Is a Tax Cut on Cultural Goods Consumption Actually Desirable? A Microsimulation Analysis applied to Spain*

Proposals for tax cuts on cultural goods represent an ongoing debate in cultural policy. The main aim of this paper is to shed some light on this debate using microsimulation tools. First, we have estimated an Almost Ideal Demand System for 19 different groups of goods, including cultural goods. Expenditure and price elasticities have been obtained from this model. Using this information, three alternative cuts in the VAT rate on cultural goods have been microsimulated and evaluated in terms of revenue and welfare. These types of fiscal reforms will lead to welfare and efficiency gains that can be described as regressive.     

The Effects of Decentralization in Strategy‐Making and National Culture on NPD Portfolio Planning

Traditionally, the understanding among scholars and practitioners has been that a portfolio of NPD projects is the expression of a firm's strategy and thus it must support the strategy. In keeping with this view, the current study focuses on new product development (NPD) portfolio planning, which is defined as a firm's effort to formulate portfolio decisions using a defined innovation strategy. Connecting portfolio decisions to a defined innovation strategy has been associated with higher innovation success. Surprisingly, empirical research indicates that portfolio decisions do not always support the company's innovation strategy. Furthermore, during recent years, an increasing number of authors underscore the importance of responsiveness and adaptability in portfolio decision‐making. The current study addresses these two issues by examining a direct effect of decentralization in strategy‐making on NPD portfolio planning, and a moderating effect of decentralization in strategy‐making on the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. The study also examines the influence of national culture on the proposed relationships. The theoretical model was tested using data from the 2012 PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Findings indicate that NPD portfolio planning positively influences NPD program success. Also, results revealed inverted U‐shaped direct and moderating effects, respectively, of decentralization in strategy‐making on NPD portfolio planning, and of decentralization in strategy‐making on the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. With regard to the moderating effect of national culture, results indicate that uncertainty avoidance does not moderate the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. Nonetheless, we found significant moderating effects of individualism and power distance on the curvilinear relationship between decentralization in strategy‐making and NPD portfolio planning.     

IS THE DISTRIBUTION OF BETAS STATIONARY?

The stationarity of the beta distribution for 1926–1985 is rejected for the entire period as a single sample. However, results for pairs of five-year estimation periods are more consistent with stationarity. Over all possible pairs of five-year periods, stationarity in the pair-wise tests is rejected more often than expected merely by chance. However, excluding two aberrant periods, the number of rejections of stationarity is consistent with chance. Therefore, the distribution of betas is nearly stationary in both the short run and long run. For practical purposes the distribution of betas may be regarded as stationary.     

The Regression Tendencies of Betas: A Reappraisal

This paper reexamines the regression tendencies of beta. We show that common assertions in the literature about regression tendencies go well beyond the facts established by Blume. We analyze betas during the 1926–1985 period and examine the tendencies of betas to change. Extreme betas do tend to move toward the mean. However, betas near the mean in one period tend to move away from the mean. As a result, the distribution of betas is approximately stationary over time.     

Comment on 'Market discipline and monetary policy' by Carl Walsh

This paper shows that the results Walsh (2000, Market disciplineand monetary policy, Oxford Economic Papers, 52, 249–71)obtains are highly sensitive to the assumption that differentwage contracts are based on different information sets eventhough they are negotiated simultaneously. In particular, thepower of future expectations to discipline an opportunisticcentral banker is much weaker when homogeneous information setsare used.     

Investment Decisions, Liquidity, and Institutional Activism: An International Study

The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism’s effect on the sensitivity of the investment policies of a company in the face of financial variables (such as cash flow and liquidity ratio) and market variables (ownership concentration and value creation index). To test our assertions, we analyze firm-level data for United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, France, Denmark, and Spain during the period 1995–2004. Our results point to a significant reduction in the sensitivity of company investment decisions in the face of these variables, especially relative to intangible capital, as a result of the neutralizing effect of activism on the high agency costs of free cash flow and on the information asymmetries of the market.     

Self-Service Technologies and e-Services Risks in Social Commerce Era

In this paper we argue that greater attention must be given to peoples’ expression of “care” in relation to consumption. We suggest that “caring about” does not necessarily lead to “care-giving,” as conceptualising an attitude–behaviour gap might imply, but that a closer examination of the intensity, morality, and articulation of care can lead to a greater understanding of consumer narratives and, thus, behaviour. To examine this proposition, a purposive sample of self-identified ethical consumers was interviewed. Care is expressed by the study’s participants in a variety of ways and linked to behaviour through diverse patterns that includes consumption and abstention. We find significant correspondence between the academic literature on the ‘ethics of care’ and our participants’ articulation of their ethical consumption behaviours. We suggest, therefore, that a close understanding of an ethics of care among consumers is important both in providing insight into the attitude–behaviour gap challenge evident in the literature and to the continued development of an ethical consumption discourse.