The Complete Welfare Effects of Cost Reductions in a Cournot Oligopoly

This paper provides the smallest upper bound or the critical level for a Cournot firm's market share below which its cost reduction reduces welfare. It shows that a firm's cost reduction increases social welfare with nonlinear demand and nonlinear costs if and only if its market share is above the critical level, which is equal to a weighted sum of the other firms' market shares. The paper also reports similar results for technological spill-overs within any given set of firms.     

Turnpike theory, discounted utility, and the von Neumann facet

The convergence of infinite optimal paths to stationary optimal paths is proved in models of capital accumulation whose discount factors are near 1, where strict concavity is not required for utility functions and production functions. The critical assumptions are unique support prices for points of the von Neumann facet, where is near 1, a unique optimal stationary stock when is equal to 1, and the absence of cyclic paths on the von Neumann facet when is equal to 1. The results are illustrated in generalizing a model provided by Weitzman and Samuelson.     

Market volatility and inequality in earnings: experimental evidence

We analyze the volatility of actions in experimental oligopoly markets. Can the volatility, measured as the total variation in actions, be predicted by inequality in earnings of the previous period? We examine two types of differentiated markets, Cournot and Bertrand, and two informational conditions. We find for both types of markets and regardless of the information available to firms that inequality in earnings is a major factor for explaining volatility. The more equal profits are distributed, the less volatility is observed.     

Individual Differences In Contributions And Crowding‐Out Of A Public Good

This paper reports experimental results that link other‐regarding preferences, personality, and demographic characteristics to contributions to a public good and the responsiveness of contributions to tax‐financed contributions. Contribution levels are higher among those with cooperative preferences, those with Myers–Briggs personality types of introversion and intuition, females, and upperclassmen. However, the response to a tax‐financed contribution is uniform. All player types reduce their contribution by an amount equal to the tax, a result known as complete crowd‐out.     

Heterogeneous outside options in contests

This article describes a large number of contestants with high and low levels of talent who individually decide to enter a contest or take their heterogeneous outside options. We derive a critical condition for which only high types, only low types or both types participate in the contest. If a contest organizer is worried about the type participating in the contest, then he/she should provide a contest with low noise to attract high types. However, if a contest organizer's objective is to maximize the individual effort, he/she will not necessarily prefer to have the high types in the contest.     

Network externalities and interconnection: the case of information intrastructures

Information infrastructures are characterized by the existence of direct and indirect network externalities. However, the presence of externalities poses two types of problem: they create phenomena of overproduction (consumption) and under-production (consumption); and they require the operators reach a critical size of subscribers quickly. Facing this question of critical size, the interconnection makes it possible for the networks to develop by relying on network externalities. However, the justification of interconnection does not concern the externalities solely but is also based on the existence of essential facilities. The first part examines the various types of network externalities, whose implications are presented in the second part. The third part deals with the stakes of the interconnection.     

Stepwise Investment in Circular Plastics Under the Presence of Policy Uncertainty

Environmental and Resource Economics - The use of recycled plastics is critical in the transition to a circular economy. However, for certain types of plastics, the recycling process is...     

Price discrimination and efficient matching

This paper considers the problem of a monopoly matchmaker that uses a schedule of entrance fees to sort different types of agents on the two sides of a matching market into exclusive meeting places, where agents randomly form pairwise matches. We make the standard assumption that the match value function exhibits complementarities, so that matching types at equal percentiles maximizes total match value and is efficient. We provide necessary conditions and sufficient conditions for the revenue-maximizing sorting to be efficient. These conditions require the match value function, modified to incorporate the incentive cost of eliciting private type information, to exhibit complementarities in types.JEL Clalssification Numbers C7, D4We thank Jonathan Levin, Tracy Lewis, and the seminar audience at University of California at Los Angeles, University of British Columbia, Duke University, and 2003 Econometric Society North American Summer Meeting for comments and suggestions. We are also grateful for helpful suggestions from the referees and the Editor     

Parental Leave Policy and Gender Equality in Europe

This article uses data from 2008–10 to analyze parental leave policies in twenty-one European countries and their influence on men's behavior. It examines entitlement characteristics, such as nontransferability, duration, payment, compulsory period, and other policies to assess their effect on the proportion of leave men use out of the total parental leave in each country. The findings, which suggest that a large majority of men take nontransferable and highly paid leave, and a small minority take other types, provide the basis for developing the Parental Leave Equality Index (PLEI). PLEI ranks countries by the degree to which parental leave policies reinforce or diminish the gendered division of labor. Results indicate that although Iceland's parental leave policies do the most to advance gender equity, no country has equal, nontransferable, and well-paid leave for each parent. This policy arrangement would be a precondition to men's and women's equal participation in childcare.     

Feasible Net Income Distributions under Income Tax Evasion: An Equilibrium Analysis

We investigate how redistribution of income is affected by the fact that income is privately observed and agents may not be truthful in their reports to tax authorities. In response, the government establishes an audit mechanism with penalties. Adhering to a signaling equilibrium concept, we prove that agents resort to mixed strategies, which makes it difficult for tax authorities to identify the true types. The audit strategy has a cutoff property: All income declarations below the pivotal income are audited with a constant probability; other declarations are not audited. In spite of not necessarily being truthful, agents whose true income is below or equal to the pivotal income pay their liability and, consequently, the government is implementing the designated tax schedule for those agents. In equilibrium, penalties and tax corrections equal the audit cost. Consequently, the audit system does not contribute directly to revenues, and its role is restricted to supporting the equilibrium.     

A dynamic exchange rate model with heterogeneous agents

In this paper, we analyze a heterogeneous agent model in which the fundamental exchange rate is endogenously determined by the real markets. The exchange rate market and the real markets are linked through the balance of payments. We have analytically found that there exists at least a steady state in which the exchange rate is equal to its fundamental value and incomes of both countries are equal to the autonomous components times the multiplier (as in the Income-Expenditure model). This steady state can be unique and unstable when all agents act as contrarians, while when agents act as fundamentalists it is unique but its stability depends on the reactivity of actors of the market. Finally, we show that the (in)stability of the economic system depends on both the reactivity of the markets and that of different types of agents involved. Employing well-know functional forms, we show that the model can replicate some of the statistical features of the true time series of the exchange rate.     

大城市外来人口离“市民待遇”还有多远?——以上海市居住证制度为背景

2004年,上海市居住证制度开始向全体来沪人员推广。依据居住证类别的不同,外来人口在享有"市民待遇"时被差别化对待,由此造成外来人口因享有"市民待遇"的多寡而分化为不同层次群体的现象("待遇分层")。依据法律法规文件及实地访谈资料,从法定和实际待遇两方面解读了外来人口享有的"市民待遇"项目及其与户籍居民之间的待遇差距,论述了当前居住证制度实施差别化政策的合理性和必要性,提出了相应的政策建议。     

A probabilistic model of location choice with neighborhood effects

This paper tries to develop a probabilistic model of location choice by many types of individuals who interact among themselves in the presence of neighborhood effects. Equilibrium is defined as an allocation of individuals among locations such that for every type of individuals the selection probability for each location is equal to the proportion of individuals actually choosing the location in question. The existence of equilibrium is proved under usual continuity assumptions. The equilibrium is shown to be unique and stable in the presence of neighborhood effects, if the degree of externality is sufficiently small.     

A martingale characterization of the price of a nonrenewable resource with decisions involving uncertainty

This paper presents a general model of nonrenewable resource consumption and exploration decisions involving uncertainty about the time of occurrence of an event such as exhaustion, stock discovery, or a substitute development. The resulting price process is characterized in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions under which the price is expected to rise at a rate equal to, greater than, or less than the discount rate. The general model is illustrated and the price process and the optimal decisions are characterized by examining the three types of uncertainty indicated above.     

Optimal allocation of watershed management cost among different water users

The issue of water scarcity highlights the importance of watershed management. A sound watershed management should make all water users share the incurred cost. This study analyzes the optimal allocation of watershed management cost among different water users. As a consumable, water should be allocated to different users the amounts in which their marginal utilities （MUs） or marginal products （MPs） of water are equal. The value of MUs or MPs equals the water price that the watershed manager charges. When water is simultaneously used as consumable and nonconsumable, the watershed manager produces the quantity of water in which the sum of MUs and/or MPs for the two types of uses equals the marginal cost of water production. Each water user should share the portion of watershed management cost in the percentage that his MU or MP accounts for the sum of MUs and/or MPs. Thus, the price of consumable water does not equal the marginal cost of water production even if there is no public good.     

On input market surplus and its relation to the downstream market game

Abstract In order to analyze the welfare effects of price changes in input markets – following for example a price‐fixing conspiracy – economists have studied the relationship between the surplus measured in the input markets and the surplus in the output markets. The latest results hinge on simplifying assumptions, which are relaxed here by linking the input markets surplus question to another stream of literature, which characterizes functions that oligopolists collectively, yet unintentionally, maximize. It is shown that the area under the input demands is equal to the change in a function for which critical points coincide with the equilibria of the downstream game. A particular case of these functions is the exact potential function.     

社会主义市场经济视阈下的马克思主义公平思想:挑战与回应

马克思主义公平思想产生于近代市场经济阶段,来源于德国古典哲学的公平思想、英法古典政治经济学的公平思想、空想社会主义的公平思想,具有科学性、阶级性、革命性的特征。在社会主义市场经济条件下马克思主义公平思想面临着新的实践与挑战。社会主义市场经济下马克思主义公平思想仍然居于指导地位,并且需要丰富与发展;应批判借鉴人类公平正义思想的理论成果;应培养适应社会主义市场经济要求的新型公平观,努力保证起点公平、机会公平、结果公平。     

公立高校科研奖励过度问题研究——知识发展流程视角

从70所公立样本高校 “科研奖励办法”政策文本内容及其7类16种奖项共计651频次计量结果发现：科研成果尤其是学术论文是奖励对象的重点；奖励对象多少与样本高校类型和层次呈反方向变化；各类型高校对ESI高被引论文等特别是教学型高校对各个等级科研项目存在严重的重复奖；科研项目奖励金额大小与高校类型和层次也呈反方向变化，一些教学型高校对各级科研项目奖励金额往往存在大于或等于科研项目经费本身等极不合理的现象。公立高校的科研奖励和奖励过度违背科研劳动及知识发展流程理论。最后提出对策：提高保健层，试行年薪制；保障基本承认层，提高声誉奖；完善和规范提高层与特别奖励层。     

Parchment,guns, and the problem of governance

The genuine problem of governance is one that pays equal attention to both incentive and knowledge issues in private and public contexts. This work brings together Austrian, Public Choice and theory of the firm insights to address such problem. By taking into account incentives and knowledge, it proposes a framework that accommodates comparisons not just of kind (firm or market), but also of degree (e.g., among different types of internal organization). Moreover, although the suggested framework derives from considerations about private governance, it equally accommodates public and private settings. (89 words.)     

Investor Overreaction to Analyst Reference Points

The author documents analysts' reliance on the company-issued guidance range as a frame of reference in making their EPS forecasts. Analysts who use the guidance range as a reference may limit information diffusion to market participants by keeping their true beliefs private. The author therefore analyzes the stock market's reaction to analyst forecasting decisions, and finds that investors overreact to forecasts that are exactly equal to the minimum or maximum of the guidance range, but do not overreact to other types of forecasts. The evidence presented is most consistent with overreaction driven by overconfident investors who trade too much in the face of information uncertainty.