Grading Innovation in an International Marketing Course: Promoting Student Collaboration and Individual Accountability

In this article, the author proposes an innovative, exam-based homework grading method to facilitate both collaboration among students and individual accountability while learning a complex theory and applying it to solve a problem. Results from this novel approach to grading a comparative advantage theory homework assignment, using an objective exam performance measure to adjust original homework grades, show that students increase their comprehension of the frequently misunderstood theory. This novel grading method can be applied in a variety of contexts to promote student collaboration in preparation of academic work while providing incentives to encourage individual accountability and engagement.     

Takeup,social multipliers and optimal social insurance

This paper examines the optimal provision of unemployment insurance (UI) in a framework that accounts for behavioral responses along both the intensive and extensive margins. Two formulations of takeup are considered: in the first, individuals face a takeup cost that is exogenous; in the second, the cost depends endogenously on the takeup rate. Such endogenous costs to takeup lead to a social multiplier, a reduced-form parameter summarizing the strength of social interactions. This paper derives a formula for the optimal replacement rate in terms of the takeup and duration elasticities, and the social multiplier. The formula is applied by estimating the social multiplier using policy variation in UI benefit levels. The results suggest that social multiplier effects account for 35% of the total effect of UI on takeup and yield an optimal replacement rate around 60% of pre-unemployment wages, 20% higher than previous estimates.     

On market mavens and consumer self‐confidence: A cross‐cultural study

Market mavens are attentive to media and important diffusers of marketplace information. This study examines the relationships between cultural individualism, general and consumer self‐confidence, and market mavenism in the context of two distinct cultural systems, the United States and South Korea. The examination of cross‐cultural equivalence of the constructs under study provides evidence for both configural and full or partial metric invariance. The results indicate that cultural individualism is positively related to general self‐confidence, general self‐confidence is positively related to consumer selfconfidence, and consumer self‐confidence is positively related to market mavenism. Additionally, this research shows that these relationships hold in both the U.S. and South Korean samples. The results of this study indicate that market mavenism, and thus levels of confidence about marketplace knowledge and speed of diffusion of such information may be more prevalent among the more individualistic than collectivistic consumers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION LEGISLATION AND THE GROWTH OF THE SERVICE SECTOR IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

In modern developed economies it is the service sector that generates jobs. In Anglo-Saxon economies, where employment protection legislation is low and unions comparatively weak, services account for three-quarters of income and four-fifths of jobs. Yet in France, Germany and Italy, where the reverse is true, the service sector accounts for much less of the economy in terms of income and jobs. This article shows that employment protection legislation – defended by trade unions still dominating manufacturing in continental Europe – results in higher unemployment rates and also negatively affects the growth of services.     

When EU Leaders Speak,the Markets Listen

Abstract

We use content analysis software to examine certain characteristics of communications arising from European Council meetings. These characteristics appear to explain a large proportion of variation in stock returns around the meeting dates. More specifically, stock market investors react favourably when the conclusions and declarations issued by heads of states convey a positive sentiment and demonstrate a stance of moral rectitude. On the other hand, the returns tend to be negative when the communications are obfuscated by an excessive use of abstract words and fixated on regional rather than global issues.     

Technical analysis as the representation of typical cognitive biases

The present research provides a justification for the popularity of the technical analysis. It finds that financial analysts firmly discriminate between two types of technical signals—those based on typical cognitive biases and “empty” signals that sound like a technical analysis but are without any connotation with psychological inclinations.At the same time that they treat them differently, different analysts rate these items very similarly. These results suggest that the popularity of technical analysis is associated with its relation to the typical cognitive biases of humans.     

The Columbia Space Shuttle Tragedy: Third-Party Liability Implications for the Insurance of Space Losses

Space flights are no longer rare events, but the commonplace is not necessarily safe. When disaster strikes, as in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster of 2003, third parties as well as those directly involved are financially affected. This article considers how these issues are treated under international law. It also analyzes what products the insurance markets offer as protection against such third-party liabilities.     

DO STOCK MARKET FLUCTUATIONS AFFECT SUICIDE RATES?

In this study, we extend the standard economic model of suicide by considering a new influential factor driving the voluntary death rate. Using an international sample, we estimate the model and document a robust and significant inverse relation between stock market returns and the percentage increase in suicide rates. Trends in male and female suicide are affected by market fluctuations, both contemporaneously and at a lag. This predictive quality of stock returns offers the potential to implement pro-active suicide prevention strategies for those who could be affected by the vagaries of the market and general economic downturns.     

A risk-driven approach to exchange rate modelling

The paper presents a new approach to exchange rate modelling that augments the CHEER model with a sovereign credit default risk as perceived by financial investors making their decisions. In the cointegrated VAR system with nine variables comprised of the short- and long-term interest rates in Poland and the euro area, inflation rates, CDS indices and the zloty/euro exchange rate, four long-run relationships were found. Two of them link term spreads with inflation rates, the third one describes the exchange rate and the fourth one explains the inflation rate in Poland. Transmission of shocks was analysed by common stochastic trends. The estimation results were used to calculate the zloty/euro equilibrium exchange rate.