Partnering against Insecurity? A Comparison of Markets,Institutions and Worker Risk in Canadian and Swedish Retail

This article provides insights on how union power influences the outcomes of labour-management partnerships, with a focus on insecurity. It examines matched pairs of food retailers in Canada and Sweden. Trends in wages, scheduling and union coverage from 1980 to 2016 are compared. Actors in both contexts adopted partnering strategies in response to intensified price competition. However, the Swedish partnerships produced stable work arrangements, while working conditions eroded considerably in Canada. Bargaining structures, union security and identity are examined to explain the variations. As market competition intensified, the Swedish union gained leverage by using partnerships to fight unfair competition and promote sectoral well-being in the process. Meanwhile, the Canadian union lost leverage, instead using partnerships to align employment practices with those of low-cost market entrants and enhancing store-level performance at all costs. The argument is that markets can be a resource for unions, even in low-skilled service sectors, but only under inclusive institutions.     

The moderating influence of firm market power on the transaction cost economics model: An empirical test in a forward channel integration context

Transaction cost economics (TCE) has guided a variety of research on governance in the strategic management literature. An important question arises, however, as to whether the TCE framework is equally appropriate for all types of firms in all business settings. In this paper, we argue that TCE is not and suggest that firms with high market power may be able to lower transaction costs under high asset specificity and uncertainty in nonintegrated distribution channels, avoiding the need to utilize highly integrated channels as a result. We test our hypotheses with data collected from 40 manufacturers of electronic and telecommunications products in 109 product‐markets in the United States. The results support our hypothesis that transaction cost factors are better at explaining forward channel integration for firms with low market power than for firms with high market power. Our results indicate that the basic TCE framework must be supplemented by the market power construct to adequately explain forward channel integration decisions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Number of Firms and Production Capacity in Relation to Market Size

Many oligopoly theories predict a positive correlation between market size and the equilibrium number of firms and some also imply that competition is more intense in larger markets. We test these predictions on a sample of driving schools in 250 Swedish regional markets by estimating the relation between the number of firms, production capacity, and market size. The number of firms increases less than proportionally with market size. Market size per capacity unit is smaller in large markets. Since firms produce a fairly homogenous good, we argue that this is evidence that profits per capita is decreasing in market size.     

Can evidence of pricing power help market power assessment? Broadband Internet in Ireland and the Netherlands

This article proposes a simple hedonic price test to assess whether firms may have pricing power. The test allows NRAs to compare prices of providers of differentiated products on a like-for-like basis. Testing for pricing power could be a useful complement to market share analysis. This is especially the case in market reviews periodically undertaken by European communications regulators. As an illustration the test was applied to broadband Internet access services in Ireland and the Netherlands. Results appear encouraging as they are broadly aligned to the decisions of the regulatory authorities in both countries that the incumbent DSL operators had market power at the time.     

The Swedish Model: Relevant for Other European Countries?

By the late 1970s, supply-side theory had become something of a new economic orthodoxy. From the supply-side perspective, labour market inflexibility explains mass unemployment. In this context the presumably greater flexibility of the labour market in the USA was seen as an explanation of its superior employment record relative to European economies. Unlike most European countries, Sweden, which is highly regulated, does reasonably well in employment terms. The authors conclude that the Swedish model has proved its value with regard to labour market policy, especially with regard to the duration of unemployment, and that the Swedish model still contains relevant characteristics for other European countries. Active labour market policy is a way out of the unemployment trap. The active labour market policy may serve as an alternative for deregulation in order to augment the flexibility of the labour market.     

Measuring Market Power in the U.S. Aluminum Industry: A Residual Demand Approach

This paper applies a refined market power test to examine market power in the U.S. aluminum industry. The study conducts a two-step analysis in which the inverse residual demand facing the industry is first estimated to generate the associate elasticity to infer market power, and then the inverse partial residual demand facing the industry is estimated to produce the elasticity to measure the potential effect of inter-industry coordination. The results suggest that only the primary industry attains market power, and the market power can exert even without collusion between the primary and secondary industries.     

Concurrent Engineering Practices in Selected Swedish Companies: A Movement or an Activity of the Few?

Speed-to-market is currently becoming a highly competitive issue for manufacturing companies around the world, and much as been written about the potentials hidden in the product development process. The solutions most often called for usually include activities such as Time-Based Competition, Concurrent Engineering, and Early Manufacturing Involvement. The research and management literature on this topic usually draws upon a few well-known and well-cited successes, found at companies such as AT&T, Xerox, and Motorola. However, a lack of broad-based research on the topic has made it difficult to establish whether the shift in competitive priorities and assorted process improvements represent a broad movement in the industry, or whether observed changes merely depict changes found in a few successful, technology-based companies. In this article, Lars Trygg presents some early findings from a broad-based survey (109 cases) within the Swedish manufacturing industry. The results indicate that a substantial part of the Swedish manufacturing industry has implemented a number of actions and methods associated with successful projects reported in the media, in order to increase their speed to the market.     

Market Power and Technology

It is well known that market power depends on the price elasticity of demand and the intensity of competition. It is also well known that technology can influence market power through its effect on market structure. However, there is limited research on the direct link between market power and technology. In this paper, we investigate this relationship. We find that the monopoly price can be constrained to be identical to marginal cost under certain technological conditions. We also show how market power depends directly upon technology, holding constant demand conditions, market structure, and the degree of competition.     

螺杆泵试验转速和黏度对水力特性检测的影响

螺杆泵水力特性检测．一方面可以为螺杆泵科研项目的研究开发提供依据,另一方面可以实现产品质量检验,控制不合格品进入市场？应用螺杆泵水力特性检测装置,开展了水力特性试验并对实验结果进行了转速、黏度校正。通过对校正前后的结果对比分析表明：螺杆泵的试验转速、试验介质黏度偏差对螺杆泵水力特性参数如排量、客积效率、轴功率、总效率存在影响且不可忽略．并随泵型增大而偏差越来越大．在水力特性检测中应给予足够的重视：提出了校正方法。     

电力供需实验室的开发与建设

国家电网公司电力供需实验室是"十一五"期间国家电网公司重点建设的八大实验室之一。电力实验室由数据信息平台、业务支撑平台和应用平台3层平台构成。三者既相互独立,又相互联系。数据信息平台是电力供需实验室的基础。应用平台是直接面向用户、实现电力供需分析预测以及实验等功能的窗口,业务支撑平台是连接数据信息平台和应用平台的桥梁。目前,电力供需实验室已经基本具备了电力市场分析预测功能以及实验功能,可以应用于年度电力市场分析预测工作中。     

Entry and the Number of Firms in the Swedish Pharmaceuticals Market

This paper analyses the factors that determineentry into the Swedish pharmaceuticals market. The analysis is based onpanel data for 22 different substances covering the years 1972 to 1996. Theresults show that profit opportunities in a particular market have apositive impact on entry. In addition, there is some evidence suggestingthat the length of the patent protection period has a negative impact onentry.     

电信主导运营商价格压榨的竞争效应

在纵向相关市场结构下,电信在位主导运营商的价格压榨行为是一种恢复纵向垄断市场势力和获取纵向一体最大化垄断利润的策略性行为,它会严重伤害下游市场的竞争,并降低社会总福利。在反垄断执法中,判定反竞争的价格压榨行为需要分析市场结构条件和进行竞争伤害检验,本文提出了基础的归因检验规则和具体的四种不同类型价格压榨检验方法。基于上述分析,对中国电信和中国联通网络接入价格歧视行为反垄断审查的结构条件和归因检验进行了分析,并认为不合理接入管制政策是价格压榨长期存在的重要原因。     

The Profit-Structure Relationship in Legally Protected Banking Markets Using Efficiency Measures

Our various tests suggest that our sample banks that are shielded from competition by severe intrastate branching restrictions have market power. This analysis has allowed us to test rigorously the adverse effects of legal and possibly market barriers to entry. We reject the notion that profits are a result of superior $x$-efficiency. We conclude if these results are corroborated by further research (e.g., using other measures of profit, efficiency, capital, etc), and if these and/or other barriers remain, the Federal Reserve should be concerned with the competitive impacts of rural, in-market bank mergers.     

Product innovation in food processing—a Swedish survey

Abstract: Product development strategies in 20 major Swedish food processing companies are described and evaluated both from a company and a consumer point of view. Three types of company outcomes are focused on, technological, market and commercial success. Company variables related to success are size, ownership and research intensity. Strategic variables analyzed in relation to success are technology use, R and D cooperation and marketing. Consumer outcome is studied in terms of price differences, convenience, taste, nutritional benefit and medical value. As in previous studies carried out in the same research programme in more research and technology intensive industries, cooperating with the outside research environment and combining technologies is shown to be clearly associated with success in finding and developing new products. With regard to consumer outcome, convenience and taste differences are the most common attributes of new food products, differentiating them from existing products.     

An experimental test of automatic mitigation of wholesale electricity prices

In several major deregulated electricity generation markets, the market operator uses an “automatic mitigation procedure” (AMP) to attempt to suppress the exercise of market power. A leading type of AMP compares the offer price from each generation unit with a recent historical average of accepted offer prices from that same unit during periods when there was no transmission-system congestion to impede competition. If one or more units' offer prices exceed the recent historical average by more than a specified margin, and if these offer prices raise the market-clearing price by more than a specified margin, the market operator replaces the offending offer prices with lower ones. In an experiment, we test an AMP of this type. We find that it keeps market prices close to marginal cost if generation owners have low market power in uncongested periods. However, with high market power in uncongested periods, a condition that may apply in many parts of the world, the generation owners are able to gradually raise the market price well above short-run marginal cost in spite of the AMP. We also test the effect of the AMP on the frequency with which high-variable-cost units are used, inefficiently, in place of low-variable-cost units.     

The impact of product market competition on corporate environmental responsibility

Although the mainstream of current thinking in the business literature recognizes that firms should invest in environmental responsibility, the theory on how product market competition affects firms’ environmental responsibility remains undeveloped. Using cost-benefit analysis, we hypothesize that the relationship between product market competition (i.e., differential industry-level competition and heterogeneous firm-level market power) and corporate environmental responsibility (CER) will be curvilinear. We find support for this hypothesis through an empirical test on a panel of 792 listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. The results show that (1) either too much or too little industrial competition and (2) either too much or too little firm-level market power lead to lower environmental responsibility. Our results reveal that CER is strategically chosen and related to competitive situations.     

The Survival of New Products

We study the survival of new products in a market with horizontal product differentiation and rapid product turnover. Our data set consists of monthly sales for all new products in the Swedish beer market during 1989–1995. Results show that products with low and decreasing market shares have high hazard rates. The hazard rates are also dependent on firm characteristics; products from firms with the largest market shares face a greater risk of being withdrawn. We argue that high hazard rates of new products can help to explain high failure rates of new firms.     

Why Do Vacant Houses Sell for Less: Holding Costs,Bargaining Power or Stigma?

This article introduces Nash bargaining into a search model to identify various channels through which vacancy affects selling price and liquidity in the resale market for houses. The model shows the various vacancy effects in the form of greater seller holding cost, lower seller bargaining power and unobserved negative attributes or stigma. We use a 20‐year data series on house transactions to test for these effects in a simultaneous model of price and liquidity, using the long data series to allow for variation across market phases. The robust vacancy effects on price and liquidity across all market phases primarily reflect greater seller holding cost and diminished bargaining power. Repeatedly, vacant houses also exhibit significant stigma effects in the rising market but not in stable or declining market phases. At the same time, vacant houses enjoy stronger shopping externality effects from surrounding houses for sale than do their occupied counterparts.     

再论中国地方政府主导型市场经济

本文着重研究以强烈扩张冲动为主要特征的中国地方政府主导型市场经济。笔者将企业经营者个人控制权理论运用于地方官员，认为官员个人控制权扩张有三条途径，而中国目前地方官员主要运用横向扩张途径以获得自我晋升。中国地方政府强烈的扩张冲动，不同于西方的地方自治和中外历史上的封建诸侯，而是产生于以下全部的必要条件和充分条件：在中国初期市场经济②的特定条件下，必要条件是地方官员横向扩张个人控制权特别强劲的动力，充分条件是地方资源完全的“内公外私”产权③与公共选择制度两者约束的显著失效。