THE FREQUENCY OF QUANTITY SURCHARGES: REPLICATION AND EXTENSION

Widrick's research has established that larger sizes of grocery products are not always less expensive per unit than smaller sizes, or that quantity surcharges exist. The purpose of this research was to validate and extend Widrick's work. In this research, the overall incidence of quantity surcharges was 18.6%. Surcharges were found to occur more often when numerous brand sizes were offered and non-integer package size comparisons were required. Additionally, personal care products, not previously included in quantity surcharge research, were found to have a lower incidence of surcharges than food and laundry products. The research indicates there may be possible payoffs to consumers who make unit price comparisons rather than employing the economy size rule.     

Quantity Surcharges: Are They Important in Choosing a Shopping Strategy?

Instead of making value-price comparisons for all members of a product set, consumers may decide to adopt simple purchase decision rules such as larger sizes are better buys. When the unit price of a larger size is greater than the unit price of a smaller size, a quantity surcharge exists. Previous research has established that consumers do frequently encounter quantity surcharges in purchasing grocery products. However, estimates of the amount of the surcharge, the goal of this research, have not previously been reported. In this study the expected return from using the larger-size rule was estimated. The estimation procedure made use of price and size information gathered for all available packages of 23 products sold in 15 grocery stores in one rural Illinois community in October 1981. Nineteen of the 23 grocery products were found to have surcharges, with the mean amount ranging from less than one cent to 65 cents. Tuna fish was the only product for which the expected value of the return from buying a larger size rather than a smaller size was negative. Implications for consumers' choice of shopping strategies are discussed.     

Public Sector Consolidated Statements—an Assessment

Judgments potentially made by various participants in (or observers of) the public sector on the basis of aggregative financial information about governments are reviewed. Distinctions are drawn between judgments that are made routinely , or under certain conditions, by decision makers or observers. It is recognized that (in Australia) the financial information that is relevant to the majority of these judgments is already supplied by other sources (principally budget documents, or in Government Finance Statistics) rather than by public sector consolidated statements. It is concluded that a number of routine judgments could be based on financial information presented in the form of consolidated statements (of varying scope). Alternative criteria for determining the scope of consolidated statements are reviewed. Accountability and control are noted as potential bases. Depending on the adopted objective, it is concluded that tests of control are either not relevant, or inappropriate. It is contended that prior studies that have recommended use of control have focused on processes (trying to find a suitable test for determining the ambit of consolidated statements) rather than on objectives , and examining in some detail what information would be relevant to different users and uses.     

Repo Runs: Evidence from the Tri‐Party Repo Market

The repo market has been viewed as a potential source of financial instability since the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, based in part on findings that margins increased sharply in a segment of this market. This paper provides evidence suggesting that there was no system‐wide run on repo. Using confidential data on tri‐party repo, a major segment of this market, we show that, the level of margins and the amount of funding were surprisingly stable for most borrowers during the crisis. However, we also document a sharp decline in the tri‐party repo funding of Lehman in September 2008.     

World Agricultural Trade Reform: Implications for Australia

In this paper we assess the implications of agricultural trade reform by GATT member countries. To do this, we link two general equilibrium models, a world food trade model and the ORANI model of the Australian economy. By treating the ORANI model as an integral part of the world model, we are able to focus on the implications for Australia of world agricultural trade reform.
The findings suggest that, if price distorting agricultural policies were removed by GATT member countries, world food commodity prices would rise, some by up to 30 per cent, and world food trade expand by about a third. Australia would be a major beneficiary of these international developments, the value of its agricultural exports rising by close to 15 per cent. In 1986, this would have meant for Australia additional export earnings of around SUS750 million, as well as more rapid economic growth.