Technological advances in digital cameras: Welfare analysis on easy-to-use characteristics

This paper examines the characteristics attributed to the success of digital cameras by studying both the demand and the supply sides of the digital-camera market. A discrete choice model is employed to investigate consumer preferences over digital camera characteristics during the period 1996–1998. The empirical findings reveal that Sony’s ‘Easy-to-Use’ storage system contributes significantly to Sony’s demand advantage and profitability. Also, the welfare analysis demonstrates that ‘Easy-to-Use’ attributes significantly contribute to social welfare improvement.

水利建设市场主体政府监管效果评价指标体系研究

从政府监管视角,分析了水利建设市场主体政府监管效果的内涵与评价内容。在此基础上,从水利建设市场主体行为、工程项目管理绩效、工程项目社会影响等3个方面,利用文献计量法等,研究并构建了水利建设市场主体政府监管效果评价指标体系。最后,运用多层次灰色评价理论,通过实例验证了评价指标体系的科学性和合理性。     

非价格策略与消费者购买行为-以会员积分制为例

会员积分制是目前零售业普遍采用的一种非价格竞争策略,其对于销售的作用也日渐受到经济学的普遍关注。本文通过采用大连市某一知名大型购物中心会员购买记录的扫描数据,对会员积分制的实际效果进行实证研究,结果表明积分能够对消费者的购买行为产生显著影响。积分弹性及交叉积分弹性表明,一种商品的积分促销不仅增加本商品的需求量,而且对其他商品的销售存在正外部性。积分促销可以起到与价格促销同样的作用;本文进一步得出积分与价格相互替代性的大小,为厂商在两种策略的权衡使用上提供参考。     

Collusion or Competition? Interfirm Relationships in the Chinese Auto Industry

The Chinese passenger‐vehicle industry contains a large number of manufacturers. Some of them are members of big corporate groups centered around state owned enterprises. These corporate relationships may facilitate collusion. This paper applies the non‐nested hypothesis test methodology to data on passenger vehicles to identify whether price collusion exists within corporate groups or across groups. Our empirical results support the assumption of Bertrand Nash competition in the Chinese passenger‐vehicle industry: We find no evidence for within or cross‐group price collusion. Our policy experiments show that indigenous brands will gain market shares and profits if within‐group companies merge.     

Stock price targeting and fiscal deficit in Japan: Why did the fiscal deficit increase during Japan’s lost decades?

The purpose of this paper is to explain why Japan’s fiscal deficit increased so dramatically in the 1990s and the 2000s. We focus on the role of “stock price targeting” to explain why the fiscal expenditure increased so much. After presenting a simple model to describe government behavior with an optimistic view about stock price and output growth, the paper tests whether the model can explain Japan’s fiscal expenditure. The empirical results, using biannual and high-frequency data of the 1990s and the 2000s, show that the stock price targeting can track Japan’s fiscal expenditure reasonably well, especially in the 1990s. They imply that without the stock price targeting, the total amount of biannual fiscal stimulus from 1992 to 2000 would have been lower by 2.5 trillion yen on average.     

Welfare analysis of the subsidies in the Chinese electric vehicle industry*

We employ a structural model and counterfactual analysis to identify the impact of subsidies on the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) sales and examine their welfare effects. Our findings suggest that subsidies are effective in promoting the diffusion of domestic EVs, but may adversely affect technological advancement. When the subsidies on domestic EVs are reduced, the welfare on domestic EV consumers and producers decreases. However, the reduction in government spending on EV subsidies outweighs this private welfare loss. Thus, the overall welfare increases. Subsidies cannot be justified from the perspective of reducing externalities because they increase rather than decrease pollution.     

消费者保障计划的作用机理——基于信号博弈的理论分析

信息不对称是阻碍电子商务进一步发展的关键问题。消费者保障计划是淘宝网在2007年推出的一种交易机制,旨在解决网上交易信任问题。本文运用信号博弈理论分析了该机制中的＂先行赔付＂计划和＂7天无理由退换货＂计划在网上交易中的作用机理,并据此讨论了各种因素对分离均衡产生及卖家利润的影响,比较了两种计划在降低消费者购买风险方面所起到的不同作用,为该机制的使用和完善提供了理论参考。     

Development of a model to estimate the economic impacts of R&D output of public research institutes

This paper proposes a modeling framework to estimate the economic impacts of R&D output of public research institutes. The framework models the process of R&D output generating the economic impacts. The authors collect case data of market‐creation economic impacts originating from R&D output of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan. On the basis of the case studies, the process of R&D output generating economic impacts is modeled in the following four stages: (1) R&D output, (2) technology transfer, (3) commercialization, and (4) market impacts. The model describes these stages using six parameters. This paper presents the model and case studies, and discusses the application of the model.     

Dynamic welfare costs of the 1997 Asian crisis

This paper measures and investigates the welfare costs, other effects and recovery process of the 1997 Asian crisis, and evaluates the impact of the policy program supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The main findings are as follows. First, the ratio of ‘whole cost’ to the level of consumption in a hypothetical economy is high: 50% for Indonesia, 39% for Hong Kong, 36% for Korea, 30% for Thailand and 18% for Malaysia. Second, the dynamic process of ‘cost at period t’ quickly converges to 40% immediately after the crisis, though the costs for Indonesia and Hong Kong gradually increase toward 100%. Third, the IMF-supported programs in Thailand, Indonesia and Korea were implemented straight after the peak cost. Finally, the cost of the IMF-supported program was relatively inexpensive compared with the welfare cost of the crisis. The authors would like to thank Kenneth S. Chan, Makoto Saito, Yum K. Kwan, Yong Wang, Eiji Ogawa, Yoshiro Tsutsui, Yuzo Honda, Shinsuke Ikeda, Soyoung Kim, Joshua Aizenman and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and useful suggestions. Earlier versions of this paper were presented in 2003 at Osaka University and Hitotsubashi University, in 2004 at the City University of Hong Kong, Tokyo University and the Western Regional Science Association Conference (Hawaii), Western Economic Association Conference (Vancouver) and East Asian Economic Association Conference (Hong Kong). Funding from a Grant-in-Aid 16530204 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science, Technology of Japan, the Nomura Foundation for Social Science 2005 and Kanpo Foundation 2002 supported the first-named author’s research.     

Markov Perfect Equilibrium in the US digital camera market

This paper examines the model launch and withdrawal decisions of the major digital camera makers for the period 1996–1999. These manufacturers produce differentiated products and some have the experience of participating in a similar market—the film camera market. This paper investigates to what extent the following four factors affect firms' decisions to launch a new model of digital camera: the effects of competition with “within-brand” models; the effects of competition with “cross-brand” models; the level of experience in the film camera market; and market conditions. The empirical findings suggest that good market conditions can accommodate more products, which has a positive effect on product launches. On the other hand, existing cross-brand models have a negative effect on product launches, while within-brand models and experience in similar markets have an ambiguous effect on product launches.