Economists have been trying to work out how, other things being equal, changes in the tax price will affect behaviour.
Just as conventional inflation can distort the allocation of resources, so asset-price inflation distorts economic behaviour by causing households to save too little and to pour too much money into property.
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Three professors (from Stanford, INSEAD and MIT, respectively) have come up with a variation on this theme: that the price paid can also influence behaviour.
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They alleged that AIG had engaged in stock price manipulation, anti-competitive behaviour and accounting fraud between 1999 and 2005.
He said: "He has paid a high price for his foolish and unprofessional behaviour, " he added, saying Giff never missed a check during his motorcycle patrol in the capital.
"As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders but we strongly believe that tackling the issue of copyright infringement needs compelling legal alternatives, giving consumers access to great content at the right price, to help change consumer behaviour, " it said.
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Warfare spawns brutality, but if a principle can be established that those guilty of the worst behaviour may later pay a price for it, some of those involved in future conflicts may think twice before committing atrocities on Bosnia's sickening scale.
The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund lobbied against JBS before the antitrust committee of America's Senate, warning of price-gouging of farmers and anti-competitive behaviour, and got a sympathetic hearing.
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The secret here is to stay focused on that all critical buyer behaviour: the visitor abandoned because of price objections or because they were not yet ready to buy.
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But one of Chicago's proudest feats was the creation of financial futures markets, which prompted far-flung firms and farmers to adjust their behaviour to the slightest twitch in the price of pork futures or Canadian dollars.
The fact that some markets, including Wall Street's, recovered quickly suggests that the fall was based on short-lived copy-cat behaviour by traders worried by steep share-price drops in Hong Kong, rather than by important new information about the value of American shares.
Don Shenker, of Alcohol Concern, thinks a minimum price of at least 40p per unit might begin to affect behaviour.
Although it has put forward ideas for replacing price supports with direct subsidies, its plan would not much change farmers' behaviour.
In the course of trading, if certain observations about market behaviour are correct, any new information will be rapidly assimilated and reflected in the price.
If the chancellor were to ape the often cynical behaviour of big companies when faced with similar accounting dilemmas, he would probably choose the lowest possible price - of 407p.
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