Public Good Contributions Between Communities

The four fundamental determinants of voluntary contributions to public goods are taste, community size, wealth, and wealth distribution. This paper argues that for policy purposes it is important to discriminate between the four hypotheses. To do this, it is necessary to consider the comparative static effects of the above determinants not only on total contribution, but also on per capita contribution and the participation rate. Furthermore, just as members of a smaller community would contribute more than their identical counterparts in a larger community, we show that members of a community that has more poor members would also contribute more than their identical counterparts in a community that has more rich members.     

Effects of pricing and promotion on consumer perceptions: it depends on how you frame it

This research examined the extent to which different promotional frames increased perceptions of deal value. Price discounts dominate the sales promotions employed by marketers. The framing literature suggests discounts have robust positive effects on consumer perceptions of deal value. However, the current research showed that negative quality inferences moderated discount framing effects and undermined deal value, particularly when no assurance of product quality was provided. Every-day-low-price offers were also vulnerable to negative quality inferences, while free gift frames maintained quality perceptions and increased deal value. Product trial acted to further magnify promotional framing effects, according to a confirmation bias. These findings were consistent with an attribute framing mechanism.     

The pattern of non-tariff obstacles to international market access

Zusammenfassung Die Struktur nicht-tarif?rer Handelshemmnisse auf den Zutritt zum Weltmarkt. — Die Diskussionen über internationale Schutzzoll- und Handelspolitik nach der Kennedy-Runde besch?ftigen sich zunehmend mit der Bedeutung der Au\enhandelsverzerrungen, die nicht durch Z?lle verursacht werden. Der vorliegende Aufsatz versucht zwei grundlegende Fragen über die Anwendung nicht-tarif?rer Hemmnisse auf den Au\enhandel mit Fertig- und Halbfertigfabrikaten zu beantworten: I. Bis zu welchem Grad gibt es ?hnlichkeiten oder Un?hnlichlichkeiten in der Struktur oder dem Schema der nicht-tarif?ren Verzerrungen des Au\enhandels in den entwickelten Marktwirtschaften ? 2. Scheinen tarif?re und nichttarif?re Handelshemmnisse sich gegenseitig innerhalb nationaler protektionistischer Systeme zu erg?nzen oder zu ersetzen ? Obwohl die Ergebnisse ihrer Natur nach vorl?ufig sind, f?hren sie doch zu wichtigen Schlu\folgerungen in bezug auf die künftige Gestaltung der internationalen Handelspolitik.

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Résumé La structure des obstacles non-tarifaires à l’accès au marché international. — La discussion de la politique internationale protectionniste et commerciale d’après-Kennedy-Round tourne toujours d’avantage autour du r?le que jouent les distorsions du commerce qui ne proviennent pas des tarifs de douane. Cet article cherche à répondre à deux questions fondamentales qui concernent l’application d’obstacles non-tarifaires au commerce des produits finis et mi-finis: I. Jusqu’à quel point y a-t-il similitude ou dissimilitude dans la structure ou le schéma des distorsions non-tarifaires dans les différents pays à économie libre et développée ? 2. Para?t-il que, dans les systèmes nationaux protectionnistes, les obstacles tarifaires et non-tarifaires se suppléent, ou bien qu’ils se substituent les uns aux autres ? Quoique les résultats soient nécessairement préliminaires, ils permettent quand même quelques conclusions importantes en ce qui concerne le développement futur de la politique commerciale internationale.

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Resumen La estructura de barreras no arancelarias sobre el acceso al mercado mundial. — Las discusiones sobre la política comercial internacional se centra, desde la Ronda Kennedy, de forma creciente en la importancia de distorsiones en el comercio exterior, que no se deben a tarifas aduaneras. El presente artículo trata de contestar dos preguntas fundamentales relacionadas con la aplicación de medidas no arancelarias en el comercio exterior con productos semielaborados y acabados: I _- ^a ? Hasta qué punto existen parecidos o diferencias en la estructura o elesquema de distorsiones en el comercio exterior de economias de mercado desarrolladas, producidos por barreras no arancelarias ? 2 _- ^a ? Se complementan los obstáculos arancelarios y no arancelarios dentro de los sistemas nacionales de protección, o son los unos substituto de los otros ? A pesar de que los resultados de este estudio son provisionales, permiten importantes conclusiones acerca de la estructuración futura de la política comercial internacional.

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Riassunto La struttura di impedimenti commerciali non tariffari sull’accesso al mercato mondiale. — Le discussioni sulla politica protezionistica e commerciale dopo il ?Kennedy-Runde? si occupano in misura crescente del significato delle deformazioni del commercio estero che non sono causate da dazi. Il presente articolo cerca di dare una risposta a due questioni fondamentali sull’applicazione di impedimenti non tariffari sul commercio estero con prodotti finiti o semilavorati: 1. Fino a che grado ci sono somiglianze o dissomiglianze nella struttura o nello schema delle deformazioni non tariffarie del commercio ? 2. Impedimenti commerciali tariffari e non tariffari sembrano completarsi o sostituirsi reciprocamente all’interno di sistemi nazionali protezionistici? Sebbene i risultati della loro natura siano ancora prowisori, essi conducono, però, a importanti conclusioni in rapporto alla futura conformazione della politica commerciale internazionale.

     

New product introduction with costly search

In the usual model of product market search, a low search cost can turn out to have detrimental incentives on new product introduction as the low search cost erodes firms’ market power, attenuating the profit from innovation. This paper studies a model of monopolistic competition with costly search, where the point of departure is that of a fixed cost of initiating search. In this environment, a low search cost could turn out to be favorable to innovation. At a low search cost, more consumers may decide to start searching, possibly resulting in higher profits for firms in the larger market, despite the erosion of market power.     

A regional analysis of food consumption in China

Two “laws” are used to describe the budget shares of staple food, other food, and non-food in 28 regions in China: Working's model, which describes the budget share of (total) food as a declining linear function of the logarithm of total consumption expenditure, and a second model that describes the ratio of the budget shares of staple and other food as a double-log function of total consumption expenditure. Staple food appears to be an inferior good in the richest regions but not in the other regions.     

Industrial Relations Climate in the Manufacturing Sector in Singapore

The objective of this study is to assess the state of workplace industrial relations climate in the manufacturing sector in Singapore. Based on a survey of 73 manufacturing companies in Singapore and subsequent intensive study of eight of them, it was found that the overall labor-management relations in the industry were good and had improved over the past few years. Union membership was reported to have increased and this was accompanied by a perceived increase in union role and influence on labor-management relations. The findings also highlighted the need to strengthen the communication processes among the three parties—workers, unionists and management.     

Volatility, Efficiency, and Trading: Further Evidence

Along the lines of Amihud and Mendelson (1987a, 1989,1991), this study investigates the unique trading mechanism of the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) and its intraday behavior of stock price volatility. The evidence from this study indicates that the introduction of an additional clearing procedure at the afternoon closing makes price discovery process more efficient than before from the viewpoint of stock price volatility. Hence, such trading mechanisms can be applied to emerging stock markets as well as developed stock markets. In addition, based on intraday analysis, stock price volatilities appear to occur mainly during the trading period, not during the lunch break or overnight period. Consequently, the results confirm the previous studies that information arrival and trading activities are the main sources of volatility.     

Ergodic properties of conditional forecast functions of stable systems

Summary This paper analyzes the behavior of conditional forecast functions in stable systems. We study convergence of optimal forecast functions, of forecast functions obtained by conditioning on previous values, and conditional and joint densities.The research was done as part of the author's master thesis under Mordecai Kurz. The author thanks Mordecai Kurz, Carsten Nielsen, and Ho-Mou Wu for a careful reading of the paper and the Statistics Department of Stanford University for financial support. This research was supported in part by Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei of Milan, Italy.