发展中国家的普遍服务政策

该文构建非对称信息模型分析普遍服务政策问题,其中政府对企业在农村提供服务的边际成本具有非对称信息.该文对区别定价和统一定价两种情形进行了对比分析.在实施区别定价时,不完全信息将提高农村地区的资费水平,并且降低相应的网络覆盖面积;而在实施统一定价时,农村地区的定价可能降低,但却是以网络覆盖的减少为代价的.该文的政策结论是:在实施普遍服务政策时,需要综合考虑网络投资的激励和用户承受能力.     

发展中国家的普遍服务政策

本构建非对称信息模型分析普遍服务政策问题，其中政府对企业在农村提供服务的边际成本具有非对称信息。本对区别定价和统一定价两种情形进行了对比分析。在实施区别定价时，不完全信息将提高农村地区的资费水平，并且降低相应的网络覆盖面积；而在实施统一定价时，农村地区的定价可能降低，但却是以网络覆盖的减少为代价的。本的政策结论是：在实施普遍服务政策时，需要综合考虑网络投资的激励和厍户承受能力。     

基于利益集团政治的委托—代理模型的药品价格规制研究

本文基于利益集团政治的委托-代理模型,分析了在信息不对称情况下,中央政府、规制机构、医药企业和医疗机构组成的利益集团在药品价格规制的博弈中的行为选择,指出在现有条件下,政府无法形成一个兼顾各方利益的药品价格均衡机制,医药行政管理部门和利益集团之间的合谋是药品价格规制失灵的根本原因.解决药品价格规制失灵,最佳办法是政府增加对医疗机构的投入,阻止医药行政管理部门与利益集团的合谋,其次是减少对低效率医疗机构的激励,从而抽取部分高效率医疗机构的信息租金,减少高效率医疗机构投机的收益.     

转移成本、价格歧视和非对称寡头竞争

通过在Hotelling空间差异模型的基础上结合转移成本构建非对称企业竞争博弈模型.主要研究在非对称情况下,两企业在一致定价与价格歧视下竞争的均衡结果.还对两种不同定价体制下的均衡结果进行了比较,分析价格歧视是否强化竞争.研究发现价格歧视对竞争的效应是不确定的,很大程度受到两企业不对称程度的影响.     

论大股东和经营者合谋与公司投资行为

企业股权的集中使股东群体分化为控制性大股东和中小股东两个不同的利益集团,而大股东和经营者一同成为企业的内部人,大股东一经营者合谋对中小股东的利益进行"隧道挖掘"成为现代公司的核心的代理问题.本文首先对大股东-经营者合谋的成因进行了探讨,然后通过简单的模型分析了这种合谋行为会导致公司的次优投资和过度投资行为.     

基于利益集团视角的质量规制研究

产品质量的形成过程是一个消费者、生产厂商和规制者三个利益集团博弈的过程。文章分别从消费利益集团与质量规制,生产者利益,集团与质量规制,规制者利益集团与质量规制三个方面进行了质量规制的理论研究,旨在为提高产品质量服务。     

算法合谋的反垄断规制及工具创新研究

在数字经济领域,数字商务企业采用算法定价会明显提高合谋的可能性和可实施性,具有较大的价格合谋风险,因而成为反垄断法关注的重点。学理上,尚待明确的问题有:算法定价促进合谋的内在机理和类型化机制;如何创新反垄断执法体制以有效规制自主学习算法;在反垄断事后执法无效情况下,是否需要以及如何实行事前规制等。研究表明:算法合谋的反垄断规制宜坚持分类治理原则,采取事后反垄断禁止为主并辅之以事前规制的政策组合,反垄断政策工具创新应主要针对自主学习算法合谋。算法合谋反垄断规制政策需重新界定构成非法合谋的"协议"要件,明确当事企业的主体责任,重在采取以"软执法"为主的反垄断执法体制。事前规制政策应坚持"基于设计来遵守法律"的原则,强化算法审查机制和审查能力建设,并将提升算法透明度和可问责性作为重点。     

经济规制中定价方式的利弊分析及政策含义

经济规制中,确定垄断性企业商品和服务的价格是一个复杂而关键的世界性难题,这个问题解决的程度,关系到规制机构目标的实现程度。全面而深入地分析边际成本定价、拉姆齐-布瓦德定价、资本投资回报率定价、成本加成定价、固定价格定价、价格上限定价、芬辛格-沃格尔桑动态定价、按比例调整的最优线性定价8种定价方式的利弊,揭示蕴涵在这些定价方式中的政策含义,可供我国的规制机构定价决策时借鉴和参考。     

食品安全规制:研究缘起、效率及展望

食品安全是一个与人类生存密切相关的问题.食品供给者缺乏社会责任心和长远的眼光,唯利是图,会减少他人和社会的福利;信息不对称是产生市场失灵的主要原因.食品安全的负外部性的存在导致食品安全规制的产生与发展.食品安全规制政策的选择是消费者、农户、食品制造商、食品零售商、政府、纳税人等利益集团博弈的结果,不同利益集团对食品安全规制的诉求不同;主体间利益关系的博弈可能会导致食品安全规制部门不断改进规制方法,但也可能会导致其被食品生产企业所“俘虏”;各种规制方法的不同成本和效率成为改进实施方法最直接的动因.全球食品安全问题不容乐观,构建和完善食品安全规制的体系和体制亟待进行.总的来看,食品安全规制的研究正日益注重博弈论和数理经济学的相关方法的应用,注重相关策略和标准的成本一效率分析,向客观理性的深‘层次研究迈进;国内有关食品安全规制的研究滞后于欧美等发达国家的研究,亟需结合实践,开展理论创新.     

电信企业基于价格行为的纵向市场圈定与接入规制

电信企业能否达到纵向市场圈定目的,与实施市场圈定的企业和被圈定企业在下游市场的成本差异有关。本文通过构建一个两阶段博弈模型,分析了电信企业基于价格行为的纵向市场圈定与接入规制问题。研究发现,当主导企业的下游附属企业具有成本优势时,则其通过实施价格策略性行为能够达到纵向市场圈定目的;当其处于成本劣势时,则不能通过价格行为实现纵向市场圈定。因此,规制机构在制定接入规制政策时,应根据下游市场两个企业的成本差异选择合理的接入规制方法。当新进入企业成本较低时,可采取有效成分接入定价法和由市场决定接入价格的两种接入规制方法;当两者成本相同时,可采取激励性接入规制方法;当新进入企业成本较高时,可对两者实行不对称接入规制。     

Universal service obligations in LDCs: The effect of uniform pricing on infrastructure access

This paper develops a model to analyze the impacts of asymmetric information on optimal universal service policy in the public utilities of developing countries. Optimal universal service policy is implemented using two regulatory instruments: pricing and network investment. Under discriminatory pricing asymmetric information leads to a higher price and smaller network in the rural area than under full information. Under uniform pricing the price is also lower but the network is even smaller. In addition, under both pricing regimes not only the firm but also taxpayers have incentives to collude with the regulator.     

Asymmetric Demand Information in Uniform and Discriminatory Call Auctions: An Experimental Analysis Motivated by Electricity Markets

We study experimental multi-unit uniform and discriminatory auctions with demand uncertainty, motivated by the ongoing debate about market design in the electricity industry. We study the effect of asymmetric demand-information in the two auction institutions. In our treatment condition some sellers have less information than in our baseline conditions. In both conditions transaction prices and price volatility are not significantly different under the two auction institutions. However, under asymmetric information discriminatory auctions are significantly less efficient. These results are not in line with typical arguments made in favor of discriminatory pricing in electricity industries; namely, lower prices and less volatility.     

An indifference result concerning collusion in spatial frameworks

Using a general spatial model with two firms interacting repeatedly, we show that the condition for collusion sustainability is the same under uniform delivered pricing, discriminatory delivered pricing and discriminatory f.o.b. pricing.     

Dissertation abstract: Essays on pricing in experimental duopoly markets

This dissertation comprises three independent essays that analyze pricing behavior in experimental duopoly markets. The first essay examines whether the content of buyer information and the timing of its dissemination affects seller market power. We construct laboratory markets with differentiated goods and costly buyer search in which sellers simultaneously post prices. The experiment varies the information on price or product characteristics that buyers learn under different timing assumptions (pre- and post-search), generating four information treatments. Theory predicts that price information lowers the equilibrium price, but information about product characteristics increases the equilibrium price. That is, contrary to simple intuition, presence of informed buyers may impart a negative externality on other uninformed buyers. The data support the model's negative externality result when sellers face a large number of robot buyers that are programmed to search optimally. Observed prices conform to the model's comparative statics and are broadly consistent with predicted levels. With human buyers, however, excessive search instigates increased price competition and sellers post prices that are significantly lower than predicted. The second essay uses experimental methods to demonstrate the anti-competitive potential of price-matching guarantees in both symmetric and asymmetric cost duopolies. When costs are symmetric, price-matching guarantees increase the posted prices to the collusive level. With asymmetric costs, guaranteed prices remain high relative to prices without the use of guarantees, but the overall ability of guarantees to act as a collusion facilitating device depends on the relative cost difference. Fewer guarantees, combined with lower average prices, suggest that cost asymmetries may discourage collusion. The third essay investigates the effect of firm size asymmetry on the emergence of price leadership in a homogeneous good duopoly. With discounting, the unique subgame-perfect equilibrium predicts that the large firm will emerge as the endogenous price leader. Independent of the level of size asymmetry, the laboratory data indicates that price leadership by the large firm is one of the most frequently observed timings of price announcement. In most cases, however, it comes second to simultaneous price-setting. This tendency to wait for the other firm to announce its price is especially strong when the level of size asymmetry between firms is low. We attribute the lower than expected frequency of price leadership to coordination failure, which is further compounded by elements of inequity aversion. JEL Classification C91, D43, D83, L11 Dissertation Committee: Timothy Cason (Chair), Department of Economics, Purdue University Dan Kovenock, Department of Economics, Purdue University Stephen Martin, Department of Economics, Purdue University Marco Casari, Department of Economics, Purdue University     

Optimal collusion under cost asymmetry

Cost asymmetry is generally thought to hinder collusion because a more efficient firm has both more to gain from deviations and less to fear from retaliation than less efficient firms. Our paper reexamines this conventional wisdom and characterizes optimal collusion without any prior restriction on the class of strategies. We stress that firms can credibly agree on retaliation schemes that maximally punish even the most efficient firm. This implies that whenever collusion is sustainable under cost symmetry, some collusion is also sustainable under cost asymmetry; efficient collusion, however, remains more difficult to sustain when costs are asymmetric. Finally, we show that in the presence of side payments cost asymmetry facilitates collusion.     

Foreign direct investment,input prices,and host country welfare

This paper analyzes a multinational firm’s foreign direct investment decision, through either greenfield investment or cross‐border merger and acquisition, into a host country with an input monopoly that adopts either uniform pricing or discriminatory pricing. The optimal foreign entry mode could differ under each pricing policy. Under Cournot competition, firms’ technological gap and the initial local market structure are critical to the choice of foreign entry mode, whereas product substitutability is important under Bertrand competition. In the presence of foreign entry, this paper also examines the welfare effects of input price discrimination for the host country.     

Bertrand versus Cournot competition in a downstream mixed oligopoly with foreign ownership

Focusing on foreign ownership in the private firm, we examine the Cournot-Bertrand comparison in a mixed oligopolistic market with vertical market structure. We have found that if public and private firms were charged with uniform price for their inputs, then Cournot-Bertrand ranking in market outcomes confirms those obtained by Ghosh and Mitra (2010). This implies that under uniform pricing in the upstream sector, the vertical market structure does not have substantial influences on Cournot-Bertrand ranking. However, if discriminatory pricing is adopted, firm's profits, output, and social welfare are often reversed to those obtained from uniform pricing in the upstream sector. Given the closeness of products, if the share of foreign ownership is sufficiently low, social welfare in Cournot competition can exceed that of Bertrand competition, contrasting with the standard welfare ranking that Bertrand welfare is strictly higher than Cournot. This implies that Cournot competition can be more socially desirable than Bertrand in mixed oligopoly with vertical market structure if discriminatory pricing scheme is adopted by foreign upstream monopolists.     

Collusion Under Asymmetric Information: The Role of the Correlation

We consider the regulation of a duopoly under incomplete information. When firms act noncooperatively, the regulator uses yardstick mechanisms to bridge his informational gap at no cost. However, this provides the firms with an incentive to collude.
We interpret the correlation as a measure of the congruence/divergence between individual and coalitional incentives. Under positive correlation, these incentives are aligned: the threat of collusion forces the regulator to distort the allocation. Under negative correlation, these incentives are opposed: the regulator can, sometimes, exploit this conflict of interest inside the coalition to eradicate the stakes of collusion at no cost.     

Mechanism Design under Collusion and Uniform Transfers

We study mechanism design under collusion focusing on the transaction costs in coalition formation created by asymmetric information among agents. In our setting, the regulator is constrained to use uniform transfers and this generates room for collusion between the regulated firms. We first show that when the gains from collusion are smaller than a threshold, the firms fail to realize the gains because of transaction costs. When the gains are larger than the threshold, we characterize the optimal collusion‐proof mechanism. Finally, we show that when the regulator is constrained to use uniform transfers, the collusion‐proofness principle does not hold.