The Consumer Life Cycle

The field of consumer education needs conceptual frameworks to organize the growing body of existing knowledge and to point to needed research. The use of the familiar life cycle variable for this purpose is proposed. Generalizations, based upon a review of the literature, are offered about the characteristics, typical product and service purchases, marketplace concepts and knowledge, marketplace skills, typical marketplace problems and level of resources of different life cycle stage categories.     

Thesen und Gegenthesen

Summary Theses and Counter-theses. Notes to Milton Friedman’s monetary concept of “New Liberalism.” —This paper summarizes Milton Friedman’s most important statements concerning problems of national money supply and credit policy into the following seven theses, to each of which the author opposes a counter-thesis. Thesis 1: The total amount of money in circulation is the most important monetary factor. Counter-thesis 1: The liquidity balance is the most important monetary factor. Thesis 2: The total amount of money influences nominal income and prices. Counter-thesis 2: Expenditure influences the amount of money. Thesis 3: The total amount of money can be manipulated by monetary policy. Counter-thesis 3: The amount of money in circulation cannot be manipulated. Thesis 4: Bank credits should be curtailed. Counter-thesis 4: Bank credits should be directed. Thesis 5: Monetary policy only with open market transactions. Counter-thesis 5: Credit policy through several combined instruments. Thesis 6: Price stability through a continuous development of the amount of money in circulation. Counter-thesis 6: Price stability through a continuous development of bank liquidity. Thesis 7: Monetary policy instead of fiscal policy. Counter-thesis 7: Credit policy and fiscal policy.

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Résumé Thèses et contre-thèses. Remarques au sujet de la notion monétaire ?New Liberalism? de Milton Friedman. —Cet article résume les propositions les plus importantes de Milton Friedman concernant les problèmes de l’approvisionnement national en argent, et de la politique de crédit, en les présentant sous forme de sept thèses, à chacune desquelles l’auteur oppose une contre-thèse: Thèse 1: Le total de l’argent en circulation représente le facteur monétaire le plus important. Contre-thèse 1: Le solde de liquidité est le facteur monétaire le plus important. Thèse 2: Le total de l’argent en circulation exerce une influence sur le revenu nominal et les prix. Contre-thèse 2: Les dépenses exercent une influence sur le total de l’argent. Thèse 3: On peut contr?ler le total de l’argent en circulation par des mesures de politique monétaire. Contre-thèse 3: On ne peut pas exercer d’influence sur le total de l’argent en circulation. Thèse 4: II faut arrêter les crédits bancaires. Contre-thèse 4: II faut diriger les crédits bancaires. Thèse 5: Politique monétaire seulement avec des transactions de marché ouvert. Contre-thèse 5: Politique de crédit au moyen de plusieurs instruments combinés. Thèse 6: Stabilité des prix grace à un développement continu du total de l’argent en circulation. Contre-thèse 6: Stabilité des prix grace à un développement continu de la liquidité des banques. Thèse 7: Politique monétaire au lieu de politique fiscale. Contre-thèse 7: Politique de crédit et politique fiscale.

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Resumen Tésis y antitesis. Comentarios sobre el concepto monetario del ?New Liberalism? de Milton Friedman. —En el presente trabajo el autor sintetiza las principales afirmaciones de Milton Friedman sobre problemas de provision de dinero y de política crediticia en siete tésis a las que opone otros tantos contraargumentos: Primera tesis: El volumen de dinero es la variable monetaria más importante. Contraargumento: El saldo de liquidez es la variable monetaria más importante. Segunda tesis: El volumen de dinero incide en el ingreso nominal y los precios. Contraargumento: Los gastos inciden en el volumen de dinero. Tercera tesis: El volumen de dinero puede ser regulado a través de la política monetaria. Contraargumento: El volumen de dinero no puedo ser regulado. Cuarta tesis: La creaci?n de crédites bancarios ha de ser reprimida. Contraargumento: La creaci?n de crédites bancarios ha de ser regulada. Quinta tesis: La politica monetaria debe basarse exclusivamente en operaciones del Banco Central en el mercado abierto. Contraargumento: La politica monetaria debe consistir en la aplicaci?n combinada de varios instrumentes. Sexta tesis: La estabilidad de precios se logrará por medio de una evolución continua de la masa dineraria. Contraargumento: La estabilidad de precios se logrará mediante una evolutión continua de las disponibilidades liquidas de la Banca. Séptima tesis: La politica coyuntural debe valerse de operaciones monetarias y no de operaciones fiscales. Contraargumento: La politica coyuntural debe valerse de operaciones tanto monetarias como fiscales.

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Riassunto Tesi e controtesi. Osservazioni all’abbozzo monetario del ?New Liberalism? di Milton Friedman. —Le affermazioni più importanti di Milton Friedman sui problemi dell’approvigionamento nazionale del denaro e della politica di credito sono riassunte nel présente saggio nelle sette tesi seguenti, alle quali l’autore di volta in volta contrappone una controtesi: Tesi I: La quantità di denaro è la più importante grandezza monetaria. Controtesi I: II saldo di liquidità è la più importante grandezza monetaria. Tesi II: La quantità di denaro influisce sul reddito nominale e sui prezzi. Controtesi II: Le spese influiscono sulla quantità di denaro. Tesi III: La quantità di denaro puó essere diretta dal punto di vista della politica monetaria. Controtesi III: La quantità di denaro non puó essere influenzata. Tesi IV: Creazione di credito délie banche deve essere ostacolato. Controtesi IV: Creazione di credito délie banche deve essere diretto. Tesi V: Politica monetaria soltanto con transazioni di mercato aperto. Controtesi V: Politica creditizia con l’impiego combinato di più strumenti. Tesi VI: Stabilità dei prezzi mediante sviluppo continuo della quantità monetaria. Controtesi VI: Stabilità dei prezzi mediante sviluppo continuo della liquidità bancaria. Tesi VII: Politica monetaria invece di politica fiscale. Controtesi VII: Politica creditizia e politica fiscale.

     

“Linguistic Distance” as a Determinant of Bilateral Trade

We introduce a measure of language difficulty called “linguistic distance” into a modified gravity model to determine whether a language being further away from English affects the level of trade. Our sample of 36 non-English-speaking countries includes Japan and South Korea, which we argue are special cases because of World War II, the Korean War, and subsequent close political and economic ties with the United States. Presence of a stock of immigrants in the home country has been shown to enhance trade with the country of origin. Controlling for immigrant network and information attributes, the special relationship with Japan and Korea, and the standard gravity model variables, we find that trade will be less between the United States and a country the further that country's language is from English. These results hold for aggregate exports and imports and for exports and imports of consumer and producer manufactures.     

An empirical examination of IPO underpricing in the Chinese A-share market

Research in the literature shows that initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stocks are systematically priced at a discount to their subsequent initial trading price. The large underpricing magnitude in the Chinese IPO market has attracted much attention. We consider three hypotheses that may explain the IPO underpricing in China. These are the winner's curse hypothesis, the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. Among these hypotheses, the winner's curse hypothesis has not been tested in the Chinese market. Using IPO data for online fixed-price offerings from November 1995 to December 1998, our results show that the winner's curse hypothesis is the main reason for the high IPO underpricing in China. The signaling hypothesis is not empirically supported in the Chinese market during the sample period.     

Reflections on Private Water Supply: Agency and Equity Issues

In the second of the two articles, the authors reflect on and extend their earlier work by describing recent trends in water privatization, drawing important lessons from cases where privatization efforts have failed, offering suggestions about the way privatized firms can be successfully monitored, and addressing the popular argument that “fairness” demands that water be distributed by public firms at a zero (or heavily subsidized) price.     

THE BROTHER‐IN‐LAW EFFECT*

When a firm is forced to pay abnormally high wages, hiring transfers rents. This effectively endows the employer with the ability to grant favors, and he may wish to do so even at some cost to efficient production. We refer to this as the brother‐in‐law effect. This article analyzes its consequences. When the brother‐in‐law effect is due to unionization, decisions regarding both the number and type of workers employed could be inefficient; overemployment could obtain even relative to the workforce that would be employed without unionization. We also identify cases in which nepotism improves efficiency.     

Energy Saving and Tourism Sustainability: Solar Control Window Film in Hotel Rooms

This paper investigates solar control film as an energy saver in the fast growing hotel sector in southern China. It investigates claims made for this low-cost retrofitted material in hotel rooms, calibrating reductions in solar gain in summer. It provides reliable and independent data about the performance and economic viability of solar control film in real hotel environments. The study found that, by limiting solar gain, the film helps limit tourism's impact on global warming and climate change. The paper also foreshadows new technical glazing developments.     

Strategic order splitting,order choice,and aggressiveness: Evidence from the Taiwan futures exchange

We investigate the strategic order‐splitting behavior and order aggressiveness of different types of traders using a unique dataset on the Taiwan Futures Exchange. By examining the trades and orders for each and every account, we find that, as compared with domestic institutional traders and individual traders, foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms are more likely to split their orders and it appears that the price adjustments after their trades are permanent. Foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms seem to be better informed, with their orders apparently being split so as to reveal their information on a gradual basis. Furthermore, we find that foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms use fewer market orders, choosing instead to submit aggressive limit orders, possibly due to their desire to make the most of their information advantage. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:1102–1129, 2009     

Linking Ethics and Risk Management in Taxation: Evidence from an Exploratory Study in Ireland and the UK

Ethical dilemmas involving tax issues were identified by members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as posing the most difficult ethical problem for them (Finn et al., Journal of Business Ethics 7(8), pp. 607–609, 1988). The KPMG tax shelter fraud case proves that the tax profession has not gone untainted in the age of numerous accounting and corporate scandals, such as the Enron débacle (Sikka and Hampton, Accounting Forum 29(3), 325–343, 2005). High-profile scandals serve to highlight the problems caused by differences in ethical judgement among accountants and tax practitioners and the issue of ethics has been brought publicly to the forefront of the profession. Nevertheless, the nature and dimension of ethical issues in tax practice have been largely unexplored (Erard, Journal of Public Economics 52(2), 163–197, 1993; Marshall et al., Journal of Business Ethics 17(12), 1265–1279, 1998; Frecknall Hughes, Unpublished PhD Thesis, The University of Leeds, 2002). This research aims to contribute to the debate on ethics in tax practice by reporting interview data on tax practitioners’ perceptions of ethics in the jurisdictions of Ireland and the United Kingdom and exploring the link or equation of ethics with risk management.