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.     

Market Structure and the Speed of Price Adjustments: Evidence Of Non-Monotonicity

Rational distributed lag and partial adjustment models are used in this paper to analyze the speed of adjustment of consumer deposit rates. Dummy variables conditioned on market concentration are added to the rational distributed lag model to test for speed of adjustment differences across high, medium, and low concentration markets. The estimated model parameters suggest low, as well as high, concentration markets exhibit slower speed of adjustment (or more price rigidity) than the medium group. Thus, the results for the rational distributed lag model estimation provide empirical evidence of a possible non-monotonic relationship between market concentration and price rigidity. This relationship is further examined within the context of a partial adjustment model by estimating the speed of adjustment parameter as a non-linear (quadratic) function of market concentration. The results support the findings derived from the estimation of the rational distributed lag model. These findings have important implications for: (1) future research that attempts to empirically estimate relationships between market structure and price behavior, and (2) antitrust policies that assume reductions in market concentration will always lead to more competitive, presumably less rigid, pricing behavior.     

Multiproduct Price Regulation Under Asymmetric Information

We discuss the regulation of a multiproduct monopolist when the firm has private information about cost or demand conditions. The regulator offers the firm a set of prices from which to choose. When there is private information only about costs, the firm should always have a degree of discretion over its pricing policy. When uncertainty concerns demand, whether discretion is desirable depends on how demand elasticities vary with the scale of demands. If a positive demand shock is associated with a reduction in the market elasticity, discretion is good for overall welfare; otherwise it is not.     

Price Commitments in Standard Setting under Asymmetric Information*

Standards may create market power for the holders of standard essential patents (SEPs). To address these concerns, the literature advocates price commitments, whereby SEP holders commit to the maximum royalty they would charge were their technology included in the standard. We consider a setting in which a technology implementer holds private information about profitability. In this setting, price commitments increase efficiency not only by curbing SEP holders' market power, but also by alleviating distortions in the design of the royalty scheme. We derive conditions under which price commitments can be implemented using a simple royalty cap as used in practice.     

An Asymmetric Oligopolist can Improve Welfare by Raising Price

We demonstrate that, in Bertrand/Cournot equilibrium, a firm with a relatively small market share may improve social welfare by raising its price. This could be because the price increase can mitigate an output-structure distortion: if there are two goods which have the same marginal cost, then, under some conditions, the good in higher demand (the efficient good) will have a higher markup rate than the other good (the inefficient good). This suggests that the output structure is distorted in favor of the inefficient good, since the higher markup rate of the efficient good should lead to a considerable increase in demand for the inefficient good.     

The Influence of Reference Group House Size on House Price

This article examines the effect of a change in housing consumption of various reference groups on predicted own house price. I employ a spatial autoregressive model and find that an increase in average house size of the eight nearest neighbors and the largest houses in the district has a negative effect on predicted house price, whereas the effect of an increase in average house size of the further neighbors (9th through 16th neighbors) and the smallest houses in the district on predicted house price is positive. This suggests that the “envy effect” dominates with respect to the nearest and largest neighbors, whereas the “basking in the reflected glory” effect dominates with respect to the further smallest neighbors.     

建设项目价差预备费参考基准价格指数的选取及其适用性研究

价差预备费需要根据价格指数进行计算,近年来国家层面未对价格指数进行更新发布,使造价人员在实际工作中存在如何取定的困惑。如通过预测的方法来取定,则面临如何选择合适的参考基准价格指数的问题。文章在国内庞杂的价格指数中筛选出国内生产总值平减指数(GDP平减指数)、居民消费价格指数(CPI)、商品零售价格指数、固定资产投资价格指数、工业生产者出厂价格指数、工业生产者购进价格指数进行分析和研究,通过内涵分析和数理分析的方法研究发现固定资产投资价格指数、国内生产总值平减指数(GDP平减指数)更适合作为预测价差预备费的参考基准价格指数,以期为同行在价差预备费计算方面提供有益的借鉴。     

国际油价冲击与中国的经济增长——基于非对称关系视角的分析

本文基于季度数据,引入非对称协整模型,考察国际油价与中国经济增长的动态关系,并鉴于油价波动对不发达经济体可能的冲击,还测度了油价的不确定性并探析其对经济增长的影响,结果表明：（1）从短期来看,国际油价变化是国内经济增长的单向Granger原因,“中国因素”对全球油价变化的影响尚不明显;（2）从长期来看,国际油价和经济增长具有非对称协整关系,油价上涨对经济的影响明显大于油价下跌所产生的效应;（3）国际石油市场存在正反馈交易行为,导致油价波动在油价上涨时表现更加明显。油价不确定性在短期内对经济增长存在负面影响,长期中则不会显著影响经济增长。以上结果意味着必须高度重视石油安全问题,加强油价波动预警与风险管理系统。     

House Prices and Regional Real Estate Cycles: Market Adjustments in Houston

Real estate cycles often generate sharp swings in real housing prices, price changes that cannot be adequately described by a single statistic such as median home values. Instead, the entire structure of prices across all quality levels must be examined. This paper analyzes the price impact of the Houston, Texas, real estate bust. It shows that the average price of housing fell, and that the structure of the housing price function itself changed. Changes in the marginal price of housing were probably more significant to the market equilibrating process than the decline in average price alone.     

Listing Price, Time on Market, and Ultimate Selling Price: Causes and Effects of Listing Price Changes

Information about price changes during a home's marketing period is typically missing from data used to investigate the listing price, selling price, and selling time relationship. This paper incorporates price revision information into the study of this relationship. Using a maximum-likelihood probit model, we examine the determinants of list price changes and find evidence consistent with the theory of pricing behavior under demand uncertainty. Homes most likely to undergo list price changes are those with high initial markups and vacant homes, while homes with unusual features are the least likely to experience a price revision. We also explore the impact of missing price change information on estimating a representative model of house price and market time. Our results suggest that mispricing the home in the initial listing is costly to the seller in both time and money. Homes with large percentage changes in list price take longer to sell and ultimately sell at lower prices.     

煤炭价格与石油价格的波动溢出效应分析

本文通过建立BEKK-MGARCH模型对煤炭价格与石油价格之间的关系做了深入的研究.结果揭示了煤炭市场价格和石油市场价格之间除了正相关关系外,有显著的双向价格溢出效应,而且波动是非对称的,波动溢出的短期模式和长期模式并不完全相同.煤炭与石油互为替代能源,当石油价格上升时,会对煤炭市场形成冲击,刺激煤炭价格上升;同样煤炭价格的上升在短期对石油价格也有些许冲击,但是长期来看,影响不大.     

Heterogeneous Firms and Asymmetric Product Differentiation

We introduce asymmetric product differentiation in a model characterized by a linear demand system, endogenous markups and heterogeneous firms (as in Melitz‐Ottaviano [2008]). In particular, a single industry is divided into a number of market segments, each characterized by a different degree of horizontal product differentiation. Such a setup allows us to explain, within a single theoretical framework, the non‐linear relations between firm productivity, size and exporting behavior that have been documented by the empirical literature. The theoretical results are tested empirically by examining the performance of French wine producers operating in market segments characterized by different levels of horizontal product differentiation. Such segments are identified using the official classification of French wines based upon the controlled denomination of origin, i.e., the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system.     

民营纺企.内外兼修立潮头

2002年的中国纺织业，经济增长活力四射，投资创业蓬勃兴起。尤其引人注目的是，民营纺织经济异军突起。显示出旺盛的生命力和经济活力。为纺织工业的发展和国民经济全局做出了突出贡献。有关资料显示，目前民营纺织经济生产总量已占到纺织工业生产总量的1/3，在效益和出口创汇方面更是发挥了巨大的作用。依靠观念、机制等各方面的优势，经过十几年的发展。纺织民营经济已经成为中国纺织工业一支不可忽视的力量。活跃在市场经济的风口浪尖。     

Price Premium and Foreclosure Risk

Many previous studies identify loan, property, borrower and environmental factors that impact the probability of foreclosure. Implicit in these studies is the assumption that the property was purchased at fair value. We question this assumption based on several empirical findings regarding property value uncertainty. In contrast to previous research, we explicitly quantify the price premium from a hedonic pricing model. Using a comprehensive database of real estate transactions in Singapore during 1989–2000, we document a price premium associated with properties that are subsequently foreclosed based on actual sales transactions. In addition, we find that the premium paid at purchase significantly increases the probability of foreclosure. These results are robust and continue to hold after controlling for other property-specific factors, time-varying macroeconomic conditions, alternative model specifications and definitions of price premium.     

Price uncertainty and output concentration

This paper conducts an empirical investigation to assess the impact of price uncertainty on industry output concentration. Results show that greater price uncertainty leads to greater output concentration; the result is robust to controls for technological factors, barriers to entry effects and other industry controls. The empirical results are consistent with theory which shows that depending on firms attitudes towards risk, output concentration is likely to be endogenous to price uncertainty. Our empirical finding suggests that examining the magnitude of uncertainty could be a useful additional criteria in antitrust policymaking.     

Symmetric and Asymmetric Stationarity Tests of Productivity

Studies of productivity in the operations and engineering management literature have typically focused on identifying the drivers of productivity and how best to manage resources. To date, the issues of the time-series behavior and the stochastic structure of productivity have largely been overlooked. This article examines the times-series properties of productivity utilizing several unit root and stationarity tests including one that allows for asymmetric adjustments to equilibrium. The findings suggest that productivity is a nonstationary process and first-differencing is necessary to render a stationary series. Moreover, we find some evidence of an asymmetric adjustment process in the productivity growth rates of manufacturing.     

Asymmetric rivalry within and between strategic groups

Our study examines asymmetric rivalry within and between strategic groups defined according to the size of their members. We hypothesize that, owing to several forms of group‐level effects, including switching costs and efficiency, strategic groups comprising large firms expect to experience a large amount of retaliation from firms within their group and accommodation from the group comprising smaller firms. Small firms, on the other hand, expect to experience a small amount of retaliation from the group comprising large firms and no reaction from the other firms in their group. We estimate the effect of group‐level strategic interactions on firm performance. Our analysis reveals that the rivalry behavior within and between groups is asymmetric, which supports the dominant‐fringe relation between firms, as described in our hypothesis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Roles of Knowledge Providers,Knowledge Recipients,and Knowledge Usage in Bridging Structural Holes

Studies have suggested that firms can benefit from bridging two or more otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks (i.e., structural holes) as a potentially useful source of external knowledge for innovation. However, past research also noted that the relationship between bridging structural holes and firm innovation varies significantly. Building on the earlier research that has examined the industrial, structural, and institutional dimensions of this relationship, the purpose of this research is to study how the different characteristics of the external knowledge provided by bridging structural holes in a focal firm’s ego network might moderate the relationship between bridging structural holes and firm innovation. Using longitudinal data from the U.S. computer industry, this study showed that focal firms that bridged otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks enjoyed higher levels of innovation. In addition, it showed that this relationship was particularly stronger when the focal firms and the disconnected firms that they bridged operated in similar rather than different markets but when the focal firms and the disconnected firms worked on different rather than similar technological domains. The results also revealed that the relationship was stronger when the focal firms’ knowledge specialization was low rather than high and when the focal firms emphasized incremental rather than breakthrough innovation. These findings show companies how they can benefit from bridging otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks and help them make more informed decisions pertaining to such bridging activities.     

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.     

知识、知识管理与博客

在知识经济的背景下，对于个人和企业而言，能够收集、提取、共享和应用知识成为保持竞争力的最重要的能力之一，博客的知识管理作用已开始在全球信息化的潮流中显示出强大的发展潜力。[编者按]