环境和经济兼容:一次性木筷产业持续发展之路

本文针对一次性木筷产业发展的两种对立观点,分析了一次性木筷产业可以实行环境和经济兼容的可行性,提出了实现一次性木筷产业可持续发展的产品替代问题、产品回收问题和财政措施.     

THE DEMAND FOR BEVERAGES AND INTERBEVERAGE SUBSTITUTION IN THE UNITED STATES

The analysis in this paper is directed at measuring the substitution between seven beverages consumed in the United States with the objective of shedding some light on just what is the relevant market for antitrust purposes. With regard to the overall beverage market considerations, there is a clear indication that consumers do substitute between different types of beverages. What must be subjectively resolved, however, is whether the extent of the indicated substitution is of significant enough magnitude to infer that two different beverages are in the same product market.     

Strategic interoperability standards and trade taxes

In a two-country international trade framework, the paper considers the interplay between the governments' incentives for conducting traditional trade policies and their incentives for the policies toward compatibility between the products of the firms competing in the international market. The model assumes that one domestic and one foreign firm supply partially incompatible products for the home country market while consumers value both variety and a network externality. Motivated by the benefits of the network externality, the home government sets a standard requiring the foreign firm to guarantee a minimum level of compatibility between its own product and the product of the domestic rival. The paper analyzes the home country standard setting and import tariff policies as well as the incentives of the foreign country for imposing the export tax and conducting a policy which enhances the degree of compatibility between the rival products in the export market.     

Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly With Network Compatibility Effects

We consider the efficiency of price and quantity competition in a network products market, where we observe product compatibility with network externalities (hereafter, network compatibility effects). In particular, if network compatibility effects between firms are sufficiently asymmetric, the Cournot equilibrium is more efficient than the Bertrand equilibrium in terms of larger consumer, producer and total surpluses. Then, we consider an endogenous choice of the strategic variables, price and quantity. If the degree of network compatibility effects of the rival firm is larger (smaller) than the degree of product substitutability, then choosing prices (quantities) is a dominant strategy for the firm. Thus, if the network compatibility effects of both firms are larger (smaller), the Bertrand (Cournot) equilibrium arises. Furthermore, if the network compatibility effects between the firms are sufficiently asymmetric, the firm with a larger (smaller) network compatibility effect than a certain level of product substitutability chooses quantities (prices). In this case, the Cournot–Bertrand equilibrium arises, which is less (more) efficient than the Cournot equilibrium in terms of consumer (producer) surplus.     

Intra-competition between the Asian Four Little Dragons in US Markets

Using an optimizing model of import demands, the degree of competition between the Four Little Dragons in the US market are examined. This paper finds that the exports by Hong Kong can be substituted by Taiwan, and vice versa. Hong Kong and Singapore have some degree of substitution, although Singapore tends to have low elasticities of substitution with Taiwan and South Korea. Moreover, the relatively low own-price elasticities for Singapore and South Korea indicate their exporting goods are up-scaled. This suggests that non-price factors like product quality may be of importance in penetrating the US market.     

绿色新创企业NPD组织环境对变革型领导与绿色产品创新的中介关系研究

为了探索实施绿色创业战略时变革型领导在利用式绿色产品创新和探索式绿色产品创新中的作用，将新产品开发（NPD）组织环境作为变革型领导与绿色产品创新间的中介变量，将NPD组织环境划分为兼容性与重要性和资源综效，构建了变革型领导-新产品开发组织环境-绿色产品创新的连锁关系模型，并以国内4个城市218家企业为样本进行实证分析。研究发现：变革型领导可以通过对新产品开发组织环境的掌控间接控制利用式绿色产品创新和探索式绿色产品创新两类创新，当组织需要开发探索式绿色产品时，变革型领导可以通过加强和突显新产品开发组织环境的兼容性与重要性，促进探索式绿色产品创新；当组织需要开发利用式绿色产品时，变革型领导可以通过加强和突显新产品开发组织环境的资源综效，促进利用式绿色产品创新。     

Trade Performances, Product Quality Perceptions, and the Estimation of Trade Price Elasticities

Traditional trade models ignoring the dimension of product quality generally lead to excessively low trade price elasticities. This paper estimates import market share equations including a quality image proxy derived from survey data. The estimation results, based on panel data for the four main EU member states, confirm the part played by product quality perceptions in the estimation of trade price elasticities, at least for highly differentiated products. Introducing the quality image proxy into the models leads to a significant increase in the price elasticities, which thus become superior to unity, in conformity with theoretical elasticities of substitution.     

微观视角下的养老金替代率与居民消费行为

老龄化背景下,中国养老金“并轨”开始启动,低替代率问题逐渐显露。本文借鉴缓冲储备储蓄理论,首次从微观角度基于养老金并轨和替代率两方面研究养老金制度对于家庭消费行为的影响。结论显示,我国养老金“多轨制”和养老金替代率均显著影响居民消费行为。机关事业单位人员比企业及其他人员消费倾向更高;在控制养老金“并轨”问题后,提高养老金替代率有助于刺激城镇居民增加消费支出。这些均对低收入和女性户主家庭更为明显。     

Optimal compatibility in systems markets

We investigate private and social incentives for standardization to ensure market-wide system compatibility in a two-dimensional spatial competition model. We develop a new methodology to analyze competition on a torus and show that there is a fundamental conflict of interests between consumers and producers over the standardization decision. Consumers prefer standardization with full compatibility because it offers more variety that confers a better match with their ideal specifications. However, firms are likely to choose the minimal compatibility to maximize product differentiation and soften competition. This is in sharp contrast to the previous literature that shows the alignment of private and social incentives for compatibility.     

Determinants for forecasting technological substitution

This paper investigates the factors determining the rate of technological substitution and evaluates the prospects for forecasting models based on market-share data only. Studies on underlying causes for the substitution of one technology or product by another reveal the frequent presence of a number of factors. These factors are first discussed in general terms so as to establish their causal relationships with the rate of substitution. On the basis of the identified cause-effect relationships, a composite model is formulated that incorporates the impact of individual factors in a combination of additive and multiplicative interactions. The relative importance and sensitivity of different factors in describing the behavior of the substitution process is then studied through a system-dynamics application of the model. Finally, using three specific cases, a comparison is given between the forecasts made by the comprehensive model, incorporating factors that are known to have significant impact on the rate of substitution, with that of a generalized model for forecasting technological substitution.     

NONHOMOTHETIC GROWTH MODELS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE

We show the role of the elasticity of substitution between general consumption and the environment in environmental degradation. Specifically, our numerical experiments demonstrate, for a wide range of models, exponential utility generates the environmental Kuznets curve without adding any special assumptions. With exponential utility, the elasticity of substitution and hence the substitution effect between consumption and the environment are both decreasing in income. Hence, when income is low, society (the government) readily gives up environmental quality in return for more consumption, but it does not want to substitute consumption for the environment anymore, once it becomes wealthy enough.     

Currency Unions,Export Margins,and Product Differentiation: An Empirical Assessment for European Monetary Union

This paper reconsiders the trade effects of the euro, providing a decomposition into its effects on the extensive margin and intensive margin. Furthermore, it relates the more disaggregated estimates for 93 two‐digit HS product groups to the elasticity of substitution, thereby testing a key hypothesis of heterogenous firm trade theory. The estimates for the period 1996–2011 suggest a trade effect of the euro of some 28%, which has mainly materialized through the intensive margin. A negative net effect of the euro on the extensive margin is found for several product groups, supporting anecdotal evidence that firms have consolidated their product varieties in response to the elimination of exchange rate variability. Finally, the disaggregated estimates are in line with heterogenous firm trade theory models, suggesting that a large elasticity of substitution dampens the effect of a trade cost reduction on the extensive margin and amplifies its effect on the intensive margin.     

Oligopolistic Competition, Technology Innovation, and Multiproduct Firms

Firms' proliferation behavior in a differentiated product market is studied using an oligopolistic competition model with multiproduct firms. The model has the following characteristics: (1) the elasticity of substitution across firm's own products and the elasticity of substitution across different firms are allowed to differ; (2) the product managers of the same firm behave cooperatively rather than independently; (3) the number of firms is determined by a free-entry condition and so is endogenous. If the elasticity of substitution across the firm's own products increases, it is shown that the firm proliferates less and the number of firms in the market increases. If the elasticity of substitution across different firms increases, firms proliferate more and the number of firms in the market decreases.     

Technological learning,technological substitution,and technological change

From a simple dynamic model of competition between product lines it is shown that the shape of learning curves has a powerful influence on the dynamics of technological substitution. Learning of both production efficiency and marketing efficiency is considered. It is asserted that both types of learning are important and that the two are complementary. It is further speculated that production learning is probably more important for commodities and in situations of low per capita income, whereas market learning gains ascendancy in cases of high income and specialized and diversified product lines. In closing, it is noted that simple competitive models are misleading, first because complementarities and coevolutionary processes are probably as important in the overall development of technology as are competitive processes, and second because optimization of the technological system's parts does not guarantee improvement of the performance of the system as a whole.     

The impact of compatibility on innovation in markets with network effects

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the relationship between compatibility and innovation in markets with network effects using a model of competition with endogenous R&D, commercialization and compatibility. Compatibility is a mutual decision between firms and demand is partially dependent on overall consumption across compatible networks. Incumbent acquisition of an innovation or profit from entry provides entrepreneurs with an incentive for developing technological improvements and entrepreneurs receive greater returns if larger incumbents offer compatibility with their installed base. But for sufficiently weak network effects a large incumbent increases demand for its own product by denying compatibility to rivals. As a result, a credible threat of incompatibility reduces the entrepreneur's reserve to sell an innovation, but can also increase offers from smaller incumbents to acquire the innovation if it also avoids an incompatibility response from a larger incumbent. In response, entrepreneurs adjust their research effort in order to target a favourable compatibility regime that maximizes profit from entry or offers to acquire the innovation from incumbents. This leads to a complex relationship between the strength of network effects, innovation incentives, the entrepreneur's ambition for improvement and potentially disrupting the compatibility regime.     

竞争战略与技术创新关系的实证研究

以272家江苏省民营制造企业为研究对象,实证研究了企业的竞争战略与技术创新的关系。研究发现:实施低成本战略的企业进行工艺创新和产品创新的倾向均不明显,实施差异化战略的企业倾向于进行产品创新,实施混合战略的企业进行工艺创新和产品创新的倾向都明显,且实施强度显著高于实施低成本战略和差异化战略的企业;总体来看,所有企业的工艺创新强度都要高于其产品创新强度,产品创新强度整体偏低,这意味着企业转型升级的重点应放在产品创新上。     

Use of decision modeling for substitution analysis: Application to acceptance of new electricity-generating technologies

Substitution theory is a trend forecasting technique which purports to forecast the rate of replacement of one product or technology for another. Most existing methods describe substitutions in which one item is substituting for another. The rate of substitution is usually determined by an S-shaped function based mainly on the rate of the substitution in its early stages. This paper presents an alternative approach, decision modeling, which not only expands the area of application to multiple substitutions occuring simultaneously but can also treat cases where new substitutions have not yet begun. An application to the substitution of new electricity generating technologies is discussed in detail.     

Product Differentiation,Competitive Toughness,and Intertemporal Substitution

Standard measures of competitive toughness fail to capture the fact that, as consumers optimize intertemporally, firms operating today compete with (as yet non‐existent) businesses, which will be started tomorrow. We develop a two‐tier constant elasticity of substitution (CES) model of dynamic monopolistic competition in which the impact of product differentiation on the market outcome depends crucially on the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS). The degree of product differentiation per se fails to serve as a meaningful indicator of competitive toughness: what matters is its cross‐effect with EIS. We also extend the model to the case of non‐CES preferences in order to capture variable mark‐ups.     

Productivity versus elasticity: a normalized constant elasticity of substitution production function applied to historical Soviet data

This study tests the extensive growth hypothesis, which would attribute the Soviet economic slowdown to low elasticity of substitution and over-investment rather than deteriorating productivity growth. To circumvent the low availability of data, widely applicable new methods for estimating productivity and elasticity of substitution were developed based on the normalized constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function. One is an extended version of the Solow residual calculation, and the other is a direct estimation of the time-varying parameter normalized CES production function. The application of the methods to the Soviet data showed a decreasing trend in productivity growth and a low elasticity of substitution of approximately 0.25. The results neither reject nor support the extensive growth hypothesis because of uncertainty in the interpretation of the low elasticity of substitution. The results suggest that it is reasonable to assert that both deteriorating productivity growth and low elasticity of substitution caused the Soviet economic slowdown. Further empirical studies on productivity and elasticity of substitution in the Soviet and other economies are necessary to fully understand relations between productivity growth, elasticity of substitution and economic development.     

基于网络外部性的产品差异化与兼容性选择

本文研究了网络外部性与转移成本存在下的新进入企业的产品差异化与兼容性选择问题,并考虑了在位企业的兼容性动机。研究结果表明:对于新进入企业而言,只存在两种策略组合,即(最大差异化,不兼容)和(最大差异化,兼容);在位企业是偏好兼容的。