The consumer stuck between a rock of victimhood and a hard place called responsibility: political discourses on the ‘consumer’ in Finnish and German governmental policy documents

Executive governmental authorities contribute a discourse, making‐up, outlining and configuring the consumer. The objective of this paper is to elaborate on the discursive construction of the consumer provided by governmental institutions. Exemplified by Finnish and German policy documents, this paper tries to provide an insight on the consumer as the subject that is governed by politics. Thus, a discourse analytic approach reveals according to what rationale the consumer is discursively constructed on a dichotomous sovereignty‐vulnerability‐continuum. Hence, this paper provides actors and institutions that are involved in consumer policy deliberate basic principles for the understanding of consumers.     

‘Sustainable transport choices’ in consumer shopping: a review of the UK evidence

In the UK, as elsewhere in Europe, government policy aims to reduce the use of private cars for consumer shopping trips. One major instrument of policy aims to ensure that new retail development is located in places accessible by all transport modes. This paper reviews the effectiveness of this and other such policies through analysis of survey evidence relating to routine shopping behaviour in the UK. It appears that these policies are likely to have little impact upon shopping travel, given the advantages to the consumer of private car use. However, demographic trends and increasing use of the Internet for food shopping are likely to stabilize or even reduce the use of private cars in the future.     

The role of exchange rates in a popular model of international trade : Does the ‘Marshall–Lerner’ condition hold?

This paper examines the empirical relationship between the real effective exchange rate and the aggregate real trade balance for five major OECD countries in the post-Bretton Woods era. A variety of parametric and non-parametric techniques are used. There is little evidence that the exchange rate significantly affects the trade balance.