Nothing so Certain as your Anchors? A Consumer Bias that may Lower Prices and Prevent Cartels

In this paper, we investigate the effect of reference prices on oligopolistic firms’ behavior. Specifically, we analyze pricing strategies and equilibrium outcomes when differentiated firms compete in Bertrand fashion and reference prices act as anchors. We show that anchoring may lower the prices charged in the long run. Furthermore, we claim that the existence of anchoring makes collusion less stable. This might have implications on the optimal allocation of regulatory resources.     

Productivity,Infrastructure and Human Capital in the Spanish Regions

We revisit the cointegration relation among output, physical capital, human capital, public capital and labour for 17 Spanish regions observed over the period 1964–2011. Our approach is based on the estimation of a panel data model where cross-section dependence is allowed among the members of the panel. The paper emphasizes the idea that common factors capturing, for instance, total factor productivity, should be accounted for when estimating the parameters. We use several proposals to estimate the long-run relation among these variables, which render consistent and efficient estimates of the parameters.     

Harm-advocating online content and subjective well-being: a cross-national study of new risks faced by youth

Harm-advocating online content includes pro-eating disorder, pro-self-harm, pro-suicide, and the positive portrayal of the deaths of real people (snuff or death sites). This material is often user-generated and easily accessible for an average online user, therefore offering a potential source of risk for many Internet users. This cross-sectional study examined the association between exposure to harm-advocating online content and users’ subjective well-being (SWB) among American (n = 1032) and Finnish (n = 555) young people aged 15–30. Exposure to different types of online harm-advocating content was prevalent in both countries. Lower SWB was associated with exposure to this material even when controlling for social networking site (SNS) activity and online and offline victimization. In the US sample, seeing death sites was not associated with SWB, but seeing other harm-advocating sites was. In both countries, those with high SNS activity were more likely to be exposed to online harm-advocating material. These results from two advanced information societies underline the importance of recognizing the existence of harmful online communities. These communities are grounded on social interaction that might involve risks for the well-being of adolescents and young adults.     

Monetary Policy,the Composition of GDP and Crisis Duration in Europe

This paper analyzes the effects of changes in interest rates on the composition of production in 10 European countries during the boom period of the 2000s. We find that output elasticity differs across industries and across countries for similar industries. The paper suggests that in the run-up to the 2008 crisis, the European Central Bank's low interest rate policy affected the allocation of resources across industries. This may explain the sluggish overall recovery from the crisis in Europe.     

Linking human resources practices with performance: the simultaneous mediation of collective affective commitment and human capital

Independent streams of research propose that human capital and employee motivation serve as mediation mechanisms that explain the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and performance. A multiple mediation analysis is used to test employee perceptions of subsets of HPWS practices, which emphasize the enhancement of employees’ abilities, motivation and opportunities, as predictors of business units’ performance, when mediated by human capital and motivational paths, in a sample of business units in Chilean organizations. Collective affective commitment is used as proxy for the motivational path, and differentiated from other measures used to test such path. Results indicate that personnel selection, performance evaluation and training, job descriptions, and empowerment practices make simultaneous contributions to the human capital and affective commitment paths. The partial mediation effects observed suggests that additional mechanisms contributing to the HPWS–performance relationship should be explored. However, compensation and incentives practices only contribute to the motivational path, while the human capital path and direct effects are non-significant. Results support the complementarity of both mediation mechanisms, the differential effects of subsets of HR practices on the mediation paths, and the significance of these effects at a business unit aggregate level of analysis. Theoretical contributions, practical implications and limitations are discussed.     

Explanatory factors for efficiency in the use of social networking sites—The case of organic food products

In some markets, organic foods face problems such as consumer misinformation and confusion, high prices compared to conventional equivalents, or few points of sale. The answers to these problems include information and communication technologies, particularly social networking sites (SNS), given their potential for conveying information and connecting customers and suppliers at less cost. It would be useful to ascertain the psychology of social media use and which factors determine SNS efficiency among organic producers. This study of the efficiency of SNS use in two strategic sectors for Spain—olive oil and wine—used data envelopment analysis and, in a second stage, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to detect the contextual variables that explain the highest efficiency indices. The results showed that the more market‐oriented sector (wine) has a higher average efficiency of SNS use and pointed to the following explanatory factors: SNSs mentioned on corporate websites, number of employees, the manager's educational background, and length of SNS use.     

Exchange‐rate Misalignments in Duopoly: The Case of Airbus and Boeing

We examine the effect of exchange‐rate misalignments on competition in the market for large commercial aircraft. This market is a duopoly where players compete in dollar‐denominated prices while one of them, Airbus, incurs a large fraction of its costs in euro. We estimate price elasticities for big aircraft, and construct a simulation model to investigate how companies adjust their prices to deal with the effects of a temporary misalignment and how this affects profit margins and volumes. We conclude that, due to the duopolistic nature of the aircraft market, Airbus will pass only a small part of the exchange‐rate fluctuations on to customers. Moreover, due to features specific to the aircraft industry, such as customer switching costs and learning‐by‐doing, even a temporary departure of the exchange rate from its long‐run equilibrium level may have permanent effects on the industry.     

Influence factors of trust building in cooperation agreements

Trust is a key success factor in cooperation agreements. Therefore, identifying the factors that make the greatest contribution toward building trust is fundamental for an understanding of cooperation agreements. This paper analyzes two factors that might contribute to generating trust for successful agreements during the initial stages of the relationship. These factors are the partner's reputation and prior partnering experience. The study aims to confirm and complete the understanding of the relationship between these two variables and the success of cooperation agreements, by examining the indirect effect, through trust building, that these factors have on the success of agreements. The study analyzes these relationships by applying a structural equation model on the basis of partial least squares (PLS) methodology. The total impact of previous cooperation experience and the partner's reputation on the success of cooperation agreements is strong, positive, and significant.