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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between beliefs and economic policy in the context of gasoline prices following Hurricane Katrina.

The paper applies three contributions – by North, Caplan and Higgs – to the question of gasoline pricing policy; and surveys public opinion regarding interference with prices.

The paper identifies evidence of “anti‐market bias” in polling data, press releases, and legislation, and argues that the uncertainty emanating from statutes restricting “price gouging” may reduce investment in the provision of “necessary goods and services” after natural disasters.

The paper is of value in offering evidence of anti‐market and anti‐foreign bias among what might be called political first responders to Hurricane Katrina, and posits the view that interference with prices compounded the shortages facing the Gulf coast or any other disaster‐stricken area.

The concept of “price gouging” during times of emergency, such as in the aftermath of Katrina, often evokes quite an emotional and reactive response from people who are outraged that stores and companies would increase their prices during a time of emergency. The problem is that people do not realize that, in times of emergency, the market price they knew before is no longer adequate. Government intervention is not the answer to this “problem.” The purpose of this paper is to explore basic concepts of economics, to glean a better perspective of the justification for raising prices during times of emergency, as well as what would happen if there were not laws preventing this very necessary practice.

The paper addresses some “basic concepts” of economics and applies them to emergency situations, preeminently the dire plight of New Orleans and the Gulf coast after Katrina.

The paper finds that a government passes legislation preventing price gouging based on the implicit premise that it can allocate resources more efficiently than the market. By doing so, it alleges that it knows what the people want better than entrepreneurs who sink or swim based on their ability to anticipate matters of this sort. The paper voices the view that government regulation is nothing short of a disaster as far as satisfying customers is concerned.

The paper is of value in offering the forthright view that during times of disaster, prices must be allowed to adjust as a signal to producers and consumers alike. Consumers will utilize less of these goods, and producers will increase their output. As the supply adjusts following the price increase, goods and services will get to those who want them the most and are willing to pay for them. The paper posits the view that this will undoubtedly be a more effective way to distribute supplies to hurricane victims – price controls must be repealed, and the free market must be allowed to work via the beneficent invisible hand, not by the stultifying hands of the bureaucrats and politicians.

Purpose – Everyday human behavior is complicated and difficult to understand. When a disaster event is factored in, human behavior becomes even more complicated. Much like during routine times where resources are unequally distributed, so too are the impacts of a disaster. That is, people are more and less vulnerable to disaster and the damage a disaster inflicts has more to do with the social context (type of housing, level of urbanization, average level of education) of the impacted community. Part of the social context of a community that is not considered part of vulnerability analysis is rates of crime. Indeed, there is reliable evidence that demonstrates lawlessness and crime do not happen after “typical” disasters (e.g., see Quarantelli, 2005). However, we are beginning to see antisocial or conflict behavior, such as looting, price gouging, and violence, especially in more recent events like Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina.

Design/methodology/approach – Using the case studies of Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina, this chapter applies conflict and structural strain theories to lawlessness post-disaster, and makes call to consider these theories as part of disaster studies.

Findings – There are emerging patterns of lawlessness that are happening after contemporary disaster events.

Value of the paper – Considerable research posits that people, for the most part, act in consensus following a typical disaster event. However, current events like Hurricane Katrina are by no means typical, and, in fact, trigger new typologies for understanding acute crisis events. These new events are showing us that what have traditionally been called disaster myths may be becoming more of a reality than we once thought. Therefore, criminology of disaster is important to develop further. Little research does this, outside of Harper and Frailing (2010).

The purpose of this paper is to apply economic and ethical analysis to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina to determine which approaches to disaster relief work best and which should be abandoned.

This paper provides a combination of narrative with argument and analysis.

Government involvement in disaster relief has proven to be economically inefficient and also rights‐violating. Private sector initiatives and economic and political freedom provide better solutions.

The findings point to ways that can improve the economic efficiency of providing disaster relief while also safeguarding property and contract rights.

This paper combines economic and ethical analysis and includes discussions from the perspectives of both utilitarian ethics and rights‐based ethics, which is not usually done in the economics literature.

The purpose of this article is to review the alternatives and to demonstrate the easily measurable benefits of savvy searching for airfares.

A desk‐based approach to data collection is used.

It is found that by exploring the best deals through savvy searching can yield instantly measurable benefits. Depending on travel patterns, being a savvy travel searcher can easily save enough money to yield a very good return on investment.

The article highlights some points and reinforces others on some of the best practices for savvy searching.

The purpose of this study paper is to focus on developing novel ways to monitor an economy in real time during the COVID-19 pandemic. A fully automated framework is proposed for collecting and analyzing online food prices in Poland. This is important, as the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe in 2020 has led many governments to impose lockdowns that have prevented manual price data collection from food outlets. The study primarily addresses whether food price inflation can be accurately measured during the pandemic using only a laptop and Internet connection, without needing to rely on official statistics.

The big data approach was adopted to track food price inflation in Poland. Using the web-scraping technique, daily price information about individual food and non-alcoholic beverage products sold in online stores was gathered.

Based on raw online data, reliable estimates of monthly and annual food inflation were provided about 30 days before final official indexes were published.

This is the first paper to focus on measuring inflation in real time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monthly and annual food price inflation are estimated in real time and updated daily, thereby improving previous forecasting solutions with weekly or monthly indicators. Using daily frequency price data deepens understanding of price developments and enables more timely detection of inflation trends, both of which are useful for policymakers and market participants. This study also provides a review of crucial issues regarding inflation that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial‐ and growth‐oriented marketing objectives of traditional marketers have been criticized by marketing ethicists, because these objectives may lead to socially irresponsible marketing practices. Marketing based on the quality‐of‐life (QOL) concept posits that marketers should strive to enhance consumers’ wellbeing without harming other publics or stakeholders. Shows how marketing managers can set marketing objectives based on the QOL concept to guide socially responsible marketing practices. Develops a conceptual framework for setting marketing objectives. The framework shows that marketing managers with a QOL frame of mind should first examine the marketing policies that have been criticized by marketing ethicists. Second, marketing managers should logically drive specific marketing mix objectives based on the QOL concept. Third, general marketing objectives should be deduced from the marketing mix objectives for socially responsible marketing.

Using the pharmaceutical sector as a microcosm of the health sector, we highlight the most prevalent structural and policy issues that make this sector susceptible to corruption and ways in which these vulnerabilities can be addressed. We conducted a literature review of publications from 2004 to 2015 that included books, peer-reviewed literature, as well as gray literature such as working papers, reports published by international organizations and donor agencies, and newspaper articles discussing this topic. We found that vulnerabilities to corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occur due to a lack of good governance, accountability, transparency, and proper oversight in each of the decision points of the pharmaceutical supply chain. What works best to limit corruption is context specific and linked to the complexity of the sector. At a global level, tackling corruption involves hard and soft international laws and the creation of international standards and guidelines for national governments and the pharmaceutical industry. At a national level, including civil society in decision-making and monitoring is also often cited as a positive mechanism against corruption. Anticorruption measures tend to be specific to the particular “site” of the pharmaceutical system and include improving institutional checks and balances like stronger and better implemented regulations and better oversight and protection for “whistle blowers,” financial incentives to refrain from engaging in corrupt behavior, and increasing the use of technology in processes to minimize human discretion. This chapter was adapted from a discussion piece published by Transparency International UK entitled Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Diagnosing the Challenges.

This paper seeks to offer a retrospective look at an intellectual journey in and out of using actor‐network theory, which the author drew on to carry out an in‐depth case study of the troubled implementation of a computerised reservation system in a major transport company. The application of some key ANT concepts, i.e. human and non‐human actors, symmetry and translation, is reflected upon, highlighting their benefits and limitations.

The paper's aims are accomplished through a confessional account of how it was done, rather than a normative post hoc justification. Some empirical evidence is provided to illustrate the difficulties and problems encountered in travelling back and forth between theory, methodology and data.

In particular, ANT was very useful in focusing the paper on how to look at IS success and failure symmetrically and how social and technical distinctions are socially constructed, for instance in the conception and application of yield management software. Formulating a series of translations to encompass a large number of actors is shown to have provided some explanatory capacity. But a limitation is how to relate local and global actors, which is also a matter of power relations and politics.

The paper explains why, as a late and unplanned reaction to this, but also in contradiction with ANT principles, it ended up complementing ANT with Clegg's theory of power to bridge that gap. The paper concludes with a discussion of where the difficulties lie in using ANT and how it can be misused in IS research; the author argues that this is due to a lack of exposure to post‐structuralism in IS research, compared with other management‐related disciplines; and that recent efforts by scholars in the science and technology studies field to combine constructivist approaches such as ANT with critical social analysis should be considered.