2,039 research outputs found

    Who cares when Value (Mis)reporting May Be Found Out? An Acquiring-a-Company Experiment with Value Messages and Information Leaks

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    We modify the Acquiring-a-Company game to study how information leaks affect lying and market outcomes in an ultimatum bargaining setting with asymmetric information. Privately informed sellers send messages about the alleged value of their company to potential buyers. Via random leaks buyers, however, can learn the true value before proposing a price which the seller finally accepts or not. Only 14.5% of the messages are truthful, whereas two-thirds of all sellers exaggerate the company’s value to persuade buyers to offer more, especially when the true value is small. Although a higher leak probability does not reduce the frequency of misreporting, it weakens overreporting and strengthens underreporting. Buyers who found out value misreporting anchor their price proposals on the true value but do not explicitly discriminate against liars. Sellers are mainly opportunistic and make their acceptances dependent on the resulting positive payoff. Even if ethical concerns do not seem to matter much, probabilistic leaks are welfare enhancing

    An Analysis of Consumer Response to Plant-based Meat Alternative Labelling Policy

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    Plant-based meat alternatives, defined as products made with plant-based protein that imitate the taste, texture, and appearance of real meat, have been subject to rapid market growth in recent years. These products tend to appeal to consumers who are actively reducing their meat consumption, typically due to concerns about animal welfare, environmental sustainability, or health issues. The simulant nature of these products introduces the need for regulation of labels to facilitate informed consumer decision-making when selecting meat and plant-based alternatives at the grocery store. In Canada, guidelines exist which regulate the use of meat-related terms (e.g., burger, ground, etc.) on the labels of plant-based meat alternatives, nutritional content, and other aspects of these products. While meat-related terms are permitted in Canada, provided certain disclaimers are also present, some jurisdictions abroad have banned such labels entirely. In Canada, some meat industry groups have called for the removal of such terms, and in 2020 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) conducted a consultation on its guidelines for plant-based meat alternative labelling. Despite a dynamic policy environment, research that investigates the consumer demand effects of plant-based meat alternative labelling policy remains elusive. A survey of 1203 Canadian consumers was conducted to assess the consumer demand effects of different regulatory approaches to the use of meat-related terms on plant-based meat alternative labels. The survey included a discrete choice experiment, where respondents were assigned to one of three labelling treatments – unregulated labels, current Canadian regulations, and a meat-related terms ban. Choice sets featured ground beef and plant-based alternatives with varying attributes and prices. The choice experiment facilitated the investigation of two secondary research objectives: consumer response to regulated protein label claims, and an assessment of preference heterogeneity for plant-based meat alternatives under different labelling policy scenarios. The data was analyzed using multinomial logit, random parameters logit, and latent class logit models, eliciting marginal utility and willingness-to-pay estimates for the attributes and policy effects. Results show that the labelling policy environment does impact consumer preferences for ground beef and plant-based alternatives. Ground beef is preferred by most consumers in the Canadian market under all three labelling treatments. Further, consumers prefer meat alternatives in an unregulated market relative to the current Canadian regulations and the meat-related terms ban treatments. On average, consumers exhibit similar reductions in willingness-to-pay under the two regulated treatments. However, these effects diverge when preference heterogeneity is accounted for. Five classes of consumers were identified in the latent class logit model, with varying preferences, characteristics, and responses to labelling policy. Preferences for protein claims are generally strong and positive, and there is a significant degree of heterogeneity in preferences for products, attributes, and labelling policy frameworks. The analysis reveals numerous insights into both market and policy issues of plant-based meat alternative labelling. It is in the firm’s best interest to utilize meat-related terms on product labels. However, the disparity in preferences among policy treatments indicates that the provision of information in the form of label disclaimers alongside meat-related terms likely provides valuable information to consumers who may be confused or inattentive otherwise

    “Oh my god, how did I spend all that money?”: Lived experiences in two commodified fandom communities

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    This research explores the role of commodification in participation in celebrity-centric fandom communities, applying a leisure studies framework to understand the constraints fans face in their quest to participate and the negotiations they engage in to overcome these constraints. In fan studies scholarship, there is a propensity to focus on the ways fans oppose commodified industry structures; however, this ignores the many fans who happily participate within them. Using the fandoms for the pop star Taylor Swift and the television series Supernatural as case studies, this project uses a mixed-methodological approach to speak directly to fans via surveys and semistructured interviews to develop an understanding of fans’ lived experiences based on their own words. By focusing on celebrity-centric fandom communities rather than on the more frequently studied textual fandoms, this thesis turns to the role of the celebrity in fans’ ongoing desire to participate in commodified spaces. I argue that fans are motivated to continue spending money to participate within their chosen fandom when this form of participation is tied to the opportunity for engagement with the celebrity. While many fans seek community from their fandom participation, this research finds that for others, social ties are a secondary outcome of their overall desire for celebrity attention, which becomes a hobby in which they build a “leisure career” (Stebbins 2014). When fans successfully gain attention from their celebrity object of fandom, they gain status within their community, creating intra-fandom hierarchies based largely on financial resources and on freedom from structural constraints related to education, employment, and caring. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the broad neglect of celebrity fandom practices means we have overlooked the experiences of many fans, necessitating a much broader future scope for the field

    Current issues of the management of socio-economic systems in terms of globalization challenges

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    The authors of the scientific monograph have come to the conclusion that the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges requires the use of mechanisms to ensure security, optimise the use of resource potential, increase competitiveness, and provide state support to economic entities. Basic research focuses on assessment of economic entities in the terms of global challenges, analysis of the financial system, migration flows, logistics and product exports, territorial development. The research results have been implemented in the different decision-making models in the context of global challenges, strategic planning, financial and food security, education management, information technology and innovation. The results of the study can be used in the developing of directions, programmes and strategies for sustainable development of economic entities and regions, increasing the competitiveness of products and services, decision-making at the level of ministries and agencies that regulate the processes of managing socio-economic systems. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in the educational process and conducting scientific research on the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges

    Analysis and forecasting of asset quality, risk management and financial stability for the Greek banking system

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    The increase in non-performing loans (NPLs) during the financial crisis of 2008, which has been converted into a fiscal crisis, as well as the risk of a medium-term increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic has put into question the robustness of many banks and the financial stability of the whole sector. As far as the banking sector is concerned, the management of non-performing loans represents the most significant challenge as their stock reached unprecedented levels, with the deterioration in asset quality being widespread. Addressing the problem of non-performing loans with the assistance of credit risk modeling is important from both a micro and a macro-prudential perspective, since it would not only improve the financial soundness and the capital adequacy of the banking sector, but also free-up funds to be directed to other more productive sectors of the economy. This Thesis extends earlier research by employing a short-term monitoring system with the aim to forecast “failures” i.e. NPL creation. The creation of such a monitoring system allows the risk of a “failure” to change over time, measuring the likelihood of “failure” given the survival time and a set of explanatory variables. The application of Cox proportional hazards models and survival trees to forecast NPLs can be usefully employed in the Greek corporate sectors. The research aim of this thesis consists of two domains: The first aim is the investigation of the determinants that contribute to the NPLs formation. Two GAMLSS models are being tested, a linear GAMLSS model and a nonlinear semi-parametric GAMLSS model which includes smoothing functions that capture potential nonlinear relationships between the explanatory variables to model the parameters favorably. The explanatory variables of the models consist of credit risk variables, macroeconomic variables, bank-specific variables and supervisory and market variables, while the response variable is the non-performing loans. The second aim is to provide answers on whether proportional hazards Cox models and survival tree models can forecast NPLs of loans that are provided in specific corporate sectors in Greece by the use of the most granular data set of corporate borrowers. By evaluating a series of Cox models, a short-term monitoring system has been created with the aim to forecast “failures” i.e. NPL creation. The Cox proportional hazards regression models are incorporating time-to-event, involving a timeline, described by the survival function, indicating the probability that a loan becomes an NPL until time t. The time period counts from the origination of the loan until the “death” of the loan, i.e. its termination, incorporating an “in between” observation point. The event is when the loan is initially being “infected”, i.e. has become NPL. Regarding survival trees, the data set was divided into more subsets, which are easier to model separately and hence yield an improved overall performance. Such models are then beneficial to implement with different machine learning techniques. Predictors (or covariates) are defined as the sectors of the Greek economy and the model is fitted both for the whole sample and for the sample of early terminated loans. The Thesis is organized as follows: Chapter 1 - Introduction addresses the role of banks in financial intermediation, the evolution of credit risk and some issues regarding the Greek banking sector. Chapter 2 constitutes a literature review on research focused on improving the predictive performance of different credit risk assessment methods. Chapter 3 outlines the competitive conditions in the banking sector to demonstrate whether the increase in concentration had affected the competitive conditions in the Greek banking system. In Chapter 4, the funding and the liquidity conditions in the Greek banking sector are being addressed. Chapter 5 contains the selection of aggregate sample, results and analysis of GAMLSS models that have been used for determining NPLs. Chapter 6 provides an introduction to the granular database on Large Exposures, which is used for deriving the panel sample of corporate borrowers whereby models of forecasting and prediction are being employed. Chapter 7 contains the application of Cox models and decision trees, the estimation procedure, parameters, model fit, estimation results and empirical findings. Chapter 8 provides an evaluation and applicability of models as well as the implications for further research. Finally, a conclusion is provided by summarizing my contribution to the research community and my recommendations to the banking industr

    Introduction to Competition Economics

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    The book is intended to be a reference book of Competition Economics for economists, consultants and/or practitioners. It is a modern review of demand and supply estimation, market structure, merger analysis, damage estimation, welfare loss, abuse of dominance, network effects, and a math and statistics review. Faced with potential multibillion fines, and thousands of damage claims firms are hiring and paying high fees to comply, defend or claim in antitrust cases. Complex economic and statistical issues appear in most cases and all the parties involved in cases are expected to have a good knowledge of them. This book tries to cover a demand of practitioners for a compact introductory level book on this field

    Tropical blue carbon: solutions and perspectives for valuations of carbon sequestration

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    Tropical marine ecosystems provide a wide range of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services to millions of people. They also largely contribute to blue carbon sequestration. Mangroves, seaweeds, and seagrass habitats are important because they store large amounts of organic carbon while fish play a fundamental role in the carbon transport to deep waters. Protecting and restoring tropical marine ecosystems is of great value to society because their decline impairs the vital services they provide, such as coastal protection and seafood supplies. In this marine policy paper, we present options for enhancing blue carbon sequestration in tropical coastal areas. In addition, we outline the economic value of four components of coastal ecosystems (mangroves, seagrass beds, seaweed forests and fish) and discuss the economic levers society can apply to ensure the end of the current gross mismanagement of tropical blue carbon ecosystems. Market-based solutions, such as carbon taxes or fines for violations that use the ‘polluter pays' principle, can be very effective in achieving national or international climate agreements. Private investment can also finance the preservation of blue carbon ecosystems. One widely known financing method for blue carbon conservation, particularly of mangroves, is the use of municipal bonds, which can be issued like traditional bonds to finance the day-to-day obligations of cities, states and counties. Non-philanthropic investments can also be used in order to protect these ecosystems, such as debt-for-nature swaps and the improved application of regulatory frameworks. Overall, the protection of tropical marine ecosystems is an ecological imperative and should also be seen as an opportunity for new revenue streams and debt reduction for countries worldwide

    Comments on the Implementation of the Sale of Goods Directive into the Polish Legal Order

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    The purpose of the article is to examine the effects of the entry into force of the Act of 4 November 2022 amending the Consumer Rights Act, the Civil Code Act and the Private International Law Act, being a result of the implementation of the so-called Sale of Goods Directive. The author analyses the issue using the formal-dogmatic method, focusing on the impact of the changes introduced by the above-mentioned Act on the standard of consumer protection and the manner in which entrepreneurs conduct their business activities. Moreover, he identifies the most significant problems related to the implementation of the Sale of Goods Directive into the Polish legal order, drawing attention to the legal and economic consequences of the choices and solutions adopted by the Polish legislator. He also assesses both the content of the Act in question and the content of the Sale of Goods Directive, formulating de lege ferenda conclusions
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