Tourist shopping experiences and satisfaction

This paper examines tourists' perceived satisfaction with local shopping culture, staff service quality, product value and reliability, physical features of shops, payment methods, and other shopping and shop attributes with special reference to the region of Cappadocia, Turkey. A survey questionnaire was designed and conducted with tourists visiting the region on a guided tour. It was found that the respondents recorded different levels of satisfaction with various attributes of shops and shopping. Based on the research results, it is suggested that providing a higher level of shopping experience for tourists and increasing the contribution of shopping to the regional economy requires supporting indigenous local people via various fiscal and educational instruments to continue producing and retailing authentic handicrafts and souvenir goods. It is believed that this not only is necessary for the achievement of higher levels of tourist satisfaction and greater economic benefits for the local economy but also for achieving the ultimate goal of sustained and sustainable tourism development. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Productivity growth patterns in US dairy products manufacturing plants

We analyse the productivity growth patterns in the US dairy products industry using the Census Bureau's plant-level data set. We decompose Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth into the scale and technical change components and analyse variability of plants’ productivity by constructing transition matrices. We observe a cross-sectional dispersion in plant-level productivity growth in the industry. Even though the industry aggregate shows a small TFP growth rate ?0.3%, quartile rank analysis shows that while the lowest productivity quartile plants average 1.9% loss in productivity, the highest productivity quartile plants average 1.1% growth annually. Our results show considerable movements of plants in their productivity rank categories overall and across age groups, and we find that the scale effect contribution to TFP growth accounts for about 90% of TFP growth on average in the industry. These plants extract scale efficiencies over technological progress to fuel TFP growth. The youngest plants start with the lowest productivity growth at the initial time period, but they catch up older plants productivity, which present the highest average growth rate through years. This may indicate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process for the industry.     

Fiscal illusion and the demand for government expenditures in the UK

This paper examines whether variables commonly used to test standard fiscal illusion arguments (that tax structure affects voters' demands for public goods) can help explain the time-series behaviour of government expenditure in the UK during 1955–1994. We modify a standard median voter model to incorporate fiscal illusion via ‘less visible' (indirect) taxes and deficit financing. While we find evidence that both are positively associated with increased government spending, this would appear to be consistent with both fiscal illusion and standard efficiency arguments.     

Vertical Networks, Integration, and Connectivity

This paper studies competition in a network industry with a stylized two layered network structure, and examines: (i) price and connectivity incentives of the upstream networks, and (ii) incentives for vertical integration between an upstream network provider and a downstream firm. The main result of this paper is that vertical integration occurs only if the initial installed-base difference between the upstream networks is sufficiently small, and in that case, industry is configured with two vertically integrated networks, which yields highest incentives to invest in quality of interconnection. When the installed-base difference is sufficiently large, there is no integration in the industry, and neither of the firms have an incentive to invest in quality of interconnection. An industry configuration in which only the large network integrates and excludes (or raises cost of) its downstream rival does not appear as an equilibrium outcome: in the presence of a large asymmetry between the networks, when quality of interconnection is a strategic variable, the large network can exercise a substantial market power without vertical integration. Therefore, a vertically separated industry structure does not necessarily yield procompetitive outcomes.     

Gender diversity in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in Turkey

This paper, an investigation of gender diversity in the Turkish hospitality industry, focuses on two primary objectives: (a) exploring the potential relationships between gender and several demographic factors, and (b) examining the possible existence of a gender effect regarding employees’ perceptions of recruitment and earning potential decisions. Results, based on 682 surveys, show that, in the male-dominated Turkish hospitality industry, there is a significant gender effect for two of four demographic variables and with respect to recruiting efforts and earning potential. These findings could have some important managerial implications for addressing gender diversity in the (Turkish) hospitality industry.     

Measuring the Foreign Exchange Premium and the Premium for Non‐Tradable Outlays for 20 Countries in Africa

In this paper, we develop an analytical general equilibrium framework to measure the foreign exchange premium and the premium for non‐tradable outlays for a country. The framework allows us to capture in a consistent manner the impacts of the sourcing of funds and their expenditure on tradable and non‐tradable goods and services of investment projects. An application of the model is carried out for 20 countries in Africa. The results show that the foreign exchange premiums range from 2.4% to 9.0% and the premium for non‐tradable outlays from ?0.7% to 2.9%. The empirical values depend on a number of factors, including the indirect taxes, production subsidies and international trade distortions of a country. These premiums should be incorporated into the economic evaluation of investment projects.     

The Robustness of the Link between Volatility and Growth of Output

Recent research, using cross-sectional data, has found a negative relationship between volatility and growth of output. We examine the robustness of these findings to the choice of countries and time periods. The results indicate that the results are very sensitive to the choice of data. Therefore a cross-sectional time series technique is used to allow volatilities to adjust across time. This alternative methodology gives a robust negative relationship between the volatility and growth of output when the full sample of countries is used. However, the negative relationship is somewhat less robust when a sample of OECD countries is used. JEL no. F43, O40     

AN APPLIED IRR MODEL FOR A LEVERED PROJECT IN THE PRESENCE OF INFLATION

An inflation-adjusted IRR model for the appraisal of levered projects is developed within the supply side studies framework by using the tax approach. An empirical test of the model on industrial projects has indicated that the general pattern of the project rankings was not significantly affected in the presence of inflation. However, the shifts in the ranks of the individual projects and over-and-under biases in the traditional accept decisions are observed. Further, all the projects have shown a magnified impact of financial leverage on the IRRs.     

Persistency of Turkish export shocks: a quantile autoregression (QAR) approach

This study analyzes the persistency of total and disaggregated Turkish exports for different shock magnitudes using the quantile autoregression (QAR) method in line with Koenker and Xiao (J Am Stat Assoc 99:775–787, 2004). The results suggest that the persistence of shocks are not similar across different quantiles of Total Exports and disaggregated export sectors, indicating an asymmetry in the case of negative and positive shocks across different export sectors. The persistency behavior of Total Exports as well as Food and Beverages, Chemicals, Basic Metals, Raw Materials, Motor Vehicles and Radio & TV exports are asymmetric to negative versus positive shocks, which cannot be captured by traditional unit root tests. Thus, sound interpretation of QAR results is necessary for policy makers to identify shock characteristics and thereby pursue appropriate policies for overcoming adverse impacts on the economy.     

Unbundling the local loop

We study competition for high bandwidth services in the telecommunications industry by introducing the possibility of unbundling the local loop, where leased lines permit the entrant to provide services without building up its own infrastructure. We use a dynamic model of technology adoption and study the incentives of the entrant to lease loops and compete “service-based”, and/or to build up a new and more efficient infrastructure and compete “facility-based”, given the rental price.We show that the incumbent sets too low a rental price for its loops; hence, the entrant adopts the new technology too late from a social welfare perspective. The distortion may appear not only on the timing of technology adoption but also on the type (quality) of the new technology to be adopted. We also show that while regulating the rental price may suffice to achieve socially desirable outcomes, a sunset clause does not improve social welfare.