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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Watch “The Ka-Ching Dynasty” Documentary

Excellent documentary on China’s fuerdai (or “2nd generation rich”) by Journeyman Pictures […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Swiss watches clocking up record sales in China

Chinese consumers are helping to boost the Swiss watch industry, with exports worth 19.3 billion Swiss francs (US$21.1 billion) last year, an industry report shows …

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Economics Trend Watching

Watch Esther Duflo’ “Social experiments to fight poverty” talk at TED

Alleviating poverty is more guesswork than science, and lack of data on aid’s impact raises questions about how to provide it. But Clark Medal-winner Esther Duflo says it’s possible to know which development efforts help and which hurt — by testing solutions with randomized trials […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Cost of living hurts Shanghai’s ranking

Soaring living costs and high housing prices are negatively affecting how Shanghai residents feel about their quality of life, according to a nationwide economic survey released recently […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Richer, but not happier

Studies are backing up some of the suspicions I (and many other people who live here): Rising incomes in China are failing to bring greater happiness to broad swathes of the population. Rising prices and growing income inequality appear to be undermining any expected gains, and may be sowing the seeds of social unrest [..]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Information Technology in Brazil: Computer reached 45% of Brazilian households in 2011

Internet access was present in 38% of homes last year, an increase from 27% in 2010 […]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Internet in Brazil: 33% of Brazilians have Internet access at home

Brazil is currently ranked 63rd in the world ranking of 154 countries. In Sweden, 97% of households have Internet access […]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Internet in Brazil: more smartphones than France and Germany, says study

Brazil has 27 million users of these, 42% access the web daily. Of those accessing the web, 80% access social networks on their device […]

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Design Economics Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Eduardo Paes’ “The 4 commandments of cities” talk at TED

Eduardo Paes is the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, a sprawling, complicated, beautiful city of 6.5 million. He shares four big ideas about leading Rio — and all cities — into the future, including bold (and do-able) infrastructure upgrades and how to make a city “smarter.” […]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Internet in Brazil: nearly 80 million Internet users, says survey

Brazil had 79.9 million Internet users by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a survey released by Ibope. According to the study, growth was 2% over the previous quarter, 8% over the same period in 2010 and 19% over 2009 […]