Relative Emission Standard versus Tax under Oligopoly: The Role of Free Entry

We compare the effects of an emission tax, and those of a relative emission standard, on welfare and pollution levels under oligopolistic market structures. We consider the cases where the number of firms is fixed and where there is free entry and exit of firms. When the number of firms is fixed, (i) a relative emission standard is welfare-superior to an emission-equivalent emission tax, and (ii) an emission tax is emission-superior to a welfare-equivalent relative emission standard. Under free entry and exit, the results are just the opposite when the inverse demand function is concave.     

Welfare Effects of Commodity Taxation in Cournot Oligopoly

In the context of Cournot oligopoly with possibly asymmetric costs, this paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for a small specific tax and a small ad valorem tax to increase total surplus. The paper also shows that a shift from a small specific tax to a small ad valorem tax, leaving the tax revenue unchanged, increases the total surplus.
JEL Classification Numbers: D43, H21, L13.     

Dynamics of Export Market Entry and Exit*

We apply discrete time duration models to explain the duration until new plants start to export and the duration until exit from the export markets, using data on Finnish manufacturing plants. Plants that are large, young, highly productive, and with high‐capital intensity are likely to enter the export market earlier and to survive in the export market longer. Foreign ownership increases chances of export entry, especially for small and low human capital plants, and decreases the risk of export failure for large, high‐productivity plants. The upper and lower tails of the productivity distribution are represented by plants that start exporting and those that are exiting, respectively.     

论市场进入程度

本文的分析表明:当市场进入的沉淀成本、需求状况、产品差异化以及企业家能力等这些影响市场进入程度的因素由外生变量变为内生变量时,市场进入程度也随之发生改变.基于促进市场形成有效竞争为出发点,从产业组织政策和企业竞争战略两个角度,本文提出了我国避免过度竞争和过度垄断的对策选择.     

Optimal Commodity Taxation in the Presence of Tourists

Abstract

This paper explores empirically whether Japanese consumers became more prudent in the second half of the 1990s, a decade in which Japan registered historically low economic growth. Employing the methodology developed by Dynan (1993), this study uses micro-level data from the Family Savings Survey and the Family Income and Expenditure Survey to estimate the coefficient of prudence for Japanese households in the second half of the 1990s. The estimates reveal that the coefficient of prudence is positive and statistically significant in the 1998–1999 period. The obtained value for the coefficient of prudence is four, which is much higher than that estimated for US households (not significantly different from zero) or UK households (around 2). The estimated coefficient for young households is higher still, which is consistent with simulation studies conducted by Gourinchas & Parker (2002) showing that precaution is the most important saving motive for younger households.     

“入世”对我国物资批发业的影响及对策

文章主要围绕加入WTO后对我国物资批发业提出的挑战 ,分析了我国物资企业与国外分销商的差距和外资进入对物资批发业产生的影响 ,并在此基础上提出了一些积极的应对措施。     

战略因素影响下的企业海外市场进入模式选择

企业海外市场进入模式选择受到企业内外部多重因素的影响。经济学范式的进入模式选择理论主要从利润最大化的角度加以分析,对于许多情况下企业的非最大化进入行为缺乏说服力。本文旨在探讨企业内部战略因素对海外市场进入模式选择的影响,以揭示企业在不同战略导向下的进入模式选择。     

Commodity Taxation and the Effects of Entry: A Case of Variety Preferences

We study the relationship between commodity taxation and the effect of entry with imperfect competition. We develop a simple general equilibrium model with imperfect competition in which consumers have variety preferences. As a result, we see that introducing specific taxes increases social welfare. Furthermore, we show that the optimal tax rule is contrary to the inverse elasticity rule.Acknowledgement We wish to thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.     

Social Inefficiency of Free Entry with Status Effects

Free markets may support too many or too few firms. Traditional analysis does not provide unambiguous conclusion in this respect. This paper introduces status effects of consumption into the model. It shows that a sufficiently significant status effect tends to support too many firms. Two conditions are required for this result. First, complementary effect between status and consumption is not significant. Second, a higher average status consumption level makes everyone more difficult to get the same degree of gain in status. Both conditions appear to be realistic.     

On the Uniqueness of the Welfare–maximizing Number of Firms Under Cournot Oligopoly

Under Cournot oligopoly with a homogeneous product, we present a sufficient condition that guarantees the uniqueness of the welfare–maximizing number of firms to attain the global maximum level of welfare by implementation of a piecemeal policy changing the number of firms gradually. We adopt Selten's (1973) 'fitting–in function' method, which relates an individual firm's output to an industry's output. When the number of firms is unique, then introducing a lump–sum profit tax (subsidy) can attain the optimal level of welfare. Indirect entry regulation is superior to direct entry regulation from the standpoint of welfare if each entrant engages in rent–seeking activities.     

Exporting and Productivity: The Effects of Multi‐Product and Multi‐Market Export Entry

Empirical studies on the micro‐level effects of exporting on productivity pay usually little attention to the potentially heterogeneous effects of the different modes of export market entry. We show that multi‐product export entry is associated with higher post‐entry productivity compared to other firms. This can imply significant benefits from experimentation with different products. Our analysis is based on detailed export data from full population of firms in Estonia, disaggregated for each firm by export markets and individual products.     

浅谈入世后中国出口企业的竞争策略

加入WTO后 ,出口企业必须转变竞争观念 ,尽快从低价竞争转向优质优价 ,不断提高我国出口企业的非价格竞争实力 ,使我国从贸易大国走向贸易强国。     

Entry Invitations in a Market with Network Effects

Abstract

This paper reinvestigates the well-known claim by Economides (1996) that the network effects can lead a monopolist to give away its technology for free. This so-called ‘open’ strategy is likely to be adopted when marginal network effects are strong but not too strong relative to marginal price effects. Highly elastic demand and highly convex costs also increase the likelihood of such a strategy. I first study the case in which the post-entry market structure is of the Cournot type and later compare the results with the Stackelberg case.     

Productivity Performance of Export Market Entry and Exit: Evidence from Indian Firms

This paper contributes to the literature on exporting and firm productivity, focusing on export entry (efficiency), learning (post‐entry growth) and exit (inefficiency) by Indian firms. Drawing on 7000 firms during 1989–2009, our main objective is to examine the effect of exporting on firm productivity, correcting for selection bias using propensity‐score matching, which allows a “like‐for‐like” comparison between new exporters and nonexporters. Robust to different matching estimators, we find evidence of learning‐by‐exporting that new exporters acquire rapid productivity growth after entry, relative to nonexporters. We also find that (1) exporters are more productive than nonexporters; (2) productive firms tend to self‐select in entering the exporting market, and (3) least productive exporters are found to exit the export market as they experience adverse productivity effect prior to the year of exit. Our robust result on learning‐by‐exporting suggests that entering export market does appear to be a channel explaining the Indian recent growth miracle.     

市场经济税收目标的设计

市场经济的税收目标是建立实现资源配置优化的公平税收制度,具体体现在三个方面:效率优先、有限公平和收入适度.适合我国税制改革方向的税收公平评价体系应在经济、社会、生态三个层次上体现出来.实证分析表明,我国具有较大的减税空间.虽然我国目前还不具备全面减税的条件,但首先可以在完善出口退税机制、取消汽车等商品的消费税、减轻农民税负等方面实行有针对性的减税.     

On the Effects of Entry in Cournot Markets

In the framework of symmetric Cournot oligopoly, this paper provides two minimal sets of assumptions on the demand and cost functions that imply respectively that, as the number of firms increases, the minimal and maximal equilibria lead to (i) decreasing industry price and increasing or decreasing per-firm output; and (ii) increasing industry price (and decreasing per firm output.) In both cases, per-firm profits are decreasing.
The analysis relies crucially on lattice-theoretic methods and yields general, unambiguous and easily interpretable conclusions of a global nature. As a byproduct of independent interest, new insight into the existence of Cournot equilibrium is developed.     

Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets

Exporters normally enter their first foreign markets some time after beginning to sell locally, then enter subsequent markets progressively. Standard trade models are essentially static and do not explain these elementary facts about exporting, which can bias the estimation of trade patterns. This paper proposes a model that endogenously generates the timing of entry to new export markets. The timing results from a learning mechanism. More productive firms are less sensitive to the learning effect and therefore (1) enter markets more quickly and (2) enter larger markets earlier and smaller markets later. These predictions are confirmed using Swedish firm‐level data.     

寡头垄断市场结构的微观经济效率分析

文章将威廉姆森的垄断效率分析模型引入时间因素,构建自己的长期效率分析模型。分析结论是自发形成的,寡头垄断市场结构代替竞争性市场结构也常常是具有经济效率的。如果经济本身加上政府的政策可以使市场价格迅速收敛到产品平均成本水平,则寡头垄断市场代替完全竞争市场一定是有效率的,且其本身也在短期内达到帕累托最优。     

论完善我国证券市场税收制度

中国的证券市场正向着市场化、国际化、规模化、专业化的方向发展。但我国证券税收制度却存在着种种不足,影 响了我国证券市场的规范、健康、稳定发展。本文从对完善我国证券市场税收制度的基本出发点的分析着手,在系统分析我 国证券市场税收制度存在的问题的基础上,提出了完善我国证券税收制度的相关政策建议。     

The Effects of Tariffs and Export Subsidies on Entry Barriers and Investment

This paper explains the effects of unilateral tariffs and export subsidies on entry decisions in an imperfectly competitive industry, and suggests that carefully targeted trade policies play a strategic role in shifting the industry structure and the terms of subsequent competition. The model provides a new justification for tariffs which is different from the traditional infant industry argument; the tariff affects foreign firms' reactions as well as those of the domestic firms. [410]