Asking About Prices

Asking About Prices PDF Author: Alan Blinder
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440684
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Why do consumer prices and wages adjust so slowly to changes in market conditions? The rigidity or stickiness of price setting in business is central to Keynesian economic theory and a key to understanding how monetary policy works, yet economists have made little headway in determining why it occurs. Asking About Prices offers a groundbreaking empirical approach to a puzzle for which theories abound but facts are scarce. Leading economist Alan Blinder, along with co-authors Elie Canetti, David Lebow, and Jeremy B. Rudd, interviewed a national, multi-industry sample of 200 CEOs, company heads, and other corporate price setters to test the validity of twelve prominent theories of price stickiness. Using everyday language and pertinent scenarios, the carefully designed survey asked decisionmakers how prominently these theoretical concerns entered into their own attitudes and thought processes. Do businesses tend to view the costs of changing prices as prohibitive? Do they worry that lower prices will be equated with poorer quality goods? Are firms more likely to try alternate strategies to changing prices, such as warehousing excess inventory or improving their quality of service? To what extent are prices held in place by contractual agreements, or by invisible handshakes? Asking About Prices offers a gold mine of previously unavailable information. It affirms the widespread presence of price stickiness in American industry, and offers the only available guide to such business details as what fraction of goods are sold by fixed price contract, how often transactions involve repeat customers, and how and when firms review their prices. Some results are surprising: contrary to popular wisdom, prices do not increase more easily than they decrease, and firms do not appear to practice anticipatory pricing, even when they can foresee cost increases. Asking About Prices also offers a chapter-by-chapter review of the survey findings for each of the twelve theories of price stickiness. The authors determine which theories are most popular with actual price setters, how practices vary within different business sectors, across firms of different sizes, and so on. They also direct economists' attention toward a rationale for price stickiness that does not stem from conventional theory, namely a strong reluctance by firms to antagonize or inconvenience their customers. By illuminating how company executives actually think about price setting, Asking About Prices provides an elegant model of a valuable new approach to conducting economic research.

Asking About Prices

Asking About Prices PDF Author: Alan Blinder
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440684
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why do consumer prices and wages adjust so slowly to changes in market conditions? The rigidity or stickiness of price setting in business is central to Keynesian economic theory and a key to understanding how monetary policy works, yet economists have made little headway in determining why it occurs. Asking About Prices offers a groundbreaking empirical approach to a puzzle for which theories abound but facts are scarce. Leading economist Alan Blinder, along with co-authors Elie Canetti, David Lebow, and Jeremy B. Rudd, interviewed a national, multi-industry sample of 200 CEOs, company heads, and other corporate price setters to test the validity of twelve prominent theories of price stickiness. Using everyday language and pertinent scenarios, the carefully designed survey asked decisionmakers how prominently these theoretical concerns entered into their own attitudes and thought processes. Do businesses tend to view the costs of changing prices as prohibitive? Do they worry that lower prices will be equated with poorer quality goods? Are firms more likely to try alternate strategies to changing prices, such as warehousing excess inventory or improving their quality of service? To what extent are prices held in place by contractual agreements, or by invisible handshakes? Asking About Prices offers a gold mine of previously unavailable information. It affirms the widespread presence of price stickiness in American industry, and offers the only available guide to such business details as what fraction of goods are sold by fixed price contract, how often transactions involve repeat customers, and how and when firms review their prices. Some results are surprising: contrary to popular wisdom, prices do not increase more easily than they decrease, and firms do not appear to practice anticipatory pricing, even when they can foresee cost increases. Asking About Prices also offers a chapter-by-chapter review of the survey findings for each of the twelve theories of price stickiness. The authors determine which theories are most popular with actual price setters, how practices vary within different business sectors, across firms of different sizes, and so on. They also direct economists' attention toward a rationale for price stickiness that does not stem from conventional theory, namely a strong reluctance by firms to antagonize or inconvenience their customers. By illuminating how company executives actually think about price setting, Asking About Prices provides an elegant model of a valuable new approach to conducting economic research.

The Book of Questions

The Book of Questions PDF Author: Gregory Stock
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761177310
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The phenomenon returns! Originally published in 1987, The Book of Questions, a New York Times bestseller, has been completely revised and updated to incorporate the myriad cultural shifts and hot-button issues of the past twenty-five years, making it current and even more appealing. This is a book for personal growth, a tool for deepening relationships, a lively conversation starter for the family dinner table, a fun way to pass the time in the car. It poses over 300 questions that invite people to explore the most fascinating of subjects: themselves and how they really feel about the world. The revised edition includes more than 100 all-new questions that delve into such topics as the disappearing border between man and machine—How would you react if you learned that a sad and beautiful poem that touched you deeply had been written by a computer? The challenges of being a parent—Would you completely rewrite your child’s college-application essays if it would help him get into a better school? The never-endingly interesting topic of sex—Would you be willing to give up sex for a year if you knew it would give you a much deeper sense of peace than you now have? And of course the meaning of it all—If you were handed an envelope with the date of your death inside, and you knew you could do nothing to alter your fate, would you look? The Book of Questions may be the only publication that challenges—and even changes—the way you view the world, without offering a single opinion of its own.

The Art of Asking

The Art of Asking PDF Author: Amanda Palmer
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1455581070
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter. Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of The Art of Asking. Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. The Art of Asking will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.

The Book of Beautiful Questions

The Book of Beautiful Questions PDF Author: Warren Berger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1632869586
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of A More Beautiful Question, hundreds of big and small questions that harness the magic of inquiry to tackle challenges we all face--at work, in our relationships, and beyond. When confronted with almost any demanding situation, the act of questioning can help guide us to smart decisions. By asking questions, we can analyze, learn, and move forward in the face of uncertainty. But "questionologist" Warren Berger says that the questions must be the right ones; the ones that cut to the heart of complexity or enable us to see an old problem in a fresh way. In The Book of Beautiful Questions, Berger shares illuminating stories and compelling research on the power of inquiry. Drawn from the insights and expertise of psychologists, innovators, effective leaders, and some of the world's foremost creative thinkers, he presents the essential questions readers need to make the best choices when it truly counts, with a particular focus in four key areas: decision-making, creativity, leadership, and relationships. The powerful questions in this book can help you: - Identify opportunities in your career or industry - Generate fresh ideas in business or in your own creative pursuits - Check your biases so you can make better judgments and decisions - Do a better job of communicating and connecting with the people around you Thoughtful, provocative, and actionable, these beautiful questions can be applied immediately to bring about change in your work or your everyday life.

Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto

Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto PDF Author: Jenny Price
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039354088X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
"Pithy, funny, exasperated, and informed…You cannot read a more important hundred pages than Stop Saving the Planet!" —Richard White, author of The Republic for Which It Stands We’ve been "saving the planet" for decades!…And environmental crises just get worse. All this hybrid driving and LEED building and carbon trading seems to accomplish little to nothing—and low-income communities continue to suffer the worst consequences. Why aren’t we cleaning up the toxic messes and rolling back climate change? And why do so many Americans hate environmentalists? Jenny Price says Enough already! with this short, fun, fierce manifesto for an environmentalism that is hugely more effective, a whole lot fairer, and infinitely less righteous. She challenges you, corporate sustainability officers, and the EPA to think and act completely anew—and to start right now—to ensure a truly habitable future.

Secrets of Question-Based Selling

Secrets of Question-Based Selling PDF Author: Thomas Freese
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402287534
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
"After I sent my team to the Question Based Selling program, not only was the feedback from the training outstanding, but we experienced an immediate positive impact in results."—Jim Cusick, vice president of sales, SAP America, Inc. "Following the program, even our most experienced salespeople raved, saying QBS was the best sales training they have ever experienced!"—Alan D. Rohrer, director of sales, Hewlett Packard For nearly fifteen years, The Secrets of Question Based Selling has been helping great salespeople live you deliver big results. It's commonsense approach has become a classic, must-have tool that demonstrates how asking the right questions at the right time accurately identifies your customer's needs. But consumer behavior and sales techniques change as rapidly as technology—and there are countless contradictory sales training programs promising results. Knowing where you should turn to for success can be confusing. Now fully revised and updated, The Secrets of Question Based Selling provides a step-by-step, easy-to-follow program that focuses specifically on sales effectiveness—identifying the strategies and techniques that will increase your probability of success. How you sell has become more important than the product. With this hands-on guide, you will learn to: Penetrate more accounts Overcome customer skepticism Establish more credibility sooner Generate more return calls Motivate different types of buyers Develop more internal champions Close more sales...faster And much, much more

Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies

Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies PDF Author: Richard B. McKenzie
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387770011
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This entertaining book seeks to unravel an array of pricing puzzles from the one captured in the book’s title to why so many prices end with "9" (as in $2.99 or $179). Along the way, the author explains how the 9/11 terrorists have, through the effects of their heinous acts on the relative prices of various modes of travel, killed more Americans since 9/11 than they killed that fateful day. He also explains how well-meaning efforts to spur the use of alternative, supposedly environmentally friendly fuels have starved millions of people around the world and given rise to the deforestation of rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Asking Price

The Asking Price PDF Author: Henry Cecil
Publisher: House of Stratus
ISBN: 1842320440
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Ronald Holbrook is a fifty-seven year old bachelor who has lived in the same house for twenty years. Jane Doughty, the daughter of his next-door neighbours, is seventeen. She suddenly decides she is in love with Ronald and wants to marry him. Everyone is amused at first but then events take a disturbingly sinister turn and Ronald finds himself enmeshed in a potentially tragic situation.

The Price We Pay

The Price We Pay PDF Author: Marty Makary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635574129
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.

How to Marry the Man of Your Choice

How to Marry the Man of Your Choice PDF Author: Margaret Kent
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 044651019X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Before there was The Rules there was the wildly bestselling How to Marry the Man of Your Choice, now revised and updated for a whole new generation of single women. Presented with intelligence and peppered with just the right amount of humor, HOW TO MARRY THE MAN OF YOUR CHOICE offers women a step-by-step program for making—and then landing—the very best choice in a husband. Topics covered include: How to dress to your advantage How to orchestrate your dates to maximize fun and future potential Dealing with previous marriages and children Enhancing and maintaining the right relationship and more! Through its use of success stories, do and don’t lists, and an abundance of insightful advice, HOW TO MARRY THE MAN OF YOUR CHOICE will have every wannabe wife walking down the aisle in no time!