Imputing continuous data under some non-Gaussian distributions

There has been a growing interest regarding generalized classes of distributions in statistical theory and practice because of their flexibility in model formation. Multiple imputation under such distributions that span a broader area in the symmetry–kurtosis plane appears to have the potential of better capturing real incomplete data trends. In this article, we impute continuous univariate data that exhibit varying characteristics under two well-known distributions, assess the extent to which this procedure works properly, make comparisons with normal imputation models in terms of commonly accepted bias and precision measures, and discuss possible generalizations to the multivariate case and to larger families of distributions.     

Country of Production Biases on Consumer Perceptions of Global Brands: Evidence From an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Globalization has created significant opportunities of cost reductions for players to take advantage of location specific benefits. Simultaneously, it has presented significant opportunities for countries, such as China, to actively participate in global trade, attract foreign direct investment, and improve the economic wealth of their nations. However, literature cautions marketers about consumers’ biased evaluations of products based on their country of production. Moving production to low-cost countries could potentially harm brand trust, quality evaluations, and purchase intentions due to unfavorable biases for the country of production. The objective of this study is to investigate country of production biases of Turkish consumers for two global brands, Philips and Adidas. Data for the study (N = 1,608) were collected using mall-intercepts from the 17 largest cities of Turkey. Study findings show that brand trust, perceived quality, and purchase intentions declined sharply for both brands when consumers learned that the product was manufactured in China.     

Success in soccer and economic performance: Evidence from beŞİktaŞ-Turkey

This paper investigates the connection between Turkish industrial production growth and the success of Beşiktaş, which is a popular Turkish soccer team. The empirical evidence provided in the paper suggests that industrial production growth tends to increase with the success of Beşiktaş in European cups. Moreover, if the winnings are in displacement, the increase in industrial production is higher than if the winnings are in the home field. On the other hand, findings on the effects of domestic games on industrial performance are not statistically significant. All the views expressed in this paper belong to the authors and do not represent the views of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey or its staff. Beşiktaş, established in 1903, is one of the most popular soccer teams in Turkey. Detailed information about the team can be reached at http://www.besiktasjk.com     

Hong Kong children's understanding of television advertising

This study examines Chinese children's understanding and comprehension of television advertising. A quota sample of 448 children made up of 32 girls and 32 boys from kindergartens and grades 1-6, were personally interviewed in May 1998. The results indicated that children in grade 2 (aged 7-8 years) were beginning to understand what advertising was and were aware of the persuasive intention of television advertising. Over one-third of older children from grade 4 understood that television stations carried advertising for money. Like children in the West, the main reason for liking and disliking commercials depended on their entertainment element. An understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and comprehension of advertising content were consistently related to the cognitive development of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked commercials was strong. Comprehension of the key messages of advertising content varied greatly by children's cognitive development and the style of presentation. Ethical issues and public opinions of Hong Kong consumers regarding advertising to children were discussed.     

Understanding interstate trade patterns

This paper models and estimates bilateral trade patterns of U.S. states in a CES framework and identifies the elasticity of substitution across goods, the elasticities of substitution across varieties of each good, and the good-specific elasticities of distance by using markup values obtained from the production side. Compared to the international trade literature, the elasticity of substitution estimates are lower across both goods and varieties, while the elasticity of distance estimates are higher. Although home-bias effects at the state level are significant, there is evidence for decreasing effects over time.     

Friendly Fire? The Impact of US Antidumping Enforcement on US Exporters

While there has been considerable interest in recent years in the role of macroeconomic determinants of antidumping actions by the United States and other traditional users, on the one hand, and the determinants of the growing global usage of this trade policy instrument, on the other, there has to date been no systematic exploration of the motivations for the significant number of foreign antidumping cases filed against US exporters. Several observers have remarked that the growing number of foreign users of antidumping might threaten US exporters, but the determinants of these actions have not been examined. That is the purpose of this study. We find that these actions are in part explained by macroeconomic forces and as a response to US export superiority in particular sectors, however a significant role (and larger than found for global antidumping more generally) is played by retaliation for US trade policy actions. JEL no.  F13     

Tourist Word of Mouth and Revisit Intentions to Rural Tourism Destinations: a Case of North Dakota,USA

Destination managers in rural states, like North Dakota, understand the benefits of tourism and, thus, the importance of studying visitors' intentions. This study investigated visitors' perceptions of destination image, value and satisfaction and those variables’ relationship with future behaviors, with a specific focus on their intent to return and make recommendations to others. The results showed that destination image directly affects visitors' perception of value and revisit intentions, and it indirectly affects satisfaction and recommendation intentions. The results also demonstrate how tourism practitioners can apply past models to their destination. The overall findings support the concept that a positive image is important to attracting repeat visitors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Welfare calculations in discrete choice settings: An exploratory analysis of error term correlation with finite populations

A difference in logsum terms (also known as inclusive values) is becoming a standard practice for anticipating the welfare impacts of transport policy when choice alternatives are discrete and behavior is (assumed to be) random-utility maximizing. However, this calculation is only an approximation when the population under study is finite. This paper examines the effect of error term correlations in such welfare analyses with finite samples, recognizing that individual preferences and unobserved attributes influencing choice are unlikely to change much, if at all, across scenarios or across alternatives. Such measures appear reasonably robust to deviations in assumptions of correlation. Nevertheless, we identify cases when the synthetic population samples need to be quite large for the average logsum to be realized. Another finding in these results is the substantial variation that emerges across synthetic populations, suggesting that policies that appear welfare-improving (when evaluated with average welfare formulations) may well be welfare-reducing (or vice versa) for a wide variety of actual, finite populations.     

Total factor productivity and macroeconomic instability

Total factor productivity (TFP) is an important component of growth for most countries. This article assesses the role of macroeconomic instability on TFP growth. We consider volatility in inflation, openness of an economy and financial market deepness as measures of macroeconomic instability. Empirical evidence provided from Turkey suggests that volatility of openness and financial market deepness reduce TFP growth, whereas volatility of inflation increases TFP growth.