Role of Forgetting in Memory-Based Choice Decisions: A Structural Model

We propose a structural model to investigate the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand choice decisions in frequently purchased products. Forgetting results in consumers imperfectly recalling their prior brand evaluations when making a purchase decision in the category. We conceptualize the imperfect recall by positing that consumers recall their prior evaluations with noise. Based on prior research in the behavioral area, we characterize the extent of forgetting as an increasing and concave function of time. Our framework generates analytical results on the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand evaluations and their consequent purchase behavior. We calibrate our model using scanner panel data for liquid detergents. Furthermore, we obtain insights into the consumers' extent of forgetting in the category, extent of learning, predicted price elasticities and implications on state dependence and habit persistence. Our results underscore the importance of modeling consumers' ability to recall only imperfectly.     

The Global Market for Agricultural Machinery and Equipment

Growth in the current-dollar sales of agricultural machinery and equipment was almost six percent per annum during 2000-2005.1 This was much faster than the 2.6 percent growth for agricultural output and the 1.2 percent rate for population in the same period. JEL Classification L64     

Managing International Distribution Channel Partners: A Cross-Cultural Approach

Although the topic of conflict has been extensively studied in the distribution channels literature from a domestic perspective, there is relatively little published research examining the construct within the international distribution channels context. This is of particular concern because cross-national channel partnerships are on the rise, and divergent cultures may engender heightened conflict, which has a deleterious effect on channel performance. This article explores the extent to which different channel leadership styles, predicated on Hofstede's dimensions of national culture, can be effective strategies to manage conflict in international distribution channels. Specifically, the article examines whether the relationship between leadership style and conflict in international distribution channels is moderated by national culture. Additionally, the impact of manifest conflict on international channel partner performance is investigated. A conceptual model and research propositions are developed. The use of leadership styles to manage disagreements among international channel partners is argued to be culturally specific. International channel management implications and directions for future research are suggested.     

Labor Regulations,Employment and Wages: Evidence from India's Apparel Sector

While India is among the world's largest producers and exporters of apparel products, the sector has not performed to its potential. This study analyzes why this might be so from the perspective of the structure of production in the sector, the most striking aspect of which is a firm size distribution heavily dominated by small firms. Using nationally representative firm‐level and labor force survey data, we argue that the dominance of firms operating at scales too small to apply modern production and management technologies is one proximate reason for India's relative underperformance. Further, we note that India's labor regulations and the associated enforcement regime are important policy drivers of Indian firms' tendency to avoid placing “too many workers under one roof”.     

Price Dynamics in a Vertical Sector: The Case of Butter

We develop a reduced-form model of price transmission in a vertical sector, allowing for refined asymmetric, contemporaneous and lagged, own and cross-price effects under time-varying volatility. The model is used to investigate the wholesale-retail price dynamics in the U.S. butter market. The analysis documents the nature of nonlinear price dynamics in a vertical sector. It finds strong evidence of asymmetric retail price responses, both in the short term and the longer term, but only weak evidence of asymmetric wholesale price responses. Asymmetric retail responses play a major role in generating a skewed distribution of butter prices. The empirical results indicate the presence of imperfect competition at the retail level.     

The existence of moments of some simple Bayes estimators of coefficients in a simultaneous equation model

In this paper a simple modification of the usual k-class estimators has been suggested so that for 0 ≦ k ≦ 1 the problem of the non-existence of moments disappears. These modified estimators can be interpreted either as Bayes estimators or as constrained estimators subject to the restriction that the squared length of the coefficient vector is less than or equal to a given number.     

Estimation of a dynamic demand function for gasoline with different schemes of parameter variation

In this article we explore the consumer demand for gasoline within the framework of the household production function model. Working with a time series of regional cross-sections, we find the parameters in the gasoline demand model varying across states. Random coefficient model is utilized to analyze temporal cross-section data.     

On Bayesian estimation of seemingly unrelated regressions when some observations are missing

In this paper we have considered the problem of estimating the parameters of two seemingly unrelated regression equations when the number of available observations on all the variables in the first equation exceeds the number of available observations on all the variables in the second equation. We have shown how, within the Bayesian framework, extra observations on all the variables in the first equation can be readily and formally utilized in obtaining the exact or an approximate posterior distributions of all the coefficients including those in the second equation.