Impact of Shari’ah on Consumers’ Behavior Toward Sales Promotion Tools: Focus on Egyptian Convenience Products

This study measures to what extent compliance with Shari’ah moderates the relationship between different sales promotion tools—namely, price discount, product demonstration and sampling, buy one get one free (bonus pack), sweepstakes/lucky draws, scratch and win offers, and free samples—and three consumer behavioral responses (product trial, stockpiling, and spending more) for buying convenience products from supermarkets in Egypt. A total of 381 selected Muslim consumers/shoppers were surveyed via face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Overall correlation analysis between the six proposed sales promotion tools and consumers’ response behavior in general demonstrated a significant relationship. However, some specific tools did not indicate a significant relationship with specific response behaviors. Furthermore, correlation analysis initially indicated that there is a positive significant relationship between all sales promotion tools and compliance with Shari’ah, with the exception of sweepstakes and scratch and win offers, which demonstrated a significant negative relationship. Furthermore, after running linear stepwise regression, the model was fit (62%), indicating the moderating role of compliance with Shari’ah in the relationship between specific sales promotion tools—namely, sweepstakes/games and scratch and win offers—and Muslim consumers’ behavioral responses. Generally speaking, marketers should consider Shari’ah and ethical principles in Islam before creatively crafting promotional tools to attract Muslim consumers, and new tools could be developed with an Islamic orientation to attract Muslim consumers.     

The impact of agricultural policy on farm income concentration: the case of regional implementation of the CAP direct payments in Italy

One of the objectives of agricultural policy worldwide concerns the support of farm income. Common Agricultural Policy direct payments (DPs) are the main instruments to support farm income in the European Union. This article addresses their role in the concentration of farm income. This is done by calculating the Gini coefficient and its disaggregation in a large sample of Italian farms in the period between 2006 and 2007. Although this approach has been used to develop ex‐post analysis in previous studies, this article is innovative given that it is used here in an ex ante analysis aimed at evaluating the likely impact of a recent reform proposal. This latter requests changing the current model to a regional model of DPs application to make payment rates (i.e., payment per hectare) homogeneous among farms in the same region. The analysis shows that DPs and farm incomes are both very concentrated but that DPs allow for an income concentration reduction in Italian farms. The shift to a regional implementation reduces DPs concentration and, to a limited extent, farm income concentration. Of the considered regionalization scenarios, those that redistribute DPs among regions are the most effective in reducing concentration. The extension of the Gini considered approach to an ex ante setting seems effective because it provides insights that could feed the policy debate regarding the forthcoming reform.     

多委托代理关系、政策的选择性执行与农村税费改革

农村税费改革在全国全面推行后,在目前的条件下这一政策出现的一些问题能否得到全面深入的贯彻执行的问题引起了学术界的关注.本文运用多委托代理理论来分析中国多层级垂直行政管理体系中的政策执行问题,认为地方基层政府利用政策存在无法执行的可能性以及信息传递中的噪音,从事违背税费改革精神的行为,地方政府出于自身的利益以及要求地方基层政府完成各种政策任务的考虑默许、袒护这一行为,并提出了全面贯彻执行农村税费改革政策所要采取的对策.     

我国财政改革中几个全局性问题的思考

按照党的"十六大"提出的战略构想,未来20年里我们将完成经济体制转轨的任务,实现全面小康.这样的构想意味着,中国经济体制改革目标的实现已从政策设计的角度锁定在1978-2020年的时段内,我们正处在承前启后的转折点上.在政府主导的渐进路径上,政府既推进着市场机制的建立,也同时推动着计划手段的创新,在市场机制发挥作用的同时,又始终承担着计划体制下的诸多任务与责任.财政作为政府政策实施的财力保障,以自身的变动见证了这一过程,与体制转轨进程和经济运行状况有着深刻的互动关系.因此,在这样一个特殊时刻,对财政改革中的一些关系全局的问题进行思考、解释,不仅关系到财政自身的运行,无疑也将直接影响到整个经济发展的绩效.本文主要围绕三个方面的重大问题提出了分析的路径与依据,并做出了基本的评价.     

生育政策、子女数量与中国的性别教育平等

近年来,中国性别教育差距快速缩小并呈现出女性高等教育在校生比重超越男性的现象,文章从生育政策视角对这一现象进行了解释,认为计划生育政策通过改善女性教育获得显著促进了性别教育平等。队列分析显示,生育政策之后的出生队列中女性相对教育水平明显提高,性别教育差距明显缩小。基于生育政策地区差异和出生队列差异构建的双差分模型分析发现,以农村二孩政策地区为参照组,严格的独生子女政策在提高女性相对受教育机会方面更为明显。但相对于二孩政策,一孩半政策在促进性别教育平等方面不存在显著差异,这可能由于在一孩半政策下独女户和双女户数量较少,家庭受性别偏好影响会将资源向男性倾斜,导致政策没有通过控制家庭规模提高女性相对教育获得机会。研究认为,随着中国放松生育政策,农村地区由一孩半政策过渡到二孩政策并不会对女性教育获得产生明显影响,应该关注生育政策调整对严格独生子女政策地区女性教育获得的影响。同时,随着性别教育差距逐步缩小,可以利用劳动力市场政策降低市场性别歧视,进一步提高女性地位并促进性别平等。     

电子货币视角下货币流通速度下降原因的实证分析

选择我国电子货币及货币流通速度相关统计数据和指标,对电子货币与货币流通速度的相关性进行的统计检验表明,电子货币在对传统货币替代时存在两个明显的替代效应:替代加速效应和替代转化效应.两个效应的作用具有明显的阶段性特征,但电子货币对传统货币的取代并没有加快货币流通速度,反而导致了货币流通速度的下降,这与大多数学者的研究结论相反,这为解释近年来我国货币流通速度持续下降的原因提供了一个新的角度.     

政府负债会计的会计政策选择原则论析——以美国联邦政府为例

政府负债是政府部门以各种信用形式筹集资金,缓解财政支出压力,顺利履行各类政府职能的重要手段,也是引发财政危机,威胁一国财政安全的主要因素.加强对政府负债的管理,控制财政风险,高质量的政府负债会计与财务报告信息是重要的前提保证.因此,完善政府负债的会计核算始终是推动各国政府会计变革的重要动因,其中,对负债计量、确认等会计政策的选择则成为当前政府会计实践关注的焦点,本文以美国联邦政府为例,对政府负债会计的会计政策选择及其原则进行了分析,以提供借鉴.     

The effect of capital requirement regulation on the transmission of monetary policy: evidence from Austria

This paper analyzes the role of banks’ regulatory capitalization in the transmission of monetary policy. We use a confidential dataset for Austrian banks spanning from the first quarter of 1997 to the fourth quarter of 2003. We find evidence that Austrian banks react in an asymmetric way to monetary policy depending on their regulatory excess capitalization, i.e. low capitalized banks react more restrictively to a monetary tightening than their highly capitalized peers.

论行为公共政策及其在财政治理中的应用:逻辑、案例与对策

行为公共政策尚处于全球学术研究的前沿领域,而其应用特别值得中国中等收入发展阶段财政治理的重视和探讨。本文首先论述了行为经济理论四个阶段的发展逻辑,并对每个阶段进行了简要述评。基于理论逻辑所揭示的从"经济人"到"人类"的假设条件变化,在对公共政策进行简要回顾的基础上,本文阐述了行为经济为其带来的改变,并对行为政策与传统政策进行了比较分析。接着,在提出行为政策的五点特征及其对财政治理的启示后,本文较详细阐述了行为政策在全球实践的典型案例,并在最后为中国当下财政治理提出了五个方面的对策建议。     

金融审判中风险防范的适法困境与选择

金融资管业务往往通过民事合同的安排来达到降低交易成本、规避金融监管的目的。为了防范金融风险,金融监管机构通过《资管新规》等一系列监管政策加强对金融市场的"穿透式"监管。金融商事审判机关在制定法没有明确规定的情况下,如何针对违反监管政策的金融交易合同做出公允的裁判是亟须解决的问题。本文分析了合同法第53条3、4、5款的适用空间为何,以及金融商事审判如何在现行法的框架内防范实现风险防范的目的。