The influence of TV viewing on consumers' body images and related consumption behavior

Based on cultivation theory, self-concept theories, and gender research, this study investigates the influence of TV viewing on female and male consumers' perceived body images and related consumption behavior. The results show that TV viewing biases social perceptions of body images; however, TV viewing does not impact men's consumption behavior. For women, in contrast, TV viewing increases the real–ideal self discrepancy, which, in turn, leads to consumption behavior in order to achieve ideal bodies. For both groups, TV viewing increases body dissatisfaction; also, general beliefs about body images influence related behavior. The results provide some interesting contributions to theory and practice.     

Age matters: How developmental stages of adulthood affect customer reaction to complaint handling efforts

This research examines how age moderates the impact of justice perception (i.e., distributive, procedural, and interactional justice) on post-complaint satisfaction. By tracking the three justice dimensions' effect sizes across different ages, we identify four developmental stages of adulthood, which are separated by five-year transition periods. The stages are young (18–27 years of age), early (33–43), middle (49–57), and late adulthood (≥63). The moderation results show that the impact of distributive justice on satisfaction peaks in middle adulthood and the effect of procedural justice in early adulthood. Finally, the effect of interactional justice dips in early adulthood. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

The Economics of Administering Import Quotas with Licenses-on-Demand in Agriculture

A Nash equilibrium is determined for licenses-on-demand import quotas where licenses are allocated on a prorated basis. Inefficiency is incurred because licenses are allocated to high-cost firms. The ability to overbid exacerbates the inefficiency due to proportionate reductions in licenses. Quota expansion causes high-cost firms to decrease their bids but reduces inefficiency. The entry of a new firm causes all incumbent firms to increase bids or bid the quota. Not penalizing firms for the non-use of licenses increases inefficiency. The inefficiency impacts of tariff reductions, license fees, limits per firm, and imperfect information are also addressed.     

Horizon‐Dependent Underreaction in Financial Analysts' Earnings Forecasts*

This paper provides empirical evidence that underreaction in financial analysts' earnings forecasts increases with the forecast horizon, and offers a rational economic explanation for this result. The empirical portion of the paper evaluates analysts' responses to earnings‐surprise and other earnings‐related information. Our empirical evidence suggests that analysts' earnings forecasts underreact to both types of information, and the underreaction increases with the forecast horizon. The paper also develops a theoretical model that explains this horizon‐dependent analyst underreaction as a rational response to an asymmetric loss function. The model assumes that, for a given level of inaccuracy, analysts' reputations suffer more (less) when subsequent information causes a revision in investor expectations in the opposite (same) direction as the analyst's prior earnings‐forecast revision. Given this asymmetric loss function, underreaction increases with the risk of subsequent disconfirming information and with the disproportionate cost associated with revision reversal. Assuming that market frictions prevent prices from immediately unraveling these analyst underreac‐tion tactics, investors buying (selling) stock on the basis of analysts' positive (negative) earnings‐forecast revisions also benefit from analyst underreaction. Therefore, the asymmetric cost of forecast inaccuracy could arise from rational investor incentives consistent with a preference for analyst underreaction. Our incentives‐based explanation for underreaction provides an alternative to psychology‐based explanations and suggests avenues for further research.     

Role of delivery options in basis convergence

The corn futures contract, traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, provides sellers with delivery options about the timing of delivery, the location of delivery, and the grade to be delivered. These options presumably have values that can vary from one delivery month to the next. The joint values of the timing and location options are estimated for each delivery month for the years 1989 through 1997. These estimates are then used in regression models to determine the degree to which they influence basis variability on the first day of the maturity month. Econometric models are also developed to see if the estimated implicit options values are useful in improving the forecasts of basis convergence over the 2‐month period prior to maturity. The results suggested that variation in the delivery options values in the corn futures contract does indeed help explain basis variability on the first day of maturity. An option‐value variable, based on estimated values two months prior to maturity, resulted in occasional, small improvements (from a statistical point of view) in the precision of forecasts. The existence of delivery options increases basis variability at maturity, but it is difficult to use this information to improve forecasts of basis convergence. One limitation of the analysis is that the Chicago cash market had few transactions per day during the sample period, and hence the reported spot prices may be inadequate for making high‐quality estimates of the options values. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:783–809, 2002     

Konjunkturschlaglicht: Wechselkurspolitik in China

HWWA-KONJUNKTURFORUM

Konjunkturschlaglicht: Wechselkurspolitik in China     

Measurement in metrology,psychology and social sciences: data generation traceability and numerical traceability as basic methodological principles applicable across sciences

Quality & Quantity - Measurement creates trustworthy quantifications. But unified frameworks applicable to all sciences are still lacking and discipline-specific terms, concepts and practices...     

Functions of units,scales and quantitative data: Fundamental differences in numerical traceability between sciences

Quality & Quantity - Quantitative data are generated differently. To justify inferences about real-world phenomena and establish secured knowledge bases, however, quantitative data generation...     

On Income Velocity of Money,Precautionary Money Demand and Growth

A stochastic growth model with money introduced via a cash-in-advance constraint is used to analyze the behavior of the income velocity of real monetary balances and money demand. Agents can purchase consumption goods only using government issued money. The cash-in-advance constraint may become nonbinding because of the uncertainty about the realization of the state of the economy. We find that the precautionary money demand may introduce significant changes into the volatility of the income velocity if it happens almost always. Its presence can also alter the relationship between the average growth rate of money supply and the average growth rate of the economy.     

Research in accounting for income taxes

This paper comprehensively reviews the Accounting for Income Taxes (AFIT) literature. We begin by identifying four distinctive aspects of AFIT and briefly covering the rules surrounding AFIT. We then review the existing studies in detail and offer suggestions for future research. We emphasize the research questions that have been addressed (most of which relate to whether the tax accounts are used to manage earnings and whether the tax accounts are priced by equity market participants). We also highlight areas that have not received much research attention and that warrant future analysis.