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Regulators across the globe have imposed penalties on consumers for digital piracy consumption. Contrary to expectations, however, digital piracy consumption has continued to grow. The authors develop a simple model of competition between a copyright holder and a pirate firm to offer a plausible account for this observation as well as actionable guidelines for optimal regulation design. The core of this idea is to endogenize the pirate firm's strategic investment in antitracking technologies that help consumers evade a regulator's penalty. The authors find that as the penalty rises, piracy consumption can surprisingly increase after decreasing first; relatedly, the copyright holder and the society may suffer from tighter regulation. Depending on the cost of antitracking technologies of the pirate firm, the regulator optimally sets the penalty to operate in two different regimes. When the technology is available at a low cost, the regulator can achieve the goals of maximizing social welfare and minimizing piracy consumption simultaneously by setting a moderate penalty that maximizes consumers' expected penalty and tolerates some level of piracy consumption. In contrast, when the technology is costly, the regulator should set a relatively high penalty to completely impede piracy supply. Additionally, the authors show that supply-side regulation does not substitute away demand-side regulation, and educating consumers about copyright protection may unintentionally lead to an increase in piracy consumption. Last, the authors identify complex nonmonotonic long-run effects of piracy consumption regulation on the copyright holder's incentives for content creation and copyright protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that the central objective of consumption in many contexts is to derive enjoyment or utility, it is reasonable to assume that how much people consume a product will primarily be driven by how much they like it. Yet, the current research finds that, although consumers indeed predict that they will consume a greater amount of options they like more, their actual consumption can be surprisingly insensitive to their preferences. Across six experiments, we find that consumers systematically overestimate the extent to which their consumption amount is determined by their preferences. We propose that how much people actually consume is determined by a variety of factors, including transient motivational states (e.g. hunger or boredom), consumption opportunities, and habits. Compared to these factors, however, people's liking of a product tends to be more salient, better known, and perceived as a more normatively appropriate driver of consumption—leading consumers to focus overly on their preferences when predicting their consumption. We further propose that this prediction error has important implications for consumer welfare, as it can lead to suboptimal inventory decisions (e.g. over-purchasing of favorite products) as well as ineffective self-control strategies (e.g. restricting oneself to mediocre options in order to reduce consumption). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much is known about product bundles comprised of different items, much less is known about multipacks—a product set comprised of multiple identical items (e.g. a 4-pack body washes). Using the context of multipacks, the authors propose a novel price divisibility effect, which suggests that a multipack's price that is easily divisible (vs. non-divisible) by the number of component items in the multipack will increase its purchase likelihood. For example, purchase likelihoods of a four-pack body wash multipack will be higher when its price is $16 (easily divisible by 4) versus $15.30 (non-divisible by 4). This occurs because a divisible versus non-divisible price shifts consumers' attention to the unit and creates a belief that each unit item in the multipack will be consumed quickly, which, in turn, helps justify purchasing multiple units. The authors report findings from 15 studies (including a field experiment), where they demonstrate the effect and its underlying mechanism and delineate several moderators and boundary conditions. This research contributes to several literature streams, including those on product bundling, multiple-unit pricing, product consumption, and numerical cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the propagation of shocks along firm networks are important to understanding aggregate and cross-sectional features of stock returns. When calibrated to match key characteristics of supplier–customer networks in the United States, a model in which firms are interlinked via enduring relationships generates long-run consumption risks, high and volatile risk premiums, and a small and stable risk-free rate. The model also matches cross-sectional patterns of portfolio returns sorted by firm centrality, a feature unaccounted for by standard asset pricing models. (JEL C67, E30, G12, L14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the superstar effects in Major League Baseball, focusing on a particularly unique international athlete, Shohei Ohtani, using a fixed effects panel regression with multiway clustering. Ohtani's scarce talent as both a pitcher and a hitter provides the potential to have outsized influence on demand at home (superstar effect) and away (superstar externality) games, providing new marketing opportunities for the league. We compare Ohtani's impact on attendance with other top pitchers, particularly after large attendance drops attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that his superstardom played a key role in bringing fans back to baseball games. Results revealed a large attendance externality, especially after the pandemic, that increased away attendance by up to 40% in 2021 specifically (and up to 20% overall). We propose that Ohtani provides an opportunity for Major League Baseball to leverage a recognizable face of baseball and leverage superstar value that was previously shown to be in decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should consumers sequence the different stimuli they consume: cluster each stimulus together, or intermix them to break things up? Surprisingly, prior literature has provided little insight into this question, even though consumers face it on a regular basis. We propose that clustering each stimulus type together can prolong enjoyment (vs. intermixing the types). Six studies confirm that clustering slows hedonic decline, and process evidence shows this happens because clustering leads people to attend more to the different details offered by a stimulus during repeated exposures. We also establish two boundary conditions for this effect: clustering does not slow hedonic decline in the presence of regular intervening distractions, or for impoverished stimuli lacking rich details. The present work is among the first to examine the interplay of consumption sequence and hedonic decline, and the findings provide consumers and firms with practical guidance on how to consider sequencing experiences to enjoy them longer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of the production, representation, and reception of post-colonial advertising in India reveals a politics of consumer respectability. The post-colonial politics of consumer respectability is located at the intersection of center–periphery relations, class divisions, and colorism in a way that it frames neocolonial consumption. Advertisers depict middle-class consumer respectability by asserting Indian nationalism and by degrading the West as a symbol of colonialism. Such depictions are class- and color-based and show under-class and dark-skinned consumers in subordinate positions. Furthering such neocolonial frames of consumption, Indian advertising advances the middle-class desire for Eurocentric modernity by reinforcing the colonial trope of India as temporally lagging behind the West. Finally, middle-class consumer respectability involves a neocolonial whitening of self with epidermalized shaping of inter-corporeality and agency. In uncovering the theoretical implications of advertising as a site of avenging degradation, desiring modernity, and whitening of self, this study contributes by offering insights into how the politics of post-colonial consumer respectability furthers neocolonial frames of consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how consumer spending responds to digital payments, using the differential switch to digital payments across consumers induced by the sudden 2016 Indian Demonetization for identification. Digital payment use rose by 2.94 percentage points and monthly spending increased by 2.38% for an additional 10 percentage points in prior cash dependence. Spending remained elevated even when cash availability recovered. Robustness analyses show that the spending response is not driven by purchase substitution, income shocks, credit supply, or price changes. We provide causal evidence that digital payments increase consumer spending due to subdued endowment effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does mental accounting matter for total consumption expenditures? We exploit a unique setting in which individuals exogenously receive a new payment card, without requesting one. Using random variation in the time of receipt, we show that individuals temporarily increase total consumption expenditure by making purchases with the new card without reducing spending on the others. We do not observe a corresponding increase in indebtedness. Total consumption expenditure rises even for the least liquidity-constrained individuals. The evidence is consistent with consumers treating methods of payment as nonfungible budget categories, as suggested by models of mental accounting and narrow bracketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product consumption is an important yet understudied aspect of marketing. Over-the-counter medicines present a unique consumption context because consumers are expected to follow product label instructions. For acetaminophen, a widely consumed over-the-counter drug, the authors study which consumers tend to deviate from the label instructions, why they do so, and the interventions that are most promising to mitigate such deviations. They develop a dynamic structural model of consumption that enables them to investigate the probability of different types of label deviations (e.g., >4 g per day) and drivers of such behaviors. Label deviations are infrequent "tail area" behaviors, and the model uncovers them well. The analysis is based on a unique online consumption diary in which consumers select from two classes of acetaminophen products (single ingredient or a combination of ingredients) to treat their pain or non-pain-related symptoms. Consumers have a higher probability of taking >4 g of acetaminophen when they have multiple symptoms, and a variety of observable factors explain the individual propensity to deviate from the label. The authors propose two interventions—a new label instruction and consumer education—to mitigate the observed label deviations and assess the expected impact of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunities for the shared consumption of publicly available products that once might have been considered personal-use only, such as hand sanitizers and shampoos, are proliferating in the consumer environment. This work explores shared product consumption in these underresearched, but now ubiquitous, contexts. The authors suggest and find, over a series of five studies and across a variety of product domains, that sharing a product with strangers (i.e., sharing-out) engenders a lower sense of identification with the product, which leads to lower perceived product efficacy. They further show that the dampening effect of sharing-out on efficacy perceptions is limited to consumers high in self–brand connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a "then and now" perspective on social and cultural issues in the Journal of Consumer Research. The author had conversations with preeminent scholars who reflected on theoretical developments over time, what we know, and what we should be most concerned with now and in the future. This article can be used as a call to action for future consumer research dealing with society and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Race has been a market force in society for centuries. Still, the question of what constitutes focused and sustainable consumer research engagement with race remains opaque. We propose a guide for scholars and scholarship that extends the current canon of race in consumer research toward understanding race, racism, and related racial dynamics as foundational to global markets and central to consumer research efforts. We discuss the nature, relevance, and meaning of race for consumer research and offer a thematic framework that critically categorizes and synthesizes extant consumer research on race along the following dimensions: (1) racial structuring of consumption and consumer markets, (2) consumer navigation of racialized markets, and (3) consumer resistance and advocacy movements. We build on our discussion to guide future research that foregrounds racial dynamics in consumer research and offers impactful theoretical and practical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of sport consumers' mobile ticketing adoption by the technology readiness constructs and quality–satisfaction–behavioral intentions framework. A total of 295 participants were included in the analysis. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro. A content analysis was conducted to provide further insight into the proposed model using open-ended responses. The findings indicate that consumers' technology readiness alone was not a positive driver of mobile ticketing but suggest a role for technology readiness in promoting mobile ticketing, combined with service quality, satisfaction, and online ticket purchasing. The importance and originality of this study are that it confirms the sport context as a unique and effective vehicle in advancing existing knowledge of consumers' ticket consumption behavior via self-service technology across various disciplines. Also, the findings can be used to set out recommendations for policy or practice aimed at facilitating and sustaining mobile ticketing consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemic lockdowns in early 2020 disrupted daily life worldwide and created an opportunity for self-reflection and consumption paradigm shifts. However, consumption patterns might take different directions, and opposing views exist about whether consumers (1) prolong reduced consumption after lockdown or (2) compensate for lockdown consumption restrictions through self-indulgence. Drawing from self-determination theory and individual–cultural values frameworks, this article develops a conceptual model of postlockdown consumption patterns related to three factors: consumers' fulfillment of basic psychological needs during lockdowns, individual consumer values, and country-level cultural orientations. Consumer surveys conducted after the first lockdowns in three culturally different European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania) show that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction of psychological needs during lockdown impact consumption patterns, at least in the short term. The direction of consumption patterns is driven by hedonism and universalism values at an individual level and differences in postmaterialism and indulgence at a country level. The results provide implications for international marketers and policy makers in postpandemic marketplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A circular economy is a "closed-loop" system designed so that products flow back into the production cycle after use. With many companies implementing take-back programs as part of their sustainability strategy, a fundamental shift in consumption has occurred, with consumers considering disposal during and even before purchase decision making. Eight experiments reveal that consumers indicate a greater willingness to pay for circular program products. An increase in psychological ownership underlies the difference in product valuation. Specifically, the additional disposal control uniquely afforded by circular products increases the capacity of circular take-back program products to evoke psychological ownership. The process explanation is directly tested through mediation. Experimentally manipulating antecedents of psychological ownership (i.e., disposal control and psychological ownership) provides further support for the conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common problem faced by contemporary retailers is consumers' tendency to avoid purchases that postpone or prevent cash flow for retailers, thus negatively affecting retailers' sales and profits. Little is known about the factors that drive consumers to avoid purchases or about marketing tactics that may reduce the tendency, especially from a cultural perspective. The authors attempt to fill this gap by exploring the role of an important cultural variable, namely, power distance belief (PDB), on consumers' tendency to avoid purchases. PDB is the extent to which people accept and endorse inequalities in society. A series of 14 studies (including 6 studies in the Web Appendix) using a variety of operationalizations of the key variables suggest that consumers high (vs. low) in PDB are less likely to avoid purchases (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c) because they generally perceive greater constraints on their behavior (Study 2). These constraints are aversive, triggering the desire to overcome them and to have more as a compensatory mechanism, thereby reducing the tendency to avoid purchases. Accordingly, low (but not high) PDB consumers' tendency to forgo purchases is significantly decreased when they perceive greater constraints on their choices and decisions (Study 3) and when they experience a high social density (Study 4). However, high (but not low) PDB consumers' tendency to avoid purchases significantly increases when individuals perceive that constraints facilitate hierarchy (Study 5) or that constraints lead to positive outcomes (Study 6). Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic risks––pandemics, economic recessions, professional precarity, political volatility, and climate emergencies––increasingly erode previously taken-for-granted stabilities and consumers' confidence in the future. How do consumers manage risk and uncertainty when economic and ontological security are on the decline? Traditionally, consumers have built a sense of security through solid consumption (e.g. home ownership, accumulating possessions). A four-year ethnography of digital nomadism, however, demonstrates that looming uncertainty can render solid consumption a source of vulnerability and an unwanted anchor in turbulent times that call for agility and adaptability. We outline the emergence of liquid consumer security, defined as a form of felt security that stems from avoidance of solid consumption and its risks and responsibilities. Liquid consumer security inheres in the absence of ownership, attachments, or rootedness, and is derived from circumventing the temporal demands, financial liabilities, and commitments that solid consumption requires, which emerge as sources of risk. It is achieved through a recursive process of engaging in three strategies: (1) solid risk minimization; (2) security reconstruction through the liquid marketplace; and (3) ideological legitimation. Contributions to consumer risk and security, liquid consumption, social theories of risk, and digital nomadism are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has investigated global mobility through the lenses of consumer acculturation, identity, and possessions with a focus on consumers' socialization and identity management in the host consumer culture. It has neglected, however, the ways that globally mobile consumers simultaneously navigate the multiple, cross-border markets in which they are embedded. We adopt the social network perspective to investigate the transnational consumer lifestyles of people who live and consume simultaneously in two or more countries and sustain multiple relationships of a diverse nature (e.g. market, social, financial, professional) across borders. Through a qualitative study, we dimensionalize the transnational social space inhabited by transnational consumers and demonstrate how it shapes their consumption. We introduce the concept of transnational market navigation, defined as the process of strategically and pragmatically selecting and leveraging social networks to engage simultaneously with multiple cross-border markets. We identify three transnational market navigation strategies: clustering consumption, embracing commercial lock-ins, and developing cluster-based competency. By mobilizing a network perspective to examine consumption in global mobility, we show that globally mobile consumers are also motivated by ways of being (the actual social and commercial relationships and consumption practices with which consumers engage), in addition to the identities associated with their consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing a self-regulatory goal, such as weight loss, motivates consumers to forego pleasure seeking, typically by selecting virtue over vice. We propose that in the absence of virtuous options, consumers with a self-regulatory goal will instead choose less variety in choice sets of exclusively vice options because the extra pleasure that variety affords seems incompatible with the goal. We find converging evidence for the decrease in variety seeking in vice categories across five studies (and three supplementary studies in the web appendix , N  = 6,066), using both scenario-based and actual consumption contexts. We also demonstrate the underlying process: consumers are motivated to curtail pleasure seeking when pursuing a weight-loss goal and that leads them to choose less variety in vice categories when there is no virtue alternative available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research shows that successful consumer learning takes place in environments that support cooperative communities of practice, that enable access to refined didactic resources, and that provide a safe, sympathetic backstage for a controllable and able learning body to durably transition from one repertoire to another. This study complements existing research by investigating a group of lactose-intolerant consumers who must learn to transition to a new consumption repertoire because of socially embarrassing symptoms. Consumers must engage in high-risk, unguided, experiential learning pathways in a less than sympathetic frontstage, without the support of a cooperative community or a well-developed vocabulary, and while grappling with an impaired and unruly body in a dynamic marketplace. The findings demonstrate that consumers adapt to this hostile learning environment by surfing between different consumption repertoires in a fluid, impermanent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental simulation is an important tool for managers who want consumers to imagine what life would be like if they engaged in positive consumption behaviors. However, research has found mixed effects of mental simulation on behavior. To understand this inconsistency, the authors conduct a meta-analysis to quantify the effect of different mental simulation prompts. This multivariate three-level meta-analysis of 237 effect sizes spanning four decades (1980–2020) and representing 40,705 respondents yields a positive but small effect of mental simulation on behavioral responses. Managers and researchers can amplify this effect by using dynamic visual inductions (e.g., augmented reality), inductions involving both visuals and verbal instructions, and repeated inductions spaced over time (e.g., weekly, akin to real-world marketing campaigns). Inducing simulations repeatedly but massed (e.g., using the same message at the same time across different platforms or retargeting ads) actually reduces subsequent behavioral performance. The authors explain the implications of these findings for theory and practice and identify novel avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern asset pricing models combine recursive preferences with complex dynamics for the underlying consumption process. The existence of solutions is for many of these models an unsettled question. This paper introduces a novel technique to prove existence and nonexistence, as well as uniqueness for models with recursive preferences. The approach applies to many models of interest, including those with long-run consumption risks, with stochastic volatility and jumps, with time-varying consumption disasters, and with smooth ambiguity aversion and learning. Collectively, the proven results settle the existence question for many of today's leading asset pricing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fight for legitimacy, understanding the rules of status games is critical. This idea holds true in the wedding marketplace. However, when legalization of marriage for same-sex couples disrupted the binary wedding script, the rules of the game became less clear to consumers. Couples sometimes found their gendered bodies, roles, and expressions were out of sync with the evolving script of a destabilized wedding field, thus raising legitimacy questions. This situation is defined as hysteresis—meaning delays in the realignment between habitus and the field. Hysteresis results in consumers' disorientation about what forms of capital are valued as well as perceived absences of materials or recognition from the market. This study investigates consumers' attempts to mobilize gendered capital to resolve hysteresis through realignment of habitus and the script. Grounded in a Bourdieuian field-level analysis of depth interviews with 30 same-sex couples and ethnographic observation in the wedding field, four consumption alignment strategies are identified that consumers leverage to address hysteresis: confronting, masking, collaborating, and experimenting. Consumers' variations in gendered capital explain which consumption alignment strategies they use, with different possibilities for updating habitus and expanding the script. Throughout this process, consumers' moral judgments hinder this pursuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmopolitanism is often cast as an elite cultural orientation and as a privileged disposition to an increasingly globalized marketplace, instigated by, and lived through, mobility. But how does cosmopolitanism evolve among consumers at intersectional subordinate positions of power? This article analyzes the emergence of cosmopolitanism through a 9 year longitudinal extended case study of female migrants with low levels of resources. Through the deployment of a Bourdieusian framework, cosmopolitanism is theorized to evolve through processes set in motion by the experience of mismatch and subsequent alignment between new social contexts and existing socialized dispositions (hysteresis). The experience of hysteresis caused by mobility can lead to a habitus with traits of cosmopolitanism. The emergence of a cosmopolitan habitus can result in a sense of emancipation, but it also engenders new subordinate positions within intersectional systems of power. The outcome of this process is labeled dominated cosmopolitanism, representing a more nuanced version of cosmopolitanism that incorporates various systems of power. The analysis has implications for acculturation studies in consumption contexts characterized by low-resource endowments and provides new insights into the processual nature of the constitution of social systems of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countervailing discourses of cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation are fueling a tension between the ethnic consumer subject, who views the consumption of cultural difference as a valorized identity project, and the responsibilized consumer subject, who is tasked with considering the societal impacts of such consumption. Drawing on an extended qualitative investigation of international K-pop consumers, this study illustrates that this tension spurs consumers to pursue self-authorization—the reflexive reconfiguration of the self in relation to the social world—through which consumers grant themselves permission to continue consuming cultural difference. Four consumer self-authorization strategies are identified: reforming, restraining, recontextualizing, and rationalizing. Each strategy relies upon an amalgam of countervailing moral interpretations about acts of consuming difference, informing ideologies about the power relationships between cultures, and emergent subject positions that situate the consuming self in relation to others whose differences are packaged for consumption. Findings show notable conditions under which each self-authorization strategy is deployed, alongside consumers' capacity to adjust and recombine different strategies as they navigate changing sociocultural and idiographic conditions. Overall, this study advances understanding of how consumers navigate the resurgent politics of marketized cultural diversity in an era of woke capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-store communication delivered through technological formats (e.g., kiosk, digital display) and nontechnological formats (e.g., magazine cover, flyer) can help retailers enhance sales by delivering relevant content to consumers. Although prior research has examined the effects of deal-oriented content that primarily offers promotions for a single product on shopper spending, the effects of inspirational content that sparks ideas (e.g., ways to use products) on spending are unclear. Inspirational content can affect spending differently from deal-oriented content as it activates stronger motivation for consumption goal completion. This article proposes that inspirational content activates stronger motivations for the consumer's goal completion and therefore increases spending more than deal-oriented content does. The authors propose and empirically test the hypotheses using data from a set of experimental studies, a field experiment, and an eye-tracking study. The results show that inspirational content increases spending more than deal-oriented content or no content does. This effect is mediated by consumption goal completion, such that it is attenuated when consumers already have consumption goals or when the content detracts from inspiration-induced goals. These results suggest that retailers can increase sales by using clear, inspirational content in their communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing rise of liquid consumption manifests in the growing popularity of ephemeral, access-based, and dematerialized forms of consumption that contrast with traditional solid forms of consumption characterized by possession and strong object relationships. The literature already presents a robust understanding of what makes liquid and solid consumption appealing to consumers. What has received less attention is the co-existence of liquid and solid consumption in consumers' lived experiences. Furthermore, the literature does not explain how the balance that consumers achieve between liquid and solid consumption fluctuates over time. This study illuminates the co-existence of liquid and solid consumption through a phenomenological inquiry of subscription-based clothing libraries, a context where solid personal possessions frequently mix with liquid accessed items in everyday use. Findings show that changes in consumer desire play a major role in consumer decisions to liquify or solidify consumption, especially over time. Overall, the study provides new theoretical insights into liquid and solid consumption, consumer desire, and burdens of access-based consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze how individual investors respond to inflation. We introduce a unique data set containing information on local inflation and security portfolios of more than 2,000 clients of a German bank between 1920 and 1924, covering the German hyperinflation. We find that individual investors buy fewer (sell more) stocks when facing higher local inflation. This effect is more pronounced for less sophisticated investors. Moreover, we document a positive relation between local inflation and forgone returns following stock sales. Our findings are consistent with individual investors suffering from money illusion. Alternative explanations, such as consumption needs, are unlikely to drive our results. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disequilibrating macro shocks affect different firms' prospects differently, increasing idiosyncratic variation in forward-looking stock returns before affecting economic growth. Consistent with most such shocks from 1947 to 2020 enhancing productivity, increased idiosyncratic stock return variation forecasts next-quarter real GDP growth, industrial production growth, and consumption growth both in-sample and out-of-sample. These effects persist after controlling for other leading economic indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the industrial observation of the increasing application of blockchain in the supply chain and its improvement in terms of consumer demand, this study examines the impact of investment decisions of blockchain data acquisition nodes upstream and downstream of the supply chain on firms' product recycling and pricing, market demand, and profits. The influences of different pricing leadership (i.e. supplier-led vs. retailer-led) in a supply chain are also thoroughly investigated. First, the presence of a strong retailer dramatically reduces suppliers' incentive to invest in blockchain. However, the supplier is still likely to invest more in a retailer-led supply chain than that in a supply chain led by itself under certain conditions; that is, the cost of blockchain is relatively small, or consumers' sensitivity to blockchain or product recycling benefits is rather large. Second, the total number of blockchain data acquisition nodes, market demand, and supply chain profit in a retailer-led supply chain are higher than in a supplier-led supply chain. Finally, interestingly, the supplier will be better off in a retailer-led supply chain when the return effect of product recycling is relatively high, while the cost-effectiveness of blockchain investment is relatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent with the empirical properties of the consumption data, I develop a model in which consumption and dividend growth follow regime-switching dynamics. I show that regime-shift risk is priced in the model. Regime-shift risk exhibits dominant influence on asset prices: It generates a high equity premium and also induces time-varying risk premiums. The model explains major business cycle-dependent asset market phenomena and, in particular, the stronger predictability of stock returns during recessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that the Campbell–Cochrane external-habit model can generate a value premium if the persistence of the consumption surplus is sufficiently low. Such low persistence is supported by micro evidence on consumption. If the mean and conditional volatility of consumption growth are highly persistent, as in the Bansal–Yaron long-run risk model, then fast-moving habit can also generate, without eroding the value premium: i) empirically sensible long horizon return predictability; and ii) a price–dividend ratio for market equity that exhibits the high autocorrelation found in the data. Fast-moving habit also delivers several empirical properties of market-dividend strips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard choice-based conjoint models often ignore or insufficiently approximate consumers' budget constraints, despite the prominent role of budget constraints in economic theory. The authors offer a theoretically motivated improvement to the choice-based conjoint model that is especially appropriate for high-ticket durable goods and develop a Bayesian method for the inference of unobserved budget constraints. The proposed method leverages respondents' stated budget constraints that suffer from measurement error and respondents' financial demographic variables as additional information to reduce the dependency on functional form assumptions in the estimation. The authors show that accounting for budget constraints substantially increases model fit and the accuracy of competitive pricing in an industry-grade discrete-choice experiment on consumer preferences for high-end laptops. The proposed model performs better than the canonical linear price benchmark model, which is not flexible enough to approximate budget constraints. In theory, more flexible utility specifications, such as the nonlinear dummy price model, can approximate consumers' budget constraints. However, they perform poorly when only finite data are available. The authors conclude that applied researchers in industry and academia will benefit from having a better tool for estimating budgets in high-ticket categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using account-level credit card data from a large Turkish bank, we study the impact of a unique credit card policy that increases minimum payment on consumption and debt repayment. We show that the policy reduces credit card spending and debt, boosts existing debt repayment, and reduces credit card delinquency. The credit card debt of affected consumers falls on average by 50 |$\%$| two years into the policy's implementation. An increase in minimum payment has a stronger effect than does a decrease of a similar magnitude. We build a benchmark life cycle model with soft liquidity constraint to explain the reduction in credit card spending. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the Chinese equity premium puzzle, a phenomenon that has been the subject of several inquiries in recent years. Central to the exploration is the potential unreliability of the relative risk aversion rate derived from the GMM approach, largely due to the quality of Chinese consumption data and the "limited T" problem. To ensure a robust examination, we adopted two robust inference methods.Our results consistently indicate that the estimated relative risk aversion is notably low, regardless of the variations in consumption measures used. This finding challenges the prevailing notion of the equity premium puzzle in the global context, suggesting its possible non-existence in China. Beyond providing a novel perspective on the Chinese equity premium puzzle, our study underscores the paramount importance of data integrity and the selection of appropriate methodologies in financial research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the evolution of technology and substantial advancements in smart devices, managing and controlling energy consumption in households has become increasingly crucial. Smart grid technology serves as an enabler, empowering consumers to effectively manage their energy consumption. This necessitates the role of smart appliance scheduling. In this study, an effective home energy management (HEM) system is introduced, utilizing a new proposed approach called the gradient-based Runge–Kutta optimizer (GRUN). The proposed GRUN approach aims to optimize energy consumption by employing the Runge–Kutta optimizer (RUN) which based on the Local Escaping Operator (LEO) from gradient-based optimizer (GBO). It utilizes multiple knapsacks to maintain electricity demand below a predefined threshold during peak hours. Firstly, the validation of the proposed GRUN technique is confirmed by seven benchmark functions and compared its results with those obtained by other well-known optimization algorithms, including artificial ecosystem-based optimization, hunter prey optimization, GBO, and the original RUN algorithm. Then, the performance of the GRUN technique is checked for the optimization of smart HEM. This study ensures that power remains within specified limits and that power consumption remains constant before and after scheduling, without affecting the operation time of each device. Additionally, it determines the cost of both scheduled and unscheduled loads, providing information about their operating times and the current status of each device. The developed approach yields significant benefits in reducing electricity costs and the peak-to-average ratio. The reduction in electricity bill ranges from 60% for a single home to 20% for 100 homes throughout the day. Moreover, a decrease in electricity consumption per hour leads to a peak reduction of 50% for one house and 25% for 100 houses during the day. Evaluated through MATLAB simulations in a residential complex with multiple smart homes, the GRUN system demonstrates substantial advantages over the RUN system in reducing electricity costs. This study offers an effective perspective on household energy management, achieving a better balance between energy consumption and its associated costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of oils in the food industry is challenging, owing to their inherent factors such as oxidation. Therefore, new technologies, such as nanoencapsulation, are being developed. Among the nanoencapsulated oils, essential oils (EO) and edible oils stand out for their high consumer demand. This review analyzes the production, characterization, stability, and market scenario of edible and EO nanoparticles applied in foods. Homogenization was found to be the most common technique for producing oil nanoparticles. Different encapsulants were used, and Tween 80 was the main emulsifier. Approximately 80% of the nanoparticles were smaller than 200 nm, and the polydispersibility index and zeta potential values were satisfactory, mainly for nanoparticles containing EO, whereas encapsulation efficiency varied based on the technique and the type of oil used. Oil nanoparticles were mainly applied on meat products. The temperatures and times used in the stability tests of foods containing oil nanoparticles varied depending on the food matrix, especially in microbiological and physicochemical analyses. Only one product with nanoencapsulated oil in its composition was found in the market. Oil nanoparticles have great potential in the development of innovative, economically viable, and sustainable techniques for producing new food products that are high in nutrition value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is grappling with steep demographic challenges: low fertility rates, a shrinking labour force, and a rising old-age dependency ratio. Combined with its perennially high savings rates, these can stifle consumption spending and overall economic growth. This paper is devoted to analysing the effects of fertility intention, the precursor to fertility rates, on the average propensity to consume in China. Using the two-stage endogenous treatment regression model to account for the endogeneity of fertility intention, we analyse the 2019 and 2021 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) data collected by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The results show that those intending to have more children spend less as a proportion of their income. Furthermore, individuals' intentions to have more children are negatively associated with age and household size and positively associated with education. Getting remarried and fertility intention are also positively related. Disaggregated analysis shows that the effects of fertility intention on the average propensity to consume vary across household income quartiles, between males and females, urban and rural residents, and households of different sizes. Policies that simultaneously stimulate spending and incentivize having more children should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a new method to generate random fiber arrangements in a representative volume element model, which remains applicable at high fiber volume fractions. First of all, the fibers are arranged regularly to ensure accurate fiber volume fraction. Afterwards, disturbances are applied to all fibers to generate random arrangements. The image recognition technique and statistical analysis are used to quantitatively evaluate the randomness of the disturbed fiber arrangement. Eventually, the high efficiency of the method is verified by analyzing the consumption time of modeling, and its validity is also confirmed by comparing the calculated results with the tested results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unhealthy diets, including low fruit and vegetables (F&V) intake, contribute to morbidity and mortality related to non‐communicable diseases. Designing culturally appropriate interventions to improve diets and F&V intake requires an in‐depth understanding of individual‐level dietary patterns, household consumption patterns, and nutritional status resulting from inadequate F&V intake. In this scoping review, we summarised the literature on diets, F&V intake, and nutritional status in Benin. We searched PubMed from 2012 to August 2024 to identify articles on diets and nutritional status, and from 2002 to August 2024 to identify articles on F&V intake. We included 36 articles on diets, 27 on F&V intake, and 16 on nutritional status. Existing literature demonstrated that Beninese diets are cereal‐based and monotonous, characterised by low diversity and low F&V intake across all population groups. Available evidence indicated a high burden of undernutrition in children <5 years of age, a rising prevalence of overnutrition in women of reproductive age, and a high prevalence of overnutrition in adults. Evidence on how diets and F&V intake vary by urban/rural location, season, and socioeconomic characteristics was limited and inconsistent. Two evaluations of garden irrigation programmes assessed impacts on women's dietary diversity and F&V consumption. Additional research is needed to improve our understanding of diets, F&V intake, and diet‐related nutritional challenges and how they evolve over time and across different population groups. Understanding these gaps can help identify entry points and targets for interventions to improve diet quality and F&V intake in Benin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Methods Results Conclusions Evidence is lacking regarding associations between smoking/drinking and falls. This study aimed to determine longitudinal associations between smoking, alcohol consumption, and fall risk in middle‐aged and older people.Participants of this cohort study were 7542 community‐dwelling Japanese people aged 40–74 years. The baseline self‐administered questionnaire survey was conducted in 2011–2013, and the second survey was conducted 5 years later. Predictors were smoking level and alcohol consumption. The outcome was the occurrence of recurrent falls. Information on self‐reported falls in the previous year was obtained. Covariates were demographics, lifestyle factors, body mass index, general health status, and disease history.The mean age of participants was 60.3 years. Higher smoking levels were associated with a higher recurrent fall risk (adjusted P for trend = 0.0386), with the ≥20 cigarettes/day group having a higher risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20–3.10) than lifetime non‐smokers. The association between smoking and recurrent fall risk tended to be stronger in drinkers than in non‐drinkers (adjusted OR = 2.75, 95% CI: 1.57–4.81), suggesting a potential interaction (P for interaction = 0.1035). Although there were no dose‐dependent associations between alcohol consumption and recurrent fall risk overall, moderate alcohol consumption (150–299 g ethanol/week) was associated with a lower risk (adjusted OR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.33–0.98) compared with no consumption in men.Smoking, but not alcohol consumption, is dose‐dependently associated with high fall risk. However, moderate alcohol consumption may be associated with a decreased fall risk. Moreover, there may be a potential interaction between smoking and alcohol consumption on fall risk. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; ••: ••–••. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2022, Thailand legalized recreational cannabis. Currently, cannabis is now the most consumed drug. Cannabis usage can increase inflammatory responses in the respiratory tract. Sharing of cannabis waterpipes has been linked to increased tuberculosis risks. Using a national in-patient databank, we aimed to 1) describe the spatiotemporal correlation between cannabis-related and tuberculosis hospital admissions, and 2) compare the rate of subsequent pulmonary tuberculosis admission between those with prior admissions for cannabis-related causes and those without. Both admission types were aggregated to the number of admissions in monthly and provincial units. Temporal and spatial patterns were visualized using line plots and choropleth maps, respectively. A matched cohort analysis was conducted to compare the incidence density rate of subsequent tuberculosis admission and the hazard ratio. Throughout 2017–2022, we observed a gradual decline in tuberculosis admissions, in contrast to the increase in cannabis-related admissions. Both admissions shared a hotspot in Northeastern Thailand. Between matched cohorts of 6,773 in-patients, the incidence density rate per 100,000 person–years of subsequent tuberculosis admissions was 267.6 and 165.9 in in-patients with and without past cannabis-admission, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, we found that a cannabis-related admission history was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.48 (P = 0.268) for subsequent tuberculosis admission. Our findings failed to support the evidence that cannabis consumption increased pulmonary tuberculosis risk. Other study types are needed to further assess the association between cannabis consumption and pulmonary tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, there has been a shift in consumer behavior toward companies adopting sustainability practices, but luxury hoteliers have not been proactive in adopting such practices. This research investigates the critical factors that impact consumers’ pro-environmental consumption behavior toward luxury hotels. In Study 1, data was collected using projective techniques (n = 46), and in Study 2, an online questionnaire-based survey (n = 272) was conducted with users of luxury hotels. Broadly, the results of Study 1 indicate that consumers associate sustainable luxury hotels with environment-friendly practices, and prefer them over others to experience guilt-free consumption. The results of Study 2 show that pro-environmental values of consumers impact their consumption behavior, both directly and indirectly through pro-environmental self-identity, psychological ownership, environmental certification, and marketer-generated content. The study contributes to the literature by identifying key factors impacting pro-environmental behavior using psychological ownership and cue utilization theories in the luxury hospitality field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The phenomenon of growth in drug consumption within the framework of national volume-based procurement (VBP) policy raises speculations about demand release and policy inducing. This study aims to explore the reasons and mechanisms of drug consumption increases following VBP policy from two perspectives. Methods: We collected data from the China Drug Supply Information Platform, National Bureau of Statistics and the Joint Procurement Office. Twenty cardiovascular international non-proprietary names (INNs) in the first three VBP batches and 28 observation regions were included, constructing 418 valid INN-region combinations as the unit for analysis. The average monthly consumption volume of VBP cardiovascular drug was assigned as the explained variable. The generalized difference-in-difference method was conducted using the price reduction level and the size of policy assessment task as the policy intensity indicator. Moderating effect model was employed to examine the role of resident's income level. Results: Increased cardiovascular drug consumption was observed in 285 (68.18%) INN-region combinations after policy implementation. Under VBP policy, the price reduction level was significantly correlated with drug consumption in total (β = 0.144, p < 0.001), as well as in tertiary hospitals, secondary hospitals and primary healthcare centers (PHCs) (all p-values < 0.05). Resident's income level negatively moderated the impact of price reduction level on drug consumption in total (β = −0.089, p < 0.001) and in secondary hospitals (β = 0.154, p < 0.001) and PHCs (β = −0.2.9, p < 0.001), rather than in tertiary hospitals (β = −0.079, p > 0.05). The size of policy assessment task was positively associated with drug consumption in total (β = 0.052, p < 0.001), as well as in tertiary hospitals, secondary hospitals and PHCs (all p-values < 0.05). Conclusions: Two mechanisms codrive drug consumption increases under VBP policy: first is the improvement of cardiovascular medication access and consumption toward lower-income groups following price reduction, pointing to the fulfillment of unmet needs, and second is policy pressure from supporting assessment measures on hospital drug use, indicating potential overprescribing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]