The foreclosure argument for exclusive dealing: The case of differentiated retailers

I analyze a cooperative characteristic-form game between two differentiated producers and a downstream retail sector. When there is a single downstream retailer, the game always has a nonempty Core, involving the retailer being a common dealer. Each producer can at most earn his increment to the collusive industry profit. This result is similar to what is obtained in the literature in an extensive-form noncooperative formulation of the game. When there are two differentiated downstream retailers, the Core is empty when products and retailers are too homogeneous. For sufficient product and retailer differentiation, the Core is nonempty. In these cases the retailers are always common dealers for both products.     

The Return to Caring Skills: Gender,Class, and Occupational Wages in the US

Feminist economics has contributed to the understanding of the economic importance of care work. Most studies find a wage penalty associated with caring occupations. This study extends the feminist research on care work beyond caring occupations by identifying specific caring skills and activities derived from the 2014 O*NET job-evaluation data. Four caring skills – (1) Assisting and Caring for Others, (2) Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships, (3) Service Orientation, and (4) Social Perceptiveness – were used in ordinary least-squares and quantile wage regressions for 623 occupations in the United States. Findings indicate that the return to caring and assisting skills results in a wage penalty for low-wage workers but a wage premium for workers in high-wage and male occupations. By identifying the impact of gender and class on the economic return to particular caring skills, the study broadens the understanding of care work, especially in relation to US wage inequality.     

Vertical Restraints and Market Access

This paper analyzes vertical restraints in relation to market access issues. In Section II we briefly review the recent three major trade conflicts between Japan and the USA in light of vertical restraints. In Section III we review the major policy lessons of the economics literature of vertical restraints, and analyze whether we need a special treatment for vertical restraints abroad for a market access reason. In Section IV we evaluate the policy options towards foreign foreclosure and suggest that nondiscriminatory application of foreign or home competition policy should be the mechanism to address such concern instead of trade policy actions such as voluntary import expansions.     

The Arms Race and the Decline of U.S. Technology

Many houses purchased just before the housing bubble burst have a market value lower than the amount of the mortgages on them; they are said to be underwater. Among homeowners in such a position, a number have adequate financial wherewithal to make the payments but choose to voluntarily default on the loan. Evidence suggests that a growing number of homeowners are taking this course, known as strategic, or voluntary, foreclosures. Once a stigma, voluntary foreclosure seems to be gaining in social acceptability. The phenomenon appears to be reflective of the broad trend that Max Weber termed the increasing rationalization of society.     

The exceptional performance of exporters and labour market outcomes: evidence from Egyptian firms

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the manufacturing export market in Egypt after the Arab Spring using a novel firm-level census dataset from 2013. Export is very rare in Egypt. The conventional export premia are very high, except for total factor productivity. Exporters have stark effects on labour market outcomes, including wages, employment, demand for skilled and female workers, wage inequality, and job security. These findings have two important implications: (1) Manufacturing exports might be monopolized by large firms, and (2) promoting exports could improve labour market outcomes, especially for skilled and female workers.     

The Regressive Recovery: Distribution,Inequality and State Power in Britain's Post-Crisis Political Economy

This article interrogates the underlying mechanisms at the heart of Britain's post-crisis political economy. We argue that the contemporary economic recovery has been characterised by a dynamic of ‘regressive redistribution’: a socially regressive dynamic of state-led economic restructuring that has worked through two axes at the centre of the recovery. The first axis, a monetary policy framework centred upon Quantitative Easing, has driven asset-price inflation to the benefit of the wealthiest asset holders. The second axis centres upon the politics of regressive labour market restructuring which has provoked widespread wage deflation. In combination, these two axes have been central to defining the contours of the Britain's post-crisis political economy paradigm: characterised by rising asset wealth for the few, and falling living standards alongside increasing economic insecurity for wage earners. The opportunity to change path from the trends of deepening inequality that defined the pre-crisis era has not been taken. Instead, the prevailing policy paradigm of the post-crisis period – discursively unified and sustained by David Cameron's government – has intensified the regressively redistributive dynamics at the core of the neo-liberal project. Ultimately, this is likely to further entrench structural weaknesses in Britain's economy in the years ahead.     

The effects of economic growth on income inequality in the US

The paper analyzes the relation between growth and income inequality in the US during the post-war years (1953–2008). We show that the income of the top income groups is more sensitive to growth, defined broadly as current growth and changes in expectations of future growth, compared to the income of the lower income groups. We provide evidence that this increased sensitivity arises for two reasons: (a) the top income groups receive a large portion of their income from wealth, which is more sensitive to growth than labor income and (b) the top income groups receive a large portion of their labor income in the form of pay-for-performance (equity compensation), which is also sensitive to growth. Consequently, we conclude that growth and income inequality are positively associated.     

股市生态的演化分析——兼论我国股市生态的优化对策

股市生态近来引起了学者的关注,以往学者忽视股市生态环境及其协同关系,本文从演化视角重新定义了股市生态,从股市生态演化前提、诱因及其动力机制等方面对其演化机制展开分析.在此基础上,对我国股市生态的功能、结构、环境的失衡表现进一步分析.最后,针对我国股市生态的失衡特征提出了相应的优化对策.     

On the Anthropological Study of Economies: A Comment

This paper deals with the moral justification behind policy positions. Squeezed between the inevitability of having a welfare ideology and the mantra of value-neutrality (depoliticization), neoclassical policy economists tend to disguise their normative positions on policy matters as common sense. This attitude is particularly pronounced in what I will call "the rhetoric of worthiness," whereby the neoclassical approach justifies its advocacy that certain people should not be helped. This normative position is disguised by a vocabulary (e.g., moral hazard) claimed to be politically neutral. The present paper criticizes this neoclassical mode of policy evaluation in favor of a more socially conscious and innovative policy approach.     

Nonexclusionary input prices under quantity competition: vertical integration,foreclosure and sabotage

A vertically integrated provider is a monopoly supplier of an input essential for its rival to produce downstream output. Market exclusion in the form of inefficient foreclosure or sabotage can arise when input prices are, respectively, ‘too high’ or ‘too low’ relative to the downstream price. The range of nonexclusionary input prices within which neither form of market exclusion arises is determined by displacement ratios. The safe harbour range of downstream-to-upstream ‘price-cost’ margin ratios is decreasing in the degree of product homogeneity and approaches a single ratio in the limit as the products become perfectly homogeneous. The bounds of nonexclusionary input prices are markedly wider under Bertrand–Nash competition than they are under Stackelberg competition.     

The emergence of hybrid-electric cars: Innovation path creation through co-evolution of supply and demand

Hybrid-electric vehicles have experienced a significant rate of growth in the last 10 years. This is remarkable, since the automotive sector is typically averse to the more radical technological change of engines. The internal combustion engine has been around for more than 100 years after all.In this paper we describe and explain the emergence of electric engines in the automobile market after 1990. We explicate the role of techno-economic mechanisms alongside social and regulatory mechanisms (including the social meaning of an engine). The co-evolutionary analysis is novel in the integrated conception of actor perspectives, feedback effects and competition between products. We find three sources of lock-in through path dependency: from demand, supply as well as the regulatory side. We conclude that automotive engines were significantly locked into a trajectory of internal combustion technology due to techno-economic mechanisms, which produced inertia despite social pressures. The creation of an alternative path, on the other hand, initially stalled. Various stakeholders were unsuccessful in marketing their electric or hybrid-electric vehicles in the 1990s, such as Peugeot/Citroen with various electric models, or Audi with their Duo in 1997. However, after 2000 we find that sustaining efforts of California's Air Resources Board and Toyota were triggering creation of a new innovation path of hybrid-electric engines.     

我国场外交易市场定价机制研究

分析了我国场外交易市场定价存在的价格非市场化、存货成本高、市场规模与价格市场化形成机制不匹配等问题。在借鉴发达场外交易市场的基础上,根据我国实际情况选择存货模型作为理论基础,构建了我国场外交易市场的定价模型,提出了相应的配套的条件。     

Gender Segregation and Income Differences in Nicaragua

Despite having higher average education levels, Nicaraguan women still earn much less than men. Furthermore, the country has one of the highest levels of occupational gender segregation in Latin America. This paper aims to explain the gender income gap in Nicaragua, taking into account individual characteristics, engagement in specific occupations and sectors, and geographical location. Using a multilevel framework, the study finds that while a considerable part of the income gap can be explained by women’s employment in occupations and sectors with low remuneration, another substantial part of this gap is attributable to the prevalence of patriarchal gender norms – and thus cannot be explained by human capital factors. These results show that understanding labor market segregation is vital for comprehending the perseverance of the gender income gap, and they further imply that women’s progress in breaching the gender stereotypes in Nicaragua is still limited.     

基于联合分析的新产品市场占有率预测——学生笔记本电脑市场的实证分析

市场竞争日趋激烈,企业要想在市场竞争中立于不败之地,在开发一种新产品时,势必要预测新产品在市场上的份额,本文在简述联合分析基本原理的基础上,以开发学生笔记本电脑市场的新产品为例,采用联合分析方法中的最大效用值法来预测新产品的市场占有率。     

资本市场作用机制下的公司治理研究

公司治理具有两个层面--内部公司治理和外部公司治理.外部公司治理主要是强调资本市场对公司经营活动的制约.从外部环境出发,以资本市场作用机理的角度来分析公司治理,结合当前具体国情,来系统研究资本市场作用机制下的公司治理,目的是提供资本市场公司治理机制的分析架构,并提出若干建议以优化我国的公司治理.     

当前排污权交易市场化机制的问题及对策研究

我国排污权管理存在法律法规不完善,政府与市场角色错位;全国性的排污权交易市场没有形成,交易制度不健全;市场化交易中排污主体和污染物指标覆盖有限;价格市场化信号弱,交易价格构成要素抽象等问题。文章通过对当前排污权交易存在的问题分析,提出了推动与新修订环保法配套法规的完善,发挥政府和市场的各自作用;建立全国性的排污权交易体系,完善市场化交易制度;实现污染物指标和排污主体梯度覆盖,建立目录清单制;强化总量管理,推动政府管理下市场化价格确定等具体对策。发挥市场化机制在节能减排、环境改善中的积极作用。     

Financial intermediation,inclusion, Fintech,and income inequality in Africa: Robust evidence from the supply and demand side data

The current literature on the finance-inequality nexus fall short of providing extensive evidence. This paper fills the gap by framing the financial sector; to the development of financial intermediation (supply side) and individual use of financial services (demand side). The first approach decouples the financial sector into the banking and stock market. We use the 5-year nonoverlapping averaged data from 1980 to 2017 across 49 countries and employ a panel data fixed effect and two-stage least squared estimation (2sls). We show that banking and stock market development widens income inequality. Besides, the effect is more prominent in countries that have a banking and stock market than countries only with the banking sector. The second approach uses financial inclusion and financial technology (Fintech) data from three waves of survey data in 2011, 2014 and 2017 on the individual use of financial services across 39 countries. We obtain three key findings. First, institutional quality significantly affects financial inclusion and Fintech. Second, Fintech positively affects inclusion and savings. Third, financial inclusion and Fintech exacerbate income inequality. Our result asserts a natural tendency that financial sector development exacerbate income inequality in Africa.     

Capital market integration and gender inequality

This study explores the effects of globalization on gender inequality. Specifically, we describe how, in terms of capital market integration, globalization alters the gender gap in wage rates through changes in labor demand for capital‐intensive sectors. Consequently, via changes in the bargaining positions of men and women, globalization leads to opposite effects on the couple's labor supply and fertility decisions in capital‐importing and capital‐exporting countries. Moreover, by considering the properties of the industrial structures of capital‐importing and capital‐exporting countries, we show that globalization induces empirically observed declines in fertility rates throughout the world.