Will Japan,Taiwan or the US be isolated by China? A macroeconomic game approach

In Taiwan, Japan and even the United States, economic isolation has become a major concern due to the growing Chinese economy, which may lead to welfare losses for the isolated countries. On the basis of the framework developed by Plasmans et al. [Plasmans, J., Engwerda, J., van Aarle, B., Di Bartolomeo, G., Michalak, T., 2005. Dynamic Modelling of Monetary and Fiscal Cooperation Among Nations. Springer], this paper establishes a four-player game with an open-loop information structure to measure possible losses by an international policy coordination approach instead of the conventional free trade agreements. We simulate macroeconomic adjustments of the four countries according to the different institutional scenarios and economic shocks. The baseline simulation and sensitivity analyses indicate that Taiwan can get benefit by participating in coalitional mechanisms including China. In addition, most of the feasible policy coalitions cannot come into effect without US participation. This implies that at the current stage the US rather than China should be the main economic partner of Taiwan and Japan to prevent them from being economically marginalized.     

Stereotype Processing's Effect on the Impact of the Myth/Fact Message Format and the Role of Personal Relevance

This research examines the effectiveness of the myth/fact message format (MFMF)—a message format that first presents a common misperception as a myth then counters it with a correcting fact—within the health‐care and social marketing context of mental illness (MI). Stereotype processing theory predicts that the use of a negative aspect of the stereotype in a MFMF may further instantiate the negative belief, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the message. Conversely, using a message format that conveys only facts (i.e., new positive beliefs) without inclusion of the myth will lead to more positive attitudes. However, this effect will only be seen among people with personal relevance with MI as only they are sufficiently motivated to suppress the automatically activated stereotype and elaborate on the message. A study demonstrates that advertising utilizing a fact‐only format leads to more positive attitudes than the MFMF among people with personal relevance while people without personal relevance to MI demonstrate no differences in attitude between myth/fact and fact‐only message formats. Personal relevance had the opposite moderating effect on perceived learning. These findings suggest that the MFMF's impact on attitudes, the typical focal point of social marketing campaigns targeting misconceptions about stereotyped groups, may be ineffective. Thus, using a fact‐only format that conveys new positive beliefs in a social marketing message is recommended within the specific context of MI and may be warranted in other health‐care and social issues.     

Electronic and in-person service quality of hybrid services

The service industries have experienced dramatic changes in service delivery format because of fast-paced innovation in information technology. Hybrid services involve service deliveries through conventional and technology-enabled environments, each of which is complementary and non-interchangeable. However, limited research has examined consumer behavior in response to a series of relevant service episodes in different channels at different points in time. In other words, how customers perceive service quality at each service encounter and how the cumulative effect of these perceptions influences customers’ overall service value assessment and satisfaction remain unclear. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the sequential influence of e-service quality on in-person service quality in a hybrid service format in which interpersonal and computer-mediated services coexist but at different points in time. Empirical analysis shows that e-service quality directly and positively affects in-person service quality, which fully mediates the effects of e-service quality on perceived value and customer satisfaction. The sequence of service encounters matters because in-person service quality perception has a stronger effect than e-service quality on customer metrics. Cumulative quality perceptions significantly influence perceived value and overall customer satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented in the discussion.     

State and County Incarceration Rates:

ABSTRACT This study examines the direct and indirect effects of race and income inequality on imprisonment rates across states. The analysis is designed to: 1) investigate whether race and income inequality are significantly related to imprisonment when controlling for crime , 2) assess the relative magnitudes of the direct and indirect effects; and 3) assess the relative magnitudes of race and income inequality. Crime is found to be the strongest predictor of incarceration rates in five of the six equations estimated. Income inequality is significantly related to incarceration rates in two of the six equations. There was no clear evidence of a direct race effect. The indirect effect of race was greater than the direct effect in four of the six equations.     

Antecedents of emotional attachment of social media users

Emotional attachment has been documented to be an effective basis for consumer loyalty behaviors in many contexts; however, not much has been offered for new service formats enabled by information technology. This study explores the emotional attachment of social media users in terms of personality traits of users and websites. Drawing on literature on brand personality and brand–self congruence, this research proposes that a match between user’s individual personality and the personality traits of the digital artifacts promotes affective connection to social media websites. The social media, to which the user becomes emotionally attached, therefore becomes part of one’s self-definition and representation in the digital world. Self-expressiveness is also investigated as a motivational driver that helps users form such an emotional bond. Individuals with higher motivation to express themselves are more likely to develop an emotional attachment to social networking sites, exhibit loyal behavior, and experience a stronger effect than self-website congruence on emotional attachment. Results of this research provide support to the proposed relationships. Theoretical and managerial implications are elaborated in the discussion.     

The link between intraday signals and call warrant mispricing

This study proposes a linkage between intraday variables (signal amounts and signal duration) and the mispricing of Taiwan call warrant prices, based on the lower boundary condition of Merton [1973. Theory of rational option pricing. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 4(1), 141–183] as modified by Galai [1978. Empirical tests of boundary conditions for CBOE options. Journal of Financial Economics, 9(2), 321–346]. Trading mispriced call warrants associated with a riskless hedging strategy over the period January 2004–December 2005 on average produces abnormal profits after taking into account transaction costs, as indicative of an inefficient market.     

Pricing policies for services by facilities with Weibull lifetimes

To make good profits, pricing is a competitive weapon of service firms. This paper is concerned with pricing strategies for services with substantial facility maintenance costs. To address the problem, a mathematical framework that incorporates service demand and facility deterioration is proposed. The facility and customers constitute a service system driven by Poisson arrivals and exponential service times. The most common log-linear customer demand and Weibull-distributed facility lifetime are also adopted. By examining the linkage between customer demand and facility deterioration in profit model, pricing policies of the service are investigated. Then analytical conditions of customer demand and facility lifetime are derived to achieve a unique optimal pricing policy. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effects of parameter variations on the optimal pricing policy.     

Renminbi Internationalization： Progress, Prospect and Comparison

Using principal component analyses, this paper constructs two internationalization indices for the renminbi (RMB) and 32 other major currencies. We find that the RMB's currency internationalization degree index (CIDI) is still low, and far behind the 4 most important international currencies. In 2009, it was ranked 18th among all important international currencies. However, in terms of the currency internationalization prospect index (CIPI), the RMB has remained the world's fifth highest since 2006. Although it is still far behind the US dollar and the euro, surpassing the ranking of the yen and the pound is possible in the near future. The dramatic difference in the ranking between the CIDI and the CIPI is a result of China's tight capital account control, the usage continuity of international currency due to network externalities, and the narrow foreign exchange and imperfect financial markets. Hence, to a large degree, the RMB's potential as an international currency depends on China's capital account liberalization.