Prices of Unpackaged and Packaged Foods

Prices of packaged and unpackaged items sold in the same retail out-let were compared in 19 northern California supermarkets. The magnitude of potential price savings depended upon the size and type of product purchased. Savings would most likely accrue to the purchaser of small rather than large quantities of unpackaged products. The future of unpackaged foods is linked to technical developments in sealed dispensers that limit customer access to the product.     

Financial reform and the efficiency of credit allocation in Korea

This study analyzes some of the structural problems associated with the Korean financial sector, and investigates the efficiency of credit allocation by the financial system over the period from 1970 to 1996. Using data at the level of 32 industrial branches, we find no evidence that credit flows were directed sectors that were more profitable, either before or after financial reforms were initiated in the 1980s. We also find that the financial support did not contribute to improve the performance of the favored industries over time.     

Credit Market Frictions and Coessentiality of Money and Credit

We explore how credit market frictions matter for the coessentiality of money and credit. Limited commitment calls for credit limits that are tailored according to borrowers' productivity. Under an adverse selection problem caused by asymmetric information, however, lenders impose the credit limit of the low-productivity borrower onto the high-productivity borrower. If productivities differ sufficiently between borrowers, the high-productivity borrower is credit-constrained and is willing to hold money to compensate for the deficiency of their credit limit, whereas the low-productivity borrower is not. This implies the coessentiality of money and credit in the sense that their simultaneous use improves welfare.     

The Meta Taylor Rule

We characterize U.S. monetary policy within a generalized Taylor rule framework that accommodates uncertainties about the duration of policy regimes and the specification of the rule, in addition to the standard parameter and stochastic uncertainties inherent in traditional Taylor rule analysis. Our approach involves estimation and inference based on Taylor rules obtained through standard linear regression methods, but combined using Bayesian model averaging techniques. Employing data that were available in real time, the estimated version of the “meta” Taylor rule provides a flexible but compelling characterization of monetary policy in the United States over the last 40 years.     

The Ties Made in the Harvest: Nicaraguan Farm‐worker Networks in Costa Rica's Agricultural Exports

Traditional and nontraditional export agriculture expansion dramatically changed the social and economic landscapes in the global south. An examination of one aspect of south–south international migration, Nicaraguan migrant economic integration into Costa Rica's export agriculture sector, reveals how production systems in the traditional and nontraditional agricultural sectors shape migrant social networks in distinct ways in the global south and its significance for both migrant workers and the agricultural sectors they work in. The rapid expansion of nontraditional export agriculture – the essence of agricultural development in Costa Rica – depends on the traditional crop production structure of coffee farms. The experiences of Nicaraguan migrant workers and their social ties to each other in nontraditional export agriculture and the coffee farms in Costa Rica demonstrate how different production structures call for distinct fragile and conflicted social networks ties between migrants. The economic integration of migrant workers relies on opportunistic and weak ties that are both gendered and contradictory.     

Benchmark Management During Australia's Transition to International Accounting Standards

Practitioners and commentators have raised concerns that Australian companies exploited opportunities to benchmark manage during the transition to international financial reporting standards (IFRS). However, as yet, no paper has explored this possibility. This study analyses the reconciliations of AGAAP into AIFRS for 457 companies listed on the ASX 500. Results show that 16.85% of companies provided erroneous information of a material nature in their reconciliations and that, on the balance of probabilities, 5.03% of companies in the sample managed their prior year's earnings benchmarks. This has implications for countries considering whether to adopt IFRS and countries which have already established timetables for their transitions.     

The Impetus for (and Limited Power of) Business Self‐Regulation: The Example of Advergames

When people complain, government agencies often respond. When regulations are threatened, businesses often offer reassurances that the problems can be handled with a self‐regulation code. However, past analyses of the power of self‐regulation find that while companies' voluntary adherence to self‐defined guidelines may effect some change in the activities of some companies, the inherent limitations of self‐regulation in the United States may restrict its ability to actually halt or control the undesired practices of others. The recent response by major food manufacturers and marketers to criticism of online games is an example of this mix.