Economy – Page 45 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

‘Chinese Households Save More than American Households’

By Guest PostAugust 12, 2011Economy2008 survey of chinese consumer finance and investor education, american 2007 survey of consumer finances, american households, China, chinese and american households, chinese culture, chinese households, global economy, global households, households, recent chinese economic reforms, rui yao, saving money, savings habits of households, two countries, united states, university of missouri, world most powerful economies

*Saving motives a major factor in increased household savings*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – With the global economy in a state of unrest, saving money seems to be an obvious strategy for households to protect themselves. But are global households saving enough? Researchers at the University of Missouri have compared savings habits of households from two of the world’s most powerful economies: China and the United States. Rui Yao, an assistant professor in the personal financial planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, found that urban Chinese households, on average, save much more than American households. She says the difference stems from saving motives.

“Saving is one of the critical tools that households utilize to achieve financial goals and to improve financial well-being,” Yao said. “By looking at saving motives for households in each country, we hope to explain the difference in saving rates across these two countries.” (more…)

Money isn’t Everything for Well-Being, Study Finds

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2011Economymeasures of prosperity, prosperity gap, wealth gap, well being gap

The Pew Research Center recently reported that the wealth gap between American whites and blacks is the widest since the United States began tracking the statistic in 1984 — with whites, on average, having 20 times the net worth of blacks. However, another recent study contends traditional measures of prosperity that only look at economic factors, while important, are not the best gauges of overall well-being. (more…)

Significant Natural Gas Resources Remain to Be Discovered in Cook Inlet, Alaska

By Guest PostJuly 1, 2011Economy, Environmentalaska, alaska division of oil and gas, brenda pierce, coalbed gas, cook inlet, cook inlet region, natural gas, oil and gas resources, petroleum potential, U.S. Geological Survey, usgs, usgs assessment

The Cook Inlet Region of Alaska contains an estimated mean of 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 600 million barrels of oil, and 46 million barrels of natural gas liquids, according to a new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This estimate is of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources, and includes both unconventional and conventional resources.

These gas estimates are significantly more than the last USGS assessment of southern Alaska in 1995, in which a mean of 2.14 trillion cubic feet of gas was estimated. This increase in the undiscovered resource is attributed to new geologic information and data. (more…)

Public Firms Weathered Recession Better Than Expected

By Guest PostJune 19, 2011EconomyAIG, bank, bank losses from toxic assets, credit supply, financial crisis, kathy kahle, lehman brothers, neiman marcus, ohio state university, operation of the credit channel, professor of finance, rené m stulz, smaller firms, subprime mortgages, university of arizona

The prevailing narrative of the financial crisis revolves around banks’ reduced ability to issue loans, but a new paper by University of Arizona associate professor of finance Kathy Kahle reveals that the credit supply shock did not affect publicly traded firms as much as expected.

Bank losses from toxic assets were responsible for the credit contraction, but those toxic assets – mostly mortgage-backed securities – are not directly related to the performance of industrial firms. (more…)

UF: Florida Population Soars in Century’s First Decade, But Rate is Slowing

By Guest PostJune 15, 2011Economyannual population increases, economic growth, flagler and sumter counties, florida, growth rates, hillsborough county, metropolitan city, miami dade county, monroe, orange county, palm coast, pinellas, population growth, projections, stan smith, university of florida, warrington college of business administration

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida was again one of the country’s leaders in population growth in the last decade, but the growth rates over the past few years have been among the lowest in the state’s history, according to a new study by the University of Florida.

Florida’s permanent resident population increased by more than 2.8 million between 2000 and 2010 — an increase of 17.6 percent to 18,801,310. That mark was the third-largest numeric increase and the eighth-largest percentage increase in the country. However, the growth rate lagged behind previous periods for the state, and projections are the growth rate will steadily decline through 2040. (more…)

The Downside and Surprising Upside of Microcredit

By Guest PostJune 12, 2011Economyhow microcredit works, impacts of microcredit, microcredit, microcredit lending, microcredit ventures, small business, study of microloans

Microcredit, which involves giving small loans to very small businesses in an effort to promote entrepreneurship, has been widely touted as a way to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth. A multitude of both non- and for-profit institutions are spending billions of dollars each year on microcredit ventures in developing nations around the globe. (more…)

To Boost Customer Satisfaction, Business Owners Should Pay Attention to Employee Job Satisfaction, MU Business Researcher Finds

By Guest PostJune 4, 2011Economycustomer loyalty, customer satisfaction, job satisfaction, repurchase intentions

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Previous studies have shown that customer satisfaction plays a key role in the health and future success of any company. When customers are satisfied, they keep coming back to the same store and invite their friends to do the same. Now, a new study from the University of Missouri has found that CEOs who pay attention to employees’ job satisfaction are able to boost both customer satisfaction and “repurchase intentions,” or the number of customers that intend to purchase products from the store. (more…)

Why Russians Think Americans Don’t Own Their Homes

By Guest PostMay 22, 2011Culture, Economyamerican housing system, american model, credit card debt, fannie mae, free market economy, home ownership, homeowners, housing the new russia, jane zavisca, metaphor, mortgage, russia, russian government, russians, sociologist, soviet era, soviet era housing, soviet union, university of arizona

*UA sociologist Jane Zavisca says the two countries are polar opposites when it comes to mortgage financing.*

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, one of the structural problems the new government and free-market economy had to deal with was housing. Most Russians lived in government-owned apartments that had been built beginning in the late 1950s. The question then became, who owned all of that Soviet-era housing?

In her new book, “Housing the New Russia,” due to be published by Cornell University Press, Jane Zavisca said the new Russian government dealt with it by announcing that this huge stock of apartments was, as of 1992, privately owned. (more…)

Category Archives: Economy