Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer

We study the effect of small windfalls on consumer spending decisions by comparing the purchases online grocery customers make when redeeming $10-off coupons with the purchases they make without coupons. Controlling for customer fixed effects and other variables, we find that grocery spending increases by$1.59 when a $10-off coupon is redeemed. The extra spending associated with coupon redemption is focused on groceries that a customer does not typically buy. These results are consistent with the theory of mental accounting but are not consistent with the standard permanent income or lifecycle theory of consumption. While the hypotheses we test are motivated by mental accounting, we also discuss some alternative psychological explanations for our findings.

The consumer experience of holidays booked via daily deal promotions: An online content analysis of traveller reviews

The consumer experience of holidays booked vi

A continuous-time model of the term structure of interest rates with fiscal-monetary policy interactions

We study the term structure implications of the fiscal theory of price level determination. We introduce the intertemporal budget constraint of the government in a general equilibrium model in continuous time. Fiscal policy is set according to a simple rule whereby taxes react proportionally to real debt. We show how to solve for the prices of real and nominal zero coupon bonds.bond pricing; fiscal policy; mathematical methods

Understanding Inflation-Indexed Bond Markets

macroeconomics, inflation, inflation-issued bond markets, interest rates, bond risks, liquidity

The Influence of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warning Labels on Parents' Choices

US states have introduced bills requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to display health warning labels. This study examined how such labels may influence parents and which labels are most impactful. In an online survey of 2381 demographically and educationally diverse parents, SSB health warning labels improved parents understanding of health harms associated with overconsumption of SSBs. The warning labels also lowered parents' intentions to purchase SSBs for their children

Zero-coupon yield curve estimation from a central bank perspective

Since in recent years a relatively liquid and transparent market of government securities has emerged in Hungary, it seems straightforward for the monetary authority to try to extract information about market expectations of future nominal interest rates and inflation from the prices of these assets. However, drawing a conclusion from the prices of T-bills and -bonds concerning either nominal interest rate- or inflation expectations is by far not an easy task, both because of its technical complexity and the assumptions which often remain implicit in the process. The primary motivation of this paper is to present some methods by which the major technical obstacle, i.e. the estimation of the zero-coupon yield curve from couponbearing bond price data can be done, and also to evaluate these methods in terms of suitability to current Hungarian data and practical use in monetary policy. In addition to this, I would like to emphasize and make explicit some often overlooked assumptions (especially the expectations hypothesis) needed to draw conclusions about market expectations of future nominal rates and inflation. Using the estimated zero-coupon rates, I also try to quantify the average difference between yields-tomaturities (YTMs) of coupon bonds and the corresponding zero-coupon rates in Hungary. The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 1.1 and 1.2 describe the basic concepts and definitions related to the yield curve, and compare zero-coupon curves with yield-to-maturity curves, focusing on the theoretical shortcomings of the latter. Section 1.3 defines implied forward rates, and shows how to interpret them. Section 1.4 focuses on the conditions which are necessary to hold if one wants to infere nominal interest rate and inflation expectations from the zero-coupon yield curve. Part 2 deals with some methodological issues of the estimation of zero-coupon yield curves and compares alternative estimation methods on the basis of their applicability to Hungarian data and monetary policy purposes. Sections 2.1 and 2.2 give the descriptions of the two methods examined in detail in this paper, i.e. polynomial fit and “parsimonious” models. Section 2.3 deals with data issues that arise when we try to estimate yield curves using Hungarian bond price data. Section 2.4 lists some of the criteria which can be used to select a particular estimation method and (where it is possible) compares the methods applied to Hungarian data on the basis of these criteria. Section 2.5 contains the method proposed for future use in the NBH. Part 3 is an application of the estimated zero-coupon yields, which empirically demonstrates the bias in YTM-type yield curves when the underlying zero curve is non-horizontal. More specifically, in this part I try to quantify the inherent bias in the daily “benchmark yields” calculated by the State Debt Management Agency (SDMA).

Promoting Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: Are Coupons More Effective Than Pure Price Discounts?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture administers food and nutrition assistance programs that promote fruit and vegetable consumption. But consumption remains relatively low among program recipients as well as among the general U.S. population. The perceived high cost of produce is often cited as a deterrent to more consumption. This study looks at coupons and price discounts, two methods of lowering the cost of fruits and vegetables, and uses household purchase data and a consumer demand model to examine each method. Coupons influence consumer behavior through a price-discount effect and an informational/advertising effect. Because of this dual effect, the use of a coupon to increase fruit and vegetable purchases may be more effective than a pure price-discount policy or other noncoupon promotion. Assuming a coupon usage rate of 10 to 50 percent, lowering prices through a “10 percent off” coupon would increase average weekly fruit and vegetable quantities purchased by 2 to 11 percent, as compared with a 5- to 6-percent effect for a pure price discount.fruit and vegetable consumption, coupons, price discounts, consumer demand, dual effect of coupons, informational advertising effects, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Lost in Transaction: Individual-Level Welfare Loss in Quickly-Circulating Durable Goods Markets with Planned Temporary Ownership

A new style of durable goods consumption through a large scale online redistribution marketplace (e.g. eBay and Yahoo! Auction), characterized by a relatively small degree of usage and a short-term ownership, is becoming increasingly popular these days. Yet, the welfare structures of such emerging markets have not been investigated. By using a unique dataset of quickly-circulating multi-use train ticket resale markets, and by investigating perfectly-substitutable goods, this short article models, estimates, and analyzes individual-level welfare loss in such rapidly-growing market sectors. Our analysis shows that individual-level welfare losses caused by search and resale costs are non-negligibly large, ranging from 3% to 15% of the new good price. We also find that such individual-level welfare losses, which could be considered as hidden charges, are largely heterogeneous across buyers with differing degrees of intended use. These losses are described as disadvantageous to users who demand light degrees of usage

The Term Structure of Interest Rates in Small Open Economy DSGE Model

I lay out small open economy model with nominal rigidities to study the implication of model dynamics on the term structure of interest rates. It has been shown that in order to obtain at least moderate match simultaneously of the macro and finance data, one has to introduce long-memory habits in consumption together with a large number of highly persistent exogenous shocks. These elements of the model however worsen the fit of macro data. I find that in the open economy framework the foreign demand channel allows us to match some of the data features even without including habits and a large number of exogenous shocks.DSGE small open economy model, term structure of interest rates, perturbation method, second order approximation