Relating Product Prices to Long‐Run Marginal Cost: Evidence from Solar Photovoltaic Modules

A basic tenet of microeconomics is that for a competitive industry in equilibrium the market price of a product will be equal to its marginal cost. This paper develops a model framework and a corresponding empirical inference procedure for estimating long‐run marginal cost in industries where production costs decline over time. In the context of the solar photovoltaic (PV) module industry, we rely primarily on firm‐level financial accounting data to estimate the long‐run marginal cost of PV modules for the years 2008–2013. During those years, the industry experienced both unprecedented price declines and significant expansions of manufacturing capacity. We compare the trajectory of average sales prices with the estimated long‐run marginal costs in order to quantify the extent to which actual price declines were attributable to reductions in production costs. The trajectory of estimated product costs is then extrapolated to forecast an equilibrium trend line for future PV module prices.     

Price‐Match Announcements in a Consumer Search Duopoly

Using a model of sequential search, we show that announcements to price‐match raise prices by altering consumer search behavior. First, price‐matching diminishes firms’ incentives to lower prices to attract consumers who have no search costs. Second, for consumers with positive search costs, price‐matching lowers the marginal benefit of search, inducing them to accept higher prices. Finally, price‐matching can lead to asymmetric equilibria where one firm runs fewer sales and both firms tend to offer smaller discounts than in a symmetric equilibrium. Price increases grow in the proportion of consumers who invoke price‐matching guarantees and in the level of equilibrium asymmetry.     

房地产价格波动影响因素的实证研究究——基于广州市的VAR模型

本文以广州市为例对房地产价格波动和其影响因素进行实证分析。本文以相关经济理论为根据建立了向量自回归模型。模型实证结果表明预期冲击是影响广州市房地产价格波动的重要因素,房地声市场存在明显的顺周期性质,货币供应量的变化也会引起房地产价格的变化。本文还发现房地产市场的瑰策主体主要依据年内四个季度的房地产价格和销量等信息来进行决策。房地产价格波动是对房地产市场波动的主要解释因子。     

Why Do Large Firms' Prices Anticipate Earnings Earlier than Small Firms' Prices?*

This paper presents evidence that the positive association between firm size and price leads of earnings is not solely a function of private search incentives for firm‐specific information. Specifically, we find that small‐firm prices also lag large‐firm prices with respect to industry‐wide information. Our empirical analysis extends Collins, Kothari, and Rayburn 1987 and Freeman 1987, who document that security‐price leads of earnings are positively associated with market capitalization. In particular, we examine the association between firm size and the timing of security returns for two components of annual earnings changes: the average change for a firm's industry and the firm's idiosyncratic change. We find that large firms' prices have a longer lead than small firms' prices with respect to both components. Large firms' early lead on industry‐wide earnings suggests that returns of large firms predict returns of same‐industry small firms. To test this implication, we construct a portfolio of long (short) positions in small firms when the prior month's returns of large firms in their industry are above (below) average for large firms in other industries. This zero investment portfolio earns 4.5 percent over 12 months.     

Monetary Policy and Corporate Investment： Evidence from Chinese Micro Data

This paper investigates how a firm's characteristics restrict the influence of monetary policy changes on its investment behavior. Focusing on China's listed companies for a sample period from the first quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2011, we find that quantity‐oriented and price‐based monetary policies have heterogeneous impacts on corporate investment behavior, but the influence of monetary policies is constrained by the liquidity, inventory, size and asset–liability ratio of a firm. Firms with higher liquidity, lower inventory level and lower asset–liability ratios are less sensitive to the impact from two kinds of monetary policies. The larger the size of the firm, the less it is subject to influence from quantity‐oriented monetary policy; it responds more to price‐based monetary policy. The policy implication is that the monetary authorities should pay attention to the importance of policy‐making based on the monetary demand of microeconomic entities.     

Price Rigidity and Industrial Concentration: Evidence from the Indonesian Food and Beverages Industry

This paper investigates the relationship between industrial concentration and price rigidity in the Indonesian food and beverages industry. A Cournot model of firm behavior is used in which prices adjust according to a partial adjustment mechanism. The model is applied to panel data of the Indonesian food and beverages industry over the period 1995–2006. The results suggest that industrial concentration has a positive effect on percentage price changes. Furthermore, the speed of price adjustment is higher when the per unit cost of production rises.     

中国商品房价格长期上行的政策性因素分析

本文从政策学的角度,采用实证分析的方法,剖析了1998～2008年中国商品房价格以及相关变量之间的联动走势和政策性成因。文中提出,商品房价格后期的持续走高背离了市场的真实价值,其政策性原因是对土地总量的行政化控制、以及金融稀缺资源向购房市场的倾斜。本文认为,通过实行土地供应量与房价指数联动机制、以及灵活运用货币政策等组合手段,未来中国商品房价格可能呈现高位窄幅震荡、缓慢上升的趋势。     

Financial Statement Comparability and the Informativeness of Stock Prices About Future Earnings

We find that financial statement comparability enhances the ability of current period returns to reflect future earnings, as measured by the future earnings response coefficient (FERC). This suggests that comparability improves the informativeness of stock prices and allows investors to better anticipate future firm performance. In addition, using both the FERC and stock price synchronicity tests, we find that comparability increases the amount of firm‐specific information (rather than market/industry‐level information) reflected in stock prices. Analysts play an important role in improving stock price informativeness by producing more firm‐specific information when comparability is high. These findings suggest that comparability lowers the costs of gathering and processing firm‐specific information.     

理解我国名义利率传导机制有效性的时变特征——基于DSGE模型的理论分析与TVP-VAR模型的实证检验

文章采用DSGE模型与TVP-VAR模型对"利率调整→股价修复→经济复苏"这一政策传导路径的有效性进行理论模拟与计量检验,结果发现：理论上,名义利率调整可以有效平抑资产价格波动进而带动投资增加,从而稳定实体经济增长,但在实际传导过程中,各变量对利率变动和股价变动的反应却较为缓慢。此外,名义利率调整对股票价格的短期效应较为显著,而股价对实体经济的影响却是一个缓慢过程,两者对比鲜明,这从根本上揭示了虚拟经济变化较快而实体经济复苏缓慢的内生机理。因此,我国政府和中央银行应理性看待现阶段的实体经济下行风险,这并不意味着货币政策对股票市场和经济行为的良性指引作用已经失效,而是由于实体经济对政策调整的反应通常具有一定的时滞。     

Price‐Setting Behavior of Korean Firms†

This paper investigates a pattern of price revision by firms in Korea and sheds light on the cause of price stickiness by providing reliable statistical estimates for calibration of the parameters of the widely‐used macro‐models. Based on firm‐level survey data and using a probit model, we identify the firm characteristics or market conditions that discourage firms from carrying out state‐dependent price adjustment. We also estimate the factors driving firms to engage in state‐dependent adjustment rather than wait until the next scheduled revision under three different shocks: demand, general cost and exchange rate shocks. We find a few interesting features, as follows. First, price revision by Korean firms tends to be time‐dependent rather than state‐dependent, with a sizable dispersion across sectors and firm sizes. Second, the pattern of price revision in Korea is not significantly different from that in selected advanced economies. Third, the reason why firms favor time‐dependent price adjustments appears to be endogenous, accounted for by a number of market institution variables. Fourth, in response to shocks, Korean firms tend to wait until the next periodically scheduled revision rather than make a state‐dependent price adjustment, unless marginal costs are affected significantly by the shock, and state‐dependent revisions are often significantly delayed when they do occur.     

对当前新疆价格形势的分析

当前新疆价格形势不容乐观，通胀压力依然很大。2010年下半年以来，我国及新疆的居民消费价格指数（CPI）持续上升，通胀预期增强。面对当前严峻的价格形势，中央提出要千方百计保持物价总水平基本稳定。本文对当前的价格形势进行了全面客观分析，特别是针对新疆的特殊情况，分析了价格上涨的主要特点，以及导致价格涨幅偏高的原因，并预测了2011年下半年新疆价格走势，最后提出了加强价格调整的对策建议。     

Has political instability contributed to price clustering on Fiji's stock market?

The goal of this article is to examine evidence of stock price clustering on the South Pacific Stock Exchange, located in Fiji, and explore its determinants. We find that stock prices cluster at the decimal of 0 and 5, with almost half of prices settling on these two decimals. Upon investigating the determinants of price clustering on the South Pacific Stock Exchange we find that price level and volume of trade have a statistically significant positive effect on price clustering. We also propose and test a ‘panic trading’ hypothesis which states political instability induces price clustering. We find evidence that political instability in Fiji induces price clustering behaviour.     

Entry deterrence when the potential entrant is your competitor in a different market

In this article, we present a two‐period model in which one firm operates in two markets: a monopoly and a duopoly. Assuming that this firm has private information on the cross‐price elasticity of demand between the products sold in both markets, it limits its quantity supplied in the monopoly market in order to make its rival in the other market believe that entry into the monopolized market is unprofitable. As a result of this strategy, the average prices observed in both markets increase. This result suggests that the detrimental effects of entry deterrence on consumers' welfare are stronger than those predicted by previous literature.     

Production theory under uncertain inflation

Summary and Conclusions This paper examines Chen's [1980] model of asset valuation under uncertain inflation in order to derive a static and comparative static theory of production by a competitive firm. Given the value maximizing and the price taking assumptions, the firm behaves as a profit-maximizer. The sole effect of uncertain inflation is to distort the price structure. that is, the firm adjusts the expected price of an input or output to reflect the systematic risk of that price. Because a change in circumstances can affect the systematic risk of a given price, assessing the effects of a specific policy or event solely in terms of its effect on expected price can be misleading. Parametric variations affect the structure of certainty equivalent prices. Therefore, the comparative static derivatives of the value maximizing firm emerge as extensions of the comparative static derivatives of the profit maximizing firm under certainty. Many of these comparative static derivatives are of determinant sign. The effects of changes in market uncertainty and in inflation uncertainty, while they can be characterized mathematically, cannot be signed in the general case. Cross-sectional studies indicate wide variation in the effects of inflation, so that the preceding theoretical results appear plausible. Finally, in view of the wealth of static and comparative static results which can be derived from Chen's model, that model provides a convenient benchmark against which to judge other models. Precisely because of its simple nature, Chen's model is ideal for establishing limits of analysis.     

Pump Prices and Oil Prices: A Tale of Two Directions

It has been argued that retail gasoline prices adjust more quickly to crude oil price increases than to price decreases. We investigate this issue using the statewide data on weekly retail gasoline prices in the United States between January 2000 and June 2007. Our analysis does not confirm the prediction that gasoline prices adjust more quickly to price increases in crude oil prices. On the contrary, the results suggest that in some geographic areas gasoline prices could change faster when crude oil prices decrease. These findings suggest that a national or a one size fits all energy policy for the United States may be misguided.

WATER BILL ESTIMATION WHEN PRICE IS CRYPTIC: EXPERIENCE FROM WINDHOEK,NAMIBIA

For water policy to be effective, policy makers must know how water users perceive and respond to changes in water prices. However, it is not uncommon for water prices faced by consumers to be unclear. In Windhoek, Namibia, the marginal and average water price is difficult to calculate from the information provided in users' utility bills. This paper applies a hedonic pricing approach to investigate price perceptions of water users in a setting with cryptic price information. Using self‐reported water charges as the dependent variable, the pricing model utilises reported utility characteristics and other factors that may affect perceived price. Low‐income standpipe water users report a weighted average monthly charges of N$24.68, whereas users in high income segments report N$521.34. This reflects differences in service levels, possible subsidies to low‐income users and potential errors in respondents' understanding of their water price. Average price per litre (N$11.78 for the low‐use segment; N$1.89 for the highest segment of Tier 1 water use) tends to be perceived as higher by those with lower water use even though average prices in the relevant range should generally be identical.     

Pass-through Effects of Global Commodity Prices on China＇s Inflation： An Empirical Investigation

The present paper uses a two-step approach to estimate the pass-through effects of changes in international commodity prices and the RMB exchange rate on domestic consumer price inflation in China. We first estimate the pass-through effects of international commodity prices on producer prices and then estimate the pass-through effects of producer price inflation on consumer price inflation. We find that a l O-percent increase in international commodity prices would lead to China＇ s producer prices increasing by 1.2 percent 3 months later, which in turn would increase China＇ s domestic inflation by 0.24 percent over the same period. However, a 10-percent appreciation of the RMB exchange rate against the US dollar would help to reduce increases in producer prices by 4.4 percent over the following 3 months, which in turn would lead to a 0. 89-percent decline in consumer price inflation over the same period. Our findings suggest that appreciation of the RMB in an environment of rising global commodity prices and a weak US dollar could be an effective instrument to help contain inflation in China.     

价格非平衡变化的机理：一个新凯恩斯主义的解释

本文构建了一个具有粘性价格的一般均衡模型，分析不同商品价格非平衡变化的现象。分析表明，当经济中不同商品的价格调整具有异质性时，货币冲击将导致灵活价格产品的价格水平变化超过货币增长率，表现为不同的商品价格调节快慢不同。货币冲击将拉动粘性价格产品的产出增加，表现为货币非中性。相对价格的变化使得消费支出发生结构性转移，导致灵活价格产品的需求下降。财政冲击也具有类似的效应，它将拉动价格不平衡上涨，并带动产出上升，同时会挤出消费。这种价格非平衡变化的机制很好的解释了我国2007—08年发生的所谓的“结构性通货膨胀”现象。     

医疗服务市场的高价格形成机制——一个基于信息扩散的解释框架

本文指出,一个自由的医疗服务市场会导致过高的价格水平,其原因在于,医疗服务的价格变化信息在患者之间扩散是一个缓慢的时间过程,致使医院的医疗服务需求对价格变化不敏感,从而降低了医疗服务市场的竞争性。本文同时指出,政府只要能够改变医疗服务价格信息的扩散机制,就能够建立一个以市场机制为基础的高效率的医疗卫生体制。     

House prices in the Ottoman Empire: evidence from eighteenth‐century Edirne†

This study uses a new dataset of 2,246 notarial deeds of house sales from one of the major cities of the Ottoman Empire, Edirne, covering the period from 1720 to 1814. It estimates real hedonic house prices and urban wealth inequality for the housing market. It shows that house size, proximity to the commercial centre, access to fresh water, and family ties were important determinants of relative house prices. These findings also apply to the different quartiles of the market, indicating limited market segmentation. It demonstrates that there was an increase in housing wealth inequality during the eighteenth century as house prices became more dispersed. The hedonic house price index provides evidence that inflation‐adjusted house prices declined substantially following the Russo‐Turkish war of 1768–74. The decline is mainly explained through demographic shocks induced by plague epidemics, natural disasters, and other population movements driven by wars, army mobilization, and political upheavals.