Spending Power Research Articles

Spending Power Bargaining after Sebelius

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) decision, it’s easy to get lost in debate over the Chief Justice’s stated theory of the commerce power, or what precedential effect it will have under the Marks doctrine (given that his only supporters wrote in dissent). Still, the practical implications for existing governance is likely to be small, at least in the foreseeable future. After all, much of the debate over the individual mandate focused on how unprecedented it was: despite months of trying, nobody produced a satisfying example of this particular Congressional tool used in previous health, environmental, or any other kind of federal law. By contrast, the most immediately significant portion of the ruling — and one with far more significance for most regulatory governance — is the part of the decision limiting the federal spending power that authorizes Medicaid. Congress uses its spending power to persuade states to engage in programs of cooperative federalism all the time, ranging from environmental programs under the Clean Air Act to cooperative management of the national highway system. Last month’s decision represents the first time the Court has ever invalidated a congressional act for exceeding its power under the Spending Clause, and the decision has important implications for the way that many state-federal regulatory partnerships work.This very short essay, based on a blog published in the immediate wake of the decision, offers both criticism and praise for different elements of the Chief Justice’s plurality opinion. After explaining the spending bargaining enterprise, it critiques the unprecedented and unworkable imposition the new decision creates on legislative authority to modify these bargains over time. After Sebelius, Congress can never modify a spending power program without potentially creating two tracks — one for states that like the change and another for those that prefer the original (and with further modifications, three tracks, ad infinitum). The decision fails to distinguish permissible modifications from new-program amendments, leaving every bargain improved by experience vulnerable to legal challenge. That said, the decision also exposes an important problem in spending power bargaining that warrants our attention: that is, how the analysis shifts when the states are not opting in or out of a cooperative federalism program from scratch, but after having developed substantial infrastructure around a long-term regulatory partnership.

Risk identification and mitigation for architectural, engineering, and construction firms operating in the Gulf region

Middle East possesses a strong spending power that few other economies can contest, presenting greater medium to long-term opportunities than most other parts of the world, albeit the downturn in D...

Serious games for instant media (IM) generation girls

In order to facilitate learning with games for instant media (IM) generation girls, games developers and producers must accept the fact that girls not only play games differently than boys, but their opinions of games and their access to games are heavily influenced by their mothers. Girls want 2D+ or 3D virtual worlds that reflect reality yet allow for adding their own personal touches, preferences, and senses of humour. From a business perspective, IM generation girls represent the most highly sought after market segment due to their significant spending power and interest in shopping. Serious games for IM generation girls must be developed and produced following the same strategies of consumer products in order to generate the market penetration and revenues that are possible.

Challenges of emerging countries: a relatively positive view for the future

Challenges of emerging countries: a relatively positive view for the future

What Products Can Benefit From African American Advertising Appeals? The Moderating Role of Product Involvement

With a significant spending power, the African American segment is one of the most lucrative, interesting, and complex targets for national and local advertisers. As this consumer segment continues to grow in importance, marketers need to focus on what types of products could benefit from African American-targeted advertising. Our research studies show African Americans respond to advertising targeted to them and their responses are moderated by ethnic identification and product involvement. Consistent with both theoretical frameworks, distinctiveness theory and ethnic identification theory, we found that identified African Americans prefer African American models especially when advertising low-involvement products.

The Evolution of Wealth Distribution Pattern of China: Based on the Observation of <italic>Fund Flow Table</italic> (<italic>Physical Transaction</italic>)

This paper systematically observes the flow of funds table (physical transaction) in China statistical yearbook (1992-2008). The statistics confirm that the distribution of national income is a pyramid, and the root cause of this situation is the continuously strengthened mechanism of profit maximization which leads to the faster growth of capital accumulation than the growth of social spending power. The opening of the excessive goods started in 1996 to 1998, while the capital surplus started in 2003 to 2004. The surplus in goods and capital, on the one hand, forces the owners of the capital to produce goods and capital, on the other hand, leads to the spread of virtual economy which is the main source of today's economic difficulties and the source of social and diplomatic dilemma. Under these circumstances, the small production and non-financial sectors account for 96.76% among all the employed people. They are extremely weak in front of capital. And more than 60% labors rely on small family production which basically has nothing to do with modernity. However, the capital owners who consists only less than 1% of the total population have great influence on government taxes. And their further requirement in corresponding political rights is their logical choices.

Communities of place and communities of interest? An exploration of their changing role in later life

ABSTRACTSocial gerontologists have long grappled with the meaning of ‘community’ to older people. This paper lies within this tradition and focuses on the extent to which the past emphasis upon communities of place needs to be rebalanced or rethought in the light of emerging evidence for the growing engagement of older people in communities of interest linked to friendships, enthusiasms and their increasing spending power. This theoretical paper highlights the traditional emphasis on the role of community and place in later life and explores the emergence of a debate about communities of interest linked to such factors as the ‘discovery’ of ‘the Third Age’, marketisation, consumerism, the importance of social interaction in the lives of many older people, and the impact of the internet and virtual communities. This debate is placed in an international policy context in which numerous governments are concerned about the greying of the global population and the consequent desire to promote ‘ageing well’ to offset resultant health and social care costs. The paper argues for a reconceptualisation of community through a more sophisticated view of ‘place’ and ‘interest’ that avoids false dichotomies between the two and acknowledges the impact of social, economic and cultural change upon the lives of older people.

Stitching the gaps in the Canadian public drug coverage patchwork? A review of provincial pharmacare policy changes from 2000 to 2010

Objectives To describe recent changes and identify emergent trends in public drug benefit policies in Canada from 2000 to 2010. Methods For each province, we tracked pharmacare design (namely eligibility, premiums, and patient cost-sharing) over time for three beneficiary groups: social assistance recipients, seniors, and the general non-senior population. We assess which plan designs are emerging as a national standard, where the gaps in public coverage remain, and implications for progress towards national pharmacare. Results Expansion of public drug coverage has been limited. For social assistance recipients, first-dollar coverage is the standard. Seniors coverage remains varied, though means testing of eligibility or cost-sharing is common. Seniors benefits were significantly expanded in only one province. As of 2010, six provinces have embraced age irrelevant catastrophic income-based coverage, in some, resulting in the elimination of seniors drug benefits. Conclusions Universal income-based catastrophic coverage appears to be emerging as an implicit national standard for provincial pharmacare. However, due to the variation and high level of patient cost-sharing required under these programs, convergence on this model does not equate to substantial progress towards expanding coverage or reducing interprovincial disparities. Leverage of federal spending power to promote standards for public drug coverage is necessary to uniformly protect Canadians against high drug costs.

Expenditure Differences Among Conference and Regular Tourists in Taiwan: The Role of Situational Factors

This study investigated the difference in inbound tourism expenditures between conference and regular tourists in Taiwan. A survey to acquire complete spending information was conducted at the largest international airport in Taiwan in 2010 before inbound tourists left the country. Results indicated that the highest expenditures for both groups were on accommodation, followed by transportation and shopping for the conference tourists and regular tourists, respectively. In general, daily expenses for delegates (US$274.41) were higher than those of regular tourists (US$234.58); however, the former group's shorter length of stay was found to be a significant factor influencing their total expenditures. Situational factors play a significant moderating role between the regular and conference tourists’ shopping expenditure in different aspects. Financial support perceived as the “antecedent states” is the most important factor distinguishing spending power of conference and regular tourists. Objective or subjective time constraint limits the spending power of the conference tourists, which can properly be managed to increase the economic input to the destination.

Electoral institutions and growth volatility: Theory and evidence

What accounts for the substantial variation in the temporal volatility of economic growth rates in democratic regimes? We claim that institutional differences between the majoritarian and proportional representation (PR) electoral systems explain why growth volatility is high in some democracies, but not others. Specifically, we suggest that unlike PR democracies, the pronounced career concerns of policymakers in majoritarian systems give them incentives to use their discretionary spending power to alter government spending levels sharply, which generates higher spending volatility in these countries. As a result, policymakers in majoritarian systems cannot credibly commit themselves to stabilizing spending levels. This causes uncertainty among economic actors about future spending levels and leads to unstable investment patterns that generate a higher volatility of growth rates in majoritarian democracies. Results from statistical models provide robust statistical support for our theoretical predictions.

Forecasting the Future: Impact of Societal Trends on the Professions and ASHA

Forecasting the Future: Impact of Societal Trends on the Professions and ASHA

Federal Spending Power in Three Federations: Australia, Canada and the United States

This paper will consider and compare the federal spending power in three ‘mature’ federations, Australia, Canada and the United States. One of the issues to be considered will be whether the federal spending power, as interpreted by the relevant courts, is sufficiently broad to deal with the obligations of a central government in current circumstances. In doing so, recurring important issues in fiscal federalism, including the allocation of responsibilities within federal systems and vertical fiscal imbalance, will be noted. The constitutional context in which this issue arises, including the fact that the constitution of each of the countries studied was conceived in times very different from those we face today, and the fact that the role and size of government has similarly radically changed since those times, is important. It is argued that a broad interpretation of the federal government's spending power is needed to provide the necessary constitutional flexibility that would otherwise be forbidden by the formal rigidity of the constitutions and the difficulty in making amendments, particularly in Australia and Canada.

Entering The Tourism Industry And Generation Y Prospects: Turkish Entrepreneurs Planning To Enter The American Market

Many foreign firms competing globally are trying to secure a piece of the tourism market share in the United States. However, people are finding that starting and expanding a new business in the tourism industry to American consumers in the United States can be challenging. This document explores the strategy and mission of Turkish entrepreneurs assessing the tourism industry from a global perspective and choosing the United States to start securing a piece of the market with Generation Y individuals due to the countrys economic factors, the spending power of the average person, the hunger for cultural awareness and diversity, and the political stability of the country. Overall, the marketing strategy of the organization is discussed for the following factors: the product/service, pricing, distribution, and promotion. For calculating the budget, two options which are the fixed costs and the variable costs options are discussed.The focus of this study was to set up a business in a country such as the United States because such a country would have various types of diverse markets. The average income of most consumers in the developing countries seems to be sufficient to purchase services for pleasure, cultural awareness and other desires they would like to pursue. As such, it makes good business sense to enter this competitive market by differentiating ones offering through price, product and service quality to guarantee initial success.

Reforming the Division of Powers in Canada : An (Un)Achievable Endeavour?

Formal amendments to the division of powers provisions of Canada's 1867 federal constitution have always proved difficult to achieve. However, since 1982, this task has become hopelessly unachievable. Modifications to, and adaptation of, the division of powers have consequently been left to judges called upon to interpret sections 91 to 95 of the Constitution Act, 1867, and to executives officers of the central and regional governments as they negotiate intergovernmental agreements. The end result of these two processes has been favorable to the central government. Courts have given a liberal interpretation to the central government's exclusive fields of jurisdiction. Moreover, the latter's spending power, loosely controlled by the fragile legal framework imposed under interprovincial agreements, has enabled it to encroach upon the exclusive heads of power of the provinces. As we will see, one of the main reason behind the Canadian constitutional stalemate, and for the recurrent isolation of Quebec - even where informal modification are concerned - is the different conceptions of Canadian federalism respectively held by a majority of Quebecers and a majority of English Canadians.

Federalism and the Taxing Power

Scholars and courts recognize that the federal government uses its broad spending power to enlist states in achieving federal goals, thereby expanding the federal government’s reach beyond the areas enumerated for it in the Constitution. Similarly, the federal government can achieve similar ends — it can regulate the states and private parties — through its potentially equally broad taxing power. This Article draws on the spending power literature to illuminate the analogous federalism concerns raised by expansive use of the taxing power. For example, by crowding out state regulation of similar policy areas, federal tax regulation may limit policy diversity and hinder regulatory competition both among the states and between the states and the federal government. But this Article also identifies important differences between taxation and grants that suggest that federal tax regulation represents less of a federalism threat than do conditional grants to the states. For example, because federal tax incentives neither contractually bind states to follow federal policy nor expend state legislative and administrative resources in enacting and enforcing federal policy, states may remain freer under tax incentives than grants to enact concurrent or contrary policies.

Internet Advertising amongst Indian Marketers: Industry Verbatim

Indian online advertising is growing at a pace which outstrips the overall adver tising growth in India or elsewhere. With an astonishing 65 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2004–07, the online advertising market sat at 270 crores in the year 2007 and is expected to reach INR 1100 crores by the year 2011. With the internet consumption patterns maturing up, the claimed internet users in India have reached the figure of 81 million. This rising number is leading to the growth of online advertising, jolting up the marketers towards the relevance of including internet as an ingredient in their media mix. Parallel to this backdrop, it is also evident that India has been witnessing a steady growth in the spending power of its citizens. Indian advertisers and marketers are forced to adopt innovative marketing strategies to attract the attention of perspective consumers in different forms of advertising. This paper examines the attitude of Indian marketers, belonging to eminent organisations across various verticals like web, television, print, media houses, advertising agencies, banking and financial institutions, telecom, and electronic goods. The study will help in identifying the stance that the advertisers and professionals hold towards advertising on the new medium i.e., internet.

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL ECONOMIC BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ON THERMOGRAPHY BUSINESS

Lithuanian economy survives a recession, business is increasingly difficult to operate in the Lithuanian market. One of the first who suffered the consequences of the economic recession is construction business pushing into difficulties business-related businesses and residents. Due to economic downturn the prices of the construction decreased, consumer spending power diminished, bank lending conditions became tighter, which further undercut the market for construction services. Economic growth has changed the attitude of the population to a warm home, quality of the construction. Although thermography used in the construction industry allows construction companies to ensure their quality of work, people find their homes of poor thermal insulation, moisture retention and more effective to plan for repairs, to check the quality of work carried out by builders and trou-bleshooting to save heat energy and reduce heating costs, but demand for thermography was not great. It is therefore important to find out how the socio-economic environment influences the business of thermography, whether the socio-economic environment al-lows it to develop, or, otherwise, whether it is becoming a threat, reducing the demand for thermography. The aim of this paper is to explore the socio-economic impact on the business environment of thermography business. The methods used in the study were: scientific literature review, secondary data analysis, questionnaire, interview, comparison, clustering methods, PESTLE analysis.The business environment of thermography business can be defined as the business envi-ronment including the global environment and macro environmental factors which affect the entire business, affect success or failure of a business and which the company could not control, and micro-factors that directly affect the company and which the company could influence. The interaction of Lithuanian social and economic environments makes opportunities and threats for thermography business. The poor economic situation influ-ences increasing unemployment, therefore the consumer purchasing power reduces and the incentive to emigrate increases, thus reducing the market of thermography business. As well as the economic situation of the country results in the construction sector in its production decline and increase in bankruptcies of construction companies seeking ways to cost reduction, which reduces the market of thermography business. But the need to save energy, the desire to live in warm housing is still a small possibility of market growth, even in crisis conditions.

Materialism and conspicuous consumption in China: a cross‐cultural examination

AbstractWith the growing rise in consumer spending and economic power in Asian societies, it is increasingly important to explore the implications of these developments on consumer culture. This cross‐cultural study first discusses the rise of materialism and conspicuous consumption in post‐revolution China then examines differences in these phenomena between young adult consumers, aged 18–35, living in urban China and the United States. Utilizing survey data from over 600 respondents, significant differences were found in both materialism and conspicuous consumption, with Chinese young adults scoring higher in both variables. The findings show, that compared with past comparative studies, it appears both materialism and conspicuous consumption are on the rise among urban Chinese consumers.

Distributional effects of imputed rents in five European countries

Most empirical distributional studies of well-being in developed countries rely on distributions of disposable income. From a theoretical point of view this practice is contentious since a household’s command over resources is determined not only by its spending power over commodities it can buy in the market but also on resources available to the household members through non-market mechanisms such as the in-kind provisions of the welfare state and the value of private non-cash incomes. In developed market economies the most important private non-cash income component is imputed rent from owner-occupied or subsidized accommodation. Employing a wider definition of imputed rent that also allows the analyst to capture income advantages among tenants living in rent-subsidized accommodations of various sorts (including rent-free or reduced-rent households), the present paper examines the differential effects of including imputed rents in the concept of resources in five European countries (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and the UK). The results suggest that in almost all cases, the inclusion of imputed rents in the concept of resources leads to a decline in measured levels of inequality and poverty. The main beneficiaries are outright homeowners and households living in rent-free (or heavily subsidized) accommodation—most often older persons. The inclusion of imputed rents in the concept of resources does not lead to substantial changes in the ranking of the countries according to their level of inequality, despite widespread differences in the rates of home ownership and subsidization across the countries studied here.

How budget constraints impact consumers' response to discount presentation formats

PurposeThis research aims to study how buyers' budget constraints influence buyers' perceptions of discounts presented in a dollars‐off versus percentage‐off format. A comparison of perceptions of discount format under budget constraints is missing from the past literature. The current research aims to fill this gap.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on two experiments. In the first experiment, a study by Kahneman and Tversky is replicated and extended by including budget constraints. In the second experiment participants are given either a high or a low budget and then asked to compare objectively equivalent discounts that are presented in either dollars‐off or percent‐off terms. Participants' willingness to buy is recorded and used to gauge the efficacy of the discount formats under budget constraints.FindingsThe research extends previous findings derived from the psychophysics of pricing. It demonstrates that, although it is believed that the attractiveness of an absolute discount is inversely proportional to the objective price, such evaluations are also influenced by the presence of budget information. Specifically, consumer budget interacts with discount formats such that the $‐off versus percent‐off discounts may not be appropriate for expensive or inexpensive products respectively, as shown in past research. Instead, the value of the discount in proportion to the available budget may play a significant role in deal evaluation. Therefore it is an important issue retailers should consider when deciding what discount presentation format to use.Originality/valueAlthough past research views price as a constraint, the findings indicate that price in itself may not be a constraint unless viewed within the context of a budget. Consumers implicitly make this comparison, but past research has not specifically tested for the effects of budgets and, instead, has relied on income as a proxy for a consumer's spending power. The results provide evidence that using income instead of budget may be an oversimplification.