Quality Assurance and the Home Market Effect

The home market effect is considered as a distinguishing feature of models of trade with increasing returns to scale in production and imperfect competition. However, some empirical studies found the existence of home market effect even in constant returns to scale industries. This paper builds a model of intra‐industry trade based upon quality assurance and shows the existence of the home market effect without increasing returns in the production technology. This throws into question the rationale of empirical studies attempting to validate the increasing returns model of trade based upon testing the existence of the home market effect.     

A note on the diffusion of innovation

The paper deals with the process of substitution between technologies in a framework of increasing returns to scale. The approach stresses the interaction between capacity expansion and market demand as explanations of the diffusion of technologies into their niches. The demand and supply sides of the diffusion process are therefore brought together to determine simultaneously patterns of output and prices.It analyzes the dynamics of the substitution path, where a logistic diffusion process for the new technology is assumed, and determines the substitution curve between the old technology and the new one.     

Reducing urban public transport costs by tendering lots: a panel data estimation

Allotment is, for urban authorities, a governance strategy to reduce public transport costs. It consists of dividing a network into several lots, so as to multiply the number of calls for tender. On the one hand, gains should be obtained by increasing competition for the market and reducing the costs of obtaining accurate information. On the other hand, cutting a network into several parts is also expected to have negative consequences on production costs, in terms of lower returns to scale. Many industry stakeholders believe that the latter element more than compensates for the former. In this article, we estimate a translog cost function with a panel of 141 French urban public transport networks. Our main conclusion is that scale economies are exhausted for a production of about 3 million vehicle-kilometres per year. Therefore, as far as returns to scale are concerned, allotment would reduce the costs of public transport services for the main cities of our sample. A second dividend for allotment is then presented and implies that the assumed trade-off between returns to scale and increased competition is irrelevant.     

Testing for the presence of some features of increasing returns to adoption factors in energy system dynamics: An analysis via the learning curve approach

The purpose of this paper is to explain the sources of energy system lock-in. It presents a comparative analysis of the respective contributions of some features of increasing returns to adoption factors, i.e. learning-by-doing, learning-by-searching and returns to scale effects in explaining the technological change dynamics in the energy system. The paper is technically based on a critical analysis of the learning curve approach. Econometric estimation of learning and scale effects inherent to seven energy technologies were performed by the use of several learning curve specifications. These specifications permit to deal with some crucial issues related to the learning curve estimation which are associated with the problem of omitted variable bias, the endogeneity effects and the choice of learning indicators. Results show that dynamic economies from learning effects coupled with static economies from scale effects are responsible for the lock-in phenomena of the energy system. They also show that the magnitude of such effects is correlated with the technology life cycle (maturity). In particular, results point out that, 1) the emerging technologies exhibit low learning rates associated with diseconomies of scale which are argued to be symptomatic of the outset of the deployment of new technologies characterized by diffusion barriers and high level of uncertainty, 2) the evolving technologies present rather high learning rates meaning that they respond quickly to capacity expansion and R&D activities development, 3) conventional mature technologies display low learning rates but increasing returns to scale implying that they are characterized by a limited additional diffusion prospects.     

A ray of hope? Another look at the Italian textile industry

Despite increasing competition from newly industrializing countries, Italy’s textile industry has continued to be an important contributor to the domestic economy. Many observers attribute this resilience to the industry’s focus on quality. Here, we take note of that view but also examine production and cost relationships to explore the existence of returns to scale and the interrelationships among inputs to gain additional insights about the future prospects for this industry. The findings are consistent with constant returns to scale and a substitute relationship between all input pairs except for domestic capital and foreign intermediate goods. The results also suggest some increasing flexibility in the labor market, perhaps including informal sector arrangements, greater responsiveness of labor demand to the price of capital, and more international production sharing arrangements. An increasing elasticity over time of the demands for domestic capital and domestic intermediate goods with respect to the price of foreign substitutes was also observed. Since further economies of scale do not exist, maintaining the Italian textile industry’s reputation for outstanding quality will likely be an important survival strategy for some products. For others, production sharing may be necessary to maintain international competitiveness.     

Aggregate returns to scale in Greek manufacturing

This paper takes an imperfect competition model of the economy in order to investigate for retuns to scale in Greek manufacturing and examines, through a small-scale macroeconomic model, the implication of estimates. For this purpose a price, wage and demand for output equations are estimated, using annual data for the period 1954–94. Prices come through the profits maximization process and depend on wage, capital rental, demand and a number of other variables denoing technology and market competition. Results are clearly in favour of increasing returns to scale hypothesis, although alternative explanations for the negative demand effect on prices cannot be excluded.     

网上交易--国内券商应对WTO挑战的一种重要手段

加入WTO以后，国内证券行业的竞争进一步加剧，网上交易是证券公司寻求业务突破的一种新的业务形式。网上交易具有开放性、全天候服务、速度快、信息量大、规模报酬递增和协作性强诸多优点，因而对证券业的竞争与发展有至关重要的影响。     

Dynamic Model for Market Competition and Price Rigidity

This article presents a price floor model in which durability, unit costs and production period are factors in explaining price rigidity. This article elaborates that cost structure plays an essential role in resolving the inconclusive relationship between market concentration and price rigidity. When the industry is characterized by decreasing returns of scale, the degree of price flexibility decreases as market competition intensifies. The reverse is true when the industry exhibits increasing returns of scale. The factors that cause price rigidity also foster price adjustment asymmetry and price adjustment lag. During times of recession, the model exhibits upward price flexibility as costs increase, but downward price rigidity as costs decrease. Even under forward-looking expectations, the way in which firms adjust prices could look as though they have adaptive expectations. If price stickiness is a characteristic of market competition, then public policies determined by price level could be too drastic for firms in competitive markets.     

中国产业技术创新投入产出特点检验: 1999～2004

根据国家统计局科学技术部所公布的37个产业1999年至2004年技术创新权威统计数据,文章研究检验证明:(1)从总体上看,中国产业技术转化能力不强,创新资金投入的专利产出量比较低,政府投入资金相对不足。产业竞争越激烈、进入门槛越低,其创新投入动机也越低。(2)国有企业与三资企业在技术创新的人力和资本投入上,具有不同的投入产出规模报酬递增效应特点。(3)高新技术产业与非高科技产业虽然在创新资金和人力的投入、产业创新倾向以及新产品市场份额、专利申请数量等创新产出上具有显著性差异,但在引进技术的转化能力上仍然具有同质性,都需要在引进的基础上加大消化、吸收再创新的力度。(4)以新产品市场份额衡量,企业资金的创新产出效率最大,政府资金次之,金融机构贷款最小;以专利申请量衡量,企业资金与金融机构贷款均具有显著性,而政府资金则不具有显著性。据此结论,文章提出了相应的政策性建议。     

演化经济学框架下环保技术扩散研究——以熔炼压缩炼铁技术的扩散为例

在分析传统框架下扩散模型的局限性及环保技术扩散的特殊性的基础上,以SRT的扩散为例,尝试用演化经济学的框架来探讨环保技术的扩散问题。技术的扩散是技术竞争的动态演化、企业家和异质采用者、制度和政治等共同作用的结果,因此,从一个更广泛的演化经济学的框架来理解技术扩散,特别是环保技术的扩散是很有必要的。     

科技成果商业规模示范：组织学习与政府政策支持的作用

商业规模示范是科技成果产业化的重要环节，当前关于如何推进商业规模示范的研究较少。研究组织学习、政府政策支持对商业规模示范的作用，选取312份企业调研数据进行实证分析。结果表明：①组织学习中的“用中学”和“互动中学”均对商业规模示范存在积极影响，且互动中学的作用更强；②政府政策支持不仅积极影响商业规模示范且正向调节互动中学与商业规模示范的关系；③不同规模、不同性质、不同地区企业商业规模示范及政府政策支持存在差异。该结论不仅有助于明晰商业规模示范中组织学习与政府政策支持的影响机制，而且揭示出企业研发、组织学习及政府政策支持并行是提升科技成果产业化质量与效率的重要途径。     

The diffusion of mobile telephony in Italy and the UK: an empirical investigation

Since its appearance mobile telephony has shown a remarkably fast diffusion pattern in most advanced countries. This paper investigates technological and economic factors that have influenced the diffusion process of cellular phones, in particular the diffusion speed and the upper limit. The epidemic model widely used in diffusion studies is summarised and discussed highlighting the evolutionary disequilibrium nature of diffusion processes. Moreover, the econometric specification of some of the models distinguishes between long-run relationships and short-run adjustments to a continuously evolving pattern. We find that the new digital technology, which coincides with increased competition in both Italy and the UK, has made the process faster and increased the saturation level in Italy, but not in the UK; in Italy only the decreasing price of the handset has affected the diffusion process, whereas we find that, in addition to that, decreasing tariffs and increasing consumption expenditures have been significant in shaping the diffusion process of mobile telephony in the UK.     

Increasing returns and the share economy

Under imperfect competition, profit maximization by firms results in the market price exceeding the marginal cost of production; Weitzman terms this “excess supply” Weitzman wishes to replicate in the cost function (in terms of labor) the properties of the revenue function (in terms of output), thus generating “excess demand” for labor. A revenue-sharing scheme will achieve this if and only if there are decreasing returns to scale. Hence increasing returns apparently play no role in Weitzman's analysis.     

Market, Trade and Welfare in General Equilibrium

This paper develops a tractable general equilibrium model of an economy with an arbitrary number of industries under increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition. The market structure of the model economy is expressed by two basic sets of parameters: the degree of competition, and the markup ratio prevailing in each industry. The government is supposed to control the degree of competition through antitrust policy and the markup ratio through entry policy. Using this model, I re-examine the results of traditional competitive equilibrium analysis and explore the effects of competition policies on economic welfare and international trade.
JEL Classification Numbers: D43, D50, F11, F12, L13, L41.     

市场推进技术创新、专利、标准协同转化路径分析

为冲破国际竞争旧格局，行之有效的方法是采用技术创新成果专利化-专利标准化-标准垄断化模式，这是新一轮国际竞争的主要路径之一，在市场层面上做好文章是我国企业参与全球技术标准竞争的有效策略之一。从技术、市场、对象重要度3个维度，提炼出市场推进技术创新、专利、标准协同转化的4种模式，并分析每种模式的典型特征、作用机理和实施条件，可为企业完善和加速协同转化进程提供策略与建议。     

ON TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION: A FORMAL ANALYSIS OF THE ‘SAILING-SHIP EFFECT’

One of the key features of our economies consists of the coexistence of different technologies supplying similar products and services. We often observe that an old technology is improved when a new one appears; behind this process of improvement often lies an intentional research activity. There thus begins a competition between the two technologies whose performances are improved via R&D. We focus our attention on this competition process and supply a formal model, based on the optimization of R&D expenditure of both technologies, which can describe the dynamics of the delayed overtaking of the new technology over the old one.     

企业技术多样性、实质性社会责任信息披露与创新扩散

技术多样性是企业创新能力的重要表征，但现有研究对于技术多样性与创新扩散的关系存在争议。对此，区分相关和不相关技术多样性对创新扩散的异质性影响，并检验实质性社会责任信息披露作为一种信号传递机制对上述关系的调节作用。基于2008—2017年中国研发密集型上市企业数据进行实证分析，结果发现：相关技术多样性能够积极影响创新扩散；不相关技术多样性对创新扩散的影响存在滞后效应；实质性社会责任信息披露正向调节不相关技术多样性与创新扩散的关系。结论丰富了创新扩散理论与实证研究，可为企业创新实践提供决策依据。     

MIDDLEMEN IN SEARCH EQUILIBRIUM*

This article shows how allowing for goods to be divisible at the point of consumption and incorporating productive heterogeneity lead to the emergence of middlemen in an equilibrium search environment. In the baseline model, middlemen are welfare reducing and their number increases as market frictions are reduced. When the model is extended to allow for time taken in production and increasing returns to scale in the market meeting technology, middlemen can be beneficial to society by speeding up the meeting process.     

Diffusion with variable production lead times

When there is not one obvious candidate technology, entrants to a new industry face a non-trivial choice between longer lead times in the setting up of production and a better chance that the technology could successfully deliver. This paper shows how this tradeoff may yield gradual diffusion. Diffusion is more protracted in industries where learning opportunities are more bountiful. The equilibrium minimizes the long-run equilibrium price, just as in the standard Marshallian model of a competitive industry. The market structure does not seem to affect the rate of diffusion with the monopoly choosing the same rate of diffusion that prevails in competition despite restricting output.      

External Economies of Scale and Optimal Plant Location

This paper departs from earlier work on location theory by introducing external economies of scale into the Weber–Moses location model. It is shown that under Cournot–Nash competition, when external economies prevail, constant returns to scale at the firm level is not a sufficient condition for ensuring the invariance of the firm's optimal location with respect to a change in market demand, regardless of whether or not free entry is allowed. Moreover, when free entry is allowed and the production function exhibits decreasing returns to scale, but with very strong external economies, the optimal location moves towards or away from the market as demand increases according to whether the demand function is convex or concave. These results are different significantly from the conventional wisdom.