An empirical investigation of the welfare effects of banning wholesale price discrimination

Economic theory does not provide sharp predictions on the welfare effects of banning wholesale price discrimination: if downstream cost differences exist, then discrimination shifts production inefficiently, toward high‐cost retailers, so a ban increases welfare; if differences in price elasticity of demand across retailers exist, discrimination may increase welfare if quantity sold increases, so a ban reduces welfare. Using retail prices and quantities of coffee brands sold by German retailers, I estimate a model of demand and supply and separate cost and demand differences. Simulating a ban on wholesale price discrimination has positive welfare effects in this market, and less if downstream cost differences shrink, or with less competition.     

非均衡市场下房地产寡头产量竞争研究

在非均衡市场下建立房地产寡头产量竞争动态博弈模型,并分别用理论和数值模拟的方法对其演化加以分析。研究表明,在区域市场非均衡条件下,房地产寡头可以通过重复博弈达成产量竞争均衡;在房地产开发生产技术、管理水平的特定阶段和稳定的税赋政策下,市场供需的非均衡状态和地价房价比决定区域房地产寡头产量博弈的均衡解、均衡稳定性和均衡演化路径,从而决定房地产供给市场的类型。政府宜采取地价房价比控制、市场供需结构调节和税收调整同步的方式调控房地产市场,政策效果相得益彰。     

What is going on in the oil market?

Conclusion In this article, we propose a consistent view on the recent oil-price history based on fundamental data and economic theory. We sum up: After the turn of the century three major stylized shocks have hit market. First, the demand curve has shifted fight outwards, mainly driven, as extensively reported in the media, by sustained growth in China and other Asian Countries. Second, supply disruptions in countries with low extraction costs (Iraq and Venezuela) have shifted the supply curve to the left. Third, we show that speculators adjust their inventories in order to take advantage of predictable price fluctuations and play themselves a major role in the price formation. Optimal storage theory implies that aggregate inventories are negatively related to the oil price and positively to the volatility of supply and demand shocks. We provide evidence that the political events in the last years have increased volatility and induced the inventory curve to shift right outwards. We analyze in a graphical framework the interaction of all these shocks and conclude that speculators have caused the oil price to overshoot in the short run its long-run fundamental value. However, this is not at all attributable to market failure or the harmfulness of speculators. In fact, the opposite is true. Speculators have in general a dampening effect on the oil price. The record oil price in the very recent history is partly a consequence of speculators maintaining or building-up inventories to cope with the supply and demand shocks to come. Hence, high prices represent a short-term toll for future price stability. It follows from our analysis that the oil price is expected to fall towards its long-term mean, provided that no further shocks hit the economy and, critically, the oil supply. As we saw, this prediction is consistent with the observed prices in the futures markets. Also in terms of future price volatility, the outlook is rather upbeat. The increased inventory levels held by speculators will cushion the spot market against fluctuations in natural supply and demand and limit the degree to which the currently high underlying volatility will translate into higher price volatility. We would like to thank Manuel Ammann, Bernd Brommundt, Stephan Kessler, Ralf Seiz, Michael Verhofen, Hemrich von Wyss, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments We are particularly indebted to Sergej Peisotchenko at United Energy System (UES) of Russia and Jan Gjerde at Shell for clearing us up on technical aspects of oil production     

Seemingly Irrational but Predictable Price Formation in Seoul’s Housing Market

This paper tests the dynamics implied by a supplied-constrained view of the relationship between market fundamentals and house prices in the case of Seoul’s condominium market. The view is that supply constraints have led to serious shortages in certain submarkets, and that these shortages have led to a rapid rise in house prices and to panic buying or inflation-induced investing and to further price increases. The estimation period of the test is November 1988–February 2007. The results suggest that house prices in Seoul are highly persistent because of these supply constraints. Additionally, we do what we can with the available data to determine if house price increases serve to increase demand further, and if rent-price ratios and nominal interest rates are a good predictor of how housing prices in Seoul will evolve over time.     

中国城镇居民住房的需求与供给

本文研究了自1980年代后期中国城镇住房商品化以来城镇居民住房的需求与供给。我们从耐用消费品需求与供给的标准理论出发,在联立方程框架下估计城镇住房的需求与供给方程,得到了需求的收入与价格弹性及供给的价格弹性的估计值。通过对1987～2006年全国城镇总体水平年度数据的分析,我们发现城镇住房价格的快速上涨主要可由需求与供给的作用解释,即人均收入和建筑成本的变化决定了房价的整体趋势。城镇住房需求的(长期)收入弹性约为1,需求的价格弹性在0.5到0.6之间。住房存量总供给的价格弹性约为0.83。     

货币政策为何及如何关注食品价格

食品价格是通货膨胀压力的灵敏反映指标,且由于食品部门供应价格弹性、存货缓冲能力、需求价格弹性和生产效率相对较低,产品同质化程度相对较高,食品价格的弹性明显高于非食品价格,加之在通货膨胀和经济周期过程中,食品部门具有需求顺周期和供给逆周期的特征,食品价格波动幅度往往远高于非食品价格,存在一定程度的超调。因此,文章建议货币政策应充分关注食品价格,同时适当提高对食品价格波幅的容忍程度。     

房地产信贷、房价与经济增长——基于东中西部的实证研究

我们选取我国2003-2010年东、中、西部地区的面板数据,对房地产需求和供给收入弹性、房地产市场需求和供给及影响房价的因素、房地产对经济增长的作用进行实证研究发现,西部地区房地产市场的需求和供给收入弹性小于东、中部;房地产价格在需求和供给市场违背一般价格规律;银行信贷对东部地区房价的影响较为明显;中、西部当期需求的增加会促进下一期经济发展。     

Perverse liquidity effect of monetary policy: some evidence for India

The liquidity effect of money supply increases, as policy-oriented measures, would generally lead to a decline in interest rates. This is the direct effect. However, such money supply increases lead to a sum of the direct effect plus the positive indirect price and income effects. In sum, the net effect may be positive leading to a net increase and not a decrease in the interest rate. The regular money demand function is suitably modified to capture the structural changes of the Indian economy to verify the net effect of monetary policy-induced money supply movements. The empirical evidence indicates the presence of a perverse liquidity effect.     

Retail investor information demand – speculating and investing in structured products

We study the impact of retail investor information demand on trading in bank-issued investment and leverage structured products, which are specifically designed for retail investors. Stock-specific information demand positively predicts speculative trading activity. Furthermore, we find a positive relationship between market-wide information demand and order aggressiveness and order uncertainty for speculating and investing activity. Whereas information supply is associated with speculative long positions, information demand does not induce investors to be predominantly long or short. Finally, we do not find retail investor information demand to contribute to an upward price pressure on security prices. In contrast, information supply exerts negative price pressure. Overall, retail investor trading in individual stocks is much more strongly influenced by market-wide information demand instead of firm-specific information demand. This implies a low informational efficiency of retail investor speculation and investing activity.     

Demand effects and speculation in oil markets: Theory and evidence

We present evidence showing the existence of stable cointegrating vectors connecting four important variables in the U.S. and global oil markets: oil production, stocks of crude oil, the real price of oil, and broad measures of income. Our data are monthly, and go back to the 1930s, split into sub-samples which correspond to periods before and after the 1973 crisis. We further show that the cointegrating vectors found in the data accord well with an extended commodity storage model which allows for demand growth dynamics and for supply regimes. Specifically, inventories and price move in opposite directions when supply is flexible, but the relationship reverses so that they comove when supply is inflexible.     

通货膨胀、货币供给与房地产市场关系的实证研究——基于后危机时代数据的考察

我国在2009年底推出的经济政策导致房价和物价不断攀升,央行虽然采取紧缩措施进行应对,但物价和房价仍处高位。对我国货币供给、通货膨胀及房地产之间关系进行理论和实证分析的结果显示:货币供给增加能引起物价和房价上涨;房价上涨能引起物价上涨等。因此,为了更好地应对物价波动,货币政策需关注资产价格,同时应谨慎使用货币政策应对资产泡沫,并密切注意货币流动结构,维持货币供给流向与实体经济发展相适应。     

How do oil supply and demand shocks affect Asian stock markets?

This paper examines how oil market shocks affect Asian stock prices using the structural vector autoregression (VAR) approach. Global oil supply and demand shocks are disentangled using sign restrictions and elasticity bounds. Oil price increases are bad news only if the source is from oil-market-specific demand shifts. Northeast Asian stock markets are more resilient as investors’ expectation of continued economic growth outweighs the adverse effect of higher oil prices. Increased global economic activity also stimulates stock prices. Global oil shocks are more important in explaining variability in Asian stock returns compared with the United States, suggesting different dynamics in Asia.     

从价格调整机制看通货膨胀

我国2004年消费者价格指数连续5个月增速超过5%.5%是公认的安全警戒线:超过5%,即可认为经济过热了,这次经济过热源于投机性的投资过热.其对物价的影响符合价格调整机制理论:当需求超过生产能力时,价格有上升的趋势.受此趋势影响,人们调高对未来价格的预期,价格上涨加速.这预示着如果政府不能有效控制需求和生产能力之间的缺口并改善预期,那么今后物价还有继续恶化的可能.     

Macroeconomic news and treasury futures return volatility: Do treasury auctions matter?

Various macroeconomic announcements are known to influence asset price volatility. In addition to non-farm payrolls, we highlight the importance of Treasury auctions – a news event that has grown in importance due to ongoing Federal deficits. The occurrence of an auction, which increases supply in the underlying cash market, pushes futures prices lower and volatility higher. Conversely, a higher bid-to-cover ratio, indicates greater demand for Treasury securities, increases Treasury futures prices and lowers volatility. The response is consistent with market participants using futures to manage inventory risk. The results are consistent across a set of volatility estimates, and in an alternate conditional volatility framework.     

Dealership market: Market-making with inventory

This study considers the problem of a price-setting monopolistic market-maker in a dealership market where the stochastic demand and supply are depicted by price-dependent Poisson processes [following Garman (1976)]. The crux of the analysis is the dependence of the bid-ask prices on the market-maker's stock inventory position. We derive the optimal policy and its characteristics and compare it to Garman's. The results are shown to be consistent with some conjectures and observed phenomena, like the existence of a ‘preferred’ inventory position and the downward monotonicity of the bid-ask prices. For linear demand and supply functions we derive the behavior of the bid-ask spread and show that the transaction-to-transaction price behavior is intertemporally dependent. However, we prove that it is impossible to make a profit on this price dependence by trading against the market-maker. Thus, in this situation, serially dependent price-changes are consistent with the market efficiency hypothesis.     

Stock Crashes and Jumps Reactions to Information Demand and Supply: An Intraday Analysis

The objective of this paper is to examine the possible linkage between the intraday stock price crashes and jumps and public information by using data from the Chinese stock market and Baidu Index. We divided public information into two kinds of information: supply through online media and information demand across inquiries by individual investors. Using a large sample from Chinese listed firms from 2013 to 2019, our evidence clearly indicates that online information supply and demand both have a positive impact on the intraday crashes and jumps; this is, the firm with higher information supply and demand more likely to experience intraday crashes and jumps. The results are robust to an alternative measure of crash risk. Moreover, we further examine whether the market conditions have an impact on the relationship between information flow and intraday crashes and jumps, and find that the marginal effect of information supply on intraday price crashes and jumps is smaller in the bull market phase. Moreover, the bull market phase enhances the effect of information demand on intraday price crashes and jumps.

     

2006年石油价格展望

本文对影响2006年石油价格的因素做了系统分析。认为2006年形成油价风险的主要动因已从需求的波动转向供给的波动;2006年油价将由于供求的脆弱平衡维持高位运行的格局,并且,由于供给链中潜在的危机,油价波动性将会非常大;但在全球经济增速下降、石油需求增长放缓、石油生产国家和公司仍然在努力满足市场需求、炼油瓶颈有望缓和的大背景下,油价在2006年按2005年可比价格计不会大幅上升,不会对全球经济产生重大负面影响。     

The demand effect of yield-chasing retail investors: Evidence from the Chinese enterprise bond market

Enterprise bonds with higher demand of retail investors are traded at significantly higher prices in the exchange market than the same bonds traded by institutional investors in the interbank market in China. The price difference is higher for bonds with higher yield to maturity, lower supply, and higher demand exposure to retail investors. Our results suggest that risky bonds can be priced significantly higher due to the demand of yield-chasing investors and a sudden negative demand shock can generate a sharp decrease in bond values. The demand and supply effects are stronger for bonds with higher duration due to the limited risk-sharing capacity of risk-averse arbitrageurs.     

中国原油价格的外生性检验

本文基于条件ECM模型,对中国原油价格与原油供给和需求以及影响供给和需求的国内生产总值和原油已探明储量的内生性或外生性进行检验。结果表明,原油价格具有弱外生性、强外生性的特点,已经成为中国经济体系的外生变量;中国原油价格脱离国内供求关系,没有完全反映中国自身原油资源稀缺程度。中国势必要推进原油定价机制的转型,为夺取定价权提供基础。     

物业税改革对房地产价格的影响——基于2002~2011年中国省际面板数据的实证研究

基于供需视角,依据2002~2011年中国30个省（市、自治区）的面板数据,构建整体及东、中、西区域面板模型,分析了物业税对不同区域房价的影响。结果表明,物业税对房价具有抑制作用,且对各区域影响存在一定差异,鉴此,物业税应实行国际差异化。