Olfaction as a cue for product quality

This paper explores the effect of olfaction on product performance judgments. An experiment is conducted to determine (1) the robustness of the olfaction effects observed in early research and (2) the underlying reason why olfaction affects judgments. It appears that cognitions, rather than hedonics, drive the observed olfaction effects.The authors thank Terence A. Shimp and Pam Scholder Ellen for their helpful comments. Thanks also go to Renee Mayhugh and Yukiyo Tanaka for their assistance in collecting data.     

Specialization, factor accumulation and development

We estimate the effect of factor proportions on the pattern of manufacturing specialization in a cross-section of OECD countries, taking into account that factor accumulation responds to productivity. We show that the failure to control for productivity differences produces biased estimates. Our model explains 2/3 of the observed differences in the pattern of specialization between the poorest and richest OECD countries. However, because factor proportions and the pattern of specialization co-move in the development process, their strong empirical relationship is not sufficient to determine whether specialization is driven by factor proportions, or by other mechanisms also correlated with level of development.     

Policy makers’ paradigms and evidence from consumer interpretations of dietary supplement labels

The regulation of marketplace information regarding health and nutrition is in flux. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more evident than in the dietary supplement industry. Herein, we present an experiment that examines the two major types of claims used for dietary supplements, testing the underlying assumptions made by policy makers. Our study suggests that a direct‐effects consumer decision‐making model does not apply in this context; instead, consumers process label claims through various biasing filters.     

Banking in computable general equilibrium economies

In this paper we develop a computable general equilibrium economy that models the banking sector explicitly. Banks intermediate between households and between the household sector and the government sector. Households borrow from banks to finance their purchases of houses and they lend to banks to save for retirement. Banks pool households' savings and they purchase interest-bearing government debt and non-interest-bearing reserves. We use this structure to answer two sets of questions: one normative in nature that evaluates the welfare costs of alternative monetary and tax policies, and one positive in nature that studies the real effects of following a procyclical interest-rate policy rule.     

Race,job training,and economic development: Barriers to racial equity in program planning

This article examines barriers to implementing government programs designed to redress racial economic exclusion. The authors review the current urban employment environment, and the need for more extensive job training and education programs targeting young African Americans. A case study is presented of the implementation of one such program in Ohio, the High Unemployment Population Program. It demonstrates that the most well designed program can fail if staff charged with implementation are not committed to its goals. In the current racially charged environment of the country, this barrier to implementation is likely to affect many new government programs throughout the 1990s. The article concludes with several recommendations for successful program implementation.