Traditional choice models assume that observable behavior results from an unspecified evaluation process of the observed individual. When it comes to the revelation of this process mere choice models rapidly meet their boundaries, as psychological factors (e.g., consumers' perception or...

Indicators of trust, confidence, optimism or sentiment among consumers and/or investors, are published continuously in the mass media. More importantly, these indices seem not only to reflect how the state of the real economy is perceived by private agents, but can also help predict the future...

Following the Euro changeover in January 2002, consumers across the Euro Area perceived a sharp rise in inflation, in contrast to official figures. Several theories have been advanced to explain this apparent economic illusion, but they struggle to account for its striking scale and persistence....

The outcome of the economic performance of individuals is utilised in the form of consumption and consequent welfare. Despite this truism, there is relatively little information available on household consumption behaviour in Hungary stemming from investigations based on economic theory. The...

We investigate the life cycle patterns of households’spending on medium value durables. We use panel data on expenditures on appliances and consumer electronics the British Household Panel Study between 1997 and 2008. In cross section, expenditures for appliances and consumer electronics...

Competition in public utility sectors has been encouraged in recent years throughout Europe. In this paper we try and analyse the welfare effects of these reforms in Italy, with particular attention to water and energy goods. The first step is to introduce a sensible measure of affordability of...

Empirical evidence from French exporters presented in this paper shows that the vast majority of firms follow a strategy of market concentration when market numbers or a combination of market numbers and the share of the key markets is used as an indicator. These results are at odds with many...

In a framework for risk management a model of an international firm under exchange rate uncertainty is discussed. The firm can cross-hedge the exchange rate risk by using forwards of other country's currencies correlated to the spot exchange rate in question. The study investigates the...

Usually it is argued that an increase in exchange rate volatility reduces the volume of international trade since trading firms are risk averse. This paper shows for risk neutral firms that the expected international trade volume in standardized commodities grows with exchange rate volatility....

The optimum behavior of a competitive risk-averse international trader who supplies or demands commodities invoiced in foreign currency is examined when his profits are subject to several forms of risk: production, domestic cost, the exchange rate and the commodity price. The focus of our study...