Automobile quality choice under pollution control regulation

In this paper, we develop a modified quality choice model to study the effects of various mobile-source air pollution control regulations. We have a single producer that supplies a fixed number of car types (two) but faces a spectrum of consumers differing in their valuation of car quality. The car manufacturer chooses the quality levels of the two car types as well as the sales mix between the two types and the size of the market it wishes to supply. By endogenizing both the sales mix and the market size, while still allowing quality to be a choice variable, we are able to more completely analyze the impact of any car pollution control regulation. Existing studies of this impact either focus on the model line adjustment response (shifts in the quality array) or on the price adjustment response (changes in the sales mix and market size). In allowing for both the model line and the price adjustment options, we find that the corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standard is unambiguously welfare superior to the low-emission vehicle quantity constraint (LEV) and zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programs. We also show that the effects of the CAFE standard are not equivalent to those of a fuel tax, as previously found, and that, for a given car pollution target, the former is preferred to the latter.      

Demographic processes in a model of innovation diffusion with dynamic market

In this paper we study a binomial innovation diffusion model for a variable size market by modelling the demographic process of entrance-exit from each market compartment. We examine from a theoretical point of view the effect of the simultaneous presence of economic and demographic parameters under the exponential market growth hypothesis, by presenting some general results on the adoptions and sales time path. We also enlighten the relevance of considering these variables in relative terms and show how, in presence of a dynamic, the diffusion process never saturates the market. Finally, we test our model on a data set for cellular phones market in different countries.     

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT – THE EMERGENT PPP EQUITY MARKET

Increasingly governments are looking to private sector actors to invest in infrastructure projects. An emergent mechanism for such investment is the market in PPP equity. This is an aspect of PPPs that has to date had little empirical attention. This paper reports on the size and scope of the market in PPP equity sales within the UK. In the process, the nature of PPP projects and the existing rationales for the policy are critiqued. The paper concludes by laying out a number of potential research agendas focused on PPP equity sales including a call for reassessing theoretical perspectives.     

National Border Effects: Location, Not Nationality, Matters

A recent literature documents the downward impact of national borders on trade. This paper probes the relative importance of two potential sources of border effects: (1) pure locational factors, such as transport costs and tariffs; and (2) an inherent disadvantage for a firm selling in a foreign market. I am able to make this decomposition by using data on the local sales of foreign affiliates of US multinational enterprises, on US bilateral exports, and on domestic sales by host‐country firms. The “border effect” arises almost entirely from locational factors. If a firm establishes and sells from a subsidiary located in the foreign country, its local sales are about on a par with those of domestic firms in that market.     

网上销售的影响因素:利基与热门市场的对比研究

长尾理论表明,互联网更利于利基市场的发展。然而,近期有研究认为热门市场在网上更有优势。为了验证在线商家在这两类市场的不同表现,我们对淘宝网上的791家店铺的64万余种产品的销售数据进行了分析。结果表明,网上销售受到信誉、产品多样性、价格、口碑以及被推荐机会等因素的影响,并且这些影响在利基和热门市场上表现出显著的差异。其中,信誉、产品多样性、价格和口碑对利基产品销售的影响更大。基于历史数据的被推荐机会对热门产品的销售有正向影响,而对利基产品的销售有负向影响。此外,我们还发现了网上销售的后发优势。     

Who pays sales taxes? Evidence from French VAT reforms, 1987–1999

The point of this paper is to provide visual evidence of tax shifting and to measure empirically the distribution of the sales tax burden between consumers and producers. For that purpose, two French reforms are studied. These reforms entail steep decreases of the VAT rate. September 1st 1987, the VAT rate on car sales went down from the luxury-rate of 33.33% to the full-rate of 18.6%. September 1st 1999, the VAT rate on housing repair services went down from the full-rate of 20.6% to the reduced-rate of 5.5%. The consumer share of the sales tax burden is 57% in the new car sales market and 77% in the housing repair services market.     

市场份额、负债融资与企业价值——基于中国房地产上市公司的实证研究

利用2008—2015年中国沪深A股房地产上市企业的数据,实证分析了负债融资和市场份额对企业价值的影响。结果显示:市场份额与负债水平正相关,两者之间存在显著的替代关系;从市场份额的角度看,负债水平能提升企业价值,且负债水平与企业价值的关系曲线呈U型;销售预期对企业价值具有调节作用,且高销售预期下这种调节作用更为明显。     

The diffusion process,competitive relationship,and equilibrium analysis of smartphone operating systems

This study started from the perspective of predicting science and technology competition, building on this to discuss the dynamic competition between Android and iOS by sales volume in each quarter. The Lotka–Volterra system of equations, one well-known competitive diffusion models, has been adopted to represent the competitive situations of the smartphone operating system market, with the Lyapunov function used to carry out equilibrium and stability analysis. The results showed that Android and iOS have a predator–prey relationship, in which iOS serves as the predator, and Android as a prey. The equilibrium and stability analysis show that both products are able to coexist in the market, and thus, each system has its own stable sales volume.     

Asset illiquidity and market shutdowns in competitive equilibrium

This paper introduces asymmetric information in a competitive asset market into a dynamic general-equilibrium model with borrowing constraints. In the presence of borrowing constraints, asset sales become a crucial means for agents to finance opportunities to invest in new assets. In this environment, reduced asset sales due to asymmetric information lower the economic growth rate if agents invest in new assets. The volume of asset trade, however, becomes zero if and only if agents stop investing in new assets because of sufficiently low aggregate productivity. A low economic growth rate with a market shutdown is solely due to low aggregate productivity without any role of the market shutdown.     

Measuring the effects of advertising on green industry sales: a generalized propensity score approach

This article estimates the effects of advertising expenditures on annual gross sales of green industry firms using a quasi-experimental framework. In order to account for potential selection bias, a generalized propensity score and a dose-response function are used to estimate advertising treatment effects. The method used allows us to investigate the relationship between the dose (advertising expenditures) and the response (firm sales). We use data from the National Green Industry Surveys of 2009 and 2014 to conduct the analysis. To further investigate potential heterogeneous advertising effects of the size of the firms, we separate the sample into small firms and large firms, according to their annual gross sales. The results indicate that the magnitude and shape of the response function depend on the size of the firm. For small firms, increasing advertising spending yields to higher sales within a range of advertising spending. Beyond this range, advertising spending increases do not impact sales any more. Thus, small firms’ management should carefully monitor advertising input. For large firms, on the other hand, the current evidence does not support a positive relationship between advertising spending and sales since the marginal treatment effect is insignificant almost over the entire range of adverting spending.     

HOUSE PRICES,SALES, AND TIME ON THE MARKET: A SEARCH‐THEORETIC FRAMEWORK

We assess the ability of a standard search and matching framework to account for the cyclical properties of key macroeconomic time series of the housing market. We calibrate a model with aggregate demand and supply shocks to match selected business cycle properties of vacancies and sales in the United States. Our model reproduces the cyclical time series properties of house prices and the positive and negative comovement of prices with sales and time on the market, respectively. Search and matching frictions produce trading delays that augment the volatility of prices and propagate the effect of aggregate shocks to future periods.     

Industry competitiveness using Herfindahl and entropy concentration indices with firm market capitalization data

While previous studies of industry concentration have traditionally utilized sales or market share data, no studies that we are aware of have been done with market capitalization data. If the markets are successful at valuing a firm's current and future prospects, it can be argued that concentration indices and other metrics based on the market value of the firms in an industry should be a good proxy for market power within an industry. This study presents a study of the market concentration using the Herfindahl and entropy concentration indices for 13 industries.     

Country size,technology, and Ricardian comparative advantage

We develop a Ricardian model with heterogeneous firms in which country size and technology play a crucial role in the firm‐level variables. We show that a country with larger size and better technology exhibits higher productivity and lower price–cost margins even under assumptions of C.E.S. preferences and monopolistic competition. Welfare is higher in this country, not only due to the increased product variety but also due to increased competition in a domestic market. We also show that country size and technology impact critically on the intensive margin as well as the extensive margin in the gravity equation.     

Combining conjoint analysis,scenario analysis,the Delphi method,and the innovation diffusion model to analyze the development of innovative products in Taiwan's TV market

In science and technology industries, innovative products are launched rapidly, making the lifecycle of new products ever shorter. Thus, it is important that companies understand consumers' needs and consider expert opinion when analyzing the development of a new technology. However, no studies have combined these two perspectives with regard to the development of a new product. Therefore, this research combined conjoint analysis, scenario analysis, and the Delphi method with the innovative diffusion model to analyze the development of Taiwan's TV market over the next 10 years. The results show that the outlook for demand for light-emitting diode (LED) TVs in Taiwan is very optimistic; sales of LED TVs will surpass sales of liquid crystal display TVs in 2015 in the optimistic scenario and in 2017 in the most likely scenario.     

Interrelationship among foreign presence,domestic sales and export intensity in Chinese manufacturing industries

Using panel data on six Chinese manufacturing industries over the period 2005–2007, this article explores the interrelationship among foreign presence, domestic sales and export intensity of local firms. We find that the domestic sales and exports are complementary for local firms in China’s pharmaceutical industry, whereas in the case of the textile, transportation equipment, beverage, communication equipment and general equipment manufacturing industries, domestic sales and exports are substitutes. An increase in the average domestic sales increases foreign presence in all industries. The same applies to an increase in the average export intensity. An increase in the level of competition in China’s textile industry increases the export intensity as well as domestic sales of local textile firms. However, an increase in the level of competition in the pharmaceutical industry leads to a very large decrease in export intensity of local pharmaceutical firms. In the case of China’s transportation equipment manufacturing industry, an increase in the level of competition decreases domestic sales of local firms. Furthermore, an increase in the firm size increases domestic sales of Chinese firms in all six manufacturing industries.     

开放售电背景下电力客户黏度的综合评价研究

内容提要：在售电侧放开的背景下,各类投资主体成立的售电公司越来越多地参与到售电市场的竞争中,因而如何有效地管控电力客户资源将成为售电公司需要深入研究的关键问题。鉴于此,本文开展面向售电公司的电力客户黏度综合评价研究。首先,明确电力客户黏度的涵义,进而分析电力客户黏度的重要影响因素,从客户行为、客户感知、客户依赖、客户信任四个方面建立售电公司的电力客户黏度评价指标体系;其次,构建AHP、熵值法相结合的组合赋权模型,进而构建开放售电背景下售电公司的电力客户黏度的模糊综合评价模型;最后,选取某地区的典型售电公司代表开展算例分析,算例结果表明,本文提出的评价模型具有实效性,对售电公司提升服务质量,实现长远发展具有重要意义。      

整体解决方案、客户满意与市场绩效

笔者发现与简单提供产品或服务的企业相比,为客户提供整体解决方案的企业无论在销售量还是市场份额上都显著优于其他企业。为揭示潜藏于这一现象背后的原因,构建出反映整体解决方案作用机制的初始概念模型,并利用具体调研数据做了实证检验。结果发现:整体解决方案对于客户产品品质的提升和生产成本的下降具有显著的正向作用,这有助于客户满意度和忠诚度的提高,进而保障了整体解决方案提供企业具有很高的销售量和市场份额。     

An explanation of the changes in the proportion of temporary workers in Spain

In this paper a theoretical model is developed to identify the main determinants of the proportion of temporary workers at firms. The outcomes show that the proportion of temporary workers has a counter-cyclical behaviour: it grows during the slump period up to 1995 and falls during the subsequent recovery. However, given the effect of the general economic cycle, firms that raise their sales or improve their market dynamism index tend to increase their proportion of temporary workers. This proportion also rises when the average labour cost decreases, firm size increases, and the knowledge capital stock diminishes.     

National Sentiment and Consumer Choice: The Iraq War and Sales of US Products in Arab Countries

Did the rise in anti‐American sentiment caused by the Iraq war affect sales of US goods abroad? We address this question using data on soft drinks and fabric detergents sales in nine Arab countries. We find a statistically significant negative impact of the war on sales of US soft drinks in seven countries. The impact dissipates after a few months in two countries but persists in the other five. In the case of detergents, we only find a significant negative impact in one country. We conclude that international politics can sometimes affect consumer behavior and market outcomes.     

Trade, Multinational Sales, and FDI in a Three-factor Model

The overwhelming importance of multinational activities as well as the coexistence of exporters and multinationals within the developed countries demand for theoretical models which provide a convincing explanation of simultaneous two‐way trade and horizontal multinational activities. We present a model with three factors of production to disentangle the two‐fold role of headquarters for their affiliates into a know‐how (headquarters services) and a capital‐serving part (FDI). We simulate the model to derive predictions about the impact of trade costs, plant set‐up costs, fixed multinational network costs, relative country size and factor endowments on exports, multinational sales and FDI. The effects are not uniform for multinational sales and FDI. Whereas exports and affiliate sales increase with the similarity in country size, FDI is more likely to increase monotonously with the sending country's size.