Changes in food provision in Russian households experiencing perestroika

The purpose of this article is to describe how households in Novgorod the Great, Russia, deal with food provision in everyday life. The study focuses on changes experienced in food provision and consumption in Russian society, in order to illustrate how households respond to the transformation towards a market economy. The study reflects women's perspective on food provision. Students from Novgorod the Great visited 105 households and asked the women in the household to answer a questionnaire. Results from the study show that in order to cope with changes in society related to economic reforms, Russian households had changed both their food consumption and food production patterns. There was no big difference between urban and rural households. Nearly all of the households were self‐sufficient in the provision of vegetables and potatoes. Many households had a ‘dacha’ (plot), where they produced most of what they needed. Among the changes experienced during recent years (i.e. during the end of the 1990s), a decade after perestroika was initiated, households mentioned the rise in food prices and the decrease of income. Households reported that they consumed less fruit and/or meat. Some households also mentioned that the quality of nourishment had decreased, thereby indicating lower general quality, lower nutrition value, or less healthy foodstuffs.     

关于宪法司法化的再思考

对宪法司法化既要看到其对公民宪法权利保护、制约违宪行为、促进法治进程和中国宪政建设等方面的 积极作用,也不能对其作简单、理想化的理解。只有结合当代中国法制、法治和宪政的建设实践,通盘考虑,才能正确 认识宪法司法化在我国的法治与宪政建设中的作用。     

Expressive Constitutionalism

We argue that the standard Constitutional Political Economy defence of constitutionalism, that derives from an argument relating to the shift from narrowly self-interested motivations in the in-period context to relatively general-interest decision making in the constitutional context, is flawed precisely because it is intended to relate to essentially political settings where decision making must be construed as collective in nature. We suggest an alternate account of expressive constitutionalism that points to a specific defence of constitutional conventions that are insulated from popular voting.     

A modified logit model for time series with an application to the pricing behaviour of manufacturing firms in Australia

The modified logit model (Amemiya and Nold, 1975) is generalised to the case where the error term is autocorrelated. The asymptotic distribution (as n →∞ and T →∞) of a feasible GLS estimator of β is derived. Tests of linear restrictions on β and the significance of ρ are presented. The results of the applied work suggest that the factors which explain the pricing behaviour of manufacturing firms, as reported in the tendency survey conducted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Westpac Banking Corporation, include historical inflation rates of up to 7 quarters and capacity utilisation. First version received: March 2001/Final version received: July 2002 RID="*" ID="*"  The first draft of this paper was written while the author was on study leave at the Department of Econometrics, University of Sydney, Australia.     

制度选择中的政府行为模型分析

运用新制度经济学的研究方法,对政府行为主体的作用进行分析,构建了一个政府行为模型,同时对政府行为的制度功能进行了说明。     

Creating compassion: How volunteering websites encourage prosocial behaviour

Organisations increasingly use websites to promote prosocial behaviour such as volunteering, philanthropy, and activism. However, these websites often fail to encourage prosocial behaviours effectively. To address the lack of relevant research, we develop, then refine, a design model that identifies the user experience factors that create intention to engage in prosocial behaviour on websites. We test an initial model developed from the literature, by interviewing forty participants, each of whom visited and compared six volunteering websites. Our analysis of the participants' user experience reveals eighteen elements that interplay to create intention to engage in prosocial behaviour. Our refined design model comprises ten website features (interaction, factual, anecdata, external recognition, organisational expression, value suggestion, explanatory content, visual media, written media and, website design), seven perceptions (ease of use, aesthetics, information quality, trust, negative affect, positive affect, and argument strength), and one motivation (egoism). These findings provide novel insights into how to design Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to encourage prosocial behaviour.     

旅游消费理论研究的新思考——评析贝克尔的新消费者行为理论

在评析贝克尔的新消费者行为理论的基础上,指出虽然贝克尔的理论还存在一定的缺陷,但是该理论对消费研究提出的新思路有极高的参考价值,是旅游消费理论研究应该借鉴与吸纳的.     

我国开放式基金的证券选择和市场时机把握能力研究

运用参数检验方法对我国42只股票型开放式基金的证券选择和市场时机把握能力进行了分年度检验,结果发现,开放式基金在2003年具有较强的证券选择能力,但不具备市场时机把握能力,在2004年上半年显示出了一定的市场时机把握能力,却从总体上表现出负向证券选择能力.基于2003年的基金年报分析显示,开放式基金在对未来市场趋势的预测上存在明显的"羊群行为".     

Personality and older consumers’ green behaviour in the UK

The UK government has set an ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% before 2050. An interesting segment that could help to achieve this is older consumers, due to their growing numbers. There seems to be a lack of attention, in the research looking specifically at different age categories of older consumers’ green behaviour, and whether their level of greenness can be explained by their personality. Using Socioemotional Selectivity Theory and Time Perspective, the research presented here was designed to provide an exploratory analysis of how the green behaviour of older consumers is explained by their personality types. Based on the responses of 204 older consumers in the UK, our results find the openness personality trait to be positively linked to green behaviour, whilst the extraversion personality trait is negatively related to green behaviour. Although the level of green behaviour increased with older consumers’ age, this did not reach significance.     

Materialism and conspicuous consumption in China: a cross‐cultural examination

With the growing rise in consumer spending and economic power in Asian societies, it is increasingly important to explore the implications of these developments on consumer culture. This cross‐cultural study first discusses the rise of materialism and conspicuous consumption in post‐revolution China then examines differences in these phenomena between young adult consumers, aged 18–35, living in urban China and the United States. Utilizing survey data from over 600 respondents, significant differences were found in both materialism and conspicuous consumption, with Chinese young adults scoring higher in both variables. The findings show, that compared with past comparative studies, it appears both materialism and conspicuous consumption are on the rise among urban Chinese consumers.