India’s petroleum demand: estimations and projections

Energy security is crucial for sustaining high economic growth in India. This article empirically estimates India’s long- and short-term demand relations for crude oil, diesel and petrol (gasoline) using the ARDL and ECM cointegration procedures and then uses them to project demand for these products up to 2025 under various scenarios of GDP growth and oil prices. Our projections show that over 2012 to 2025, demand is likely to increase by about 74% for crude oil, 117% for diesel and 136% for petrol – the annual growth rates being about 4.3% for crude oil, 6.1% for diesel and 6.8% for petrol (gasoline). This article suggests that India needs to (1) take measures to improve efficiency in the use of petroleum products; (2) try to enhance supplies such as through production sharing agreements by Indian oil companies with other countries and (3) increase the use of nuclear, hydro, solar and other alternative energy sources, as Western European countries have done.     

The competitiveness of agricultural commodities systems: Their potential and growth factors

Strengths and weaknesses as well as potential and threats to the development of agricultural commodities systems in Russia and other CIS countries under the world economy globalization and regional integration are considered. The influence of certain factors on the efficiency and competitiveness of agrarian production is studied.     

Food Export: Looking to the East

A number of issues related to the functioning of the agrarian market in conditions of increasing export supplies are considered in the paper using the example of the grain sector of the Russian economy, and ways of overcoming possible disproportions in this sphere from the standpoint of national economic efficiency are proposed. The prospects of mutually beneficial Russian-Chinese cooperation in the agrarian sphere are shown.     

State regulation in the branches of the food complex

This paper considers problems related to the regulation of market processes in the food complex and its separate branches. Some improvement trends in its efficiency and competitiveness in the current conditions are revealed.     

Global food crisis and prospects for animal production in Russia

The paper considers certain tendencies and features in the development of world and national food markets during the global crisis of recent years. It shows the role and place of Russia in these processes. Using the case study of animal production, in particular, of beef, a number of key factors are examined that should enhance the competitiveness in Russian agrarian products, in substituting for imports, and the rise in food prices     

Recent trends and factors of resource intensity in the agricultural sector

The article discusses some of the trends and factors reducing the resource intensity of the agricultural sector on the basis of its modernization in the medium and long term in the context of the growing openness of the Russian economy.     

Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Markets

This paper investigates how bond dealers manage core business risk with interest rate futures and the extent to which market quality is affected by their selective risk taking. We observe that dealers use futures to take directional bets and hedge changes in their spot exposure. We find that, cross‐sectionally, a dealer with longer (shorter) risk exposure sells (buys) a larger amount of exposure the next day. However, this risk control takes place via the futures market and not the spot market. Finally, we find strong support for the price effects of capital constraints emphasized by Froot and Stein (1998).     

An Experimental Study of Cognitive Dissonance,Product Involvement,Expectations, Performance and Consumer Judgement of Product Performance

Abstract

This experimental study investigates the effects of cognitive dissonance, expectations, and product performance on product evaluations. The study improves upon the methodological problems of the past experimental studies. The results of a 2×2×2 factorial design suggest that product involvement acts as a moderator in the postdecisional product evaluation process. The theoretical and empirical findings suggest communication guidelines for the advertisers.     

Learning with perfect information

For extensive form games with perfect information, consider a learning process in which, at any iteration, each player unilaterally deviates to a best response to his current conjectures of others' strategies; and then updates his conjectures in accordance with the induced play of the game. We show that, for generic payoffs, the outcome of the game becomes stationary, and is consistent with Nash equilibrium. In general, if payoffs have ties or if players observe more of each others' strategies than is revealed by plays of the game, the same result holds provided a rationality constraint is imposed on unilateral deviations: no player changes his moves in subgames that he deems unreachable, unless he stands to improve his payoff there. Moreover, with this constraint, the sequence of strategies and conjectures also becomes stationary, and yields a self-confirming equilibrium.