Several studies in the economic literature have examined the usefulness of leading indicators in forecasting GDP changes. The two main sources of information used in this direction are (a) indexes of consumer and business sentiment and (b) monetary and financial data. Consumer and business sentiment indexes are based on sample surveys conducted by both national statistical services and industry...

Research suggests that widows and widowers experience substantial economic vulnerability. Using nationally representative data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys 1980-2000, we describe pre-wldowhood shifts in medical and funeral/buria! expenditures and discuss how these changes may affect post-widowhood economic well-being. Our analyses suggest that funeral/burial and medical expenditures, w...

Software agents have become very popular in the last six or so years. They have been used successfully to filter information, match people with similar interests and automate repetitive behavior. More recently, the capabilities of agents have been applied to electronic commerce, promising a revolution in the way we conduct transactions, whether business-to-business, business-to-consumer, or con...

Purpose Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to ...

1. Introduction Survey quality is thought to be impacted by nonresponse, both item nonresponse and survey or unit nonresponse. The relationship between item nonresponse and unit nonresponse has been studied by Dixon (2002). Dahlhamer et al. (2003) also studied item nonresponse across several federal surveys. The current study examines the nature of item nonresponse and the relationship with sub...

Differential unit non-response in household wealth surveys biases estimates of top tail wealth shares downward. Using Monte Carlo evidence, I show that adding only a few extreme observations to wealth surveys is sufficient to remove the downward bias. Combining extreme wealth observations from Forbes World’s billionaires with the Survey of Consumer Finances, the Wealth and Assets survey and the...

The burgeoning field of environmental valuation has raised serious doubts about the fundamental axioms of consumer choice theory, the general validity of the Walrasian system and methodological individualism. This paper examines these aspects of consumer choice theory, paying particular attention to the pioneering contributions of Georgescu-Roegen. We argue that evidence from psychology, game t...

OBJECTIVE To identify information priorities for consumers and clinicians making depression treatment decisions and assess shared decision-making (SDM) in routine depression care. DESIGN 20 questions related to common features of depression treatments were provided. Participants were initially asked to select which features were important, and in a second stage they were asked to rank their t...