Selling substitute goods to loss‐averse consumers: limited availability,bargains, and rip‐offs

This article derives the optimal pricing and product‐availability strategies for a retailer selling two substitute goods to loss‐averse consumers and shows that limited‐availability sales manipulate consumers into an ex ante unfavorable purchase. The seller maximizes profits by raising the consumers' reference point through a tempting discount on a good available only in limited supply (the bargain), and cashing in with a high price on the other (the rip‐off), which consumers buy if the bargain is not available to reduce their disappointment. The seller might prefer to offer a deal on the more valuable product, using it as a bait.     

To bundle or not to bundle

Comparing monopoly bundling with separate sales is relatively straightforward in an environment with a large number of goods. We show that results similar to those for the asymptotic case can be obtained in the more realistic case with a given finite number of goods, provided that the distributions of valuations are symmetric and log‐concave.     

Consumer obfuscation by a multiproduct firm

This article shows that a multiproduct firm has incentives to obfuscate its products by using search costs to induce consumers to search through its products in a particular order. The consumers who draw high valuations of the first product terminate their search earlier than the consumers who draw low valuations. Thus, the firm has incentives to raise the price of the earlier searched product. The optimal search cost for an obfuscated product is such that consumers inspect the product only if the match values of the previously searched goods have been very poor.     

信号消费、异质消费与公共产品自愿供给

传统的经典理论分析了政府供给公共产品和消费者无差别消费时的经济问题。然而在市场经济中消费者的类型是不相同的,对公共产品的消费需求也各不相同。对此,需要研究不同消费需求、不同供给模式下具有"消费信号"的公共产品自愿供给问题。研究发现,提高公共产品消费的信号性,优化公共产品的供给模式对于公共产品的自愿供给非常重要。同时,识别出"信号消费"下的异质消费者,并使公共产品具有私人产品的消费特征时,公共产品自愿供给的意愿将会增加。     

台风风险的可保性及其市场供求行为分析

台风灾害每年都给中国东部沿海地区造成巨大的经济损失,但到目前我国保险市场还没有单一责任的台风保险来分担此风险。台风保险是一种准公共物品,如果政府能够介入该保险市场,其可保性则得以提高。对有政府支持的台风保险供求行为博弈分析表明,农户购买台风保险的保险费用占其总产出的百分比在农户和保险公司的决策中至关重要。     

Sales and consumer inventory

Temporary price reductions (sales) are common for many goods and naturally result in a large increase in the quantity sold. We explore whether the data support the hypothesis that these increases are, at least partly, due to demand anticipation: at low prices, consumers store for future consumption. This effect, if present, has broad economic implications. We test the predictions of an inventory model using scanner data with two years of household purchases. The results are consistent with an inventory model and suggest that static demand estimates may overestimate price sensitivity.     

Laffer effect, gross substitution, marginal cost of public funds and the level property of public good provision

This paper examines the Laffer effect in the Ramsey tax-model with linear consumption taxes and a representative consumer. It is assumed that the private goods and the public good are weakly separable. It is demonstrated that if all of the private goods are weak gross complements to each other, then the Laffer effect does not exist, in other words, higher tax rates can always achieve more tax revenue. In contrast, if all of the private goods are strict gross substitutes, then the Laffer effect does exist. Moreover, if all of the private goods are weak gross substitutes, then the government cannot fully acquire the leisure endowment through taxes on consumption goods. We also show that gross substitution works to raise the marginal cost of public funds.     

Apple's agency model and the role of most‐favored‐nation clauses

The agency model used by Apple and other digital platforms delegates retail‐pricing decisions to upstream content providers subject to a fixed revenue‐sharing rule. Given competition both upstream and downstream, we consider how, under the agency model, retail prices depend on the firms' revenue‐sharing splits and the degrees to which consumers view the platforms and the goods sold on the platforms to be substitutes. We show that the agency model may not be universally adopted even if adoption would mean higher profits for all firms. Use of most‐favored‐nation clauses in these settings can ensure industry‐wide adoption and increase retail prices.     

论我国金融消费者的概念及其特权

我国传统的消费者概念应修正为:消费者是为个人消费而获得商品或服务的自然人,但是以生产、经营为直接目的而获得商品或消费的除外。金融消费者可定义为:为个人消费而购买、使用金融商品或接受金融服务的自然人,但是以生产、经营为直接目的而获得金融商品或接受金融消费的除外。金融消费者享有消费者所享有的全部特权,与其他普通消费者的特权相比较,其财产安全权、知情权与金融隐私权需要在立法中加以特殊的保护。     

Tax coordination with different preferences for public goods: Conflict or harmony of interest?

The paper analyzes strategic commodity taxation in a model with trade in a single private good that is simultaneously imported by consumers of a high-tax country and exported by its producers. Conditions for the existence of a Nash equilibrium are given, and an asymmetry is introduced through different preferences for public goods. Two tax coordination measures are discussed—a minimum tax rate and a coordinated increase in the costs of cross-border shopping. It is shown that tax coordination generally benefits the high-tax country while the low-tax country will gain only if the intensity of tax competition is high in the initial equilibrium or if governments are pricesensitive toward the effective marginal costs of public good supply.     

金融创新如何缓解信任品市场失灵?——中国食品安全责任强制保险的自然实验

信任品市场(如食品、医药等)存在的问题一直困扰着中国和世界很多国家。关于产品和服务质量的信息不对称(道德风险和逆向选择)会导致信任品市场失灵。缓解信任品市场失灵,一种常见的解决方案是政府监管;而经济学家认为更加基于市场的解决方案(例如强制责任保险等金融创新)可能更为有效。在理论上,强制责任保险有两种相反的效应:保险公司的监督减少了道德风险 vs. 保险加剧了企业的道德风险,但一直亟待实证检验。幸运的是,中国食品安全责任强制保险的改革实验走在了世界的前列。本文利用了中国在不同地区、不同时间推行的这个自然实验,通过双重差分的方法识别出责任保险对于信任品市场的因果效应。本文的研究发现,强制责任保险能显著降低食品安全事故发生概率。这表明政府强制推行的金融创新可以成为信任品市场失灵的一种有效的替代性解决方案。     

Assessing the Temporary VAT Cut Policy in the UK*

This paper concerns the likely impact of a temporary VAT cut stimulus policy on consumer demand in the UK. It suggests that around 75 per cent of the VAT reduction will be passed on to consumers and that consumers will react by maintaining their expenditure levels and therefore increasing their demand for consumption goods. The uncertainty caused by the downturn makes this a more muted impact than we might have hoped, especially on the demand for durable goods. Nevertheless, it is a substantive impact. In general, the uncertainty caused by the recession will tend to reduce the impact of any stimulus package. It is also argued that synchronising the subsequent rise with the economic upturn is critical.     

论会计信息资源的配置机制——对会计信息公共物品论的反思

本文以经济学中的公共物品理论和信息经济学相关理论为基础 ,对当前的会计信息公共物品属性的观点进行了反思。通过界定“复合品”和“核心效用”两个概念 ,本文推导出会计信息产品在特定消费群内仍是私人物品 ,市场机制是配置会计信息资源的基本手段。但会计信息产品的质量具有难以检验性 ,关于会计信息产品质量的信息在企业与投资者之间分布不对称 ,为政府管制提供了理由。     

Oil price uncertainty,workplace misconduct,and cash holding

Using a novel and comprehensive dataset on penalties imposed by several US federal agencies for workplace law violations, we find that US firms are less likely to violate employee-related laws and receive associated penalties when oil price uncertainty (OPU) increases. This evidence results from two potential channels: precautionary motive and improved board monitoring. First, firms increase discretionary safety expenditure, and second, they increase the board of directors' involvement in the safety and compliance committee. Further, the evidence is not stemmed from other alternatives, such as reduced production or employment. A firm reduces workplace misconduct more when it is financially constrained, incurs a higher cost of goods sold, and belongs to the energy industry. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns and alternative OPU measurements. Moreover, we document that the positive effect of oil price uncertainty on cash holdings is attenuated if firms reduce workplace violations and associated penalties.     

Long‐run price competition

We generalize the standard repeated‐games model of dynamic oligopolistic competition to allow for consumers who are long‐lived and forward looking. Each period leaves some residual demand to future periods and pricing in one period affects consumers' expectations about future prices. We analyze this setting for an indivisible durable good with price‐setting firms and overlapping cohorts of consumers. The model nests the repeated‐game model and the Coasian durable‐goods model as its two extreme cases. The analysis is mostly focused on constant‐price collusion but conditions for collusive recurrent sales are also identified.     

公共品单向外溢下地方政府间演化博弈——以跨区域水资源生态补偿为例

水资源作为典型的公共品具有很强的外溢性,而且其外溢性具有单向流动的特征,围绕水资源生态补偿引发的流域上下游地方政府间矛盾日益突显.基于演化博弈理论,分析我国跨区域上下游地方政府的博弈过程以及影响因素.研究表明,流域上下游地方政府达成合作的局面长期内主要受上游地方政府惩罚值、下游地方政府惩罚值、下游地方政府对上游地方政府的补偿收益以及上游地方政府保护水资源的成本等四个方面因素影响,而与下游地方政府因水资源受到保护而获得生态收益无关.高层级政府解决水资源补偿问题时,不能仅考虑下游地方政府获得生态收益,而应该综合考虑上游地方政府惩罚值、下游地方政府惩罚值、下游地方政府对上游地方政府的补偿收益以及上游地方政府保护水资源的成本等多方面因素.     

Does It Pay to Be Socially Responsible? Evidence from Spain's Retail Banking Sector

This paper extends the research on the relation between financial performance and corporate social responsibility in two respects. First, it develops a model of strategic competition that includes consumer perceptions with respect to firm social performance. It is shown that in the presence of a positive valuation of social responsibility practices by consumers, a firm that endorses this responsible behaviour may obtain a better strategic position in the market, along with higher margin, demand, and profit. Second, the model's predictions are tested with a sample of Spanish banking firms. The empirical analysis confirms that consumers significantly value other features apart from price in making deposit and mortgage decisions, particularly a financial institution's social responsibility. A more disaggregated analysis shows first, that not every CSR dimension has relevance for consumers and second, that customers equally value activities that can have a direct impact on their well‐being (e.g., culture and leisure), as well as other activities that can be viewed more generally as public goods (e.g., heritage and the environment). These conclusions are of interest in the debate about a firm's social or ethical activities. It is shown that, provided that consumers value corporate social responsibility activities, firms can improve both their competitive position in the market and their profits by behaving in a socially responsible manner. Therefore, the design and implementation of corporate social responsibility practices could confer upon firms an initial competitive advantage over their competitors.     

Luxury for the masses

Increasingly wide income disparities, higher levels of education, and greater awareness of other cultures' ideas of the good life have given rise to a new class of American consumer. And a new category of products and services, including automobiles, apparel, food, wine, and spirits, has sprung into being to cater to it. That category is called new luxury. America's middle-market consumers are trading up to higher levels of quality and taste than ever before. Members of the middle market (those earning $50,000 and above annually) collectively have around $1 trillion of disposable income. And they will pay premiums of 20% to 200% for well-designed, well-engineered, and well-crafted goods that can't be found in the mass middle market and that have the artisanal touches of traditional luxury items. Most important, even when they address basic necessities, such goods evoke and engage consumers' emotions while feeding their aspirations for a better life. Supply-side forces are essential to the rise of new luxury. Like the consumers of their goods, entrepreneurs are better educated and more sophisticated about their customers than ever before. In addition, global sourcing, falling trade barriers and transportation costs, and rising offshore manufacturing standards are making possible the economical production of alluring products of high quality. Unlike old-luxury goods, new-luxury products can generate high sales volumes despite their relatively high prices. As a result, new-luxury companies are achieving levels of profitability and growth beyond the reach of their conventional competitors. Whether the item in question is a $6 Panera sandwich or a $30,000 Mercedes, new luxury is a formula that middle-market companies, facing erosion of their market share by high-end and low-end producers, can ill afford to ignore.     

Eager sellers and stony buyers: understanding the psychology of new-product adoption

Companies that introduce new innovations are the most likely to flourish, so they spend billions of dollars making better products. But studies show that new innovations fail at a staggering rate. While many blame these misses on lackluster products, the reality isn't so simple. The goods that consumers dismiss often do offer improvements over existing ones. So why don't people purchase them? And why do companies keep peddling products that buyers are likely to reject? The answer, says the author, can be found in the brain. New products force consumers to change their behavior, and that has a psychological cost. Many products fail because people irrationally over-value the benefits of the goods they own over those they don't possess. Executives, meanwhile, overvalue their own innovations. This leads to a serious clash. Studies show, in fact, that there is a mismatch of nine to one, or 9x, between what innovators think consumers want and what consumers truly desire. Fortunately, companies can overcome this disconnect. To start, they can determine where their products fall in a matrix with four categories: easy sells, sure failures, long hauls, and smash hits. Each has a different ratio of product improvement to change required from the consumer. Once businesses know where their products fit into this grid, they can manage the resistance to change. For some innovations, major behavior change is a given. In those cases, companies can either wait for consumers to warm to the product, make the improvement so great that buyers get past their apprehension, or try to eliminate the incumbent product. Firms can also try to minimize buyer resistance by making products that are compatible with incumbent goods, seeking out those who are not yet users of the existing product, or finding true believers.     

Macroeconomic dynamics in a model of goods,labor, and credit market frictions

Goods market frictions drastically change the dynamics of the labor market, both in terms of persistence and volatility. In a model with three imperfect markets – goods, labor, and credit – we find that credit and goods market imperfections are substitutable in raising volatility. Goods market frictions are unique in generating persistence. Two key mechanisms in the goods market generate large hump-shaped responses to productivity shocks: countercyclical goods market tightness and prices alter future profit flows and raise persistence; procyclical search effort of consumers and firms raises amplification. Goods market frictions are thus key in understanding labor market dynamics.