Advertising effect on primary demand: a cointegration approach

This paper addresses the question of the effects of advertising on the primary demand for whisky in Italy. In contrast to previous works, this issue is investigated in a multivariate framework by referring to Johansen's cointegration technique; this choice allows the non-stationary dynamics of aggregate marketing data to be taken into account, as well as their short-term and long-term relationships. Even if advertising is linked to real prices and sales in the long run, our analysis reveals no evidence supporting the effectiveness of advertising on the aggregate demand for whisky, which is essentially determined by the real price, both in the short and the long term.     

Price Competition and Consumer Externalities in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly with Information Disparities

In this paper, we extend the model of vertical product differentiation to consider information disparities about quality differences and their effects on price competition. If uninformed consumers overestimate vertical differentiation, asymmetric information is a source of market power and informed consumers exert positive externalities on high quality product purchasers and negative externalities on low quality product purchasers. Such a result is consistent with the fact that information undermines brand. If uninformed consumers are skeptical, adverse selection issues arise and market demands may be perfectly inelastic to prices. With elastic demands equilibrium prices may be either distorted downwards or reflect real quality if the share of informed consumers is suffciently high. Therefore, with skeptical consumers firms may want either to signal quality or subsidize information provision.     

Bootstrap Co‐integration Rank Testing: The Effect of Bias‐Correcting Parameter Estimates

Bootstrap‐based methods for bias‐correcting the first‐stage parameter estimates used in some recently developed bootstrap implementations of co‐integration rank tests are investigated. The procedure constructs estimates of the bias in the original parameter estimates by using the average bias in the corresponding parameter estimates taken across a large number of auxiliary bootstrap replications. A number of possible implementations of this procedure are discussed and concrete recommendations made on the basis of finite sample performance evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation methods. The results show that bootstrap‐based bias‐correction methods can significantly improve the small sample performance of the bootstrap co‐integration rank tests.     

Incentivizing Vegetable Consumption in School-Aged Children: Evidence from a Field Experiment

We conducted a field experiment to test the effect of nonmonetary incentives in increasing children's vegetable consumption during lunch at school. We measured children's daily vegetable consumption for four consecutive weeks prior to the provision of incentives, for four consecutive weeks during the incentive provision, and for three consecutive weeks right after the provision of incentives. To check the longer-term effect of the incentive provision, we measured children's daily vegetable consumption 11 weeks after the postintervention period. Results suggest that the incentives are effective in increasing vegetable consumption and that this effect persisted several weeks after the provision of the incentives ended. This is an important topic since gaining a better understanding of effects of nonmonetary incentives can help in the design of nutrition and health policies aimed at improving the dietary behavior of children and potentially reducing childhood obesity.     

Testing for co-integration in vector autoregressions with non-stationary volatility

Many key macroeconomic and financial variables are characterized by permanent changes in unconditional volatility. In this paper we analyse vector autoregressions with non-stationary (unconditional) volatility of a very general form, which includes single and multiple volatility breaks as special cases. We show that the conventional rank statistics computed as in  and  are potentially unreliable. In particular, their large sample distributions depend on the integrated covariation of the underlying multivariate volatility process which impacts on both the size and power of the associated co-integration tests, as we demonstrate numerically. A solution to the identified inference problem is provided by considering wild bootstrap-based implementations of the rank tests. These do not require the practitioner to specify a parametric model for volatility, or to assume that the pattern of volatility is common to, or independent across, the vector of series under analysis. The bootstrap is shown to perform very well in practice.     

International dynamic risk sharing

In this paper we examine the implications of international risk sharing among a set of countries in the presence of market frictions which complicate the instantaneous adjustment to the first‐order conditions. We suggest approximating the consumption streams of countries belonging to the risk sharing coalition in terms of a disequilibrium dynamic model embodying forward‐looking adjustment. Econometric methods for estimating and testing the model are discussed. Empirical analysis of a set of core European countries suggests that once preference parameters are allowed to vary across countries, we are able to identify a group of nations that share risks against idiosyncratic permanent income shocks. The equilibrium position, however, is reached after a long adjustment period. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The rhythm of effective entrepreneurs’ decision-making process. The pathways of alertness scanning and search and cognitive style. A mediation model

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - How can entrepreneurs be effective when making decisions? To enrich current research on entrepreneurship and cognition, the present study...     

Examining the carbon emission impact of livelihood transitions in pro-poor tourism

This study examines carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission changes from livelihood transitions during tourism development to assess the environmental impact of pro-poor tourism (PPT) in China. The results indicate that livelihood transitions during PPT increased household income but also produced more CO₂ emissions. CO₂ emissions vary depending on factors including livelihood types after transition, income and household sizes, etc. The CO₂ per unit of income from tourism-based livelihoods is higher than from non-tourism-based livelihoods. Different livelihood strategies post transition also affect emissions. Practical suggestions that may mitigate emissions while not compromising residents’ income levels are provided.