Consumer Protection in Postwar Canada: Role and Contributions of the Consumers' Association of Canada to the Public Policy Process

This article traces the contribution of the Consumers' Association of Canada (CAC) to the advancement of Canadian consumer protection legislation in the decades after World War II. The theory of the consumerism life cycle shows that the CAC as the spearhead of grassroots consumer activism in Canada was able to address effectively consumer concerns at both the administrative and policymaking levels of government. Analysis of the rise and fall of consumerism in post–WWII Canada from the perspective of the consumerism life cycle also might well have implications for the further development of that theory.     

The Economics of Morality and Environmental Policy: Comment on the Paper by Frey

Journal of Consumer Policy -     

全面建设小康社会对消费经济研究提出的新课题

一、需要以实现人的全面发展为主线开拓消费经济研究党的十六大提出了全面建设小康社会的奋斗目标,十六届三中全会做出了完善社会主义市场经济体制的决定,给社会科学研究提出了一系列崭新的重大课题。其中,关于更高水平的小康社会,是更高程度的经济发展、民主健全、科教进步、文化繁荣、社会和谐、生活殷实等各方面协调统一的社会;关于“坚持以人为本,树立全面、协调、可持续的发展观,促进经济社会和人的全面发展”(《中共中央关于完善社会主义市场经济体制若干问题的决定》);关于完善社会主义市场经济体制,必须做到统筹城乡发展、统筹区域…     

Consumer Independence,Vulnerability and Public Policy: The Case of Free Matter for the Blind

Legislation limiting access to advertising may inadvertently limit consumers from independently making consumption decisions. This article addresses the possibility that legislation limiting access to information may inadvertently create vulnerability for the consumers it is meant to protect. A specific public policy outlining the Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped program is discussed.     

Consumer Policy in a Market Economy Considerations from the Perspective of the Economics of Information,the New Institutional Economics as well as Behavioural Economics

The question concerning when a governmental intervention in the market system is justified has occupied economists from the very beginning and has been a controversial discussion topic for just as long. Against this background, with respect to modern consumer policy, which still represents a relatively young field in the theory of economic policy, it is vital to find sound economic reasons for governmental regulations in order to protect consumers. Therefore, the article attempts to assess what the various economic literatures have added to our understanding of good consumer policy. For this reason, those policy implications that might flow from different theoretical approaches in order to broaden the foundation of an economic justification for consumer policy will be analysed. For this purpose, the consumer policy implications of the Economics of Information will be described, including a denomination of some certain problems all of which are not covered satisfactorily by this approach. Subsequently and in order to amend the informational economics framework, further economical approaches from New Institutional Economics, Behavioural Economics as well as Behavioural Consumer Research, which provide a complementary analysis of consumer behaviour in consideration of the respective decision-making situations and determining constraints (formal and informal rules, cognitive and emotional boundaries), will be discussed comparatively with respect to their consumer policy implications.     

EC Law, the Environment and Consumers: Addressing the Challenge of Incorporating an Environmental Dimension to Consumer Protection at Community Level

The principal objective of this paper is to stimulate debate about the current state of the relationship and tensions between consumer and environmental protection policies at Community level. By virtue of the constitutional changes to Community Law introduced by the Single European Act 1986 (SEA) and the Treaty on European Union 1992 (TEU), the European Community (EC) has committed itself to re-evaluating its core, fundamental aim of attaining completion of market integration. The EC is now compelled to address whether the development of open and free market conditions ultimately serves the best interests and priorities of its inhabitants and whether its original goals adequately internalise their environmental concerns and demands. This paper aims to assess critically to what extent EC policy and law have responded to these new challenges and requirements by focusing, firstly, on the caselaw of the European Court of Justice and, secondly, on policy innovations introduced by and constraints facing the EC legislative institutions. Ten years on from the SEA, it appears that the Community has barely started to confront the issue of the consumer-environment interrelationship, with the result that political and legal developments have been unclear and often contradictory. The Community must begin to match its rhetoric with definitive action.     

Pleasure and the Control of Food Intake: An Embodied Cognition Approach to Consumer Self‐Regulation

Consumers try to avoid temptation when exposed to appetizing foods by diverting their attention away from their senses (e.g., sight, smell, mouthfeel) and bodily states (e.g., state of arousal, salivation) in order to focus on their longer term goals (e.g., eating healthily, achieving an ideal body weight). However, when not including sensations in their decision‐making processes, consumers risk depleting their self‐regulatory resources, potentially leading to unhealthy food choices. Conversely, based on the concept of “embodied self‐regulation,” the suggestion is made that considering bodily states may help consumers regulate their food choices more effectively. A new model is proposed that facilitates understanding observed consumer behavior and the success or failure of self‐control in food intake. It is argued that bodily states and sensory information should be considered when modeling consumer behavior and developing health‐related advocacy and communication campaigns. The model proposed here leads to new perspectives on consumer consumption behavior and health policy research and strategies.     

国家财政"三农"支持政策的回顾与展望

财政"三农"支持政策是国家财政政策的重要组成部分,也是促进农业和农村社会经济发展的重要财力保障.改革开放30年来,随着公共财政改革的推进和国家财力的大幅度增长,国家对财政的"三农"支持政策进行了重大创新,在强化农业基础地位、促进农民增收、推进新农村建设等方面,发挥了积极作用.但我国在支农政策运用方面还存在许多问题,如财政支农资金投入总量规模不足,比例不高,结构不合理,宏观效率不高,县乡基层财力薄弱等.为进一步完善国家财政"三农"支持政策,促进我国农业和农村社会经济全面发展,必须切实加大国家财政对"三农"投入的倾斜力度,建立规范的支农资金管理机制,深化县乡财政管理体制改革,积极化解乡村债务,逐步建立城乡统一的现代税收制度.     

Consumer Information and Discrimination: Does the Internet Affect the Pricing of New Cars to Women and Minorities?

Using a large dataset of automobile transaction prices, we find that offline African-American and Hispanic consumers pay approximately 2% more than do other offline consumers; however, we can explain 65% of this price premium with differences in observable traits such as income, education, and search costs. Our estimates of unexplained race premia are smaller than previous estimates in the literature. Online, we find that minority buyers pay nearly the same prices as do whites controlling for consumers' income, education, and neighborhood characteristics. These results are consistent with the Internet facilitating information search and removing cues to a consumer's willingness to pay. Our results imply that the Internet is particularly beneficial to those whose characteristics disadvantage them in negotiating.     

A European Perspective on Consumer Loans and the Role of Credit Registries: the Need toReconcile Data Protection,Risk Management,Efficiency, Over-indebtedness,and a Better Prudential Supervision of the Financial System

The paper examines the role of credit registries in the context of European consumer credit markets and the current policies of the EU in this area. It attempts to show the institutional challenges relating to some competing rights or interests amongst consumers and financial institutions and the need for a strengthened prudential supervision of the financial system as evidenced by the recent crisis whose effects have spread into the global economy. In particular, it shows that there is a conflict between the right to data protection of consumers, the risk management interests of lenders, and the prudential supervision of the credit system. The ultimate goal, thus, is to present some weaknesses of the current arrangements and to put forward a proposal that is probably controversial but that is intended to stimulate a debate from an alternative policy perspective that is wider than the current one.     

State Aid Policy, Territoriality and Federalism: EU Scrutiny and Control of Regional Aid and the Supranationalisation of Subnational Autonomy in Federal Member States

Whilst its impact on national industrial policy has attracted considerable attention in the scholarly literature, the implications of EU state aid policy on regional development policy and its effects on territorial relations inside EU member states have been largely neglected. Drawing on the experience of Bavaria, Flanders and Upper Austria, this article shows how EU action has imposed increasingly wide reaching and detailed constraints on subnational authorities, undermining and eroding their capacity to define and implement regional policy. It thereby also challenges the widely held presumption in the EU literature, as for example by proponents of multi-level governance, that European integration works invariably to empower and strengthen regions in Europe. To the contrary, the case studies show that the autonomy of subnational states in EU member countries with federal systems has been eroded as they have been forced to abandon traditional policies and practices. More generally, the article invites reconsideration of the relationship between European integration and subnational authorities.     

Consumer Attitudes and Decision-Making With Regard to Genetically Engineered Food Products – A Review of the Literature and a Presentation of Models for Future Research

Few studies have to date explained consumer attitudes and purchase decisions with regard to genetically engineered food products. However, the increased marketing of genetically engineered food products and the considerable concern that consumers seem to express with regard to the technology call for the development of a theoretical basis for research into these issues. The aim of this article is to present three models which the authors have developed to explain consumer attitudes, buying behaviour, and attitude change with regard to genetically engineered food products.All three models build on established consumer behaviour theory and on existing and comparable research in the field. Consumer attitudes toward genetic engineering in food products are explained in an attitude model that builds on Fishbein's multiattribute attitude model but deviates from Fishbein's model in a number of ways. Consumer buying behaviour with regard to specific genetically engineered food products is explained in a behavioural intention model which uses Ajzen's Theory of planned Behavior as its point of departure. How consumers' attitudes towards genetically engineered food products are affected by various information strategies, finally, is explained in an attitude change model which integrates aspects of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Judgment Theory. The model specifically takes into account the impact of source credibility and various informational factors, such as persuasive content of the information provided, on attitudes.     

Consumer Responses to Slice-of-Life Versus Slice-of-Death Advertising Appeals: Exploring the Role of Polysemy,Branding, and Culture

Prior research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of slice-of-life and slice-of-death advertising appeals in relation to advertising and branding constructs like advertising polysemy and consumer-based brand equity. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue dealing with slice of life versus death advertising appeals. Across three studies, the authors measure, evaluate, compare, and contrast slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals across British and American cultures. The authors demonstrate the interrelationships of SOL/D appeals with advertising polysemy, consumer-based brand equity, cultural differences in advertising attitudes, and purchase intentions. From a measurement perspective, the authors develop and validate parsimonious measures of slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals. Furthermore, they test the assumptions that underlie these appeals for United States and British customers, and investigate how the cultural characteristic of uncertainty avoidance moderates the impact of SOL/D advertising attitudes on purchase intentions. Managerially, the research demonstrates that SOL/D appeals offer value in predicting (a) consumer-based brand equity through advertising polysemy, (b) consumers’ advertising attitudes across different cultures, (c) consumers’ intentions to purchase, and (d) advertising differences and varying consumer responses in the United States and Britain.     

Measuring Consumer Ethnocentrism: An Assessment of Reliability,Validity and Dimensionality of the CETSCALE in a Developing Market

ABSTRACT

Based on 305 surveyed consumers in Zimbabwe’s two major cities (Harare and Bulawayo), the study sought mainly to measure consumer ethnocentrism and to test psychometric properties of the CETSCALE in Zimbabwe using structural equation modeling. It was established that the construct of consumer ethnocentrism comprises two dimensions, namely negative influence of foreign products, and preference for domestic products. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to be moderately high. The psychometric properties of the CETSCALE tested above the required thresholds. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to negatively influence consumer attitude towards imported poultry products. The study has implications for managers and future researchers.     

Consumer decision making: A model of the effects of involvement,source credibility,and location on the size of the price difference required to induce consumers to change suppliers

A model is presented for analyzing the effects of involvement, source credibility, and location on consumers' reactions to price changes. The model is based on a schema proposed by Jacoby and Olson (1977) to explain consumers' reactions to price. Evidence is presented that strongly indicates that involvement, source credibility, and location importantly affect the size of the price change required to motivate consumers to switch suppliers.     

信息提前透露、知情交易与中小投资者保护——对证券研究业“潜规则”的实证检验与治理探讨

我国股票市场存在着证券分析师在正式发布研究报告之前将信息提前透露给机构投资者的"行业潜规则",本文借鉴并修正Christophe,Ferris和Hsieh(2010)的事件研究法,以证券分析师上调公司评级事件为研究对象,研究发现证券分析师发布研究报告前市场确实存在显著的知情交易。在此基础上,本文进一步研究这一"行业潜规则"的存在对中小投资者的影响,结果表明尽管投资者根据研究报告进行交易仍可获得一定的超额收益,但仅仅只能覆盖交易成本。论文的最后对如何加强证券研究利益冲突行为的监管、杜绝"行业潜规则"和如何保护中小投资者利益进行了探讨。