A measurement of the welfare loss in the terminal equiphint makket

This arlicie allempts to estimate the wellare loss in the terminal equipment market due to the existence of monopoly power and entry barriers. The welfare loss consists of two parts, one due to price above marginal cost, and the second due to product voids. By using certain upper and lower bound measurements, we obtain an estimate of the minimum welfare loss of $35 million and a maximum welfare loss of $639 million for a one year time period.     

The welfare loss due to strategic investment in excess capacity

This paper explores a linear model of excess capacity as a barrier to entry. The resultant welfare cost is compared with that of a simple monopolist who does not face an entry threat. The threat of entry may actually reduce social welfare when potential consumer surplus is high. Economies of scale have a non-linear effect, reducing social cost if there is exces capacity, but having the opposite effect when limit pricing is optimal. Empirical measures of the social cost of monopoly power are found to be poor proxies in the presence of strategic behaviour.     

An equilibrium approach to international merger policy

I treat international merger policy as a repeated veto game. I show that there exists a unique efficient equilibrium within a particular class of trigger strategy equilibria. I then consider a series of comparative statics and extensions: (a) if for some exogenous reason one of the countries becomes more lenient towards mergers, than the other country becomes more lenient as well; (b) merger remedies increase the probability that a merger is approved and increase total welfare; (c) the effects of a merger wave are magnified by the equilibrium approval policy.     

Regulatory decision errors,Legal Uncertainty and welfare: A general treatment

We provide a general treatment of the implications for welfare of various sources of legal uncertainty facing agents about the decisions made by a regulatory authority. We distinguish the legal uncertainty from the decision errors made by the authority. While an increase in decision errors will always reduce welfare, for any given level of decision errors, information structures involving more legal uncertainty can improve welfare. This holds always when sanctions are set at their optimal level. This transforms radically one's perception about the “costs” of legal uncertainty. We also provide general proofs for two results, previously established under restrictive assumptions.     

The political economy of monopoly and competition: A critique of monopoly and stagnation theory

This paper examines critically the Kaleckian theory of monopoly capitalism proposed by Cowling (1982). The supply side of the model is shown to be incapable of providing an aggregate degree of monopoly and the neglect of inter-sectoral competition is highlighted. On the demand side, there is little indication of the source of stagnationary tendencies; it is the emphasis on collusion over conflict which underpins stagnation. The model is characterised by its emphasis on distribution and exchange at the expense of production relations, and is an inadequate representation of ‘monopoly capitalism’.     

电力工业从垄断到竞争的结构演变

介绍了与经济思潮的交替更迭相适应,在规制(垄断)与竞争的选择上,西方发达国家的经济政策经历了从强调市场失败与规制到强调规制失败与放松规制再到强调再规制的历史演变,以及与经济生活中规制(垄断)与竞争政策交替更迭的过程相适应,电力工业结构正在经历类似的演变过程。受这种规律的启发,在当今电力工业引入竞争的改革后,很可能在今后再出现强化垄断(规制)的改革。     

Measuring the consumer benefits of improving farm animal welfare to inform welfare labelling

Policy makers in the European Union are envisioning the introduction of a community farm animal welfare label which would allow consumers to align their consumption habits with their farm animal welfare preferences. For welfare labelling to be viable the market for livestock products produced to higher welfare standards has to be sufficiently segmented with consumers having sufficiently distinct and behaviourally consistent preferences. The present study investigates consumers’ preferences for meat produced to different welfare standards using a hypothetical welfare score. Data is obtained from a contingent valuation study carried out in Britain. The ordered probit model was estimated using Bayesian inference to obtain mean willingness to pay. We find decreasing marginal WTP as animal welfare levels increase and that people’s preferences for different levels of farm animal welfare are sufficiently differentiated making the introduction of a labelling scheme in the form of a certified rating system appear feasible.     

Facility risk review as an approach to prioritizing loss prevention efforts

In large, complex facilities such as refineries and chemical facilities, it is difficult to identify and compare the risks from many different threats to personnel and production activities. Such a comparison, however, is worthwhile because managers can use this information in allocating limited loss prevention resources. A facility risk review (FRR), as described in this paper, is an effective means of identifying and ranking risks in a facility.     

Biases in self-reported food insecurity measurement: A list experiment approach

Measuring the incidence and intensity of food insecurity has long been a challenge due to its conceptual and practical complexity. Several scholars have proposed objective and subjective measurements to monitor or evaluate food in(security) programs. While the objective measurements such as food caloric intake and food expenditure are data demanding and costly, the subjective measurements such as experience-based food insecurity scales that use direct responses to food shortage questions can be prone to biases and misreporting due to respondents’ unobservable economic and social desirability concerns. This paper reports the biases when food shortage is asked through direct questions and indirect interviews using a list experiment approach—an approach widely used to elicit the true responses of respondents for a sensitive question. The list experiment was conducted on four selected self-reported food insecurity survey questions which represent both the availability (incidence) and access (intensity) dimensions of food security. The sample households were drawn from two districts in Northern Ethiopia where households are chronically food insecure and several projects have been implemented. The results indicate the existence of significant bias in self-reported food insecurity responses when implemented through direct interviews. The results also show that the biases, particularly the ones related to incidence questions, have led to erroneous conclusion about the impact of a food security program—the Ethiopian Household Asset Building (HAB) program. Based on the findings, the paper highlights possible options and precautionary actions for measuring food insecurity using self-reported questions.     

Assessing the economic costs of a foot and mouth disease outbreak on Brittany: A dynamic computable general equilibrium analysis

Outbreaks of animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) are of great concern for agriculture. In this paper, we quantify the potential dynamic impacts of such a disease on Brittany, a French region with an important livestock sector. In order to do this, we develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium model that allows us to measure the impacts on the livestock sectors and downstream food industries. We study the impacts of a FMD outbreak including the culling infected animals, a temporary decline in demand, and restrictions on movements of live animals and meats during the FMD outbreak period.Our results show that economic losses following this disease are spread over many periods even with a one-time shock. We also find that the impacts on the various primary sectors and downstream food sectors are quite different, depending on their initial trade position. Our general equilibrium results show the great incidence of potential constraints affecting factor markets. Capital and wage constraints severely increase the aggregate costs of such disease. These results challenge the definition of a simple efficient management policy for this disease.     

A welfare measure of consumer vulnerability to rising prices of food imports in the UAE

The recent and expected continuing rise in food prices has re-ignited concern and discussion in the United Arab Emirates about the country’s vulnerability to food supply shocks. Defining vulnerability as the compensating variation relative to household income, we find that although UAE households in the lowest income quintile spend on food on average less than a quarter of what households in the highest income quintile spend, the former are 3.5 times more vulnerable to rising prices of food imports than the latter.     

Does food aid have disincentive effects on local production? A general equilibrium perspective on food aid in Ethiopia

This paper examined impacts of food aid on domestic food production employing a computable general equilibrium modelling technique and using data from Ethiopia. The simulation experiments have shown that food aid has unambiguous disincentive effects on domestic food production. The removal of food aid caused a modest increase in food prices but this stimulated food production. Employment and income generation effects of the latter outweighed the adverse effect of the former. Consequently, the removal of food aid led to improvements in aggregate household welfare. Contrary to some concerns in the food aid literature that any reduction in food aid would hurt the poor, the simulation experiments suggested that actually poor rural households and urban wage earners are the ones who benefit most in absence of food aid but entrepreneurs are more likely to encounter a marginal welfare decline. We have distinguished between in-kind food aid and cash equivalent transfers in order to isolate the disincentives that in-kind transfers would make to domestic production from those that are related to household purchasing power problem. The expansionary effect of removing food aid becomes significantly larger when it is accompanied by cash equivalent payments because the latter would provide demand side stimulus to agriculture while the removal of in-kind transfers would stimulate supply side, with the supply and demand side effects reinforcing each other. In our modelling framework, the only adverse effect would be a modest deterioration in the external current account, because the expansionary effects of food aid would cause imports to rise but exports to fall.     

Preemptive rent seeking and the social cost of monopoly power

Monopoly power evokes rent seeking aimed at supplanting an incumbent monopolist as well as preemptive rent seeking by incumbents concerned with deterring entry of potential competitors. Using an illustrative example where preemptive rent seeking takes the form of excess capacity, this note makes the point that the relation between the value of resources expended in the two types of rent-seeking activity determines whether exposure of an incumbent monopolist to the discipline of potential competition reduces the social cost of monopoly power.     

A project-based approach to competitive analysis

While comprehensive, ongoing competitive intelligence systems generate valuable input for broad strategic decisions, they often fail to provide the specific actionable information needed by managers operating in a project-oriented environment. This paper proposes a project-based framework for competitive analysis. The framework was developed from field reseach involving 16 projects. A comparison of project-based and comprehensive competitive analysis systems is made to illustrate their differences. A case example from field research is utilized to illustrate concepts central to this approach and its practical utility. A set of guidelines regarding pitfalls to avoid in project-based competitive analysis is presented.     

A systematic approach to technological forecasting

Past attempts to rationalize the many methods of technological forecasting have not been sufficiently practical; they have largely been based on an abstract sort of classification while their use has been of an ad hoc nature. This paper reviews the position and puts forward a rationale leading to a more logical classification of methods and a systematic approach to their use in practice. The proposed classification and systematic use of the many methods is based on the concept that a technological forecast has four prime elements or dimensions, qualitative, quantitative, time and probability. Only when all these elements are provided can a technological forecast be responsibly used in decision making in R & D and corporate planning.