The Borrower's Choice of Fixed and Adjustable Rate Mortgages in the Presence of Nominal and Real Shocks

This paper concerns the conditions under which borrowers select fixed and adjustable rate mortgages. The novelty of the paper lies in its capability to analyze the effect of nominal and real shocks separately. The fixed rate mortgage (FRM) versus the adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) choice is determined by the expected real interest rate differential, initial wealth, income, expected real and nominal income risk exposure—measured by different parameters—the value of the house, the appreciation of the house and the influence of the variance of nominal and real shocks. Results differ according to whether or not borrowers are restricted by the loan-to-value constraint.     

Efficiency and Firm Ownership: Some New Evidence

The paper investigates the effect of state ownership on efficiency of firmsusing an econometric model that allows for the separation of technical from allocative efficiency in adynamic setting. The estimation results, based on a sample of international airlines, suggest that state ownershipis associated with lower technical and allocative efficiency. State ownership's effect on technical efficiencyis mainly a dynamic one – lowering the rate of cost decline, whereas its effect on allocativeefficiency is static – raising the level of costs. Thus lower technical, rather than allocative, efficiency isthe main reason for state-owned firms to be less efficient than their private counterparts.     

Barriers to Mobility in Europe's Civil Aviation Markets: Theory and New Evidence

A questionnaire-based survey is applied to investigate the perception of mobilitybarriers by European airline managers. Whilst the liberalisation of Europe's airline markets removed regulatory mobility barriers, we find that mobility impediments still appear to exist. Potential entrants moreover, perceive some mobility barriers as significantly more effective than others. The perceived effectiveness of a particular mobility barrier varies considerably among airline managers. We also provide an overview of previous studies on the contestability hypothesis and the effectiveness of endogenous (strategic) mobility barriers. Our results support earlier findings for the U.S. to the effect that barriers to mobility are perceived to exist and matter. Whilst our results are clearly subjective, as they are based on the perceptions of managers, we believe such perceptions matter as they inform managerial actions. In this sensewe believe our results are of value.     

The Small Firm in a Quantity Choosing Game: Some Experimental Evidence

We demonstrate with a grim trigger strategy that the small firm should be more willing to collude tacitly as its market share declines; large firms should be less willing to cooperate. The small firm is not a maverick. The intensity of rivalry between two firms with asymmetric market shares is studied in experimental markets. Treatments give duopolists (1) 50% shares, (2) a 60 or 40% share, and (3) an 80 or 20% share. Choices for the small firm in the latter treatments are not significantly larger than the collusive choice. Irrespective of relative size, firms in all three market environments exhibit collusive behavior.     

Apprenticeship Training and Day Release in UK Engineering: Some Cross-sectional Evidence

Cross-sectional evidence is presented on the determinants of the number of apprentices and employees on day release in a sample of UK engineering firms. Firm size, unionization, skill levels and turnover appear crucial for both measures of training.     

Competition in Local Markets: Some Evidence from the Spanish Retail Banking Market

Using the entry threshold concept developed by Bresnahan and Reiss (Brookings Pap Econ Act 3:833–882, 1987), this paper examines how competitive conditions vary in independent local banking markets when the number of depository branches grows. With data on the Spanish retail banking sector in 2003, I estimate a discrete choice model to calculate the entry thresholds. The empirical evidence suggests that the entry of a new branch implies competition on a local level. Local branches seem to have some scope for changing prices fixed on national and regional levels. Moreover, the entry of new branches increases the competition among branches with instruments other than price (e.g., advertising, location, and promotion).      

Search Costs and Price Dispersion in a Localized,Homogeneous Product Market: Some Empirical Evidence

Convenience stores provide an opportunity to compare the price dispersion that occurs for gasoline, which is characterized by relatively low search and information costs to consumers, with that of in-store items, which are characterized by relatively high search and information costs to consumers. The results obtained from this study support the hypothesis that differences in search and information costs for consumers play a significant role in explaining the observed price dispersion that occurs for homogeneous items sold at convenience stores.     

New Evidence on Gender Differences in Promotion Rates: An Empirical Analysis of a Sample of New Hires

Using a large sample of establishments drawn from the Multi‐City Study of Urban Inequality employer survey, we studied gender differences in promotion rates and in the wage gains attached to promotions. Several unique features of our data distinguish our analysis from the previous literature on this topic. First, we have information on the wage increases attached to promotions, and relatively few studies on gender differences have considered promotions and wage increases together. Second, our data include job‐specific worker performance ratings, allowing us to control for performance and ability more precisely than through commonly used skill indicators such as educational attainment or tenure. Third, in addition to standard information on occupation and industry, we have data on a number of other firm characteristics, enabling us to control for these variables while still relying on a broad, representative sample, as opposed to a single firm or a similarly narrowly defined population. Our results indicate that women have lower probabilities of promotion and expected promotion than men do but that there is essentially no gender difference in wage growth with or without promotions.     

Multiproduct Outputs and Scale Economies in Electric Power Production: Some New Estimates

The present study offers an argument, through a technical exposition, which suggests that there are cost differences inherent in serving different types of buyers in the electric utilities industry. To this end, we employ a translog joint cost function (for electricity production) with three outputs, which allows for the examination of the cost differences between wholesale and retail trade for vertically integrated, investor-owned companies in the industry. The regression estimates suggest different costs at the means, however the estimated marginal cost curve for wholesale power is not as robust as those for low-voltage and industrial power.     

EU Commission versus Volkswagen: New Evidence on Price Differentiation in the European Car Market

This paper is motivated by the large fine the EuropeanCommission imposed on Volkswagen in January 1998 forobstructing sales to foreigners. The first partdiscusses the competitive framework in which the carsector operates, especially the exclusive dealershipsystem. This is followed by a detailed examination ofthe degree of price-differentiation across nationalmarkets by 24 major manufacturers. The evidencereveals VW and Audi not to be special cases. Thisfinding implies that the Commission should reconsiderits own block exemption if it wants to establisha more competitive car market along the principles ofthe Common Market.     

Dynamic Entry and Investment in New Infrastructures: Empirical Evidence from the Fixed Broadband Industry

In the telecommunications industry, the ladder-of-investment approach claims that service-based competition (when entrants lease access to incumbents’ facilities) can serve as a “stepping stone” for facility-based entry (when entrants build their own infrastructures to provide services). In this paper, we build an empirical model that encompasses a complete ladder-of-investment, composed of three rungs: bitstream access, local loop unbundling and new access facilities. Using data from the European Commission’s “Broadband access in the EU” reports covering 15 European member states for 17 semesters, we test the ladder-of-investment hypothesis. We find no empirical support for this hypothesis, that is, for the transition from local loop unbundling to new access infrastructures, and weak empirical support for the transition from bitstream access lines to local loop unbundling. These results are robust when we take into account the migration effect, the number of access rungs, the development of broadband cable, the regulatory performance, and the evolution of local loop unbundling prices.     

The Relationship Between Outcome Uncertainties and Match Attendance: New Evidence in the National Basketball Association

This paper investigates the determinants of game-day attendance for the National Basketball Association for the 2009/2010–2011/2012 seasons. Six different measures of short-run league-level competitive balance and game uncertainty for two rivals are incorporated at the same time in a Tobit model. The results for the effect of league-level uncertainty support the hypotheses of outcome uncertainty, but the effect of game-level uncertainty does not. Closer wins by the competing teams within a league and a larger gap in terms of the point spread between two teams in the betting market lead to higher attendance.     

New institutional arrangements and standard adoption: Evidence from small-scale fruit and vegetable farmers in Thailand

GlobalGAP is the most important private standard for producers in the Thai horticultural sector concerning access to high-value markets, especially to Europe. This paper presents an analysis of GlobalGAP adoption by small-scale fruit and vegetable farmers in Thailand focusing on GlobalGAP group certification, the costs and perceived benefits of GlobalGAP adoption, and the factors influencing standard adoption. In our research area, GlobalGAP group certification has encouraged the formation of new institutional arrangements between farmers, exporters and donors. Farmers participating in a development program were organized in certification groups where the Quality Management System (QMS) was either run by the donor, by the exporter, or by farmers themselves. Results of our adoption model suggest that support by donors, exporters and public–private partnerships are vital to enable small-scale farmers to adopt the standard. Furthermore, farmers are more likely to adopt if they are better educated and more experienced, and if they have access to female family labor, improved farming technology, and information and extension services.     

制造费用计划分配率法下“制造费用”月末余额的处理

制造费用计划分配率法下"制造费用"月末有可能有余额,按照原会计准则的规定,月末编制资产负债表时,应将借方余额列入"待摊费用"项目内,将贷方余额列入"预提费用"项目内。我国新会计准则颁布后取消了"待摊费用""预提费用"会计科目,而且资产负债表上也不再列示这两个项目,本文对计划分配率法下"制造费用"账户月末余额处理提出建议。     

Buyer animosity in business to business markets: Evidence from the French nuclear tests

Academic studies of buyer reaction to unpopular political events in the country of origin of products have focused on consumer markets. This paper aims to extend Klein, Ettenson and Morris' [Klein, J., Ettenson, R., & Morris, M. (1998). The animosity model of foreign product purchase: An empirical test in the People's Republic of China. Journal of Marketing, 62(1), 89-101] concept of consumer animosity to industrial markets by comparing industrial and consumer buyer reaction to the nuclear tests conducted by France in the Pacific in the mid-1990s. It investigates whether firms in the B2B sector were affected more than those in B2C markets, whether entry mode was significant, and examines the way in which firms in the two market sectors responded. The results show that buyer animosity was less pronounced in industrial than in consumer markets. They also show that entry mode can influence the experience of animosity.