Suchergebnisse

Theoretical work on experience goods sets out three empirical questions. How accurate is information at initial purchase? How rapidly do consumers learn from product experiences? And how much impact does learning have on purchase decisions? I answer these questions for the case of automobile insurance, using a panel of 18,595 consumers from one firm. My principal findings are: patterns of consumer departures following claims point to learning; consumers enter the firm overly optimistic about its quality and are generally disappointed by experience; and the impact of learning is mitigated by the slow arrival of claims and the development of lock-in.

This essay investigates the place of cinema in the formulation and maintenance of an Iranian popular civil religion—reworking older ideas and practices largely taken from Islam to articulate with modern social and political change in Iran. Of particular interest is the theme of martyrdom in the Iranian cinema of sacred defense, originally conceived to depict the spiritual dimensions of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). I explore the foundational role of this genre in the postrevolutionary Iranian cinema and its development in concert with television. I then argue that representations of martyrdom in the Cinema of Sacred Defense, born of a complex history, are attempts to make the divine manifest in film and in real life. While the Cinema of Sacred Defense is often claimed to be a marked departure from previous Iranian films, some of its preoccupations remain much in line with the now-banned popular commercial cinema of the Pahlavi era, often referred to as filmfarsi (Persian film). The film chosen as the case study, Layli ba man ast (Leily Is with Me; Kamal Tabrizi, 1996), is of particular interest not only because it is among the most popular releases of the Sacred Defense genre but also because it is a parody of the genre. The film also provides an incisive critique of new forms of social organization, social aspirations, and personal success (the "good life") that the revolution and the war engendered. Finally, I turn to how Leily Is with Me and other popular titles of the past decade may indicate the reconstitution of the much-maligned filmfarsi genre.

Large public transport subsidies necessitated by operating deficits have become a heavy financial burden on some local governments. However, the present subsidy scheme lacks incentives to encourage bus operators to reduce deficits to lessen subsidies. In order to motivate bus operators to exert their roles in reducing these subsidies to ensure sustainable finance, this paper designs an incentive subsidy scheme based on the Laffont–Tirole model. This scheme is designed to motivate bus operators to endeavor to reduce deficits so as to obtain a premium, thus minimizing the total amount of subsidies and maximizing social benefit. The case of the bus network in Kumamoto, Japan,shows how, with this subsidy scheme, bus operators can play roles in lessening subsidies, allowing a win-win situation for both bus operators and the local government, and maximizing social benefit to realize the sustainability of the city. Finally, findings of our sensitivity analysis with imperfect information suggest that the length of bus lines in a network should be shortened in order to avoid cost waste to lessen subsidies.

Reseña de la obra de: BAUMOL, William J., LITAN, Robert E. y SCHRAMM, Carl J. (2007) Good capitalism, bad capitalism and the economics of growth and prosperity, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 321 pp.

Logistics in urban areas are currently suffering a radical transformation due to increasing population concentration and the massive use of cars as the preferred transport mode. These issues have resulted in higher pollution levels in urban environments and traffic congestion, impacting the world globally. Facilitating the use of sustainable transport modes is widely regarded as a necessity to cope with these adverse effects on citizens&rsquo ; life quality. Hence, some regions, such as the European Union, are encouraging bus transport firms to make their business models more environmentally and socially sustainable. The aim of this research is thus to explore how technological innovations adopted by urban bus companies can improve cities&rsquo ; sustainability. With this in mind, a combined Importance Performance Analysis (IPA)&ndash ; Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied. In this way, their environmental and social sustainability effects were separately represented through hierarchical structures. Subsequently, the importance and performance ratings of technological innovations in each sustainability dimension were estimated, and thus two IPA grids were generated. These grids support managers in the establishment of more effective action plans to improve logistics sustainability in cities. The findings also provide guidance to governments on the technological innovations that should be promoted in future urban mobility plans.

The author provides an overview of the situation of the production and supply of capital goods in Latin America, the trends over the last few years and the challenges facing the reactivation, restructuring and expansion of this industry during the 1990s. He points out that the domestic markets of most of the Latin American countries seem to be sufficiently large to increase the production of such goods