Consumer perceptions of monetary and non-monetary introductory promotions for new products

Abstract

Little research has examined how consumers respond to sales promotions in new product categories. This article fills this gap by integrating research on reference prices with literature on sales promotions for new product categories. Existing research suggests that consumers respond more favourably to non-monetary promotions (e.g. extra free promotions) than monetary promotions (e.g. price discounts) because non-monetary promotions are framed as segregated gains rather than reduced losses. However, both kinds of promotions are widely used in practice, suggesting the importance of other contributory factors. With a consumer experiment on a national panel of consumers, this research demonstrates that extra free product promotions are most preferred for existing products, and introductory low-price promotions are preferred for innovative products. The moderating effect of a product's innovativeness is explained via a new relationship in the marketing literature, whereby perceived risk mediates the relationship between perceived innovativeness and a consumer's tendency to stockpile.     

美国对华“双反”措施中外部基准规则的适用问题

启用外部基准规则的相关问题是中美之间"双反"纠纷的关键问题之一,美国国内立法中关于外部基准的规定早已存在,并为世界其他国家及多边贸易规则所借鉴。美国也已经在对华的"双反"措施中大量使用外部基准,并经常辅以"不利可得事实"证据采信方法以消解外部基准规则的适用障碍。外部基准与替代国价格有明显的区别,但外部基准给中国带来的不利影响较之于替代国价格尤甚,其不仅冲淡了中国在"公共机构"和"重复计算"等问题上所取得的胜利效果,也将使今后中美之间的"双反"纠纷变得更为复杂。中国应尽早重视外部基准问题,从贸易规则、诉讼策略等方面做好充分的应对准备。     

Discretionary accruals: signalling or earnings management in Australia?

We investigate the signalling effect of discretionary accruals (DAC). Although we find that discretionary accruals are insignificantly related to contemporaneous stock returns, we uncover that income‐increasing discretionary accruals of GAAP‐complying growth firms are significantly and positively related to contemporaneous stock returns. Furthermore, we find that this positive effect is stronger among firms with better corporate governance mechanisms, such as Board of Directors Independence, Audit Committee Independence and Large Shareholders’ Ownership. In addition to contemporaneous stock returns, we also find similar results with the future increase in dividends. Our findings are consistent with the argument that corporate governance can enhance the signalling effect of reported earnings of GAAP‐complying growth firms.     

Bank Mergers and the Dynamics of Deposit Interest Rates

Despite extensive research interest in the last decade, the banking literature has not reached a consensus on the impact of bank mergers on deposit rates. In particular, results on the dynamics of deposit rates surrounding bank mergers vary substantially across studies. In this paper, we aim for a comprehensive empirical analysis of a bank merger’s impact on deposit rate dynamics. We base the analysis on a unique dataset comprising deposit rates of 624 US banks with a monthly frequency for the time period 1997–2006. These data are matched with individual bank and local market characteristics and the complete list of bank mergers in the US. The data allow us to track the dynamics of bank mergers while controlling for the rigidity of the deposit rates and for a range of merger, bank, and local market features. An innovation of our work is the introduction of an econometric approach for estimating the change of the deposit rates given their rigidity.     

Global capital markets,housing prices,and partisan fiscal policies

In recent years, global imbalances have channeled the excess savings of surplus countries toward the real estate markets of deficit countries. By consequence, the deficit countries that attracted lots of foreign capital experienced large run‐ups in house prices, whereas most surplus countries that exported capital exhibited flat or slow house price growth. We first use new house price data and a novel instrumental variable design to show the causal relationship between housing prices and capital inflows, particularly through debt bonanzas. We then argue that international capital flows affect the fiscal policy preferences of both voters and political parties by way of their impact on housing prices. Where capital inflows are large and housing prices are rising, we expect voters to respond by demanding both lower taxes and less publicly‐provided social insurance because rising house prices allow homeowners to self‐insure against income loss. In contrast, declining house prices produce greater demands for social insurance, particularly among those most exposed to housing market risk. We present evidence from two cross‐national surveys that supports these claims, as well as a “before and after” analysis of the housing crash in Eastern Europe. We also show that the connection between house prices and social policy also manifests itself in government spending outcomes, mediated by partisan control.