Bond Market Structure in the Presence of Marked Point Processes

We investigate the term structure of zero coupon bonds when interest rates are driven by a general marked point process as well as by a Wiener process. Developing a theory that allows for measure–valued trading portfolios, we study existence and uniqueness of a martingale measure. We also study completeness and its relation to the uniqueness of a martingale measure. For the case of a finite jump spectrum we give a fairly general completeness result and for a Wiener–Poisson model we prove the existence of a time–independent set of basic bonds. We also give sufficient conditions for the existence of an affine term structure.     

Predictable forward performance processes: Infrequent evaluation and applications to human-machine interactions

We study discrete-time predictable forward processes when trading times do not coincide with performance evaluation times in a binomial tree model for the financial market. The key step in the construction of these processes is to solve a linear functional equation of higher order associated with the inverse problem driving the evolution of the predictable forward process. We provide sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness and an explicit construction of the predictable forward process under these conditions. Furthermore, we find that these processes are inherently myopic in the sense that optimal strategies do not make use of future model parameters even if these are known. Finally, we argue that predictable forward preferences are a viable framework to model human-machine interactions occurring in automated trading or robo-advising. For both applications, we determine an optimal interaction schedule of a human agent interacting infrequently with a machine that is in charge of trading.     

ON AGENT’S AGREEMENT AND PARTIAL‐EQUILIBRIUM PRICING IN INCOMPLETE MARKETS

We consider two risk‐averse financial agents who negotiate the price of an illiquid indivisible contingent claim in an incomplete semimartingale market environment. Under the assumption that the agents are exponential utility maximizers with nontraded random endowments, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for negotiation to be successful, i.e., for the trade to occur. We also study the asymptotic case where the size of the claim is small compared to the random endowments and we give a full characterization in this case. Finally, we study a partial‐equilibrium problem for a bundle of divisible claims and establish existence and uniqueness. A number of technical results on conditional indifference prices is provided.     

Effective risk aversion in thin risk‐sharing markets

We consider thin incomplete financial markets, where traders with heterogeneous preferences and risk exposures have motive to behave strategically regarding the demand schedules they submit, thereby impacting prices and allocations. We argue that traders relatively more exposed to the market portfolio tend to behave in a more risk tolerant manner. Noncompetitive equilibrium prices and allocations result as an outcome of a game among traders. General sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of such equilibrium are provided, with extensive analysis of two‐trader transactions. Even though strategic behavior causes inefficient social allocations, traders with sufficiently high risk tolerance and/or high initial exposure to tradable securities obtain more utility gain in the noncompetitive equilibrium, when compared to the competitive one.     

TERM STRUCTURES OF IMPLIED VOLATILITIES: ABSENCE OF ARBITRAGE AND EXISTENCE RESULTS

This paper studies modeling and existence issues for market models of stochastic implied volatility in a continuous-time framework with one stock, one bank account, and a family of European options for all maturities with a fixed payoff function h . We first characterize absence of arbitrage in terms of drift conditions for the forward implied volatilities corresponding to a general convex h . For the resulting infinite system of SDEs for the stock and all the forward implied volatilities, we then study the question of solvability and provide sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of a solution. We do this for two examples of h , namely, calls with a fixed strike and a fixed power of the terminal stock price, and we give explicit examples of volatility coefficients satisfying the required assumptions.     

ON UTILITY-BASED PRICING OF CONTINGENT CLAIMS IN INCOMPLETE MARKETS

We study the uniqueness of the marginal utility-based price of contingent claims in a semimartingale model of an incomplete financial market. In particular, we obtain that a necessary and sufficient condition for all bounded contingent claims to admit a unique marginal utility-based price is that the solution to the dual problem defines an equivalent local martingale measure.     

A note on the “unique” business cycle in the Keynesian theory

In this paper, we explore the existence and “uniqueness” of a limit cycle in the Keynesian theory. In a model with the simplest (linear) Keynesian consumption function and the logistic investment function based upon the profit principle, we establish the existence of a periodic orbit (irrespective of the speed of quantity adjustment) and, with the help of the theory on generalized Liénard systems, verify the uniqueness of it for the case in which the speed of quantity adjustment is large enough.     

International Co‐movements of Business Cycles in a ‘Phase‐locking’ Model

The possibility of co‐movements in the cyclical variations of aggregate output in different countries has received increasing attention in recent years. The present paper derives sufficient conditions for the occurrence of persistent co‐movements in the mean processes of aggregate economic variables of different countries, an effect called ‘phase‐locking’. The fact that the ‘phase‐locking’ effect results under fairly elementary assumptions may be taken to challenge the sophisticated theoretical speculations about the international transmission of business cycles. International co‐movements may simply be due to a ‘technical’ effect which is generic to interrelated cycling dynamic systems.     

Optimal equilibria for time‐inconsistent stopping problems in continuous time

For an infinite‐horizon continuous‐time optimal stopping problem under nonexponential discounting, we look for an optimal equilibrium, which generates larger values than any other equilibrium does on the entire state space. When the discount function is log subadditive and the state process is one‐dimensional, an optimal equilibrium is constructed in a specific form, under appropriate regularity and integrability conditions. Although there may exist other optimal equilibria, we show that they can differ from the constructed one in very limited ways. This leads to a sufficient condition for the uniqueness of optimal equilibria, up to some closedness condition. To illustrate our theoretic results, a comprehensive analysis is carried out for three specific stopping problems, concerning asset liquidation and real options valuation. For each one of them, an optimal equilibrium is characterized through an explicit formula.     

Special fonts: The competing roles of difficulty and uniqueness in consumer inference

The use of special fonts in marketing communications may have more complex effects than expected. This study examines multiple effects of special fonts and proposes boundary conditions for the effects. Special fonts are perceived as more unique and difficult to read than regular fonts. Five experimental studies show that whereas the perception of uniqueness decreases the awareness of missing information, leading to more favorable initial judgments but a higher likelihood of regret later, the perception of difficulty has the opposite effects. These competing effects are moderated by contextual cues that vary the salience of uniqueness versus difficulty associated with special fonts. Specifically, consumers are more influenced by the uniqueness of special fonts when they rate the degree of uniqueness before the degree of difficulty or when they evaluate a product category (e.g., a handmade item or a décor) that is generally expected to be unique. On the contrary, they are more influenced by difficulty when they rate difficulty first or when they evaluate a product category (e.g., “a tax preparation service”) that is unexpected to be unique. Implications of the results for understanding the effects of fonts on information processing and consumer inference are discussed.     

Consumer preferences for human uniqueness in marketing communications

Brand images that remind us of our similarities with other animals are not uncommon in marketing. Conversely, research indicates that we hold subconscious preferences for human distinctiveness from all other animals as a means to defend existentially related self-esteem. The current research explores the different conditions in which these preferences materialize and are reversed. Consumers with high levels of existential anxiety reveal more favorable brand attitudes after being exposed to advertisements promoting human uniqueness as opposed to human–animal sameness. These effects also lead to increased donation likelihood toward a charitable organization fighting for the preservation of endangered species. Interestingly under conditions of low existential anxiety, these effects reverse.     

各城市限牌政策影响分析

本文通过对国内六大城市限牌政策的比较研究,分析中签率不断走低和竞拍价格总体走高趋势下的各种后续效应,以及这些效应对城市交通管理的影响。未来加入限牌行列的城市应充分关注限牌的负面效应,制定更为合理的政策。     

独特化需求对虚拟代言人说服效果影响研究

虚拟代言人在营销沟通中担任重要角色,但以往研究多关注各项拟人化特征对广告效果的影响,鲜有对消费者的独特化需求特质如何影响虚拟代言人沟通效果的研究。通过三个实验研究,考察两类代言人（虚拟代言人与真人）与消费者独特化需求水平（从低到高）交互作用下的广告说服效果。研究一表明：不同代言人类型的广告说服效果受消费者独特化需求水平的调节,其中高独特化需求的消费者对虚拟代言人的反应更积极。研究二进一步发现：独特化需求和代言人类型的交互作用是通过积极情绪作为中介路径,进而提升广告说服力。研究三加入品牌类型（奢侈品牌与大众品牌）作三阶调节效应检验,结果显示：虚拟代言人在大众品牌广告中,对高独特化需求的消费者说服力要比真人代言人的说服力更强;然而这种调节效应在奢侈品牌广告中差异不显著。     

Unique like everybody else? The dual role of consumers' need for uniqueness

Uniqueness has a positive and attractive connotation, but being too unique can result in social sanctions. This paper focuses on the dual role of consumers' need for uniqueness. The findings of two studies in Israel support the notion that expressing uniqueness via consumption behavior is a safe way to achieve a different sense of being without damaging an individual's sense of social assimilation. The results imply a possible new theoretical view of the interplay between consumers' need for uniqueness and their need for social assimilation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Product uniqueness as a driver of customer utility in mass customization

Mass customization (MC) constitutes a promising strategy for companies which aim to provide products which are better adapted to individual customers’ aesthetic and functional preferences. Drawing on commodity theory, we argue that the perceived uniqueness of a self-designed product is a second driver of utility in MC. We find that in addition to the significant effect of aesthetic and functional fit, the perceived uniqueness of a self-designed product (1) contributes independently to the utility a customer experiences, and (2) that this effect is moderated by the consumer’s need for uniqueness. In product categories which can serve this counterconformity motive for consumers, this suggests that MC toolkits should be constructed with the objective of facilitating the creation of unique products as well as providing affirmative feedback that this uniqueness has been achieved.     

社会信用风险管理模式、特征和主要趋势

社会信用风险的本质就是信息不完全条件下的逆向选择和道德风险.本文认为,有限理性和机会主义行为倾向是产生社会信用风险的必要条件,契约不完备性、信用制度不健全以及社会信用管理水平不高则是充分条件.社会信用风险具有两个主要特征:社会信用风险是不可避免的,不可能消除社会信用风险;社会信用风险是可以管理的,可以通过良好的制度设计和管理把社会信用风险控制在社会可以接受的水平.文章提出,当代社会信用风险管理的特征和发展趋势从总体上可以归纳为八个方面:制度化、全程化、模型化、精细化、专业化、市场化、规模化和全球化.     

Predicting high consumer-brand identification and high repurchase: Necessary and sufficient conditions

The objective of this paper is to explore the necessary and sufficient conditions to obtain high consumer-brand identification (CBI) and high repurchase intentions (Rep). Different from most business research on CBI and Rep that is based on symmetric thinking, this paper uses asymmetric analytics and performs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The findings show that (1) although it is possible to identify the necessary conditions for very high consumer-brand identification and very high repurchase intentions, no combination of conditions is sufficient to achieve these outcomes; (2) affective drivers have more importance than cognitive drivers for obtaining high CBI; (3) the configuration solutions for high CBI include at least two antecedents; (4) high CBI is a sufficient but not necessary condition for high Rep; (5) high Rep can also be achieved if brand-self similarity and brand identity occur; and (6) memorable brand experiences alone may be enough to obtain high Rep.     

On the shape of the single-country and world commodity-substitution and factor-substitution surfaces under conditions of joint production

In recent years trade theorists have completed the task of specifying necessary and sufficient conditions for the single-country and world transformation surfaces to be locally of any assigned degree of flatness. However those conditions are relevant only if the technology is of the no-joint-products type. In the present note we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the single-country and world transformation surfaces to be of any assigned degree of flatness under conditions of joint production; and we also obtain, as a by-product, necessary and sufficient conditions for the single-country and world equal-product surfaces to be of any assigned degree of flatness.     

A COMPLETE THEORY OF COMPARATIVE STATICS FOR DIFFERENTIABLE OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

A new comparative statics formalism using generalized compensated derivatives is presented that, in contrast to existing methodologies, directly yields constraint‐free semidefiniteness results for any differentiable, constrained optimization problem. The formalism provides a natural and powerful method of constructing comparative statics results, free of constraints and unrestricted in scope. New results on envelope relations, invariance conditions, rank inequalities and non‐uniqueness are derived that greatly extend their utility and reach. The methodology is illustrated by deriving the comparative statics of multiple linear constraint utility maximization models and the principal‐agent problem with hidden actions, both highly nontrivial and hitherto unsolved problems.     

The Impact of Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness and Nationality on Generation Y's Retail Patronage Behaviors: Investigating American and Taiwanese Consumers

ABSTRACT

Generation Y (Gen Y) consumers are now one of the most influential buying segments in U.S. history. This article empirically assesses the extent to which American Gen Y consumers and same-aged Taiwanese consumers’ need for uniqueness serves as a meaningful discriminant across retail patronage behaviors for branded apparel products. Results indicate a great deal of similarity between the two cultures’ need for uniqueness. Empirical findings reveal that consumers’ need for uniqueness does influence retail patronage behaviors. The implications of the similarities and differences between American Gen Y consumers and their Taiwanese counterparts serve as potential managerial mechanisms for building and sustaining retail patronage in a globalization era.