We examine the effect of aggregate measures of CEO and consumer confidence on firm financing and investment. We find that capital expenditure, merger activity, and financing activity all increase with CEO and consumer confidence. However, while CEO confidence positively predicts future sales growth and return on assets, consumer confidence is negatively related to these performance measures as ...

Advances in information technologies enable firms to collect detailed consumer data and target individual consumers with tailored ads. Consumer data are among the most valuable assets that firms own. An interesting phenomenon is that competing firms often trade their consumer data with each other. Based on a common-value all-pay auction framework, this paper studies the advertising competition ...

Nhien To, Eric Figueroa, and Lucilla Tan are research economists in the Branch of Research and Program Development, Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics. NHIEN TO ERIC FIGUEROA LUCILLA TAN In designing any survey, it is important to provide respondents with clear instructions and examples. Self-administered expenditure diaries often use cues as examples, not only...

Using data from the 1980–2001 Consumer Expenditure Surveys, we investigate how impending widowhood affects households’ expenditure patterns. We find that total annual expenditures are $4,027 higher for about-to-be-widowed households compared to otherwise comparable continuously married couples. Within subcategories, expenditures average $4,108 higher for the miscellaneous subcategory which incl...

With food expenditure growing about 7.67% from 2010 through 2012, the demand for organic food through the retail sales medium is anticipated to increase consumer food expenditure. Produce enters the market primarily through supermarkets and grocery stores, after it originates from large farms in the U.S., Mexico and South America. However, there are numerous small farms that are certified organ...

Even though the permanent income and relative income hypotheses have been utilized in past research to explain consumer behavior, no previous attempt has been made to integrate them into one model in explaining household expenditure behavior. In this article, the hypotheses are synthesized into a single model. The model was empirically tested using data from the 1996 Korean National Survey of F...

The release of the January 1987 Consumer Price Index (cpi) in February will introduce updated market baskets that reflect population distributions from the 1980 census of population and spending patterns from the 1982-84 Consumer Expenditure Survey . This release will be part of a 5-year program to update the cpi market basket and incorporate numerous technical enhancements . t Although the cpi...