Justifying the enclosure of monetary incentives in mail survey cover letters

An experiment was conducted in which survey questionnaires were sent to two hundred randomly selected residents of a midwestern city. For half of the respondents, a one dollar bill ($1.00) was enclosed with the questionnaire whereas for the other half, only a quarter ($.25) was enclosed. Furthermore, the enclosure of the monetary incentive was justified in the cover letter as either an appreciative gesture or as a direct attempt to induce feelings of obligation to return the questionnaires. Subsequent response rates were assessed by condition. The overall response rate for the $1.00 condition was significantly higher than the response rate for the $.25 condition. Furthermore, the obligatory cover letter produced a significantly higher response rate than the appreciative cover letter, but only within the $1.00 conditions. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

The Ethics of Professorial Book Selling: Morality, Money and "Black Market" Books

This study used experimental and correlational techniques to examine perceptions that university faculty hold regarding the practice of professorial selling of examination textbooks to wholesalers. Faculty members (n = 236) from 14 universities and community colleges and a wide variety of academic disciplines responded to a web-based survey. We presented hypothetical selling situations to respondents with manipulated variables consisting of solicitation status (unsolicited versus solicited) and use of money (for faculty or for student activities). Both main effects and the interaction effect were significant such that respondents perceived it to be more ethical to sell an examination book when the book was unsolicited and when the money was being used to fund student activities. The variable most correlated with faculty members' beliefs that book selling is ethical and the faculty members' self-reports of whether or not they have engaged in bookselling was how widespread the practice appeared to be on campus. About 30 percent of faculty members sold textbooks over the past year at a dollar value of about $80 per professor. About 38 percent of respondents reported they believed the practice to be generally ethical. Implications for business ethics theory, students' moral development, and advancement of on-campus codes of ethics policies are discussed along with avenues for future research.     

Is the US Dollar a Suitable Anchor for the Newly Proposed GCC Currency?

Responses of inflation and non‐oil output growth from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to monetary policy shocks from the United States (US) were estimated to determine whether there is evidence to support the US dollar as the anchor for the proposed unified currency. A structural vector autoregression identified with short‐run restrictions was employed for each country with Fed funds rate as the US monetary policy instrument, non‐oil output growth and inflation. The main results suggest that for inflation, the GCC countries show synchronised responses to monetary policy shocks from the US which are similar to inflation in the US, and for non‐oil output growth, there is no clear indication that US monetary policy can be as effective for the GCC countries as it is domestically. Consequently, importing US monetary policy via a dollar peg may guarantee only stable inflation for the GCC countries – not necessarily stable non‐oil output growth. If the non‐oil output response is made conscientiously – and there are concerns over the dollar’s ability to perform its role as a store of value – a basket peg with both the US dollar and the euro may be a sound alternative as confirmed by the variance decomposition analysis of our augmented SVAR with a proxy for the European short‐term interest rate.     

China and Its Dollar Exchange Rate: A Worldwide Stabilising Influence?1

China is criticised for keeping its dollar exchange rate fairly stable when it has a large trade (saving) surplus. This criticism is misplaced in two ways. First, no predictable link exists between the exchange rate and the trade balance of an international creditor economy. Second, since 1995, the stable yuan/dollar rate has anchored China’s price level and facilitated counter cyclical fiscal policies that have smoothed its high real GDP growth at a remarkable 9 to 11 per cent per year. With its now greater GDP, China displaces Japan as the largest economy in East Asia – but with a much stronger stabilising influence on East Asian neighbours from its higher economic growth and more stable dollar exchange rate. Now, an ever larger China is an essential stabiliser for the world economy – as exemplified by its prompt and effective fiscal response to the global credit crunch of 2008–09. However, cumulating financial distortions – in China and the United States – threaten to undermine China’s growth and its stabilising influence on the rest of the world.     

ADR rule of thumb: Validity and suggestions for its application

Hotel investors use the ADR rule of thumb because it's simple—a hotel should generate one dollar in ADR per every $1,000 in value per guest room; but that rule is not without its problems.     

The Retail Travels of the U.S. Greenback: A Comparative Study of Currency Substitution Along the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican Borders

This currency substitution study explores the extent of retail firm-level U.S. dollar acceptance in Canada and Mexico. Employing a stratified random sampling approach of retail business in the border region, results demonstrate that all Mexican firms (N = 300/300) and nearly all Canadian (N = 257/261) firms accept the U.S. dollar in retail transactions. Of greater interest is the difference between firms in the two countries in how acceptance of the U.S. dollar is operationalized. On average, U.S. dollar sales of Canadian border firms comprise just 3.4% of total sales whereas U.S. dollar sales of Mexican firms encompass 23.7% of total sales. Our results also indicate a stark contrast as to the effective exchange rate for U.S. dollar acceptance— Canadian firms typically charge a premium (2.1% on average) while 69.3% of Mexican firms transacted business at a discount (?0.8% on average). Additional analyses further refine the currency substitution distinctions between Canadian and Mexican firms in the sample including a logistical regression which reveals significant differences as to firm-level predictors of U.S. dollar acceptance (whether at a discount or premium).     

Perceived Marketplace Influence and Consumer Ethical Action

The present work presents two studies exploring the impact of perceived marketplace influence (PMI) on consumer decisions to engage in ethical marketplace action. Study 1 shows that PMI is associated with positive (negative) word‐of‐mouth in response to the ethical (unethical) actions of an organization. Study 2 shows that PMI is associated with the purchase of and willingness to pay for ethical products Fair Trade and philanthropy‐linked ethical products. Differences emerge between the two dimensions of PMI (PMI Consumer and PMI Organization) based on the hedonic or utilitarian features of the products. Results also show autonomous motivation to mediate the relationship between PMI and ethical intentions. We conclude with discussion of the implications of PMI for policy and consumer well‐being.     

The relative importance of time and dollar values in new product introduction decisions

This study investigates managerial sensitivity to timing differences in new product introduction decisions. Using a case scenario as the research setting, the study finds that in managerial decisions involving a choice between two-attribute alternatives (dollar value and time), respondents shifted their emphasis between attributes when they were personally affected by the decision outcome. Specifically, it was found that an additive constant manipulation (adding a constant to the dollar amount of each alternative) caused respondents to place more emphasis on the time attribute, and a multiplicative constant manipulation (multiplying the dollar amount of each alternative by a constant) caused them to place more emphasis on the dollar-value attribute.The study asks 108 subjects to assume the role of product manager in a case scenario and choose from among three two-attribute alternatives proposed by the case. The personal relevance of the decision was manipulated by telling respondents that the CEO in the decision scenario had stated publicly that the career of the decision maker would be (would not be) affected. The results show that the additive constant and multiplicative constant effects were only found when the decision outcomes would affect the respondents' career.     

Consumer Knowledge of the Costs of Open-end Credit

A 1977 mail survey of 1,330 Minnesota households found that few respondents had knowledge of the annual percentage rate (APR) of interest on open-end credit accounts or knowledge of the actual dollar finance charge. Knowledge of APR and knowledge of actual dollar costs were, however, found to be closely associated with more realistic assessments of “reasonable” credit costs. Economic theory predicts that those who misperceive credit costs will not use an optimum amount of credit given their preferences and resources, 2nd will, therefore, incur some economic loss. This study found that those respondents most likely to have incurred such losses were from households characterized by low levels of income and education.     

The effect of employee turnover on hotel profits: A test across multiple hotels

Employee turnover is generally recognized as a costly phenomenon, and hotel companies consequently have initiated various turnover-reduction programs. Despite many studies, however, it remains difficult to assess exactly what effect turnover has on operating profits—and thus to assess the return on investment for initiatives designed to reduce turnover. An analysis of gross operating profits and employee turnover rates at 98 full-service hotels at one hotel company yields an estimate of the actual dollar costs of employee turnover. In general, the cost of turnover increases with ADR. That is, the cost of a 1-point increase in turnover is greater for a hotel with a high ADR than for an economy-tier property. On average for this sample, the cost in GOP of a 1-point increase in turnover rose $525 with every dollar increase in ADR. Thus, for a hotel with a $125 ADR, each point increase in turnover cost another $32,750 per year in GOP. On the other hand, a hotel with an ADR of $65 would be losing just $1,250 for every additional point increase in turnover.     

美元周期性波动对我国跨境资本流动的非对称效应研究

有效应对和防范跨境资本流动冲击，维护外汇市场稳定是贯彻落实习总书记“打好防范化解重大风险攻坚战”的重要举措。目前，美元已进入强周期，我国正面临着由强势美元引发的货币贬值、资本外流等风险，当前背景下研究美元周期性波动特征、区制划分及其对跨境资本流动的影响具有重要的理论和现实意义。本文基于2006年10月至2018年6月的月度数据，运用理论模型和MSVAR模型分析美元周期性波动对我国跨境资本流动的非对称效应。研究表明，中美利差对跨境资本流动的影响存在非对称效应，当投资者不存在恐慌避险情绪时，利差的变化将不会引起大规模的跨国资本流动。美元指数对跨境资本流动的冲击效应具有一定的时滞性，美元升值将引发跨境资本流出，且冲击效应持续时间明显长于利差冲击。VIX指数和人民币汇率对跨境资本流动影响较弱，但呈现非对称性特征。加息和缩表后美元升值对资本外流的推动作用明显强于加息和缩表前，表明第三轮强周期下美元升值对我国跨境资本流动的影响更大。     

The role of venture capital in financing small business

Venture capital is a primary and unique source of funding for small firms because these firms (with sales and/or assets under $5 million) have very limited access to traditional capital markets. Venture capital is a substitute, but not a perfect substitute, for trade credit, bank credit, and other forms of financing for small firms. Small businesses are not likely to be successful in attracting venture capital unless the firms have the potential to provide extraordinary returns to the venture capitalist.This study provides an analysis of a survey of venture capital firms that participate in small business financing. The survey participants are venture capital firms that were 1986 members of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the largest venture capital association in the United States.The average size of the venture capital firms responding to the survey is $92 million dollars in assets, with a range from $600 thousand to $500 million. Twenty-three percent of the respondents have total assets below $20 million, and 27% have assets above $100 million.The venture capitalists' investment (assets held) in small firms delineate the supply of venture capital to small firms. Sixty-three of the 92 venture capitalists' have more than 70% of their assets invested in small firms.The venture capitalists were asked how their investment plans might change with changes in the tax law that were projected in the spring of 1986. Fifty-four percent expected to increase their investments in small firms, and 38% did not expect to change these activities.Venture capitalists are very selective in allocating their resources. The average number of annual requests that a venture capitalist receives is 652, and the median number is 500: only 11.5 of the respondents receive more than 1,000 proposals per year.     

Is the USA depriving the rest of the world of capital?

High American interest rates and confident expectations about the future dollar exchange rate have exerted an unprecedented attraction on foreign capital in the past two years. Gross capital inflows into the USA came to as much as $ 89 billion and $ 83 billion in 1982 and 1983 respectively. It is widely held that this is depleting the supply of capital to the rest of the world. Is this view justified?     

The Effects of Monetary Magnitude and Level of Aggregation on the Temporal Framing of Price

Existing research has shown that the pennies-a-day strategy of reframing a large aggregate expense as a small daily expense helps to reduce the perceived cost of a transaction (Nagle and Holden, 1995; Price, 1995; Gourville, 1998, 1999). This paper builds on this research and explores the robustness of the phenomenon across two dimensions – (1) the level of temporal aggregation and (2) the dollar magnitude of the transaction. First, we show that the effectiveness of a pennies-a-day strategy is not limited to per-day framing. Rather, we find a more general phenomenon in which a less aggregate expense is preferred to a more aggregate expense, such that if a per-day framing is preferred to a per-year framing, than a per-month framing also will be preferred to a per-year framing. Second, we show that this effectiveness reverses with the magnitude of the underlying expense, such that while a framing of $1 per day is preferred to one of $365 per year, a framing of $4200 per year is preferred to one of $11.50 per day.     

Weiner,Richard. Professional's Guide to Publicity. New York: Richard Weiner,Inc., 1975

Abstract

An experiment involving 400 randomly selected professionals from the midwestern United States indicated that the response rate to a mail questionnaire was significantly increased by the use of an enclosed one dollar incentive. Promised incentives of two dollars and entry into a lottery with awards of fifty dollars, thirty dollars, and twenty dollars in return for a completed questionnaire did not significantly change the response rate to the mail questionnaire relative to the no incentive (control) group response rate. The two dollar promised incentive group had a higher response rate than the lottery-type promised incentive group with prizes of fifty, thirty, and twenty dollars.     

Designing EU–US Atlantic Monetary Relations: Exchange Rate Variability and Labour Markets

The variability of the euro seems to have a statistically significant and economically small, but non‐negligible, impact on labour markets in Euroland. Unemployment tends to increase and employment growth tends to fall whenever the effective exchange rate of the euro or the bilateral euro/dollar exchange rate becomes more variable. In the US a similar effect seems to be operating, but it is statistically less strong, especially concerning employment growth, which seems largely insulated from exchange rate variability. These results fit the general observation that US labour markets are more flexible and that the euro area is considerably more open than the US (exports of goods and services amount to close to 18 per cent of Euroland GDP versus only about 11 per cent for the US).     

Comprehensive Homeowners Microinsurance in Brazil: Estimation of Pricing and Market Potential

This study examines the question of comprehensive microinsurance for Brazilian homeowners. In particular, the study calculates (i) pricing for selected types of microinsurance homeowner's coverages and insured amounts and (ii) the estimated market potential of this product. The Brazilian agency charged with responsibility for regulation of private insurance, SUSEP, has determined that microinsurance should be aimed at families with a monthly per capita income of up to two minimum wages. According to this criterion, the study finds that there are more than 42 million households in Brazil eligible for microinsurance. The study also finds that microinsurance premiums for these households would be very low (US $0.97 to 2.03 per month)—less than 1% of average household income. This type of insurance would certainly be viable, considering the calculated market size of approximately US $780 million per year. These figures show that there is significant potential for the expansion of the microinsurance market in Brazil.     

Assessing the Business Value of Information Technology in Global Wholesale Banking: The Case of Trade Services

The investment in information technologies (IT) in the financial services sector has proliferated in the last decade. Yet there is very little research examining the impact of IT in the financial services sector. In this article, we focus on the trade services application in global wholesale banking. We use the production function approach to estimate the impact of IT in this application. Our estimate of the output elasticity of IT is positive and statistically significant. In addition, we find that the return on investment of IT (increase in dollar revenue per dollar spent in IT) is about 100% per year, holding labor input constant. Our study provides one instance of direct evidence that IT has a favorable impact on productivity in the financial services sector.     

The rise of dollar credit in emerging market economies and US monetary policy

This paper examines the hypothesis that the boom in dollar credit in emerging market economies (EMEs) is associated with an excessively low interest rate in the US. For this purpose, we use a multivariate correlated unobserved component model that allows for correlation between shocks to dollar credit, cross‐border interest rate gaps—measured as the difference between emerging market interest rate and the US interest rate, and dollar index both in the short run and in the long run. In addition, it also provides us a quantitative estimate of the permanent and transitory movements in dollar credit in EMEs, interest rate gaps and dollar index. The results from this model do suggest that a temporary increase in interest rate gaps and decline in the dollar index are associated with a temporary increase in the dollar credit in EMEs with a very high degree of correlation. The estimate of the cyclical component of the dollar credit in EMEs from our model captures the recent boom and bust in this market and compares favourably to alternative trend–cycle decomposition methods.     

Does Euro or Dollar Pegging Impact the Real Exchange Rate? The Case of Oil and Commodity Currencies

The aim of this paper is to investigate the equilibrium exchange rates for commodity and oil currencies as well as the discrepancies of their observed exchange rates to these equilibriums. To this end, first, we estimate a long‐term relationship between the real effective exchange rate and economic fundamentals, including the commodity terms of trade. The estimation relies on panel cointegration techniques and covers annual data from 1980 to 2007. Our results show that real exchange rates co‐move with commodity prices in the long run and respond to oil price somewhat less than to commodity prices. Second, we assess the degree of misalignment of these currencies, as the gap between their observed exchange rate and the estimated equilibrium exchange rate. We show that these misalignments are not significantly related to the exchange rate regimes adopted by the countries, either pegged or floating. However, for pegged currencies, the size of misalignments significantly depends on the anchor currency, either the euro or the dollar. A comparison of misalignments of pegged commodity and oil currencies across different periods confirms these results: during periods of dollar (euro) overvaluation, currencies pegged to the dollar (euro) tend to be overvalued; the reverse being true when the dollar (euro) is undervalued. Consequently, pegged currencies are often driven away from their equilibria by wild fluctuations in the key currencies, on which they are anchored.