Price transmission and volatility spillovers in Asian rice markets: Evidence from MGARCH and panel GARCH models

ABSTRACT

This article examines world rice price transmission and volatility spillovers across six major Asian rice markets over the period 2005-13. In addition to the conventional GARCH models, we use a panel GARCH framework to estimate the spillover effects along with the consideration of heterogeneity and interdependence among countries. Empirical results suggest that changes in the world rice price affected not only the price levels of domestic rice markets but also their conditional variances. Moreover, interdependence across rice markets contributed to a strong spillover of a price shock in one country to another within the region.     

East european trade with the developing world: soviet diplomatic partner or economic self-interest

Prior to the demise of the Communist system in Eastern Europe, the trade of these countries with the developing world was supportive of Soviet diplomatic aims at least in part. In the late 1950s, correspondence between the trade links of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was particularly close. In later periods, the trade of Eastern Europe was less closely aligned with that of the Soviet Union, but there was still evidence that East European trade with the developing world followed upon Soviet goals and initiatives in some instances, indicating the strong possibility of overall Soviet direction. Trade with countries in the Middle East had by far the strongest association for East European trade with that of the Soviet Union.     

Culture,Attitudes, and Media Patterns in China,Taiwan, and the U.S.: Balancing Standardization and Localization Decisions

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to examine cultural orientations, attitudes toward advertising, and media use patterns across China, Taiwan, and the United States. China and Taiwan share similar cultural backgrounds, yet their economies and advertising industries have evolved quite differently due to different social and political settings. The United States was included to provide a point of comparison. Understanding media patterns, cultural orientations, and attitudes can help better ascertain the potential for using standardized strategies by international advertisers across different markets. Industry and consumer trends in evolving markets can also be monitored. Consumers in China and Taiwan were found to be more similar than different. For example, consumers in both markets were less individualistic and more collectivistic than their counterparts in the U.S. They also exhibited more favorable attitudes toward advertising than American consumers. Furthermore, Chinese and Taiwanese respondents spent significantly more time with print media than American respondents. Implications of the findings for balancing standardization and localization decisions are discussed.     

Managing Opportunism in China: The Roles of Guanxi,Environmental Uncertainty,and Management Culture

ABSTRACT

This cross-cultural comparison aims to understand whether the influence of consumer ethnocentrism (CE) on consumer preference for domestic versus foreign products is product category and country-of-origin dependent. Three countries with dissimilar cultural orientation and economic status—China, South Korea, and the United States—were examined. American consumers were found to be more ethnocentric than Chinese and South Korean consumers. CE was found to significantly and positively predict American and Korean consumers’ preference for domestic products across product categories, while Chinese consumers’ CE did not translate into their preference for Chinese products. In addition, the relationship between CE and purchase preference varied across product categories as well as countries of origin.     

Matched analysis of parent’s and children’s attitudes and practices towards motor vehicle and bicycle safety: an important information gap

The purpose of this study was to compare parents’ and children’s attitudes and habits towards use of bicycle helmets and car seat belts. We hypothesized that parental perception of their children’s safety practices did not reflect actual behavior and further, that parental practices, rather than their beliefs about a particular safety practice, have a greater affect on their child’s risk-taking behavior. The study population consisted of children in grades four and five and their parents/guardians. Participation in the cross-sectional study was voluntary and confidential anonymous questionnaires were used. In separate and independent surveys, children and parents were questioned in parallel about their knowledge, habits and attitudes toward bicycle helmet use and car safety practices. In the study, 731 students participated with 329 matched child-parent pairs. Ninety-five percent of the children own bicycles and 88% have helmets. Seventy percent of parents report their child always wears a helmet, while only 51% of children report always wearing one (p < 0.05). One-fifth of the children never wear a helmet, whereas parents think only 4% of their children never use one (p < 0.05). Parents report their children wear seat belts 92% of the time while 30% of children report not wearing one. Thirty-eight percent of children ride bicycles with their parents and wear their helmets more often than those who do not ride with their parents (p < 0.05). Parents who always wear a seat belt are more likely to have children who sit in the back seat and wear a seat belt (p < 0.05). Parents’ perceptions of their children’s safety practices may not be accurate and their actions do affect their children’s. Injury prevention programs that target both parents and children may have a greater impact on reducing risk-taking behaviors than working with each group in isolation.     

Information Processing Differences among Broadcast Media: Review and Suggestions for Research

Abstract

The research literature on the processing and cognitive response differences among broadcast media is reviewed and considered in relation to recent theoretical advances, with particular attention being given to resolving the inconsistent findings between the studies. Suggestions are provided for conducting research on the subject.     

Matching Temporal Frame,Self-View,and Message Frame Valence: Improving Persuasiveness in Health Communications

This work examines the interplay between temporal frame and one's accessible self-view on consumer response to health communication. We find an independent self-view is more persuasive with a distal temporal frame (versus proximal frame), and an interdependent self-view is more persuasive with a proximal temporal frame (versus distal frame). Message frame valence (gain versus loss) moderates the interplay between temporal frame and self-view. In addition, message concreteness and message persuasiveness are revealed as mediators to the interplay between temporal frame and self-view. Interestingly, the mediating process varies depending on one's accessible self-view. These findings offer guidance for health communication marketers' use of temporal frames and self-view.     

Individual differences in price responsiveness within and across food brands

Various researchers have reported that in routine grocery shopping the quantity consumers buy varies little across shopping occasions. Even in the presence of promotions, the largest part of promotional sales peaks has been attributed to brand switching. Recent investigations, however, indicated that the quantity consumers buy may include complex intra- and inter-consumer and intra- and inter-brand choice patterns. Using panel data from more than 1500 British consumers purchasing four food products during 52 weeks, the present study examined whether such complex patterns occur and assessed their relative contribution to overall quantity elasticity. Results showed that consumers buy larger quantities when paying lower prices, both within and across brands, and that consumers who buy larger quantities tend to pay lower prices, both within and across brands. The results also indicated that intra-brand price variations, especially those associated with consumers switching across package sizes, account for the largest portion of changes in quantity. Methodological differences might explain discrepancies among previous findings such as the duration of the sample used, the number of brands examined, and the conceptualization of a brand as including or excluding different package sizes.     

Strategies for improving cruise product sales using hybrid ‘multiple criteria decision making’ models

As airlines have shifted to decommission policies, selling cruise products has become a growing trend in the travel industry. However, few studies have discussed this issue or proposed strategies to help improve sales for travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to address this problem, using the novel method of hybrid multiple criteria decision making, including decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje), to present optimal improvement models, which are superior in identifying both an influential network and a priority sequence of dimensions/criteria related to selling cruises. The findings provide useful schemes for decision makers according to the priorities of influential weightings from high to low or the sequence of gap values to aspired level from low to high.     

Economic consequences of animal rights programs

Readily available data are used to provide relevant decision making information on the highly subjective issue of animal rights. Two examples of alleged crowding; cattle being finished in concrete lots, and broilers in confined operations were evaluated to determine the impact on producers and consumers from increasing space per animal. It is concluded that similar policy changes, such as doubling floor space, can lead to dramatic differences in economic impact depending on the industry affected. It is shown that economic analysis can provide valuable information in estimating the tradeoffs in moral issues. James R. Simpson is Professor and Livestock Marketing Economist at the Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, U.S.A. He was formerly President and Senior Economist of InterAmerican Research Associates, and Cooperative Advisor of the Cooperative League of U.S.A. He was Scholar-in-Residence at the Rockefeller Foundation, Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio, Italy, 1979 and Visiting Research Professor at Kyoto University, Fall, 1982. His most important publications are: James R. Simpson and Don Farris, The World's Beef Business and Toward a Humanist Consensus on Ethics of International Development, in Morris Storer (ed.), Humanist Ethics. He is also author or co-author of over 100 articles in professional journals and chapters in books on livestock, international development and ethics. Bernard E. Rollin is Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the Colorado State University. His book Animal Rights and Human Morality (Prometheus Books) was selected as Outstanding Academic Book, in Choice Magazine, 1981. Other important publications by him are: Natural and Conventional Meaning: An Examination of the Distinction (Mouton, 1976); Papers published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association; Poetics; Kant-Studien; and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.