The Gradual Response of Market Power to Mergers in the U.S. Steel Industry

Studies of the impact of horizontal mergers on market power typically impose an immediate adjustment of market power following a merger. This paper adopts an alternative procedure to estimate the effect of four mergers on market power in the U.S. steel industry. Namely, by estimating a switching regression model that incorporates profit-maximizing behavior, the results show that mergers generally increased market power in the steel industry. However, it did take some time for market power to fully adjust after each merger.     

Why Are Foreclosures Contagious?

This article investigates the mechanism by which foreclosed properties depress neighboring property prices. Using a novel dataset on housing capital expenditure, I verify as accurate the claim of disinvestment theory made in earlier studies. When capital expenditure investment, neighborhood price trends, number of Multiple Listing Service listings and neighborhood fixed effects are controlled for, the negative effect on property prices is significant from nearby foreclosures, real estate owned (REO) listings and REO sales, but not from default and delinquent properties. The effect is larger in a depressed market than in an appreciating market. I argue that the most plausible explanation for these results is that a foreclosure discount drives down the reference prices for nearby properties and depresses neighborhood values. This discount information is revealed to the public through foreclosures, REO listings and REO sales.     

On the Time-Series Properties of Real Estate Investment Trust Betas

The relation between real estate investment trust (REIT) returns and stock market returns is of significant importance to investors, practitioners and academics. The temporal properties of this relationship have a critical impact on the usefulness of REIT risk estimates and portfolio allocations to this asset class. Recent studies have suggested a decline in the market betas of equity real estate investment trusts (EREITs). This study applies a rigorous statistical test of the hypothesis that the market betas of EREITs have remained unchanged during the 1972 through 2002 time period. There is weak evidence of a downward trend in EREIT betas using a single-factor model; however, the hypothesis is not rejected when using a three-factor model.     

Power in the market for Medi-Cal services

The California Medicaid Reform Act of 1982 resulted in a shift in power from the supply to the demand side of the Medi-Cal market. We find some evidence that strategic behavior by hospitals in the subsequent period may have countered the erosion of supplier market power. This study conducts an empirical assessment of market power in markets for Medi-Cal services, in the year reforms were first implemented (1983) and six years later. Multihospital chain presence is found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on market power, and to vary by chain ownership type.     

市场交易制度与市场绩效关系的实验经济学研究--对SCP分析范式的修正

实验经济学方法的出现和大量应用使市场交易制度问题研究得以深入，并取得了大量重要的研究成果。市场交易制度与市场结构共同影响市场绩效是对传统的SCP分析范式的修正．交易制度可以将需求因素作为一个形成市场绩效的力量和评估主体，使对市场绩效形成的考察更加全面、深入。本文据此构造了市场交易制度影响市场绩效的假说并进行了理论和实验的证明。这一假说可以成为分析市场绩效、设计市场交易制度、制定政府规制和评估制度效果的重要方法。     

The Impact of Deregulation on Casino Win in Atlantic City

This paper examines the impact of deregulation on thedemand for casino gaming in Atlantic City. Specifically, the paper analyzes the impact ofexpanded operating hours and floor space devoted toslot machines. Using monthly win data between June1978 and July 1996, the analysis reveals that expandedfloor space had a significant, positive impact on win,resulting in an average monthly increase of over \$2million. This shows the importance of developing aregulatory structure rigid enough to ensure thehonesty and integrity of the gaming industry, butflexible enough to allow management to respond tochanging market conditions.     

垂直专业化分工与劳动力市场就业结构——基于中国工业行业面板数据的分析

在经济全球化的背景下,中国广泛参与到了垂直专业化分工过程当中,对劳动力市场就业结构产生了重要影响。本文分析了垂直专业化分工对中国劳动力市场就业结构的影响机理,在改进垂直专业化分工测算方法的基础上,就垂直专业化分工对中国劳动力市场就业结构产生的影响进行了实证分析。研究结果显示,中国工业部门参与垂直专业化分工总体上降低了对熟练劳动力的相对需求,非熟练劳动力的相对需求增加;中低技术行业的回归分析显示这一影响更为显著;而高技术行业的回归分析显示垂直专业化分工增加了熟练劳动力的相对需求,但回归系数弹性要小于总体行业回归和中低技术行业回归的弹性。     

An assessment of the 2008 telecommunications restructuring in China

The restructuring in the Chinese telecom sector in 2008 has prompted heated discussion among telecom analysts and experts. Past research tends to take an optimistic view that China has embarked on a liberalizing route, resulting in utopian projections that domestic competition and foreign liberalizing forces would lead to the emergence of a telecom market operated primarily under the principles of free market economics in the near term. This paper, instead, argues that current telecom restructuring was largely driven by domestic agendas. Drawing from the bargaining perspective, this paper finds that, while it is true that market mechanisms play a significant role in the telecom industry, the impact of competition and privatization on the telecom market ultimately depends on the political endowments of Chinese society.     

金融化一定会损害企业价值吗——基于生命周期视角的实证研究

文章以中国A股市场的制造业企业为样本,实证研究企业金融化对企业价值的影响.研究发现:金融化与企业价值之间存在倒"U"型关系;基于生命周期理论,金融化与企业价值的非线性关系在成长期、衰退期依然显著,在成熟期不显著.最后,产品市场竞争在企业金融化和企业价值之间存在中介效应.本文揭示了金融化对企业价值的非线性影响以及其传导机...     

中国省域流通效率及其影响因素研究——基于空间统计及空间计量分析

文章从市场、产业和企业层面构建流通效率综合评价指标体系,测度了2008~2015年各地区流通效率水平,并借助空间统计分析了我国流通效率的空间相分布特征。研究发现：我国流通效率水平存在显著的正向空间自相关性,环渤海经济圈和长三角经济圈地区流通效率表现为高高集聚特征,中西部地区流通效率则呈低低集聚特征。基于邻接空间、地理距离和经济距离权重矩阵的空间误差模型回归结果显示,邻近地区对本地区流通效率水平具有显著的负向效应,人均 GDP、市场化程度和对外开放对流通效率水平具有显著的正向影响,产业结构、人力资本、政府支出对流通效率的影响只在邻接空间权重下具有显著的正向影响,而城市化对流通效率水平的作用不显著。     

The Industrial Organization of Housing Supply: Market Activity, Land Supply and the Size of Homebuilder Firms

Existing studies of housing markets assume that homebuilding is a homogeneous, perfectly competitive industry. This paper uses MSA-level data on the average size of homebuilder establishments and homebuilder market concentration to test the appropriateness of this paradigm. The data reveal a wide and systematic variation across metropolitan-area housing markets in both the average size of builders and the market share for the largest builders in an MSA. These results are more consistent with treating homebuilders as monopolistically competitive suppliers of a differentiated product than with treating them as perfectly competitive homogeneous firms. Builders are larger in more active housing markets and where there is a greater supply of readily developed land suitable for large developments. Builder size and concentration are sensitive to the type of regulating jurisdiction imposing land-use regulation. Both are lower when land-use regulations are imposed by smaller jurisdictions, and this is particularly true when the smaller jurisdictions impose more intense regulation.     

The impact of ICT patents on economic growth: An international evidence

This study aims to examine the impact of inventions, measured by the number of new patents, on economic growth. Specifically, we focus on patents in the ICT sector for a global sample of 43 economies, comprising 26 advanced and 17 emerging market economies in the period 1998 to 2016. We use a two-step system GMM to control for potential endogeneity in the data. Our results are threefold. First, total patents have mutually causal effects with economic growth, but there is no evidence of an impact of total patents on manufacturing sector growth. At the same time, ICT patents have a unidirectional causal impact on both, overall economic growth, and the growth of services and manufacturing. Second, the impact of total patents on economic growth is stronger in advanced economies. At the same time, ICT patents have a positive significant impact on the growth of advanced economies and a negative significant effect on the growth of emerging economies. Third, in the long-run, ICT patents have a positive significant impact on economic growth, while total patents do not.     

An Analysis of Office Market Rents: Some Empirical Evidence

This paper provides an empirical analysis of office building rents using data for a five-year period in a medium- sized city. The results indicate that rent levels respond to various factors in the expected manner: rents vary systematically across classes of buildings and locations, overall market conditions have a significant impact on rents, and contract variations are associated with rent differences. We also present the first evidence at the building level on the rent-vacancy adjustment process. The results show a significant relationship between rent changes and vacancies.     

The relationship between marketing agility and financial performance under different levels of market turbulence

Marketing agility is an example of dynamic capability that has significant influence on ordinary capabilities leading to superior financial performance. This makes it of interest to marketing managers. Yet the way in which this capability aligns with turbulent market environments to simultaneously influence ordinary capabilities and performance has not been adequately examined and empirically tested. This study seeks to close this gap by positing that marketing agility has both direct and indirect (through innovation capability which is an ordinary capability) impacts on financial performance. However, these relationships are moderated by market turbulence to yield both mediated moderation and moderated mediation effects. The study was undertaken in the Chinese food-processing industry where a sample of 518 companies participated. This provides an opportunity to validate theory developed in the western economies and to generalize some previous findings. Contrary to received literature we found that the impact of innovation capability on financial performance is stronger under low market turbulence; and that market turbulence moderates the indirect relationship between marketing agility and financial performance. The indirect effect is stronger when market turbulence is low than when it is high. Implications for managers and academia are discussed and limitations of the study are pointed out.     

Market Information Acquisition,Use, and New Venture Performance*

A substantial body of existing research has linked firm performance to the acquisition and use of customer, competitor, and other market information. This paper examines the impact on new venture performance of formal processes for market information collection and use. This study hypothesizes that new venture performance will be an increasing function of both market information and use. Two moderator hypotheses are also tested. In particular, it is expected that the impact of formal market information processes will be greater in market‐driven new ventures than in technology‐driven new ventures. These hypotheses were tested using data collected from 222 Chinese new ventures. The empirical analysis confirms the positive role of formal processes in new venture performance. However, the analysis does not support the moderator hypotheses. This study finds that (1) formal processes for information acquisition are equally important in technology‐driven and market‐driven firms and (2) formal processes for information use have a greater impact on new venture performance in technology‐driven firms than in market‐driven firms.     

Standard–setting processes: evidence from two case studies

In many hi–tech sectors one of the most important dimensions of competition is standardisation. This is particularly true in modular markets (i.e. markets characterised by the existence of modular architectures) and in network markets (i.e. markets where users would like to buy products compatible with those bought by others). Different processes may lead to the standard–setting. Sometimes there are fierce standardisation wars whereas in other cases competitors are able to agree on a common standard before the introduction of the technology on the market. In this paper we endeavour to provide an interpretative framework of the standardisation process and validate such a framework through an in–depth analysis of two case studies in a typical network market (the multimedia sector): the case of the Modem 56k and the case of the Information Appliances–Enhanced TV.
The two case studies offer some evidence of the standardisation process and of the growing importance of super–partes organisations (Standard Development Organisations) in the mediation process between different interests and technologies to impose a common standard on the market.     

The Impact of Private Label Introduction on Assortment,Prices, and Profits of Retailers*

We study how introducing private-label brands (PLs) affects retail prices and profits, accounting for assortment adjustments of national brands (NBs). We employ an event-study framework and scanner data on the US beef market. When a PL is added to the low-priced market segment, we find that retail stores further differentiate NBs from the PL and remove same-segment NBs. When a PL is added to the high-priced segment, however, NB assortment changes are limited. PL introduction and PL-driven NB assortment changes impose small price effects on NB, but strongly cannibalize NB demand and steer consumers toward PLs, likely increasing store profits.     

ICT-based market information and adoption of agricultural seed technologies: Insights from Uganda

Access to ICT-based market information is crucial to the adoption of agricultural seed technologies for maize, beans and groundnut and to improve smallholder farmer yields and income. This ICT-based market information is provided by FM radio stations and by market information centers through media such as mobile phones and internet facilities, etc. Factors that positively affect the probability of access to ICT-based market information include access to microfinance loans, membership in a farmer association, government awareness campaigns, and wealth. Distance to the trading centers or district capital negatively affects this access. The likelihood of access to ICT-based market information declines with female-headed households. Access to market information has a positive and significant impact on the intensity of adopting improved seed for all crops. Adoption of improved seed has a positive and significant effect on farm yields and gross farm returns. This research shows that in order to generate meaningful improvements in food security and farm incomes, there must be commensurate efforts to promote ICT-based market information along with yield-augmenting agricultural seed technologies.     

The impact of intra-platform competition on broadband penetration

There has been an extensive debate about the role of broadband access regulation on market outcomes. This paper estimates the impact that the different modes of competition have had on broadband take-up to date, using a data set for EU27 countries. We find that ULL, which is one of main types of access-based competition in Europe, has had a positive impact on broadband take-up. However, the impact of ULL becomes smaller as its share increases. That is, ULL entry is less effective in areas where ULL take up is already high. Further, there is evidence of a crowding out effect between ULL and inter-platform competition. This means that ULL is less effective in enhancing broadband penetration in the areas where alternative networks already have a significant share of broadband lines.     

Financial Flexibility and Investment: Evidence from REIT At‐the‐Market (ATM) Equity Offerings

This article examines changes in real estate investment around the establishment of at‐the‐market (ATM) equity programs by equity REITs. We document a significant increase in the rate of investment following an ATM program announcement and its subsequent use. However, we find that ATM access has a differential impact on the investment activity of REITs facing more significant financial constraints. We also provide further evidence that REITs with ATM programs generate positive long‐run returns in excess of that of similarly timed SEOs.