Pricing and Cost Recovery for Internet Services: Practical Review,Classification, and Application of Relevant Models

Suitable pricing models for Internet services represent one of the main prerequisites for a successfully running implementation of a charging and accounting system. This paper introduces general aspects influencing the choice of a pricing model in practical situations and presents a survey as well as a classification of relevant and advanced approaches to be found in the scientific literature. First performance results on charging extensions within the Internet are presented, which are completed by a set of market price simulations for dynamic pricing models within the same implementation environment. Based on cost model investigations some detailed insights into price and cost issues from an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) point of view are given. Moreover, current challenges as well as problems are discussed in a practical context as investigated in the Swiss National Science Foundation project Charging and Accounting Technology for the Internet (CATI).     

Retailer Dynamic Pricing and Ordering Decisions: Category Management versus Brand-by-Brand Approaches

This paper provides a framework for retailer pricing and ordering decisions in a dynamic category management setting. In this regard, the key contributions of this paper are as follows. First, we develop a multi-brand ordering and pricing model that endogenizes retailer forward buying and maximizes profitability for the category. The model considers (i) manufacturer trade deals to retailers, (ii) ordering costs incurred by the retailer, (iii) retailer forward buying behavior, and (iv) both own- and cross-price effects of all the brands in the category. Second, we use this model to compare differences in ordering and pricing decisions, and in profits, resulting from using a category management versus a brand-by-brand management approach. Our approach allows us to derive implications in a dynamic setting about the impact of interdependence among the brands upon decisions on pass-through of trade deals and retailer order quantity. We show that category management results in noticeably higher profits versus brand-by-brand and cost-plus (markup) approaches. Further, our results suggest an interaction between a brand's own-price effect and its cross-price effect emerges. If the cross-price effect for a brand is low - that is, the brand takes away relatively few sales from the other brands - the retail pass-through should increase with that brand's own-price effect. On the other hand, when the cross-price effect is high, the retail pass-through decreases with the brand's own-price effect.     

隐性交易成本与资产定价——基于上证180指数成份股票交易数据的实证研究

文章利用上证180指数成份股票的高频数据计算隐性交易成本,探讨其与资产定价的关系。发现:(1)隐性交易成本与换手率、规模和收益率都存在着明显的线性负相关关系。在股票收益率下降时期,隐性交易成本通过流动性深度成本间接影响股票收益率。(2)较之隐性交易成本,规模因素与换手率因素对收益率的影响有着更好的测度性。很可能是因为这两个因素与流动性深度成本也有着显著相关性。(3)隐性交易成本与规模因素整体上呈线性负相关关系,分段上的关系则很可能是凹函数与凸函数的组合。     

A Nonstandard Approach to Option Pricing

Nonstandard probability theory and stochastic analysis, as developed by Loeb, Anderson, and Keisler, has the attractive feature that it allows one to exploit combinatorial aspects of a well-understood discrete theory in a continuous setting. We illustrate this with an example taken from financial economics: a nonstandard construction of the well-known Black-Scholes option pricing model allows us to view the resulting object at the same time as both (the hyperfinite version of) the binomial Cox-Ross-Rubinstein model (that is, a hyperfinite geometric random walk) and the continuous model introduced by Black and Scholes (a geometric Brownian motion). Nonstandard methods provide a means of moving freely back and forth between the discrete and continuous points of view. This enables us to give an elementary derivation of the Black-Scholes option pricing formula from the corresponding formula for the binomial model. We also devise an intuitive but rigorous method for constructing self-financing hedge portfolios for various contingent claims, again using the explicit constructions available in the hyperfinite binomial model, to give the portfolio appropriate to the Black-Scholes model. Thus, nonstandard analysis provides a rigorous basis for the economists' intuitive notion that the Black-Scholes model contains a built-in version of the Cox-Ross-Rubinstein model.     

Successful New Product Pricing Practices: A Contingency Approach

The purpose of this study is to examine the success of new product pricing practices and the conditions upon which success is contingent. We distinguish three different pricing practices that refer to the use of information on customer value, competition, and costs respectively. Following Monroe's (1990) price discretion, we argue that the success of these practices is contingent on relative product advantage and competitive intensity. The hypotheses are tested on pricing decisions for new industrial products. Our results show that there are no general best or bad practices, but that a contingency approach is appropriate. These results may help reduce the complexity that managers experience in pricing new products.     

沪深300股指期货定价实证研究

股指期货是一种发展迅速的金融衍生产品,而合约定价问题是其重要研究方向之一。股指期货定价的基本方法是利用无套利定价原理得出的持有成本模型;而如果综合交易费用、融资成本、存贷款利差、保证金等市场因素,则可以得到股指期货的无套利定价区间。使用这两种模型对中国金融期货交易所的沪深300股指期货仿真交易合约进行实证分析,结果发现,实际交易价格和理论价格有较大偏差,市场中存在大量套利机会,定价效率有待提高。为此可以考虑的建议包括允许融资融券交易、推出沪深300指数ETF等。     

企业集团内外市场结算及内部转移定价的博弈分析

运用博弈论的基本原理,对企业集团内部各利润中心在销售和采购时是采用集团内部结算还是均针对整个外部市场,以及在相互结算时到底是采用以市场价格为基础的内部转移价格还是采用以总成本或变动成本为基础的内部转移价格的决策过程进行系统分析。结果表明,企业集团内部各利润中心在内外部结算的选择和内部转移价格的制定决策上是一种兼顾整个企业集团以及自身利益的理性选择过程。     

Partitioned Pricing in Advertising: Effects on Brand and Retailer Attitudes

This research highlights the negative attitudinal effect of partitioned pricing. The basis of this effect is that partitioned pricing tends to promote higher level of error in price recall. Consumers may not react favorably to the error especially when they perceive that the use of partitioned-price information is responsible for the mistake. This creates negative affect, which in turn unfavorably influences brand attitude formation/change. However, when consumers attribute responsibility of the price recall error to themselves or to the retailer sponsoring the ad, attitude toward the brand using partitioned-price information declines to a lesser extent.     

消费行为与企业战略的融合——不同零售业态的价格定位及其市场细分战略

现代零售业态发展趋于多元化,零售企业针对不同消费者的价格敏感程度来定位零售商品的价格,从而选择不同的销售渠道即经营业态,通过不同产品线的组合来满足不同层次消费者的需求。以此来体现企业的市场细分战略,形成顾客忠诚,实现其经济效益的最大化。     

A股市场新股的因素定价模型实证研究

现代股权定价理论对A股初始定价时存在缺陷,采用主成份回归法,确定影响A股初始定价的主因子,在此基础上建立初始定价模型。根据模型,影响A股初始定价的因素从高到低分别为:成本因子、投资偏好因子、市况因子、业绩成长性因子,实证结果与传统股票定价理论并不吻合。     

The Transaction Index: A Method for Standardizing Comparisons of Transaction Characteristics Across Different Contexts

This article develops a transaction index (TI), a new method that facilitates comparisons of pricing behavior between reference and target groups of transactors across different types of transactions. The TI compares the target price, derived from the target group, to a transaction zone, which is a range of plausible prices in a negotiation established by the reference groups. These two groups should be conceptually related, for example, through a social association. Statistically, the index can bring transactions at widely differing price levels to a common level and standardize price volatility to facilitate comparisons across transactions. Conceptually, it incorporates a comparison of two groups into a single measure so that their relationship can be analyzed in terms of other variables. An application of a TI to friends' and strangers' pricing decisions reveals richer associations than those observed through more traditional analytic approaches.     

Product Category Pricing and Future Price Attractiveness: 99-Ending Pricing in a Memory-Based Context

Two experiments were used to examine the impact of 99-ending pricing on memory-based comparisons with a multiple product set. Results indicate that when a target is priced above/below a stimulus set, use of 99-ending prices for the highest and lowest prices in the stimulus set lessens target price attractiveness compared to when the highest and lowest prices are 00-ending. Attractiveness of targets priced within the stimulus set was not impacted by the use of 99- versus 00-ending pricing. Overall, participants appear to use an assimilation/contrast approach based upon left-digit processing in determining target price attractiveness.     

Role of Forgetting in Memory-Based Choice Decisions: A Structural Model

We propose a structural model to investigate the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand choice decisions in frequently purchased products. Forgetting results in consumers imperfectly recalling their prior brand evaluations when making a purchase decision in the category. We conceptualize the imperfect recall by positing that consumers recall their prior evaluations with noise. Based on prior research in the behavioral area, we characterize the extent of forgetting as an increasing and concave function of time. Our framework generates analytical results on the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand evaluations and their consequent purchase behavior. We calibrate our model using scanner panel data for liquid detergents. Furthermore, we obtain insights into the consumers' extent of forgetting in the category, extent of learning, predicted price elasticities and implications on state dependence and habit persistence. Our results underscore the importance of modeling consumers' ability to recall only imperfectly.     

A Note on Hedging in ARCH and Stochastic Volatility Option Pricing Models

Recently, Duan (1995) proposed a GARCH option pricing formula and a corresponding hedging formula. In a similar ARCH-type model for the underlying asset, Kallsen and Taqqu (1994) arrived at a hedging formula different from Duan's although they concur on the pricing formula. In this note, we explain this difference by pointing out that the formula developed by Kallsen and Taqqu corresponds to the usual concept of hedging in the context of ARCH-type models. We argue, however, that Duan's formula has some appeal and we propose a stochastic volatility model that ensures its validity. We conclude by a comparison of ARCH-type and stochastic volatility option pricing models.     

Price Elasticity Dynamics over the Product Life Cycle: A Study of Consumer Durables

Extending the work of Parker (1992), which considers only firstpurchases, and Simon (1989), which considers brand-level sales, weempirically provide support for the hypothesis that total categorysales price elasticities first decease in absolute value but thenultimately increase if the product in question faces the decline phaseof the product life cycle (due to competitive substitutes, changes intastes, and so on). As an interesting artifact of the methodology, thearticle also shows how the Bass model can be easily modified to accountfor total category sales (first plus repeat purchases) and that, in thelimit, the Bass model converges to stochastic repeat purchase models(bridging two radically different modeling traditions). If unadjusted,the Bass model applied to sales data is grossly misspecified when thetime series studied exceeds five to ten years for consumer durables.     

需求不确定下多产品动态定价模型研究

制造商的多产品动态定价问题要考虑原材料的采购、多种产品的生产制造、库存,以及处理下游订单等的成本和未满足的需求及运送的前置时间。通过引入时空网络,建立使制造商期望利润最大的动态定价数学模型,实例分析表明,制造商期望利润最大化的最优价格、最优产品生产量与最优库存量能,是制造商制定合理的生产计划的决策依据。     

连锁经营定价和库存决策的比较分析

连锁经营下销售同一商品的多个零售店铺面临价格敏感且需求相关的需求,建立总部统一决策,追求总部利润最大化和总部下属各个零售店铺独立决策,追求各自利润最大化条件下的定价和库存决策模型。通过数值示例计算以上两种决策模型下总部的总体最优期望利润,并分析此时需求、成本、价格敏感性和零售店铺交叉价格弹性变化对总部下属各个零售店铺的对应价格、利润和总利润的影响,分析得出连锁经营统一采购和定价的优势。     

我国成品油价格形成机制评析

现阶段我国采取国际三地原油价格加权基础上追加相应成本和利润的办法来确定国内成品油价格。此种定价机制曾起到一定的积极作用,但没有涉及价格机制的核心问题。随着近几年特别是2005年以来国际市场油价的频繁波动,现行成品油价格机制逐渐暴露出矛盾和问题,主要包括成品油价格变动滞后、国内油价长期低于国际油价和国内石油企业之间不平等竞争。改革我国现行成品油定价机制,必须充分发挥价格机制和供求机制,破除垄断和过度行政干预,建立风险分摊和转嫁机制,并完善政府的经济职能。     

Calibrating a Diffusion Pricing Model with Uncertain Volatility: Regularization and Stability

A regularized (smoothed) version of the model calibration method of 1 ) is studied. We prove that the regularized formulation is solvable and that the solution depends continuously on the input data (observed derivative security prices). Associated issues of model credibility, stability, and robustness (insensitivity to model assumptions) are discussed. The Implicit Function Theorem for Banach spaces is used for the stability proof, and some numerical illustrations are included.     

Pricing of Mutual Fund Services in Retirement Plans: Evidence from Open-End Equity Funds

Management fees of mutual funds are more costly to investors than is often realized. Moreover, research indicates that in many cases, the fees are not related to performance, contrary to what might be expected from an efficient market. This study uses sample data to illustrate the consequences of inefficiency to an individual investor. It then turns to an empirical examination of the determinants of the ratio of management fees to total assets (MER), investigating market concentration, fund performance, and non-performance characteristics as explanatory variables. All of these classes of variables contributed to the variation of MERs . JEL Classification G23