Stock Market Wealth and Consumer Spending

This article investigates the effects of stock market wealth on consumer spending. Traditional macroeconometric models estimate that a dollar's increase in stock wealth boosts consumption by three to seven cents. With the substantial 1990s rise in stock prices, the nature and magnitude of this "wealth effect" have been much debated. After describing the issues and previous research, I present new evidence from a well‐known consumer survey. The results are broadly consistent with life‐cycle saving and a modest wealth effect: most stockholders reported no appreciable effect of stock prices on their saving or spending, but many mentioned "retirement saving" in explaining their behavior.     

Consumer fraud victimization and financial well-being

Using US household panel data, we provide evidence of a strong negative association between consumer fraud victimization and individuals’ perception of their financial well-being. We show that this effect is homogenous among the population and mainly stems from victimization through misrepresentation of information as well as misusage of money by third parties. We disentangle two potential channels through which victimization might reduce perceived financial well-being: psychological consequences (loss of confidence in financial matters) and economic consequences (decrease in net wealth). Our results show that fraud is more negatively associated with a loss in individuals’ confidence in financial matters than with declines in their net worth. Our findings suggest that people tend to doubt their abilities to handle financial matters after having fallen prey to fraud, which in turn carries major implications for subsequent financial decision making.     

The Consumer as Forecaster

Consumer confidence, particularly consumer expectations forthe short-term future, has proven to be a leading economic indicator.Over the past 15 years it has foretold all major business cyclessignaling both the contraction and recovery phases. The buyingplans component of the survey program, however, has not demonstrateda consistently convincing forecasting capacity.     

Lifestyles,and Risk Perception Consumer Behavior

In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given very favorable media coverage. Probably because of this, it is often considered as a very important and promising approach by administrators working with the regulation of risk and risk communication. It may also be credible in some quarters because it affords a way of ‘explaining’ risk perception as being non-rational. In this paper, we give results from an empirical study of nuclear waste risk perception which is related to a basic risk perception model and three approaches to lifestyles: Kahle's List of Values, a Swedish adaptation of the ‘Agoramétrie’ approach suggested by a group of French researchers, and Dake and Wildavsky's Cultural Theory dimensions. It was found that nuclear waste risk perception could be modeled successfully with risk attitudes and perception data (basic model about 65% of the variance explained), but that lifestyle dimensions added virtually nothing to the explanatory power of the model. Lifestyle dimensions in isolation only explained a minor part of the variance.     

Consumer perceptions and preferences for public expenditure

This study deals with consumer evaluations of public spending. Ideological and self-interest factors are analysed to determine how these factors are related to consumer perceptions and preferences for public expenditure on legal advice, public transport and hospital services. Involvement in socio-economic issues, voting behavior and public spending preferences are discussed in relation with each other. The ‘fiscal connection’ between taxes and public expenditure is interpreted.     

Consumer evaluation of community treatment

Development of community programs for offenders requires innovation in program design and evaluation. The Complex Offender Project (COP) provided intensive community treatment, and its clients' opinions were used as a component of its evaluation. Treated clients perceived the same needs for services as did other offenders, but more of them reported receiving the services. Compared to probation, COP was perceived to be more helpful in resolving problems, more continuously helpful, and of helping more to learn useful skills and achieve meaningful goals. The Complex Offender Project provides a model for program development, and the techniques of consumer evaluation are recommended as a means of evaluating such programs.     

Consumer co-ops: Alternative economic and social units

The traditional cooperatives which arose in the 1930s as alternative institutions became hierarchical, full-service supermarkets selling a full range of products. In the 1960s New Wave co-ops arose to meet the needs of a young constituency interested in ecology and nutrition. The New Wave co-ops tended to be non-hierarchical, participatory, and selective in their merchandising. Reality demands of the marketplace have contributed to the evolution of a Third Wave of cooperatives which combined the full product selection and defined organizational structure of the traditional co-ops with the natural food orientation and the volunteerism of the New Wave.     

Research on Consumer Well-Being in Malaysia

This research note provides an overview of consumer well-being research in Malaysia, and highlights a major research study on consumer well-being by Masud et al. (2010). Masud et al.??s data indicate that Malaysian consumers enjoyed their rights as consumers, held some level of acceptable consumer values, possessed reasonable levels of knowledge, and practiced good consumer principles. Nevertheless, some consumers indicated a low level of overall well-being. The data also revealed the need for strong support from government and market sectors to enhance the well-being of consumers in Malaysia. More studies on consumer well-being in Malaysia are suggested and universities and research institutes are urged to intensify their efforts to convince policy makers and grant providers to appropriate funds for research on consumer well-being in Malaysia.     

A Dual-Source Indicator of Consumer Confidence

The objective of this paper is to improve the U.S. leading confidence indicator by combining its amended version with the Conference Board's equally well known Consumer Expectation Index . The resulting dual-source indicator provides a factorial structure in which survey items are nested. The results presented here show that this structure is not well fit by a generalized linear model. Hence a nonlinear model is invoked which provides differential logistic slopes for the survey items. This latter model is based on the work of McCullagh (1980). The effects estimated in this nonlinear structure provide the United States with a potential leading indicator that is richer and more informative than its current Index of Consumer Expectations . The suggested indicator prevents the mixed signals and inconsistencies that can occur when separately reporting results from our two most prominent sources of consumer perception.     

透视消费新人类

对于中国大城市里出现的新人类现象的探讨已经不是一个新鲜的话题,学者们以各种方式描述着新人类“新”之所在,将所有有别于传统观念和行为方式的青少年都归为新人类。但是,这种统一性的努力无疑抹杀了新人类内部的差异性。因此,本文认为应该从某一领域的显著差异出发重新审视所谓的新人类。本文认为传统意义上的青少年和统而概之的新人类,最基本的差别就是体现在消费上。     

The Consumer Approach to Economic Studies

This article examines how recent history textbooks from the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea present the Korean War. The comparative analysis focuses on four areas: the causes of the Korean War, American involvement in the war, Chinese involvement in the war, and the results of the war. Analysis of the central story lines reveals that some consistent statements exist about certain events in the Korean War, but inconsistencies and conflicting views seem to dominate the history textbooks in these countries. The authors believe that comparing international history textbooks creates a good opportunity for students to see the complexity and controversy of history interpretation. Such a critical comparative approach helps students better understand how people in different countries perceive and interpret historical events. The authors argue that reviewing the similar and conflicting interpretations of the war gives students a unique opportunity to develop their critical-thinking ability and reasoning skills.