Targeted advertising as a signal

This study presents a signaling model of advertising for horizontally differentiated products. The central ingredients of the model are two important characteristics of advertising—targeting, and noisy information content. The theory yields interesting results about the informational role of targeted advertising, and its consequences. First, targeting can itself serve as a signal on product attributes. Second, the effectiveness of targeting depends not only on firms knowing consumer preferences, but on consumers knowing that firms know this. This creates a distinction between strategies of targeting and personalization. Third, the effectiveness of targeting in equilibrium may (far) exceed the information contained directly in the targeted message. Fourth, information content is not, however, superfluous. Specifically, when ads contain no information, a targeting equilibrium does not exist. Together, these results reveal how advertising conveys information both through the content of the message and the firm’s choice of advertising medium. Furthermore, the model is robust to the various critiques of prior work on ads-as-signals: namely, that ad content is irrelevant, ad exposure is unnecessary, and the choice of ads as signals is inherently arbitrary.

数量规则还是利率规则？——我国转型时期量价混合型货币规则的理论基础

本文对我国货币政策转型时期兼顾数量和价格的货币政策调控实践进行了深入的分析。在货币数量论和货币效用模型的基础上,从理论上阐明了货币数量规则与利率价格规则的等价关系,并构建了符合中国货币政策实践的数量与价格混合型货币政策规则。这对于更好地理解我国货币政策转型时期的量价混合型货币政策操作具有重要的理论和现实意义。相关推论表明,正是由于数量和价格混合型货币规则,在利率低于均衡水平的情形下,中国的货币增速并未引发恶性通胀;修正的物价稳定泰勒原理表明,利率调整幅度小于通胀变化仍能够实现物价稳定。对中国的经验分析支持了理论和推论结果。在利率市场化基本完成和流动性格局逆转的当下,货币政策价格调控方式转型的必要性和迫切性日益上升,转型的条件日趋成熟。     

The effects of mobile promotions on customer purchase dynamics

While mobile promotions have become increasingly popular in recent years, limited research has examined the effects of mobile promotions over time. This research investigates the effects of two popular types of promotional offers, price discount and non-price free sample coupons, on purchase behavior. To this end, we present a dynamic model of customer purchase behavior that incorporates time-varying effects of mobile coupons, enabling us to investigate both the short-term and longer-term effects of mobile promotions. Using transaction and mobile promotion data, we find that both price discount and free sample coupons increase customers' purchase likelihood and expenditures during the coupon redemption period. We also find that free sample coupons have an enduring effect that increases the purchase propensity beyond the promotion period, thereby contributing to incremental purchases over a longer period of time. We demonstrate how our approach can help marketers improve mobile couponing decisions by considering the dynamic effects of mobile promotions that manifest over time.     

通货膨胀不确定性文献评述

通货膨胀不确定性是扭曲微观经济主体的决策行为,产生通货膨胀社会成本的一个重要因素,研究通货膨胀不确定性与通货膨胀水平、经济活动以及货币政策规则之间的关系能为货币当局提供决策支持。本文从理论模型和实证研究两个方面对通货膨胀不确定性的文献进行梳理与评述,并探讨当前通货膨胀的成因与对策。     

“双到”扶贫工作中扶贫对象的动态调整及其政策建议

准确地识别和确定扶贫对象对合理地配置有限的扶贫资源，提高扶贫工作的效率具有重要的意义。扶贫对象的识别是一项政策性和技术性很强的工作，但由于各种各样的原因，确定的贫困对象与实际情况会存在一定的偏差，并且由于经济状况的变化，原先的贫困户不再适合列入帮扶对象，所以有必要对扶贫对象进行动态调整。文章分析了扶贫对象动态调整的必要性以及扶贫对象动态调整的方法与程序，提出了扶贫对象动态调整的政策建议。     

Improving the efficiency targeting of Malawi's farm input subsidy programme: Big pain,small gain?

The Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi was introduced in the 2005/2006 season against a background of bad weather affecting production and prolonged food shortages. Vouchers are distributed empowering eligible farmers to exchange them for fixed quantities of inputs at subsidized prices. Since its inception, there has been a debate at national level about whether the FISP’s potential has been fully exploited, with policy makers exploring options to improve the programme. Proposals include targeting efficient and productive farmers to maximize returns. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of these proposed changes to the existing FISP design by utilizing two waves of the LSMS-ISA survey merged with climatic data. We estimate how the national demand for agricultural inputs varies according to a variation in the targeting criteria by means of a two-stage demand system. Then, we identify more efficient farmers by means of a stochastic frontier approach. We observe a mismatch between voucher recipients and efficiency, with approximately 60% of vouchers being allocated to the three bottom quintiles of efficiency. This mismatch is observed also at the spatial level with more vouchers going to districts characterized by less efficient production. While concerns on the distributional impacts of the new criteria are discussed together with some suggestions for spatially diversifying the structuring of the policy and incentivizing crop diversification, our results highlight a high substitutability of commercial with subsidized inputs by new eligible farmers. Consequently, simulating the targeting policy variation we obtain an outcome that would lead only to a limited increases in predicted food expenditure ranging from 0.27% to 0.8% and maize production from 0.2% to 1.3. Scope for analysing different adjustments in the functioning of FISP are, thus, proposed to policy makers.     

Endogenous objectives and the evaluation of targeting rules for monetary policy

Recent research in monetary economics has followed the advice of McCallum [1988. Robustness properties of a rule for monetary policy. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 29, 173-203] and investigated the robustness properties of monetary policy rules by evaluating them in a variety of models. Evaluation across models is typically based on an exogenously specified loss function. However, the theory on which many recent monetary policy models are based implies that changes in the structure of the model also have consequences for the policy objectives the central bank should pursue. Objectives are endogenous, not exogenous to the model. In this paper, I investigate the impact of endogenous objectives on the evaluation of targeting rules for monetary policy.     

通货膨胀目标制的目标标准设计比较研究

通货膨胀目标标准设计是通货膨胀目标制实施过程中一个关键性问题.不同类别的国家所选择的目标标准表现出不同特征.就目标而言,大多数国家选择是区间目标,或一个点目标,允许一定百分点的上下浮动幅度范围.目标取值都在零通货膨胀率以上.在初期阶段目标期限偏短,在通货膨胀稳定时期,目标期限有加长的倾向.大多数国家使用总CPI指数作为度量标准,可调整的CPI如核心通货膨胀指标也逐渐受到一些国家的重视.     

Stock holdings over the life cycle: Who hesitates to join the market?

In this paper, we study the empirical relationship between age and individual wealth held in stocks, focusing on the heterogeneity of risk-taking over the life cycle in the population. We use micro-data and nonparametric quantile regression to argue that there is a pronounced life cycle pattern of risk-taking for households, which is conditional upon ownership. Specifically, we show that the fraction of stock investment decreases to bottom significantly in midlife and increases afterwards, contradicting the popular evidence claiming a hump-shaped pattern. The pressure of large financial obligations during middle age may be the reason for the crowding out of stock market risk-taking and could induce low capital returns for households.     

货币政策目标规则的研究现状及评述

货币政策规则研究的进展是近年来货币政策研究的重要突破。本文对货币政策目标规则研究领域的代表性文献进行了系统的分类梳理和总结,并展望国际上相关研究的发展方向,作为我们进一步研究的基础和借鉴。借鉴西方货币政策规则的理论和实践,建立适应新形势的货币政策框架是我国货币政策的发展方向。对中国货币政策目标规则的研究尚处于刚刚起步阶段,今后的相关研究应更多地考虑中国作为新兴市场和转轨国家的经济和金融特征。