Changing Economic Structures and Impacts of Shocks: Evidence from a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model for China

We present a small‐scale dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model that features price rigidities, habit formation in consumption and costs in capital adjustment. We estimate the key parameters and calibrate the model with data for the Chinese economy. Our interest centres on the impact of technology and monetary policy shocks for different structures of the Chinese economy. In particular, we evaluate how a rebalancing of the economy from investment‐led to consumption‐led growth would affect the economic dynamics after a shock occurs. Our findings suggest that a rebalancing would reduce the volatility of the real economy in the event of a technology shock, which provides support for policies aiming to increase the consumption share in China.     

Do investors actually value sustainability? New evidence from investor reactions to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)

Research Summary: Research exploring investor reactions to sustainability has substantial empirical limitations, which we address with a large‐scale longitudinal financial event study of the first global sustainability index, DJSI World. We examine investor reactions to firms from 27 countries over 17 years that are added, deleted, or continue on the index. We find that once relevant controls and comparisons to observationally equivalent firms beyond the index are included, DJSI events have only limited significance and/or materiality. Nonetheless, investors' valuation of sustainability around the world has evolved over time, involving diminishing reactions to U.S. firms and increasing benefits, particularly of continuation on the index, over time. The study highlights the importance of careful analysis and longitudinal global samples in making inferences about the financial effects of social performance. Managerial Summary: The debate about how investors perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) predates Milton Friedman's famous statement that the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits. Although extensive research has studied whether sustainability contributes to financial performance, we have yet to understand whether investors believe it pays off. This financial event study of reactions to the addition, continuation, and deletion from DJSI World, the first global sustainability index, shows that investors care little about DJSI announcements. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that global assessments of sustainability are converging and that investors may increasingly be valuing continuation on the DJSI, suggesting that firms may gain at least limited benefits from reliable sustainability activities.     

Tourists' perceptions of heritage tourism development in Danish‐Osu,Ghana

This paper examines the tourist perceptions at Danish, Osu‐Ghana within the dark tourism or slavery heritage contexts. Using Cohen's (1979) typology of tourist experience, we differentiate between tourist knowledge of a heritage site relative to socio‐demographic indices. The results indicate that tourists' perception of Danish‐Osu reflect their knowledge of the site in relation to its cultural heritage attributes. In addition, it was found that tourists have dual experiences of the site: those that relate to recreational pursuits of heritage sites and those that ascribe meanings based on their background. The contemporary nature and use of Transatlantic Slave Trade relics for tourism development makes the case of the Danish‐Osu more delicate considering the ethical implications of interpreting the community's past to tourists as the borderlines are unclear. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding the Motivation and Travel Behavior of Cycle Tourists Using Involvement Profiles

Bicycle tourism is a growing niche tourism market which has potential economic, social, and environmental outcomes for individual participants and host communities. However, there has been a lack of research into heterogeneity of this market and their respective motivations and behavior. This article applies the concept of enduring involvement, in conjunction with tourist motivational theory, to segment and better understand cycle tourist behavior and intentions. A total of 564 completed questionnaires was collected from an online survey of bicycle club members in Australia. Respondents were segmented into five initial clusters by their level of enduring involvement. A number of significant differences were found on their travel motivations, travel behavior, and behavioral intentions, as well as their sociodemographics and cycling behavior. The results lend support to the application of enduring involvement in a tourism context to better understand the behavior of niche markets which include popular leisure pursuits. Recommendations as a result of the findings are made for product development and marketing communication, while future research opportunities are also outlined.     

Fixed Exchange Rates and Disinflation in Emerging Markets: How Large Is the Effect?

We examine developing countries which have institutional quality ratings for the effects of exchange rate rigidity on inflation. The level of institutional development exerts no effect on the impact of currency regimes. However, the interaction of institutional quality and exchange rates has, in the most plausible specifications, a negative impact on inflation. This suggests that fixed exchange rates exert at most a contingent effect on inflation, and indicates that countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America contemplating currency pegs would be better off improving institutional quality prior to adopting the euro or dollar and expecting a large subsequent disinflationary effect. JEL no.  F31, O11     

Accessing leisure in an unfamiliar society via mobile instant messaging: A case study of academic sojourners visiting South Korea

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how academic sojourners, unfamiliar with the local language and culture, accessed casual leisure through mobile instant messaging during a short stay of one or two semesters in South Korea. Ninety-six English-speaking academic sojourners on Korean government scholarships covering tuition, room and board in exchange for contact with local university students seeking informal English language practice took part in this study. They represent a shift in academic sojourner mobility from outbound Asian students seeking language study in English-speaking countries to inbound English-speakers providing language support within Asia. Qualitative analysis revealed how casual leisure, the features of South Korea’s advanced digital environment and mobile instant messaging chat rooms coalesced. The findings show how local digital practices complement casual leisure access and how digital practices can become casual leisure despite limits in language ability and cultural understanding. It recommends further exploration of links between leisure, digital environments and mobile instant messaging in other research settings that are experiencing flows of globally mobile populations.     

How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?

Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how well the most widely used ratings—those of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Research & Analytics (KLD)—provide transparency about past and likely future environmental performance. We find KLD "concern" ratings to be fairly good summaries of past environmental performance. In addition, firms with more KLD concerns have slightly, but statistically significantly, more pollution and regulatory compliance violations in later years. KLD environmental strengths, in contrast, do not accurately predict pollution levels or compliance violations. Moreover, we find evidence that KLD's ratings are not optimally using publicly available data. We discuss the implications of our findings for advocates and skeptics of corporate social responsibility as well as for studies that relate social responsibility ratings to financial performance.