Environmentally conscious consumption: The role of retailers and peers as external influences

Environmentally conscious consumption is one of the key concerns in modern society generally, and increasingly among the consumer population. However, consumers often overstate their willingness to purchase environmentally conscious products, with global purchasing of these products relatively low. Much research has considered the role of drivers internal to an individual in making such consumption choices; however there is less knowledge as to how external influences may impact environmentally conscious consumption behaviour. As retailers increasingly strive to adopt and communicate their environmentally sustainable business practices, and encourage parallel consumer behavior, the question arises: what role do retailers play in influencing consumers’ environmentally conscious consumption? In this paper we investigate this notion, specifically how external influences (the retailer and peers) impact environmentally conscious behavior. We investigate this behavior in terms of two outcomes; sustainable consumption (direct costs) and willingness to accept environmental taxes (indirect costs). Our research demonstrates that retailers can influence consumers to be more environmentally conscious in their consumption, with retailer influence a stronger mediator than peers in this relationship. One important implication of this research is that retailers have the opportunity to shape environmentally conscious consumption if they adopt sustainable business practices.     

Simple Procedures for Testing Autoregressive Versus Moving Average Errors in Regression Models

This paper develops several simple separate (or non-nested) procedures for testing autoregressive versus moving average errors in regression models. These asymptotically valid tests are straightforward to calculate: after estimating both models by maximum likelihood methods, the procedure involves testing the significance of variables added to a linearized version of the null model, the added variables being the predictions, or the residuals from the specified alternative model, or the difference of the predictions of the two models. Some small sample evidence on the properties of the tests is presented, as is an empirical application on the Australian unexpected inflation rate series.
JEL Classification Numbers: C12, C22, C52, E31.     

A critique of high-value supply chains as a means of modernising agriculture in China: The case of the beef industry

China has embarked on an agricultural modernisation program with far-reaching implications for rural development, food safety and trade. A major focus of China’s agricultural modernisation program has been to build high-value supply chains and large, modern agro-industrial enterprises. This paper provides a critique of these efforts in the case of the high-value beef supply chain. It finds that interventionist policies to fast-track the development of high-value supply chains have perverse outcomes and that a more incremental and facilitative approach to modernisation should be pursued based around the development of mid-value supply chains.     

Modelling the influence of decision makers on the future

The article describes attempts to use futures research in a specific framework: the development of a model to be used as a basis for action within a UK local authority. The model is thus designed to explore the ramifications of the decision-making activities of real people within a specific organisation. It represents an original attempt to include explicitly the acts of human endeavour which influence the direction of the future within a model for indicating possible futures. The author describes the current state of the model-building activity which is intended to depict the policy-making process. The model is based upon concepts drawn from the fields of cognitive psychology and sociology.     

Local elections and consumption insurance

During our sample period from 1987 to 2002, Chinese villages completed the transition from government‐appointed village leaders to elected ones. This article examines if and how much democratic elections of the village leaders affected consumption insurance by Chinese village residents. Exploring a panel dataset of 1,400 households from this period, we find that consumption insurance is around 20 percent more complete with elected village leaders. Furthermore, local elections improve consumption insurance only for the poor and middle‐income farmers, but not for the rich. The results are robust when we allow for pretrending, potential endogeneity of elections, and higher measurement errors for rich residents. We also find that the effects on consumption insurance are stronger when closer to the upcoming election year and when the village committees consist largely of non‐Communist Party members. These findings suggest that the election effects on consumption insurance partly come from increasing accountability to local constituents.