The Effects of Psychobiological Motivational Traits on Memory of In‐Game Advertising Messages

This study examined the influence of psychobiological motivational traits related to individual approach and avoidance tendencies on cognitive processing of in‐game advertising. Participants played a custom‐built video game containing billboard advertisements. After playing the game, participants’ approach, positivity offset (PO), and avoidance, negativity bias (NB), traits were measured using the motivation activation measure (MAM). Recognition and recall memory were greater for high PO and low NB trait individuals. The findings of this study imply that advertising in first‐person‐shooter (FPS) video games may be most effective when targeting individuals with simultaneously high PO and low NB, risk takers, but least effective for those with low PO and high NB, risk avoiders.     

Effects of Lightness‐Location Congruency on Consumers’ Purchase Decision‐Making

A considerable body of psychological and neuroscientific research has demonstrated the existence of robust sensory correspondences between various features, attributes, or dimensions of experience in different sensory modalities. Despite findings indicating the importance of sensory correspondences to human information processing, research on purchase decision‐making has not to date focused sufficiently on this phenomenon. The present study examines how the lightness of packaging colors, and the location of products on a display shelf interact to affect consumers’ purchase decision‐making via perceived visual heaviness. As predicted, a display with light (dark) colored products positioned in the upper (lower) shelf positions increases shoppers’ perceptual fluency and facilitates their visual search, thus leading to the suggestion that “light” (heavy) locations are most appropriate for light (dark) colored products. Moreover, the lightness‐location congruent display is shown to influence people's choice behavior positively as well. This research also demonstrates that when consumers consider the lightness (in terms of their weight) of the products, they are more likely to choose light (vs. dark) colored products located in the upper shelf positions. These results therefore demonstrate that consumers’ purchase decision‐making may be promoted by in‐store environments designed to be congruent with their sensory correspondences.     

Water as an investment: liquid yet illiquid!

The water industry is in great need of further large investments to address existing severe water shortages worldwide which requires the participation of private sector investors. This industry is heavily infrastructure based and is therefore saddled with fixed assets-in-place or illiquid assets. This exposes the industry to what is termed as ‘illiquidity risk’, and hence, investors in this industry should be compensated for bearing this risk with an appropriate return premium (i.e. extra return). In this study, we provide evidence as to whether illiquidity risk indeed significantly affects returns in this industry. We examine the case of all 76 firms that compose the five major global water indices. After controlling for other factors that impact on returns, our results suggest that asset illiquidity is positively associated with stock returns. Specifically, water firms with a larger proportion of illiquid assets-in-place are observed to have greater stock returns than those with a smaller proportion of illiquid assets. Our results have important implications for the financing of water-related projects particularly those which involve the participation of investors from the private sector.     

The Influence of Plan Demographics on Contribution Behavior of 401(k) Participants

This article examines the influence of plan demographics, which is defined as the salary and tenure composition of a plan, on contribution behavior of 401(k) participants. Results using a large sample of 401(k) plans show that plan demographics influence participant contribution rates directly or through interaction with individual demographic characteristics. A participant's contribution rate can be varied by 1.6–3.0 percentage points for each age between 25 and 64, depending on what plan demographics she is exposed to. In addition, for the decision to contribute the maximum allowed amount, plan demographics significantly interact with individual demographic characteristics.     

Measuring the economic impacts of major sports events: the case of Formula One Grand Prix (F1)

This study was examined the new money generated from Formula One Grand Prix (F1) and the economic impacts of this new money on the host economy using input–output analysis. We find that the impact of the new money from non-local attendees or international attendees is more pronounced compared to that from local attendees. Also, F1 event appears to influence on sports-related industry as well as other industries such as manufacturing industry. Our findings suggest that the host cities should focus on increasing the non-local and international attendees in order to enhance the economic impacts of a sport event.     

Resource abundance and economic growth in China

This paper revisits the resource curse phenomenon in China and differs from the previous studies in four respects: (i) City-level data is used; (ii) A spatial variable is constructed to estimate the diffusion effect of natural resources among cities in the same province; (iii) The impact of resource abundance on economic development is investigated not only at the city level but also at the prefectural level in China; (iv) We use a functional coefficient regression model to deal with city-specific heterogeneity and, at the same time, analyze the transmission mechanism of the resource curse phenomenon. Our empirical results show that there is no significant evidence to support the existence of a resource curse phenomenon in China. On the other hand, we find that the degree of natural resource abundance in a city has a positive diffusion effect on the economic growth of neighboring cities within the same province at the city level, but not at prefectural levels. We attribute this to the urban bias policy.     

Has the introduction of S&P 500 ETF options led to improvements in price discovery of SPDRs?

This study sets out to investigate trading in Standard and Poor's Depository Receipt Trust Series I (SPDR) options and the impact on the price‐discovery process of SPDRs. The empirical results reveal a significant rise in liquidity within the SPDR market following the introduction of SPDR options. Furthermore, the results also show that the introduction of SPDR options has led to a significant improvement in the information share of SPDRs, and that the contribution of SPDRs to price discovery has become very close to that of E‐mini index futures. These findings imply that developments in the derivatives market can lead to improvements in market quality, including the level of liquidity and price discovery of the underlying securities. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 32:683–711, 2012     

An overview of Asian equity markets

This study overviews the development of 11 Asian equity markets, namely, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Prior to the onset of the global financial crisis, the Asian stock exchanges were generally bullish, underpinned particularly by China's robust economic performance. Innovations in financial products and services have been growing in importance, as stock exchanges in these countries have been making a concerted effort to introduce new features and best practices, with the objectives of raising market efficiency, enhancing service quality, and generally bringing operations up to par with international standards. But the potential to realize or support market efficiency can only be possible within an adequate legal framework, a sound market infrastructure, and appropriate corporate governance mechanisms. Thus, many challenges are still to be overcome in the region.     

Quantitative impact of correlation errors on basket options with time‐varying correlations

This study examines the quantitative impact of correlation errors on basket options with time‐varying correlations and the risk measures (conditional) value‐at‐risk (VaR) in the framework of Basel II. The results show that risk measure misestimation due to correlation errors are the largest and most asymmetric for the at‐the‐money and out‐of‐the‐money basket option. Delta hedging of the basket option reduces risk but increases size and asymmetry effects substantially. Finally, the square‐root‐of‐time rule for VaR does not adjust adequately to correlation errors and consistently underestimates risk measures, which could lead to the VaR exceedance clustering observed during the recent financial crisis. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark