Labour Hoarding, Price Rigidity and the Theory of Imperfect Competition under Uncertain Demand

It is shown that a monopolistic firm under uncertainty may be inclined to keep some of its output unsold when demand is low. This gives rise to changes in conventional results. Under uncertainty, a risk-neutral monopolistic firm produces more than in a deterministic environment and it refuses to sell its total output when demand is low, because the marginal revenue could become negative or lower than the cost of selling the product. Moreover, in this framework, prices are shown to be more rigid downwards than upwards. The model also provides a new explanation for labour hoarding.
JEL classification : D 24; D 42     

Price response,information, and asymmetry of price dispersion

In this study, we examine how differently gasoline prices in 25 regions of Seoul, Korea respond to asymmetric information between retailers and consumers. We estimate the region-specific likelihood that retailers engage in price undercutting under asymmetric information and investigate inter-regional differences. We find that in response to increases in wholesale price, regions with a high likelihood of price undercutting experience intensified gas station price competition while dispersions of price and markups tend to decrease more in response to cost shocks. Understanding the geographical dispersion of retailers’ price responses to information frictions and search intensity is crucial to lowering information barriers across regions and redistributing profit among market participants.     

均衡价格--动态市场价格的形成与变化趋势

本介绍了用来模拟动态市场价格的微分方程模型，此模型反映了价格对需求与供给的影响，而需求与供给反过来又影响价格确定的过程，并说明了均衡价格是市场价格的最终变化趋势，并用蛛网理论对产量和价格的波动进行了分析。     

Ambiguous Social Welfare Effects of Price Regulation Under Imperfect Competition

Conventional wisdom is that a binding price ceiling increases output and so increases social welfare if imposed on an imperfectly competitive market. However, this paper shows that a price ceiling can be harmful to social welfare even though it increases industry output and consumer surplus. This model can be applied to the pharmaceutical industry under price control in many countries, e.g., U.K., Canada, Germany and Japan.     

Theory Analysis of Model for Price Fluctuations in a Single Commodity Market

The price model for a single commodity market is a very important economic model that describes the basic rules for price fluctuations in a single commodity market. In this paper, we investigated the general case for the model, and proved that every positive solution is bounded and we obtained a necessary and sufficient condition for oscillation of every positive solution concerning positive state solution.     

Price Competition Between Teams

This study uses an experimental approach to examine whether markets are sensitive to the internal incentive structure of the competitors. Toward this goal, we modeled the competitors in a price competition duopoly game as three-player teams. Each player simultaneously declares a bid (price) and the team whose total bid was lower won the competition and was paid accordingly. The losing team was paid nothing, and in case of a tie, each team was paid half its price. This duopoly game was studied under two conditions; a cooperative treatment in which the team's profit was divided equally amongst its members and a non-cooperative one in which each individual member was paid her own bid. Whereas the Nash equilibrium is for each player in either treatment to demand the minimal price possible, we predicted that convergence to the competitive price would be much faster in the cooperative treatment than in the non-cooperative one. The experimental results firmly confirmed this prediction.     

易发生价格竞争的产业特征及企业策略

价格竞争已是我国企业惯常采用的策略行为。本文以彩电行业为例 ,从产品特征、产业生命周期等 6大方面揭示了易发生价格竞争的产业特征 ,提出产业内企业可行的价格战应对策略 ,其结论具有一般性 ,并为预测价格战的发生提供了微观基础。     

Competition and Price Dispersion in International Long-distance Calling

This paper examines the relationship between changes in telecommunications provider competition on international long-distance routes and changes in prices. Overall, increased competition is associated with significantly lower prices to consumers of long-distance services. However, the relationship between competition and price varies according to the type of long-distance plan considered. For the plans frequently selected by price-conscious consumers, increased competition on a route is associated with lower prices. In contrast, for the basic international plans that are the default selection for consumers, increased competition on a route is actually associated with higher prices. Thus price dispersion appears to increase as competition increases. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of the OECD. I thank two anonymous referees, Joe Farrell, John Harkrider, Jim Lande, Bob Majure, Carl Willner and seminar participants at the FCC for their helpful comments. Special thanks for aid with data to Linda Blake, Mark Uretsky, Jim Lande, R.L. Smith and Carl Willner.     

企业降价与总收益关系的新认识

随着环境的变化,企业有时候要调低产品价格。本文针对一些企业错误地应用关于降价与总收益关系的传统结论的现象,结合数学和经济学,提出了很多命题,对降价与总收益之间的关系揭示得很清楚,对于传统的需求价格弹性理论关于降价与总收益之间关系的不完全准确认识的一种修正,也是对需求价格弹性理论应用的拓展;且本文分别用图形形象地表示出降价与总收益之间的关系,结合企业在调低价格后给予一定的指导——企业降价后还要进行跟踪调查、还要根据效果采取相应措施、要关注客户需求量的变化、降价不是拍脑袋的事情,这具有一定的现实意义。     

煤电关系与电力"软短缺":一个产量约束模型

构建了一个具有产量约束的伯特兰价格竞争模型来研究中国电力短缺的问题,模型结论表明,即使在电力企业装机容量充足的情况下,由于煤炭产量的约束,电力需求的外生冲击仍有可能导致电力“软短缺”。同时,本文进一步探讨了旨在解决煤电矛盾的煤电一体化和煤电价格联动问题,认为这些措施只能暂时缓解煤电关系紧张和电力“软短缺”的问题,这些问题的解决需要进一步深化电力体制改革。     

我国航空运输服务业的市场结构及价格竞争策略分析

我国航空运输服务业从宏观上分析具有寡头垄断的市场结构特点,从航线运营的角度分析却具有垄断竞争的特点,因此我国航空运输服务市场还处在重要的发展变革阶段。在我国空运市场特定的经济环境下,旅客的购买决策受到多种因素的影响,航空公司的价格竞争主要表现为不同价格的子舱位数量的决策,并且具有复杂的价格体系。在同一航线上经营的不同企业一方面要针对价格需求弹性大和时间需求弹性大的旅客采取强硬的价格竞争策略;另一方面也要注重差异化价格竞争策略, 避免恶性竞争的发生。     

物价稳定与房价：货币政策视角

住房价格变化是货币政策需要关注的重要指标。本文在梳理现有文献的基础上,研究了物价稳定与房价变动的关系,发现房价是物价变动的重要原因,而M1和贷款利率是房价变动的格兰杰原因。通过进一步建立结构性VAR模型,我们发现房价受到贷款利率影响最大,而物价受到货币供应量的影响最大。针对房价与物价变动的三个场景可以采取不同的货币政策操作：1、房价过快增长,物价保持稳定。此时为了避免房价对未来物价的冲击,又不影响到当前物价的稳定,可以提高贷款利率,并保持相对宽松的货币供给以对冲房价下跌对物价的不利影响,达到抑制房价而不影响物价的效果。2、房价和物价双双过快增长。此时,应调整贷款利率、准备金率和货币供应量,三管齐下加以治理。3、物价过快增长,而房价较为稳定。为了避免打压房价,可以不调整贷款利率、准备金率,仅控制货币供应量。     

Price discrimination and price dispersion in a duopoly

This paper analyses the problem of price discrimination in a market where consumers have heterogeneous preferences both over a horizontal parameter (brand) and a vertical one (quality). Discriminatory contracts are characterized for different market structures. It is shown that price dispersion, i.e. the observed range of prices for each class of customers, increases almost everywhere as competition is introduced in the market.     

中美小麦期货价格与现货价格传递关系的比较研究

为研究我国小麦期货市场价格发现功能的发挥程度及此功能对现货市场价格的影响,本文运用Johansen协整检验、误差修正模型、脉冲响应函数和方差分解等对中美小麦期货与现货价格传递关系进行了实证研究。结果显示：中美两国国内小麦期货与现货价格之间均存在明显的双向引导关系和长期均衡关系;我国小麦期货价格和现货价格对一个标准差信息冲击的反应均稍强于美国;我国小麦期货市场价格发现功能的发挥程度要优于美国。     

Codetermination,Price Competition and the Network Industry

This research develops a tractable two‐stage non‐cooperative game with complete information describing the behaviour of price‐setting firms that must choose to be profit maximisers or bargainers under codetermination in a network industry with horizontal product differentiation. The existing theoretical literature has already shown that codetermination might arise as the endogenous market outcome in a strategic competitive quantity‐setting duopoly. In sharp contrast with this result, the present article shows that codetermination does never emerge as a Nash equilibrium in a price‐setting non‐network duopoly. Then, it aims at highlighting the role of network externalities in determining changes of paradigm of the game and letting codetermination become a sub‐game perfect Nash equilibrium when prices are strategic substitutes or strategic complements. This equilibrium may be Pareto efficient. Results allow distinguishing between mandatory codetermination and voluntary codetermination. The article also proposes a model of endogenous codetermination according to which every firm may choose to bargain with its own corresponding union bargaining unit only whether the firm's bargaining strength is exactly the profit‐maximising one. The equilibrium outcomes emerging in this case range from a uniform Nash equilibrium, in which both firms are codetermined, to mixed Nash equilibria, in which only one of them chooses to be codetermined. These results are ‘network depending’ and do not hold in a non‐network duopoly.     

Spatial Competition and Lowest Price Commitment

This paper suggests that credibly committing to the strictly lowest price can be profitable and self-fulfilling in a spatial price competition. Consumers live in multiple residential zones. Each zone has a store. Consumers incur heterogeneous transportation costs moving between two zones. When there is one store credibly committing to the strictly lowest price, there is a pure strategy equilibrium in which a discount store directly competes with all other stores. The discount store offers the lowest price, takes the largest market share, and makes more profits than the other stores. Moreover, the low price commitment is not binding in equilibrium, which implies that the commitment is self-fulfilling.     

非完全竞争市场假设在CGE模型中的引入及应用

通过对部门生产函数及相关参数、系数的改造,将非完全竞争市场条件引入CGE模型,并模拟在完全竞争与不完全竞争两个不同市场结构下国际油价上升对我国经济的影响.结果表明,当油品市场设定为不完全竞争时,面对国际油价上升的冲击,GDP下降的程度大于完全竞争的情况.因此随着油品市场逐渐开放,油品市场的产出增加,可以增强我国石油产业和总体经济应对国际油价上升冲击的能力,应继续推动我国石油产业市场自由化的进程.     

Inflation, Deflation and Normal Price Adjustment

This paper thinks that the price of a commodity depends on both the value of the commodity and that of the currency. The change in either value will cause the change of the price of the commodity. Only the price rising caused by the decreasing of the currency value can be called inflation, and the price rising led by the increasing of the value of the merchandise can not be called inflation. Therefore, it is not proper, as defined by the modem economics, to think that any price increasing should be in general called inflation.     

我国房价与地价关系的动态研究

在ECM模型的基础上,结合方差分解方法实证分析了我国房价与地价之间的关系。研究结果表明:房价与地价两者之间存在着双向Granger因果关系;房价与地价不论在长期还是在短期都相互影响,但是房价对地价的影响大于地价对房价的影响,且运用方差分解的方法也得到相同的结果,这就说明在房价与地价的关系中,房价对地价的影响比较大。     

转移成本、价格歧视与银行竞争——基于霍特林模型的实证分析

在银行业竞争中,转移成本能够锁定消费者,使银行能够对锁定的消费者定一个较高的价格,但是,转移成本也使银行对没有被锁定的消费者的竞争更加激烈。研究发现,转移成本的存在增加了银行的利润,并且转移成本越高,银行从信贷中获得的利润越高。但是,当存在存款市场和贷款市场竞争时,由于价格歧视的存在,银行的利润随着转移成本的增加而降低,转移成本没有给银行带来优势。