Price competition in a differentiated products duopoly under network effects

We examine price competition under product-specific network effects, in a duopoly where the products are differentiated both horizontally and vertically. We emphasize the role of consumers’ expectations formation. When expectations are not influenced by prices, the market may be shared but shares must be equal unless product qualities differ or one firm, possibly even the low-quality one, may capture the entire market. When expectations are influenced by prices, which would be the case when there is commitment, competition becomes more intense and the high-quality firm tends to capture a larger market share. Under strong network effects there is a continuum of equilibria and the higher the prices, the smaller the difference between those prices can be. Requiring continuity of expectations, however, delivers a unique equilibrium where one firm captures the entire market.     

个人投资者交易行为研究——来自台湾股市的证据

本文基于台湾股市数据,主要研究个人投资者的交易行为。参照Kaniel et al.(2008)构建了个人投资者交易不平衡性指标─净交易,以反映投资者股票交易的强度。采用这种交易不平衡性指标来构建投资组合研究个人投资者的交易行为。首先研究个人投资者交易和股票的收益之间的动态关系从而分析投资者的交易策略,然后研究个人投资者净交易的收益预测能力从而分析个人投资者交易的信息含量。本文研究发现:台湾股票市场的个人投资者采用负反馈的交易策略,并且个人投资者在交易中表现出很强的处置效应;个人投资者在交易中的信息含量不足;个人投资者交易中的盈利主要来自两个方面:过度反应和价格冲击。文章最后给出政策建议。     

我国承销商利用分析师报告托市了吗?

学术界对于我国IPO市场是否存在承销商托市行为一直存在争议。本文通过搜集新股上市一年之内的分析师报告数据,系统考察了我国承销商利用分析师报告进行托市的行为特征,以及投资者对于承销商分析师具有托市性质报告的市场反应。结果发现:(1)承销商会利用乐观、但偏颇的分析师报告为市场表现不佳的新股进行托市,但这一现象在新股上市90天后消失;(2)声誉机制在新股解禁期后才能有效约束承销商利用分析师报告托市的利益冲突行为;(3)市场投资者总体上能够识别承销商的托市意图,并对承销商分析师报告的系统偏误进行自我调整。本文的研究不仅为我国承销商是否存在托市行为提供了新的直接性经验证据,而且有助于市场各方洞悉分析师报告背后的利益冲突,同时也为监管部门出台相关的规范政策提供了新的决策参考。     

Biological conservation in dynamic agricultural landscapes: Effectiveness of public policies and trade-offs with agricultural production

Land use change and land management intensification are major drivers of biodiversity loss, especially in agricultural landscapes, that cover a large and increasing share of the world's surface. Incentive-based agri-environmental policies are designed to influence farmers' land-use decisions in order to mitigate environmental degradation. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes for biological conservation in a dynamic agricultural landscape under economic uncertainty. We develop a dynamic ecological economic model of agricultural land-use and spatially explicit population dynamics. We then relate policies (subsidies to grassland, taxation of agricultural intensity) to the ecological outcome (probability of persistence of a species of interest). We also analyze the associated trade-offs between agricultural production (in value) and biological conservation (in probability of persistence) at the landscape scale.     

财政分权、政府竞争与土地价格结构性偏离

财政分权背景下地方政府的财政约束和政府竞争是导致土地价格结构性偏离的根本原因。地方政府存在拉升商业用地和居住用地出让价格的倾向,金融宽松环境和投机行为盛行会使这两种土地出让价格存在正向偏离其理论地价的可能;而地方政府对流动性税基的争夺过程会导致工业用地出让价格低于其理论价格。工业用地价格与商业和居住用地价格正是在政府这两种反作用力量的作用下出现结构性偏离。     

双品类存货组合的质押率研究

本文假设静态质押模式下组合质押存货的价格变动相互独立并服从对数正态分布。在此基础上,构建质押率决策模型并对其影响因素进行分析。研究结果表明:存在使银行期望利润最大化的最优质押率;质押率与银行贷款利率呈同向递增趋势,随着贷款周期的增加呈现先增加后减小趋势。     

History-based price discrimination and entry in markets with switching costs: A welfare analysis

We analyze history-based price discrimination in an asymmetric industry, where an incumbent, protected by switching costs, faces an entrant who does not have access to information about consumers’ purchase histories. We demonstrate that consumer surplus is higher with uniform pricing than with history-based price discrimination. We find that the entry decision is invariant to whether the incumbent implements history-based pricing or uniform pricing. This implies that the potential abuse of market dominance imposed by history-based price discrimination is exploitation, not exclusion. Finally, we establish that the profit gain to the incumbent from history-based pricing exceeds the associated loss to consumers.     

Estimating demand curve in the Korean VoIP telecommunications market

The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) market in Korea is showing rapid growth since domestic carriers initiated the service in 2006. These carriers are now seeking new revenue sources from various convergence services and are increasing investment into VoIP. In particular, local exchange carriers (LECs), formerly reluctant to invest in technologies that would cannibalize their local telephone revenue, have started to invest in VoIP, in recognition of the current convergence of media and the telecommunications industry, as well as in the face of intensifying competition. In this study, we determined that VoIP call rates and landline telephony call rates were the most important factors affecting VoIP call demand, in addition to network externality. We also verified that landline telephony is no longer a supplement to VoIP, but rather, a substitute that has considerable influence on VoIP call demand. Empirical evidence is expected to be considered in policy decision making on current issues in the IT industry, such as access prices or competitiveness assessment. The current empirical analysis on the Korean VoIP industry and the adherence to lessons learned from policy enforcement should provide valuable information to countries seeking to develop their own VoIP industries, as well as to businesses developing new strategies based on the VoIP market.     

Marketing and society: Preface to special section on volunteerism, price assurances, and direct-to-consumer advertising

We discuss the reasons why this call for papers was issued and describe the process of selecting the three articles presented in this special section. We argue that maximizing stakeholder welfare and not just consumption maybe a new goal for marketing that will be consistent with emerging societal trends. Three articles on volunteerism, price assurances, and direct-to-consumer advertising result from our call and are presented in this section. This introduction is an overview of the three articles.     

I Have Paid Less Than You! The Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of Advantaged Price Inequality

This study examines the emotion blends and the subsequent customer reactions that occur in advantaged price inequality situations, that is, when consumers learn that retailers charged them a lower price than what the same retailers charged another customer. Drawing on the appraisal theories of emotion and on social comparison theory, an experiment (n = 272) and a field study (n = 261) are conducted. The results reveal that in advantaged price inequality situations, customers experience a host of positive and negative emotions depending on two factors: the quality of relationship that the customer has with a disadvantaged other customer (neutral, positive, or negative) and the attribution of agency for the price advantage (situational attribution to competition, external attribution to store policies, or internal attribution to customer abilities). Positive emotions include happiness, gratitude, pride, and malicious joy; while negative emotions include pity, outrage, and guilt. These emotions are shown to mediate the occurrence of customer reactions (i.e., customer satisfaction, loyalty, WOM referral, and WOM activity). The article concludes with theoretical implications and recommendations for retail practitioners on how to use dynamic pricing.