Competition and price dispersion in the airline markets

We use two ticket-level data sets on one-way domestic flights for the US airlines to examine the potentially nonlinear relationship between price dispersion and three forms of competition: inter-firm, inter-flight and frequency competitions. The linear relationship is rejected at any conventional significance levels. In particular, there is an S-shaped relationship between market concentration and price dispersion. This can be a reason for the mixed results in the literature. Roughly speaking, the inter-flight and frequency competitions have opposite effects on price dispersion. Finally, in general, the size of aircraft has a positive effect on price. However, for very large aircraft, the relationship becomes negative.     

Price discrimination and price dispersion in a duopoly

This paper analyses the problem of price discrimination in a market where consumers have heterogeneous preferences both over a horizontal parameter (brand) and a vertical one (quality). Discriminatory contracts are characterized for different market structures. It is shown that price dispersion, i.e. the observed range of prices for each class of customers, increases almost everywhere as competition is introduced in the market.     

Money,price dispersion and welfare

Summary. We introduce heterogeneous preferences into a tractable model of monetary search to generate price dispersion, and then examine the effects of money growth on price dispersion and welfare. With buyers search intensity fixed, we find that money growth increases the range of (real) prices and lowers welfare as agents shift more of their consumption to less desirable goods. When buyers search intensity is endogenous, multiple equilibria are possible. In the equilibrium with the highest welfare level, money growth reduces welfare and increases the range of prices, while having ambiguous effects on search intensity. However, there can be a welfare-inferior equilibrium in which an increase in money growth increases search intensity, increases welfare, and reduces the range of prices.Received: 25 July 2003, Revised: 12 December 2003JEL Classification Numbers: E31, D60.B. Peterson, S. Shi: We thank Gabriele Camera, Aleksander Berentsen and an anonymous referee for useful suggestions. We have also received valuable comments from the participants of the workshop at Michigan State, the Purdue Conference on Monetary Theory (2003) and the Midwest Macro Meeting (Chicago, 2003). Shi gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Bank of Canada Fellowship and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The opinion expressed here is the authors own and does not reflect the view of the Bank of Canada.Correspondence to: S. Shi     

Price gouging versus price reduction in retail gasoline markets during Hurricane Rita

Using extensive hand-collected retail gas prices, I show that there was no price gouging in Bryan/College Station during Hurricane Rita. Instead, the retail price markup dropped by twelve cents during the hurricane, despite most stations running out of gas.     

Choice, price competition and complexity in markets for health insurance

The United States and other nations rely on consumer choice and price competition between competing health plans to allocate resources in the health sector. While a great deal of research has examined the efficiency consequences of adverse selection in health insurance markets, less attention has been devoted to other aspects of consumer choice. The nation of Switzerland offers a unique opportunity to study price competition in health insurance markets. Switzerland regulates health insurance markets with the aim of minimizing adverse selection and encouraging strong price competition. We examine consumer responses to price differences in local markets and the degree of price variation in local markets. Using both survey data and observations on local markets we obtain evidence suggesting that as the number of choices offered to individuals grows, their willingness to switch plans given a set of price dispersion differences declines, which allows large price differences for relatively homogeneous products to persist. We consider explanations for this phenomenon from economics and psychology.     

理解中国的实际汇率:一价定律偏离还是相对价格变动?

本文利用1997年1月至2010年9月的数据对人民币实际汇率进行分解,发现可贸易品偏离一价定律因素可以解释实际汇率波动的60%—80%,而可贸易品与不可贸易品之间的相对价格波动只能解释实际汇率波动的20%—40%。这意味着研究人民币实际汇率需要更多地从可贸易产品出发,不应仅仅强调国内不可贸易品与可贸易品的相对价格变化。进一步的研究发现,可贸易品因素对于解释人民币实际汇率占主导的结论,与中国相对于其他国家的经济体发展阶段有关。但是,上述结论并不意味着传统的"巴拉萨-萨缪尔森"效应失灵。事实上,当在计量回归中控制可贸易品偏离一价定律因素以后,巴萨效应在中国显著成立。只不过,相对于可贸易品偏离一价定律因素,巴萨效应对实际汇率波动的影响是次要的。     

我国城乡通货膨胀的趋同演化及影响因素

本文基于一价定律和我国的经济转型背景,针对城乡通胀的数据演化特征,设定内生性结构突变的平滑机制转移模型,以此检验我国城乡通胀的趋同性及其非线性调节特征,揭示我国城乡商品市场分割与整合的演化进程。结果表明:(1)我国城乡通胀差是在1994年发生结构变化的平稳过程,平稳性表明我国城乡通胀具有趋同性,城乡商品市场整体呈现一体化特征。(2)1994年前,我国城乡商品市场分割程度较大,城乡商品流通的非套利区间较宽,城乡通胀差向均衡的回调速度较快;1994年后,城乡商品流通的非套利区间较小,城乡商品市场整合程度进一步深化,城乡通胀差向均衡的回调速度较慢。(3)城乡商品流通的运输成本、信息成本和贸易壁垒等因素较好地解释了1994年后城乡通货膨胀的趋同演化。本文结果说明,城乡二元结构的逐步消除和我国近期所实施的推动城乡经济协调发展的政策,显著促进了城乡经济一体化。     

History-based price discrimination and entry in markets with switching costs: A welfare analysis

We analyze history-based price discrimination in an asymmetric industry, where an incumbent, protected by switching costs, faces an entrant who does not have access to information about consumers’ purchase histories. We demonstrate that consumer surplus is higher with uniform pricing than with history-based price discrimination. We find that the entry decision is invariant to whether the incumbent implements history-based pricing or uniform pricing. This implies that the potential abuse of market dominance imposed by history-based price discrimination is exploitation, not exclusion. Finally, we establish that the profit gain to the incumbent from history-based pricing exceeds the associated loss to consumers.     

试析我国贸易余额波动的成因

本文对HoffmaisterandRold幃ｓ( 1 999,2 0 0 1 )与Prasad ( 1 999)两文中的模型进行了扩展 ,构造了一个结构向量自回归模型 (SVAR) ,用以探讨在 1 985— 2 0 0 0年间影响中国贸易余额的因素。文章分析了国外供给冲击、国内供给冲击、相对需求冲击及名义冲击等四类因素对贸易余额的影响 ,并注意区分了结构性和短期性因素。研究结果表明 :实际冲击 ① 是影响中国贸易余额的主要因素 ;人民币汇率存在一定程度的低估 ,但汇率变动对贸易余额影响不大。因此 ,货币性手段将不足以解决所谓的中国“贸易失衡”问题。     

Hotel electronic marketing and online price dispersion in mainland China

This paper examines the hotel online-booking market in China. Information on prices along with three attributes, room type, location, and star rank, have been collected from nine representative online-booking websites. The empirical results show significant relationships between price dispersion and the room attributes. Key findings include: the higher the hotel rank and room type, the larger the price dispersion; the three cities exhibit different price dispersion patterns, and the higher the quality of the room, the larger the price dispersion is affected by location.     

特征价格法在房地产价格指数中的应用

特征价格法（Hedonic method）是将房地产价格变动中的质量特征因素进行分解,以显现出各项特征的隐含价格。并从价格的总变动中逐项剔除质量特征变动的影响,达到仅仅反映纯价格变动的目的。本文通过双重Imputation过程估计缺失价格和剔除异常值的影响,解决了可比性问题,并增强了Hedonic模型的稳定性。     

Pricing to Market of German Exporters: Evidence from Panel Data

This paper investigates pricediscrimination of German exporters across differentforeign markets. We examine the degree of pass-throughof exchange rate fluctuations in the pricing of 70export items. The model is estimated using panel dataon export unit values. Parameter estimation relies onGMM first difference, fixed effects, LAD, OLS firstdifference, and the random coefficients model. Themain results for 70 manufactured goods and 15destination countries between 1990–1994 are: Thedegree of pricing to market differs among destinationsand products. Highest pricing to market is observedfor U.S., Japan, Italy and Spain. Pricing to market ismore prevalent in exports of chemicals and fertilisersthan in machinery products.     

Institutional arrangements and price rebalancing: empirical evidence from the United States and Europe

This paper explores the rebalancing of prices for voice service in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) from conceptual and empirical perspectives. We determine the overall cost and structure of a standardized basket of residential and business services. Our data indicate that during the 1994–2000 period the degree of rate rebalancing was significantly higher in the EU than in the US. While the developments at the level of EU Member States are more heterogeneous and the process of rate rebalancing is not completed, these findings correspond to the predictions derived from our comparative institutional analysis.     

Price competition in markets with customer testing: the captive customer effect

We introduce product differentiation into the analysis of price competition in markets where suppliers test customers in order to assess whether they will pay for received goods or services. We find that, if the degree of differentiation is sufficiently high, suppliers may improve the average probability that their clientele will pay by charging higher prices. This helps suppliers to sustain high prices in equilibrium. Moreover, endogenizing locations in product space, we demonstrate that the high price level can be implemented in a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium with a high degree of differentiation. This is in contrast to the original Hotelling model with linear travel costs where a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium fails to exist.     

Wage-setting and capital in unionized markets: Evidence from South Europe

The present paper analyzes the optimal response of real wages to the installed capital stock in a dynamic monopoly union. We use data from five Southern European countries during the period 1970–2010. We explore how this rent-extraction response changes over time and across countries depending on the labor market regulatory environment or regime. Regimes are allowed to be determined endogenously by the econometric methodology and seem to be consistent with relevant anecdotal evidence. We find that wages responded positively to the capital stock during periods of heavy regulation, while this response was significantly lower or even negative when labor markets became more flexible.     

Incentive regulation in local telecommunications: The effects on price markups

The governing bodies of the telecommunications industry instituted a major shift from rate of return to price cap regulation in an effort to foster competition and improve efficiency. This paper focuses on the local exchange market and examines the price markup before and after the implementation of price cap regulation to measure the effects of the change on consumer welfare. The average price markup increased slightly after price cap regulation; however, the average price decreased, indicating that consumers benefited without firms losing from the regulatory shift.      

Institutional development and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China

Better developed legal and political institutions result in greater availability of reliable firm-specific information. When stock prices reflect more firm-specific information there will be less stock price synchronicity. This paper traces the experience of China, an economy undergoing dramatic institutional change in the last 20 years with rich variation in experiences across provinces. We show that stock price synchronicity is lower when there is institutional development in terms of property rights protection and rule of law. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of political pluralism on synchronicity. A more pluralistic regime reduces uncertainty and opaqueness regarding government interventions and therefore increases the value of firm-specific information that reduces synchronicity.     

Dynamic versus one-period completeness in event-tree security markets

We show that in event-tree security markets dynamic completeness does not coincide with one-period completeness unless the law of one price is explicitely assumed. We do so by means of a simple example of a dynamically complete market with an incomplete one-period sub-market.     

Demand system estimation in the absence of price data: an application of Stone-Lewbel price indices

This article evaluates the feasibility of estimating a system of demand equations in the absence of price information using the approach developed by Lewbel (1989). Stone-Lewbel (SL) price indices for commodity groups are constructed using information on the budget shares and the Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) of the goods comprising the commodity groups, which allows for household-level prices to be recovered. This study evaluates how susceptible are elasticities and marginal effects estimates from traditional parametric demand systems to the CPI used in the construction of the SL prices. To do this, three alternative regional CPIs are considered for the construction of the SL prices: monthly, quarterly and a constant (unity) price index. Elasticities and marginal effect estimates are computed for eight food commodity groups using the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) model as the parametric demand system and data from the United States Consumer Expenditure Survey. The estimates proved to be robust to the alternative regional CPIs considered in the construction of SL price indices, even to the absence of one. Hence, the results suggest that it is possible to accurately estimate a demand system even in the absence of price information.