THE ECONOMICS OF PLASTIC BAG LEGISLATION IN SOUTH AFRICA1

In May 2003 South Africa introduced legislation intended to decrease plastic bag litter. It combined standards and price‐based economic tools in an attempt to reduce the public's demand for plastic bags. This paper analyses the short term effects of the legislation on bag demand. It also provides a background to these regulations and a theoretical overview. The assessment uses bag consumption data from four retailers, each representing a different consumer market. These are analysed, and respective price elasticities calculated. The results suggest that plastic bag demand is relatively price inelastic and imply that instruments utilising price alone, would have limited efficacy. However, the combination of standards and pricing successfully curbed plastic bag use in the short run. Further analysis suggests that the effectiveness of the legislation may be declining over time.     

碳交易背景下考虑公平关切的双渠道闭环供应链定价决策

考虑到碳交易政策和公平偏好会影响双渠道闭环供应链定价决策，分别构建碳交易背景下公平中性、零售商公平关切信息对称与不对称时双渠道闭环供应链进行最优决策的Stackelberg动态博弈模型。通过求解各个均衡解，研究各个均衡解与制造商和零售商公平关切的关系。通过数值算例分析，着重考虑零售商公平关切信息对称与不对称时制造商和零售商公平关切对双闭环供应链最优定价决策的影响，并进行对比分析。研究结果表明：无论零售商公平关切信息对称还是不对称，新产品的销售价格与制造商和零售商公平关切都成正比，再制品的销售价格不受公平关切的影响；新产品的市场需求与制造商和零售商公平关切都成反比，再制品的市场需求与制造商和零售商的公平关切都成正比；公平关切会降低企业利润，公平关切信息不对称会加剧这一现象。     

广告影响需求下的新产品竞争性动态定价策略

文章在广告影响需求条件下,考虑了双寡头垄断企业竞争下的新产品动态定价问题,提出了一个竞争性动态定价策略。当顾客不仅考虑当前的价格和广告水平而且也考虑以往的交易价格和广告水平条件下,提出了一个具有"学习"功能的竞争性需求函数。运用多周期动态博弈理论给出了均衡的销售价格和广告水平,分析了三种情形下(竞争双方仅有价格竞争而广告竞争强度为0、竞争双方既有价格竞争又有广告竞争且广告竞争强度大于0小于1和竞争双方存在价格竞争而广告竞争强度为1)竞争双方的动态定价策略。结果发现企业可以选择五种定价策略——提高价格、降低     

The Euro and Psychological Prices: Simulations of the Worst-Case Scenario

Currently, nearly 90% of all prices of consumer goods and services in the Netherlands are psychological, conveniently broken or round prices. After converting these 'attractive' guilder prices into euro using the official conversion rate, the resulting euro prices are generally not attractive. The Dutch public is concerned that retailers will not round their euro prices symmetrically upwards and downwards to the next attractive pricing point but only upwards. This paper investigates the question 'What would be the effect on the consumer price index (CPI) if prices were systematically rounded upwards.' Firstly, the attractive pricing points are determined empirically using the actual price sample underlying the Dutch CPI. Secondly, different rounding scenarios are investigated and the likelihood of the worst-case scenario is discussed. It turns out that the euro introduction may cause an increase of the CPI due to psychological price setting by 0.7% at most. However, the competition in the retail sector makes it unlikely that this scenario materialises.     

广告影响需求下的新产品竞争性动态定价策略

文章在广告影响需求条件下,考虑了双寡头垄断企业竞争下的新产品动态定价问题,提出了一个竞争性动态定价策略。当顾客不仅考虑当前的价格和广告水平而且也考虑以往的交易价格和广告水平条件下,提出了一个具有“学习”功能的竞争性需求函数。运用多周期动态博弈理论给出了均衡的销售价格和广告水平,分析了三种情形下（竞争双方仅有价格竞争而广告竞争强度为0、竞争双方既有价格竞争又有广告竞争且广告竞争强度大于0小于．1和竞争双方存在价格竞争而广告竞争强度为1）竞争双方的动态定价策略。结果发现企业可以选择五种定价策略——提高价格、降低价格、维持原价、振荡收敛于常数和发散定价,这些定价策略在一定程度上受企业广告的成本系数和初始给定的价格及广告水平的影响。     

基于价格敏感性的在线批发定价策略

文章针对由供给商与不同价格敏感性的零售商组成的销售渠道,从在线策略和竞争分析的角度,研究了面对不确定性需求时供给商如何制定单一批发价格的问题,给出最优竞争策略,并证明了所给策略具有最优竞争比.最后对策略的适用条件进行了讨论,认为所给策略对那些需求量大或者具有固定消费群体的产品更为合适.     

Exchange Rate Pass-through in a Small Open Economy: the Importance of the Distribution Sector

The degree of exchange rate pass-through to domestic goods prices has important implications for monetary policy in small open economies with floating exchange rates. Evidence indicates that pass-through is faster to import prices than to consumer prices. Price setting behaviour in the distribution sector is suggested as one important explanation. If distribution costs and trade margins are important price components of imported consumer goods, adjustment of import prices and consumer prices to exchange rate movements may differ. We present evidence on these issues for Norway by estimating a cointegrated VAR model for the pricing behaviour in the distribution sector, paying particular attention to exchange rate channels likely to operate through trade margins. Embedding this model into a large scale macroeconometric model of the Norwegian economy, which inter alia includes the pricing-to-market hypothesis and price-wage and wage-wage spirals between industries, we find exchange rate pass-through to be quite rapid to import prices and fairly slow to consumer prices. We show the importance of the pricing behaviour in the distribution sector in that trade margins act as cushions to exchange rate fluctuations, thereby delaying pass-through significantly to consumer prices. A forecasting exercise demonstrates that exchange rate pass-through to trade margins has not changed in the wake of the financial crises and the switch to inflation targeting. We also find significant inflationary effects of exchange rate changes even in the short run, an insight important for inflation targeting central banks.     

基于双边市场理论的互联网定价模式与反垄断问题研究

文章首先厘清中国电信业的双边市场特征,然后通过构建双边市场模型分析了垄断平台和竞争性平台的均衡价格,同时考虑了不同收费形式下中国电信业的定价策略,最后分析了其双边市场中反垄断政策的含义.研究主要结论是:双边市场定价通常对需求价格弹性较小一边的价格加成比较高;网络外部性越强,价格结构越不对称;价格结构与用户数量或平台交易量是动态相互影响;差异化程度越大,平台对用户的价格加成越大.这对于我国“三网融合”的背景下电信产业市场结构、定价策略和反垄断问题具有一定的借鉴意义.     

Third-Degree Price Discrimination: Apology Not Necessary

Applied work in price discrimination often treats demand curves among multiple market segments as algebraically additive. Yet the welfare effects of multi-market (third degree) price discrimination depend on how the demand segments are added. Treating demands as geometrically additive yields the well known result that discrimination absent an increase in production diminishes Marshallian surplus. But if demands are treated as algebraically additive then discrimination increases welfare over uniform pricing. Quantity is identical in the three cases, so the effect is not due to market opening. Nor is the effect due to scale economies since marginal cost is assumed constant. Profit is always greater under discrimination, so the effect is due to distributional changes in consumer surplus. The model is restricted to linear demands and constant marginal cost but can be generalized for future work and policy analysis.     

How Do Retailers Price Beer During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Game Weeks of the German Bundesliga

This article considers retail beer pricing during game weeks of the German Bundesliga. German consumers exhibit a high degree of brand‐loyalty in their preference for regionally crafted beers, and we exploit the regional brand‐loyalty of German beer consumers to identify brand‐level demand shocks for beers preferred by the home team's fans and visiting team's fans during Bundesliga game weeks. We find retailer price adjustments at the category level mask a considerably more nuanced pricing behavior at the brand level. Retailers in regions hosting Bundesliga games significantly increase beer prices at the category level during game weeks; however, at the brand level, we find retailers selectively discount prices on the home team's sponsored beers and systematically raise prices on the visiting team's sponsored beers. Our findings are consistent with a “tourist–natives” model of retail pricing during periods of increased demand in the German beer market.     

基于用户需求弹性的峰谷分时电价决策模型

针对现有的蜂谷分时电价设计文献侧重干考虑用户消费心理对电价均衡影响这一现象,构建了考虑用户需求弹性的峰谷分时电价决策模型,并结合四川某市的电网负荷运行数据进行了算例分析．说明了峰谷分时电价的具体实现思路与过程。结果显示,基于用户需求弹性的峰谷分时电价模型．可以较有效的引导用户需求,缓解电力供求矛盾。维持电力负荷平稳。     

Price Dispersion in Online Grocery Stores: An Analysis of the UK Market

Search costs is the key determinant of price variance in offline markets. Yet, despite the lack of significant search costs, it is observed that price dispersion in online grocery markets still exist. This paper explores the possible determinants of this phenomena through an empirical model. Price data was gathered for the period of thirteen weeks for twenty-one product categories. In essence, the findings suggest that there is an indication of a price-quality relationship, but more significantly, retailers undertake randomized pricing strategies, culminating in sporadic price changes across the given time period.     

消费者公平关切下制造商主导的供应链最优决策研究

究消费者不仅在意产品的功能,还在意交易中的公平性,因此研究了消费者公平关切对制造商和零售商定价决策问题。对零售商与消费者具有公平关切与制造商与消费者具有公平关切两种情况下的制造商主导的Stakelberg模型进行研究分析,并得出两种情况下制造商的最优批发价格、最优质量以及零售商最优零售价。研究发现:适中的消费者公平关切能够一定程度上缓解供应链竞争。制造商与零售商都不应过度关注自身公平关切,否则会损害另一方利益,从而不利于供应链的稳定发展。     

需求曲线的形状及其内在逻辑——破解吉芬之谜、构建中国经济学的消费者行为模型

经济学界在探讨需求曲线问题时经常颠倒了理论与现象或者事实之间的关系、颠倒了价格与需求量之间的因果关系、混淆了个别需求曲线和市场需求曲线,在不知不觉中陷入了一个无法自拔的逻辑困境。消费者的需求量不仅要受到市场价格变化的影响,还要受到其拟选行为的机会成本变化的影响。而消费者的需求价格是由其收入水平和偏好决定的。把“向右下方倾斜的需求曲线”当作一个描述消费者行为的具有普遍意义的定律,是不科学的。     

Short-run energy-economy interactions in Egypt

This paper discusses the short-run adjustment mechanism of the Egyptian economy to changes in the domestic price of oil. The effects of oil price increases have been analysed in the framework of a short-run macroeconomic model with an explicit treatment of energy. The results suggest that a reduction in petroleum use induced by a rise in the price of oil will impose difficult adjustment problems for the economy in the short run in terms of increase in inflation, fall in the share of wage income and sharp output losses. The analysis also indicates that energy demand management through appropriate petroleum pricing strategy cannot bring about desirable impacts on the economy unless efforts are made to reduce cost pressures originating from other energy sectors.     

On the Use of the Susenas for Modelling Consumer Behaviour

Indonesia's National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS) is a potentially important source of data for econometric modelling of consumer demands. The paper attempts to clarify aspects of the SUSENAS which have not been widely appreciated by past users of the data, particularly concerning its interpretation, internal consistency, and the valuation methods used. Specific issues discussed include price and quality valuation, the pricing method for consumption goods, and inconsistencies in the household expenditure aggregates, the quantity units, and the commodity classification. It is argued that these issues have econometric implications for modelling consumer behaviour.     

消费激励对厂商定价选址行为的影响

企业的消费激励策略构成产品的差异特征,通过改变消费者的需求来影响企业的定价方式和定位。文章利用Hotelling两阶段博弈模型,在考虑运输成本基础上,进一步引入消费激励,来分析两个竞争销售企业在消费激励条件下选址定价问题。消费激励使得价格上升,减弱了企业间的价格竞争,也使得企业扩大空间差异的经济效果显著,企业在空间上有集聚的趋势。     

Price shocks in regional markets: Japan's Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923

Japan's Great Kantō Earthquake of 1 September 1923 devastated the area around Tokyo and the country's main port of Yokohama. This article uses the earthquake as a case study to inform our understanding of the economics of disasters and the history of market integration. It seeks to test two main assumptions: first, that shifting demand and supply curves consequent on a disaster will have some impact on prices; and second, that any local changes in the disaster region are likely to be diffused across a wider geographical area. We make use of a unique monthly wholesale price dataset for a number of cities across Japan, and our analysis suggests three main findings: that price changes in the affected areas immediately following the disaster were in most cases reflected in price changes in Japan's provincial cities; that cities further away from the devastation witnessed smaller price changes than those nearer to the affected area; and that the observed pattern of price changes reflects the regional heterogeneity identified by scholars who have worked on market integration in Japan.     

Cost-based Pricing of Payment Instruments: the State of the Debate

Earlier I have argued in favour of explicit cost-based pricing of payment instruments. This article analyses new cost estimates for the Netherlands, and provides an overview of positions recently taken by important actors such as central banks and the European Commission. The new cost estimates strengthen the case for e-money. The central bank reports indicate that many are now convinced that a transparent pricing structure can increase efficiency. The Commission, on the other hand, seems unlikely to allow commercial banks to make a coordinated move towards cost-based pricing in order to break the deadlock in which they find themselves today.     

Block Rate Pricing of Water in Indonesia: An Analysis of Welfare Effects

Block rate pricing of piped water in Indonesian cities has a progressive structure: the marginal price paid increases with the volume of demand. This paper estimates household water demand in Salatiga city using the Burtless and Hausman model, and finds that its distribution is not unimodal—that data cluster around kinks. The main estimation results are a price elasticity of approximately–1.2 and an income elasticity of 0.05. These elasticities are mutually dependent. The estimated model is used to investigate the social welfare consequences of a shift to uniform pricing. The principal beneficiaries would be large households, which are not necessarily wealthy. While replacing the complex rate structure by a uniform marginal price would have positive effects on average welfare, the equity consequences would be small. To improve equity, water companies could reduce installation fees, giving low-income households access to water connections, or reinvest profits in network expansion to unserviced areas.