Cost savings in unit-based pricing of household waste: The case of The Netherlands

We estimate the effects of four unit-based pricing systems on waste collected in Dutch municipalities. Unit-based pricing is shown to be effective in reducing unsorted and compostable waste and in stimulating recyclable waste. If the estimations are corrected for differences in environmental activism between municipalities the effects are still large but significantly lower. The bag- and weight-based systems perform equally and far better compared with the frequency- and volume-based systems. This is interesting, as administrative costs are significantly lower for the bag-based system. Finally, unit-based pricing has no effect on the amounts of waste collected in surrounding municipalities.     

Environmental protection mechanisms and technological dynamics

The paper proposes a new financial mechanism that could be implemented to protect the environment of a tourist region. For this purpose, we investigate the potential consequences of two financial activities, issued by the local government (G) of a region R, which work like contracts between G and, respectively, visitors of R and firms operating in R. According to these contracts, agents who decide to visit R (firms that decide to adopt an environmental friendly technology) have to buy an option that entitle them to get a partial or total reimbursement if environmental quality in R turns out to be sufficiently low (high), namely, below (above) a given predetermined threshold level.     

Environmental sustainability, nonlinear dynamics and chaos

Summary. This paper studies the possibility of nonlinear dynamics in a simple overlapping generations model with the environment – the John-Pecchenino (1994) model. We show that if people's concerns towards greener preferences and the maintenance efficiency relative to degradation are not sufficiently high, cyclically or chaotically fluctuating equilibria are more likely to exist; moreover, under a specific condition, a complicated topological structure might emerge. Our short-run analysis complements John and Pecchenino's long-run analysis and our findings suggest that the associated transition towards an environmentally sustainable state is not trivial. Received: September 10, 1996; revised version: October 2, 1997     

Regulated versus negotiated access pricing in vertically separated railway systems

Journal of Regulatory Economics - We revisit Stigler and Friedland’s (J Law Econ 5:1–16, 1962) seminal paper by examining how competitive generation affects prices, sustainability, and...     

Habit formation in state-dependent pricing models: Implications for the dynamics of output and prices

This paper examines the role of habit formation in a standard state-dependent pricing (SDP) model. Incorporating habit formation helps the SDP model to generate hump-shaped and more persistent output responses under a monetary shock. More importantly, incorporating habit formation causes dramatic changes in firm-level pricing behaviors and, as a result, the aggregate price index.     

软件产品定价的常见问题及定价策略

本篇文章首先对软件产品定价方式进行阐述,从定价模式问题、价格变动问题、定价针对性问题等多个方面,对软件产品定价的常见问题进行分析,并以此为依据,提出软件产品定价策略。     

Modeling economic and agro-environmental dynamics of potato production systems

Crop rotation and other input management practices are of particular interest for their potential impacts on economic and agro-environmental components of potato production. Although crop yield and experimental impacts of rotations of grains, oilseed and legume crops have been published for several experimental studies in Canada there are few models related to the economic and environmental dynamics of potato production. We describe a dynamic model which integrates environmental and economic processes in potato production. The potato rotation model consists of interconnected modules of irrigation and precipitation, soil characteristics, soil erosion, soil water, phosphorus, nitrogen, soil organic matter, farming operations, crop yield and the related calculation of economic return. While not all aspects of crop production have been interlinked, including nitrogen carry-over, this model is the first step in the analysis of experimental data for irrigated potato rotations conducted in southern Manitoba.      

Empirical demand systems incorporating intertemporal consumption dynamics

This article presents and estimates demand systems by explicitly incorporating intertemporal consumption behavior as summarized by the Euler equation. Demand systems are characterized by two indirect utility functions which are effectively globally regular and can better approximate nonlinear Engel curves. Furthermore, an exact and nonlinear Euler equation is derived without a log approximation. This equation is estimated jointly with the demand functions by a careful implementation of the orthogonality conditions using generalized method of moments. We illustrate the techniques by estimating the demand system and Euler equation for Australian aggregate data. Results generally indicate that the proposed methods are promising. The estimated rate of time preference is fairly small while the restrictions producing the moment equations are not rejected. Estimated Frisch price elasticities, which are relevant in an intertemporal setting, appear reasonable, and the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for consumption is found to be small, which are consistent with the findings in earlier studies.     

A study of political activism in labour courts

We analyse 1234 judicial decisions to estimate political activism amongst judges arbitrating dismissal disputes in Australian labour courts. The political colour of the appointing political party and judges’ work background affect probability of employee success by about 10% points.     

Loss-leader pricing and upgrades

A new theory of loss-leader pricing is provided in which firms advertise low (below cost) prices for certain goods to signal that their other unadvertised (substitute) goods are not priced too high. The theory is applied to the pricing of upgrades. The results contrast with most existing loss-leader theories in that firms make a loss on some consumers (who buy the basic version of the good) and a profit on others (who buy the upgrade).     

Cointegration relationships and hedonic pricing of differentiated commodities: an application to price dynamics in the US dairy sector

This study investigates the implications of hedonic pricing for price dynamics of differentiated commodities. A conceptual model of hedonic pricing is developed under a Leontief technology, showing how commodity prices reflect the underlying value of their components. Implications for the existence of cointegration relationships among commodity prices are derived. An application to the pricing and dynamics of selected US dairy commodities is presented. It provides evidence on the role of component valuation in the dynamics of dairy commodity prices in the short run as well as in the long run. Distinguishing between market regime and government regime (when the government price support is active), the analysis finds significant differences in dairy price dynamics between the two regimes.     

The impact of provincial marketing boards on price relations and pricing dynamics in the North American slaughter hog market

Canadian Provincial hog marketing boards act as sales agents for hog producers. The hypothesis that the introduction of marketing boards in Alberta. Manitoba and Saskatchewan between 1969 and 1972 created seller side market power is tested and supported:their hog prices rose to levels comparable to Ontario where a marketing board had been in place. Organized sellers can also influence pricing dynamics because of the linked spatial oligopsonistic nature of the hog packing industry. Cointegration tests and variance decompositions indicate that establishing boards in the surplus producing western provinces made them relatively less isolated from pricing innovations in deficit producing eastern Canada.     

我国机构投资者参与公司治理可行性分析

近年来,政府监管部门出台了一系列促进机构投资发展政策和措施,使机构投资者得到了巨大的发展。但人们对机构投资者参与公司治理可行性的争议持续不断。压力不敏感型机构投资者队伍的壮大、股权分置改革的推进以及价值投资理念的形成,都使得机构投资者参与公司治理具备了初步条件。     

Non-parametric and semi-parametric asset pricing

We find that the CAPM fails to explain the small firm effect even if its non-parametric form is used which allows time-varying risk and non-linearity in the pricing function. Furthermore, the linearity of the CAPM can be rejected, thus the widely used risk and performance measures, the beta and the alpha, are biased and inconsistent. We deduce semi-parametric measures which are non-constant under extreme market conditions in a single factor setting; on the other hand, they are not significantly different from the linear estimates of the Fama-French three-factor model. If we extend the single factor model with the Fama-French factors, the simple linear model is able to explain the US stock returns correctly.     

Range effects and lottery pricing

A standard method to elicit certainty equivalents is the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) procedure. We compare the standard BDM procedure and a BDM procedure with a restricted range of minimum selling prices that an individual can state. We find that elicited prices are systematically affected by the range of feasible minimum selling prices. Expected utility theory cannot explain these results. Non-expected utility theories can only explain the results if subjects consider compound lotteries generated by the BDM procedure. We present an alternative explanation where subjects sequentially compare the lottery to monetary amounts in order to determine their minimum selling price. The model offers a formal explanation for range effects and for the underweighting of small and the overweighting of large probabilities.     

Natural monopoly and differential pricing

Under uniform pricing a monopolist cannot make a positive profit in equilibrium. I analyze how differential pricing can be exploited by a natural monopolist to deter entry when entry is costless. In a two-stage game with price competition before quantity competition I show that the incumbent firm can deter entry and make a positive profit in equilibrium. The incumbent sets two different prices, the low price to deter entry and the high price to generate profit. Entry is not possible because of scale effects. If dumping is allowed for all firms no positive profits are realizable, but welfare is reduced. I show that for some parameter values the incumbent is forced to engage in a stunt (i.e., set a negative low price) to keep entrants out.     

Entry and pricing on Broadway

This article investigates the pricing decisions of Broadway shows. We find evidence that incumbent Broadway shows lower prices several weeks prior to the opening of a new show. In addition, prices are lower when the threat of competition, due to more entrants, is larger. A decomposition suggests that prices are more important than quantities for changes in revenue prior to entry and that this pattern reverses after entry occurs.     

Non-linear pricing and the exclusion of consumers

We show that a monopolist practicing non-linear pricing may wish not to sell to an arbitrarily large fraction of the potential market (where this fraction is measured either in terms of the number of consumers, or of profits foregone if he were constrained to price linearly) in order to better discriminate among the remainder.     

Dynamic demand and noncompetitive pricing strategies

This paper studies optimal noncompetitive pricing strategies when the evolution of demand is the result of intertemporal considerations. Two different hypotheses of price expectations (myopia and perfect foresight) are treated. The major implication is that the slight modification from an instantaneous to a very fast consumer reaction may completely modify a monopolist's price strategy. More precisely, the price strategy should be volatile if the equilibrium demand is convex, independent whether the consumers act myopically or employ rational expectations. On the other hand, asynchronous dynamics (e.g., due to competitive fringe supply or different segments of demand) cannot explain even damped price oscillations. The equilibrium price strategy of the noncompetitive supplier exceeds the static rule if consumers employ myopic expectations; rational expectations may lead to prices above or below the static rule depending on the rate of discount.I am grateful for the helpful and elaborate comments from three anonymous referees.