Technology and Firm Size-Wage Differentials in Colombia, Mexico, and Taiwan (China)

In many economies, studies have found large wage differentialsnot accounted for by work force characteristics, collectivebargaining, or market power. Researchers attribute these differentialsto either unobserved worker quality or pay incentives designedto elicit worker effort. This article finds empirical supportfor an alternative explanation: These wage differentials resultfrom firms' technology-generating activities. Using firm-leveldata from Colombia, Mexico, and Taiwan (China), the articlecompares the effects of research and development, worker training,and exports by employers on the wages of skilled and unskilledworkers. The results suggest that technology investments leadto large wage premiums for skilled workers but not for unskilledworkers. These wage premiums are primarily the result of investmentsin research and development and in training, while exportingis relatively less important except in Colombia.     

Are Tariffs Inflationary?

Economists universally regard tariffs to be inflationary and free trade to be deflationary, a view that this paper challenges. It is argued that while rotectionism has generally created inflation in developing economies, the experience of the United States was totally different. Tariffs in the US were never associated with rising prices, and trade liberalization with declining prices. High tariffs were always followed by sharp drops in the cost of living. A theoretical model is developed to explain the deflationary effects of tariffs in the United States. Thus tariffs produce inflation only in nonmarket or ualistic developing economies, but not in advanced economies.     

Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian sources of consumer attitudes

It has been suggested theoretically that consumer attitudes have distinct hedonic and utilitarian components, and that product categories differ in the extent to which their overall attitudes are derived from these two components. This paper reports three studies that validate measurement scales for these constructs and, using them, show that these two attitude dimensions do seem to exist; are based on different types of product attributes; and are differentially salient across different consumer products and behaviors, in theoretically-consistent ways.     

The impact of formal financial inclusion on informal financial intermediation and cash preference: evidence from Africa

This paper examines the effect of formal financial intermediation (inclusion) on informal financial intermediation and the use of cash for economic activities. Using data from the Global Findex 2014, we examine whether the use of formal financial intermediaries reduces cash preference and the use of informal financial intermediaries. Our empirical results show that informal financial intermediation is positively associated with formal financial inclusion. This indicates that the relationship between informal and formal financial intermediation is complementary rather than a trade-off, which demonstrates the importance of informal finance plays in the financial system of Africa. Moreover, the use of formal financial intermediaries significantly reduces the preference for holding cash, implying that a robust financial system infrastructure has the potential of mobilizing excess liquidity in the informal economy of Africa for growth and development.     

Attitudinal effects of ad-evoked moods and emotions: The moderating role of motivation

The role of the moods and emotions evoked by advertisements in shaping the amount and valence of cognitive elaboration, as well as consumer brand attitudes, has recently begun to elicit research interest. It is shown that moods and emotions appear to influence brand attitudes more in low personal relevance (“low motivational involvement”) situations than under high-motivation conditions, by suppressing counterargumentation more in such low motivation situations. Implications are discussed for advertising theory and practice © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Structure of Comparative Advantage of China and India： Global and Regional Dynamics

This paper investigates the extent of competition between China and India in the world and ASEAN markets. The analysis is undertaken using the concept of revealed comparative advantage, relative market shares, long‐term trend analysis and statistical tests of convergence. In the context of the ASEAN market the evaluation of competition between India and China has been undertaken with special reference to the prior implementation of the ASEAN‐China Free Trade Area relative to the ASEAN‐India Free Trade Area. The results suggest that threat perceptions at the product level might currently prevail for both economies from each other across all sectors in both markets even though the intensity of the competitive threat varies across products. However, long‐term trend analysis shows that the patterns of comparative advantage of India and China are evolving along divergent paths and, therefore, competition between the two economies might not be a major issue.     

Public–private sector segmentation in the Pakistani labour market

This study investigates public–private sector wage differentials for male and female waged employees in Pakistan. This is done using latest nationally representative data from the Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2005. We adopt three methodologies to obtain robust estimates of the wage differential and the results reveal that public sector workers enjoy large wage premia. The gross pro-public wage differential is much larger for women than for men. Our findings also show that while private and public sector workers’ differing characteristics ‘explain’ a larger proportion of the private–public wage gap for men, this is not the case for women.