approach to the analysis of repeated surveys allows combining information from different sources, incorporating benchmarking constraints in a natural way. Results from these methods seem to compare favourably with those from X-11-ARIMA in filtering out survey errors.