Making effective pricing decisions

Pricing is one of the most complex decisions facing any company. Along with a lack of academic interest (especially among marketing academics) in the field of pricing, this complexity has contributed to the dominance of simplified, cost-based formulas when levying prices. This article offers an alternative approach based on the concept of contribution margin and the need to take into consideration only those costs that are related directly to a specific pricing decision, an approach that is especially useful when a company decides to change its prices. Moreover, an empirical study regarding the practical use of this approach is also presented.     

经济适用房的历史地位与改革方向

经济适用房曾被赋予了我国住房供应体系的主体的地位.五年多来,经济适应房建设取得了巨大的成效,也暴露出了严重的缺陷.本文从改革与发展两个角度研究了经济适用房的发展历程与成就,探讨了其内在缺陷,论证了在我国中低价位的商品房市场正在形成,并且在两年左右的时间内,低价商品房市场将与经济适用房市场现实地形成竞争.在此基础上,本文认为经济适用房作为我国住房体制改革的阶段性措施已初步完成了它的历史使命.随着客观条件的变化,经济适用房建设应逐步让位于普通的商品房市场.     

The effect of concentration and market power on food prices: evidence from Finland

This research examines empirically the relationship between economies of scale, concentration, and market power in food retailing. With unique, local market data available Finland, the analysis could investigate the impact of both local concentration and industry-wide concentration (which can be interpreted as multimarket contact) are taken into account in the evaluation of grocery retail competitiveness. The results show that the main factor affecting market power is the size of the retail firm. Larger share grocery retailers, for both the local and the national markets, carried higher mark-ups. At the same time, no firm-level scale economies were found from these larger firms. I conclude from these findings that the main purpose of large grocery retail mergers is to gain market power not efficiency.     

基于需求角度房地产价格影响因素的实证分析

本文从需求角度分析影响房价的各因素,包括经济发展水平、城镇化水平、城镇居民收入水平和通货膨胀等,并选取一系列房地产价格的影响指标在2001-2010年的十年数据,建立31个省市房价的多种面板数据模型。对不同模型间进行选择和比较,得出最佳模型为个体固定效应模型,力图揭示各选取因素是否能够对房地产价格产生显著影响,从而确定需求层面上房价的影响因素,以及得出相应建议。     

The Contingent Effects of Semantic Price Cues

This research endeavors to understand the contingent effects of semantic price cues while taking into consideration several important contextual factors. These factors include where the customer encounters the semantic cue (in-store, at-home, online), whether the consumers’ shopping goal is hedonic or utilitarian in nature, the impact of shopping alone or with a companion, as well as the consumer's motivation to process the product information. Findings indicate that a within-store cue (compared to a between store cue) enhances evaluations when the shopping in a store with a utilitarian goal, when shopping alone, and when their motivation to process is low. A meta-analysis of the results demonstrates the robustness of the differential impacts of these semantic cues.     

后现代主义对悲剧精神的解构与重构

后现代主义创作手法一方面对以崇高为核心的悲剧精神不可避免地进行着消解,另一方面对于另一种特属于当代的悲剧精神则又具有重构价值,乃至在对这种当代的悲剧精神的表现中,后现代创作手法具有着必要性,并由此可一窥后现代主义本身的矛盾性。     

Supplanting the Planters

Summary

After briefly examining the plantation-as-hotel model, this contribution focuses the remainder of its attention on the conversion of plantation slavery into entertainment on the Caribbean island of Barbados. First, and by way of contextualization, it is shown that an extensive and well-documented history of plantation life exists, one that is drawn from early accounts of travelers, missionaries and others, as well as later expert commentaries offered by indigenous and extra-regional scholars. Second, it is argued that the tourism industry has largely ignored or been highly selective in borrowing from this rich source of material in its attempt to supply the sort of a-historical diversion which it believes its clientele enjoys. Examples provided include the Open House Programme of the Barbados National Trust, the annual Crop Over Festival and Plantation Spectacular dinner shows. Finally, a few suggestions are advanced in order to try and understand the success of this type of tourism. They include references to postmodernity, nostalgia, dark tourism and varieties of promotion.     

House Prices and Stock Prices: Different Roles in the US Monetary Transmission Mechanism*

We analyze the role of house prices and stock prices in the monetary‐policy transmission mechanism in the US, using a structural vector autoregressive model. If we allow the interest rate and asset prices to react simultaneously to news, we find different roles for house prices and stock prices in the monetary transmission mechanism. Following a contractionary monetary‐policy shock, stock prices fall immediately, while the response in house prices is more gradual. Regarding the systematic response in monetary policy, stock prices play a more important role than house prices. As a consequence, house prices contribute more than stock prices to fluctuations in gross domestic product and inflation.     

Unplanned rural living and its policy implications: Some findings from Bundaberg,Australia

Research conducted in the Bundaberg Region in north-eastern Australia sought to explain the pattern of unplanned rural living and to assess whether its impacts are adverse enough to warrant land use policy change. It found there was limited conversion of suitable sugarcane land to ‘unplanned’ rural living during the 1980–2000 period. Parcels converted to unplanned rural living during this period were, on average, much smaller, had lower agricultural production potential, and were situated in more undulating and forested landscapes further from Bundaberg than parcels that remained in sugarcane production.     

34个城市的住宅财富效应:基于panel data的实证研究

本文检验了我国人均消费支出与住宅财富之间的关系。以2001—2004年34个城市为样本，使用面板误差纠正模型估计住宅财富的边际消费倾向，结果表明边际消费倾向为-0．033，并从消费者信贷约束和预防性储蓄角度进行了简要解释。