Welfare costs of monetary policy uncertainty in the economy with shifting trend inflation

We study welfare costs of the uncertainty about monetary policy in the economy featuring shifting trend inflation. We follow Ruge-Murcia (J Econ Dyn Control 36: 914–-938, 2012) to employ the SMM approach to fit the model to the US data (1979Q1-2015Q1). We find that the monetary policy uncertainty affects economic welfare through different dimensions. On the one hand, the policy uncertainty itself distorts the economic welfare negligibly, not only by increasing volatilities of consumption and leisure, but also by decreasing their average levels. A higher level of trend inflation then signifies these changes to produce greater welfare costs. Furthermore, the adverse impacts of policy uncertainty on the economy, documented by the impulse response functions of macroeconomic variables to policy uncertainty shock, become larger when central banks raise their inflation targets. On the other hand, the costs of exogenous variations in trend inflation are larger if there is policy uncertainty.     

Migration and Credit Constraints: Theory and Evidence from Vietnam

The new economics of labor migration (NELM) frequently emphasizes the importance of migration as a way for rural households to overcome credit constraints. If this hypothesis is correct, then the credit constraint is a motivation for migration (a relaxation of this constraint would encourage less migration). Conventionally, it is believed that migration is costly and has to be financed with borrowed capital, so the credit constraint is a deterrent of migration (a relaxation of this constraint would encourage more migration). In this paper, an agricultural household model is developed to study whether the credit constraint is a motivation for or a deterrent to migration. The model's result confirms the NELM's hypothesis: for households with high demand for agricultural investments and high net migration return, migration is used as a way to finance capital investments. Using data from four provinces in Vietnam, preliminary evidence is found supporting this hypothesis.     

Impact of service personal values on service value and customer loyalty: a cross-service industry study

This study investigates the customer’s perception of service value based on theory of personal values. A formative structural model is developed and tested using the data surveyed from three service industries in Vietnam. Results show a positive impact of service personal values on service value. Then, service value and satisfaction are proved as two mediating constructs in the impact of service personal values on customer loyalty. Satisfaction and loyalty are, thus, not only determined by the supplier’s service itself, but also the customer’s personal values. This consolidates the value co-creation perspective rather than the traditional value exchange in service research.     

Correction to: Energy Consumption and Bitcoin Market

Asia-Pacific Financial Markets - In the original publication of the article, the acknowledgement section has been missed to update.     

Customer participation to co-create value in human transformative services: a study of higher education and health care services

Previous studies on customer participation have mainly focused on its outcome benefits. The current study investigates the effect of various participation behaviors on both process and outcome value in human transformative services. Based on the data surveyed from health care and higher education services in Vietnam, the results show that active and relevant participation behaviors are crucial to co-create value. Information sharing, responsible behavior, and voluntary in-role feedback have different roles in process and outcome value. Voluntary in-role feedback is more important in health care service, while responsible behavior is critical in higher education. Moreover, distinction should be made between passive provision of information and voluntary feedback of customers to the firm.     

Agency Theory and Japanese Corporate Governance

Agency theory has been used to predict managerial strategic behavior in the past. However, critics have commented that this theory, in its applications, has been too Anglo-American specific. Research in non-Anglo-American settings has been scarce. Recent changes in the Japan Commercial Code and moves by Japanese corporations to access global equity markets allow us to test the veracity of this criticism by examining how Japanese firms respond strategically to the increased requirement for disclosure and transparency; whether they behave in ways congruent with agency theory predictions. Agency theory states that managers who are held accountable for their use of corporate resources will deploy them in ways to enhance stockholder value rather than increase their shares of the economic residual. Thus, we would expect to observe a difference in Japanese managerial behavior accompanying an increased exposure to global capital markets. Using data from Japanese firms, we found some support for the usefulness of agency theory to non-Anglo-American settings when the rules of capital market discipline are allowed to operate.     

Revealed Preferences for Risky Assets in Imperfect Markets

In this paper, the ara and rra of over 12,000 Canadian households are directly measured using a theoretical framework for imperfect capital markets which was first proposed (but not tested) by Blume and Friend (1975). The ols relationships between ara (or rra) and net wealth are also estimated, and tested for homogeneity, for the total sample and for various subsamples thereof. The robustness of the empirical results are also examined by using two measures of net wealth, and before- and after-tax, nominal and real returns. The empirical results support the Arrow (1971) and Pratt (1964) conjectures that households have utility functions which exhibit increasing (or constant) rra and decreasing ara. They also support the Friend and Blume (1975) and Siegel and Hoban (1982) findings of approximately constant (but increasing) rra and increasing rra, respectively. Except perhaps for the most wealthy stratum of households, the empirical results do not support Arrow's conjecture that the rra of a representative investor is approximately equal to unity. The analysis ofcovariance results strongly imply that the risk aversion behaviour of households depends not only on net wealth but also on various socio-demographic characteristics such as the age of the household head and the regional location of the household. This heterogeneity in the risk aversion behaviour of households has many important economic, investment management and public policy implications. Résumé Dans cette étude le ara et le rra de plus de douze mille foyers canadiens sont directement mesurés a l'aide d'un cadfre théorique conçu pour des marchés en capitaux imparfaits qui a été proposép pour la première fois (mais non vérifié) par Blume et Friend et 1975. Les rapports ols entre le ara (ou rra) et la richesse nette sont également estimés et vérifiés pour leur homogénéité pour l'échantillon total et ses divers sous-echantillons. Les résultats empiriques probants sont également examinés à l'aide de deux mesures de la richesse et du rendement nominal et réel avant et après impǒt. Les résultats empiriques appuient les suppositions de Arrow (1971) et Pratt (1964) selon lesquels les ménages comportent des fonctions d'utilité démontrant un rra croissant (ou constant) et un ara décroissant ainsi que les conclusions respectives de Friend and Blume (1975) et Siegel and Hoban (1982) d'un rra approximativement constant (mais croissant) et d'un rra croissant. A l'exception des ménages les plus riches, peut-ětre, les résultats empiriques ne corroborent pas la conjecture de Arrow selon laquelle le rra d'un investisseur représentatif est approximativement égal à une unité. Les résultats de l'analyse de covariance supposent très fortement que l'aversion au risque dans les ménages depend non seulement de la richesse nette mais aussi de caractéristiques socio-démographiques comme l'ǎge du chef de famille et la situation régionale du ménage. Cette hétérogénéité dans le comportement d'aversion au risque des ménages comporte de nombreuses implications importantes sur le plan économique, administratif et politique.     

Trade diversion and antidumping effectiveness: insights from a residual demand model

A residual demand model is developed to predict the likely effects of an antidumping duty in the presence of trade diversion. A key insight is that the ability of an AD duty to increase the welfare of producers in the country imposing the duty hinges on the import supply elasticity for product from non‐named sources. The only instance in which this is not true is when supply for product from the named source is perfectly elastic. In this case, the welfare gain to domestic producers is maximised irrespective of the supply elasticity for imports from non‐named sources. A comparison of the residual demand model with the Armington model suggests the latter significantly understates both trade diversion and domestic producer gains from the duty.