Has Mumsnet changed me? SNS influence on identity adaptation and consumption

Abstract

This paper seeks to assess how one SNS network may support ongoing processes of identity adaptation and explore the role of consumption references in identity negotiation on the site. Drawing on theories of the liminality of motherhood, and the identity reconstruction processes that emerge in online communities, this paper traces the complexity of identity adaptation on SNS. With focus on SNS as a platform that may enable different phases of liminality, the transition to reincorporation phase is explored, revealing how members may experience support for ongoing identity renewal. Adopting a qualitative approach and direct observation method, posts from 12 extensive mumsnet.com discussion threads were screened and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Findings show how the functionality of this SNS site may facilitate some identity reconstruction.     

Trading costs for listed options: The implications for market efficiency

This paper reexamines the anomalous evidence concerning the efficiency of the listed options exchanges. We focus on the structure of trading costs in that market, and note several costs which generally have been ignored, the largest of which is the bid-ask spread. When we adjust the published trading rules for our estimates of these trading costs, the reported abnormal returns are eliminated.     

Bayesian routes and unit roots: De rebus prioribus semper est disputandum

This paper provides detailed responses to the following eight discussants of my paper ‘To criticize the critics: an objective Bayesian analysis of stochastic trends’: Gary Koop and Mark Steel; Edward Learner; In-Moo Kim and G. S. Maddala; Dale J. Poirier; Peter C. Schotman and Herman K. van Dijk; James H. Stock; David DeJong and Charles H. Whiteman; and Christopher Sims. This reply puts new emphasis on the call made in the earlier paper for objective Bayesian analysis in time-series; it underlines the need for a new approach, especially with regard to posterior odds testing; and it draws attention to a new methodology of Bayesian analysis developed in a recent paper by Phillips and Ploberger (1991a). Some new simulations that shed light on certain comments of the discussants are provided; new empirical evidence is reported with the extended Nelson-Plosser data supplied by Schotman and van Dijk; and the new Phillips-Ploberger posterior odds test is given a brief empirical illustration.     

The exact distribution of exogenous variable coefficient estimators

This paper derives the exact probability density function of the instrumental variable (IV) estimator of the exogenous variable coefficient vector in a structural equation containing n + 1 endogenous variables and N degrees of overidentification. The derivations make use of an operator calculus which simplifies the algebra of invariant polynomials with multiple matrix arguments. A leading case of the general distribution that is more amenable to analysis and computation is also presented. Conventional classical assumptions of normally distributed errors and non-random exogenous variables are employed.     

An Economic Analysis of Wildlife Habitat Preservation in Alberta

This paper provides a twofold focus on wildlife habitat enhancement and development in Alberta: (1) from the user perspective based on measures of willingness to pay for an incremental increase in wildlife habitat; and (2) from the perspective of a private landowner, who possesses certain attitudes and characteristics conducive to providing an incremental increase in habitat under specified conditions that benefit the user     

Parameter constancy in cointegrating regressions

This paper proposes an approach to testing for coefficient stability in cointegrating regressions in time series models. The test statistic considered is the one-sided version of the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test. Its limit distribution is non-standard but is nuisance parameter free and can be represented in terms of a stochastic bridge process which is tied down like a Brownian bridge but relies on a random rather than a deterministic fraction to do so. The approach provides a test of the null hypothesis of cointegration against specific directions of departure from the null; subset coefficient stability tests are also available. A small simulation studies the size and power properties of these tests and an empirical illustration to Australian data on consumption, disposable income, inflation and money is provided.     

In Defense of Advertising: A Social Perspective

Many critics have questioned the ethics of advertising as an institution in current American society. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine three negative social trends that have been attributed to advertising: (a) the elevation of consumption over other social values, (b) the increasing use of goods to satisfy social needs, and (c) the increasing dissatisfaction of individual consumers. This explanation yields a defense of advertising which argues that the underlying cause of these negative trends is not advertising, but a larger social factor - capitalism. Solutions that address the capitalistic roots of these negative social trends are suggested.     

Effective Protection in Indonesia in 1987 1

This paper provides estimates of the 1987 levels of nominal and effective protection for 134 tradeable industries based on the 1985 Indonesian input-output table. The average nominal rate of protection was 11.5%; the average effective rate was 18.5%. The standard deviations of nominal and effective rates across the 134 tradeable sectors were 17 and 48 percentage points, respectively. The results confirm that the net effect of policies has been to subsidise manufacturing at the expense of mining and quarrying, and to a lesser extent agriculture. The average effective rates of protection for these broad aggregates were. 44% for manufacturing, including oil refining; 80% for manufacturing, excluding oil refining; 19% for agriculture; and -1% for mining (including crude oil and gas) and quarrying. Policy in 1987 was also strongly biased in favour of import substitution at the expense of export expansion: the average effective rate of protection for all import-competing sectors was 47%, while that for all export-competing sectors was -2%.