Airline Market Power and Intertemporal Price Dispersion

This paper analyzes the empirical relationship between market structure and price dispersion in the airline markets connecting the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. Price dispersion is measured by the Gini coefficient, calculated using fares posted on the Internet at specific days before takeoff. We control for passengers' heterogeneity in their purpose of travel, as well as for such peak periods as Christmas and Easter. Our finding of a negative correlation between competition and price dispersion suggests that competition is likely to hinder the airlines' ability to price discriminate, although this effect appears to be lessened in peak periods.     

Competition in Grocery Retailing: The Impact of a New Strategic Group on BLS Price Increases

Metropolitan areas with a significant presence of warehouse stores had lower retail food price increases during 1977 to 1992 than did areas with no warehouse stores. The negative impact occurred largely during the first half of the 15-year period. Strategic learning appears to have led to a different response from incumbent supermarkets during 1985–1992. Change in prices was positively related to change in concentration and negatively related to entry.     

审计市场中的合并、产业专用化投资和价格竞争

本文从产业组织的角度，分析了审计市场的合并、产业专用化和价格竞争等竞争行为，并进一步探讨了这些行为对审计质量和社会福利的影响。本文认为，审计质量的信号传递机制推动了产业中的合并行为，而审计产业的专用化投资行为在于策略性地阻止进入。由于审计产品的异质性、信任品特性以及强大的买方谈判能力使得审计市场存在激烈的价格竞争，而合并和产业专用化投资有助于事务所降低成本。因而，审计市场的竞争提高了社会福利。     

Price Dispersion and Price Discrimination: Empirical Evidence from a Spot Market for Water

This note shows the existence of price dispersion and pricediscrimination in a spot market for water.Several behaviors contributing to this dispersion/discrimination arefound for both the seller and buyer in this relatively competitive market,and examples are given of each. Using some previous theoretical work,the common thread linking the differing behaviors is shown to bediffering levels of information and search costs.     

A Price Dispersion Equilibrium in a Spatially Differentiated Housing Market with Search Costs

An equilibrium model of search in a spatially differentiated rental housing market is formulated that predicts both rent dispersion and equilibrium vacancies. The equilibrium rent distribution is determined on the landlord's (rental supply) side given tenants' search strategies. Then tenants' optimal search strategy, denned by the share of the market a tenant searches, is determined given the costs and benefits of search and the distribution of landlords' rents. The equations of supply and demand for rental units are then combined to derive a costly information, free-entry Nash equilibrium in the market rents. Finally, the sensitivity of equilibrium vacancies and rents to changes in search costs and other exogenous parameters is explored.     

Optimal Pricing Strategy in the Case of Price Dispersion: New Evidence from the Tokyo Housing Market

We adopt a multistage search model, in which the home seller's reservation price is determined by her or his opportunity cost, search cost, discount rate and additional market parameters. The model indicates that a greater dispersion in offer prices leads to higher reservation and optimal asking prices. A unique dataset from the Tokyo condominium resale market enables us to test those modeled hypotheses. Empirical results indicate that a one percentage point increase in the standard deviation of submarket transaction prices results in a two‐tenths of a percent increase in the initial asking price and in the final transaction price. Increases in the dispersion of market prices enhance the probabilities of a successful transaction and/or an accelerated sale.     

以质量求生存 靠质量闯市场 视超越为目标 凭实力创辉煌

全面、系统地阐述了长庆石油勘探局的质量管理工作，即：建立和完善质量管理规章制度；作宣贯和质量体系认证；加强施工过程质量控制；实施产品质量的网络动态管理；实施品牌战略；实行用户质量回访质量。并就如何进一步开展质量管理工作进行了探讨。     

Price Dispersion in Mortgage Markets

Using transaction‐level data on Canadian mortgage contracts, we document an increase in the average discount negotiated off the posted price and in rate dispersion. Our aim is to identify the beneficiaries of discounting and to test whether dispersion is caused by price discrimination. The standard explanation for dispersion in credit markets is risk‐based pricing. Our contracts are guaranteed by government‐backed insurance, so risk cannot be the main factor. We find that lenders set prices that reflect consumer bargaining leverage, not just costs. The presence of dispersion implies a lack of competition, but our results show this to be consumer specific.     

Price Competition and Market Structure: The Impact of Cartel Policy on Concentration in the UK

This paper examines the impact of firms' conduct on market structure. It studies the evolution of concentration in UK manufacturing following the abolition of cartels using a theoretical framework based on Sutton's theory of market structure and a panel data set of four-digit industries over 1958–1977. The econometric results suggest that the intensity of price competition has a positive effect on concentration in exogenous sunk cost industries as well as in advertising-intensive and R&D-intensive industries. The concentration-market size relationship, while negative in exogenous sunk cost industries, breaks down in industries with high advertising or R&D intensity.     

Price Competition and Market Segmentation in Retail Gasoline: New Evidence from South Korea

I examine price dispersion in retail gasoline and focus on differentiation along the service dimension: full service versus self service. Consistent with more intensive search by self-service customers, I find that price dispersion always decreases with the number of nearby self-service stations, but does not decrease with the number of nearby full-service stations. When I segment the market by brand, I observe that the estimates are sensitive to how brands are separated into different types. These findings show that the market is more clearly segmented by service level than by brand type and also highlight the importance of product differentiation when modeling price dispersion.     

Search Costs and Price Dispersion in a Localized,Homogeneous Product Market: Some Empirical Evidence

Convenience stores provide an opportunity to compare the price dispersion that occurs for gasoline, which is characterized by relatively low search and information costs to consumers, with that of in-store items, which are characterized by relatively high search and information costs to consumers. The results obtained from this study support the hypothesis that differences in search and information costs for consumers play a significant role in explaining the observed price dispersion that occurs for homogeneous items sold at convenience stores.     

The Size and Frequency of Price Changes: Evidence from Grocery Stores

We analyze a data set (on grocerystore prices for lettuce) with many advantages overthose used previously to explain firm heterogeneity inthe size and frequency of price changes. Despitecommon shocks to their input price, grocers' pricechanges vary widely in size and frequency. We testhypotheses emerging from a theoretical framework. Wefind that product, firm, and market characteristicsassociated with the benefits from and costs ofchanging price explain grocer-to-grocer variation inthe size and frequency of price changes. Moreconcentrated markets, larger firm size, and thinnerproduct markets lead to infrequent and large pricechanges.     

Asymmetric Price Effects of Competition

When price dispersion is prevalent, a relevant question is what happens to the whole distribution of equilibrium prices when the number of firms changes. Using data from the gasoline market in the Netherlands, we find, first, that markets with N competitors have price distributions that first‐order stochastically dominate the price distributions in markets with N+1 firms. Second, the effect of competition is stronger for the medium to upper percentiles of the price distribution. Finally, consumer gains from competition are larger for relatively well‐informed consumers. To account for these empirical patterns, we extend Varian's [1980] model by allowing for richer heterogeneity in consumer price information.     

Spatial Price Discrimination in Input Markets with an Endogenous Market Boundary

This paper examines the welfare effect of third-degree price discrimination in a vertically related market with one upstream monopolist that sells its input to a continuum of downstream markets. Assume that the market boundary of the monopolist is endogenously determined. It is found that social welfare is necessarily lower under discriminatory than uniform pricing, even if the market area of the former is greater than that of the latter. This finding is contrary to that in the extant literature on price discrimination in final goods markets.     

我国彩电产业的价格竞争、价格战与产业绩效

一、彩电产业价格战诱因与动机的初步分析从 2 0世纪 80年代初期至 1 990年为止 ,我国彩色电视机产量和销量都获得了较大的增长。 1 985～ 1 990年 ,彩电产量与市场销量分别从 435 .3万台和 378.6万台增加到 1 0 33万台和980万台。随着国内彩电厂商生产规模的扩大 ,规模经济因素逐渐发挥作用 ,一些在成本结构上具有优势的企业为了更好地扩张规模 ,开始运用价格竞争手段。例如 ,四川长虹于 1 989年率先发起了价格战 ,这为行业领先企业迅速扩大市场份额提供了基础。不过 ,价格竞争在这一时期对业内企业带来的冲击力 ,被两个因素所大大缓解。一…     

Market Share Dispersion Among Leading Firms as a Determinant of Advertising Intensity

Previous advertising intensity models have failed toaddress adequately the rivalry effects of leadingfirms trying to protect and enhance the marketshares of their brands. We argue that the relativedegree of market share parity among leading firms inoligopolies is a crucial determinant of marketadvertising levels. This study presents a modelthat more thoroughly characterizes market structureby including the variance in the market shares ofthe top four firms along with the concentrationratio. This model is then tested using a unique1987 data set of 58 well-defined U.S. food andtobacco manufacturing markets that used private datavendors for branded product market shares and mediaadvertising aimed at household consumers. We findthat industry advertising-to-sales ratios arehighest in those industries with the highestprice-cost margins, highest concentration, and thosewith equally-sized leading firms. Oligopolists seemunable to control advertising expenses asconcentration increases and they likely overinvestin advertising rivalry when they have similar marketshares.     

电力企业要全面进入现代竞争市场

●电力交易竞争涉及到电力竞争理念、竞争态势、运作思路、运作手段,以及相关政策和法律法规制定等转变,这对于电力工作者和有关部门工作者都是一件全新的工作。●中国的电网公司仍然是个紧密联结的法人群体。他们之间的关系,一种是兄弟公司关系,另一种是母子公司关系。在当前情况下要最大限度地防止把计划经济条件下形成的行政指挥管理的传统习惯带进母子公司关系中来,尽力培育独立法人实体的相互关系,做到依法办事,依法处理相互之间的各项事务。     

软包装市场的全球性竞争

据有关资料,全球消费品的软包装市场高达300亿美元。随着消费品生产的全球化,包装基材供应的国际化已经不再是新概念。但包装加工集团的全球化相对而言仍是一个全新的现象。     

发电市场寡头竞争综述

讨论了寡头市场中常用的三个模型(Bertrand、Cournot和供应函数模型)在发电市场中的应用,而且比较系统地综述了寡头竞争理论与方法中的一些基本问题和研究状况,评述了相关文献,从几个方面提出寡头竞争理论研究的发展趋势.分析了各模型的特点及存在的问题,指出它们应用的局限性.     

Speculators and Price Overreaction in the Housing Market

This paper investigates the role of speculators in the housing market, specifically their contribution to price overreaction through positive feedback trading (or momentum trading). We exploit a unique data set of condominium transactions in a residential real estate market where transaction traits associated with short‐term speculation can be identified. In the cross‐section of housing projects, a 10‐percentage‐point increase in trading activity following a strong short‐run market price rise predicts a negative subsequent monthly price change of 0.5% at the project level. Moreover, the price reversal effect associated with the momentum trading by short‐term speculators is two to three times stronger, and holding such trading constant, momentum trading in general has little additional impact. Our findings further suggest that momentum trading by short‐term speculators contributes to price overreaction largely in submarkets with lower information efficiency.