Asymmetric Adjustment Costs, Asymmetric Pricing and Employment: Evidence from the UK

This paper uses an asymmetric multivariate model to investigate asymmetries in employment and pricing behaviour by firms. This generalises the approach of Granger and Lee (1989) and also exploits the cross equation restrictions on the equations for prices and employment implied by a restricted cost function—the dual to a Cobb‐Douglas production function. Our results suggest that both prices and employment respond asymmetrically to shocks to costs and demand.     

Optimal Control of Upstream Pollution under Asymmetric Information

This paper derives optimal bribes to reduce upstream transfrontieremissions in the presence of asymmetric information on the polluter'sconcern for the environment. In a model in which the starting point forthe negotiations on emission reduction is a Cournot-Nash equilibrium, itis shown that transfers from the victim induce the polluting country toexaggerate its concern for the environment. As a consequence, in thesecond best solution, abatement of all but the least caring type isdistorted downward and optimal bribes may be such that more caring typesturn them down. These results are in sharp contrast to earlier policyproposals derived for a non-equilibrium starting point. They indicatethat under asymmetric information the binding incentive problem is toprevent the polluting country from claiming not to care about theenvironment and that optimal bribes from the victim should be restrictedto sufficiently environmentally concerned polluters.     

Fixed and Sunk Costs Revisited

The authors attempt to clarify the concepts of, and the link between, fixed costs and sunk costs. They argue that the root for possible confusion between fixed costs and sunk costs is the inconsistency in defining the term fixed costs. They define fixed costs uniformly as the costs that are independent of the level of output and suggest that instructors refer to the part of fixed costs that are irrevocably committed as sunk costs. Under these definitions, the statement “there are no long-run fixed costs” is incorrect. Instructors should teach students that in the long run there are no sunk costs, although there may easily be fixed costs.     

Measuring the Impact of Asymmetric Information: An Example from Energy Conservation

Asymmetric information has occupied a central role in theoretical microeconomics for almost two decades, but little has been done to ascertain when it matters in practice. The regulatory problem of promoting energy conservation offers an opportunity to ascertain if asymmetric information mattered and to what extent it altered outcomes. Regulators encouraged utilities to promote conservation, and while the regulators could observe conservation prices, they could not observe utilities' promotional efforts. A theoretical model of the regulatory asymmetric information problem yields propositions about the levels of conservation, prices and utility effort, and simulations with realistic parameters are used to determine asymmetric information's impact on these levels.     

Optimal Border Policies for Invasive Species Under Asymmetric Information

This paper analyzes the problem faced by a border protection agency if endogenous exporter abatement activities affect invasive species risk, allowing for unobservable differences in abatement cost. We show how the optimal inspection/penalty regime differs from the symmetric information case. Departing from previous literature, we allow for technical assistance, a policy instrument specifically permitted and commonly employed under Article 9 of the World Trade Organization Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement. We find the information asymmetry can make it optimal for the importing country to provide technical assistance grants for exporter risk abatement, even if it would otherwise be inefficient. Further, we show that fungibility of technical assistance with inputs in other sectors of the exporting economy affects the qualitative nature of optimal policy. If technical assistance has no outside value in the exporter’s country, optimal policy is characterized by a menu of contracts balancing higher tariffs with lower penalties for being caught with an invasive. If technical assistance can be used in other sectors of the exporter’s economy, it can introduce countervailing incentives making a uniform tariff/penalty combination optimal.     

不完全竞争、非对称信息下的最优进口贸易政策和产业政策

本文讨论了不完全竞争和非对称信息情况下 ,如何运用进口贸易政策和产业政策增进本国福利的问题。本文发现 ,(1 )在Cournot同质产品竞争的情况下 ,制定可以诱使本国企业显示真实成本的政策规则可以实现与完全信息情况相同的配置结果 ;并且 ,本国企业的生产成本越低 ,政策规则规定的最优关税越低 ;在某些成本结构下 ,甚至应该执行零关税政策。 (2 )在圆形城市空间竞争 (SpatialCompetitioninCircularCity)的情况下 ,生产补贴和关税的作用完全等价 ;不存在可以实现事后效率的政策规则 ,并且 ,约束最优结果不是一个PBE均衡结果 ,本国政府的最优政策是制定等于单位运输成本的关税。上述结论蕴含 ,最优政策干预以及它能否消除非对称信息可能带来的效率损失依赖于竞争类型 ,而不依赖于信息结构 ,因此 ,它不会发生扭曲     

Optimal Decisions on Pension Plans in the Presence of Information Costs and Financial Literacy

Pension reforms are on the political agenda of many countries. Such reforms imply an increasing responsibility on individuals’ side in building an efficient portfolio for retirement. In this paper, we provide a model describing workers’ choices on the allocation of retirement savings in presence of (1) mandatory pension contribution; (2) different pension plans; and (3) information costs and financial literacy investment decisions. In particular, we characterize the results from both a positive and normative standpoint, by highlighting the determinants of individuals’ choice, with special focus on information costs, on the role of income and preferences, and by characterizing the optimal contribution rate to mandatory complementary pension plans. We also introduce endogenous financial literacy and analyze how its optimal level is determined and how it affects the decisions on pension plans.     

积累性创新、信息不对称和激励

在积累性创新链中,创新收益在序贯创新者之间的分配是一个重要的激励问题,一个良好的创新激励机制应该使得积累性创新的利益在序贯创新者之间进行合理的分配。本文基于信息不对称的假定,研究了积累性创新中最优专利许可费大小和时序决定问题。与Green＆Scotchmer、Scotchmer的结论不同,我们发现,事前专利许可并不一定能够解决先期创新者对后续创新者的敲竹杠行为。本研究为现实中观察到的一些产业中事后专利许可现象提供了理论上的解释。     

灾害风险、福利损失与政府最优救助计划

本文在考虑灾害风险冲击的基础上,通过构建消费者—政府随机决策模型、权衡福利与财政的得失和理论推演,得到政府最优救灾规模的多维边界。具体救助规模由刻画灾害风险福利损失的各参数内生决定。具体而言,灾害损失程度是导致灾害救助需求加重的直接原因;而消费者的风险厌恶程度则会进一步扩大人们对灾害救助的需求;资本的留存情况和形成效率可减轻政府救灾的压力;灾害发生频率虽不影响最优救助规模,但会对整个社会福利产生消极影响。据此,加强灾前防御、普及灾害科普知识以及提高灾害资金运作效率,可达到减轻救助支出负担、提升灾害救助效果、增进社会的福利水平的目的。本文展示了如何设计灾害救助的最优规模,以与实际的社会环境和经济环境动态挂钩。     

Asymmetric Information,Auditing Commitment,and Economic Growth

We analyze in this paper the growth and welfare consequences stemming from the lack of auditing commitment in a credit market with costly state verification. By studying two endogenous growth models, one of which allows lenders to commit to costly auditing strategies, whereas the other does not, we show that the inability to commit serves as a source of informational friction that results in more stringent contractual terms, which, in turn, result in lower capital accumulation, growth, and welfare. From the policy perspective, our analysis suggests a new micro‐economic channel through which institutional failings hinder economic growth and social welfare.     

Asymmetric Information and Annuities

The standard Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976) and Wilson (1977) analysis of adverse selection economies is extended to a particular model of annuity market which features both elements of moral hazard and adverse selection. Individuals are heterogeneous with respect to time preferences and they make investments in health care that affect their survival probabilities. The main case considered is that where both preferences and investments (and hence the endogenous survival probabilities) are unobserved. Thus, the model captures a further source of inefficiency that is particular to annuity market: an endogenous correlation between the desire for annuities and the survival probabilities. The basic insights of Wilson (1977) —as worked out by Eckstein, Eichenbaum and Peled (1985) —are worth also in this new setting. When the equilibrium is separating, the government intervention may yield Pareto improvements. If the equilibrium is pooling, the government intervention may improve the well‐being of individuals affected by the inefficiencies and the negative externalities caused by the asymmetric information.     

转移成本、价格歧视和非对称寡头竞争

通过在Hotelling空间差异模型的基础上结合转移成本构建非对称企业竞争博弈模型.主要研究在非对称情况下,两企业在一致定价与价格歧视下竞争的均衡结果.还对两种不同定价体制下的均衡结果进行了比较,分析价格歧视是否强化竞争.研究发现价格歧视对竞争的效应是不确定的,很大程度受到两企业不对称程度的影响.     

The Safeguard Clause, Asymmetric Information, and Endogenous Protection

When imports surge, governments often must seek simultaneously to satisfy protectionist pressures through increased tariffs, induce adjustment to foreign competition, and minimize consumer costs of protection. The WTO's safeguard clause can be viewed as an attempt to resolve these potentially conflicting goals since it allows governments to offer an implicit contract to protected industries to induce adjustment. In this paper, we show that with asymmetric information about costs, protected industries behave strategically which leads to under-adjustment. The safeguard clause therefore cannot optimally resolve the conflict among domestic political objectives.     

股权制度安排、信息不对称与企业非效率投资行为

本文针对股权分置和股权全流通的制度安排,在不同信息状态下研究了企业的投资行为.研究表明,信息对称时,股权全流通制度下企业投资行为达到最优,股权分置制度下国有资产的高折算溢价使得企业存在投资过度行为;信息不对称时,股权分置制度下低质量企业表现出更多投资过度行为,高质量企业表现出更多投资不足行为.证券监管部门近期应该促使股权全流通,远期应该重视规范企业信息披露,从而提高企业投资决策的效率.     

Market Selection and Asymmetric Information

We consider a dynamic general equilibrium asset pricing model with heterogeneous agents and asymmetric information. We show how agents' different methods of gathering information affect their chances of survival in the market depending upon the nature of the information and the level of noise in the economy.     

创新的价值、非对称信息与终身教职制度——兼论中国的高等教育改革

本文将高校的终身教职制度视为在非对称信息条件下鼓励重大创新的一种合同安排。我们证明,当科研人员的能力与努力同时不可观察时,“非升即走”的终身教职合同能够替委托人节约信息租金,因而在一定条件下是一种更具有效率优势的制度安排。我们发现,终身教职制度的产生与知识价值的提高、科研活动复杂程度的增加、科研成果反映个人能力的客观性等因素密切相关。特别地,本文还比较了终身教职制度的不同实施,发现当重大科研创新的价值与难度同时提高的话,只提供终身教职的合同而不是双轨并行将会变得更优。本文的研究提示,在中国的高校中是不是实行终身教职制度且如何实施取决于高校中知识创新的价值、科研工作的复杂程度和科研评价体系等因素,因此不应草率推行。本文不仅在理论上发展了现有的对于终身教职制度的经济学解释,而且也通过分析现实中该制度的不同实施为中国的高等院校实行终身教职制度的条件与时机提供了解答。     

信息不对称与企业家报酬、企业市场价值分析

本文分析了信息不对称对企业家投资报酬、企业债务水平及企业市场价值的影响.分析表明,若企业项目是高质量的,信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平提高;反之,若企业项目是低质量的,信息不对称程度的降低可使企业项目市场价值和债务水平减少;外部知情投资者比例的变化与企业家报酬的变化之间的关系与企业质量有关.降低信息不对称程度有利于企业优胜劣汰,实现资源的最优配置.     

Persistence of Capacity Shortage and the Role of Adjustment Costs

This paper finds that plant capital constraints on output in UK industry tend to persist for surprisingly long periods, reflecting a slow response of capital investment. The paper examines the conventional view that this response pattern may be explained by cost of adjustment. Using UK time‐series data for a small number of industry groups, it is shown that the observed dynamics of capital constraints (capital shortage) are not fully explained by a quadratic adjustment cost model or by alternative forms of adjustment cost.     

Estimating Presidential Elections: The Importance of State Fixed Effects and the Role of National Versus Local Information

Explaining the outcome of presidential elections is central to any model of American government. Previous researchers have found that economic conditions explain a substantial portion of the variation in vote outcomes. We make two contributions to this literature. First, we show that state partisan predisposition is the most important explanatory variable for the period 1972–1992. Several states are simply out of reach for one of the parties, no matter how favorable is the information about their candidate. Second, we find that national economic indicators have an effect on votes that is an order of magnitude larger than state-level aggregates. Presidents who try to curry favor with certain states through pork barrel projects are unlikely to be rewarded with large vote margins. Our model does a reasonable job forecasting the state-level vote for the 1996 election when the actual economic conditions are used as regressors. None the less we are skeptical that these type of models can accurately forecast the Electoral College winner because of the wide confidence intervals on each state's vote forecast and the potential error in predicted economic conditions.