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While it is well known that new technologies enhance consumer welfare, the manner in which these technologies impact the ability to realize economies of scale in consumption is not well understood. We use Sri Lankan household data to examine how the adoption of new technologies by households positively impacts their ability to achieve household economies of scale. This suggests that new technologies not only deliver a greater variety of consumption goods to consumers, but they may also play an important role in enabling large households to escape poverty by lowering the per-capita costs of maintaining a given standard of living. Given the importance of consumption economies of scale in the measurement of poverty, this study provides some insights on the extent to which the number of poor households changes when food consumption scale economies due to technology adoption in the domestic sphere are incorporated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article studies the role of education in the decision to attend sporting events. The overall objective is to verify whether more educated individuals are more likely to go to sports events than their less educated counterparts. If education socializes persons to focus on sports, it would then partially offset negative alternatives such as alcohol, drug abuse and unlawful behaviours, creating a positive externality. Sport events consumption is extensive, highlighting the potential economic importance of the sports-education externality. To establish the role of education in sport attendance, this article applies a probabilistic linear regression model to data from the UK. The econometric formulation associates sport event attendance in the left hand side with education in the right hand side, while controlling for the socioeconomic variables that are known to affect a consumer’s decision to go to a sport event: gender, age, income, employment status, children, marital status, and geographical location, among others. These findings add to a somewhat limited literature on both the effect of education on sports attendance and secondarily, on the impact of other socioeconomic variables on attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature so far provides no in-depth investigation of the determinants of decisions to contribute to crowdfunding platforms. The present article draws on work measuring the decisions and prosocial behaviours of individuals in relation to public goods, and uses survey data on crowdfunding behaviour. We surveyed an original sample of individuals in France to explore individual decisions and amounts of funding chosen to support a creative project. We show that in non-equity crowdfunding contributing money is associated with altruism. Our findings suggest that the ‘warm glow’ effect influences the level of the contribution; we show also those monetary incentives could ‘crowd out’ the decisions to contribute of crowdfunders. Our study has some implications for business strategy since understanding why people contribute adds to our knowledge about the incentives that might encourage them to increase their contributions, and allows predictions about how changes to how crowdfunding platforms are managed might affect individual incentives to give. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Behavioural economics suggests that people tend to neglect or underweight opportunity costs. However, strong empirical evidence for the size of the underweighting appears to be largely absent from the literature. What are the weights people attach to opportunity costs relative to out-of-pocket costs? In this article, I estimate the weight of opportunity costs in probably the largest economic decision that households make: buying a house. I show that homeowners attach approximately twice as much weight to out-of-pocket costs of their housing consumption than to the opportunity costs associated with this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates whether consumer search behaviour differs across zip codes within the U.S. As an application, daily gasoline price data covering virtually all gas stations within the U.S. are employed to estimate the distribution of search costs in each zip code. The results show that there are significant differences across zip codes regarding the expected number of searches achieved before consumers purchase gasoline. In order to have a systematic explanation, such differences are further connected to geographic, demographic, and economic conditions of the zip codes in a secondary analysis. The corresponding results imply several strategies for gas stations in order to maximize profits/markups; suggestions follow for policy makers and regulators to reduce redistributive effects of information barriers across locations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Better Energy Homes scheme to provide a financial incentive for home owners to engage in energy efficiency retrofits. This study analyses data from the scheme and Building Energy Rating data for participants to the scheme to examine the value for money achieved by households. In addition, this research identifies which retrofit combinations provide greatest value for money, in terms of energy efficiency gains, for the grant provider. We utilize an error-in-variables approach to model the variation in benefits accruing to households of varying characteristics. We find that household and grant provider surplus can be maximized in the short term by retrofitting less energy efficient and larger homes, timber or steel frame homes and houses rather and apartments. The types of retrofits leading to the greatest surplus for both household and grant provider include cavity wall insulation paired with either a boiler with heating controls or heating controls only retrofit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the relation between risk and individual well-being. We propose a theoretical model of happiness that makes a distinction between ex ante evaluations of happiness and ex post assessments. The main assumptions of the model are tested through three studies based on anchoring vignettes. We show that, even if, ex ante, consumers fear high risk and do not associate it to a high level of happiness, their ex post evaluation of well-being is generally higher when identical consequences result from a high-risk situation than from a low-risk situation. Control over risk-taking reinforces the gap between ex ante and ex post measures of happiness. Thus, our article provides empirical evidence about a positive relation between risk and individual well-being, suggesting that risky experiences have the potential to increase consumer well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using shopping diary survey data, we show that changing payment patterns is a challenging task; even when consumers have fallen in love with a new payment instrument, they find it hard to divorce from their old payment instrument. We find a discrepancy between how consumers prefer to pay and how they actually pay. Half of the consumers who prefer the debit card to cash don’t use the debit card to pay a majority of their point-of-sale transactions. Our regression results show that the habit of paying cash plays a significant role explaining the presence of a gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nonresponse (or missing data) is often encountered in large-scale surveys. To enable the behavioural analysis of these data sets, statistical treatments are commonly applied to complete or remove these data. However, the correctness of such procedures critically depends on the nature of the underlying missingness generation process. Clearly, the efficacy of applying either case deletion or imputation procedures rests on the unknown missingness generation mechanism. The contribution of this article is twofold. The study is the first to propose a simple sequential method to attempt to identify the form of missingness. Second, the effectiveness of the tests is assessed by generating (experimentally) nine missing data sets by imposed missing completely at random, missing at random and not missing at random processes, with data removed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using repeated cross-section annual data for Peru spanning 2002–2011 and non-parametric duration analysis, our estimates support the hypothesis that both stay in and exit from poverty (non-poverty) depends on the duration and sequence of poverty (non-poverty) spells. We find that longer periods in poverty reduce the probability of leaving poverty and, conversely, longer periods spent out of poverty reduce the chance of falling back into poverty. Also, we show that, at least in the last decade (of high economic growth), the probability of staying in poverty was lower than staying in non-poverty and the probability of re-entering in poverty was higher than re-entering in non-poverty, being both differences growing with the number of accumulated spells. Past experiences of poverty and non-poverty seem to be essential to predict the future status of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article, using the zonal version of the travel cost method (ZTCM), provides the first economic valuation of recreational trips to Mont-Saint-Michel (MSM). The MSM was designated as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site in 1979, and is the most visited coastal site in France. The potential effects on consumer surplus (CS) estimates of some aspects of the ZTCM are considered, namely the treatment of the multiple purpose/destination (MP/D) trips, the inclusion of the opportunity cost of time (OCT) in the recreation demand model and the heterogeneity in the preferences. The heterogeneity in the preferences is examined through a random parameters Poisson model (RPPM). The RPPM generalizes the standard Poisson model (SPM) by allowing coefficients of explanatory variables to vary randomly across geographical units rather than being fixed. Our results show that (1) substantial CS values are associated with the MSM; (2) excluding/ignoring MP/D trips result in biased CS estimates; (3) omitting OCT does not substantially bias CS estimates; (4) the RPPM provides richer information about the impact of explanatory variables on the demand for trips than the SPM, but (5) leads to statistically similar CS estimates than the SPM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article contributes to our understanding of cross-border activity in general and the determinants of cross-border trade in particular by focusing on the part of cross-border sales that arise due to work-related cross-border crossings of households. We analyse empirically how cross-border consumption expenditures vary across product and services categories as well as household characteristics using representative household survey data of cross-border commuters to Luxembourg. In total, these households spend an estimated 17% of their gross annual income across the border, contributing about 10% to the total household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in Luxembourg. Cross-border expenditure is linked to individual- and household-related characteristics and to distance between home and work. Cross-border commuters systematically exploit arbitrage opportunities that arise because of existing price level (index) differences between the country of work and the country of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Overweight and obesity in adult populations is considered to be a growing epidemic worldwide, and appears to be rapidly increasing in China. From 1992 to 2002, the incidence of overweight in adults increased by 39.0%, while that of obesity doubled. To identify the determinants of adult overweight and obesity in China, micro-level data from a questionnaire survey entitled the ‘Preference Parameters Study,’ which was conducted by the Global Centers of Excellence programme at Osaka University, were analysed. In addition to the entire sample, data from urban and rural subsamples were also analysed in order to investigate whether the determinants of overweight and obesity differed. The results suggested that body mass index (BMI) is correlated with subjective well-being, gender, age, labour intensity and drinking and eating habits among urban respondents, and with age, monthly income, number of siblings and eating habits among rural respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A framed field experiment combined with a latent class econometric approach was used to investigate how prestige-seeking behaviour influences food choices. We propose a theoretical framework to test conspicuous consumption of specialty food products. We test the hypothesis empirically by categorizing individuals into unobserved latent classes according to their general prestige-seeking behaviour. We find evidence of food consumption driven by prestige to the point of becoming a symbol of social status. The prestige-seeking behaviour seems to be motivated by invidious comparison or higher-class individuals seeking to differentiate themselves from lower-class individuals; and pecuniary emulation, or lower-class individuals buying prestigious goods in order to be perceived as members of a higher class. Findings from this study revealed that the effects of differentiating labelling attributes had a higher impact for individuals classified into classes with prestige-seeking behaviour to attain an elevated social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize the Michigan Surveys of Consumers data to first investigate the dynamic relationship between consumers’ assessment of current and future economic conditions (Index of Current Economic Conditions (ICC) and Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE)), and then examine how these assessments are influenced by deterioration/improvement in consumers’ appraisal of economic policies of the government (GP). We further assess how deterioration/improvement inICCandICEinfluencesGP. For 1978–2015, our findings first indicate thatICCandICEare cointegrated and both respond to disequilibrium to restore the long-run equilibrium relationship. Second, deterioration inGPresults in deterioration in bothICCandICE. Improvement inGP, however, results in improvement inICEwith no impact onICC. Third, deterioration in bothICCandICEresults in deterioration inGP. Improvement inICEresults in improvement inGP, but improvement inICChas no impact onGP. The observed asymmetries are in line with ‘negativity bias’, whereby people tend to give more weight to negative events than to positive ones. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Encouraging water use efficiency and water conservation is one of the primary goals of water utility companies nationwide. This study estimates price elasticity of residential water demand to measure the responsiveness of water use to price changes, particularly for high water users. Household-level water use data for high residential water users from Central Florida were analysed using 3-stage least square (3SLS). Estimated price elasticity ranges between −0.07 and −0.14. This price elasticity estimate is below most of the estimates reported in the literature (in absolute value). The results imply that for price strategies to be effective in managing water demand of high residential water users, a significant price increase would be needed. Overall, this study highlights the importance of designing water conservation policies tailored to specific groups of customers, and the importance of using these strategies effectively and fairly for different customer groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) relaxes consumers’ temporal and geographic purchasing constraints and encourage the establishment of omnichannel markets. It is often argued that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas others contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by “relatively heavy” Internet commerce users. Brynjolfsson et al. (2013) argue that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas Einav et al. (2014) contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by ‘relatively heavy’ Internet commerce users. This article explores strength of the influences within a nested multiple-service framework, where the reduced-form econometric analysis allows for interdependency between m-commerce and e-commerce services, and the installed base of credit cards. The results reveal a complex situation in which credit cards facilitate e-commerce services, whereas m-commerce adoptions are driven by prior e-commerce and online transaction activity. Also, higher respondent incomes are negatively associated with proposed m-commerce adoption. Surprisingly, privacy concerns do not affect proposed adoption independently; however, an interaction term suggests privacy remains an adoption barrier for the older persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The allocation of time between leisure activities and work has been extensively analysed in academic literature. However, leisure time is limited and there may not be sufficient time to enjoy all the leisure activities desired. Hence, this article considers the allocation of time between substitute leisure activities. International football tournaments provide an opportunity to consider consumers’ preferences for watching football and films in a quasi-natural experimental setting. A trade-off between these leisure activities is identified using a difference-in-difference methodology. Using an original, four-country data set, a large and robust negative effect of mega sports events on cinema admissions is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how health-care utilization is affected by copayments in a tax-financed health-care system. The article utilizes a natural experiment in which a health-care region in Sweden changed the price of healthcare in such a way that primary care general physician prices increased by 33%. We use daily visit data in the treatment region and a neighbouring control region where no price change took place and analyse the effect using differences-in-differences as well as differences-in-differences-in-differences models. The results from the preferred models indicate no effect on health-care utilization due to the price change, a result that also holds across different socio-economic subregions in the treatment region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate effective price elasticities for different quantiles of the demand distribution of the UK National Lottery and the Canadian Lotto 649. We show that price elasticities vary significantly from draw to draw and have a tendency to increase with lottery participation and jackpot size. Our findings indicate that setting lottery rules on the basis of mean effective price elasticities should be faced with caution because expected profits are negatively related to the evident variation of elasticities among lottery draws. We also simulate alternative active rollover distributions and show that limiting the rollover accumulation by withholding portions and ploughing them back in future nonrollover draws is potentially profitable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This work evaluates the cross-quality elasticity of related products in the context of local market Nielsen Local People Meter ratings of Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season broadcasts from 2010 through 2013 from six teams in three shared markets. We employ a fixed effects panel regression with multi-way error clustering, finding that fans exhibit nuanced behaviour related to the absolute quality and relative quality of the two local teams. Our estimates imply quality-related competition for viewership between teams in the face of large disparities in quality. However, when both teams are of high quality, viewership increased beyond what own-team success would predict alone for the competing team. The competitive effects are largely dominated by the spillover effects. These findings point to complementary effects of team success beyond own-team interest, and bring about an important nuance in the literature on market definition, competition and substitution in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article formulates and estimates a structural intertemporal model of labour force participation. Relying on theoretical characterizations derived from an economic model of lifetime behaviour, we estimate a dynamic probit model with correlated random effects using longitudinal data to allow for a dynamic structure. The model is applied to a panel of married women drawn from the 1997–2002 French Labour Force surveys in order to represent their participation behaviour. It is estimated by maximum simulated likelihood. Our results show that women’s decisions to go out to work are characterized by significant state dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and negative serial correlation in the transitory error component. In addition, we find that the presence of young children in a woman’s household reduces her labour participation, but unequally according to their age and number. As expected, educational level has a positive impact on women’s participation. Last, a rise in the husband’s wage is found to raise female participation initially and to lower it subsequently. This empirical finding suggests that leisure may not systematically be a normal good, contrary to what is frequently assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study identifies the factors determining the purchase frequencies of organic/natural fertilizers (ONFs) with a focus on do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers’ perceptions and motives. The estimation results of the generalized ordered logit model provide statistical evidence that environmental perceptions are critical factors in directing DIY consumers to purchase ONFs frequently. The results imply that educational programmes, informational campaigns, or advertisements to improve their perceptions on the potential negative impacts of fertilization on the environment may increase the purchase frequencies of ONFs. In addition, the results show that DIY consumers perceive that it is worth using ONFs despite their higher prices than chemical fertilizers. Their purchase frequencies will increase if they positively perceive the values of ONFs and are willing to pay a premium for ONFs. Moreover, the purchasing behaviour of DIY consumers is associated with their perceptions of neighbourhood landscaping. If neighbours or homeowner associations encourage landscaping improvements in their community, DIY consumers may increase their purchase frequencies of ONFs accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article provides a means for testing whether buyers or sellers are responsible for a drop in sales following a market shock. We show that suppliers’ responses dominated the market reaction to the 2006 US Food and Drug Administration warning to avoid fresh spinach contaminated with potentially deadly bacteriaEscherichia coliO157:H7. A modified Durbin-Wu-Hausman test for temporary price endogeneity is developed and used in a leafy green vegetable demand model. Test results indicate the price of bagged spinach was exogenous before the announcement but endogenous for approximately 12 weeks afterward. We show these results are consistent with the notion that suppliers temporarily limited the availability of spinach to consumers. Instead of consumers choosing the quantity purchased given exogenous prices, it was suppliers who limited the quantity marketed and consumers’ choices established the market price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nonhypothetical second-price Vickrey auction was conducted to elicit consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for vegetable attributes, including production technique, origin, taste and health benefits. Using a latent class analysis (LCA) we segmented participants based on health-driven motivations, WTP estimates and socio-economic characteristics. Two latent classes were found and characterized as: ‘Health Conscious’ and ‘Health Redeemers’. In particular, the ‘Health Conscious’ consumers presented healthy lifestyle habits, expressed price premiums for domestic and local-specialty food products after a blind tasting treatment, but they did not have price premiums for health benefits of the products. On the contrary, the ‘Health Redeemers’ presented unhealthy lifestyles but they were willing to pay more for healthy food products, perhaps in an attempt to make up for their unhealthy habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article aims at understanding the determinants of households’ selective waste-sorting behaviours, based on data from an original survey of 694 individuals in the French Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur region. The applied literature focuses mainly on countries with high recycling rates. We focus on a region with the lowest recycling rate in France, a country that recycles less than the European country average. We first apply polychoric principal components analysis to reduce the number of explanatory variables to a set of six factors. In a second step, we use a probit model to estimate the probability of waste sorting as a function of these factors. This model tests several hypotheses emerging from the recent literature on behavioural economics applied to households’ selective sorting. This literature pays particular attention to the social influence on recycling behaviour, which has been studied mostly by sociologists and psychologists. The results of our empirical analysis confirm some of the findings in the literature. However, they also highlight some unique features, such as social influences having a negative impact on recycling. This finding contrasts with most of the literature, which finds a positive relationship of social influence on pro-environmental behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public investments in healthcare technology for the disabled and elderly to improve the quality of social life have been vigorous, but the economic evaluation of the assistive technology is still lacking. Under this circumstance, the purpose of this study is to analyse the socio-economic value of developing assistive technologies with the potential to improve the quality of social life, especially for disabled and elderly individuals. Based on a survey of 400 respondents, the spike model, a special form of the contingent valuation method (CVM) is applied to assess the value of assistive technologies. In Korea, a household’s willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the development of assistive technologies is US$4.26 per year, on average, in the form of a government-levied tax; although many people express zero WTP for the development of these technologies, people with higher household savings, higher levels of education and higher levels of charity donations have a higher WTP for the development of assistive technology. We conclude that although assistive technologies have considerable economic value many people express zero WTP for the development of these technologies. Therefore, political and social educational efforts are necessary to reach social consensus on the government investment in such technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer decisions regarding retail payment instruments entail private and social costs. Due to these social costs, policymakers are increasingly trying to understand the determinants of consumer payment choices as documented by the European Central Bank’s regular publications. This article contributes to this understanding by investigating the role of perceived risk. Based on an original survey of French consumers, we measure the effects of perceived risk on the decisions to hold and use the main retail payment instruments: cash, card and cheque. We point to the sequential dependence of the decisions to hold and use a payment instrument, and study jointly both decisions. The bivariate analysis based on risk factors shows that unavailability risk and time risk have the greatest transverse influence on holding and using payment instruments. Our results, robust to controlling for consumer characteristics, confirm their propensity for a quick-to-use and constantly available payment instrument. We discuss the relevance of our results for policy making purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water price is a key instrument in regulating water demand in the residential sector. Many empirical studies have assessed the effects of price through quantifying the price elasticity of water demand. However, most of these studies have mainly focused on the single-family housing rather the multifamily housing. An in-depth understanding of the price elasticity of multifamily housing water demand is paramount for water planners in order to properly manage water use in the fast growing intensive housing developments in urban areas. This study investigates both the long-term and short-term price elasticities of water demand in the residential apartments in Auckland central city. Using 6 years of monthly time series data, the price elasticities were estimated through cointegration and error correction methods. The results showed that the price elasticities of water demand were −0.14 and −0.12 in the short term and the long term, respectively. The price is inelastic yet negative and statistically significant, thus it can play a role in demand management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conjecture that an important driver of individual purchases of counterfeit products is cultural norms and values. To put this conjecture to an empirical test, we make use of the unique situation of Surinamese people who live in Suriname and in the Netherlands and who might share the same norms and values but certainly not their respective income levels and demographics. Holding newly collected data from surveys amongst Surinamese individuals in the Netherlands and in Suriname against a control group of Dutch individuals in the Netherlands, we present evidence that cultural norms are indeed a key driver for purchases of counterfeit products. Implications for policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the long-term effects of droughts on water consumption using data of municipalities of the urban area of Barcelona. Two important characteristics of the sample of municipalities are the relatively low water consumption in the pre-drought period and the fact that indoor uses are clearly predominant. Controlling for prices, income and various socio-demographic factors, we find a reduction in water consumption not only during the drought episode but also in subsequent periods. These permanent reductions in water use may be explained by household behavioural changes, technological changes or structural water policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first investigation of residential Internet markets in Thailand, in particular Bangkok. Bangkok is an interesting market to study as it is Thailand’s most populous province, and supports an advanced economy. The study offers a comprehensive discussion of the process to obtain cross-price elasticity estimates when Internet services are bundled. Interestingly, the empirical results reveal positive cross-price effects, i.e. Internet alternatives are viewed as substitutes by respondents in this market. This finding is plausible as the services differ essentially in their model of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 2003 wave of China General Social Survey (2003CGSS), we study the influence of the communist party on individual’s social networks in urban China and, thereby, present a case of socio-political institutions being an important ingredient in social network formation. We adopt a counterfactual framework and estimate the effect of communist party membership on social network investment as an average treatment effect. We find the treatment to be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To increase the number of regular season games, small football leagues are often organized as quadruple round robin tournaments with teams playing each other four times.Theoretically, however, the more games played, the less uncertain is the championship race, reducing fan interest in the league. This article uses data from Austria and Switzerland to study the relationship between competition format, championship uncertainty and attendance demandempirically. Results suggest that a team still in contention to win the championship positively affects attendance, while it is not the specificity of the competition format thatper secontributes to less championship uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines short- and long-term price linkages among the majority of fine wine and equity markets over the period of 2003 to 2012. We do not consider the price index (LIV-EX 100 or 500), as is typically undertaken in previous studies, but rather examine the auction price series of the world’s most traded wine-vintage pairs (5 Bordeaux first growth, 8 Bordeaux second growth, 5 Burgundy, 3 Rhone, 4 Italian, 5 Californian, 1 Australian and 1 Portuguese). A global equity index is also included using the Morgan Stanley Capital International World. Cointegration procedures, the Granger non-causality test, and ECM are used to analyse short- and long-run relationships among these markets. The results indicate a strong effect of financial markets on wine prices and short-term causality for certain wines. Moreover, the findings indicate short-run causality between the wines themselves, revealing a leader (exogenous) or follower (endogenous) status of certain fine wines in price dynamics, and also long-run causality for endogenous wines. This approach is relevant to portfolio diversification strategies and allows price movements to be anticipated more accurately than using an index approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The expansion of private labels, or store brands, has transformed consumer choice sets and competition in retail markets, prompting manufacturers to fight back with renewed pricing and product and promotion strategies to forestall further private label expansion. This article examines the spillover effects of television advertising on brand-level consumer demand for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), including private labels, using a random coefficients logit model with household purchasing and advertising viewing Nielsen data. As in previous work, we find that although brand spillover effects significantly increase demand for CSD brands in the same company and undermine demand facing other manufacturers’ CSD brands, surprisingly, there arepositivespillover effects on the demand for private label brands. This indicates that brand advertising is persuasive with respect to manufacturers’ brands but complementary with respect to private labels. Further results show that eliminating television advertising for CSDs would lower aggregate CSD sales as consumers migrate to other beverages, although private labels stand to gain, particularly Wal-Mart brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the feasibility of estimating a system of demand equations in the absence of price information using the approach developed by Lewbel (1989). Stone-Lewbel (SL) price indices for commodity groups are constructed using information on the budget shares and the Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) of the goods comprising the commodity groups, which allows for household-level prices to be recovered. This study evaluates how susceptible are elasticities and marginal effects estimates from traditional parametric demand systems to the CPI used in the construction of the SL prices. To do this, three alternative regional CPIs are considered for the construction of the SL prices: monthly, quarterly and a constant (unity) price index. Elasticities and marginal effect estimates are computed for eight food commodity groups using the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) model as the parametric demand system and data from the United States Consumer Expenditure Survey. The estimates proved to be robust to the alternative regional CPIs considered in the construction of SL price indices, even to the absence of one. Hence, the results suggest that it is possible to accurately estimate a demand system even in the absence of price information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending has emerged recently. This micro loan market could offer certain benefits to both borrowers and lenders. Using data from the Lending Club, which is one of the popular online P2P lending houses, this article explores the P2P loan characteristics, evaluates their credit risk and measures loan performances. We find that credit grade, debt-to-income ratio, FICO score and revolving line utilization play an important role in loan defaults. Loans with lower credit grade and longer duration are associated with high mortality rate. The result is consistent with the Cox Proportional Hazard test which suggests that the hazard rate or the likelihood of the loan default increases with the credit risk of the borrowers. Finally, we find that higher interest rates charged on the high-risk borrowers are not enough to compensate for higher probability of the loan default. The Lending Club must find ways to attract high FICO score and high-income borrowers in order to sustain their businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article estimates the relationship between demand for Swedish gambling, income and the other socioeconomic variables using empirical models of participation and gambling expenditure. It also indirectly attempts to account for the effect of a recent recession on gambling behaviour by examining gambling behaviour when the economy was growing versus the period immediately after a major recession. The aim of the article is to analyse the factors influencing gambling decisions. This is done using the double-hurdle method adjusted for the problems of heteroscedasticity and nonnormality using an approach that can handle extreme values and address skewness. The empirical results ruled out Tobit-type models and normally distributed double-hurdle models. The pattern on income elasticities across income classes implies that implicit Swedish gaming taxes are regressive. Income elasticities become smaller after the recession and the decision to participate changed with respect to the several of the demographic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We use the almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model developed by Deaton and Muellbauer (1980) to estimate tourism demand elasticities for a number of Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) in relation to tourists originating from the United Kingdom during the period 1963 to 2009. Using the restrictions imposed by theory, we find that the model is able to explain developments in market shares reasonably well, despite the large and at times sudden changes in market shares over the sample period. Our share estimates indicate that while Spain and Portugal managed to keep a stable market share over time, Malta and especially Italy lost market share to Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Overall, we observe that Italy and Spain have the lowest own-price elasticities, whereas Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey are expenditure inelastic holiday destinations. We also improve over the traditional treatment of the AIDS model in the literature by studying the stability of the estimated elasticities over time using recursive estimates. The results indicate that some elasticities are indeed time varying and highlight the potential pitfalls of assuming fixed and stable elasticities over a long period, as is customary in the tourism literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article shows new cross-country evidences by empirically investigating the joint effects of cigarette price levels and joining the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) on smoking prevalence in 74 countries over the period of 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006. We assessed cigarette price elasticity for three national income levels using different databases on cigarette price from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), demographic and socioeconomic country characteristics from the World Bank and adjusted smoking prevalence rates published by various yearly WHO reports on the global tobacco epidemic from 2000 to 2010. A panel threshold regression was used to capture the nonlinear effects that cigarette prices on smoking prevalence at the three national income levels endogenously determined by estimation. Our findings supported the evidence that joining the WHO FCTC would have a positive effect on reducing cross-country smoking prevalence, especially among countries with low- and medium-income levels. Moreover, some simulated results show that a price hike of 10% would reduce smoking prevalence in countries with national income levels equal to or less than US$1900 and by 7.2% in countries with national income levels between US$1900 and US$2510 more than those with national income levels that are higher than US$2510. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to test whether the credit market conditions affect the strength of transmission of real estate wealth effects on household consumption in the US economy. Although many different works have dealt with the analysis of the existence of a real estate wealth effect, most of them as a reaction to the dramatic increase of housing prices in several OECD countries, there are only few papers analysing whether the consumption response depends on the positive or negative sign of the wealth shock and, as far as we know, none of them takes the effects of credit market conditions on that asymmetric response into account. This article tries to fill the existing gap in the literature on this matter. From an econometric perspective, we estimate the asymmetries in the consumption response within the momentum threshold autoregressive model (M-TAR) proposed by Enders and Siklos (2001), but following Stevans (2004), it is applied to a multivariate framework. The main results show that the credit market conditions play a significant role in the transmission of changes in real estate wealth to consumption. In addition, we find that there exists an asymmetric behaviour in the US aggregate consumption spending responses to real estate wealth and credit market shocks, which is only significant when a negative shock takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the discussion surrounding the existence of exante moral hazard and propitious selection in a voluntary private health insurance scenario. Moreover, it provides an estimation of the determinants of lifestyle choices and of private health insurance demand. A multivariate probit is estimated for health insurance demand and lifestyle decisions to take into account the potential endogeneity of these decisions. The results indicate that there is evidence of exante moral hazard in deciding to do sports and eating healthy snacks. Hence, no propitious selection has been found for these decisions. Another relevant result shows that there is no individual heterogeneity for the lifestyle choices, except for smoking, and private health insurance choice. Evidence from the results also supports the idea that there are nonobservable variables playing a role in the lifestyle decisions. These results provide some directions for policymakers, such as the promotion of precautionary behaviours and the use of implicit lifestyle drivers to promote healthy choices by people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters are expected exacerbate poverty and inequality, but little evidence exists to support the impact at household level. This article examines the effect of natural disasters on household income, expenditure, poverty and inequality using the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey in 2008. The effects of a natural disaster on household income and expenditure, corrected for fixed effects and potential endogeneity bias, are estimated at 6.9% and 7.1% declines in Vietnamese household per capita income and expenditure, respectively. Natural disasters demonstrably worsen expenditure poverty and inequality in Vietnam, and thus should be considered as a factor in designing poverty alleviation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Are food price elasticities different across city sizes? The aim of this article is to estimate expenditure and own-price elasticities for 10 aggregated food product groups using the Spanish Household Budget Survey for the year 2010. These products are the ones for which the survey provides information regarding prices and quantities, thus allowing the application of an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model with censored data. The estimation procedure allows not only  comparisons to be made among households with different levels of income, but also the contribution of residence characteristics to variations in demand. The results confirm that the size of the city in which the household resides has a similar significant and relevant effect on consumption patterns as family income level. This is especially clear with own-price elasticities. In Spain, large central cities show a greater response to price changes than smaller cities or rural peripheral areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What makes people choose low-carbohydrate, high-protein food (low-carb food), which is good for health but usually tastes bad? Using panel data on US beer consumption in which each consumption occasion is uniquely associated with various companion-based consumption contexts and exposure levels to diet information, we analyse the variations in consumers’ preferences for low-carb food. The results show that there exist considerable gender differences in the preference variation under peer pressure. First, single females behave in a way they dislike drinking low-carb beer in front of friends, spouses and significant others. Second, male (both married and single) and married females pretend to choose low-carb beer when accompanied by spouses or significant others. Finally, the elasticity of demand for healthy food with respect to news articles about low-carb diets is positive, yet with substantial differences in the degree of elasticity across demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We focus on the impact of migrants’ remittances on consumption patterns in China. Using a large homogenous sample of rural households surveyed in 2001 and 2004, we find that remittances are spent on nonhousing consumption expenditures at the margin, virtually dollar-for-dollar, when we instrument remittances and local employed earnings using proxies of social networks. Our findings are robust to intra-household division of labour and to fixed-effect for the county in which the respondents are registered. These results imply that rural households largely take remittances as permanent income and are consistent with the prevalence of circular and repeat migration in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Panel data with an instrumented real ticket price are used to estimate a regular season game-day attendance and per cent of capacity regression equations. Better team performance, whether short term (season wins), intermediate term (bowls games in last 10 years) or long term (lifetime winning percentage), higher undergraduate enrolment, traditional rivalries and video coverage increase per cent of capacity used. Poor weather (more rain or cloud cover), higher travel costs and larger local population decrease it. Fan interest wanes as a season progresses, but this is offset as a team wins more games. Games played near a National Football League stadium, those with conference opponents, non-FBS opponents and non-BCS opponents have lower stadium utilization. The substantive results of the analysis do not change when attendance is used as the dependent variable rather than per cent of capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses time-dependent rhythms in happiness in three aspects. We show that the Sunday neurosis exists exclusively for men with a medium level of education and both men and women with high levels of education. Men with high levels of education may even experience a weekend neurosis. This study is the first to test for intra-monthly rhythms and to demonstrate that men with a lower educational background may suffer from negative effects on happiness towards the end of the month, potentially because of liquidity problems. The study is also the first to demonstrate that happiness exhibits seasonal effects over the annual period, depending on gender and education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A widespread meal-serving system commonly blamed for contributing to the obesity epidemic is the all-you-can-eat buffet, where customers can help themselves to as much food as they wish to eat in a single meal for a fixed entry price. We set forth the hypothesis that buffet restaurants’ practice of collecting the price in advance, rather than at the end of the meal, encourages overeating. Viewing advance payment as a token of disrespectful treatment, we first establish this result theoretically by extending two recent and competing models on buffet behaviour to take account of the customer’s treatment experience. We then report the results of two experiments conducted in a sushi restaurant which support our hypothesis. The experiments reveal,ceteris paribus, that paying for the buffet meal after eating reduces sushi consumption by about 4.5 units, as compared to paying before eating. The result bears a straightforward and simple policy implication: To help reduce obesity, buffet restaurants should be banned from collecting the price in advance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]