Precautionary behavior and consumer information: A Markov process approach

This paper explores the role of consumer confidence in the equilibrium of a dynamic macroeconomic growth model with rational expectations. Consumers face an uncertain future income stream due to a Markov stochastic process that affects production. Changes in the properties of this process change consumer information sets and optimal policies in the rational expectations format. Increases in “persistence” in the shock process are considered; this is identified with the consumer's subjective assessment of future economic conditions. Two cases are considered: where either good or bad states of the process are more likely to persist into the future, and where bad states persist unconditionally at the expense of good. Consistent with earlier treatments of savings under uncertainty (Barsky, Mankiw and Zeldes 1986, and Skinner 1988), the consumer's response to increased income uncertainty is to exhibit precautionary saving behavior. The infinite-horizon growth model format used offers significant improvement over other finite-horizon life cycle models. Specifically, the model is a full general equilibrium model and the solutions are rational expectations solutions. The technique also is easily adapted to other recursive decision problems under uncertainty.     

大学生旅游者旅游消费行为探析

大学生旅游成为新的经济亮点,大学生在求知心理、好奇心理、解脱心理等动机影响下,加入旅游大军之中,但因其消费水平的偏低,必然带来积极和消极两个方面的影响。     

Continuous utility functions in consumer theory: A set of duality theorems

The aim of this paper is to characterize, in terms of primitives, the class of expenditure functions and the class of indirect utility functions that are associated with the class of continuous utility functions. Once the duality results are established, the theory is extended by theorems which provide useful methods for identifying these classes of expenditure and indirect utility functions.     

A threshold theory of discretionary interaction behavior

There presently exists a gap between aggregate and disaggregate approaches to modeling spatial interaction behavior. This paper proposes a strategy for filling this gap by focusing on specific types of interaction behavior which share certain common characteristics. In the present case, a simple threshold theory is developed which establishes a link between various types of discretionary interaction behavior by individuals and the resulting macro distribution of interaction frequencies. In particular, it is shown that if the statistical population of potential interaction situations satisfies certain independence conditions over space, then the resulting macro interaction frequencies are always Poisson distributed with mean frequency levels representable by a classical gravity model.     

Axiomatic characterizations of the duality correspondence in consumer theory

In this paper we present several axiomatic characterizations of the mapping assigning to the utility function of a consumer its associated indirect utility function as well as characterizations of the inverse correspondence. Some of them refer to the standard case of real-valued functions, while others involve functions taking values in an arbitrary complete chain. In this abstract framework, we also give some simultaneos characterizations of both transformations.     

Is Giffen behaviour compatible with the axioms of consumer theory?

A family of direct utility functions is constructed which exhibit the characteristic of Giffenity, while satisfying the axioms of convexity and monotonicity. The approach starts by specifying a price offer curve, C₀, with a required backward-bending segment. Then a set of convex indifference curves is constructed having price offer curve arbitrarily close to C₀.     

Macroeconomic factors, consumer behavior, and bankcard default rates

Over the period from 1981 through 1999, we investigate the relationship between bankcard delinquencies and key macroeconomic variables. Changes in the proportion of accounts in default are statistically related to the consumer debt ratio. When the delinquency rate is calculated based on the number of dollars outstanding, it is related to the total amount of revolving debt. We also find evidence consistent with a pattern of selective default behavior, in which consumers will default on bankcard debt before defaulting on other types of installment loans.     

Safety behavior and consumer responses to cigarette lighter safety mechanisms

This paper analyzes consumer responses to lighter child-resistant mechanisms using an original sample of 200 households with young children. Results from an in-house placement of lighters indicate that the child-resistant mechanism would diminish consumer care. The child-resistant device reduced risk perceptions, parental concern with lighter safety, the assessed need for precautions, and consumer care. The results provide the most detailed empirical evidence of the mechanisms driving the diminished safety precautions in response to technological improvements in safety. The overall efficacy of the mechanism, however, is sufficient to generate a safety improvement despite the diminished care.     

Information provision and consumer search behavior for products with asymmetric uncertainty

When selling multiple products with asymmetric uncertainty, should the seller disclose product information so that customers do not have to incur any cost to resolve their uncertainties; if so, which product should the seller choose? To address these questions, we consider a monopolist selling two substitutable products to a group of consumers. Each consumer has asymmetric uncertainty regarding the two products. A total of four different information provision structures are considered based on whether the seller discloses information about each product with the aim of determining which strategy provides the seller with the greatest revenue. We derive several interesting results. First, the optimal information provision strategy depends on the magnitude of uncertainty in relation to the product with lower uncertainty. Specifically, if the uncertainty regarding the product with lower uncertainty is sufficiently small, it is optimal for the seller to provide information about the product with higher uncertainty, otherwise, the seller should provide information about both products. Second, when only one product's information should be revealed, it is optimal for the seller to choose the product with higher uncertainty and charge a higher price. Third, withholding information on both products is never optimal for the seller. Finally, our main model is extended by examining the Mean-Preserving Spread setting, and the robustness of our main results is confirmed. Furthermore, we examine the situation in which a monopolist sells a single product with two main attributes. We find that each of the four information provision strategies can be optimal under various scenarios.     

Donation dilemmas: A consumer behaviour perspective

With the aim of developing a better understanding of an individual's donation decision process this paper focuses on the information search undertaken by a prospective donor. It discusses the level of problem solving that characterises various donations, using the body of consumer decision-making literature to provide a theoretical framework for the investigation. From the results it appears that donor decision making follows a similar pattern to consumer buying decisions. There appears to be a low incidence of extended problem solving, even where relatively large donations are concerned. Examples of limited problem solving and routine response behaviour, by contrast, were more prevalent.     

A nonparametric test of weak separability and consumer preferences

Two stochastic nonparametric procedures are developed to evaluate the significance of violations of weak separability. When the data have measurement error, we show that the necessary and sufficient weak separability conditions of Varian [Varian, H., 1983. Nonparametric tests of consumer behavior. Review of Economic Studies 50, 99–110] must also satisfy the Afriat inequalities. The tests detect weak separability with high probability for weakly separable data. In addition, the procedures correctly reject weak separability for both nonseparable and random utility simulated data sets. The tests also fail to reject weak separability for a monetary and consumption data set which suggests that measurement error may be the source of the observed violations.     

Sustainable product innovation and changing consumer behavior: Sustainability affordances as triggers of adoption and usage

This conceptual paper argues that for sustainable product innovation to make a contribution to addressing sustainability issues, we need to understand not only why consumers adopt sustainable products but also what makes them use these in sustainable way. To explain how specific product features can change the ways in which consumers engage with sustainable products in the adoption and usage phase, we draw on affordance theory. Affordances refer to the potential for agentic action of users in relation to a technological object. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how sustainable product innovation can lead to the design of sustainability affordances that stimulate adoption and sustainable usage. The framework shows how three forms of agency—material, firm, and user agency—interact and together influence a product's sustainability affordances that drive adoption and a change in consumer behavior. The framework explains how trade-offs between a product's environmental features and consumer expectations regarding desired functionalities and user experience can be overcome.