Electronic Commerce, Consumer Search and Retailing Cost Reduction

This paper explains four things in a unified way. First, how e-commerce can generate price equilibria where physical shops either compete with virtual shops for consumers with Internet access, or alternatively, sell only to consumers with no Internet access. Second, how these price equilibria might involve price dispersion on-line. Third, why prices may be higher on-line. Fourth, why established firms can, but need not, be more reluctant than newly created firm to adopt e-commerce. For this purpose we develop a model where e-commerce reduces consumers' search costs, involves trade-offs for consumers, and reduces retailing costs.Comment: 29th TPRC Conference, 200

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE, CONSUMER SEARCH AND RETAILING COST REDUCTION

This paper explains three things in a unified way. First, how e-commerce can generate price equilibria, where physical shops either compete with virtual shops for consumers with Internet access, or alternatively, sell only to consumers with no Internet access. Second, how these price equilibria might involve price dispersion on-line. Third, why prices may be higher on-line. For this purpose we develop a model where e-commerce: reduces consumers’ search costs, involves trade-offs for consumers, and reduces retailing costs.

Electronic commerce, consumer search and reailing cost reduction

This paper explains four things in a unified way. First, how e-commerce can generate price equilibria, where physical shops either compete with virtual hops for consumers with Internet access, or alternatively, sell only to consumers with no Internet access. Second, how these price equilibria might involve price dispersion on-line. Third, why prices may be higher on-line. Fourth, why established firms can, but need not, be more reluctant than newly created firms to adopt ecommerce. For this purpose we develop a model where e-commerce reduces consumers’ search costs, involves trade-offs for consumers, and reduces retailing costs. Este trabajo explica, de manera unificada, cuatro cosas. Primero, cómo el comercio electrónico puede generar equilibrios de precios en los que las tiendas físicas compiten con las tiendas virtuales por los consumidores con acceso a Internet, o, alternativamente, venden sólo a los clientes que no tienen acceso a Internet. Segundo, cómo estos equilibrios de precios pueden generar dispersión de precios en Internet. Tercero, por qué los precios de las tiendas virtuales pueden ser más altos que los de las tiendas físicas. Y cuarto, por qué las empresas establecidas pueden tener menos incentivos que las empresas de nuevas creación para abrir tiendas virtuales. Para ello desarrollamos un modelo en el que el comercio electrónic o reduce los costes de búsqueda de los consumidores, implica un trade-off para los consumidores, y disminuye los costes de producción de las empresas.Electronic-Commerce, Search, Cost Reduction, Retailing

Developing a tangible interface for storytelling

This paper describes a first study of a paper based interface, consisting of a large format book and a set of picture cards that children can use to create stories. The handling of the picture cards has shown to be highly motivating and engaging, helping children to build a storyline creating logical relations among different characters and objects. The interface has shown to be an experimental space where children can play with the language and simultaneously reflect over it, in a collaborative process. We present the data collected with a group of five years old preschoolers and report our findings regarding the interaction design, as well as a reflection over future work.FC

A digital manipulative for embodied "stage-narrative" creation

This paper presents a study of the use of a digital manipulative developed to promote creative narrative construction and storytelling. The study was carried with 27 groups of preschoolers, of five years of age, who interacted with the digital manipulative during free-play time, during a period of six months. The study sought to assess aspects of children’s embodiment of the narratives, and how they shaped the creation of stories. We observed that by using the digital manipulative, children’s narrative construction occurred in two levels, as children shared the stage, (controlling the characters, the location, the props, and the nature elements) and simultaneously performed on this stage. The sharing of the input devices (blocks) gave children equal control of the performance and orchestration of the story, while promoting and supporting peer collaboration. We conclude that the digital manipulative enables the performance of what we call embodied stage-narratives, promoting children’s imagination and creative thinking, as well as fostering early literacy skills and metalinguistic awareness.Fundação para a Ciência e TecnologiaCIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, UM (FCT R&D 317

Play platforms for children’s creativity

Serie : Springer series on cultural computing, ISSN 2195-9056Children’s imagination and their natural need for exploration and discovery can be stimulated when they are in contact with rich contexts and environments (Van Scoter et al. 2001; Van Scoter 2008); this inherent tendency offers an enormous opportunity for researchers and designers to develop tools that unleash children’s potential, involving them in creating meaningful projects (Papert 1993). Research on this field has highlighted that well-design technological tools for children need to be compelling, support exploration, encourage creativity, develop curiosity and promote interaction and collaboration with peers while being simple and intuitive to use (Plowman et al. 2012; Resnick et al. 2005; Resnick and Silverman 2005).FCT, QREN, COMPETE, FEDRCIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portuga

Taxes and women in the labour force in a Southern European country: the case of Portugal

Abstract. On looking at the female labour supply in Europe, it is immediately noticed that there is a large variation among countries. One possible explanation for this fact is that different countries have different tax policies, leading to variations in incentive and costs. This has been investigated in papers such as that of Gustafsson (1992a,b) for countries such as Germany and Sweden. The same exercise has been performed by the present authors for a low-income, southern European country, Portugal, which has one of the highest rates of female participation (out of line with neighbouring countries). Female labour supply does not seem to be very sensitive to fiscal policies, as those policies have only a small influence on the take-home wage. This result appears to be independent of the fact that the female labour supply shows a higher elasticity to wages than that which has been reported for other countries. The present authors also show that Portuguese women contribute a much larger proportion of family earnings than do their counterparts in Sweden and Germany, and that the Portuguese fiscal system is rather neutral. Further studies with data from other countries are needed in order to shed more light on the issue of tax harmonization.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

t-words: playing with sounds and creating narratives

We present t-words an interface for children to playful explore sounds, words and sentences while developing pre-literate skills. The interface consists of rectangular blocks in which children can record and then play the recorded audio. Additionally children can personalize the blocks by drawing on their surface. Children can engage in different literacy related activities such as building rhymes, playing with sounds and words as well as trying out different combinations of sentences while engaging in storytelling. Since the interface targets audio skills it may foster the development of phonological awareness and sensitiveness, helping to promote children’s early literacy.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/CPE-CED /110417/2009 ; SFRH/BD/62531/200

Storytelling through drawings : evaluating tangible interfaces for children

This paper presents an ongoing study comparing the potential and the quality of the experiences provided by tangible versus traditional interfaces. The study was carried with two groups of kindergarten children using two interfaces that aim to motivate children to the practice of oral hygiene. Children‟s drawings were one of the methods used to assess their experience. We found differences quantitatively and qualitatively between the drawings of the children interacting with the tangible interface and the traditional interface. The drawings suggest that by interacting with the tangible interface children felt more actively involved with the task.(undefined