TRUST AND VIRTUAL DISTRICTS: EVIDENCE FROM THE MILAN INTERNET EXCHANGE

Peering decisions between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contain substantial non‐measurable aspects requiring trust and informal cooperation among peering partners. We study whether virtual districts are observed between Internet peers. Our empirical analysis of the bilateral peering decisions at the Milan Internet Exchange confirms that these decisions are significantly influenced by: travel time either between ISPs' headquarters or towards the exchange—a proxy for distance, bandwidth—a proxy for size, and European connectivity. Proximity still plays a role in reducing the transaction costs of monitoring and punishing deviant behavior within an industry where trust is essential for Internet universal connectivity.     

On the economics of Internet peering

We discuss economic rationales behind peering decisions in the Internet. In the first part of the paper we analyze the decision about a bilateral peering agreement between two commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) who are in Cournot competition. In the second part we discuss multilateral peering between commercial ISPs and an academic research network (ARN). The latter is organized as a club of academic institutions who share the cost of their network. It is discussed whether peering threatens the existence of the ARN and under what circumstances a commercial ISP would want to use strategic pricing to win all ARN‐members as customers. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Internet service provision and content services: paid peering and competition between internet providers

We consider the relationship of Internet service providers (ISP) and content service providers (CP) in the Internet ecosystem. Currently, the position of ISPs is challenged by the emergence of powerful content service providers, especially with the spreading of bandwidth-demanding video services. The further investment in the network capacity may be hindered by prevailing business models that largely exclude the ISPs from sharing in the major cash flows resulting from content provision. We develop modeling tools for evaluation of business models of ISPs and present results of an analysis of two models with the potential for the generation of additional cash flows for ISP: paid content peering and service differentiation. Firstly, we show that under certain conditions on the cost structure and the level of demand elasticity and uncertainty, it can be profitable for a powerful content provider to resort to paid content peering, thus transferring to the ISP a part of his content provision revenue. The resulting business model may provide substantial benefits to all major participants in this ecosystem: network providers, content and service providers and end users. After this we consider competition in the Internet provision sector and show that - also in this case - the paid content peering can help ISPs to expand the network capacity and at the same time increase profits of content providers. The end users benefit from the lower prices for content services. Finally, we consider the situation when an ISP differentiates the service offer by engaging in content provision, thus entering in direct competition with content providers.     

Big content providers weighing on non-neutrality?

There is a trend for big content providers such as Netflix and YouTube to give grades to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to incentivize those ISPs to improve at least the quality offered to their service. We design in this paper a model analyzing ISPs’ optimal allocation strategies in a competitive context and in front of quality-sensitive users. We show that the optimal strategy is non-neutral, that is, it does not allocate bandwidth proportionally to the traffic share of content providers. On the other hand, we show that non-neutrality does not benefit ISPs but is surprisingly favorable to the perceived quality for users.

     

Competitive resource sharing by Internet Service Providers

We look at non-cooperative resource sharing (a generalization of paid peering) among Internet Service Providers (ISPs), where individually rational providers who not only compete for customers but also participate in resource sharing, in order to utilize underlying complementarities in cost structures. In particular, we are interested in the following question: would simple, easy-to-implement access pricing mechanisms guarantee ex-ante participation in resource sharing even by providers who, subsequent to deciding participation, engage in competition for customers, set access prices and make routing decisions? We first show that, in presence of linear access pricing, participation in the sharing arrangement is possible, but not guaranteed. We then show that a two-part tariff guarantees participation in the sharing agreement—this is not obvious given that resource sharing alters customer bases. We also show that our mechanism is robust to providers mis-reporting their types. Next, we show that, though both providers choose strictly positive customer bases, one of the them has no incentive to utilize the resources of the other and effectively acts as a resource supplier, whereas the other provider utilizes both resources. Finally, we show the robustness of our results to different cost structure and game forms, and provide some policy implications. Our results have significant implications not only for policy design since they suggest that paid peering should be encouraged but also for design of realistic traffic engineering protocols.     

Private peering,transit and traffic diversion

Private peering refers to settlement-free connectivity agreements between Internet Service Providers meant to interconnect their networks by-passing congested National Access Points. We explore the incentives for bilateral peering with particular emphasis on traffic diversion. A private peering agreement between two providers improves the quality of both and would divert traffic from third parties. This provides an incentive for peering. A three-player model is introduced and analyzed. Complication introduced by price competition and heterogeneous consumers are also studied.     

我国旅游业与民航客运业相关性研究及启示

民航客运业和旅游业之间的发展有很强的关联性,旅游业三大市场(国内旅游市场、出境旅游市场、入境旅游市场)都与民航客运业呈显著的正相关关系.因此,一方面要加强民航客运业与旅游业之间的合作,抓好国内旅游市场的客源,继续保持民航客运在出境游旅客中的绝对优势,开辟旅游特色航线,开发配合旅游业的民航特色服务,使民航客运业与旅游业在发展中携手共进;另一方面,民航客运业的发展要跟上旅游业发展的脚步,在运力、航线网络覆盖面等方面满足旅游业发展的需求,将旅游业对民航客运业发展的辅助作用发挥到极致.     

基于第四方物流的物流园区互联互通问题研究——双边市场视角

基于4PL的现代物流园区是典型的双边市场经营平台,为解决物流园区间物流服务供给与需求的外部不均衡性,利用双边市场结构模型分析物流服务水平不对称的两个物流园区双边市场经营平台的互联互通,并研究物流服务水平较低的物流园区的物流服务创新、物流园区双边市场交叉网络外部性对互联互通的综合影响。求解发现低物流服务水平的物流园区进行物流服务创新,在交叉网络外部性的综合作用下,会对两个物流园区双边市场经营平台互联互通后的利润、交易费、市场份额产生复杂的交叉影响。     

Pricing Internet access in the presence of user loyalty

Socio-economic aspects of future communication networks such as pricing models for network providers, network neutrality, and Quality of Experience (QoE) are becoming more and more important as the convergence of networks is in progress. All the above areas share a common interest: the deeper understanding of user behavior. In this paper, as a first step towards a more realistic user model, we investigate customer loyalty and its impact on the pricing competition of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who sell Internet access to end-users. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we analyze the impact of user loyalty with game-theoretical means motivated by the Bertrand game. We show how loyalty introduces a new equilibrium in a repeated game setting resulting in the cooperation of ISPs. Furthermore, we investigate the case of a differentiated customer population by introducing dual reservation values, and show how it leads to new, pure strategy Nash equilibria indicating that ISPs should make the most out of their respective loyal user base. Second, we construct two novel models for customer loyalty incorporating two important aspects of the users’ purchasing decisions: price sensitivity and inherent uncertainty. We evaluate the impact of user loyalty through these models by extensive simulations in a number of relevant scenarios. In particular, we show how the higher level of loyalty in the user population leads to larger profits for ISPs. We argue that our findings can motivate network researchers to incorporate a finer-grained user behavior model in their investigations on pricing models of network services and other socio-economic issues.     

我国出境旅游发展的原因及积极作用分析

近年来,我国出境旅游发展迅速,其主要动力是需求因素、供给因素不断增加,资源条件日益成熟。我国出境旅游发展的积极作用,主要体现在满足了国民的消费需求;平衡三大旅游市场;更好的发展了入境旅游;增进了各国之间的交流;减小了贸易摩擦,减缓了人民币的升值压力。     

我国出境旅游发展的原因及积极作用分析

近年来，我国出境旅游发展迅速，其主要动力是需求因素、供给因素不断增加，资源条件目益成熟。我国出境旅游发展的积极作用。主要体现在满足了国民的消费需求；平衡三大旅游市场；更好的发展了入境旅游；增进了各国之间的交流；减小了贸易摩擦。减缓了人民币的升值压力。     

AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING CROSS DOCKING OPERATIONS

Using simulation, we examine the decisions in moving freight between inbound and outbound trailers in a cross dock. The decisions examined include direct versus indirect handling of pallets, number of open receiving doors, door layout, number of forklifts, size of cross dock and freight mix. This study provides useful insights on handling freight in a cross dock.     

A framework for analysing strategies of Internet Service Providers

The fast proliferation of services over the Internet and the development of new Internet standards and technologies are affecting the existing business models of the traditional telecommunications market. This holds, in particular, for the ISP market. This paper assesses the impacts of basic elements of business strategies on the relative competitive position of selected types of ISPs. One result is that the incumbent telcos have a relatively strong starting point in the ISP market, while small regional ISPs have a weak starting point.     

Exchange rate volatility and Japan–U.S. commodity trade: An asymmetry analysis

Exchange rate volatility is said to affect trade flows in either direction. When increased volatility is separated from decreased volatility, asymmetric analysis reveals even more support for the fact that both increased volatility and decreased volatility affect trade flows in either direction. We add to this new literature by considering 57 industries that trade between Japan and the US. In addition to providing evidence of asymmetric response of their trade flows to a measure of exchange rate volatility, our approach identifies industries that could benefit from increased exchange rate volatility and those that could be hurt. Similarly, we identify industries that could benefit from decreased volatility and those that could be hurt. The overall conclusion is the adverse effects of dollar–yen volatility on the trade between the two countries.     

Spatial Interdependence in US Outward FDI into Africa,Latin America and the Caribbean

The existing literature on spatial interdependence in FDI flows has primarily focused on developed economies as hosts, with these hosts economically tied together via good infrastructure and historically strong/significant trade flows. In contrast, we explicitly test for the presence of spatial interdependence in developing hosts (Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean) where such ties are not as strong. For US outbound FDI between 1995 and 2007, our empirical results confirm third‐country effects do matter even when controlling for spatial and time‐period fixed effects. Based on the signs of the market potential and spatial lag coefficients, we find US FDI strategies into these regions as consistent with complex vertical specialisation.     

海南省旅游收入与经济增长的关联度分析

根据海南省相关资料分析发现:旅游收入、入境旅游人次与GDP之间存在正向的长期均衡关系和双向的因果关系,旅游收入对经济增长的拉动作用低于入境旅游人次对经济增长的拉动作用。政府应充分发挥其市场导向作用,加大海陆空交通、港口等基础设施方面的建设,进一步加强对海南省物流、金融、电信等服务业的支持力度和规范管理,建立建全旅游市场经营的行业协会制度;企业应以社会和自然承载力为依据开发新的旅游产品,并融入文化要素,建立旅游产品品牌;同时,旅游企业要加强自身管理和市场竞争力的培育,吸纳并培养高层次的旅游管理人才。     

日本出境旅游现状及我国拓展日本客源市场对策

我国国际旅游业的发展与日本客源市场有着非常密切的关系。日本旅游者主要前往亚洲国家旅游,目前韩国是接待日本旅游者最多的国家。我国可以采取改善旅游基础设施,提高服务质量,培养精通日语的服务人才,开发温泉旅游和滑雪旅游等措施拓展日本客源市场。     

一种新颖的面向数据流量特征的片上网络设计

片上网络中处理器核之间、处理器与缓存之间通信具有不同的数据流量特征，因此需要不同的网络带宽和网络拓扑结构。针对上述两种通信流量的差异，设计了一种异构非对称双片上网络，分别用于处理器核之间和处理器与缓存之间的通信，并且每个网络都针对占主导地位的数据流量类型进行了优化。实验结果表明，与传统的单片上网络和同构的双片上网络相比，该设计不仅具有网络延迟低、网络带宽高的优点，而且提升了系统的整体性能。     

A、B股市场信息价值的比较研究

中国证券市场具有在全世界资本市场都堪称独特的A、B、H股市场分割体制 ,对这一问题的研究具有重要的学术价值和现实意义。从会计盈余信息价值的角度研究我国证券市场分割 ,即通过比较A、B股市场中双重上市公司的股价和成交量对不同会计准则下盈余信息的反应 ,发现两个市场在信息传递、信息评价、信息反应模式等方面体现出明显的信息价值差异 ,同时就证券市场分割下信息价值差异的成因及解决对策进行了探讨。     

The Tax Sensitivity of Debt in Multinationals: A Review

The OECD in its BEPS Action Plan Four addresses tax base erosion by profit shifting through the use of tax deductible interest payments. Their main concern is interest deductions between outbound and inbound investment by groups. Studies of multinational firms show that the tax sensitivity of debt is more modest than one would expect given the incentives for profit shifting. The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature and add to knowledge on multinational firm behavior that pertains to the use of debt.