What about sustainability? Understanding consumers' conceptual representations through free word association

The United Nations (UN) conceptualizes sustainability as development that meets the current needs of the planet's populations, but without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Although the concept of sustainability has been widely discussed in the international political agendas, inconsistent interpretation and ambiguity of the concept by consumers is observed. In this paper, the understanding of the term sustainability amongst Brazilian consumers is reported. Using the word association projective technique, the participants were asked to write down all the words that came to their mind when thinking about “sustainability.” Thematic content analysis was performed by grouping words by similarity of meaning in categories, which were further submitted to correspondence analysis (CA) to create a perceptual map. Brazilian consumers made different associations reflecting the complexity and multidimensionality of the concept amongst different groups of consumers. The most frequently cited categories are related to environment, health and nutrition, behaviour, production and economy and sustenance. CA accounted for 76.7% of the data variance and the perceptual map evidenced that younger individuals with higher education made associations with categories related to the current concept of sustainable development, similar to that proposed by UN. Moreover, consumers with basic education were associated with categories related to food and sustenance. The findings of this study can contribute to the formulation of education strategies directed towards different social groups, besides directing further research on consumer behaviour.     

Was the deflation of the depression anticipated? An inference using real-time data

Theories that explain the behavior of the economy during the Depression are based on assumptions about agents’ expectations about future price trends. This paper uses an alternative methodological approach which utilizes real-time information from the Depression period to infer whether deflation was anticipated. The information includes the forecasting methodology of that time as well as projections about anticipated output that were obtained from the textual analysis of business statements, converting qualitative to quantitative data. We infer that deflation was not anticipated because agents did not expect economic output to consistently decrease.     

Identifying agroecological mixed farming strategies for local conditions in San Antonio de Los Baños,Cuba

Building on previous research at the experimental and national scales, this study was carried out at the local scale over a four-year period on three farms of reference: one specialized dairy farm ‘Vaquería 10’ (33.7 ha) and two mixed farms, ‘Remedio’ (9.4 ha) and ‘La Sarita’ (47 ha). All three farms are located in the San Antonio de Los Baños municipality, Havana, Cuba. This study illustrates the application of the Ecological Framework for the Assessment of Sustainability (ECOFAS). This methodology consists of a cyclical structure of six steps, aimed at guiding the process of implementing innovative mixed (crop–livestock) farming strategies. Local stakeholders (farmers, researchers, extension officers and representatives of the ministry of agriculture in the municipality) identified alternative strategies for agriculture in the region, based on the critical technological, environmental and socio-economic factors constraining the current performance of farming systems. The results show that implementation of ‘best practice’ mixed farming systems management strategies in the region potentially can lead to a strong positive impact on land productivity, food self-sufficiency as well as improve socio-economic performance.     

Labor's liquidity service and firing costs

This paper studies the specific effect that firing costs can have on firms facing liquidity constraints. When firing costs are zero and a time gap exists between production and its associated revenues, firing allows firms to hold on to their liquid assets by saving on wages, and thus, allows firms to cope better with liquidity shocks when external financing is too costly or unavailable. I refer to this feature as labor's liquidity service. Higher firing costs reduces the value of labor's liquidity service, and thus, increases firms' incentive for hoarding liquidity and reduces firms' demand for production inputs. In addition to this negative effect at the creation margin of production, firing costs have a relatively higher positive effect on the destruction margin of production of financially restricted firms. This paper presents a model that develops these ideas and shows that the presence of firing costs has a stronger negative effect on the output of firms facing liquidity constraints. Regression analysis, based on country-industry panel data sets, provides empirical evidence consistent with the liquidity service effect of firing costs. I find a relatively stronger negative effect of firing costs on the output of industries with higher liquidity requirements and a relatively stronger negative effect of firing costs on the output of small, and more likely financially constrained, firms.     

Monetary targeting in the Netherlands: an application of co-integration tests

There are two criteria to choose an intermediate variable for monetary targeting. First, the money demand function needs to be stable and second, the monetary authorities should be able to control the target variable given the available instruments. In this paper we examine whether M1 and M2 in the Netherlands fulfil the first requirement, i.e. we investigate whether a stable relationship exists between these monetary variables and key macroeconomic variables. Co-integration techniques are used which are very well suited for this purpose. Monetary policy in the Netherlands has been directed towards the growth rate of broad money (M2). The present findings do not suport the choice of M2 as an intermediate target for monetary policy in the Netherlands. A stable long-term relationship between M2 and real NNP and Long-and short-term interest rates does not exist. The results for M1 are considerbly better, though not favourable at all scores. The estimated moeny demand function for M1 is a good indicator for monetary policy, since the Dutch central bank probably cannot control the growth rate of M1.     

Model of associativity in the production chain in Agroindustrial SMEs

This research aims to propose a model of associativity in the productive chain of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MIPYMES) of citrus agroindustrial in the north of the state of Veracruz, Mexico; With the purpose of explaining the extent to which direct actors, support services, environment, relations and government policies determine the associativity in the production chain. The problem that originates this investigation is the lack of knowledge about the operation of the agro-industrial citrus MIPYMES in this area of the country. The result of this research is a model that represents the operation of these companies in associativity with the productive chain considering the elements that form it, proposing alternatives to generate a greater cooperation or coalition of the companies that interact to obtain mutual benefits.     

An evaluation of the forecasts of the federal reserve: a pooled approach

The Federal Reserve Greenbook forecasts of real GDP, inflation and unemployment are analysed for the period 1974–1997. We consider whether these forecasts exhibit systematic bias, and whether efficient use is made of information, that is, whether revisions to these forecasts over time are predictable. Rather than analyse the forecasts separately for each horizon of interest, we discuss and implement methods that pool information over horizons. We conclude that there is evidence of systematic bias and of forecast smoothing of the inflation forecasts. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.