Approximate tâtonnement processes

Summary We introduce a probabilistic model for price adjustment in an exchange economy which approximates the classical Walras tâtonnement process while avoiding many of its unrealistic features. The model is decentralized in that the trades permitted to an agent and the resulting price changes depend only on the commodity vector currently held by that agent, and not on the commodity vectors held by the other agents in the economy. Our results will show that the Walras tâtonnement process can be decentralized without changing its behavior on the macroeconomic scale. Our model has a finite set of commodities, a market maker who adjusts prices, and a large finite set of agents who trade only with the market maker. Each agent has a demand function depending on his commodity vector and the price vector. At each discrete time, one agent is chosen at random and exchanges his current commodity vector for his demand vector. Then the market maker adjusts the price vector by an amount which depends on the selected agent's commodity vector and the current price. Prices are adjusted rapidly enough to avoid prolonged trading at the wrong price, but slowly enough so that a substantial price change will depend on a significant simple of agents. The main result shows that with probability arbitrarily close to one the price will rapidly approach and then remain close to an equilibrium value, following a path which is close to the price path of the corresponding tâtonnement process.     

Materialism through the eyes of Polish and American consumers

The research applies the Material Values Scale (MVS; Richins and Dawson, 1992) cross-culturally by comparing materialism among Polish and American business students. Cultural differences (e.g., greater humanistic/collectivistic/Christian values in Poland) suggest lower MVS scores for Poles than for Americans. This prediction is consistent with the Local Culture hypothesis (i.e., that a strong local culture results in maintenance of traditional values in defense against global forces). Contrary to predictions, data suggest no Polish-American materialism differences, a finding consistent with the globalization hypothesis (i.e., increasing globalization leads to relatively uniform worldwide materialism). As a precursor to hypotheses testing, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tests the construct validity and cross-cultural validity of the MVS. The findings suggest substantial difficulties with the scale that limit the confidence in conclusions based on the scale. Based on these findings, future research discussion aims at developing a measure of materialism with potentially greater construct validity for cross-cultural applications.     

The role of family decision makers in festival tourism

This study assessed the role of family decision makers in participating in a festival according to five stages of festival participation. A survey process was conducted using two sampling groups: the sample for families with children and the sample for families without children. According to the results of the study, a number of marketing implications were generated. For example, the husband was revealed to more actively join transportation-related activities including driving, deciding travel routes, automobile safety checks, and filling up with gasoline. The wife was a strong decision maker in selecting restaurants or menus in the festival tourism management process. Likewise, the role of the wife is very significant, from suggesting the festival participation at the first stage to determining a revisit to the festival at the last stage. However, the children or joint decision-making patterns were not distinctive as they are said to be in other tourism literature. Findings of the study are expected to offer valuable insights for all festival stakeholders including festival vendors, local government, local residents, and festival organizers.     

Black–white differences in beliefs about the U.S. restaurant tipping norm: Moderated by socio-economic status?

A re-analysis of two national telephone surveys found that black–white differences in awareness that it is customary to tip a percentage of the bill declined as socio-economic status increased. However, black–white differences in awareness that is customary to tip 15–20 percent in restaurants was unrelated to socio-economic status. The practical as well as theoretical implications of these findings are discussed along with directions for future research.     

Can we reject linearity in an HAR-RV model for the S&P 500? Insights from a nonparametric HAR-RV

This article tests the linearity assumption underlying the popular heterogeneous autoregressive model for realized volatility (HAR-RV). We implement a consistent model specification test that is robust to both distributional and model misspecification. We find that, using a nonparametric HAR-RV (NPHAR-RV), we are unable to reject the null of linearity.     

Thailand as a tourist destination: Perceptions of international visitors and Thai residents

In the tourism industry, the perceptions of a tourist destination are critical to its image. Image can be either a mental image of a product created by a marketing department or an associative image of a product that is developed by the consumer. Tourism destinations must be careful about their image so the perception that they have is not different from the way that they are perceived by potential travelers. This study examines the perceptions of international visitors and Thai residents on the image of Thailand as a tourist destination. International visitors and Thai residents were both surveyed to determine their perceptions of the image of Thailand. Some results of the study found that Thai residents and international visitors felt cultural sightseeing, friendly people and food were significantly important when thinking of Thailand as a tourist destination, while international visitors felt that nightlife and entertainment were significantly more important than that of Thai residents.     

A comparative study of perceptions of destination advertising according to message appeal and endorsement type

As today’s world is flattening, the landscape of tourist destinations is becoming similar. In turn, an increasing number of destinations are seeking to effectively promote themselves. For these reasons, this study investigated the differences in the advertising effectiveness of destination promotions by message appeal and endorsement type. The main objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness of destination advertising by message appeal types and endorsement types respectively in order to determine the most effective type of advertising for promoting a destination. A questionnaire with hypothetical website advertising designs was used in a survey of inbound tourists to Korea of three different nationalities. To examine differences between the two advertising appeal types according to the type of offer, a series of t-tests were performed, whereas general linear model tests with repeated measures were carried out to detect the differences among the three endorsement types. The results revealed destination advertising effectiveness vary by both advertising appeal type and endorsement type. Such effectiveness was also found to vary by the message recipient’s cultural background. For destination marketers, these findings shed light on the importance of a well-curated message design by message appeal type and endorsement type.