Cowboy Economics News - September 2009 Archives

Sold-out products influence consumer choice (9/30/2009)

An empty store shelf tempts shoppers to buy the next best thing, according to a new study from the University of Alberta. ...> Full Article

Study uncovers 'de-urbanization' of America (9/29/2009)

More than any other populace on Earth, Americans are on the move. Because of factors such as employment, climate or retirement, 14 percent of the US population bounces from place to place every year. Now, one researcher at the University of Kansas has made a vital study of how a population in perpetual motion impacts local tax bases and economies around the nation. ...> Full Article

Swine flu could wreak more havoc on US economy (9/26/2009)

H1N1 influenza could slow growth in key industries and stall already-weak GDP growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2009, says a health economist in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Business. ...> Full Article

Hummer owners claim moral high ground to excuse overconsumption (9/25/2009)

Hummer drivers believe they are defending America's frontier lifestyle against anti-American critics, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. ...> Full Article

Saying sorry really does cost nothing (9/24/2009)

When it comes to apologizing, talk is cheap, according to economists. ...> Full Article

Stock graphs can mislead: People prefer stocks with shorter runs (9/24/2009)

Can the way stock information is presented lead investors to make the wrong decisions? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that when investors use charts, they are likely to make a baseless decision about the riskiness of a stock based on its run-length. ...> Full Article

Crises lead banks to operate more opportunistically (9/23/2009)

Financial crises place significant strain on banks, causing them to behave more opportunistically than clients are accustomed to. Business clients should count on this, according to Uppsala University business economist Kristina Furusten, who has studied the topic of contractual relationships between banks and corporate clients during the 1990s financial crisis in Sweden. ...> Full Article

Herding leads to wrong decisions in the stock market (9/22/2009)

One reason for extreme fluctuations in the stock market is herding.Provided that the herd constitutes a majority, investors have a tendency to follow it without reflecting over their decisions. It can have devastating consequences, says the researcher Maria Andersson in a new thesis at the University of Gothenburg. ...> Full Article

'Apples-to-apples' analysis of Arab development yields fresh view (9/20/2009)

The Arab world is not the socioeconomic basket case that conventional wisdom holds, says University of California, San Diego economist James Rauch. His analysis refutes the unfavorable view painted by the United Nations' Arab Human Development Report from 2002 onward. ...> Full Article

US tax breaks subsidize foreign oil production (9/19/2009)

The largest US subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research to be released on Friday by the Environmental Law Institute in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion's share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases. ...> Full Article

Shifts in consumer spending and saving will usher in a new economic era (9/17/2009)

Consumer spending will lag rather than lead the recovery from the current recession, according to University of Michigan economist Richard Curtin. ...> Full Article

'How-to' guide shows entrepreneurs how to protect their big ideas (9/16/2009)

Successful entrepreneurs turn big ideas into successful business opportunities, but how should they protect those ideas? A new paper from North Carolina State University offers a "how-to" guide on intellectual property protection, laying out the options for budding entrepreneurs as they consider how to move forward. ...> Full Article

Expert on market failure says letting Lehman go was good thing (9/15/2009)

Approaching the anniversary of Lehman Brothers' demise, NJIT Finance Professor Michael Ehrlich, an expert on market failure, says that the Feds made the right move when they allowed the investment firm to go bankrupt. "It would have been much worse had the Federal Reserve and Treasury officials allowed Lehman Brothers to stay in business," said Ehrlich. "Lehman was the trigger, but not the cause of our financial problems. A Lehman rescue would only have allowed the financial crisis to grow." ...> Full Article

Shopping around key to a smaller food bill (9/10/2009)

Shoppers face a complex and time-consuming task to get the best deal, depending on the store they buy food from and the item involved according to a new booklet "Public behavior in the UK in times of economic decline/rising food prices." Published by the Economic and Social Research Council it highlights that the reports of a "food price crisis" fail to notice large cost variations over time and by outlet. ...> Full Article

Brown economists measure GDP growth from outer space (9/9/2009)

Measurements of economic growth often fall short for developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and are rarely calculated at all for cities throughout the world. In a new working paper, three Brown University economists suggest a way to improve GDP estimates for such areas by using images of nighttime lights as seen from outer space. ...> Full Article

Recession? What recession? Unionization up on state, local levels (9/8/2009)

Against all odds, organized labor managed to make new inroads during the economic upheaval of the past year, new findings from UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) suggest. ...> Full Article

West Coast's log, lumber exports increase in second quarter of 2009 (9/7/2009)

A total of 239.5 million board feet of softwood logs and 80.2 million board feet of softwood lumber was exported from Washington, Oregon, northern California and Alaska in April, May and June of this year, according to the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. ...> Full Article

Higher education playing bigger role in gender wage gap (9/1/2009)

While higher education has helped women narrow their long-running wage gap with men, there is one college-related factor that has becoming increasingly important in perpetuating that gap, according to new research. And that factor is college major. ...> Full Article