Big-ticket Items Research Articles

The Effects of the Earned Income Credit on the Seasonality of Household Expenditures

Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we investigate whether the Earned Income Credit (EIC) leads to changes in seasonal expenditure patterns of low-income workers. We find that EIC eligible households spend approximately 3 percent more total during February, the modal month of EIC refunds, and 9 percent more on durable goods than non-eligible households. The increased spending on durable goods indicates that the EIC facilitates the purchasing of big-ticket items by low-income families. These estimates, when converted to dollars, also suggest that EIC recipients smooth expenditure somewhat since the average increase in expenditure is less than the average EIC refund.

Clinton Administration announces FY 2001 budget request

Blessed with a strong US. economy the Clinton Administration on February 7 released a fiscal year 2001 federal budget request totaling a whopping $1,835 billion. Most of the funding request is slated for big ticket items including Social Security defense spending, Medicaid, Medicare, and paying down the federal debt. However, within the 19% of the budget that funds non‐defense discretionary programs,science agencies receive fairly healthy increases.The National Science Foundation (NSF) budget request would increase NSF funding by 17.3% $675 million and bring the total budget request to $4.6 billion. This includes significant increases for several initiatives: biocomplexity in the environment, information technology research, nanoscale science and engineering, and 21st century workforce. Among the major Earth science projects are launching the Earthscope initiative which includes the US Array and San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

LIGO's Price Rises as NSF Debates Big-Ticket Items

LIGO's Price Rises as NSF Debates Big-Ticket Items

Creative Policy-Making

As society ages and employees remain in the workplace longer, business managers must develop policies for maintaining the healthy chronically diseased employee in the workplace. With continuing increases in health care insurance costs, business should begin to look at chronic conditions which require repeat visits as well as "big ticket items." Based on an employee perspective approach, a model which presents three categories of healthy chronically diseased employees is utilized in teaching self care activities to insure a productive outcome for the employee. Self-care activities are a key component of the health promotion model, of which four aspects are included: information giving and seeking, encouraging self-responsibility, decision-making, and continued support and follow up.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN BASS — STRAIT THE LOW- COST CHALLENGE

Esso Australia, with its co- venturer BHP Petroleum, is planning to bring five new fields into production in 1989. These fields are relatively small, with total reserves of approximately 50 million barrels (7950 ML). Development concepts new to Bass Strait have been identified to make them economically attractive.The significant change made to the fiscal environment of Bass Strait in June 1987, when the Government provided an exemption from excise for the first 30 million barrels (4770 ML) of oil production for certain offshore projects, has played a key role in the economic viability of these developments.The Whiting field will be developed with a mini- platform, the Seahorse and Tarwhine fields with satellite sub- sea wells, and the Perch and Dolphin project will use mono- towers.New organisational and technical approaches have been used to select cost- effective development options for these fields. These approaches include increased inte­gration between exploration and production activities, reductions in capital expenditure through applying novel concepts and researching big ticket items such as facilities installation, and minimising of operating costs by remote operation of facilities.With the developments planned for 1989, and with ongoing research, the outlook can be described as opti­mistic provided tax regimes continue to encourage development of small fields both in Bass Strait and elsewhere offshore in Australia.

Linkages between Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiations in Agriculture

At first blush, it might appear that the linkages between the negotiations on agriculture being conducted in the contexts of a bilateral CanadianAmerican Free Trade Area (CAFTA) and the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTNs) would be rather tenuous. This is for several reasons. First, the primary agricultural trade interest of both countries is focused on the bigticket items of grains and oilseeds, and these are traded almost entirely off-shore. Second, the agricultural commercial diplomacy of both countries is directed primarily at Europe and Japan rather than at each other. Third, insofar as agricultural trade negotiations have become concerned with reducing and eliminating the trade-distorting subsidies provided to farmers by national agricultural policies, both countries have to use the offer to dismantle their farm programs where it will provide most negotiating leverage, which is in Geneva rather than in the bilateral trade negotiations (BTNs). These are three important reasons why early limits might be encountered to the oft-expressed hope and expectation that the BTNs will provide constructive arrangements in agriculture that can serve as models for the MTNs. However, closer examination shows that there are indeed numerous and important interfaces between the two sets of negotiations in terms both of broad common interests and in the finer detail of the ways in which particular issues might be handled. First and foremost, it is decisively important to both the United States and Canada that the agricultural BTNs send the right signals to other countries. This means that the two countries must demonstrate clearly and unequivocally that they can agree to liberalize continental trade in farm and food products, not only by removing frontier measures but, more important, also by changing those elements of national agricultural policies and programs that harm the legitimate trade interests of the negotiating partner. Furthermore, providing the right demonstration effect requires that continental agricultural trade liberalization be on the widest possible scale with few exceptions. Second, both countries have much to gain if they can adopt a common stance in the MTNs. In particular, the reality of the distribution of influence means the results for Canada of the MTNs will be augmented if Canada can support negotiating approaches favored by the United States. By the same token, U.S. negotiating proposals would be strengthened if they were supported by an important member of the Cairns Group. Thus, the BTNs provide the opportunity for seeking and evolving mutually supportive MTN negotiating positions. Third, the BTNs are throwing up all the same issues that will have to be confronted in Geneva. At a minimum, having to address them early means that both countries' negotiators will enter the agricultural component of the MTNs exceptionally well prepared. More important, the BTNs provide a testing ground for alternative approaches and prototype solutions to specific issues, some of which may be subsequently adopted multilaterally. It is to these that we now turn.

Product Life Cycles of Durable Goods for the Home

This is a study of product life cycles of durable goods used in the home. Data of durable goods shipments from 1922 to 1978 were analyzed, and the products were classi-fied into various shapes of product life cycles. Fifty percent of the products were found to be in the typical life cycle pattern. Most big ticket items in this industry are still in the maturity stage. There are a few significant products in the growth stage. marketing prospects for individual products are suggested, based on the shapes of their product life cycles.

A Survey Technique to Measure Demand under Various Pricing Strategies

One of the more challenging tasks that confronts marketing researchers is that of determining the probable effect of different pricing policies on the sales of a new or existing product. Closely allied to this problem is that of determining how the modification of a product or of its image will affect sales if price remains constant or if it, too, is modified in some manner. A manufacturer will be interested in knowing how changes in demand will affect revenue and, probably more importantly, how they will affect profitability. A manufacturer with more than one product in the same category will be concerned with how changes in demand for one product will affect demand for others, and how the profitability of the entire line will be affected. Frequently, the marketer cannot conduct a test involving actual sales to measure the effect of price changes for reasons of either time or cost, and often a test market is not appropriate because of the nature of the product itself. The latter is particularly true for many industrial goods and big-ticket items. Instead, researchers often conduct surveys among consumers to obtain an indication of how demand might be altered, using a series of questions that ask the consumer to indicate his likely buying behavior under various conditions.