Price competition under universal service obligations

In industries like telecom, postal services or energy provision, universal service obligations (uniform price and universal coverage) are often imposed on one market participant. Universal service obligations are likely to alter firms' strategic behavior in such competitive markets. In the present paper, we show that, depending on the entrant's market coverage and the degree of product differentiation, the Nash equilibrium in prices involves either pure or mixed strategies. We show that the pure strategy market sharing equilibrium, as identified by Valletti, Hoernig, and Barros (2002), defines a lower bound on the level of equilibrium prices.     

Prospects for development of atomic power engineering in market conditions

This article discusses methodological approaches to forecasting the development of the electric-power industry for a given scenario of growth in electricity demands under functioning commodity and stock markets. A dynamic economic and mathematical model is presented, in which profit determines the efficiency and scope of investment in various technologies of electric-power generation, equilibrium price of electricity in the commodity market, and the market price of fixed assets (capitalization) in the stock market. We assess the impact of a possible increase in the prices of nuclear fuel on the development prospects of nuclear energy up to 2030.     

Price‐Match Announcements in a Consumer Search Duopoly

Using a model of sequential search, we show that announcements to price‐match raise prices by altering consumer search behavior. First, price‐matching diminishes firms’ incentives to lower prices to attract consumers who have no search costs. Second, for consumers with positive search costs, price‐matching lowers the marginal benefit of search, inducing them to accept higher prices. Finally, price‐matching can lead to asymmetric equilibria where one firm runs fewer sales and both firms tend to offer smaller discounts than in a symmetric equilibrium. Price increases grow in the proportion of consumers who invoke price‐matching guarantees and in the level of equilibrium asymmetry.     

人民币汇率传递对我国物价水平影响的实证分析:2005～2008

本文考察了2005年7月至2008年2月期间人民币汇率变动对我国物价水平的影响。研究表明,人民币名义有效汇率变动对进口价格的传递是不完全的,当人民币名义有效汇率每变动一个百分点时,进口价格指数仅变化0.22个百分点;人民币名义有效汇率与国内物价水平存在负相关性,这与以往的研究结论恰好相反,对此,本文从人民币升值预期和人民币均衡汇率两个视角作了解释;全球商品价格指数并非影响我国国内物价水平的最重要因素,我国经济体具备较强的抵御外来冲击的能力。     

Costly Buyer Search in a Differentiated Products Model: An Experimental Study

This study examines whether the content of buyer information and the timing of its dissemination affects seller market power. We construct laboratory markets with differentiated goods and costly buyer search in which sellers simultaneously post prices. The experiment varies the information on price or product characteristics that buyers learn under different timing assumptions (pre‐ and postsearch), generating four information treatments. Theory predicts that price information lowers the equilibrium price, but information about product characteristics increases the equilibrium price. That is, contrary to intuition, the presence of informed buyers may impart a negative externality on other uninformed buyers. Data support the model's negative externality result when sellers face a large number of robot buyers that are programmed to search optimally. Observed prices conform to the model's comparative statics and are broadly consistent with predicted levels. With human buyers, however, excessive search instigates increased price competition, and sellers post prices that are significantly lower than predicted.     

基于VAR模型对商品房价格影响因素的实证分析——以上海市房价为例

选取上海市房价作为研究对象,通过建立VAR模型来分析上海市地价、居民消费价格指数、房屋竣工面积、贷款利率、货币供应量及热钱流入对上海市商品房价格的影响。协整分析表明,各个变量之间具有长期的均衡关系。Granger因果检验表明,上海市商品房价格与地价之间存在双向的Granger因;货币供应量、贷款利率、房屋竣工面积、热钱与上海市商品房价格是单向Granger因;而上海市居民消费价格指数与商品房价格互不为Granger因。     

价格非平衡变化的机理：一个新凯恩斯主义的解释

本文构建了一个具有粘性价格的一般均衡模型，分析不同商品价格非平衡变化的现象。分析表明，当经济中不同商品的价格调整具有异质性时，货币冲击将导致灵活价格产品的价格水平变化超过货币增长率，表现为不同的商品价格调节快慢不同。货币冲击将拉动粘性价格产品的产出增加，表现为货币非中性。相对价格的变化使得消费支出发生结构性转移，导致灵活价格产品的需求下降。财政冲击也具有类似的效应，它将拉动价格不平衡上涨，并带动产出上升，同时会挤出消费。这种价格非平衡变化的机制很好的解释了我国2007—08年发生的所谓的“结构性通货膨胀”现象。     

Output price fluctuations,short-run profits and long-run industry size with input market equilibrium effects

Conclusions In this paper, input market equilibrium effects are incorporated into an analysis of output price fluctuations. In particular, it is shown that an increase (decrease) in output price may not necessarily lead to an increase (decrease) in the shortrun profit of a firm operating in a competitive product market. The firm's profit may not necessarily be convex in output price. Hence,ex-post flexibility in production does not guarantee the preference for price instability by risk-neutral firms. Finally, in longrun equilibrium, a mean-preserving spread in output price may increase or reduce the equilibrium number of firms.     

Urbanization,inequality and property prices: Equilibrium pricing and transaction in the Chinese housing market

The particularly overheated Chinese housing market, with its soaring property prices, has attracted a large amount of research. We point out three of its striking empirical features, which current literature leaves unexplored: co-existence of steady growth of real transaction price and excess supply, accelerations in price-to-income ratio, and significantly strong positive correlation between real transaction prices and income inequality. A search-equilibrium model is built to explain these facts. Heterogeneous buyers and homogeneous sellers randomly search for partners to trade in a frictional property market. The search equilibrium of the property market is either a high-price-and-low-transaction elitist matching equilibrium, or a low-price-and-high-transaction pooled matching equilibrium. The terms of trade determine which equilibrium arises. Empirical observations argue for the development of China's property market through evolution from a pooled matching equilibrium to an elitist matching equilibrium. We set out to show that the market equilibrium is always inefficient, due to crowding out externalities and market incompleteness. Policy experiments support redistributive tax, as a means to improve social welfare.     

基于协整理论的美国电力期货市场实证研究

本文基于VAR的协整理论,对美国PJM电力期货市场作了模型实证研究。因果关系检验显示下月合约价格是现货价格单向的Granger原因。协整检验结果显示电力期货价格和现货价格存在长期稳定均衡的关系,期货市场具有价格发现的功能,与现货市场相比价格发现功能较弱。方差分解结果显示,期货价格受自身的影响很大,受现货价格的影响很小;而现货价格受自身影响很大,随着滞后期的增加,受自身的影响逐渐减弱,受期货市场的影响逐步增大,期货市场在价格决定中起主导作用;脉冲响应函数同样显示现货对期货的影响较小,期货对现货的影响相对较大。     

Optimality in an OLG model with nonsmooth preferences

It is a well-known observation that, in the overlapping generations (OLG) model with the complete market, we can judge optimality of an equilibrium allocation by examining the associated equilibrium price. Motivated by recent development in decision theory under ambiguity, this study reexamines the above observation in a stochastic OLG model with convex but not necessarily smooth preferences. It is shown that optimality of an equilibrium allocation depends on the set of possible supporting prices, not necessarily on the associated equilibrium price itself. Therefore, observations of an equilibrium price do not necessarily tell us precise information on optimality of the equilibrium allocation.     

Throwing the Books at Them: Amazon's Puzzling Long Run Pricing Strategy

Firms competing for consumers to adopt new platforms have incentives to charge low prices to promote adoption, followed by higher prices later on. This study explores Amazon's dynamic pricing strategy by comparing its contemporary pricing on e‐books, a relatively new product with complementary hardware and switching costs, with its pricing on physical books, a now‐mature product without complementary hardware or switching costs. Using over 150,000 hourly observations on prices and sales ranks for electronic and physical bestseller books between 2012 and 2013, in conjunction with actual quantity data, we estimate the price elasticities of demand for books at Amazon. Despite inherent challenges in data availability and measurement, we find it surprising that both electronic and physical book prices fall substantially short of the static profit maximizing level two decades after Amazon's launch. These findings raise questions for both policymakers and shareholders.     

Relating Product Prices to Long‐Run Marginal Cost: Evidence from Solar Photovoltaic Modules

A basic tenet of microeconomics is that for a competitive industry in equilibrium the market price of a product will be equal to its marginal cost. This paper develops a model framework and a corresponding empirical inference procedure for estimating long‐run marginal cost in industries where production costs decline over time. In the context of the solar photovoltaic (PV) module industry, we rely primarily on firm‐level financial accounting data to estimate the long‐run marginal cost of PV modules for the years 2008–2013. During those years, the industry experienced both unprecedented price declines and significant expansions of manufacturing capacity. We compare the trajectory of average sales prices with the estimated long‐run marginal costs in order to quantify the extent to which actual price declines were attributable to reductions in production costs. The trajectory of estimated product costs is then extrapolated to forecast an equilibrium trend line for future PV module prices.     

An empirical analysis of the unit labor cost-product price relation in the U.S. economy

This article tests for cointegration between unit labor costs and the level of product prices in four sectors of the U.S. economy: the aggregate business sector, the nonfinancial corporate sector, durable manufacturing, and nondurable manufacturing. A finding of cointegration for most specifications supports the existence of long-run labor market equilibrium for producers and suggests estimation of error-correction models to examine the dynamic relationships. In every sector except nondurable manufacturing, error-correction model estimates indicate there is a mutual feedback relationship between unit labor costs and prices. Controlling for deviations from full employment, oil price shocks, and the Nixon wage and price controls, the results also provide evidence of significant nominal wage indexation in U.S. labor markets. Throughout the economy there appears to exist both effective neoclassical wage and price adjustment mechanisms to maintain labor market equilibrium and short-run rigidities which may contribute to deviations from full employment outcomes.     

ELECTRICITY REFORMS IN MALI: A MACRO–MICRO ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS ON POVERTY AND DISTRIBUTION

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) micro-simulation model to explore the distributional and poverty-related effects of price reform in the electricity sector of Mali, a poor country in West Africa. In the first part of the paper we analyse the distribution of electricity in Mali by income deciles, showing that few poor households are connected to the electricity grid. We then apply a sequential CGE micro-simulation model to track the transmission mechanisms between increases in electricity prices and changes in poverty and inequality among different household groups. Our results show that direct price increases have a minimal effect on poverty and inequality, whereas the general equilibrium effects of such increases are quite strong and negative. The compensating policies we tested do not help those who lose from the pricing reform. In fact they amplify the negative effects.     

Oil price shocks and producer prices in Taiwan: an application of non-linear error-correction models

This study estimated the short-term and long-term pass-through effects of oil prices on inflation in Taiwan from 1981M1-2011M5, employing the producer price general index and various basic sub-indices for evaluation. The empirical results show that oil prices have long-term and short-term pass-through effects on Taiwan’s producer price indices. Moreover, producer prices have significant non-linear error-correction relationships with the oil price, output and wages, suggesting asymmetric and time-variant properties of error correction. When the deviation of price in the equilibrium is greater, the error-correction adjustment will be faster. Our findings could therefore enable the monetary authorities and manufacturers to formulate a more effective policy from the oil price shocks.     

基于流动性风险的行为资产定价模型研究

从行为金融的研究视角，本研究建立了一种简洁的流动性风险均衡模型。本文将流动性因素纳入股票横截面收益的关键影响因素，构建了基于流动性风险调整的行为资产定价模型，利用欧拉方程确定了模型均衡价格。在一般均衡框架下。本文揭示了买卖差价、交易频率和市场效率等因素以流动性偏好形式对资产价格的影响机理。在连续双向拍卖交易机制下，本文利用仿真检验了均衡价格的形成过程．结果能够解释股票溢价等金融异象。     

Antwoord Aan Prof. Dr. A. Heertje En Drs. D. Furth

Summary The endogeneous duopoly solution as put forward in the author's paper A Dynamic Duopoly Model (De Economist, 1970, pp. 458–490) is not refuted by the objections raised in the preceding article. The contention that the analysis is based on a reaction pattern in the sense of Launhardt neglects the interdepedence between induced and autonomous price changes as formulated in the price reaction functions. The equilibrium prices in a Launhardt model differ from the endogeneously determined equilibrium prices derived in the author's paper. Since the price reaction coefficients are reconsidered in each period by the duopolists, the dynamic process generates these coefficients endogeneously.     

Price-Taking Monopolies in Small Open Economies

The export sector of a small open economy is assumed to be a price-taking monopoly with increasing long-run average cost and positive profit. Under such conditions, demands for productive factors are shown to slope downward in the general equilibrium of an otherwise competitive economy. Comparative static effects of changing prices and factor endowments are weaker than with a competitive export sector. The comparative static effects involving monopoly profit and outputs are examined.     

Food crisis and export taxation: the cost of non-cooperative trade policies

This paper aims to assess the rationales for export taxes in the context of a food crisis. First, we summarize the effects of export taxes using both partial and general equilibrium theoretical models. When large countries aim to maintain constant domestic food prices, in the event of an increase in world agricultural prices, the optimal response is to decrease import tariffs in net food-importing countries and to increase export tariffs in net food-exporting countries. The latter decision improves national welfare, while the former reduces national welfare: this is the price that must be paid to keep domestic food prices constant. Small net food-importing countries are harmed by both decisions, while small net food-exporting countries gain from both. Second, we illustrate the costs of a lack of regulation and cooperation surrounding such policies in a time of crisis using a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, mimicking the mechanisms that appeared during the recent food price surge (2006–2008). This model illustrates the interdependence of trade policies, as well as how a process of retaliation and counter-retaliation (increased export taxes in large net food-exporting countries and reduced import tariffs in large net food-importing countries) can contribute to successive augmentations of world agricultural prices and harm small net food-importing countries. We conclude with a call for international regulation, in particular because small net food-importing countries may be substantially harmed by those policies that amplify the already negative impact of a food crisis.