TESTING ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF GOVERNMENT BUDGETING

We develop three competing models of government budgeting: (1) a rational model, in which government services are provided in accordance with consumer tastes, (2) a Friedman-type model, in which spending and borrowing decisions derive from the level of taxes, and (3) a Buchanan public-choice type model, in which the extent of deficit spending determines government spending plans. We use quarterly U.S. data over the period 1947 to 1987 to empirically test each of these models within a vector autoregressive framework, taking into account the potential role of other relevant macro variables. We first specify the testing framework utilizing data on the levels of government revenue, spending and deficit, and show that the resulting estimates are unrealistic. We then divide each of these variables into anticipated and unanticipated components. The results thus obtained reject the Buchanan-type models, but are unable to reject either a Friedman-type model or a “weak” form of the rational model. Our results suggest that future research should concentrate on developing appropriate tests capable of distinguishing between these two models of the government budgeting process.     

Herding with collective preferences

This paper studies a simple model of observational learning where agents care not only about the information of others but also about their actions. We show that despite complex strategic considerations that arise from forward-looking incentives, herd behavior can arise in equilibrium. The model encompasses applications such as sequential elections, public good contributions, and leadership charitable giving.     

Disaggregation and consolidation of imperfect quality shipments in an extended EPQ model

We consider a standard economic production quantity (EPQ) model. Due to manufacturing variability, a fraction P of the produced inventory will have imperfect quality, where P is a random variable with a known distribution. We consider a 100% inspection policy and further assume that the inspection rate is larger than that of production. Thus, all imperfect quality items will be detected by the end of the production cycle. For such an augmented EPQ model, we first derive the new optimal production quantity assuming that the imperfect quality items are salvaged once at the end of every production cycle. Then, we extend this base model to allow for disaggregating the shipments of imperfect quality items during a single production run. Finally, we consider aggregating (or consolidating) the shipments of imperfect items over multiple production runs. Under both scenarios we derive closed-form expressions for both the economic production quantity and the batching policy, and show that our desegregation/consolidation schemes can lead to significant cost savings over the base model.     

IMF programs, financial and real sector performance, and the Asian crisis

This paper has three objectives. First, using a richer and more comprehensive set of IMF-related news than previous studies, we examine the impact of IMF-related news on both financial and real stock sector returns in Indonesia during the Asian crisis. Second, we draw lessons about financial and real sectoral patterns of adjustment in crisis countries, including whether and how IMF programs facilitate this adjustment. Third, we explore the interplay between IMF actions in crisis countries and the actions and responses of local authorities. To do so, not only do we account for the impact of news regarding IMF policy actions but also the government’s reaction to them and willingness to implement such policies, and the public sentiment about the implemented IMF programs and government policies. We discuss the policy implications of the findings.     

Prioritizing Brand Equity Methods From Customers’ Perspective for the Food Industry

Brand equity assessment is an important measurement of strategic value for internal use as well as for external stakeholders. Although there are a number of methods available for brand evaluation, it is still uncertain which approach is best. Yet almost no research exists that has prioritized the existing brand equity methods from the perspective of different stakeholders through a survey. In this article a model is developed for prioritizing brand equity methodologies from the viewpoint of customers as a stakeholder of brand equity. The developed model can help businesses to deploy a brand equity methodology that best considers the criteria of their customers as one of their key stakeholders. The criteria of this process are the expectations of customers from a brand. The priority of these criteria sets via a structured questionnaire filled by customers. Then the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) incorporates to prioritize the methodologies versus these criteria. This study set out to prioritize the brand equity pool to help practitioners and academics in assessing the alternative techniques and selecting the most relevant one that measures the most important criteria of brand in the eyes of customers.     

Understanding the determinants of e-wallet continuance usage intention in Malaysia

Quality & Quantity - The present research aims to investigate the determinants of e-wallet continuance usage intention in Malaysia using extending Technology Continuance Theory (TCT) via...     

人工智能将为农机带来什么?

正相较古人,我们生活在这个充满技术进步的时代,可算得上是"特权一代"了。几乎所有事情都要靠自己手动完成的日子已经一去不复返,现在我们生活的世界上,很多工作都可以由机器、软件和各种自动流程接管。之所以有这样的改变,人工智能(AI)功不可没。人工智能是以"像人一样思考和行动"的出发点设计和编程的机器,虽然诞生的时日不长,尚处于萌芽阶段,但已经成为我们日常生活的重要组成部分,并且正在改变我们     

Collective mental accounting: an integrated behavioural portfolio selection model for multiple mental accounts

We propose a behavioural portfolio selection model called collective mental accounting (CMA), which integrates all mental sub-portfolios (mental accounts) in one mathematical model. Moreover, this study contributes to the literature of behavioural portfolio selection in three further ways: first, the CMA model can determine the proportions of wealth allocated to each mental sub-portfolio with and without input from the investor. Second, unlike other mental accounting models (MA), in CMA it is possible to define constraints on total asset holdings such as short-selling, and cardinality constraints. Third, in order to make CMA more tractable and mathematically elegant, we obtain a semi-definite programming representation of the model. We also present a numerical example to investigate the effects of short-selling constraints as well as to compare the portfolio recommendations, utility functions, feasibility, and optimality of the CMA and MA models. The results reveal that although both models’ solutions are mean-variance efficient, CMA outperforms MA in terms of behavioural efficient frontier and utility functions.     

Is all turnover intent the same? Exploring future job preference and environmental considerations

This study approaches turnover intent in a novel way by incorporating both environmental and internal organizational factors together to create a more nuanced view of what drives turnover. The analytical focus is on senior-level employees in four agencies within the US Department of Health and Human Services. The findings show that internal organizational factors partially explain decisions to change jobs, but agency and time differences remain even after controlling for those factors. It also finds that the decision to leave government is driven by different factors than the decision to move to other jobs within government.     

The exchange regime and trade balance in Turkey

Over the last 15 years, high trade deficits have become a source of external vulnerability for the relatively stabilized Turkish economy. This corresponds to the period where authorities have been following a floating exchange rate regime. Thus, this study aims to empirically show whether the adopted exchange rate regime has an impact on the trade balance for the period of 1987 Q1 to 2015 Q2. Estimation results indicate that there is a long-run relationship between the real effective exchange rate and trade balance under both fixed and floating regimes in Turkey, but there is no evidence for the J-curve hypothesis.