Household wealth, public consumption and economic well-being in the United States

Standard official measures of household economic well-beingin several countries are based on money income. The generalconsensus is that such measures are limited because they ignorecertain crucial determinants of well-being. We examine two suchdeterminants—household wealth and public consumption—inthe context of the US. Our findings suggest that the level anddistribution of economic well-being is substantially alteredwhen money income is adjusted for wealth or public consumption.Over the 1989–2000 period, median well-being appears toincrease faster when these adjustments are made than when standardmoney income is used. Adding imputed rent and annuity from householdwealth to household income increases measured inequality, whileadding public consumption reduces it. However, all three measuresshow about the same rise in inequality over the period.     

The Ethics of Food Advertising Targeted Toward Children: Parental Viewpoint

The children’s market has become significantly more important to marketers in recent years. They have been spending increasing amounts on advertising, particularly of food and beverages, to reach this segment. At the same time, there is a critical debate among parents, government agencies, and industry experts as to the ethics of food advertising practices aimed toward children. The␣present study examines parents’ ethical views of food advertising targeting children. Findings indicate that parents’ beliefs concerning at least some dimensions of moral intensity are significantly related to their ethical judgments and behavioral intentions of food advertising targeting children as well as the perceived moral intensity of the situation.     

Character Portrayal: Examining Gender Roles in Television Commercials Targeted at Children in India and the United States

ABSTRACT

Children's market has been growing steadily not only in the United States but also globally. Advertisers have been targeting this segment heavily in recent years. Given the impact of this segment having increased rapidly in recent years, it is imperative for the advertisers to understand and develop effective advertising messages to reach this segment successfully. One of the essential components of advertisement content includes decisions regarding the gender portrayal of the characters. This study examines the depiction of self-presentation behaviors of the characters in commercials shown during the times and on the channels that children watch in India and the United States. The findings indicate interesting similarities and differences between the two countries. Managerial implications and future research directions are offered based on the findings.     

CUE with many weak instruments and nearly singular design

This paper analyzes many weak moment asymptotics under the possibility of similar moments. The possibility of highly related moments arises when there are many of them. Knight and Fu (2000) designate the issue of similar regressors as the “nearly singular” design in the least squares case. In the nearly singular design, the sample variance converges to a singular limit term. However, Knight and Fu (2000) assume that on the nullspace of the limit term, the difference between the sample variance and the singular matrix converges in probability to a positive definite matrix when multiplied by an appropriate rate. We consider specifically Continuous Updating Estimator (CUE) with many weak moments under nearly singular design. We show that the nearly singular design affects the form of the limit of the many weak moment asymptotics that is introduced by Newey and Windmeijer (2009a). However, the estimator is still consistent and the Wald test has the standard χ²${\chi }^2$ limit.     

Greenpeace v. Shell: media exploitation and the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF)

This paper examines the usefulness of the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) in understanding the media's role in risk communication. Since the SARF was created in 1988, it has been both further developed and critiqued for (amongst other things) its: static conception of communication; lack of attention towards how key actors use the media; lack of systematic attention towards the media as an amplification station; and simplistic assumptions of how the media operate as an amplification station. A complex heavily‐mediated risk communication case study—the battle between Greenpeace and Shell over the deep‐sea disposal of the Brent Spar oil rig (1995)—is used to explore whether the SARF in its current stage of development stands up to these critiques. It is concluded that these critiques are more a consequence of how researchers have used the SARF rather than a fault of the SARF itself. Using the SARF framework with a qualitative case study methodology enabled systematic analysis of the role of relevant media in the social amplification of risk in the Spar issue, exposing how Greenpeace used the media to successfully communicate three risk signals, together with the inadequacies of Shell's reactions; and revealing the layering within amplification stations, including the media itself.     

The Effects of Knowledge Depth and Scope on the Relationship between R&D Alliances and New Product Development

In this study, we extend the new product development (NPD) literature that proposes that firms' knowledge depth, defined as the reuse of well understood technical knowledge, and scope, defined as the use of newly acquired technical knowledge, and new knowledge accessed from R&D alliances all positively impact NPD. Building on the knowledge‐based view of the firm, we posit that the impact of firms' R&D alliances is limited when their internal knowledge depth and scope are adequate for NPD needs. We suggest that although firms form R&D alliances to gain the right to access external knowledge of R&D alliance partners, they are not obligated to invest in resources to integrate external knowledge from R&D alliances. We propose that they wait to see if their internal knowledge depth and scope prove sufficient for NPD. If the external knowledge proves to be unnecessary, firms choose not to invest the resources required to integrate this knowledge with their internal knowledge. Alternatively, we suggest an increased impact of R&D alliances on NPD when firms are more limited in their internal knowledge depth and scope. We propose that when knowledge depth and scope prove insufficient, firms make the additional investments required to integrate external knowledge from R&D alliances with their internal knowledge stock. This reasoning is consistent with real options theory as it has been applied in alliance research, where strategic alliances are characterized as real options. We find support for our hypotheses using panel data of 738 firm year observations for 143 U.S. biopharmaceutical firms operating in 2007. Our study contributes to the NPD literature and suggests new directions for future research.     

How do mega-bank merger policy and regulations contribute to financial stability? Evidence from Australia and Canada

Although the role of financial regulatory failures in the global financial crisis (GFC) has been explored extensively in the post-GFC literature, our knowledge of the role of bank merger and takeover policy and regulation in reinforcing financial stability is limited. Based on an exploratory case study of Australia, which is examined in comparison to Canada, this article argues that competition policy and regulation contributed to financial stability by insulating the largest Australian and Canadian banks from domestic or foreign hostile takeover threats, and by limiting their asset size, and thus their internationalization and interconnections with the global banking community.     

Nearly-singular design in GMM and generalized empirical likelihood estimators

Nearly-Singular design relaxes the nonsingularity assumption of the limit weight matrix in GMM, and the nonsingularity of the limit variance matrix for the first order conditions in GEL. The sample versions of these matrices are nonsingular, but in large samples we assume these sample matrices converge to a singular matrix. This can result in size distortions for the overidentifying restrictions test and large bias for the estimators. This nearly-singular design may occur because of the similar instruments in these matrices. We derive the large sample theory for GMM and GEL estimators under nearly-singular design. The rate of convergence of the estimators is slower than root n$n$.     

Depositors’ Assessment of Bank Riskiness in the Russian Federation

In the period after the crises in the late 1990s, the banking industries in most emerging markets have undergone significant restructuring consistent with the Basel II Accord. The Central Bank of Russia’s efforts since 2000 have contributed to the consolidation and improvement of the banking industry. To measure the extent of market discipline in the Russian banking industry, we study the reaction of Russian depositors to excessive risk taking by large banks between 2000:1 and 2005:1. We find that during our analysis period, well-capitalized, more liquid banks significantly increase their deposits.