Illusory Price Increases after the Euro Changeover in Germany: An Expectancy-Consistent Bias

The aim of the present report is to review research demonstrating the role played by expectations for observed illusory price increases after the euro introduction in Germany. In laboratory experiments when participants are asked to estimate price changes in a restaurant following the euro introduction, the price estimates are found to be biased in the direction of the expectation of rising prices. The research also examines the extent to which a similar judgment bias is evident in other areas and how interventions counteract the bias. A further focus of the research is on the underlying process. In this respect the results show that the bias is based on a selective outcome correction process not previously described. Theoretical implications and practical implications for consumer policy issues are highlighted.

Utility of university curricula in contemporary times: Perspectives of employers in the Cape Coast Metropolis

The majority of studies and reports on university education in Africa have focused mainly on issues related to access, quality, teaching and learning environment, and so on. Although these issues are undoubtedly critical, even more germane to the discourse is the desired utility of university education to society. The authors present the perspective of employers on their expectations from university graduates. The authors employed the qualitative research approach. Four financial institutions from the Cape Coast Metropolis were purposively sampled. An in-depth interview guide was employed for data collection, which was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The authors found that graduates are strong in theory but deficient in application of knowledge.     

Importance of spatial proximity between venture capital investors and investees in Germany

Based on 1182 dyads of venture capitalists and German portfolio companies involved in a financing round between 2002 and 2007, the study here examines the importance of spatial proximity between investors and investees in a dense economy. Analysis of this data shows that the probability of a financing relationship decreases by 8% if the journey time increases by one standard deviation. For deals involving very small or very large investment sums, and for less experienced venture capitalists and lead investors, spatial proximity is particularly important. The results suggest that even in economies with a dense infrastructure such as Germany spatial proximity between investor and investee impacts the likelihood of an investment.     

Credit Support for Export: Robust Evidence from the Czech Republic

The topic of this paper is quite a novel one – it is one of few empirical academic papers dealing with export credit. Moreover, it is the first analysis of this kind which focuses on transition economies. The paper deals with export credit promotion in the Czech Republic. The development and structure of Czech trade and export support is presented first, followed by an econometric analysis of the gravity model of Czech Republic trade. A panel of 160 countries in 1996–2008 is analysed and two gravity models of exports for the Czech Republic are estimated, the static model by fixed effects (LSDV estimator) and the dynamic model by System GMM. Due to ambiguous conclusions we assume that the behaviour of our explanatory variables is not uniform and our data set behaves as a mixture of countries with heterogeneous behaviour. This means that traditional techniques of estimation which include all observations into one model do not give significant results. Thus, we use robust techniques of estimation that solve the problem of heterogeneous patterns in data sets. Out of several possibilities we use the Least Trimmed Squares estimator (LTS) with a leverage point. We show that guarantees are a significant factor that influences positively the volume of exports in the Czech Republic. Moreover, there exist more variables that affect the size of exports in the Czech Republic. Market forces described by GDP, distance, political risk or gross fix capital formation are significant in our econometric model. We find that higher GDP, shorter distance or lower political risk have a positive impact on Czech exports.     

Die Bedeutung der monetären Analyse für die Europäische Zentralbank

Die geldpolitische Strategie der Europäischen Zentralbank beruht auf der wirtschaftlichen und der monetären Analyse von Risiken für die Preisstabilität im Euroraum. Sollte der monetären Analyse eine prominente Rolle zugewiesen werden?Eva-Ulrike Feldkord, 31, Dipl.-Volkswirtin, ist wis senschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in der Abteilung Internationale Makroökonomie im Hamburgischen Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (HWWA).     

Measuring Stakeholder Integration: Knowledge,Interaction and Adaptational Behavior Dimensions

Stakeholder Theory combines the pursuance of business goals and responsibility toward a firm’s stakeholders. Despite the wealth of research on Stakeholder Orientation, we still have much to learn about specific measurements for several related constructs. In this study, we draw on two samples of 129 and 151 Spanish firms, respectively, to investigate CEOs’ perceptions on Stakeholder Integration (SI), leading to the identification of three dimensions of the construct. In this respect, our study suggests that Knowledge of Stakeholders, Interactions between a firm and its stakeholders, and the adaptation of a firm’s behavior to stakeholders’ demands constitute the main dimensions of SI. This construct has the potential to connect the stakeholder and strategy literatures.     

Price integration in the Australian rock lobster industry: implications for management and climate change adaptation

Rock lobster fisheries are Australia's most valuable wild fisheries in terms of both value of production and value of exports. Different states harvest and export different lobster species, with most of the landings being sent to the Hong Kong market. A perception in the Australian lobster industry is that the different species are independent on the export market, such that a change in landings of one species has no impact on the price of the others. This study investigates the market integration of Australian exports to Hong Kong for the four species and different exporting states. Our results indicate all four species and producers/export states are perceived to be substitutes for one another, so that, in the long run, prices paid to operators in the industry will move together. The integrated nature of the Hong Kong export market for Australian lobster suggests that the potential impacts of alternative fisheries management and development strategies at state and species levels cannot be considered in isolation, at least from an economic perspective. In addition, impacts of external shocks affecting production in one state (e.g. climate change) can be expected to affect all Australian lobster fisheries.     

An Exploration of Factors Affecting Work Anomia

Anomie, a societal and anomia an individual characteristic is employed to understand the behaviour of people and more recently it has been used to explore and understand the moral behaviour of people at work. This article reports on research undertaken to explore the relationship between organisational interest, ethical ideologies, employment, religion and ethnic origin on work and nonwork anomia. An objective of this research was to ascertain whether participants that were not employed had lower levels of work-related anomia than those that were employed. The sample consisted of students (N = 209) enroled in management degrees in a UK university. Results indicate that overall work anomia was statistically significant higher than nonwork anomia. Employment status had a significant effect on levels of nonwork anomia. Religion and ethnic origin were also found to have a significant effect on anomia levels. The findings indicate that the work context may be perceived as inherently anomic and this perception is then adjusted according to the actual experience at work. This may influence ethical behaviour and explain the ethical regression that is identified in the work context.     

Does Cue competition reduce conditioned liking of brands and products?

The present studies investigated whether the visual co‐presentation of a brand name and a product visual increases or decreases the acquisition of liking toward these stimuli in a conditioning paradigm. In Study 1, participants were presented with an elemental brand name, an elemental product visual, or a compound of both stimuli, along with liked faces. Results indicated that the mere pairing with the liked face led to increased liking in the elemental condition, but not in the compound condition (i.e., cue competition). Study 2 showed that this effect is due to the divided attention toward the compound, but not due to competition among conditioned stimuli (CSs) to predict the unconditioned stimulus (US). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.