The meanings of ‘organic’ branding in the Russian skincare industry

This paper will discuss the evolution in marketing communications characterised by the emergence of social media and the spread of online communities, as a result of which, consumers have become active co-constructors of brand identity in the market. The present research aims to bring companies’ attention to the process of brand co-construction with their customers, by considering different organic brand perceptions. It will specifically discuss how organic skincare online communities in Russia perceive and understand ‘organic’ branding and it will identify four major groups of members, who authorize, construct, analogize or abandon organic labels. The research will use the netnographic approach and thematic data analysis to examine online forums discourses. It will categorise different label interpretations into groups according to the meanings that online members assign to them

Perturbative Expansion in the Galilean Invariant Spin One-Half Chern-Simons Field Theory

A Galilean Chern-Simons field theory is formulated for the case of two interacting spin-1/2 fields of distinct masses M and M'. A method for the construction of states containing N particles of mass M and N' particles of mass M' is given which is subsequently used to display equivalence to the spin-1/2 Aharonov-Bohm effect in the N = N' =1 sector of the model. The latter is then studied in perturbation theory to determine whether there are divergences in the fourth order (one loop) diagram. It is found that the contribution of that order is finite (and vanishing) for the case of parallel spin projections while the antiparallel case displays divergences which are known to characterize the spin zero case in field theory as well as in quantum mechanics.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, including 2 figures using eps

RESPONDING TO FOREIGN MARKET OPPORTUNITIES: A SURVEY OF U.S. DAIRY MANUFACTURERS

International Relations/Trade,

Financial fragility or what went right and what could go wrong in central European banking?

Despite the fact that banks in Central Europe are burdened by extraordinarily high bad loan ratios, the recent financial crisis in South East Asia and Russia, has not led to a massive failure of banks in the region. In this paper, we study economic trends and policies that may have helped to insulate CEECs from international financial contagion. Answering what went right over the past few years may not only help to further positive developments, but it may also highlight possible weaknesses that could result in future financial instabilities in the banking sectors of CEECs. Using data available from the IMF, and the BIS for nine Central European economies (Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia), our results indicate that an economic constellation unique to the early transition period rather than deliberate policy decisions have stabilized the CEECs. Specifically, the lack of recent banking crisis can be attributed to a lack of overly optimistic credit expansion, despite several years of real economic growth, to underdeveloped asset markets, and to a decline of trade relations with the former Soviet Union. Future problems may arise as banks are beginning to extend credit more to an expanding real sector than in the past, as asset markets become more developed, or as export growth to the EU may decline with European growth slowing down. Thus, improvements in bank regulation and bank supervision should receive a high priority among policy makers in CEECs. --

Reform and backlash to reform : economic effects of ageing and retirement policy

Using a stochastic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, this paper studies (i) the effects on both extensive and intensive labor supply responses to changes in fertility rates, and (ii) the potential of a retirement reform to mitigate the effects of fertility changes on labor supply. In order to neutralize the effects on effective labor supply of a fertility decline, a retirement reform, designed to increase labor supply at the extensive margin, is found to simultaneously reduce labor supply at the intensive margin. This backlash to retirement reform requires the statutory retirement age to increase more than proportionally to fertility changes in order to compensate for endogenous responses of the intensity of labor supply. The robustness of this result is checked against alternative model specifications and calibrations relevant to an economic region such as Europe.Labor Policies,Labor Markets,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies

Labour supply and retirement policy in an overlapping generations model with stochastic fertility

Using a stochastic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, this paper studies a policy rule for the retirement age aiming at offsetting the effects on the supply of labour following fertility changes. We find that the retirement age should increase more than proportionally to the direct fall in the labour supply caused by a fall in fertility. The robustness of this result is checked against alternative model specifications and parameter values. The efficacy of the policy rule depends crucially on the link between the preference for leisure and the response of the intensive margin of labour supply to changes in the statutory retirement age.Labour supply; fertility; retirement age; overlapping generations; method of undetermined coefficients

Labor supply and retirement policy in an overlapping generations model with stochastic fertility

Using a stochastic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, this paper studies a policy rule for the retirement age aiming at offsetting the effects on the supply of labor following fertility changes. The authors find that the retirement age should increase more than proportionally to the direct fall in labor supply caused by a fall in fertility. The robustness of this result is checked against alternative model specifications and parameter values. The efficacy of the policy rule depends crucially on the link between the preference for leisure and the response of the intensive margin of labor supply to changes in the statutory retirement age. The model has subsequently been calibrated for Brazil by Jorgensen (2010), in the context of the Brazil Aging Study.Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies

The Outburst of the Blazar AO 0235+164 in 2006 December: Shock-in-Jet Interpretation

We present the results of polarimetric ($R$ band) and multicolor photometric ($BVRIJHK$) observations of the blazar AO 0235+16 during an outburst in 2006 December. The data reveal a short timescale of variability (several hours), which increases from optical to near-IR wavelengths; even shorter variations are detected in polarization. The flux density correlates with the degree of polarization, and at maximum degree of polarization the electric vector tends to align with the parsec-scale jet direction. We find that a variable component with a steady power-law spectral energy distribution and very high optical polarization (30-50%) is responsible for the variability. We interpret these properties of the blazar withina model of a transverse shock propagating down the jet. In this case a small change in the viewing angle of the jet, by $\lesssim 1^o$, and a decrease in the shocked plasma compression by a factor of $\sim$1.5 are sufficient to account for the variability.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted for Ap