市场经济与质量可靠性工作

阐述了我国买方市场的形成与特点,剖析了卖方市场和买方市场上用户与厂家的表现和心态.指出,社会主义市场经济的完善和买方市场的形成为加强质量可靠性工作带来了良好的机遇.     

Electronic books: To “E” or not to “E”? A strategic analysis of distribution channel choices of publishers

The advent of electronic books (e-books) has significantly impacted the publishing industry in recent years. The prevalence of e-books has prompted many publishers to reconsider their distribution channels for new titles. They need to decide whether to sell the e-book version of new titles. We derive the conditions under which a publisher should sell only printed books (p-books), only e-books, and both of them simultaneously. We analyze the impact of reader acceptance of e-book and the wholesale price of the counterpart p-book on the distribution channel choice of the publisher under stochastic demand. We find that only if wholesale price of p-book is high and reader acceptance of e-book is low should the publisher sell only p-books; otherwise, he should sell e-books, even when reader acceptance of e-book is low, i.e., in most cases the publisher should sell e-books (perhaps selling p-books simultaneously). In general, the higher the reader acceptance of e-book is, the more the publisher tends to sell the e-book to readers directly. However, our analysis also shows that even when reader acceptance of e-book is very high, the publisher does not necessarily sell only e-books. The wholesale price reflects the publisher's power of negotiation over bookstores. The higher the publisher's power of negotiation over bookstores is, the more he is inclined to sell p-books; and when reader acceptance of e-book is relatively high, the lower the publisher's power of negotiation is, the more he tends to sell only e-books.     

Systems sales as a competitive response to the Asian challenge: Case of a global ship power supplier

Cost-based competition from East Asia has forced western companies to reassess their competitive strategies. It is difficult for western companies to attain cost leadership because of high domestic labor costs. Thus it is crucial to pursue differentiation. One way to do this is to shift the market from products to systems. To examine the role of systems as an enhancer of competitive advantage, this study synthesizes the literature concerning competitive advantage and systems. The emerging theoretical framework is then tested against an in-depth case study of a Finland-based ship power supplier. The findings suggest that systems can be a value-enhancing strategy whereby the seller takes over the buyer's value activities related to systems integration. Such forward integration results in enhanced systems performance at a lower total cost. This strategy, based on the seller's rare and valuable resources, is difficult for cost-based competitors to imitate or substitute.     

Search, Bargaining and Optimal Asking Prices

This paper analyzes a search-and-bargaining model in which the asking price influences the rate at which potential customers arrive to inspect the seller's house, and the buyer's valuation of the asset is not learned until after the seller makes his initial offer (the asking price). The optimal asking and reservation prices are characterized, and the existence of a subgame-perfect equilibrium asking-price—reservation-price strategy is established. Comparative-statics analysis illustrates how seller and buyer discount rates and the buyer's outside opportunity affect the optimal reservation and asking prices.     

FHA Terminations: A Prelude to Rational Mortgage Pricing

Recent models of pricing mortgages and/or mortgage insurance have used option-pricing models as their framework. The focus is usually on default, which is viewed as a put option (to sell the house to the lender in exchange for the mortgage) and prepayment, which is viewed as a call option (to buy the mortgage from the lender). Analysis then uses techniques like those used to price options in capital markets. Unfortunately, homeowners do not seem to exercise their option as quickly as do traders in organized markets. We estimate prepayment and default functions, which are meant to be a first step in developing modified, option-based models of mortgage pricing.     

Vertical mergers in procurement markets

This paper uses computational methods that reveal ambiguous strategic effects of vertical mergers in a duopoly setting featuring incomplete information about sellers' costs, and differences in sellers' productive capabilities. First, vertical mergers can be jointly unprofitable. Second, the buyer's preferred merger partner is almost always the seller with lower expected costs, and is typically the larger seller. Third, vertical mergers always reduce the unintegrated seller's profits, sometimes dramatically. Finally, vertical mergers can increase total welfare. Some of the results contrast qualitatively with unambiguous findings from models with symmetric sellers, which suggests that caution should be used in drawing general inferences from those models.     

国内沥青市场的分析与展望

分析了１９９８年我国沥青市场的变化,沥青市场由卖方市场转入买方市场,进口沥青与国产沥青是竞争的两大对手。１９０９９年沥青需求量增加,但竞争更加激烈。预测了１９９９年沥青市场的发展趋势。     

Strategic segmentation of a market

When competing firms target information towards specific consumers through direct marketing activities, complete segmentation of markets can result. We analyze a two-stage duopoly where, prior to price competition, each firm targets information to specific consumers and only consumers informed by a firm can buy from it. This has the effect of endogenously determining market segments in a model of ‘sales'. In equilibrium, pure local monopoly emerges; firms target and sell to mutually exclusive market segments. When the cost of marketing approaches zero, market shares reflect relative production efficiency (equal shares when firms are symmetric); this may not be the case when marketing cost is high.     

Shopping for Information: Implications of Consumer Learning for Optimal Pricing and Product Design*

I study a seller's pricing problem where consumers perform costly product research about value before purchase. They buy the product when sufficiently optimistic about value and cease research when sufficiently pessimistic. I find that the seller encourages product research when prior belief about value is high, even though he could sell immediately for a high price. The prior affects both expected value and how additional information changes consumers' beliefs. I show that an increase in research cost affects equilibrium price nonmonotonically. Finally, when the seller chooses price and product value dispersion, the optimal level of dispersion need not be extremal.     

回购合同项目的经济评价与优化

在回购合同模式下,伊朗政府拥有油气的所有权,合同者可以选择现金或购回一定数量的油气作为回收的成本和报酬.回购合同的主要经济参数包括政府优先油比例、项目收益率(ROR)、成本回收期、报酬费回收期、资本成本上限等.合同者的项目收益率是在签订合同时明确规定的,这一指标对产量和投资都非常敏感.政府优先油的比例也是回购合同项目经济评价和业务谈判的重要参数.实现合同者预计的项目收益率的最低油价是拐点油价,项目的拐点油价越高,合同者的经济风险就越大.延长成本回收期和在工程施工可行的情况下尽可能将投资提前是回购合同项目优化的重要途径.合同者要在合理范围内力争获得较大的投资额度,即较大的资本成本上限,同时要在设计上提出较为保守的目标(MDP)产量.     

Real Estate Mutual Funds: Herding,Momentum Trading and Performance

This study jointly examines herding, momentum trading and performance in real estate mutual funds (REMFs). We do this using trading and performance data for 159 REMFs across the period 1998–2008. In support of the view that Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) stocks are relatively more transparent, we find that stock herding by REMFs is lower in REIT stocks than other stock. Herding behavior in our data reveals a tendency for managers to sell winners, reflective of the “disposition effect.” We find low overall levels of REMF momentum trading, but further evidence of the disposition effect when momentum trading is segregated into buy–sell dimensions. We test the robustness of our analysis using style analysis, and by reference to the level of fund dividend distribution. Our results for this are consistent with our conjecture about the role of transparency in herding, but they provide no new insights in relation to the momentum‐trading dimensions of our analysis. Summarizing what are complex interrelationships, we find that neither herding nor momentum trading are demonstrably superior investment strategies for REMFs.     

Temporary Buydowns and Affordability

This paper is directed to a neglected aspect of the problem of home ownership affordability: the impact on affordability of temporary buy downs. A temporary buydown is an option offered to home buyers to reduce the mortgage payment in the early years of the loan. The borrower allocates cash up front to an escrow account from which funds are withdrawn monthly to supplement the borrower's mortgage payment.
Temporary buydowns are underused partly because of the difficulty of determining whether, in any particular case, they will increase affordability. This paper develops a new instrument called the maximum affordable mortgage (MAX) which automatically allocates the buyer's available cash between buydown, down payment and other uses in a manner which maximizes affordability for the buyer, subject to whatever underwriting constraints the investor wishes to impose on payment graduation and/or the total size of the buydown.
The lender originating the MAX must be able to solve a complex algorithm at the point of sale, but the complexity is all behind the scenes. Using a computer, a loan officer can quickly find the cash allocation that maximizes affordability. The power of the MAX in increasing affordability may be enhanced if it is combined with a buyup wherein the lender trades off lower points against a higher rate.     

Resale and bundling in auctions

The possibility of resale increases bidders' incentives to jointly reduce demand in multi-object auctions, because resale increases low-value bidders' willingness to pay and reduces high-value bidders' willingness to pay. Therefore, resale may reduce the seller's revenue. In a simple model with complete information, however, allowing resale and bundling the objects on sale are “complement strategies” for the seller (under reasonable conditions)—by bundling and allowing resale the seller earns a higher revenue than by selling the objects separately and/or forbidding resale. We also show why allowing resale may reduce efficiency.     

Non-Uniform Percentage Brokerage Commissions and Real Estate Market Performance

The effect of non-uniform commissions on the market duration of residential properties is ambiguous. While the broker's search effort is positively related to the size of the percentage commission, so is the seller's reservation price. Each of these relationships imply a time-on-market effect in the opposite direction of the other. A powerful statistical technique, survival regression, is employed to determine which relationship dominates. Because the probability that a property will sell at any given point in time is inversely related to the size of the percentage commission, we conclude that the negative search effects associated with low commission rates are more than offset by the positive reservation price effects.     

Why Do Sellers Hold Out in the Housing Market? An Option‐Based Explanation

In the residential housing market, home owners are reluctant to sell in a declining market. We build a model which focuses on the embedded call option associated with home ownership that allows owners to delay the (irreversible) sale. When prices are low, the (opportunity) cost of a sale, i.e., a higher implied gain from a future sale, likely exceeds its immediate trade benefit and an owner is better off waiting for market conditions to improve. The model also highlights the importance of supply conditions: a more constrained supply is associated with a longer delay. Using state‐level residential housing data, we find evidence consistent with the model. Transaction volume is increasing (decreasing) in the rental growth rate (volatility) in the cross section; their effects are amplified in areas with low supply elasticities, and in times with low market prices. Overall, this paper provides a rational explanation for delayed trading decisions in the housing market.     

Antitrust and Sales-Below-Cost Laws: The Case of Retail Gasoline

Numerous states have sales-below-cost (SBC) laws, often directed at specific products such as gasoline. Potential violations of state SBC laws occur when prices are less than the seller's cost of doing business, or some proxy thereof. The most commonly stated purpose of these laws is to protect small independent firms from predation by larger firms. This study offers empirical evidence on the impact of SBC laws on the retail gasoline market. The result indicate that SBC laws directed specifically at the retail gasoline market have resulted in higher retail margins.     

Performance based contracting in long-term supply relationships

The study investigates performance-based contracting in long term-supply relationships. Evidence in the context of supply relationships involving manufacturers of consumer and pharmaceutical products, service providers and grocery retailers indicates that the performance that companies buy and sell can be analyzed as specific combinations of effectiveness, efficiency and risk. While firms engage in a complex and time-consuming process to design and agree upon performance targets, incentive mechanisms and involved risks of buying and selling future performance, they often fail in achieving excellence in all performance targets.     

MARKET PERFORMANCE WITH MULTIPRODUCT FIRMS*

We revisit the fundamental issue of market provision of variety associated with Chamberlin, Spence, and Dixit‐Stiglitz when firms sell multiple products. Both products and firms are (horizontally) differentiated. We propose a general nested demand framework where consumers first decide upon a firm then which variant to buy and how much (the nested CES is a special case). We use it to determine the market's biases when firms compete in product ranges and prices. The market system attracts too many firms with too few products per firm: firms restrain product ranges to relax price competition, but this exacerbates over‐entry.     

A Dynamic Model of Auctions with Buy‐It‐Now: Theory and Evidence

In the ascending‐price auctions with Yahoo!‐type buy‐it‐now (BIN), we characterize and derive the closed‐form solution for the optimal bidding strategy of the bidders and the optimal BIN price of the seller when they are both risk‐averse. The seller is shown to be strictly better off with the BIN option, while the bidders are better off only when their valuation is high enough. The theory also implies that the expected transaction price is higher in an auction with an optimal BIN price than one without a BIN option. This prediction is confirmed by our data collected from Taiwan's Yahoo! auctions.     

Strategic investments in Japanese corporations: do foreign portfolio owners foster underinvestment or appropriate investment?

This paper investigates the effect of foreign ownership on strategic investments in Japanese corporations. Foreign owners are typically portfolio investors who frequently buy and sell shares and hold diversified portfolios of small stakes in many firms. Prior research has presented two conflicting perspectives on the role of such investors: (a) their frequent trading leads to pressure for short‐term returns that fosters underinvestment; (b) their active trading fosters appropriate investments. We investigated the relationship between foreign ownership and strategic investments using dynamic panel data analysis of a sample of 146 Japanese manufacturing firms from 1991 to 1997. We found that foreign ownership enhances strategic investments (in R&D and capital intensity) to a greater extent when firms have growth opportunities than when they lack such opportunities. We conclude that foreign ownership fosters appropriate investment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.