Tacit Collusion Under regulation in the Pricing of Interstate Long-Distance Telephone Services

Analysis of seven wholesale and retail markets for long-distance telephone services since the AT & T divestiture indicates that service provider concentration declined in the later 1980s and then stabilized in the 2990–1993 period. In addition to this stability in market shares, a number of other conditions established since 1990 have been conducive to the development of market sharing rather than significant price competition. The most important of these conditions has been the tarifing process of the Federal Communications Commission by which MCI and Sprint replicate ATGT's price announcements. As market shares stabilized and became more equal, and as regulation formalized the price-setting process, the price-cost margins of the three large carriers increased and became more nearly identical. These results are consistent not with price competition but rather with emerging tacit collusion among AT&T, MCI, and Sprint.     

Competition and Innovation in Retail Electricity Markets: Evidence from Italy

Italy's 2015 Annual Competition Law, if finally approved, provides for phasing out retail electricity price regulation, as well as the implementation of full retail liberalisation, from 1 July 2018. This is a significant reform, not just because it is consistent with the broader market design for electricity. Indeed, retail liberalisation is a qualifying element of the full integration of the European Union's electricity market. The full opening of retail markets provides a great opportunity for innovation, both on the demand side and on the supply side. This article investigates the theoretical background, and presents some empirical evidence, on the competition–innovation nexus in retail electricity markets.     

Stock market perceptions of the motives for mergers in cases reviewed by the UK competition authorities: an empirical analysis

A number of studies have considered the motivation of managers to follow a merger strategy. However, as far as we are aware none has looked at the influence of competition regulation on merger motives using stock market data and event study techniques. Data drawn from 63 merger cases in the UK between 1989 and 2003 are examined for the stock market's perceptions of what motivated managers to pursue their initial merger bid. The findings suggest that the Synergy and Hubris dominate as motivations for mergers and that, unintentionally, competition policy may help to reduce the number of mergers motivated by Managerialism. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Has bank consolidation in Korea lessened competition?

This paper examines market concentration and competition in the Korean commercial banking market for the period of 1992–2004. While market concentration decreased due to financial regulation before the Asian financial crisis, the Korean banking industry has become increasingly concentrated in the process of restructuring and consolidation since the crisis. Contrary to a growing concern over market power in Korean banking, this study finds that increased concentration has not lessened competition. The H statistic of the Panzar–Rosse model indicates that the Korean commercial banking market was monopolistically competitive during the pre-crisis period and the post-crisis period with temporary deviation to the level of perfect competition during the crisis period.     

Vertical structure and the risk of rent extraction in the electricity industry

This paper studies how competition and vertical structure jointly determine generating capacities, retail prices, and welfare in the electricity industry. Analyzing a model in which demand is uncertain and retailers must commit to retail prices before they buy electricity in the wholesale market, we show that welfare is highest if competition in generation and retailing is combined with vertical separation. Vertically integrated generators choose excessively high retail prices and capacities to avoid rent extraction in the wholesale market when their retail demand exceeds their capacity. Vertical separation eliminates the risk of rent extraction and yields lower retail prices.     

零售商业品牌的打造

在经济全球化程度愈来愈高的情况下,中国作为WTO成员国已经取消外资进入零售商业的限制,必然导致零售商业市场竞争的进一步加剧。本文拟从我国零售商业品牌现状分析入手,对零售商业品牌结构、打造策略进行探讨,尽快打造我国有竞争力的零售商业企业。     

信息技术在零售物流的应用研究

随着中国零售市场的全面开放,零售业竞争进一步加剧。基于现代信息技术的物流运作能有效的提高零售企业的竞争力。文中描述了业界巨头沃尔玛的信息技术应用成果,分析我国零售企业物流信息化存在的问题,并在此基础上就如何有效应用物流信息技术提出了应用步骤。     

Image differentiation and locational proximity among retail firms

Hotelling's (1929) classic paper gave rise to a voluminous literature and founded a controversy concerning the validity of the Principle of Minimum Differentiation (PMD). This research has produced conflicting theoretical results and inconsistencies between theory and empirical observations of retail competition. This paper develops a theory of market behavior that encompasses the extent and direction of customer loyalties, the multiplicity of chains and stores, and three forms of competitive expectations. Under conditions of shared competitive expectations, competitive pessimism, and competitive optimism, it provides a theoretical test of PMD and an explanation for the prevalence of spatial proximity and the differentiation of images in retail competition.     

Performance improvement decision aid systems (PIDAS) in retailing organizations using data envelopment analysis

This paper investigates the usefulness of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to aid decision making in multi-level retail organizations. It is argued that market efficiency is a key performance measurement dimension in retail organizations. The paper proposes three variants of market efficency that correspond to different tiers of management in a multi-level setting. The disentanglement of market efficiency will lead to the development of the Performance Improvement Decision Aid System (PIDAS) which seeks to classify units on clusters of different performance profile. The method is illustrated using data from a restaurant chain in the UK.     

Generic substitution in the UK pharmaceutical industry: A markovian analysis

This paper examines the impact of competition on product market shares in the UK pharmaceutical industry. The topic is of particular interest since, although it is well known that such products are already subject to competition by innovation and by price (Cooper, 1966, Ch. 3; Reekie, 1978), the possible introduction in the UK of generic substitution (Greenfield, 1982, p. 24), could further increase competitive pressures. Our aim is to apply Markov probabilistic analysis to existing market data. This will enable us (after Adelman, 1958) to analyse the structure which the industry will ‘eventually reach if certain current trends were to continue’ (Adelman, p. 893). In particular, we apply the technique to sub-samples of the data, to infer how the competitive process influences the industry's configuration when generic competition is present. The outcome can be used as a conservative indicator of the impact on the industry if generic substitution was to be adopted in the National Health Service (NHS). The plan of the paper is as follows. In the first section a brief resumt of the debate which has surrounded generic substitution proposals is presented. The second section details the data and sample used in our empirical work. The third section applies Markov chain analysis to that data and reports our results. The final section summarizes our conclusions and discusses some of the problems and limitations of our results.     

Risk reporting and stock return in the UK: Does market competition Matter?

This study examines the extent to which market competition influences risk reporting practice. It also explores how market competition affects the usefulness of risk reporting. The automated textual analysis measures the level of risk reporting [how much to report] and its tone [how it is reported] of UK FTSE 350 firms. The abnormal stock return is used as a proxy for the usefulness of risk reporting. In contrast to the proprietary cost hypothesis, our results indicate that the level of risk reporting is a positive function of market competition. Besides, UK firms are likely to disseminate more (less) negative (positive) news about their risks when market competition increases. However, after examining the informativeness of this reporting, we provide evidence that the level of reported risk information does not significantly enhance the abnormal stock returns of UK firms. Nevertheless, the tone of the reported risks carries incremental information indicative of a firm’s abnormal stock return, especially when market competition decreases. The findings suggest that firms are likely to alleviate their proprietary costs by framing their reporting of risk information in a way that deters potential competitors from entering their market and that market competition diminishes the perceived informativeness of such reporting. The results provide implications for investors as they should not acknowledge the disclosure of higher risk information when asking for more corporate transparency, as it lacks informativeness. Besides, policymakers may impose extra compulsory requirements on the UK firms to avoid reporting overly optimistic risk news to protect investors and avoid the adverse effects of this reporting.     

浅论我国零售业仓储存货成本控制

随着社会主义市场经济不断发展,零售业在社会经济发展中的作用越来越突出,同时,零售业间的竞争也越来越激烈。而仓储存货成本在零售业成本中占有重要比例。目前,各类仓储存货成本高成为制约我国零售业发展的一个关键因素。本文分析了我国零售业仓储存货成本控制存在的主要问题,并提出加强零售业仓储存货成本控制的对策,以提高零售业的利润率。     

我国零售业态多元化分析

零售商业的发展呈现多业态混合的现象:百货业进入成熟期,但仍具有相当的生命力;连锁超市进入成长期,并且发展迅速;其它新型零售业态发展较快,竞争力不可小视。本文首先提出零售业态的定义,然后对出现多业态现象的原因从理论性和实践性两方面论述,最后对我国零售业态的趋势做一分析,并提出相应的解决措施。     

我国零售企业库存成因分析及控制策略研究

随着我国零售行业的迅速发展以及大量外国零售巨头的涌入,零售业的竞争日趋白热化。我国大部分零售企业尚处于整合、发展期,经营和管理水平落后于国外同行。尤其是作为零售企业核心技术之一的库存控制存有诸多缺陷。如何合理库存,加快资金周转．提升企业竞争力是我国零售企业必须解决的课题．     

“新零售”背景下生鲜电商的供应链模式研究

在经历长期快速发展之后,电子商务的发展速度逐渐放缓,零售行业进入“新零售”时期,传统的竞争模式已经很难满足新时期的发展要求。在生鲜电商的发展中,其已经逐渐向线下发展,这使得其在生鲜供应链领域面临更为激烈的竞争。因此,为了更好地推动生鲜电商的发展,电商企业必须结合“新零售”背景,加强对供应链模式的研究,采取更为有效的措施,实现自身市场竞争力的提升。     

柳州市服装批零业经营模式与发展战略

文中通过对柳州服装批零业现状分析,指出存在的主要问题,分析其发展的优势所在,并提出通过提高服装批零市场的整体规划水平;创建前店后厂模式;将服装批零业由目前的业内竞争转变竞合;提升服装批零市场的现代化程度等措施来提高柳州市服装批零业在区域经济中的吸纳辐射作用,为实施柳州＂三大一新＂商贸发展战略作出贡献。     

Europe

The Eurozone recovery continued through the summer, with PMI readings indicating GDP growth of around 0.3% in Q3 2014 ‐ a fourth straight quarter of modest underlying growth (temporary weakness in German construction dragged down Q2). Alongside this, the labour market seems to have turned – employment was up 350,000 in Q2, the largest rise since 2008. And consumers seem to be responding to normalizing conditions, with retail sales picking up through 2014 and rising by 1.2% in August alone…     

试论中小型零售企业的物流发展

现阶段，我国的零售业面临着加入WTO后的机遇和挑战。传统的中小型零售企业，面对国外零售业巨头的涌入和国内的大型零售连锁企业的扩张，要想在激烈的市场竞争中求得生存与发展，就必须改变落后的经营管理模式，大力发展现代化物流．本文结合中小型零售企业的特点，通过对其经营现状的分析，明确了现代化的物流配送是发展零售业物流的关键。论文主要对中小型零售企业的物流战略和管理做了探讨和研究，这些研究将有助于我国中小城市的中小型零售企业以物流发展来提高经济效益．降低运营成本，并朝着社会化物流的方向发展。     

Risk pricing of wholesale funds and the behavior of retail deposit rates

We explore the relationship between bank risk and retail deposits. Predicted risk premiums on wholesale funds explain retail rate heterogeneity through two channels. First, increased bank risk premiums encourage the bank to substitute from wholesale funds to small certificates of deposits (CD) by increasing small CD rates. Second, increased rival risk premiums in a local market require the bank to increase small CD rates even more. Our results are consistent with risk encouraging the use of small CDs as a marginal source of funds and promoting local market competition for small CDs. As risk premiums rise, banks also reduce rates on other retail deposits. Our approach has implications for regulatory and monetary policies and financial stability.     

发展民族零售业,走“乡村包围城市”之路

为履行WTO承诺,我国零售业已对外资全面放开。在外资巨头、本土企业加紧布局的情况下,行业利润受竞争影响不断降低。民族零售业要想生存和发展,必须找出一条适合自己的发展道路,而被各巨头忽视的乡村市场似乎成了这些企业的不二选择。