不确定情形下的市场定价机制:基于心理-权力框架对新古典价格理论的审视

现实市场存在严重的不确定性,供给成本、消费效用以及质量信号等都是价格的函数,从而也就无法基于供求曲线交叉来获得均衡价格.因此,在不确定的现实市场中,人们往往需要借助一定的锚定值来预测产品和劳务的价格并促成契约和交易.同时,不同产品的价格锚定值往往依赖于基于一定规则所形成的等级序列,进而形成锦标赛制的市场定价体系,即不同产品的价格水平和不同劳务的工资水平往往依赖于其所属等级.进而,锦标赛制定价所遵循的不是生产成本原则或劳动投入原则,也不是客观功用原则或产出贡献原则,从而往往既不公平也无效率.锦标赛制定价体系之所以流行,根本原因在于市场经济中的权力结构是不对称的;尤其是,权力碎片化发展使得极少数强势者拥有了市场定价的权力,而定价原则是基于特定主权者的利益最大化和少数富人的效用最大化.正是基于锚定效应和权力分析框架的结合,我们才可以揭示出不确定市场中统一的锦标赛制定价体系及其嵌入的利益导向.显然,这将有助于我们深入审视新古典经济学价格理论,识别现实市场中的厂商定价策略,更好地解释各种市场行为和竞争形态,同时有助于我们更深刻地洞识市场机制的内在缺陷,进而为市场监管和收入分配等公共政策提供依据和方向.

The Pricing Mechanism in the Market under Uncertainty: A Reflection on Neo-classical Price Theory Based on the Analysis Framework of Psychology and Power

Modern economics seeks market equilibrium price based on the cross of supply and demand curves,and which depends on such presuppositions that consumer preference,producer costs as well as the signals of product quality are clear. However,the realistic market is full of serious uncertainty,and production cost,consumption utility and quality signal are all the functions of the price,so that it is impossible to obtain equilibrium price based on the cross of supply and demand curves. In fact,in uncertain market,people usually predict the prices of goods and services with the help of some anchoring values,which contribute to contracts and trading. And then,the price anchoring values of different products depend on a hierarchical sequence based on a certain rule,then bringing about the tournament-based market pricing system:the price levels of different commodities and the wage levels of different labors are often related with their levels. Furthermore, what the tournament-based pricing system abides to is not the principle of production cost or the principle of labor input,also not the principle of objective function or the principle of output contribution. As a result,tour-nament-based pricing system is neither fair nor efficient. The basic reason for why the tournament-based pri-cing system is so popular lies in that the power structure in the market economy is asymmetric; especially,the fragmented power makes few uppers people have the strong power to make market pricing rule,and the pri-cing principle is only in favor of few sovereigns to achieve their interest maximization and few riches to achieve their utility maximization. Therefore,based on the combination of anchoring effect and power analys-is framework,we can reveal the unified tournament-based pricing system as well as its interest orientation in uncertain market. Based on the above analysis,this paper brings about some profound theoretical and practical significance.(1)By introducing the market uncertainty,we can deeply make out the limitations of neoclassical price theory,and a better explanation of the specific location of the demand(and supply)curve and it moving.(2)By considering the fuzziness of goods value and the variability of utility,we can obtain more real intermittent supply and demand curves,and then identify the different forms of long-term and short-term sup-ply and demand curves.(3)By investigating the secondary properties,we can understand the production of all kinds of different products,and provide a better explanation of the prices of sharing cost products.(4)By studying the anchoring effect,we can realize that the product price usually has a certain range,confirming the capital-interest theory of new Cambridge school.(5)By analyzing the characteristics of tournament and the so-cial power structure,we can discern the pricing strategy of firms and the input of the non-productive re-sources,and then have a better understanding of such phenomena as the proliferation of fake and anti progress-ive technology development.(6)By investigating the interest orientation embedded in the tournament-based pricing system,we can more profoundly discover the internal defects of market mechanism,so as to provide the basis and direction for the market supervision,income distribution and other public policies. Finally,con-sidering that market pricing is the cornerstone of modern economics,this paper will make a fundamental im-pact on the modern mainstream economic system.