Determinants of Consumer’s Willingness to Purchase Gray-Market Smartphones

The study analyzes the influential factors of consumers’ willingness to purchase gray-market smartphones by considering the model of novelty seeking, status consumption, integrity, and perceived risk. Attitude toward counterfeit is used as mediation in the model. The causalities in the model of problematic willingness of consumer to purchase gray-market smartphones are hypothesized. A total sample of 350 respondents with 238 effective samples is collected by interviewing with questionnaires at the service counters of telecommunications operators. Structure equation modeling (SEM) is adopted in the analysis. Consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods is found to be positively related to the willingness of consumers to purchase gray-market smartphones, but perceived risk is negatively related to consumers’ willingness to purchase. As for personality constructs, integrity and status consumption are found to be negatively related to consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods, but novelty seeking is positively related to the attitude. Further, managerial implications for branded smartphone manufacturers and telecommunications regulators are provided by the research.     

The Impact of Letter Grades on Student Effort,Course Selection,and Major Choice: A Regression-Discontinuity Analysis

The authors apply a regression-discontinuity design to identify the causal impact of letter grades on student effort within a course, subsequent credit hours taken, and the probability of majoring in economics. Their methodology addresses key issues in identifying the causal impact of letter grades: correlation with unobservable factors, such as motivation, and direction of causation. They find no evidence that letter grades influence undergraduate students’ course-taking behavior or decision to major in economics. They find that, within a course, the first exam letter grade can affect student performance on the second exam.     

The global macroeconomics of NAFTA

Previous empirical studies of NAFTA have commonly used trade models that do not allow international capital flows to adjust to changes in regional trade arrangements such as NAFTA. This paper explores the dynamic implications of NAFTA with particular focus on the short-run and longer-run adjustment of financial capital. This adjustment affects the global allocation of physical capital and therefore changes the growth prospects for a country such as Mexico. Our results suggest that Mexico and the world economy gain more from NAFTA than merely a static reallocation of production possibilities. In the short run, the adjustment of financial capital affects nominal and real exchange rates. This adjustment is far more important for the short-term allocation of trade flows than partial equilibrium adjustment of trade based only on changes in long-term price differentials.     

International evidence on misspecification of the standard money demand equation

This paper tests the proposition that the interest rate in the standard money demand equation acts as a proxy for the expected change in interest rates. If this is true, the interest elasticity in the standard equation will depend on the expectations process for interest rates. Using cross-country data, we find that there does exist a relationship between the observed interest elasticity in the standard equation and the predictability of future interest rates from current interest rates.     

Market structure, pigouvian taxation, and welfare

Using a short-run partial equilibrium model of social welfare, this paper examines the social welfare implications of changing Pigouvian taxes under three markets: perfect competition, monopoly, and Cournot oligopoly. The result for perfect competition supports the earlier finding that Pigouvian taxation increases social welfare [Buchanan, 1969]. However, in contrast to the previous result that Pigouvian taxes lower welfare under monopoly, the authors show that if the noncompetitive distortion is small, these taxes might still be useful in correcting monopoly-generated externalities and in improving social welfare. Cournot firms react to the tax depending upon their individual perceptions of the gain in post-tax marginal revenue. Policy implications of the study's results are discussed.     

Corporate goal structures and business students: A comparative study of values

Are the values of business students of today synchronized with the reality of the present business environment? Two hundred twenty-two business students rated the importance of twenty corporate goals. Moreover, the students rated the same goals as they perceived chief executive officers (CEOs) would have rated them. Significant differences were found between the two ratings, with students ranking social and employee-oriented goals as more important than they perceived CEOs would have.     

Blacks in rural America: Socioeconomic status and policies to enhance economic well-being

This research documents the disadvantaged status of rural blacks. Many indicators of economic well-being reveal that rural blacks lag behind both urban blacks and rural whites. Investments in human capital are critical for improving the economic status of rural blacks; public assistance and equal opportunity policies are also important. Financing alternative policies remains a major constraint to reducing the disparity between the economic well-being of rural blacks and their white counterparts and between blacks in rural and urban communities.     

LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION, RACE AND HUMAN CAPITAL: INFLUENCE ON EARNINGS DISTRIBUTIONS ACROSS STATES

In this paper we analyze the level of income inequality across states in 1970 and 1980 for several demographic groups. Furthermore, we examine the impact of labor force participation (LFP), education and other variables on inequality. We find that for tshe whole population, states with high LFP by females are states with low income inequality. The same holds true for states with high LFP for men. When we disaggregate by race, the results are quite consistent for whites, but not for blacks. States with relatively high education levels are associated with high inequality levels for the white cohort and the whole population, but there appears to be no similar association between education and inequality across states for blacks.     

New development: Implementing and evaluating government strategic plans—the Europe 2020 Strategy

ABSTRACT

This article examines the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The authors analysed the strategic and management plans of the European Commission’s directorates-general (DGs) to identify the main and dominant discourses in the documents. The supplementing or supplanting of the simple strategy framework of the early years by a political framework after 2014 can be seen as caused by an interaction between rational management evaluation on one hand and political values and will on the other.