Ethnic Networks in FDI and the Impact of Institutional Development

Ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs are known for their active business networking practices, particularly in Southeast Asia. This paper empirically investigates the role of ethnic Chinese networks in promoting foreign direct investment (FDI). We further evaluate whether the effectiveness of networking activities are affected by the level of economic and institutional development of the source and the host countries. Using a standard gravity model, we find that ethnic Chinese networks are significant in facilitating cross‐border investment between countries. The strength of ethnic Chinese networks between country pairs, approximated by the product of the numbers of ethnic Chinese in both countries, is positively correlated with the cumulative amount of their reciprocal FDI. More importantly, this significant relationship is not limited to countries in Southeast Asia, but is applicable to other country pairs included in the study as well, regardless of whether the investment is originated from industrial countries or developing economies. Finally, the analysis finds no evidence that ethnic networks are only effective in countries where economic and legal institutions are under‐developed. Ethnic Chinese networks have played a significant role in promoting FDI to countries with a relatively higher bureaucratic quality, much more so than to countries with a lower bureaucratic quality.     

STRATEGIC R&D AND NETWORK COMPATIBILITY

We analyse the effects of network externalities in strategic R&D competition. We present a model of two firms competing with R&D investments and prices in a differentiated consumer market. Buyers form firm-specific networks which can be compatible. A high degree of compatibility and large spillovers moderate price competition due to weak strategic value of firm-specific networks and R&D investments, respectively. Asymmetry in product qualities brings out network effects that cancel out in conventional symmetric settings. The lower quality firm increases R&D and decreases its price as spillovers or network compatibility is increased. This happens when R&D and firm-specific network size have high strategic value.     

市场分割与资源错配*——基于生产率分布视角的理论与实证分析

资源错配已成为新常态下制约经济增长的重要因素。现有文献主要从要素市场扭曲视角分析了资源错配问题,而对市场分割与资源错配的研究相对缺乏。本文试图从这方面进行探讨。理论部分将市场分割引致的制度性交易成本加入企业利润函数,分别讨论企业在省内和省外市场的生产行为和定价策略,通过垄断竞争局部均衡模型分析市场分割对资源错配的影响机制。实证部分利用中国工业企业数据库的大样本微观数据对上述机制进行计量检验,以各省市之间的运输成本作为市场分割的工具变量避免估计结果的内生性问题。本文研究发现,国内市场分割指数减少一个百分点可以使资源错配程度降低394%。因此,减少市场分割所引致的制度性交易成本对于深化供给侧结构性改革、提升资源配置效率具有重要政策含义。     

Does ethnic diversity decrease economic interactions? Evidence from exchange networks in rural Gambia

Using a unique dataset collected in 59 rural Gambian villages, we study how ethnic heterogeneity is related to the structure of four economic exchange networks: land, labour, inputs and credit. We find that different measures of village‐level ethnic fragmentation are mostly uncorrelated with network structure. At a more disaggregated level, household heads belonging to ethnic minorities are not less central than those from the predominant ethnicity in any of the networks and, at the dyadic level, the fact that two households share ethnicity is not an economically significant predictor of link formation. Our results indicate that, in the particular setting of our study, the structure of the exchange networks is better defined by other variables than ethnicity and that ethnic heterogeneity is unlikely to be a driver for sub‐optimal economic exchanges.     

股票网络平台中的噪音会影响股价同步性吗

股价同步性是衡量资本市场信息效率的重要指标。股价同步性的影响机制一直以来都是金融研究的热点问题。本文使用文本分析的方法,通过机器学习度量了东方财富股吧中股民发帖评论中的非理性噪音,检验了股票网络平台中的噪音与股价同步性之间的关系。研究发现：第一,股票网络平台中的噪音会促使投资者做出非理性的投资决策,进而降低股价变动的同步性。噪音评论占全部评论的比例越高,上市公司的股价同步性越低,而且两者之间呈现倒U型的非线性关系。第二,公司个股新闻与公告数量的增加、分析师关注度的提高与外部审计质量的提升,均可以减弱股票网络平台中的噪音对股价同步性的影响。本文关注网络新媒体中的噪音对股价同步性的影响,研究结论对于监管部门加强网络信息监测以及上市公司进一步完善信息披露渠道具有现实意义。     

Explaining time variation in geographic price dispersion

The pattern of price dispersion significantly varies over time and across locations. Using a detailed dataset with product-level retail prices, we examine the role of time-varying factors in shaping the time variation of price dispersion. We find that price dispersion variation in an integrated region is mainly driven by oil prices, while the variation in a segmented region is attributed to dispersion in real income. We also find that dispersion in value-added tax rates explains a significant portion of price dispersion fluctuations in both geographic dimensions. This paper offers new evindence on the trade-off that exists for the role of time-varying factors as contributors to price dispersion variation by highlighting their relative importance across different dimensions of economic geography.     

Geographic price dispersion in retail markets: Evidence from micro-data

Using an extensive micro-price data of 266 retail goods and services across US, EU and OECD cities between 1990 and 2005, we study characteristics of geographic dispersion of deviations from the Law of One Price. We find that the magnitude of price dispersion is a function of the characteristics of both the type of good and set of locations under examination. Higher share of non-traded inputs and lower tradability of goods are both found to contribute to geographic price dispersion, with the former typically dominating in explanatory power. The role of tradability of good in accounting for the price dispersion is more significant as we move beyond an economic geography, while non-traded input level matters relatively more if we move to the interior of this geography. Our evidence suggests that the models of real exchange rates should incorporate the classical distinction between traded inputs and local inputs as well as a role for relative markups and traditional trade costs.     

The Subnational Penn Effect: Evidence from China

In this paper we estimate relative consumer price levels as of 2008 for 36 major Chinese cities, using an innovative method purposely designed to rectify three main defects of the existing literature, which are (1) the under-representation of marketized services in the sample data, (2) biased consumption weights, and (3) a mismatch between sample classification and consumption weights. Our estimation results show the “subnational Penn effect” as defined by Tang (2012), i.e., strong inter-city correlations among population size, the relative price level, per capita nominal and real income, and human capital stock, thereby showing that the theoretical model of inter-city price dispersion proposed by Tang (2012) is applicable in China. Our conclusion, methodology, and estimation results have important implications for various aspects of the Chinese economy including the regional, urban and real-estate economies.     

Asset pricing in large information networks

We study asset pricing in economies with large information networks. We focus on networks that are sparse and have power law degree distributions, in line with empirical studies of large scale social networks. Our theoretical framework yields a rich set of novel asset pricing implications. We derive closed form expressions for price, volatility, profitability and trading volume, as functions of the network topology. We also study agent welfare and show that the network that optimizes total welfare is typically a uniform one with an intermediate degree of connectedness.     

Oil price and exchange rates: A wavelet based analysis for India

In this paper, we explore linear and nonlinear Granger causalities between oil price and the real effective exchange rate of the Indian currency, known as ‘rupee’. First, we apply the standard time domain approach, but fail to find any causal relationship. So, we decompose the two series at various scales of resolution using the wavelet methodology in an effort to revisit the relationships among the decompose series on a scale by scale basis. We also use a battery of non-linear causality tests in the time and the frequency domain. We uncover linear and nonlinear causal relationships between the oil price and the real effective exchange rate of Indian rupee at higher time scales (lower frequency). Although we do not find causal relationship at the lower time scales, there is evidence of causality at higher time scales only.     

Access regulation and the adoption of VoIP

The introduction of packet-switched telephony in the form of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) raises concerns about current regulatory practice. Access regulation has been designed for traditional telephony on public networks (PSTN). In this paper we analyze the effect of access regulation and retail price regulation of PSTN networks on the adoption of a new technology in the form of VoIP. In particular, we show that with endogenous consumer choice between PSTN and VoIP telephony, higher prices for terminating access to the PSTN network make VoIP less likely to succeed and lead to lower profits of operators that offer exclusively VoIP telephony.      

Do ethnic networks influence circular migration? Evidence from the UK

This article identifies ethnic network effects among temporary migrants in the UK. Using microdata from Understanding Society and the UK Census, the empirical results show that ethnic networks change the individual probability for circular migration. These effects are strong and significant only for some ethnicities, when controlling for a set of socio-economic characteristics and when adding spatial variability     

The Indian Public Distribution System as provider of food security: Evidence from child nutrition in Andhra Pradesh

We study whether a sudden increase of the price of rice supplied by the Indian Public Distribution System in Andhra Pradesh, a large Indian state, had a negative impact on child nutrition. A few months after the price increase, a health survey started to record weight for a large sample of children. The data collection continued for several months, so that children measured later lived for a longer period of time in a less favorable price regime. Using different estimation techniques we find that longer exposure to high prices are not accompanied by worse nutritional status, as measured by weight-for-age.     

Input-output models, directed graphs and flows in networks

This article demonstrates that a dual pair of input-output price and quantity models, taken together, constitutes a composite network flow model. The network flow model has become a dominant analytical tool within the fields of operations analysis and electrical engineering, and the aim of the article is to enable input-output users within non-standard applications to take advantage of the large body of literature within these disciplines. Through a simple example it is shown that the solution of a dual pair of input-output models is a special case of the general problem of finding a minimum cost circulation in a transportation network. Second, it is shown that the common method of determining quantities and prices in input-output models is identical to the classical node method for determination of currents and voltages in an electrical network. The theory of transportation networks offers well developed methods for analysis of capacity constraints on the network flows, while the theory of electrical networks supplies methods for analysis of models with price sensitivities and for dynamic analysis. In addition, the elegant symmetry of currents and voltages in electrical networks contributes significantly to a better understanding of the logical relationship between price and quantity models.     

晚清铁路建设与市场发展

1881—1911年中国兴起了铁路建设的浪潮。我们从史料中整理了这一时期的小麦价格,将府间价格差对铁路建设进行回归,发现铁路造成铁路连接的府的价格离散程度下降了3.8%,占当时整个价格离散程度下降的约40%,控制铁路建设的内生性以后结果依然显著。我们还发现,铁路提高了沿线府间与邻近铁路府间的市场整合程度。与此同时,铁路削弱了与其平行的传统商路沿线府间的市场整合程度,却提高了铁路与传统商路联运网络中府间的市场整合程度。     

Network Effects on Trade in Intermediate Goods: Evidence from the Automobile Industry

Growing production fragmentation makes the analysis of network effects on trade in intermediate goods more important than ever. The present study measures network effects on auto parts exports from 6 major auto producing countries using a panel data set covering 49 destinations and 31 products from 2002 to 2008. In contrast to prior research, the present study finds that in the case of Japanese automakers, overseas production by subsidiary plants is less important in determining auto parts exports from Japan than it is for the other major auto producing countries. Such uniqueness could be led by the higher reliance on domestic procurements of overseas subsidiaries of Japanese automakers as a result of the transfer of the vertical networks between automakers and parts suppliers formed in Japan.     

我国植物油籽在东亚市场上的竞争力研究

运用实证研究方法,从出口价格、产品质量、市场渗透程度三个方面对我国植物油籽在东亚市场上的竞争力进行评价。结果表明：目前,我国植物油籽竞争力在日本市场上较弱,在韩国市场上较强,需要依靠科技进步、绿色环保等方式来增强竞争力。     

Strategic Pricing, Consumer Search and the Number of Firms

We examine an oligopoly model where some consumers engage in costly non-sequential search to discover prices. There are three distinct price-dispersed equilibria characterized by low, moderate and high search intensity. The effects of an increase in the number of firms on search behaviour, expected prices, price dispersion and welfare are sensitive (i) to the equilibrium consumers' search intensity, and (ii) to the status quo number of firms. For instance, when consumers search with low intensity, an increase in the number of firms reduces search, does not affect expected price, leads to greater price dispersion and reduces welfare. In contrast, when consumers search with high intensity, increased competition results in more search and lower prices when the number of competitors in the market is low to begin with, but in less search and higher prices when the number of competitors is large. Duopoly yields identical expected price and price dispersion but higher welfare than an infinite number of firms.     

Ethnic Networks and US Exports*

This paper provides new estimates of the effects of ethnic networks on US exports. In line with recent research, our dataset is a panel of exports from US states to 29 foreign countries. Our analysis departs from the literature in two ways, both of which show that previous estimates of the ethnic‐network elasticity of trade are sensitive to the restrictions imposed on the estimated models. Our first departure is to control for unobserved heterogeneity with properly specified fixed effects, which we can do because our dataset contains a time dimension absent from previous studies. Our second departure is to remove the restriction that the network effect is the same for all ethnicities. We find that ethnic‐network effects are much larger than has been estimated previously, although they are important only for a subset of countries.