THE SEVENTH‐CENTURY ISLAMIC GOLD STANDARD

Monetary systems are catalysts for economic, social and political progress. The interdependence between monetary, economic and political order is illustrated by currency competition between the Byzantine and Muslim empires in the seventh century. The evolution of an Islamic gold standard demonstrates that Byzantine and Muslim ruling circles were conversant with the dynamics of currency competition. In keeping with the theory of currency competition, the creation of the Muslim gold standard marked the beginning of a rapid economic outperformance by the Islamic empire.     

AUDIT MARKET FAILURE

The auditing profession has called for the current regime of unlimited liability to be replaced with liability caps. The Department of Trade and Industry has tabled proposals to reform the structure of the market for audit services. These proposals fall short of meeting the demand for liability limitation but modify the current regime inasmuch as auditor liability, though uncapped, would be proportional to the damage caused by audit failure. This step is unlikely to remedy audit market failure. This article argues the distortion of market incentives in audit markets can be traced to government intervention and the remedy lies in replacing government intervention with competition.     

The Effect of Stylistic Product Information on Consumers’ Aesthetic Responses

This paper investigates the effect of stylistic information about a product, defined as verbal product information aimed at helping consumers to interpret a product's visual design, on consumers’ aesthetic responses. The results of three experimental studies show that for consumers with higher centrality of visual product aesthetics (CVPA), stylistic information positively influences aesthetic responses through perceived meaningfulness of product design (i.e., the extent to which an individual is able to make sense of a product's visual appearance and understands what it represents). Further, these effects translate into consumers’ purchase intentions. For consumers with lower CVPA, stylistic information neither affects aesthetic responses nor perceived meaningfulness of product design. These findings contribute to existing research on consumers’ aesthetic processing by highlighting the importance for consumers to grasp a product's design meaning in order to maximally appreciate its visual appeal.     

Do bilateral investment treaties attract foreign direct investment? The role of international dispute settlement provisions

This paper studies the effects of the strength of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) activity. We develop an index for the strength of international dispute settlement provisions included in BITs in order to examine the role the content of BITs plays in attracting FDI. To this end, we make use of data from UNCTAD's International Investment Agreement Mapping Project and measure the provision strength of 2,571 BITs. Using panel data of bilateral and total FDI inflows and inward FDI stocks, we study the effect of BITs on FDI. Our main finding indicates that stronger international dispute settlement provisions in BITs are indeed associated with positive effects on FDI activity.     

Thomas Aquinas on the conduct of sales

In the Summa theologiae, Thomas Aquinas treated the conduct of sales. Aquinas took into consideration writings on the subject in the Bible, Antiquity, and early Christianity. Aquinas differentiated between selling and mis-selling; showed that sales intermediation was an integral component of an economy; and concluded that salespeople were entitled to earn profit. Aquinas overturned a consensus that had obtained in Stoicism and early Christianity regarding duties to disclose private information on volatility of price. Aquinian disposition of the sales process anticipated the economics of information asymmetry.     

The impact of carbon disclosure mandates on emissions and financial operating performance

Review of Accounting Studies - We examine the impact of a disclosure mandate for greenhouse gas emissions on firms’ subsequent emission levels and financial operating performance. For...     

Estimating the effects of non‐discriminatory trade policies within structural gravity models

We propose a simple method to identify the effects of unilateral and non‐discriminatory trade policies on bilateral trade within a theoretically consistent empirical gravity model. Specifically, we argue that structural gravity estimations should be performed with data that include not only international trade flows but also intra‐national trade flows. The use of intra‐national sales allows identification of the effects of non‐discriminatory trade policies such as most favoured nation tariffs, even in the presence of exporter and importer fixed effects. A byproduct of our approach is that it can be used to recover estimates of the trade elasticity, a key parameter for quantitative trade models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques in the case of most favoured nation tariffs and “time to export” as representative non‐discriminatory determinants of trade on the importer and on the exporter side, respectively. Our methods can be extended to quantify the impact on trade of any country‐specific characteristics as well as any non‐trade policies.     

Klimaschutz im Verkehrssektor — aktuelle Beispiele aus der Verkehrsforschung

Decarbonising the transport sector will be one of the biggest challenges in the future. Current innovations in the transport sector will be used to identify greenhouse gas emission reduction methods and the associated costs. Economists from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have compiled current research results from various DLR institutes which have revealed that a wide range of technological and organisational innovations for reducing climate-related emissions are available with varying market maturity. Increasing technological efficiency alone, however, is not enough to achieve the ambitious climate targets. Good policies are also essential to take things to the next level.     

“Happy Together”: Effects of Brand Community Engagement on Customer Happiness

Because the pursuit of happiness is fundamental, humans perform a wide range of activities, including consumption, to lead a happy life. For marketers, findings from positive psychology suggest that customer happiness may arise through customer engagement. This article proposes a conceptual framework of customer happiness in brand communities and analyzes the effect of customer engagement on customer happiness, as well as on the ultimate outcomes of word of mouth and purchase intentions. Structural equation modeling provides a test of the model through an empirical study with 518 members from the online brand community for a German automotive brand. Customer engagement exerts a significant positive effect on customer happiness, which in turn increases positive word of mouth and purchase intentions. Therefore, marketing managers should invest in brand communities to engage customers and build and maintain their happiness and loyalty.