Interstate Long Distance Rates: Search Costs,Switching Costs,and Market Power

A number of authors have argued that the divestiture of AT & T did not reduce the rates of long distance telephone companies as often believed. However, the literature has offered few explanations as to why competition has not lowered rates. This study argues that rates have failed to fall due to the importance of search and switching costs in the industry. Using a panel data set of rates for the three largest long distance carriers, stretching from 1984 to 1993, a reduced form equation is specified to empirically test for the influence of search and switching costs on the price cost margin of the three carriers. The results illustrate that both search and switching costs have provided long distance carriers with market power.     

Predicting Household Switching Behavior and Switching Costs at Depository Institutions

This paper uses new survey data to investigate the covariates of self-reported switching costs and switching behavior by deposit account holders. Factors affecting geographic mobility appear to be most important in explaining the duration of deposit relationships. Both younger and older respondents are more likely than others to be at their first bank ever, suggesting a cohort effect in deposit relationships. Households reporting switching costs, net of the benefits from switching, are less likely than others to have stayed with a bank for prices or customer service, suggesting that switching costs may decrease price sensitivity. Switching costs appear more severe for households with high income or education and for households with very low income or minority ethnicity. These findings imply that banking markets characterized by such households may present greater entry costs for new firms.     

Switching Costs in Vertically Related Markets

In the presence of switching costs, firms are ofteninterested in expanding current market shares toexploit their customer base in the future. However, ifthe product is sold by retailers, manufacturers mayface the problem of extracting too much surplus fromthe retailer. If this happens, then the latter has notan incentive to build a subscriber base. This paperwould like to connect two streams in the literature,on switching costs and vertical restraintsrespectively. An upstream–downstream duopoly model ispresented to analyse the mutual incentive for firms toenter into particular trading relationships. Whenswitching costs are high, then integrated structuresare predicted. On the other hand, when lock in effectsare not too relevant, mixed structures withindependent and integrated firms emerge as anequilibrium in growing industries. The results arediscussed with reference to the UK mobiletelecommunications industry.     

技术标准锁定的影响因素和形成机理研究

技术标准锁定是技术标准拥有者、非技术标准拥有者和用户三方行为选择和博弈的结果,文章首先从总体上构建技术标准拥有者、非技术标准拥有者和用户促成技术标准锁定的三维模型,继而逐一从技术标准拥有者视角、非技术标准拥有者视角和用户视角分析导致技术标准锁定形成的影响因素和形成机理,最后在此基础上得出反技术标准锁定的若干启示。     

Switching Costs in Two‐Sided Markets

In many markets, there are switching costs and network effects. Yet the literature generally deals with them separately. This paper bridges the gap by analyzing their interaction (or ‘indirect bargain’) in a dynamic two‐sided market. It shows that in the symmetric equilibrium, the classic result that the first‐period price is U‐shaped in switching costs does not emerge, but instead switching costs always intensify the first‐period price competition. Moreover, an increase in switching costs on one side decreases the first‐period price on the other side. Policies that ignore these effects may overestimate the extent to which switching costs can reduce welfare.     

Digital Data,Platforms and the Usual [Antitrust] Suspects: Network Effects,Switching Costs,Essential Facility

This paper asks whether the large amounts of digital data that are typically observed on large technology platforms—such as Google, Facebook, Uber and Amazon—typically give rise to structural conditions that would lead to antitrust concerns. In particular, I evaluate whether digital data augments or decreases concerns with regard to network effects and switching costs. I also evaluate whether data should be thought of as an ‘essential facility’.

     

The Directions for Technological Change: Alternative Economic Majorities and Opportunity Costs

Governments redirect R & D resources. Thegovernment supports R & D in technologies and in partsof the country that the private sector is unlikely tosupport, and the government provides funds forinexperienced businesses and for minority-ownedbusinesses when the private sector will not. Becausethe distribution of income and wealth is so unequal,our conventional methods of evaluating the socialusefulness of the redirection of the resources may notwork well. Redirection of R & D resources to meetSchumpeterian and Jeffersonian objectives may actuallybe efficient despite generating less economic surplusgiven the current distribution of income and wealth.     

Pricing with Consumer Switching Costs: Evidence from the Credit Card Market

The credit card market is a natural setting for investigating the relationship between pricing and consumer switching costs. I find, using a detailed panel of credit card issuers, that switching costs are an important influence on pricing for commercial banks. The results are stronger for commercial banks with risky customer bases, suggesting that there is a relationship between default and switching costs. Switching costs appear to have almost no influence on pricing for credit unions, a result that is consistent with their status as not–for–profit entities.     

Win/Loss Data and Consumer Switching Costs: Measuring Diversion Ratios and the Impact of Mergers*

We propose an identification strategy for diversion based on win/loss data. First, we show that win/loss data from the merging firms and market shares in two periods for all firms are sufficient to identify the diversion ratios between the merging partners. Second, we show that win/loss data from the merging firms alone are sufficient for partial identification, and we construct a lower bound that provides a good approximation to the diversion ratio when switching costs are high. We demonstrate the performance of our method with numerical simulations and with an application to the Anthem/Cigna merger.     

内生创新努力、本土技术溢出与长三角高技术产业创新绩效

基于新增长理论的内生创新努力,分产业维和区域维运用1997—2006年面板数据,本文重点分析了本土技术溢出对长三角高技术产业创新绩效的影响,从中发现:从产业维角度看,长三角产业专业化集聚环境下的本土技术溢出效应呈弱的负外部性;从区域维角度看,作为创新极的上海对江(苏)浙(江)具有正的技术溢出效应,浙江能从上海和江苏的技术溢出中受益,而江苏受益于上海的同时也承受来自浙江的负外部性作用。     

网络外部性、市场"锁定"与标准选择——联通CDMA与移动GPRS市场竞争的经济学分析

本文从网络外部性的角度研究了中国移动通信产业2G和2.5G的市场竞争问题。研究结果表明，随着中国移动通信市场的成熟和网络外部性效应的影响，在向3G过渡的2.5G竞争中，联通选择了CDMA标准与移动的GPRS相竞争，这为联通在市场竞争中胜出提供了契机。但哪种标准将占领市场，这将取决于网络效应中消费者对市场的预期以及技术标准对用户安装基础的控制。     

幸福感、社会资本与代理成本

幸福感是社会学和经济学领域关注的热点问题,但较少研究幸福感对公司治理行为影响的经济后果。本文运用中国A股上市公司的经验数据,在对幸福感与代理成本的关系进行理论分析的基础上,首次检验了幸福感与代理成本之间的关系。研究发现:地区幸福感能够显著降低地方政府控制上市公司的代理成本,与之相反,地区幸福感加剧了民营控制上市公司的代理成本,并从幸福感的社会资本视角对地区幸福感与代理成本的关系进行了解读。本研究在一定程度上增进了企业代理成本问题的研究积累,研究结论对国民福利的公共政策和企业员工福利计划的制定具有一定的启示意义。     

The Effect of Consumer Switching Costs on Prices: A Theory and its Application to the Bank Deposit Market

As demonstrated by Klemperer (1987), if households face a cost of switching among brands of a differentiated good, pricing is likely to be more competitive, the greater is the fraction of customers that move into or around the market. I generalize this theory to a world with arbitrary market structure and test it empirically using panel data on bank retail deposit interest rates. I find that the amount of household migration in a market has a significant competitive influence on price markups, that is, a positive effect on the level of deposit interest rates. Consistent with the model, the magnitude of this effect depends in some cases upon the degree of market concentration.     

Internet telephony: Costs,pricing, and policy

This article analyzes Internet Service Provider costs and regulatory and policy issues raised by Internet telephony. Transport and non-technical items such as customer service, sales and marketing, represent a substantial portion of an ISP’s costs with Internet telephony. Pricing models and yield management techniques supporting Internet voice services might be employed for other Internet differentiated services as well. An integrated regulatory framework will be required, because of convergence, to formulate policies for multimedia services. We conclude that governments should develop appropriate policies without introducing economic and technical distortions into the nascent Internet telephony market.     

我国碳锁定原因分析及解锁策略

目前,全球气候变暖备受关注,发展低碳经济成为必然,我国正处在工业化快速发展阶段,实现低碳目标面临许多挑战。本文从碳锁定的基本内涵出发,重点分析了我国在发电领域、汽车消费领域及建筑能耗领域的碳锁定现状,然后基于技术-制度复合体的概念分析了碳锁定的原因,最后从技术创新与制度变迁的视角提出了碳锁定的解锁策略。本研究对于解除和避免我国低碳发展中的高碳锁定,加快低碳经济发展,具有借鉴意义和参考价值。     

Transaction Costs, Suboptimal Termination and Default Probabilities

The same option-based methodology now commonly used to value mortgages and their termination features also can be applied to calculate the probabilities that mortgage default will occur. This paper pursues that idea, and furthermore, enriches the idealized option-based approach by introducing both transaction costs and "suboptimal" termination. These latter features capture the individual considerations that cause a mortgage holder's actions to differ from what rationality would indicate based solely on the market value of the mortgage. These features are of considerable importance if the results of options-based models are to be made comparable to those calculations of default probabilities occurring in the empirical literature.     

Housing Supply,Land Costs and Price Adjustment

We analyze relationships between housing supply elasticities, land costs and house price dynamics, contributing three main insights. First, higher housing supply elasticities help contain short‐run price spikes following demand shocks. Second, land price dynamics influence this relationship; supply responses are lessened and house price spikes are exacerbated as land prices increase. Third, we estimate a system of regional equations modeling housing supply using a Tobin's‐q specification (incorporating construction and land costs) and show that regional price dynamics are a function of the region's supply elasticity.     

Search Costs, Lags and Prices at the Pump

Evidence is mounting that long lags and asymmetric price responses to changes in wholesale prices are characteristic of many retail markets. Although long lags are often attributed to search costs, little empirical evidence exists to support this claim. The analysis offered in this paper compares price responses in gasoline and diesel markets in 15 U.S. cities. Search costs vary across these two markets, and the evidence indicates a much faster response in the diesel market where search costs are lower. Asymmetric responses, where prices rise faster than they fall, are also evident in the data. While asymmetric responses have been attributed to oligopolistic behavior, the arguments presented in this paper point to search theory as an alternative explanation.     

Sunk Costs,Accommodation, and the Welfare Effects of Entry

Although economists usually support the unrestricted entry of firms into an industry, entry may lower social welfare if there are setup costs or if entrants have a cost disadvantage. We consider the welfare effects of entry within a standard Cournot model where some of an incumbent firm’s costs are sunk. We find that the range of parameter values over which entry can harm welfare declines monotonically in the fraction of cost that are sunk. Furthermore, the presence of even a small fraction of sunk costs often reverses an assessment that entry harms welfare.