Product quality and value from consumer perspective—An application to wooden products

Product quality as perceived by consumers is studied with the use of empirical survey data on wooden flooring/panelling materials and on wooden furniture markets in Finland. The results indicate that consumers’ quality perceptions are consistent for the two product categories. Perceived product quality may be understood as a hierarchical structure, which consists of tangible and intangible dimensions, and is fairly consistent for different products. The most abstract dimensions are reflected in more specific sub-dimensions and product attributes. For consumers, the quality of the tangible product is more important than the quality of the product intangibles in the case of wooden products. Perceived product value is determined as customers’ judgement of the relationship between perceived product quality and price. It was also observed to be a two-dimensional structure with tangible and intangible dimensions. The observed dimensions of perceived product quality and value were logically linked.     

On optimal income taxation with heterogeneous work preferences

This paper considers the problem of optimal income taxation when individuals are assumed to differ with respect to their earnings potential and work preferences. A numerical method for solving this two-dimensional problem has been developed. We assume an additive utility function, and utilitarian social objectives. Rather than solve the first order conditions associated with the problem, we directly compute the best tax function, which can be written in terms of a second order B-spline function. Our findings show that marginal tax rates are higher than might be anticipated, and that very little bunching occurs at the optimum. Our simulation results show that the correlation between taste for work and productivity has a crucial role in determining the extent of redistribution in our model.     

How Research Can Assist Policy: The Case of Economic Reforms in Uganda

Research has had a powerful impact on policy in Uganda, affectingthe climate of opinion, improving the quality of the policydebate, and helping focus public policy and intervention onpoverty reduction. Uganda's successful use of knowledge andresearch to help set public policy priorities demonstrates thateven a poor postconflict country can, in a relatively shortperiod of time, create an effective information base and feedbackmechanisms for decisionmaking.