The erosion of the unusual susceptibility defense: The case of the disadvantaged consumer

Marketing practitioners and academics have exhibited an increased concern for the problems of disadvantaged consumers in recent years. During the same time period, the product liability field has become increasingly volatile. In this article the overlap between these two seemingly independent trends is presented via hypothetical case examples. A decision process to guide marketers who potentially deal with disadvantaged market segments is outlined and discussed. The implications of these developments are also described in detail.     

Opportunity for all: Linking service-learning and business education

A major criticism of contemporary business education centers on its failure to help business students achieve sufficient educational breath, particularly with regard to the external environment of business. The service-learning movement offers business faculty an excellent opportunity to address this deficiency. By developing curricular projects linked to community needs, faculty can further their students' technical skills while helping them simultaneously develop greater inter-personal, inter-cultural, and ethical sensitivity.Edward Zlotkowski is Director of the Bentley Service-Learning Project, a college-wide program that has thus far involved 15 of Bentley's 16 academic departments, over 50 faculty members, and over 2000 students it its work. He has served as a consultant to Campus Compact and the Massachusetts Commission on Community Service as well as to individual colleges. He is currently serving as a Senior Associate at the American Association for Higher Education.     

Politics and Fed policymaking: The more things change the more they remain the same

This paper seeks to explain why the Fed's professed monetarist control strategy tends to break down at politically critical moments. It identifies strong political forces that constrain the Fed to dampen the size of short-run increases in nominal interest rates. Because interest increases impose heavy burdens on economically vulnerable but politically powerful sectors, Fed officials are compelled to give increasing weight to interest-rate targets whenever accelerating inflation or other forces threaten sharp cumulative movements in the level of nominal interest rates. The paper argues further that the Fed's ultimate political function is to be a policy scapegoat for incumbent politicians, showing how well this hypothesis can explain the perennial incompleteness of Fed control strategies and the Fed's principal bureaucratic features.     

THE DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF THE 1969–75 INFLATION ON HOLDINGS OF HOUSEHOLD WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES*

Using a simple simulation model, this paper assesses the impact of relative movements in asset prices on the distribution of wealth during the 1969–75 period. Because of the strong negative correlation between wealth level and the ratio of debt to wealth, this particular inflation induced a substantial drop in the overall level of wealth inequality. Moreover, comparing the portfolios of different demographic groups, we found that middle-aged households gained relatively to younger and older ones, married couples gained relatively to singles, whites gained relatively to non-whites, and home-owners gained relatively to renters. The biggest gainers from this inflation were home-owners with large mortgages and the biggest losers the large stock holders.     

Trade and agricultural development in the 1980s and the challenges for the 1990s: Latin America

Trends in agricultural trade for South and Central America are documented and the reform process is discussed. Performance of the agricultural sector of the region is evaluated. Challenges for policy makers are reviewed, ranging from macroeconomic policy to science and technology.     

Economics of compatibility standards and competition in telecommunication networks

The pro- and anti-competitive implications of technical compatibility standards are introduced in general terms and then applied to current issues in telecommunications policy. The demand and supply for standards under regulated monopoly and the transition to deregulation and competitive entry create a tradeoff between the traditional goal of achieving positive externalities from interconnection and the alternative goal of providing enhanced service offerings that may involve sacrificing universal connectivity. We argue that this tradeoff has affected the utilization of data communication networks in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, we identify problems of competing interests that complicate the European approach to standards “harmonization” in the case of telecommunications. We conclude by noting that the nature of standards and standard-setting process can have marked effects on the incentives to conduct private research and development.