CAFTA-DR Effects on FDI Inflows,Growth, and Distribution of the Workforce in Costa Rica: A System Dynamics Approach

As regional trading arrangements have spread, enlarged, and deepened over the last decades, the study of the relation between trade agreements and foreign direct investment (FDI) still presents difficulties due to the multi-dimensional character of such relationships. This article attempts to shed new light on how some of the Central American Free Trade (CAFTA) policies will impact FDI inflows on the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in Costa Rica. Specifically, we look at how the growth and distribution of the workforce is affected by the treaty. The results show that the agreement provisions will have a positive effect on FDI. From these results it is possible to estimate that in the long run, the implementation of CAFTA has a higher probability of generating the intended benefits. System dynamics modeling is used in this article.     

Toward Consumption Reduction: An Environmentally Motivated Perspective

Faced with the threat of climate change, there is a challenge to promote more environmentally friendly consumption patterns. This work seeks to unearth psychographic and socio‐demographic factors that could trigger environmentally motivated reductions in consumption. The context of empirical investigation is the European Union (i.e., a large‐scale sample of European citizens), with a focus on two key types of environmentally motivated consumption reduction: domestic and “out‐of‐home” (purchasing) activities. The findings show the interrelated effects of environmental knowledge and ecological motivations (in both aggregated and disaggregated forms) on positive and negative environmental attitudes, which in turn influence consumption reduction. There is also evidence of significant moderating influences of perceived environmental threat, gender, age, education, and country value orientation—particularly on “environmental knowledge” links. The findings reported here contribute to theory and practice toward environmental sustainability.     

Endogenous capacities and price competition: The role of demand uncertainty

We analyze the role of demand uncertainty in markets of fixed size, in which firms take long-run capacity decisions prior to competing in prices. We characterize the set of subgame perfect Nash equilibria under various assumptions regarding the nature and timing of demand uncertainty. In order to prove equilibrium existence, we identify a sufficient condition for the capacity choice game to be submodular. This condition resembles the standard downward-sloping marginal revenue condition used in Cournot games. A robust conclusion of the analysis is that equilibrium capacity choices are asymmetric, even when firms are ex-ante identical. Concerning the equivalence between the capacity-price game and the Cournot game, we find that with inelastic demands, the equilibria of the former belong to the equilibrium set of the latter. However, as compared to the Cournot game, the capacity-price game leads to lower prices and generates price dispersion.     

Coalitional manipulations in a bankruptcy problem

In a bankruptcy problem framework we consider rules immune to possible manipulations by the creditors involved in the problem via merging or splitting of their individual claims. The paper provides characterization theorems for the non manipulable rules, the no advantageous merging parametric rules and the no advantageous splitting parametric rules. Received: 24 February 1998 / accepted: 9 March 1999     

Export Growth and Economic Development in Colonial British America

This paper analyzes the dynamic relationship between tobacco and the rest of the economy in the colonial Chesapeake to test the staple theory version of the export-led growth hypothesis. The paper adopts a multivariate time-series approach which accommodates the presence of cointegration and contemporaneous correlations among innovations. The empirical evidence strongly supports the staple theory. British demand for tobacco is statistically exogenous and found to induce cyclical fluctuations in the colonial price of tobacco as well as temporary over- or underproduction, as measured by a long-term cointegration relationship between the British demand for tobacco and the colonial price of land.     

Anti-consumption beyond boundaries: From niche topic to global phenomena

The first anti-consumption special issue was published by Psychology & Marketing in 2002. More than a decade later, in 2018, the International Center for Anti-consumption Research held its seventh Symposium at the University of Almeria, Spain. This gathering was accompanied by an open call-for-papers in Psychology & Marketing to create a much-anticipated follow-up special issue. Many papers were received for both the symposium and official call. This editorial introduces the final 10 papers that comprise the Psychology & Marketing 2020 special issue on anti-consumption. While the area of anti-consumption has mushroomed into a vast array of work since 2002, this editorial provides four major themes that help to frame the contributions of the 10 new papers as well as set the scene for future work in anti-consumption. The four themes are: Conceptual clarity and refinement; ideological perspectives; environmental and sustainability focus; and novel outlooks on anti-consumption.     

Efficient partnership dissolution under buy‐sell clauses

Buy‐sell clauses are commonly used contractual provisions to determine the terms of dissolution of partnerships. Under them, one party offers a price for the partnership and the other party chooses whether to sell her share or buy her partner's share at this price. We point out that the selection of the proposing partner is essential for the performance of the clause. Moreover, if partners negotiate for the advantage of being the chooser, then buy‐sell clauses result in an ex post efficient outcome. Such endogenous selection is consistent with how buy‐sell clauses are drafted in practice.     

How to translate results from auctions to procurements

The translation of statements from auctions to procurements is not always straightforward. We define a duality relationship between them and provide the appropriate transformations needed for establishing it. Additionally, we prove that affiliation is preserved under these transformations and establish the linkage principle for procurements.     

Behavioral prediction of environmentally oriented anticonsumption and consumption: A multilevel study of five Eurobarometer surveys

To tackle climate change, greater public engagement is called for in actions that fall under the umbrella of environmentally oriented anticonsumption (EOA), in addition to environmentally oriented consumption (EOC) ones. This study examines potential behavioral effects on EOA and EOC actions in response to climate change, by placing attention on the EOA versus EOC distinction, as well as the behavioral domain and frequency of the selected behavioral outcomes and predictors. Multilevel analysis is conducted on a large-scale, European pooled dataset (N = 137,097 respondents) combined with secondary country data at the societal level (N = 30 countries). The findings provide overall evidence for positive behavioral effects or spillovers on EOA and EOC behaviors in response to climate change, while emphasizing also the need to account for the specificity of different proenvironmental actions. Also, the findings show that positive spillovers are more likely among actions within the same EOA/EOC path of action, pertaining to the same behavioral category (i.e., intra-domain, rather than inter-domain spillovers), and having similar behavioral frequency characteristics (e.g., among non-daily actions). The findings reported here improve understanding of the behavioral mechanisms behind environmental spillovers, for less-researched EOA (and EOC) outcomes, in response to climate change, and cross-nationally.     

Auctions with asymmetric common-values: The first-price format

We study the performance of the first-price format in auctions with asymmetric common-values. We show that, contrary to the result for second-price auctions, a small advantage for one player translates only to small changes in bidders’ strategies, and the equilibrium remains close to the first-price equilibrium of the original game. We characterize the equilibrium bidding strategies and their behavior as the degree of asymmetry increases. Finally, we compare the revenues at the optimal auction, the first-price auction and the second-price auction.