EMULATION,PREVENTION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION IN CONSUMPTION DYNAMICS

In this paper we show that the role of diversity, local interactions and global endogenous change at the level of social standards might be crucial in understanding the evolution of consumption patterns in modern economies. We propose an evolutionary model from which consumption dynamics can be analyzed as global properties emerging from the endogenous transformation of a society inhabited by boundedly rational interactive consumers. This work aspires to take a modest step forward in the direction of an evolutionary theory of demand change.     

Exploring the Ethical Dimension of Hawala

The aim of this paper is to explore the ethical dimension of hawala, an ancient informal financial practice rooted in Islamic moral traditions. Widely used in countries with an Islamic background and their diasporas, hawala is considered an important vehicle for the financial and economic development of some less developed countries. Nevertheless, in Western countries, hawala is regarded with suspicion due its controversial ethical nature. Unlike other Islamic financial institutions, the controversial questions are not the legitimacy of profit sources or the interest charged, but rather the lack of transparency that surrounds hawala transactions. Yet, the literature on hawala has neglected its ethical perspective. Our study delves into this dimension with a critical approach, using the Triple Font Theory, grounded on virtue ethics. We conclude that if hawala transactions are carried out with honesty, and fairness, this practice deserves a positive ethical appraisal. However, it is necessary to implement efficient regulatory measures to guarantee that the system is not abused by money launders and criminals. In practice, it becomes imperative to bring over a change in the regulatory approach to hawala toward a more ethically, culturally, and economically sensitive strategy. Thus, future research should focus on how “hyper-norms” or fundamental principles inherent to humanity, which are common to both “formal” and “informal,” “Western” and “non-Western” financial practices, could run the new AML/CTF regulation agenda.     

A Pearson's test for symmetry with an application to the Spanish business cycle

In this paper, we look for asymmetries in the Spanish business cycle. To that end, we firstly propose an easy nonparametric testing procedure to test for symmetry based on a Pearson's chi-squared statistic, which we call P-test. Then, we test for two popular forms of asymmetry, deepness and steepness, using a battery of nonparametric tests. In addition, we analyse possible complementarities between the tests used in this paper, and we compute p-value adjustments for multiple tests.     

Oil prices and economic activity: evidence for G-7 economies based on a wavelet approach

This study examines the relationship between oil prices and economic activity in the G-7 economies during the period 1960M1–2014M07 using a wavelet approach. The results show significant differences in the relationship between these two variables depending on the frequencies. Furthermore, we find that oil price shocks affect economic activity at low frequencies (long run) in all G-7 countries, while the effect at high frequencies (short run) is limited to a few countries.     

Understanding the demand-side of economic change: a contribution to formal evolutionary theorizing

An outstanding fact of capitalist change in the last few centuries is the ongoing emergence of new consumption alternatives which accompany income and productivity growth in expanding economies. Far from satiating consumers, exponential economic growth seems to stimulate human desires by providing novelty and variety embodied in a persuasive flow of unsettling goods. Although this is a well-known fact characteristic of capitalist change, little attention has been paid by modern growth theorists to the understanding of demand-side phenomena related to the increasing significance of consumption activities in our societies. Against this background, in this article, we show that as soon as we start drawing the demand-side contour of economic change, new phenomena appear which enrich our understanding of economic growth and structural change. By using ‘replicator dynamics’ systems, consumption dynamics are formally linked to the ongoing generation of innovations in capitalist economies. Certain emergent properties concerning economic growth and structural change and several policy implications follow.     

Diversity, persistence and chaos in consumption patterns

In this paper we present a model from which discretionary consumption dynamics can be analyzed as global properties emerging from the endogenous transformation of a society inhabited by boundedly rational interactive consumers. By considering local and global interactions among consumers, we show that behavioral diversity plays a central role in the evolution of consumption patterns. The analysis of the model reveals the existence of a regime characterized by the persistence of different social standards, and a time evolution of the social distribution of behavioral patterns towards a heteroclinic cycle. In some cases the evolution seems to be chaotic, generating unpredictable, erratic dynamics of the aggregate social indices (average or social propensity for discretionary consumption).      

Economic growth, labor market and demographic patterns

This study addresses the dynamic interaction between income growth, patterns of demographic variables, and characteristics of the labor market. We attempt to provide an endogenous explanation for the origin and nature of long-run sustained oscillations in the population and in economic variables. First, we develop an economic growth model containing unemployment. The resulting dynamics reveal that the emergence of irregular sustained oscillations is related to the lack of sensitivity in wage growth to changes in the employment rate. Next, labor force growth is endogenized in the basic model through micro-founded fertility choices of individuals. By introducing the endogenous fertility rate into the basic model, we generate a demographic transition. Next, consistent with Malthusian cycle literature, the inevitable time lag between individual reproductive decisions and subsequent market needs, in conjunction with a highly specialized labor force, appear to be the primary source of such long-run oscillations. Finally, the model predicts that raising the age of entry into the labor force increases economic growth.     

Antecedents to complaint behaviour in the context of restaurant goers

Abstract

This article deals with the process by which consumer complaint behaviour is formed. The general aim is to analyse the nature of this type of response to dissatisfaction, describing its development in terms of how it is influenced by a combination of several factors already researched in the literature. The most relevant contributions from the related theoretical work indicate that public and private responses (complaint behaviour) are the most common reactions of consumers when faced with a dissatisfactory experience. A group of determinants which influence these responses in different ways has also been identified. The main objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between the different determinants of complaint behaviour with the aim of identifying the variables which exert the greatest influence.     

Interviewing and surveying over the phone: a reflexive account of a research on parenting

This paper is on the role that the phone plays in a mixed-methods empirical research. In the current sociological literature, the phone is a methodological object associated with quantitative fieldwork, while little is said on the phone as a tool for qualitative research. We reflect here on a case study on the use of parental leaves by fathers in Spain, which included the phone as the only communication tool between researchers and subjects. We collect out own experience as interviewers in the qualitative phase of the research project, and interviewed surveyors working in the field. We analyze the discursive data following grounded theory principles and compare the use of both techniques in the data gathering process, including sampling and design. Thus, we consider interviewing and surveying as mediated communication situations. Our findings show that the value of the phone as a tool for research is a matter of adequacy to a given methodology, rather than an issue of validity, reliability, or credibility.