On the theory of the competitive labor-managed firm under price uncertainty

The short-run behavior of a labor-managed firm under competitive assumptions and price uncertainty is analyzed assuming risk aversion. It is compared with its behavior under certainty and the behavior of a capitalist-managed firm under price uncertainty. It is shown that a risk-averse labor-managed firm employs more labor than a risk-neutral labor-managed firm. Generally, uncertainty is seen to have greater impact on the behavior of a labor-managed firm than on the behavior of a capitalist-managed firm. Except under constant risk aversion, the behavior of a labor-managed firm under price uncertainty is less predictable than that of a capitalist-managed firm.     

Emission tax and optimal privatization in Cournot–Bertrand comparison

We compare a Cournot with a Bertrand duopoly in a differentiated mixed market when both emission tax and privatization policies are used together. We find that the optimal emission tax is always lower than the marginal environmental damage, and it is always lower under Cournot than under Bertrand. We also find that the optimal privatization is always a partial privatization, and it is always higher under Cournot than under Bertrand. The socially optimal combinations of emission tax and privatization will damage the environment most, but Cournot yields lower environmental damage and social welfare than those under Bertrand. Finally, we show that the environmental damage is non-monotone in the level of privatization under both Cournot and Bertrand competitions.     

Quantitative Import Restrictions and Optimal Capital Taxes Under a System of Tax Credits

This paper examines the optimal capital tax policy under quantitative import constraints, and international capital tax credits. For a small capital-importing country, the optimal capital tax equals the foreign tax under a quota, and equals or exceeds the foreign tax under a VER. For a small capital-exporting country, the optimal policy towards capital is a zero tax under a quota, and a tax or a subsidy under a VER. Also examined are the welfare effects of capital taxes and trade liberalization, and the joint setting of the two policies, when both instruments are available to the government.     

International Reserves under Floating Exchange Rates: Two Paradoxes Explained*

The paper provides expressions for optimal international reserve holdings under floating exchange rates These expressions indicate why reserves are held under a floating regime and why the level of reserve holdings under floating rates may be similar to holdings under fixed rates.     

Irreversible abatement investment under cost uncertainties: tradable emission permits and emissions charges

A major concern with tradable emission permits is that stochastic permit prices may reduce a firm’s incentive to invest in abatement capital or technologies relative to other policies such as a fixed emissions charge. However, under efficient permit trading, the permit price uncertainty is caused by abatement cost uncertainties which affect investment under both permit and charge policies. We develop a rational expectations general equilibrium model of permit trading and irreversible abatement investment to show how cost uncertainties affect investment under permits. We compare the resulting investment incentive with that under charges. After controlling for the assumption that random shocks affect the abatement cost linearly, we find that firms’ investment incentive decreases in cost uncertainties, but more so under emissions charges than under permits. Therefore, tradable permits in fact may help maintain firms’ investment incentive under uncertainty.     

Patents,imitation and welfare

We consider the effects of product and process patents on profits and welfare. In a duopoly model, we show that if the cost of imitation is not very large, prisoner's dilemma occurs under process patent, thus creating lower profit of each firm under process patent than under product patent. Welfare is higher under process (product) patent for very small (not very small) cost of imitation. Although the possibility of cross-licensing never makes lower welfare under process patent for all costs of imitation, welfare is never lower under product patent under infinitely repeated game.     

Unionized labor market and licensing by a monopolist

We show that a monopolistic final goods producer may find it profitable to create competition by licensing its technology if the input market is imperfectly competitive. With a centralized union, we show that licensing by a monopolist is profitable under both uniform and discriminatory wage settings by the union. However, the incentive for licensing is higher under the former situation. We also show that licensing by the monopolist is profitable under both quantity and price competition, and the incentive for licensing is higher under price competition than under quantity competition. Our qualitative results hold even with decentralized unions.      

Opportunism,incentives, and the m-form hypothesis: A laboratory study

Opportunism is one central premise of the M-form hypothesis. This premise is investigated in a laboratory experiment using M-form and U-form organizations under incentives based on corporate profit and divisional profits. There was greater opportunism under U-form organization than under the M-form, and under divisional profit than under corporate profit incentives. Additionally, a misguided altruism lead a number of individuals to misrepresent information. The M-form yields higher performance than the U-form. Also, corporate profit incentives yield higher total profit than divisional profit incentives. The results partially explain why empirical studies do not strongly support the M-form hypothesis.     

Vertical separation versus vertical integration in a macroeconomic model with imperfect competition

This paper develops a monopolistic competition macroeconomic model, and uses it to discuss the determination of relevant macro variables under both vertical separation and vertical integration regimes. Several main findings emerge from the analysis. First, in the market equilibrium aggregate output and consumption under the vertical integration regime are greater than under the vertical separation regime, while the product price index under the vertical integration regime is lower than that under the vertical separation regime. Secondly, the level of real aggregate profits under the vertical integration regime will be higher (lower) than that under the vertical separation regime if the degree of monopoly power is relatively large (small). Third, the welfare level under the vertical integration regime will be higher than that under the vertical separation regime regardless of the degree of monopoly power.     

The Optimal Privatization Policies under an International Mixed Duopoly

This paper explores the socially optimal privatization policies under the setting of international mixed duopoly. We find that partial privatization is socially optimal under Cournot competition and private leadership competition, whereas full nationalization is socially optimal under public leadership competition. Moreover, the equilibrium social welfare under private leadership competition is higher than that observed under Cournot competition and that observed under private leadership competition, which differs from the findings of Matsumura ( 2003b ). We also show that the endogenous timing game has a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium outcome, under which the government chooses a partial privatization policy, and private leadership competition emerges as the optimal output decision sequence of firms. An important policy implication from this paper is that the government should partially privatize the public firm and facilitate the emergence of private leadership competition in an international mixed market.     

Optimal choice of monetary policy instruments under velocity and fiscal shocks

This paper, in the spirit of Poole [Poole, William, 1970. The Optimal Choice of Monetary Policy Instruments in a Simple Macro Model. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84, 192–216.], studies how differently monetary and fiscal shocks influence the appropriate choice of the monetary policy regime. Velocity shocks are introduced by embedding a stochastic cash-in-advance constraint within the New Keynesian framework. In addition to optimal policy under discretion, three classic rules, interest rate targeting, monetary targeting, and the Taylor rule are ranked under both fiscal and velocity shocks. The non-stationarity of prices under the Taylor rule makes it inferior to the other rules under which prices are stationary. Monetary targeting, by stabilizing aggregate demand under fiscal shocks, outperforms interest rate targeting, while the latter provides a better insulation against velocity shocks. Monetary targeting (under fiscal shocks) and interest rate targeting (under velocity shocks) even outperform the optimal policy under discretion for sufficiently high intertemporal elasticities of consumption substitution.     

Real assets, financial assets, liquidity and the lemon problem

Return obtained by diversification is based on average quality. Similarly, under asymmetric information, the price at which an asset can be sold reflects the average quality of assets. Therefore, 4under some conditions, sale of an asset under asymmetric information is a useful alternative to diversification. This idea is developed with a model that incorporates a liquidity shock. One key result is that investment in real assets is higher under asymmetric information than under symmetric information. The model can explain why the ratio of real assets to financial assets is higher in emerging economies than in developed countries.     

所有权类型的激励效果与国有资产布局的关系

从不同所有权类型的激励效果出发,在社会福利最大化的约束下,研究了私有产权与国有产权在产业间的配置问题。基本结论如下:私有制下企业经理工作努力水平、创新投资、成本降低投资高于国有制下的水平,但私有制下的公共投资低于国有制下的水平:就某一产业来说,从社会整体效益来看,存在国有产权与私有产权的权衡问题;具体而言,当产业外部收益较大且产业重要程度较高时,应采取国有所有权形式,否则应采取私有所有权形式。     

Centralized versus decentralized taxation of mobile polluting firms

We consider a world in which a mobile polluting firm must locate in one of two regions. The regions differ in two dimensions: their marginal cost of pollution and the production cost of the firm. It is shown that under incomplete information on regional marginal costs of pollution, fiscal competition may lead to the sub-optimal location of the firm. We also show that under incomplete information, a sub-optimal location is less likely under centralized than under decentralized taxation.     

On economic efficiency under non-convexity

This paper investigates economic efficiency under non-convexity. The analysis relies on a generalization of the separating hyperplane theorem under non-convexity. The concept of zero-maximality is used to characterize Pareto efficiency under non-convexity. We show the existence of a separating hypersurface that can be used to provide a dual characterization of efficient allocations. When the separating hypersurface is non-linear, this implies that non-linear pricing is an integral part of economic efficiency. Implications for the decentralization of economic decisions under non-convexity are discussed.     

DO HMOS ENCOURAGE PREVENTION? AN ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE PLANS

We examine consumers' choice of preventive care and providers' choice of capacity (which affects the transaction costs of consuming health care) under alternative health care financing plans. We show that consumers choose Pareto-optimal prevention and providers choose optimal capacity under a pure feE-for-service (FFS) plan and under a mixed plan that includes an up-front fee and a fee for service. Under a pure prepaid plan, however, consumers may over- or underconsume prevention. In the former case, capacity restrictions under such a plan (e.g., long office waits, limited options) may be interpreted as a second-best response to overconsumption. We also find that the dollar costs of health care are higher under the prepaid plan. These conclusions cast doubt on some of the presumed advantages of HMOs.     

Collective bargaining,firm heterogeneity and unemployment

We compare labor market outcomes under firm-level and sector-level bargaining in a one-sector Mortensen-Pissarides economy with firm-specific productivity shocks. Our main theoretical results are two-fold. First, unemployment is lower under firm-level bargaining, due both to a lower job destruction rate and a higher job-finding rate. Key to this result is the interplay between firm heterogeneity and wage compression under sector-level bargaining. Second, introducing efficient opting-out of sector-level agreements suffices to bring unemployment down to its level under decentralized bargaining.     

Environmental Taxation and Induced Structural Change in an Open Economy: The Role of Market Structure

Abstract. Studies of structural change induced by environmental taxation usually proceed in a perfect-competition framework and typically find structural change to be quite moderate under realistic emission reduction scenarios. By observing that some of the industries affected are likely to operate under imperfect rather than perfect competition, additional mechanisms emerge which may amplify structural change beyond the extent identified as yet. Especially, changes in economies of scale may arise which weaken or strengthen the competitive position of industries over and above the initial cost effect. Using a computable general equilibrium model for Germany to examine the effects of a unilaterally introduced carbon tax, we find that induced structural change is more pronounced under imperfect competition than under perfect competition. At the macroeconomic level, we find that aggregate losses in economies of scale are larger than aggregate gains, implying that the total costs of environmental regulation are higher under imperfect competition than under perfect competition.     

Optimal patent licensing—Two or three-part tariff

We look into technology transfer by an insider patentee in a spatial duopoly model under three types of licensing contracts—(i) two-part tariff with fixed fee and per-unit royalty, (ii) two-part tariff with fixed fee and ad-valorem royalty and (iii) general three-part tariff with fixed fee, per-unit and ad-valorem royalties. Under two-part tariff contracts, the licenser is better off with the per-unit royalty contract but the general contract does better than the other contracts. In contrast to the existing literature, all three licensing contracts may make the consumers worse-off compared to no licensing, with the lowest consumer surplus achieved under the general licensing contract. Welfare under the general licensing contract is equal to the welfare under two-part tariff with ad-valorem royalty and it is higher than the welfare under no licensing but lower than the welfare under two-part tariff with per-unit royalty. Hence, the general three-part licensing contract is privately optimal but not socially optimal. Similar conclusions hold also under a nonspatial linear demand model with differentiated products.     

Rational expectations for large CGE models: A practical algorithm and a policy application

We describe a simple iterative method for solving large dynamic CGE models under rational expectations. Details are given for Australia's MONASH model but the approach applies to a wide range of CGE models. The method is automated in the RunMONASH Windows software, putting CGE modelling under rational expectations within the reach of non-specialist modellers. We provide an illustrative application in which MONASH results under rational expectations are compared with results under static expectations. The application and supporting software can be downloaded. Results from the application are interpreted in terms of elementary economic mechanisms.