Information handling in consumer decisions

Interviews with consumers, controlled exposures to varied messages, and before and after measures regarding exposure provided data for this study. Tendency to actively search for information was influenced by demographic factors of education and sex. The use made of information was primarily determined by personality factors. Search and information use were also influenced by source and message factors and by product class differences. Finally, source, message, and product class affected the nature of the purchase decision process.     

The information content of portfolio performance history and persistence in fund performance: An examination of rollover funds

This paper examines the relation between past and future performance and explores the optimal past performance information set for a subset of Australian investment funds, namely, rollover funds. Four categories of funds are examined: fixed interest; multi-sector yield; multi-sector balanced; and multi-sector growth. This study extends the performance persistence literature through the use of three methodologies (1) regression analysis;(2) non-parametric contingency tables; and (3) top (and bottom) quartile rankings to explore the information content of fund performance history for groups of funds differentiated by investment objective. The results of the regression analysis suggest that there is evidence in support of persistence in performance for the fixed interest funds (particularly when performance is measured in terms of Jensen Alpha) but much more ambiguous evidence in relation to the multi-sector funds. Contingency table analysis of fund performance histories of varying lengths reveals quite different results depending upon whether raw or risk-adjusted returns are used. Use of raw returns creates an overall impression of performance reversals, whereas use of risk-adjusted returns suggests the existence of performance persistence. Finally, the use of prior period top-quartile and bottom-quartile ranking are found to show strong evidence of persistence in respect to the risk-adjusted performance of fixed-interest funds.     

The Chinese Enigma: Impacts of WTO Accession Upon Canadian and U.S. Exports and Imports

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an important milestone in the integration of this nation into the world economy. Substantial reduction in trade barriers by China, one of the world's largest and most rapidly growing economies, is expected to have a significant impact, both on China itself and on the global economy. In assessing likely impacts on trade between China and North America of China joining the WTO, a priori one might expect new opportunities for China in labor intensive activities/products, while for the United States and for Canada one might expect added export market opportunities, as China grows, in activities/products that require land, resources and capital. However, the extent to which China and its trading partners will benefit from China's increasing integration into the global economy will largely depend on the internal changes in policy and infrastructure that may be adopted by China. China has embarked on a process of economic reform, but the speed and extent to which this continues to be pursued will affect this nation's ability to capitalize on its comparative advantages and to meet new challenges that are associated with the opportunities of access to a larger market. The difficulty of forecasting such internal changes means that China continues to be a major source of uncertainty in projecting world markets and trade flows. This uncertainty is particularly evident for trade in agricultural products     

Marxism,Crypto-Marxism and the Political Economy of Capitalism

ABSTRACT

This article conducts groundwork for a discussion of Marx’s influence through examining the boundaries of the specifically Marxian school of economics. This Marxian school extends well beyond the bounds of the self-identified Marxian school. Marx’s influence, Marxian themes and effectively Marxian theory can be found in several important heterodox traditions of economics, though this is often unacknowledged. A consideration of the proper boundaries of the Marxian school of economics is essential for a full understanding of Marx’s legacy and could contribute to the emergence of a more unified heterodoxy in economics.     

Agent Change and Seller Bargaining Power: A Case of Principal Agent Problem in the Housing Market

When a seller hires an agent to sell his/her property, a successful outcome depends on the list price, marketing time, unobserved relative bargaining power of the buyers and sellers, and the effort levels of the seller and the seller’s agent. A divergence with respect to the list/transaction prices and the expected effort levels between seller and agent will create a principal-agent interest conflict. This conflict in some cases results in an agent change before the house is sold. The change will reduce the relative bargaining power of the seller, affecting the observed marketing time and transaction price. This study estimates the effects of an agent change on marketing time and transaction price after controlling for degree of overpricing, list-price revisions, marketing time, and endogenous selection bias. Our results show that: (1) on average, an agent change increases the marketing time by about 3 months and adversely affects the transaction price by about 2.7 %. Furthermore, we found that an agent change before the expiration of the listing contract, compared to that of after the expiration, has a smaller effect on the marketing time (2.3 vs. 3.8 months) and has a smaller transaction price discount (2.1 % vs. 4.2 %).     

Party voting discipline and the power of parties, legislators and states

We examine the distribution of decision-making power among the principal actors of a federal legislative system; parties, legislators, and constituencies. We are especially interested in how the balance of power between legislators and constituencies depends on the voting discipline exercised by the parties.We derive power measures that are related to the Banzhaf-Coleman index of decision-making power and illustrate with a simple example. Our power measures are novel because they are based on an explicit representation of party voting discipline as well as the structural properties of the decision-making process, whereas previous analyses concentrate on structurally determined power alone.     

Price Behavior of Canadian Farmland

A simple dynamic model is used to explain farmland price behavior in Canada and to explore the possible impact on land values of the elimination of direct government payments to agriculture. Based on the classic income capitalization approach, farmland prices are explained in terms of expected farmland earnings, incorporating a distributed lag structure on earnings. The model is applied to annual data from 1961 to 1987 for Canada, Ontario and each of the three prairie provinces; it performs well in explaining land price behavior over this period and in predicting price behavior to 1990. The model is then used to simulate the impact on farmland prices of a once-and-for-all removal of net subsidies paid directly to farmers, all other things being equal. The results indicate a short-run reduction of 5% in Canadian land values and a long-run fall of 19%. However, the reaction varies by region, being about 12.2% in the long run in Ontario and 29.9% in Saskatchewan. Evidently, direct government payments to agriculture have had an appreciable impact in maintaining Canadian farmland values. Un modèle dynamique simple est utilisé pour expliquer le comportement des prix des terres agricoles au Canada ainsi que pour examiner les incidences éventuelles que pourrait avoir sur les prix l'élimination des aides directes de l'Etat à l'agriculture. A partir d'une démarche de capitalisation des revenus, les prix des terres agricoles sont expliqués en termes de gains escomptés, les gains étant incorporés dans une structure à retard échelonné. Le modéle est appliqué aux données annuelles recueillies de 1961 à 1987 pour l'ensemble du Canada, ainsi que pour l'Ontario et pour les trois provinces des Prairies. Le modèle a permis d'expliquer assez bien le comportement des prix des terres agricoles en fonction du temps et de prédire leur évolution jusqu'en 1990. Le modèle a ensuite été utilisé pour simuler les incidences que pourrait avoir sur les prix un retrait radical des aides directes de l'Etat, toutes choses étant égales d'ailleurs. Les résultats font voir dans la période courte une réduction de 5% et à long terme une baisse de 19% des prix des terres. Toutefois, la tendance varie d'une région à l'autre, passant de 12,2% environ en Ontario à 29,9% pour la Saskatchewan. Tout indique done que les aides directes de l'Etat à l'agriculture ont été un élément important dans le maintien des valeurs des terres agricoles au Canada     

Principal–Agent Conflict and Broker Effort Near Listing Contract Expiration: The Case of Residential Properties

In the real estate market the seller/agent relationship changes over the course of the listing contract. As the contract expiration nears, brokers may increase efforts generating more potential buyers and, perhaps, a higher offered price. Brokers may also persuade the seller to reduce the reservation price. These two aspects have different implications for the selling price of the property. Employing a sample of 24,100 properties sold in Clark County, Nevada, we investigate the relationship between the selling price and the time-to-expiration of the listing contract. We find that prices are lower if the property is sold near the expiration of the listing contract, indicating that the price-reduction effect dominates the broker-effort effect.