Consumer perceptions of refund depth and competitive scope in price-matching guarantees: effects on store patronage

The study investigates the effect of two characteristics of price-matching guarantees—the depth of refund offer and the scope of competitors eligible for price matching—on consumer perceptions of price-matching guarantee believability and value and consumer intentions to patronize the retailer. The results show that large refund offers built consumer patronage intentions by enhancing perceptions of the value of the price-matching guarantee, while simultaneously exerting a negative impact on patronage by reducing believability of the price-matching promise. The competitive scope also affected the patronage intentions by influencing the perceived value of the price-matching policy.     

What drives customers’ post-purchase price search intention in the context of online price matching guarantees

Using a research model based on customer value theory, this study investigates the determinants of customer post-purchase price comparison searches in the context of online price-matching guarantees (PMG). Data collected from 222 eligible respondents are tested against the proposed research model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate two PMG characteristics, refund length and refund scope, influence utilitarian benefit (i.e., refund depth) and hedonic benefit (i.e., playfulness). These two benefits subsequently contribute to customer perceived value, which leads to price search intentions. This study pioneers the exploration of online PMGs and the determinants of customer post-purchase price search intentions. Several important theoretical and practical implications can be drawn from the findings to guide online retailers’ PMG strategies.     

Linkages between emerging and developed equity markets: Empirical evidence in the PMG framework

This paper empirically investigates the international equity market causal links between Central and South-Eastern Europe, on the one hand, and developed countries (Western Europe and the United States), on the other hand, over the monthly sample period spanning from October 2000 to September 2012. Unlike previous studies, we use the pooled mean group (PMG) approach of Pesaran et al. (1999), which is suitable to estimate dynamic heterogeneous panels to draw reliable conclusions. After cointegration is found between the stock markets of interest, the PMG estimates show evidence of each market's sensitivity to the fluctuations of the other markets over both the short- and long-run, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The impact of developed markets on emerging markets is more important than that of emerging markets on developed markets and the bidirectional impact is higher between emerging and Western European markets than between these emerging markets and the United States. These conclusions are robust to an alternative specification, which supports the view that the stock markets are closely interlinked. The findings are of great interest and have important implications for policy makers, investors, and practitioners.     

Effective timing of tourism policy: The case of Singapore

In this paper, we examine the effective timing of economic policies actions in the tourism industry of a small open economy such as Singapore. The effective timing of policy actions is an open challenge issue to researchers and also a much needed rule of thumb to policy makers and private agents. This paper aims to (a) derive the influencing factors of a tourism demand function and (b) identify the time impact of these factors, thus, allowing the formulations of effective policy actions, by both, governmental tourism authorities and private tourism agents in Singapore. Our findings suggest that tourism government authorities and private tourism agents in Singapore should choose the timing of their actions depending upon the anticipated factor changes and their estimated impact. That is, if exchange rate variability is anticipated then policy actions should start at least twelve months prior to the start of the tourist period. If, a keen price competition is expected to prevail then the best timing of policy actions is nine months ahead the tourism period. If income improvements in origin countries could be expected, then a rather shorter timing action of six months would be available to tourism authorities and private agents in Singapore.     

Linkage between international trade and economic growth in GCC countries: Empirical evidence from PMG estimation approach

This paper explores the empirical evidence of the links between economic growth and openness to international trade by controlling for auxiliary variables in the model for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over the annual sample period 1980–2010. After testing for cointegration based on a recent bootstrap panel test, we employ the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation technique of M.H. Pesaran, Y. Shin, and R. Smith (1999. “Pooled Mean Group Estimation of Dynamic Heterogeneous Panels”. Journal of the American Statistical Association 94: 621–634) that is appropriate for drawing sharper conclusions in dynamic heterogeneous panels by considering long-run equilibrium relations. The results show evidence of cointegration relationship between the variables of interest, and reveal that economic growth responds positively to trade openness over both the short run and long run. The evidence is robust to using various trade openness measures and to alternative model specifications, suggesting thus the non-fragility of the linkage between economic growth and openness to international trade for the GCC region. Our findings are then promising and support the view that economic growth is directly and robustly linked to trade openness for the GCC countries.     

中美产品内分工中存在污染生产环节转移吗?

利用1995-2009年世界投入产出表,本文测算了中美间产品内分工的两种表现,即中国出口中包含的美国中间投入价值比重以及美国出口中包含的中国中间投入价值比重,并考察了以上两种产品内分工对中国污染强度的影响。基于混合组平均估计的实证结果表明,两种形式的产品内分工均能显著促进污染强度降低,这说明中国并没有在对美产品内分工中大量承担污染密集型生产环节,融入国际生产价值链有助于中国的清洁化生产。     

External Debt and Growth in Emerging Economies

The paper studies the relationship between external debt and economic growth in a panel of emerging countries. A number of economists have proposed different methods of analysing the nexus between economic growth and public debt. The paper investigates the debt-growth nexus using a linear and non-linear specification, employing a panel ARDL model on 13 emerging countries during the period 1990–2016. The results show that there is no robust effect of debt on economic growth in the long run; however in the short run, external debt is negatively and significantly correlated to economic growth.     

金融开放与银行风险承担的异质性研究——基于98个国家的实证分析

金融开放是加剧银行业风险还是分散风险,是颇具争议的研究课题。本文借助Gygli et al.(2018)的金融开放指标,应用1999-2016年98个国家的跨国数据,检验了金融开放和银行风险承担的长期均衡和短期关系。从长期均衡关系来看,金融开放显著地提高了银行抵御风险能力,具有长期"促进效应";从短期关系来看,金融开放则存在一定"风险效应"①。进一步研究发现,短期"风险效应"与外资银行资产占比不存在关联,而与市场制度环境显著相关,即完善的制度环境有助于弱化"风险效应"。结合中国实际情况,文章支持"以开放促改革"的观点,强调完善市场制度环境的重要性,为政策制定者提供实证依据。     

Do economic sanctions affect protectionism? Evidence from agricultural support

The objective of this paper is to examine whether economic sanctions contribute to influencing the target countries’ protectionist policies in the agricultural sector. Using pooled mean group estimations in a dynamic heterogeneous panel setting, we find robust empirical evidence that, in the long‐run, economic sanctions decrease agricultural protection in the target counties, and this effect is mitigated by the wealth of the target's economy. However, the relationship is insignificant in the short run. Furthermore, our results also suggest that the impact of sanctions on agricultural protection (a) increases with the severity of economic sanctions, (b) is greater for multilateral sanctions than unilateral sanctions, and (c) is more severe on agricultural protection when sanctions span a longer duration.     

Trade openness,urbanization and CO2 emissions: Dynamic panel data analysis of middle-income countries

Using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach of Pesaran, Shin, and Smith [1999. “Pooled Mean Group Estimation of Dynamic Heterogeneous Panels.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 94 (446): 621–634], this article attempts to empirically examine the heterogeneous effects of trade openness and urbanization on CO₂ emissions in 55 middle-income countries over the period from 1992 to 2012. We find that trade openness has a benign effect on the environment in the short run, but a harmful effect in the long run. Meanwhile, our results show that urbanization has a negative and significant impact on CO₂ emissions both in the short and long run, implying that urbanization improves environmental quality. The results are robust even after controlling for a number of factors such as economic or non-economic factors.