Second degree price discrimination and natural monopoly

This paper considers the efficiency of a contestable natural monopoly if consumers are heterogeneous and the monopolist can differentiate prices imperfectly. The paper shows that a “no‐distortion‐at‐the‐top” result, which is standard in models with restricted entry, may also appear in a contestable market. Depending on cost and demand structures, first best efficiency can also be a sustainable equilibrium. However, due to the existence of a continuum of equilibria, first best efficiency is not guaranteed. Most notably, even a stable “distortion‐at‐the‐top” result is possible.     

自然垄断产业改革的理论分析

随着经济社会的发展，自然垄断产业的理论在不断变化，自然垄断产业也在不断的改革。从自然垄断理论产生与发展的理论角度讲，自然垄断产业健康发展的关键是引入竞争机制和放松政府管制，使其符合市场经济发展的规律。     

流通产业组织结构优化中的自然垄断趋势

流通产业的组织结构是产业经济学关注的重要理论问题之一,人们或是根据产业组织学理论从商品流通企业的市场关系对其进行分析,或是从流通产业内部的资源配置结构及关联对其展开考察,或是在"结构、行为、绩效"框架下对其进行研究.其实,产业的组织结构涉及的层面很复杂,它与自然垄断之间有可能存在的关联尚未引起学者们应有的关注.本文认为,依据产业经济学对自然垄断的理解或定义,流通产业组织结构的优化与自然垄断之间存在着关联,这种关联可以通过流通产业运行的内部性和外部性予以揭示,对这种关联的分析,可以发现在流通产业组织结构的优化中蕴含着自然垄断的趋势.     

Elicitation of health state utilities associated with differing durations of morning stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Objective:

Specific symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including joint stiffness and functional disability, are most severe in the morning. ‘Morning stiffness’ has a negative impact on health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL); however, how HRQoL is correlated to morning stiffness duration is unknown. The objective of this study was to obtain population-based utility values associated with different durations of morning stiffness in RA.

Design and methods:

The time-trade-off (TTO) approach was used to elicit utility values for four different health states (HS), which differed in morning stiffness duration. One hundred and nine members of the UK general public rated each HS in individual face-to-face interviews with trained investigators. TTO scores were converted into utility values. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores were obtained to validate TTO scores.

Results:

On a scale of 0 (death) to 1 (full health), a mean utility value of 0.45?±?0.29 was elicited for ～3?h of morning stiffness (anchor HS), 0.50?±?0.28 for 2–3?h of morning stiffness (HS1), 0.61?±?0.25 for 1–2?h of morning stiffness (HS2) and 0.78?±?0.20 for <1?h of morning stiffness (HS3). The difference between each HS was statistically significant (p?<?0.01). Mean VAS utility scores followed the same trend. Utility incrementally increased with each HS associated with a shorter duration of morning stiffness. Limitations of this research include potential bias from the TTO method due to the discounting effect of time, scale compatibility, and loss aversion.

Conclusions:

The UK population-based utility values show a reduction in morning stiffness duration in RA is associated with improved HRQoL. Despite the impact of morning stiffness on HRQoL, it is rarely evaluated and little is known as to how it is affected by current treatments. The results of this study can be applied in future cost-utility analyses of healthcare interventions which target an improvement in morning stiffness duration for RA patients.     

Scale economies and existence of sustainable monopoly prices

The size of the firm relative to market demand is crucial to a determination of whether there exist sustainable monopoly prices. In the one product case the size of the firm is its minimum efficient scale. In the multiproduct case size is defined by a set of outputs at which cost complementarities are present. The analysis shows that when the size of the firm is sufficiently large, there exist anonymously equitable Aumann-Shapley prices. Further, at these prices natural monopoly is sustainable against rival entry. The Aumann-Shapley price are also shown to be quantity sustainable in the sense of Brock and Scheinkman.     

美国反垄断分析方法研究

美国不同时期的经济竞争理论及观点存在分歧。其先后颁布施行的《谢尔曼法》、《克莱顿法》及《美国联邦贸易委员会法》确立了反垄断分析的基本标准、方法和程序,并先后通过判例,明确了＂本身违法原则＂、＂合理原则＂,成立了联邦贸易委员会;同时,对于＂相关产品市场＂及＂同一地理市场＂的界定确定了标准和方法。至此,从方法论角度美国建立了其反垄断分析的基本框架。     

Increasing returns and aggregate production efficiency by a monopoly

This paper considers an economy where there are many firms with increasing-returns-to-scale technologies and attempts to derive sufficient conditions ensuring that monopoly achieves aggregate production efficiency. In a setting of one output and many inputs, we obtain such sufficient conditions which can be interpreted as a nondecreasing generalized average productivity of inputs for each firm. We also show that a special class of generalized Cobb-Douglas production functions has such a property that monopoly always achieves aggregate production efficiency.     

Multiple product qualities in monopoly: Sailing the RMS Titanic into the economics classroom

In this pedagogical contribution the authors extend the traditional three-class tariff employed in the French passenger railway system with the more resonant story of the service quality variations associated with the three passenger classes of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. In doing so, they provide economics instructors with an opportunity to integrate the well-known motion picture Titanic (Cameron and Landau 1997 Cameron, J., and J. Landau. 1997. Titanic. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Lightstorm Entertainment. [Google Scholar]) into the teaching of economics. This article provides instructors with resources that can be used to link historical and modern travel examples of price discrimination in order for students to reach a “deeper understanding of course concepts” (Salemi 2002 Salemi, M. K. 2002. An illustrated case for active learning. Southern Economic Journal 68 (3): 721–31.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 725).     

Cooperative choice of corporate social responsibility in a bilateral monopoly model

This article presents an examination of a linear bilateral monopoly model with endogenous and cooperative choice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) level. This article also describes an investigation of the effects of cooperative choice of CSR on the market and welfare. New findings are explicit derivation of the necessary and sufficient condition for solving a double marginalization problem in the bilateral monopoly model with CSR. In addition, this report is the first demonstrating that cooperative CSR with Nash bargaining improves consumer surplus, social welfare and each firm’s profit to a level higher than that achieved through noncooperative CSR. Furthermore, cooperative CSR with Nash bargaining is shown to be capable of completely solving the double marginalization problem generated by a bilateral monopoly, although the manufacturer and the retailer are not vertically integrated.     

The quiet life of a monopolist: The efficiency losses of monopoly reconsidered

We study the efficiency losses of monopoly in a model where the firm’s total cost of production decreases with the manager’s effort to control cost. In contrast to the existing analyses of oligopolistic and monopolistically competitive markets that find an ambiguous relationship between competition intensity and managerial slack, we demonstrate that, under the same kind of cost condition, monopoly unambiguously reduces effort level and, in the case where ownership and control are separate, magnifies the effects of the moral hazard problem. Furthermore, under an alternative cost condition monopoly raises effort level rather than reducing it. In such a situation the separation of ownership and control may mitigate the productive inefficiency of monopoly.     

The role of excess capacity in determining market power in natural gas transportation markets

The approval by FERC of a regulated natural gas pipeline’s market-based rate application depends upon the availability of substitute pipelines with sufficient capacity to maintain the current transport price. But how much alternate capacity is enough? Clearly, the price will not increase when alternate pipelines have unsubscribed capacity equal to the capacity of the applicant pipeline, since the applicant’s capacity is then perfectly substitutable. And indeed, FERC has approved market-based rates when this “complete-replacement” criterion has been met. However, complete-replacement is too stringent a condition and we determine precisely how much alternate capacity suffices to keep the price from rising.     

转轨经济中自然垄断产业的动态性分析

自然垄断存在的理论基础在于生产成本与市场需求两个决定性条件。如果影响这两方面条件的因素发生了变化,自然垄断的边界就发生了变化,相应的规制政策也要随之变化。对于转轨经济而言,企业内部高昂的交易成本,经济转轨带来的市场需求的迅速扩张,使得自然垄断产业内竞争的引入有了可能。鉴于中国实施渐进的转轨方式,部分放松规制将是规制改革政策的首选。     

Monopsony and discriminating monopsony in the nursing market

Theory suggests that equities are a good hedge against inflation. However, most of the empirical evidence for industrialized economies suggests that the relationship between stock returns and inflation is negative. One explanation is the negative correlation between inflation and real output growth. This paper examines the relationship between inflation and stock returns for ten important Emerging Stock Market (ESM) markets, namely, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, S. Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines and Turkey, during the 1990s. To anticipate the results, the relationship between stock returns and inflation, for the whole sample period, is positive and statistically significant for three of the sample ESMs, while it is positive (but statistically insignificant) for a further three. Only for one ESM is the relationship negative and statistically significant. This result may be due to the role of money and the positive relationship between consumer prices and output.     

Renewable energy and low-carbon policy spillover effects on natural gas demand

Recent legislation intended to increase the use of renewable energy sources and lower the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from energy has changed the structure of energy markets. The effect of these policies on carbon-intensive fuel sources is rather obvious. For natural gas, though, the effect is not immediately clear. This letter uses a structural model of natural gas demand to uncover whether these policies have led to increased demand because natural gas is a relatively clean source of energy that couples well with renewables or if these policies have crowded out natural gas on net.     

转轨经济中自然垄断产业的竞争与所有制研究

竞争与所有制改革是目前自然垄断产业规制改革的主要趋势.但原有的理论和经验都是针对发达国家而言,对于转轨国家如何协调经济转轨与自然垄断产业改革却没有现成的理论与经验.因此,本文关注转轨国家自然垄断产业引入竞争可能性以及所有制改革模式的选择.研究发现:考虑管理成本,转轨国家自然垄断产业引入竞争是可能的;改革进程取决于转轨国家市场发育程度以及改革的初始条件;混合所有制的企业竞争模式更适合于转轨国家自然垄断产业的改革.     

Market power in a billateral monopoly model of industry wage determination

A variant of the Hicksian bilateral monopoly model is constucted. We show that market power can, in principle, affect the rate of change of money wages quite independently of unemployment, hence deserves a place in the derived wage equation, contrary to the postulate of the excess demand model. Our modified Hicksian model is submitted to a test and found to be consistent with the empirical evidence. Finally, some implications for the Phillips curve analysis are discussed.     

Price clustering and natural resistance points in the Dutch stock market: A natural experiment

This paper focuses on the tendency of stock prices to cluster at round numbers (like 10, 20, 30, etc. and to a lesser extent 5, 15, 25, etc.) and the related effect of round number price barriers (prices pass round numbers less frequently than other numbers). Two competing hypotheses are tested, using data from the Dutch stock market of the period 1990–2001. After 1 January 1999 stock prices were listed in euros, while guilders were still the currency of daily life until 2002. The aspiration level hypothesis predicts that round number effects in guilders will only slowly disappear. The odd price hypothesis predicts an abrupt change in round number effects after 1 January 1999. Generally, the results are consistent with the odd price hypothesis.