Competition Between Networks: A Study of the Market for Yellow Pages

This paper estimates the importance of network effects in the market for Yellow Pages. I estimate three simultaneous equations: consumer demand for usage of a directory, advertiser demand for advertising and a publisher's first-order condition (derived from profit-maximizing behaviour). Estimation shows that advertisers value consumer usage and that consumers value advertising, implying a network effect. I find that internalizing network effects would significantly increase surplus. As an application, I consider whether the market benefits from monopoly (which takes advantage of network effects) or oligopoly (which reduces market power). I find that a more competitive market is preferable.     

隐私关注与中国B2C电子商务客户忠诚度实证研究

个人信息对于B2C电子商务网站商家改善服务水平和促进销售有较大促进作用,但是当个人信息披露给网站商家后,还少有研究消费者不同的隐私关注程度对其网络购物行为和客户忠诚度是否或如何影响。本文通过问卷调查方式,基于沟通隐私管理理论,发现消费者在提供更多个人真实信息给网站商家后,隐私关注程度高的用户具有更强的网络购物忠诚倾向,而隐私关注程度低的用户具有较低的网络购物忠诚倾向。结果显示在线零售商应该重视对隐私关注度高的用户,并通过改善个人消费者隐私保护、网站安全水平,从而改善与消费者的信任关系,促进网站销售。     

Advertising,learning, and consumer choice in experience good markets: an empirical examination*

This article empirically analyzes different effects of advertising in a nondurable, experience good market. A dynamic learning model of consumer behavior is presented in which I allow both “informative” effects of advertising and “prestige” or “image” effects of advertising. This learning model is estimated using consumer level panel data tracking grocery purchases and advertising exposures over time. Empirical results suggest that in this market, advertising's primary effect was that of informing consumers. The estimates are used to quantify the value of this information to consumers and evaluate the welfare implications of an alternative advertising regulatory regime.     

A laboratory study of advertising and price competition

We use a laboratory experiment to study advertising and pricing behavior in a market where consumers differ in price sensitivity. Equilibrium in this market entails variation in the number of firms advertising and price dispersion in advertised prices. We vary the cost to advertise as well as varying the number of competing firms. Theory predicts that advertising costs act as a facilitating device: higher costs increase firm profits at the expense of consumers. We find that higher advertising costs decrease demand for advertising and raise advertised prices, as predicted. Further, this comes at the expense of consumers. However, advertising strategies are more aggressive than theory predicts with the result that firm profits do not increase.     

网络购物中消费者权益保护法律问题研究

随着互联网技术的不断普及,网络购物作为一种新型的购物模式已经为广大的消费者所接受.网络购物给我们的生活带来了极大便利,但也增加了消费者购物的风险,容易侵犯消费者的合法权益.在对网络购物的基本理论进行阐述之后,详细分析了网络购物中消费者的知情权、隐私权和求偿权受到侵犯的现状,最后提出完善我国网络消费者权益保护的措施,以期望网络消费者合法权益受到应有的保护,促进我国网络购物市场健康有序的发展.     

Bundling, product choice, and efficiency: Should cable television networks be offered à la carte?

We conduct a numerical analysis of bundling’s impact on a monopolist’s pricing and product choices and assess the implications for consumer welfare in cable television markets. Existing theory is ambiguous: for a given set of products, bundling likely transfers surplus from consumers to firms but also encourages products to be offered that might not be under à la carte pricing. Simulation of “Full À La Carte” for an economic environment calibrated to an average cable television system suggests that consumers would likely benefit from à la carte sales. If all networks continued to be offered, the average household’s surplus is predicted to increase by $6.80 (65.6%) under à la carte sales (despite a total bundle price that almost doubles) and reduced network profits would have to be such that 41 of 50 offered cable networks have to exit the market to make her indifferent. Simulation of a “Theme Tier” scenario provides intermediate benefits. The incremental marginal costs to cable systems of à la carte sales and its impact in the advertising market and on competition are important factors in determining consumer benefits.     

Measuring and testing advertising-induced rotation in the demand curve

Advertising can rotate the demand curve if it changes the dispersion of consumers’ valuations. We provide an elasticity form measure of the advertising-induced demand curve rotation in five demand models and test for its presence in the US nonalcoholic beverage market. The Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model reveals that doubling advertising spending rotates the demand curves clockwise for milk, and coffee and tea with associated slope changes of 7 and 12%. Soft-drink advertising rotates its demand curve counterclockwise. Our policy suggestion is that milk and soft-drink firms time advertising to coincide with high-and low-price periods, respectively.     

广告支出与消费增长:基于1981年～2009年时间序列数据的经验研究

理论分析显示广告支出与消费增长相互依存,广告可以通过诱导消费者的潜在需求从而刺激消费,消费增长也会促使企业增加广告支出。笔者在多变量VAR模型的基础上,采用中国1981年～2009年度数据,运用协整检验发现:广告支出、城市居民消费支出和农村居民消费支出之间存在某种长期均衡关系,广告支出是城市和农村消费增长的格兰杰原因。脉冲响应和方差分解表明,广告对消费的刺激效应不断下降,呈现出长期均衡的趋势。从宏观整体的视角来看,企业广告长期投放应保持理性,广告支出应维持在相对稳定合理的状态。     

网络环境下消费者信任影响因素研究———以产品类型为调节变量

信任已成为电子商务研究领域的重要议题。本研究通过对文献的梳理发现,已有研究主要源自社会交换理论、期望－确认理论、合理行动理论、计划行为理论与科技接受模式5种理论基础,理论基础的差异致使在消费者信任影响因素的研究成果中存在重复与分歧。本文以一个新的视角对已有研究成果进行整合,构建出一个理论模型,并获得实证支持。其中,信任的影响因素被划分为感知网站投入、声誉及信任倾向,信任本身被划分为信任信念与信任意图。该模型被证明是一个有完全中介效应的调节变量,即感知网站投入、声誉及信任倾向都完全通过信任信念的中介作用对信任意图产生显著的正向影响,而这一影响过程会受到产品类型的调节：在购买高涉入－理性类产品时,感知网站投入与声誉都对消费者的信任意图发挥着重要的影响,在购买低涉入－理性类产品时,消费者更愿意依照自己的信任倾向做出决策。     

控股股东股权质押、控制权转移风险与广告投入

股权质押使控股股东面临控制权转移风险,其有动机进行市值管理。本文以2011-2019年中国A股上市公司为样本,考察股权质押情境下控股股东是否存在调整广告投入的行为。研究结果发现,控股股东进行股权质押后,公司广告投入水平显著提高,说明股权质押情境下控股股东会通过策略性地增加广告投入进行信息管理,而非通过削减广告投入进行向上盈余管理,证实广告具有短期股票回报效应;控制权转移风险较大时,控股股东股权质押对广告投入的正向影响更明显,说明股权质押情境下控股股东增加广告投入是出于缓解控制权转移风险的动机。进一步研究发现,在散户规模较大和产品直接与消费者接触的企业,广告更容易吸引投资者注意力,此时控股股东增加广告投入的动机更强,该行为短期内可以提振股价,但没有起到改善经营业绩的作用且加剧了股价波动。本文为资本市场和产品市场的联系提供了证据,且对相关部门加强上市公司广告费用监管具有一定的政策参考价值。     

Advertising and search engines. A model of leadership in search advertising

We analyze the role of leadership in a multi-sided market as search advertising, assuming quantity competition and different entry conditions (with barriers to entry or endogenous entry). The model can be microfounded taking into account network effects, multi-homing on the advertising side and scale in search. If there are barriers to entry and the network effects are strong, there is an incentive for the leader to exploit them and attract more consumers to monopolize advertising. Under barriers to entry, the leading platform has also a strategic incentive to exploit scale in search, to manipulate search results to divert search traffic from other platforms, and to introduce limits to multi-homing, with the aim of expanding its market share and deny scale to competitors.     

Personalized mobile advertising: Its key attributes,trends, and social impact

Advertising media are a means of communication that creates different marketing and communication results among consumers. Over the years, newspaper, magazine, TV, and radio have provided a one-way media where information is broadcast and communicated. Due to the widespread application of the Internet, advertising has entered into an interactive communications mode. In the advent of 3G broadband mobile communication systems and smartphone devices, consumers' preferences can be pre-identified and advertising messages can therefore be delivered to consumers in a multimedia format at the right time and at the right place with the right message. In light of this new advertisement possibility, designing personalized mobile advertising to meet consumers' needs becomes an important issue. This research uses the fuzzy Delphi method to identify the key personalized attributes in a personalized mobile advertising message for different products. Results of the study identify six important design attributes for personalized advertisements: price, preference, promotion, interest, brand, and type of mobile device. As personalized mobile advertising becomes more integrated in people's daily activities, its pros and cons and social impact are also discussed. The research result can serve as a guideline for the key parties in mobile marketing industry to facilitate the development of the industry and ensure that advertising resources are properly used.     

A factor analysis approach to measure the biased effects of retail fruit juice advertising

This study presents a structural factor analysis approach to measure the impact of advertising on consumer demand. It is assumed that advertising affects the latent perception of consumers, which in turn influences their purchasing behavior. This study investigates the relationship between consumer purchases and retail store advertising (i.e., newspaper advertising, in-store display, and point-of-purchase display) of three fruit juices using an extended Rotterdam model. The results show that the demand for orange juice and grapefruit juice was affected by their own advertising, while the demand for apple juice was only affected by advertising of competitive juices.The authors are a Senior Econometrician, TRS Risk Management, American Express Company; and a Research Economist, Florida Department of Citrus, and Adjunct Professor, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, respectively.The authors thank B. Dixon, A. Reynolds, S. Shonkwiler, H. Theil, K. Young, editor, and other anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. This study was partially supported by the McKethan-Matherly Eminent Scholar Chair at the University of Florida.     

Consumption Externalities,Coordination, and Advertising*

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that advertising can have an important function in markets with consumption externalities apart from its persuasive and informative roles. We show that advertising may function as a device to coordinate consumer expectations of the purchasing decisions of other consumers in markets with consumption externalities. The implications of advertising as a coordinating device are examined in the pricing and advertising decisions of firms interacting strategically. Although, at times, the one‐period advertising expense can exceed the one‐period monopoly profit, in equilibrium, consumers will pay a premium for the more heavily advertised brand.     

A patent-based cross impact analysis for quantitative estimation of technological impact: The case of information and communication technology

The increasing syntheses and interactions between various technologies increase the usefulness of cross impact analysis (CIA) as a method for forecasting and analyzing them. Conventional CIA depends on an expert's qualitative judgment or intuition and thus it is difficult to evaluate quantitatively the impact of one technology on another. In this study, we employ patent analysis in CIA to examine such impacts between technologies based on multiple patent classifications. Patent information is used for facilitating quantitative and systematic approach in CIA. The distinctive feature and main contribution of the proposed approach is the overcoming of the limitations of conventional CIA, by employing conditional probabilities based on the patent information. The classification of patents, particularly the multiple classifications, is used to evaluate the relationships between technologies. As an illustration, a patent-based CIA with information and communication technologies (ICTs) was conducted. Firstly, the patent-based cross impact among ICTs was calculated. Secondly, the technology pairs were classified based on the cross impact score between ICTs. Thirdly, a cross impact network was constructed to identify the complex relation among ICTs. Finally, the changes in cross impact scores between technologies over time were analyzed. The results of this research are expected to help practitioners to forecast future trends and to develop better R&D strategies.     

TV advertising spillovers and demand for private labels: the case of carbonated soft drinks

The expansion of private labels, or store brands, has transformed consumer choice sets and competition in retail markets, prompting manufacturers to fight back with renewed pricing and product and promotion strategies to forestall further private label expansion. This article examines the spillover effects of television advertising on brand-level consumer demand for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), including private labels, using a random coefficients logit model with household purchasing and advertising viewing Nielsen data. As in previous work, we find that although brand spillover effects significantly increase demand for CSD brands in the same company and undermine demand facing other manufacturers’ CSD brands, surprisingly, there are positive spillover effects on the demand for private label brands. This indicates that brand advertising is persuasive with respect to manufacturers’ brands but complementary with respect to private labels. Further results show that eliminating television advertising for CSDs would lower aggregate CSD sales as consumers migrate to other beverages, although private labels stand to gain, particularly Wal-Mart brands.     

环境信息披露机制与企业发展——以日常耐用品生产企业为例

日常耐用消费品与人们的生活息息相关,其环保程度,对大众的身体健康有着重要影响。企业通过信息披露机制反映自身关于企业污染、治理方面的信息,可反映企业产品的环保程度,有利于消费者更好地了解企业,更好地反映产品的品质信息。企业披露高质量的环境信息,有利于建立良好的社会形象,有利于发展与消费者、政府间的互信机制,有利于强化企业产品的差异化程度,增强产品市场竞争力。     

Does trust favor macroeconomic stability?

This paper investigates the relationship between trust and macroeconomic volatility. An illustrative model rationalizes the relationship between trust and volatility. In this model, trust relaxes credit constraints and diminishes investment’s procyclicality. I provide empirical evidence for the basic predictions of the model. Then, I show that higher trust is associated with lower macroeconomic volatility in a cross section of countries. This relationship persists when various covariates are taken into account. I use inherited trust of Americans as an instrumental variable for trust in their origin country to overcome reverse causality concerns. Using changes in inherited trust over the 20th century, I do not find clear evidence that increasing trust is also associated with decreasing volatility across time at the country level.     

情感信任情景下创业网络结构特征对吸收能力的影响

创业网络构建与开发是克服创业企业新生性成长劣势和获得各种资源的有效途径。基于社会网络理论和吸收能力理论，结合中国关系社会的现实情境，构建创业网络结构、情感信任与吸收能力关系的理论模型。研究发现，网络规模、网络强度和网络多样性对吸收能力均具有显著正向影响；情感信任对吸收能力具有显著正向影响；情感信任正向调节网络强度、网络多样性与吸收能力的关系。结果可为创业者从网络结构和关系信任方面调整创业活动以提高企业吸收能力提供启示。     

Mandatory spending,political polarization,and macroeconomic volatility

This paper studies the impact of political polarization on macroeconomic volatility in a political economy model of optimal fiscal policy. I introduce the distinction between mandatory and discretionary public spending in a model where consumers disagree on the size of the public sector. In the presence of political turnover and political polarization, public policies that affect individual decision-making lead to macroeconomic volatility. I show that the legislative requirements behind the changes in mandatory public spending can reduce macroeconomic volatility caused by political polarization and political turnover. The numerical simulations of the model suggest that in the presence of a binding constraint on the changes in mandatory spending, an increase in the political polarization is associated with an increase in the share of mandatory spending and a decrease in the macroeconomic volatility, consistent with the U.S. data.