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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish the predictors of consumers’ annual monetary expenditures on clothing and footwear in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, a developing Latin American country. Design/methodology/approach The research followed an exploratory, sequential, mixed methods design. The first phase consisted of in-depth interviews with adult individuals. The second phase involved surveying a similar segment of the population. Findings The present study supports the importance of demographic and psychological factors as predictors. The study also identifies two new groups of predictors: consumers’ reception of used clothing and physical space at home and its management. Practical implications In addition to demographic variables, consumer panels that measure expenditures on clothing and footwear should include psychological measures of participants, particularly clothing involvement. Clothing manufacturers and retailers in developing countries should consider the impact of receiving used clothes by consumers. Because clothing buying and disposal behaviors are positively associated, companies should become more involved in their customers’ disposal behavior. Originality/value The contribution of the present study is twofold. First, it contributes to the understanding of clothing and footwear expenditures by considering the individual consumer as a unit of analysis. Furthermore, it provides insights into this behavior from a little-studied context.

Purpose This study aims to analyze the influence of political regime on economic growth. Design/methodology/approach The methodology was based on an inter-period comparison of the evolution of macroeconomic fundamentals in three different political regimes in Ecuador, a South American country. Findings The results showed that what determines the evolution of macroeconomic fundamentals is not the political regime that oversees it, but the size of a positive exogenous shock on the price of raw materials, which, by providing higher incomes, considerably increases the level of investment and net exports. However, the political regime does affect the distribution of income in sectors such as health and education. Originality/value As far as the authors know, this may be the first paper to explore the importance of a positive exogenous shock on a political regime for the case of primary-exporting Latin American economies, which are price takers subject to exogenous shocks.

RESUMENLa investigación que se presenta en el presente artículo tiene como objetivo relacionar tres grupos de variables: utilidad per cápita, participación de mercado y estructura de capital per cápita; con el fin de mostrar la correlación de cada una de estas variables en 17 industrias del sector agrícola ecuatoriano.Los datos que se utilizaron para el análisis de esta correlación fueron los publicados por el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos INEC, correspondientes al último Censo Nacional Económico, realizado en el año 2010.Los resultados muestran que existen correlaciones significativas a niveles de 1% y 5%, entre las variables: utilidad per cápita y participación de mercado, y entre las variables: utilidad per cápita y estructura de capital per cápita, en los sectores de cultivo de cereales (excepto arroz), legumbres y semillas oleaginosas, cultivos de arroz, cultivo de frutas tropicales y subtropicales, cultivo de frutas con hueso y con pepa y cultivo de especias y de plantas aromáticas, medicinales y farmacéuticas.Palabras clave: oligopolio, sector agrícola, correlación, utilidad. ABSTRACTThe research showed in this article has the objective to relate three groups of variables: per capita profit, market share and per capita capital structure; in order to display the correlation of each of these variables in 17 industries of the Ecuadorian agricultural sector. The data used for the analysis of this correlation were those published by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses INEC, corresponding to the last National Economic Census, carried out in 2010. The results show that there are significant correlations at levels of 1% and 5%, among the next variables: per capita profit and market share, additionally the variables per capita income and per capita capital structure, in the sectors of cereal cultivation (except rice), legumes and oilseeds, rice