The misuse of statistical techniques in evaluating sampling data

The article points out that a large proportion of primary research being carried out in at least one functional area of business may be suspect because of the casual procedures being used to gather data. Specifically, many researchers in their attempts to facilitate the problems and costs of amassing data are abandoning procedures that guarantee randomness of the elements being selected for investigation. The article reviews the more typical types of errors being made, and concludes with an example of how such procedural errors can lead to large statistical biases and unjustified conclusions.     

Investment effects of departures from governmental present-value budget balance

The paper investigates whether departures from government borrowing constraints affect the relationship between fiscal-policy innovations and changes in the investment level. ‘Break points’, or apparent departures from present-value budget balance, are then identified. Next, the investment-deficit relationship is examined prior to and following identified break points in an effort to detect potential changes in behaviour. The investment-deficit relationship is quantified by examining posterior coverage bounds of impulse response functions. Britain appears to undergo such a break around 1973. Data from this country suggest that significantly more crowding out occurred following the identified breaks: in contrast, data from other comparison countries that do not appear to have experienced breaks indicate stable investment-deficit relationships.     

Utterly fresh perspectives on consumer research and advertising: Introducing the special issue from the 2013 La Londe conference

This article provides an overview of the papers from the 40th La Londe Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior Conference that were selected for this special issue of the Journal of Business Research. The La Londe conference is a biennial event that attracts top researchers from across the world. A small and selective conference, its intimacy combined with high-quality presentations serves as an incubator for new ideas and fresh perspectives on consumer research, and does so through an international lens that is reflected in the diversity of countries represented on the conference program, the co-chairs of the conference, and the La Londe Conference Scientific Committee.     

A welfare analysis of the site value taxation model

This study is a short-run version of Brueckner's (long-run) analysis of graded tax systems. Brueckner assumes a long-run market equilibrium that allows for changes in the market value of the land with a zero profit condition. It is our contention that it is more realistic to solve for the short-run conditions with fixed value of land. Under these conditions, we find that if land is relatively inexpensive, the graded tax system leads to superiority in terms ofk (capital improvement per unit of land),Q (initial housing output), andCS (Consumers' Surplus). With steeper inverse demand curves and greater marginal product and initial housing output, the land tax has a more negative impact on profit with graded tax systems.