The Paternity of the Price-Quality "Value Map"

In the literature on firm strategy and product differentiation, consumer price-quality trade-offs are sometimes represented using consumer “value maps”. These involve the geometric representation of indifferent price and quality combinations as points along curves that are concave to the “quality” axis. In this paper, it is shown that the value map for price-quality tradeoffs may be derived from a Hicksian compensated demand curve for product quality. The paper provides the theoretical link between analytical methods employed in the existing literature on firm strategy and competitive advantage with the broader body of economic analysis

The Paternity of the Price-Quality "Value Map"

In the literature on firm strategy and product differentiation, consumer price-quality trade-offs are sometimes represented using consumer “value maps”. These involve the geometric representation of indifferent price and quality combinations as points along curves that are concave to the “quality” axis. In this paper, it is shown that the value map for price-quality tradeoffs may be derived from a Hicksian compensated demand curve for product quality. The paper provides the theoretical link between analytical methods employed in the existing literature on firm strategy and competitive advantage with the broader body of economic analysis.Value map; competitive advantage; quality; price; strategy

Does Inflation Targeting Matter? A Reassessment

This paper uses a number of identification approaches (using instrumental variables, assumptions about heteroscedasticity and panel fixed effects) to estimate the effect of inflation targeting on inflation. Generally, it finds the effect is small and insignificant.Inflation; Monetary policy

Sierra Leone: Krio and the Quest for National Integration

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a smaller country in size, population and the number of its languages than many other countries on the West African coast such as Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. A particularly interesting phenomenon is however present in the configuration of the languages present and used in the country, and how language links up the general population. Though there are two proportionately large indigenous languages spoken in the country, Temne and Mende, it is found that the language which has spread and serves as a universal lingua franca known by as much as 95% of the population of Sierra Leone is in fact an English-based creole known as Krio, which is the mother tongue of a much smaller group of speakers primarily localized in and near the capital city Freetown. This chapter examines the growing significance of Krio in Sierra Leone and how it originally developed as a contact language among different groups of resettled emancipated slaves and other indigenous inhabitants of the Freetown area. The implications of the growth of Krio for national language policy and the position of English as the official language are examined, as well as the existence of ambivalent and changing attitudes towards the Krio language

Buying Time 2000: Television Advertising in the 2000 Federal Elections

Summarizes a study of political television advertising in the 2000 federal primaries and elections with a focus on the use of the issue ad loophole to evade campaign finance laws. Questions the standard used to differentiate issue ads from election ads

Equity of health care financing in Iran

This study presents the rst analyses of the equity of health care financing in Iran. Kakwani Progressivity Indices (KPIs) and concentration indices (CIs) are estimated using ten national household expenditure surveys, which were conducted in Iran from 1995/96 to 2004/05. The indices are used to analyze the progressivity of two sources of health care financing: health insurance premium payments and consumer co-payments (and the sum of these), for Iran as a whole, and for rural and urban areas of Iran, separately. The results suggest that health insurance premium payments became more progressive over the study period; however the KPIs for consumer co-payments suggest that these are still mildly regressive or slightly progressive, depending upon whether household income or expenditure data are used to generate the indices. Interestingly, the Urban Inpatient Insurance Scheme (UIIS), which was introduced by the Iranian government in 2000 to extend insurance to uninsured urban dwellers, appears to have had a regressive impact on health care nancing, which is contrary to expectations. This result sounds a cautionary note about the potential for public programs to crowd out private sector, charitable activity, which was prevalent in Iran prior to the introduction of the UIIS.Equity, Health care nancing, Kakwani progressivity index, Iran