The long-run cost of job loss as measured by consumption changes

We consider the measurement of the cost of job displacement. With a Canadian panel survey we compare the consumption growth of households that experienced a permanent layoff to a control group of households that experienced a temporary layoff with known recall date. Because the firms employing the latter group are providing insurance, these workers approximate a benchmark of full insurance against job loss shocks. We estimate that permanent layoffs experience an average consumption loss of between 4% and 10%. Older workers and workers with high job tenure have losses closer to the top of this range.     

购房借贷约束与缴存家庭消费——基于公积金运营流动性视角的分析

研究制约住房公积金制度效率的因素及作用机制,对保障国民安居、推动经济高质量发展具有重要的现实意义。鉴于此,本文首先通过构建理论模型,阐述了流动性压力下,公积金对缴存家庭贷款决策与消费的影响及作用机制,并使用中国家庭金融调查数据(CHFS)对理论假说进行实证检验。研究结果表明:借贷约束会显著降低缴存家庭使用公积金贷款的概率;流动性压力是公积金管理机构提高贷款门槛,从而降低借贷受约束家庭使用公积金贷款概率的重要原因;未获得公积金贷款支持的缴存家庭因购房成本的增加,家庭的非耐用品消费受到显著抑制。本文进一步通过倾向得分匹配方法和两阶段最小二乘法处理内生性问题,识别结果显示上述结论稳健可靠。本文研究表明:改善运营资金流动性不仅有助于提高公积金制度的运行效率,完善我国的住房保障体系,还有助于促进居民消费,提振内需,并为企业减费降负提供有效支持。     

货币政策、消费品和投资品通货膨胀——基于金融加速器视角

本文建立一个包含消费品和投资品生产的两部门新凯恩斯DSGE模型,并且引入金融加速器以分析货币政策对消费品和投资品通货膨胀的影响机制,同时使用1999Q1至2015Q4的中国宏观经济数据对模型进行贝叶斯估计。估计结果表明,两个部门的菲利普斯曲线都具有较高的价格粘性。外部融资溢价对两个部门企业投资的影响存在异质性,投资品部门的金融加速器效应更加明显。脉冲响应分析表明货币政策扩张时,投资品部门的产出和通胀膨胀上升幅度比消费品部门更大。理论模型的脉冲响应与VAR实证分析得到的经验事实相一致。金融摩擦导致的消费品和投资品部门需求结构的异质性是解释货币政策对两个部门影响差异的关键。数值模拟分析发现金融加速器机制主要改变货币政策对投资品产出和通货膨胀的影响,对消费品部门影响改变较小。方差分解结果表明加总技术冲击、投资边际效率冲击和货币政策冲击是经济波动的主要来源。     

Consumption in the shadow of unemployment

By how much do employed households reduce their consumption when the aggregate unemployment rate rises? In Spain during the Great Recession a one point increase in the unemployment rate was related to a strong reduction in household consumption of more than 0.7% per equivalent adult. This reduction is consistent with forward-looking agents responding to downward revisions of their expectations on future income growth rates: the shadow of unemployment. Using consumption panel data that include information on physical quantities we show that the drop in consumption expenditure was truly a reduction in quantities, and not a switch to cheaper alternatives.     

Consuming digital technologies and making home

Recognizing digital technology's dislocating impact on home, this paper focuses on an underrepresented consumer, the female head-of-household. This interpretive research study of army men's wives elucidates three issues: the digital home's structure, technology's roles, and women's technology consumption. First, the study introduces the center–periphery model of home. Second, the results go beyond technology's tool role to building a support system. Finally, this study sheds light on the neglected area of women's play with digital technology.     

Product placement in US and New Zealand television soap operas: an exploratory study

Although the soap opera as a television genre has consistently captured the imagination of millions of people around the world, surprisingly little has been written about it in the marketing literature. Understanding the consumption imagery in soaps may allow marketers to assess the relevance of product placement for their promotion strategy better, as well as providing valuable insight into the consumption habits of their considerable viewing audiences. Data were collected through content analysis from two soap operas, one in the USA and one in New Zealand. The results indicated a high level of consumption imagery, including brand references. Furthermore significant differences in the types of product and the emotional outcome of product use were found between the countries.     

Consumption and the retail change process: a comparative analysis of toy retailing in Italy and France

Set in the context of a review and critique of the retail change literature, this study conceptualizes the importance of cultural diversity in consumption practices, and their dialectical interplay with retail structures. Underpinned theoretically by concepts located in Critical Theory and Bourdieu's studies of 'Distinctions', a grounded approach at a macro-level of analysis is applied to the comparison of the French and Italian toy retail sectors, which serves as an empirical illustration of the conceptual categories and relationships posited. In the comparative analysis of the French and Italian toy retail industry, the links between market structures and macro-economic and demographic factors, on the one hand, and localized consumption habits, on the other, are discussed, highlighting the interplay of the properties of the emergent retail activity and consumption categories of analysis. The impact of global sourcing and market entry of international retailers is assessed. Conclusions point to the importance of the forcefield between localized meaning and the dynamics of toy retail capital. It is argued that the commodity form of toys, together with the values attached to them and the role they play in childhood, is influencing the structures of national toy retail sectors which are also dependent on the overall retail system and broader environmental factors. In this, retail change processes take place as a result of the interactions between the different spheres and their particular expressions cannot be generalized across borders as they depend on the specific dynamics within each system.     

几种中国农村居民食品消费需求模型的比较研究

本文选取6种需求系统模型,运用中国30个省份农民食品消费截面数据进行了比较研究,得到以下结论:以希克斯需求为理论依据的需求模型拟合优度优于以马歇尔需求为理论依据的需求模型;需求支出弹性及其标准差比较显示,QUAIDS模型的估计结果表现最优,而QES模型的表现最差;数据的秩检验结果显示,3秩模型更适合于研究中国农民食品消费,说明现有研究可进一步改善。因此农民对食物消费需求结构更趋于合理化,但较低的收入水平和较差的消费环境仍是制约农民食品消费结构升级的重要因素。     

Structural changes in the demand for food in Asia: empirical evidence from Taiwan

Many Asian countries are expected to undergo structural transformations in their economies and rapid urbanization over the next 25 years. The changes in tastes and lifestyles engendered by urban living are likely to have significant influences on food demand. Changes in marketing systems and occupational changes, closely linked with increasing GNP per capita, also may influence the demand for food. In this paper, estimates presented for Taiwan demonstrate that structural changes in food demand (as distinguished from changes due to income and price effects) have been significant factors driving the rapid changes in dietary patterns seen in East Asia over the past three decades. Because most previous demand studies have ignored the possible influence of structural shifts which are highly correlated with increases in per capita income over time, the effects of income on food demand have been overestimated.     

Roots of Marketing and Consumer Research at the University of Chicago1

The marketing and consumer research fields began to flourish in the late 1940s after World War II. Social Research, Inc. was founded in 1946 by members of the University of Chicago's faculty. Students at the University's interdisciplinary Committee on Human Development and the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology worked at Social Research, Inc., pioneering the application of behavioral methods of research to problems of business and other organizations. This paper traces the transmission of knowledge from the academic setting to the business environment. It notes especially the influence of members of the university faculty and their theories of human behavior on the emerging fields devoted to the study of consumption and culture.