Asymmetric Information and the Russian Individual Savings Market

The article considers the influence of informational imperfections on the performance of the Russian financial market. The focus is on the individual savings market, which exhibits inefficiencies, including those associated with the market power of a dominant agent—Sberbank. Reinforcement of Sberbank's dominance on the market in the period 1994‐98 (before the August default combined with financial crisis) is explained as a consequence of asymmetric information about the probability of bankruptcy of a new bank. Under asymmetric information a new private bank has to provide specific quality signals in order to attract depositors. Two major lines of inquiry are the criteria for choosing forms of savings, including that of a bank in which to deposit money, by Russian citizens, and banks' advertising strategies to confirm the factual risk of default. Within the conceptual framework of a game with separating equilibrium, we analyse the behaviour of the agents on both supply and demand sides in the market. We find that there is evidence of using advertising as a tool of quality signalling at a certain phase of the Russian individual savings market's development.     

Asymmetric Information and Adverse Selection in Mauritian Slave Auctions

Information asymmetry is a necessary prerequisite for testing adverse selection. This paper applies this sequence of tests to Mauritian slave auctions. The theory of dynamic auctions with private and common values suggests that when an informed participant is known to be active, uninformed bidders will be more aggressive and the selling price will be higher. We conjecture that observable family links between buyer and seller entailed superior information and find a strong price premium when a related buyer purchased a slave, indicative of information asymmetry. We then test for adverse selection using sale motivation. Our results indicate large discounts on voluntary as compared to involuntary sales. Consistent with adverse selection, the market anticipated that predominantly low-productivity slaves would be brought to the market in voluntary sales.     

Foreign Market Entry Strategies under Asymmetric Information*

A home firm signals her private cost information by expanding in a foreign firm’s country. Credible signaling to deter counter‐entry may occur through a direct investment (but not through exports), and may even entail entering an unprofitable market. While this produces social benefits, uninformative signaling may be welfare‐reducing. Hence, we argue that moderate to high location costs may be socially desirable. We also show that there are not simple monotonic relationships between technology/demand conditions and firms’ entry modes. Thus, the signaling interpretation of international expansion makes it possible to explain some controversial empirical findings on a theoretical ground.     

信息不对称与企业家报酬、企业市场价值分析

本文分析了信息不对称对企业家投资报酬、企业债务水平及企业市场价值的影响.分析表明,若企业项目是高质量的,信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平提高;反之,若企业项目是低质量的,信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平减少;外部知情投资者比例的变化与企业家报酬的变化之间的关系与企业质量有关.降低信息不对称程度有利于企业优胜劣汰,实现资源的最优配置.     

言息不对称与企业家报酬、企业市场价值分析

本文分析了信息不对称对企业家投资报酬、企业债务水平及企业市场价值的影响。分析表明，若企业项目是高质量的，信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平提高；反之，若企业项目是低质量的，信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平减少；外部知情投资者比例的变化与企业家报酬的变化之间的关系与企业质量有关。降低信息不对称程度有利于企业优胜劣汰，实现资源的最优配置。     

市场选择下的短信经济

市场选择机制，即让各方都能在产业链中充分找到自己的位置和获利的机会是产业链高效转化的渠道。就网络发展的副产品短信经济来看，真正的成功更多的应该是建立在业务的开发和拓展之上，而市场是决定这场商战胜负的关键。     

Credit Rationing in Medium-small Enterprises Credit Market under Asymmetric Information

Credit rationing has been an objective phenomenon in medium-small enterprises credit market of China. By analyzing the present situation of medium-small enterprises credit market of China, this study gives a new credit rationing model fitting medium-small enterprises credit market of China well. It has been showed in the empirical study that different factor has each different influence on medium-small enterprises credit market; further more, only the change of chastisement factor can make the medium-small enterprises credit market achieve whole success, but other factors can merely get integrant success even though under the most ideal condition.     

中国医疗服务市场中的信息不对称程度测算

本文构建了一个医疗服务市场上信息不对称程度的测度模型,并基于"中国健康与营养调查"(CHNS)中微观个体调查数据,对医疗服务市场上医患双方的信息程度及其对最终的医疗服务价格的影响效应进行了实证测度。研究结果表明:(1)医患双方所掌握的信息因素对最终医疗服务价格的形成具有重要影响,同时医生相对于患者掌握着更多的信息并具有更强的议价能力;(2)几乎所有的患者都将被迫接受一个高于公正基准价格的价格,平均而言达成的医疗服务价格相对于公正的基准价格要高出26.61%;(3)年度效应分析发现,1989—2006年,各年度的医疗服务市场价格大致都高于公正基准价格26%左右,换言之,改革开放以来中国的医疗服务体制改革,并未有效起到解决"看病难、看病贵"的作用;(4)患者在城乡因素、医疗保险、工作状况、年龄以及受教育程度等因素上的异质性,对医患双方最终价格的作用是有限的。本文的政策含义是:强调通过引进竞争,强化市场机制在医疗服务市场中调节作用的改革思路,是否适合中国值得反思。解决现实中普遍存在的医疗服务价格虚高问题,回归医疗服务的公益性,需要政府更多地参与其中,并有效发挥价格规制、市场监管以及外部性矫正等功能。     

信息不对称、羊群行为与房地产市场中的居民破产

本文通过构建一个0-1决策博弈模型,分析了在信息不对称的情况下,房地产市场中羊群行为的形成机制、羊群行为如何导致房地产泡沫的生成、以及经济状况恶化时泡沫破裂后居民破产的可能性.结论显示,居民在房地产市场中的行为选择既受宏观经济基本面因素的影响,也受羊群行为的影响,而羊群行为的存在使得房地产市场产生价格泡沫,当房地产泡沫破裂时,居民破产的概率与信息不对称的程度和居民的预期相关.     

Asymmetric Information and Annuities

The standard Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976) and Wilson (1977) analysis of adverse selection economies is extended to a particular model of annuity market which features both elements of moral hazard and adverse selection. Individuals are heterogeneous with respect to time preferences and they make investments in health care that affect their survival probabilities. The main case considered is that where both preferences and investments (and hence the endogenous survival probabilities) are unobserved. Thus, the model captures a further source of inefficiency that is particular to annuity market: an endogenous correlation between the desire for annuities and the survival probabilities. The basic insights of Wilson (1977) —as worked out by Eckstein, Eichenbaum and Peled (1985) —are worth also in this new setting. When the equilibrium is separating, the government intervention may yield Pareto improvements. If the equilibrium is pooling, the government intervention may improve the well‐being of individuals affected by the inefficiencies and the negative externalities caused by the asymmetric information.     

Asymmetric Research Joint Ventures and Market Concentration

This paper studies two asymmetric R&D cooperation structures. In the first structure some firms in an industry organize a research joint venture (RJV) cartel while the remainder engage in independent R&D. In the other structure, each firm joins one of a number of competing RJV cartels. The findings indicate that cooperative R&D may lead to a more concentrated post-innovation industry than standard R&D competition owing to the technology advantage of the (large) cartel obtained from R&D co-operation. Under certain conditions these asymmetric structures are more efficient, but they result in a redistribution of income towards the firms in the (large) cartel.
JEL Classification Numbers: D43, L13, O31.     

不对称信息与凯恩斯主义投资理论

有效市场理论认为资本资产价格只不过是一幅面纱，实际经济活动是由经济主体的偏好和技术决定的。在凯恩斯主义体系中，金融市场在决定经济的路径中起到核心的作用。通过对金融市场上不对称信息的考察，可以得出这一结论。企业在外在融资的提供者即贷款者能够获取的信息是不同的，这种信息不对称导致金融约束的出现，在这种情况下，对投资的限制来自金融市场而不是来自技术或者偏好。     

Self-Reporting and Ex Post Asymmetric Information

We consider a model of optimal law enforcement where sanctions are reduced for self-reporting individuals. Violators get private signals about their individual probabilities of apprehension after they committed a crime. Since violators will self-report if and only if the signal is above a specific threshold, the possibility of self-reporting has an option value that leads to a higher crime rate if the authority's effort remains unchanged. We demonstrate that self-reporting nevertheless increases social welfare even under the restriction that the crime rate must not be higher than without self-reporting. Received June 15, 2001; revised version received December 19, 2001     

Repeated Elections with Asymmetric Information

An infinite sequence of elections with no term limits is modelled. In each period a challenger with privately known preferences is randomly drawn from the electorate to run against the incumbent, and the winner chooses a policy outcome in a one-dimensional issue space. One theorem is that there exists an equilibrium in which the median voter is decisive: an incumbent wins re-election if and only if his most recent policy choice gives the median voter a payoff at least as high as he would expect from a challenger. The equilibrium is symmetric, stationary, and the behavior of voters is consistent with both retrospective and prospective voting. A second theorem is that, in fact, it is the only equilibrium possessing the latter four conditions — decisiveness of the median voter is implied by them.     

Multidimensional Bargaining Under Asymmetric Information

A buyer with private information regarding marginal valuation bargains with a seller to determine price and quantity of trade. Depending on parameter values, a high‐valuation buyer wants either to reveal information to create value or to conceal it to capture value. In the first case, equilibrium trades are efficient. In the second case, the low‐valuation buyer purchases less than her efficient quantity, and there can be a one‐period delay in trade. The quantity distortion is the only inefficiency that persists when time between offers approaches zero. There exist equilibria that are independent of the seller's prior beliefs.     

Repeated Contests with Asymmetric Information

The same contestants often meet repeatedly in contests. Behavior in a contest potentially provides information with regard to one's type and can therefore influence the behavior of the opponents in later contests. This paper shows that if effort is observable, this can induce a ratchet effect in contests: high ability contestants sometimes put in little effort in an early round in order to make the opponents believe that they are of little ability. The effect reduces overall effort and increases equilibrium utility of the contestants when compared with two unrelated one-shot contests. It does, however, also introduce an allocative inefficiency since sometimes a contestant with a low valuation wins. The model assumes an imperfectly discriminating contest. In an extension I show that, qualitatively, results are similar in a perfectly discriminating contest (all pay auction).     

积累性创新、信息不对称和激励

在积累性创新链中,创新收益在序贯创新者之间的分配是一个重要的激励问题,一个良好的创新激励机制应该使得积累性创新的利益在序贯创新者之间进行合理的分配。本文基于信息不对称的假定,研究了积累性创新中最优专利许可费大小和时序决定问题。与Green＆Scotchmer、Scotchmer的结论不同,我们发现,事前专利许可并不一定能够解决先期创新者对后续创新者的敲竹杠行为。本研究为现实中观察到的一些产业中事后专利许可现象提供了理论上的解释。     

网购市场鱼龙混杂现象的经济学解释：基于二维不对称信息的视角

网络购物市场存在商品鱼龙混杂的典型现象：高价格的商品不一定高质量,低价格的商品也不一定低质量,表现出明显的信息不对称特征。文章基于网络购物市场所存在的两个维度不对称信息的特征事实,即厂商在产品质量与产品生产成本两个方面拥有私有信息,通过构建二维不对称信息的分析框架,从市场均衡的视角首次解释了上述现象的经济机理。分析表明,由于二维不对称信息的存在,消费者和厂商决策的互动过程使得市场上产品价格与质量不再具有单调递增关系,从而网络购物市场可能出现鱼龙混杂的市场均衡,文章证明了这一均衡在合理的条件下是存在的。文章通过比较静态分析考察了市场环境的变化如何影响商品质量的价格信号显示效率以及消费者购买行为,并考察了网络购物行业商家披露信息、消费者对于商家的反馈评分机制和保证退货等手段对于消除商品鱼龙混杂现象的有效性,为进一步规范发展我国网络购物行业提供了参考。     

An Incentive Contract With Asymmetric Information

This Paper considers the problem of designing an optimal incentive contract between a retailer and a manufacturer when the former has private information about demand and its own cost. Based on a multi-period framework, we show that the incentive franchise contract can bring about the fist-best outcome of vertical integration when the retailer has complete information about consumers' preferences. [L42, D8]     

Information Revelation and Market Incompleteness

This paper introduces a theory of market incompleteness based on the information transmission role of prices and its adverse impact on the provision of insurance in financial markets. We analyse a simple security design model in which the number and payoff of securities are endogenous. Agents have rational expectations and differ in information, endowments, and attitudes toward risk. When markets are incomplete, equilibrium prices are typically partially revealing, while full relevation is attained with complete markets. The optimality of complete or incomplete markets depends on whether the adverse selection effect (the unwillingness of agents to trade risks when they are informationally disadvantaged) is stronger or weaker than the Hirshleifer effect (the impossibility of trading risks that have already been resolved), as new securities are issued and prices reveal more information. When the Hirshleifer effect dominates, an incomplete set of securities is preferred by all agents, and generates a higher volume of trade.