We investigate the impact of the home appliance recycling law on closed-loop supply chain activities in the home appliance industry of Japan. We also examine the activities of PC (personal computer) recycling and mobile phone recycling in Japan to conduct comparative research on their reverse...

This paper examines the role of financial development and financial structure in explaining cross-country diffusion of information communication technology (ICT). Using panel data for 76 emerging and advanced countries for the period 1990-2003, the paper finds that credit and stock market...

In contrast to the large and rapidly growing literature on information technology (IT) investments and firm productivity, we know very little about the role of personal computers in business creation. Using matched data from the 1997-2001 Computer and Internet Usage Supplements to subsequent...

This paper studies the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT), especially mobile phone rollout, on economic growth in a sample of African countries from 1988 to 2007. Further, we investigate whether financial inclusion is one of the channels through which mobile phone...

Changes in quality in information technology products provoke that compilation of their price indexes represent a major challenge. In this respect, this paper has three goals. In first place, to build price indexes for personal computers during 1990-2004. In second place, to compare our price...

Personal computer prices decline rapidly with age. The price of a four-year-old used computer is almost one tenth of the price of a new one. This paper provides new evidence on why prices of personal computers decline so rapidly as they age, using online auction data from eBay. An innovative...

The paper provides an analysis of the problems of construction of quality-adjusted price indexes within the framework of the theory of product differentiation. In the general case of price-making behaviour on the part of firms, hedonic regressions are defined on the basis of reduced forms of the...

The wine industry considered product quality as key to increasing competitiveness. However, when wines are perceived quality neutral, regardless of other existing differences, consumers will substitute one wine for another exposing producer to intense price competition. To differentiate wines, a...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative importance of online travel product selection attributes and examine the variations in their importance due to travel buying behaviour and demographic characteristics. The reliability and validity of the instrument were assessed prior to...