A rose by any other name …: Color‐naming influences on decision making

Companies dealing in colors (e.g., paint companies, the cosmetic industry) spend enormous amounts of time and money selecting names to accompany their various product lines in an attempt to maximally appeal to and lure in consumers. In two experiments, the current research examines the extent to which such naming strategies have an impact on consumer behavior. Across both experiments, participants rated either color swatches (Experiment 1) or products (Experiment 2) that had either generic names (e.g., brown) or fancy names (e.g., mocha) attached to them. The results of each experiment revealed that names significantly influence how colors are perceived, and that fancy names result in significantly more favorable ratings than do generic names. Both theoretical and applied implications of this phenomenon are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Fixed Weighting Nature of A Cross-Evaluation Model

Cross-evaluation has been touted as a powerful extension of Data Envelopment Analysis that provides, not only a unique ordering among the Decision Making Units (DMUs), but also eliminates unrealistic weighting schemes without requiring the elicitation of weight restrictions from application area experts. The goal of this paper is to prove, in the single-input, multiple-output case, cross-evaluation implicitly uses a single fixed set of weights. We demonstrate how this unseen fixed set of weights may still be unrealistic.     

Health care in rural America: a view from the nation's capital

While the nation's health care system has been the subject of significant attention, the needs of rural Americans and the adequacy of their health care delivery system have been largely overlooked. By considering the unique features of rural America, appropriate delivery models can be developed.     

SHAREHOLDER RETURNS TO USA ACQUIRED FIRMS IN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC ACQUISITIONS

This research employs the residual methodology to examine whether gains to shareholders exist through international diversification. Under the assump tion that bid premiums (abnormal returns) are a proxy for expected gains in a merger, the magnitude of abnormal returns to acquired f m s in foreign and domestic mergers is determined using the market model. Any significant difference is imputed to expected gains from international diversification. Results indicate that although differences appear to exist, these differences are insignificant when method of payment and merger type are considered.     

Social security in the UK under New Labour: what did the Third Way mean for welfare reform?

In 1997, the Labour Party was elected in the UK with few explicitly articulated ideas about social security reforms. This paper reviews the large number of subsequent reforms to social security, and argues that some consistent themes have emerged. A commitment to keep to the tight spending plans of the previous, Conservative, administration left little scope for increases in benefit spending during the first two years in office. Since that time, increases in the generosity of some social security programmes have been directed towards achieving certain goals. An emphasis on encouraging paid work has been a consistent theme, whilst aims of reducing poverty rates for children and pensioners have been emphasised since 1999. Spending to achieve these goals has often been directed through means‐tested programmes, and there has been a related weakening of the link between paid National Insurance contributions and benefit entitlements. It remains to be seen whether reforms to the process of income assessment will increase take‐up.     

Increasing Support for Those on Lower Incomes: Is the Saving Gateway the Best Policy Response?

The government is committed to introducing a new savings account for people on lower incomes. This will provide a strong incentive for eligible individuals to save, or at least to hold financial assets, in these accounts. This paper describes possible rationales for this government intervention. It then presents new evidence on the characteristics of people with lower incomes and finds that many already have some financial assets, while those who do not often appear to have good reasons for why they may not want to be currently saving. The result is that the proposed Saving Gateway will be extremely difficult to target at those who might benefit in the way the government hopes. The danger is that the policy will be expensive relative to the number of genuine new savers and savings that it generates.     

Fiscal Shocks and The Sectoral Composition of Output

We study the impact of shocks to different types of government spending on the sectoral composition of output for a panel of EMU member countries. We find that fiscal shocks lead to an increase in the relative size of the nontraded sector, with the impact varying across the different spending categories. There is typically no significant impact on the level of production in the tradables sector but the level of imports increases and the level of exports declines in most cases. Overall, the results show that fiscal shocks matter not only for aggregate variables but also for the sectoral composition of output. The sectoral output results are consistent with previous work concerning the impact of fiscal shocks on the real exchange rate and the relative price of nontradables.     

Modelling the demand for housing over the life cycle

We model individual demand for housing over the life cycle, and show the aggregate implications of this behaviour. Individuals delay purchasing their first home when incomes are low or uncertain. Higher house prices lead households to downsize, rather than to stop being owners. Fixed costs (property transactions taxes) have important impacts on welfare (a wealth effect) and house purchase decisions (substitution effect). In aggregate, positive house price shocks lead to consumption booms among the old but falls in consumption for the young, and reduced housing demand; positive income shocks lead to consumption booms among the young and increased housing demand.