consumer demand

This Article, a sequel to earlier articles by the author on financial regulation and global finance, retrieves and updates J. M. Keynes’s original International Clearing Union plan for what ultimately became the International Monetary Fund (“IMF,” “Fund”). Its motives are not antiquarian. The Article argues that our current domestic and global financial troubles alike are best viewed as products of our not having gone something more like that original Keynesian route with the Fund. Part I tells the tale of Keynes’s original Clearing Union plan for what was to become the IMF. It emphasizes the plan’s basic structure and motivations, as decisively rooted in Keynes’s financially oriented re-conception of what subsequently came to be known as “macroeconomic” theory. It highlights in particular the Clearing Union’s projected role as an institutional lever through which trading nations could jointly prevent financial-stability-imperiling global imbalances in the form of persistent trade s...

In Norway, the production andconsumption of organic food is still small-scale. Research on attitudes towards organic farming in Norway has shown that most consumers find conventionally produced food to be “good enough.” The level of industrialization of ...

As computer games become more complex and consumers demand more sophisticated computer controlled agents, developers are required to place a greater emphasis on the artificial intelligence aspects of their games. One source of sophisticated AI techniques is the artificial intelligence research community. This paper discusses recent efforts by our group at the University of Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab to apply

The Dor D shipwreck off Israel is a 6th-century AD scattered site on which Cypriot ballast stones seal hull planking and fragmentary cargo amphorae manufactured in southern Palestine. Petrological studies of the domestic assemblage and roof tiles indicate a Cypriot provenance for the ship, which was apparently returning empty amphorae to Palestine for recycling at a time when consumer demands

Some household expenditures, such as those for subsistence or basic needs, are fixed. Using the methodology of equivalence scales, we develop a model in which differences in fixed costs of characteristics across households can be identified from household behaviour. Equivalent expenditure for a household is the expenditure needed to bring a reference household, such as a single childless adult,

This essay explores the practicalities of making and buying clothing in early modern Florence. Drawing on the household accounts of families associated with the Medici court, together with a range of other archival sources, the essay uncovers complex patterns of interaction between consumers, artisans, and retailers. Such networks were fundamental to the way dress fashions developed and achieved wider diffusion during this period. Wealthy Florentines closely supervised the many different stages involved in the acquisition of clothing, often drawing on expertise they had accumulated as silk merchants and as agents purchasing goods on behalf of others. Buying clothing was also a strongly gendered pursuit, shaped by contemporary views of women's domestic roles. Despite the influence exercised by consumers, members of the clothing trade played a significant part in promoting change in fashions. In particular, tailors and mercers became known for their ability to create new designs a...

Consumers demand high quality foods, which are fresh, tasty and nutritious; this has created considerable interest in the development of new food processing techniques. Presently, non-thermal techniques, including high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), are regarded with special interest by the food industry. Pressure ranges between 100 and 1200 MPa have been considered as effective to inactivate microorganisms including food-borne pathogens. HHP also

Consider the following two opinions, both of which can be found in the literature of consumer demand systems:(a) As the real income of a consumer becomes indefinitely large, re-mixing the consumption bundle becomes irrelevant: having chosen the ultimately satisfying ...

This Article, a sequel to earlier articles by the author on financial regulation and global finance, retrieves and updates J. M. Keynes’s original International Clearing Union plan for what ultimately became the International Monetary Fund (“IMF,” “Fund”). Its motives are not antiquarian. The Article argues that our current domestic and global financial troubles alike are best viewed as products of our not having gone something more like that original Keynesian route with the Fund. Part I tells the tale of Keynes’s original Clearing Union plan for what was to become the IMF. It emphasizes the plan’s basic structure and motivations, as decisively rooted in Keynes’s financially oriented re-conception of what subsequently came to be known as “macroeconomic” theory. It highlights in particular the Clearing Union’s projected role as an institutional lever through which trading nations could jointly prevent financial-stability-imperiling global imbalances in the form of persistent trade s...

The paper analyses management of product innovation in project-based industries, offering a view on management not only of firms, but also of markets. It first argues that projects are prominent in industries where the nature of consumer demand means that product innovation takes place as experimentation. Then, the paper argues that if skills needed for projects are very diverse and projects are complex, there are few internal managerial economies of projects, and the scope for management then transcends the boundaries of firms. In these cases, markets become organized in combinations of people, contracts, and other institutions, in order to facilitate the coordination of market-based projects. While contracts play a role, a continuous, active role of knowledgeable managers (leaders and boundary spanners) is also often necessary. Such managers ⎯ and thus (core parts of) whole industries ⎯ are embedded in project ecologies at particular places, which is why we see geographical cluste...

Background We compare traditional knowledge and use of wild edible plants in six rural regions of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula as follows: Campoo, Picos de Europa, Piloña, Sanabria and Caurel in Spain and Parque Natural de Montesinho in Portugal. Methods Data on the use of 97 species were collected through informed consent semi-structured interviews with local informants. A semi-quantitative approach was used to document the relative importance of each species and to indicate differences in selection ...

Ever since the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, public debt in almost all OECD countries has increased significantly. The European debt crisis has further intensified over the past few weeks. Private households with high levels of wealth and income could be enlisted to help with refinancing and reducing this public debt through forced loans and one-off capital levies, without a risk of slowdown in consumer demand. This would also counteract the increased inequality in the distribution of wealth. Imposing such levies is not easy, however, since it involves valuation of assets and preventing tax avoidance and evasion. It is difficult to estimate the revenue effects of such a levy for the countries in crisis due to the current lack of sufficient data. For Germany, simulations by DIW Berlin based on a personal allowance of 250 000 euros (500 000 euros for married couples) give a tax base of 92 percent of the GDP. A forced loan or a levy of, for example, ten percent of this ta...