Conceptualizing Consumer Ethnocentrism in a Developing Country: Validity and Applicability of CETSCALE in Bangladesh

This article argues that the traditional belief that “consumer ethnocentrism is a phenomenon of the developed countries only” is no longer true. To establish this argument, this study assesses the applicability of the Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE) to a developing country Bangladesh. The methodology is based on 788 samples collected from 27 districts of Bangladesh. Results show that for three chosen sociodemographic groups namely, students, job holders, and businessmen, the CETSCALE is to a much extent applicable as the groups have shown positive attitudes in retaining 12 to 14 items out of the 17 items of the original scale.     

Public-private partnerships in micro-finance: Should NGO involvement be restricted?

This paper examines public–private partnerships in micro-finance, whereby NGOs can help in channelizing credit to the poor, both in borrower selection, as well as in project implementation. We argue that a distortion may arise out of the fact that the private partner, i.e. the NGO, is a motivated agent. We find that whenever the project is neither too productive, nor too unproductive, reducing such distortion requires unbundling borrower selection and project implementation, with the NGO being involved in borrower selection only. Further, we compare and contrast two alternative credit delivery mechanisms, the linkage mechanism (which is the focus of this paper), with the ‘Grameen’ one.     

Designing a reverse logistics network for optimal collection, recovery and quality-based product-mix planning

This study proposes an integrated, reverse logistics supply chain planning process with modular product design that produces and markets products at different quality levels. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model formulates the overall planning process required to maximize profit by considering the collection of returned products, the recovery of modules and the proportion of the product mix at different quality levels. This paper proposes the collection of returnables (end-of life, defective, product under warranty) through retail outlets combined with the recovery of modules from the collected products using a network of recovery service providers. The proposed modular product design approach would create a design criterion that provides an improved recovery process at a lower cost. This study uses a total supply chain view that considers the production, transportation and distribution of products to customers, while a numerical problem illustrates the applicability of the models.     

Religiosity and Voluntary Simplicity: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Well-Being

Although there has been considerable theoretical support outlining a positive relationship between religiosity and voluntary simplicity, there is limited empirical evidence validating this relationship. This study examines the relationships among religious orientations (Allport and Ross in J Pers Soc Psychol 5(4):432–443, 1967) and voluntary simplicity in a sample of Australian consumers. The results demonstrate that intrinsic religiosity is positively related to voluntary simplicity; however, there is no relationship between extrinsic religiosity and voluntary simplicity. Furthermore, this research investigates the processes through which intrinsic religiosity affects voluntary simplicity. The relationship between intrinsic religiosity and voluntary simplicity is sequentially mediated by communal/personal well-being and environmental well-being. The findings not only identify a prosocial role of intrinsic religiosity in motivating voluntary simplicity, but also indicate that secular pursuits that enhance communal/personal well-being and environmental well-being may also motivate voluntary simplicity.     

Eliciting Willingness‐to‐Pay through Multiple Experimental Procedures: Evidence from Lab‐in‐the‐Field in Rural Ghana

This paper has the objectives of (a) comparing estimated willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) across three elicitation mechanisms (a Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak [BDM] auction, a kth price auction, and a choice experiment [CE]) and (b) examining how these vary by participation fee. The product under consideration is kenkey made with nutritious maize, biofortified with vitamin A, which gives it a distinct orange color, in contrast to the white and yellow varieties that are traditionally consumed. We use an experiment consisting of 14 treatment arms, conducted in rural Ghana. Our estimation strategy explicitly accounts for the censored (typically at the market price) nature of the bids in the auctions, and the apparently lexicographic choices of several individuals in the CE. We find no evidence of economically meaningful (defined by the minimum currency unit of five pesewas) differences in WTP (although they may be statistically significant) across elicitation mechanisms, or by participation fee, a result that is in contrast to that found in much of the literature. A secondary finding is that the provision of nutrition information positively and significantly affects the marginal WTP for the new maize.     

Inflation dynamics and the cost channel of monetary transmission

Evidence from vector autoregressions indicates that the impact of interest rate shocks on macroeconomic aggregates can substantially be affected by the so-called cost channel of monetary transmission. In this paper, we apply a structural approach to examine the relevance of the cost channel for inflation dynamics in G7 countries. Since firms’ costs of working capital increase with interest rates, we augment a (hybrid) New Keynesian Phillips curve by including the short-run nominal interest rate. We find significant and varying direct interest rate effects for the majority of countries, including member countries of the EMU. Simulations further demonstrate that the estimated interest rate coefficients can substantially affect inflation responses to monetary policy shocks, and can even lead to inverse inflation responses, when the cost channel is - relative to the demand channel - sufficiently strong.     

Federal reserve policy viewed through a money supply lens

Federal Reserve nonborrowed reserve supply systematically responded to changes in inflation and in the output gap over the period 1969-2000. While the feedback from output gap is always negative, the response of money supply to changes in inflation varies considerably across time. Nonborrowed reserves decreased with inflation in the post-1979 period and increased in the pre-1979 period. Applying a standard macro-model, the estimated reaction functions are shown to ensure equilibrium determinacy. Viewed through the money supply lens, Federal Reserve policy substantially changed over time, but has never allowed for endogenous fluctuations, which contrasts conclusions drawn from federal funds rate analyses.     

The relationship between the inflation rate and its variability: the issues reconsidered

This paper empirically reexamines the hypothesis of a positive relationship between the inflation rate and its variability. The sample consists of 66 countries for the 1955–85 sample period. Using pooled cross-section time series data, empirical tests are performed for nine different country-groupings ranging from the G–7 developed countries to a group of 10 developing Asian countries. Several important conclusions can be derived. First, irrespective of the variability measure employed, the results indicate the presence of a significant positive relationship between the inflation rate and its variability. This provides strong support to Okun's hypothesis. Second, this relationship is stronger during the flexible rather than the fixed exchange rate period. Third, there appears to be an optimum zone of inflation rate within which the predictability of inflation is at its highest and hence uncertainty cost is at its lowest. For the 1955–85 sample period, this optimum zone of average inflation rate lies in the range of 5 to 7 percent.