Nonexclusionary input prices under quantity competition: vertical integration,foreclosure and sabotage

A vertically integrated provider is a monopoly supplier of an input essential for its rival to produce downstream output. Market exclusion in the form of inefficient foreclosure or sabotage can arise when input prices are, respectively, ‘too high’ or ‘too low’ relative to the downstream price. The range of nonexclusionary input prices within which neither form of market exclusion arises is determined by displacement ratios. The safe harbour range of downstream-to-upstream ‘price-cost’ margin ratios is decreasing in the degree of product homogeneity and approaches a single ratio in the limit as the products become perfectly homogeneous. The bounds of nonexclusionary input prices are markedly wider under Bertrand–Nash competition than they are under Stackelberg competition.     

从极端到综合:独占交易理论新进展

本文通过文献解读和分析阐述独占交易理论的新进展,重点讨论了独占交易对竞争的影响、与共同代理的权衡、独占交易的完全排他与部分排他等三个问题。近年来关于独占交易理论的研究显得比较中立很多,不再从一个极端走向另一个极端。独占交易可能是反竞争的,也可能是社会有效的,要根据具体情况分析和综合考虑。经济文献中的线性价格模型夸大了独占交易的影响,现实中还需要综合考虑市场圈定效应和投资增进效应。独占交易契约的签订会对第三者产生负外部性,从第三者那里抽取的剩余会按照契约里的规定在签约双方进行分配。     

垂直关系中产品信誉效应的博弈分析

当一家厂商的行为或活动对产品信誉造成正面或负面影响后,其他相关厂商也要同时承受正面或负面的后果。在垂直关系中,下游零售商提供劣质服务产生了有损于信誉的负面效应,会对制造商和其他零售商造成更大的损害。而一家零售商提供优质服务增进产品信誉时,他只能在承受全部成本的情况下获得较少的利益。本文的理论模型说明,市场竞争的结果可能会形成零售商只愿意提供劣质服务的态势。通过采取排他性经营区域、排他性交易和拒绝供应等机制安排能够有效地化解损害信誉的行为,既能够保护整个垂直关系相关的厂商,同时也能使消费者得到更多的服务,促进经济活动的效率。     

高技术产业中排他性合约研究——以英特尔和AMD为例

构建上游双寡头和下游多家厂商的排他性交易模型。以上游优势厂商控制的下游厂商数量为决策变量,分析了在位上游优势厂商通过控制下游厂商,导致中间产品的价格歧视,剥削下游厂商,排挤竞争对手,提高最终产品价格和不利于产业良性竞争等负面影响。     

The Tenuous Grasp: Possession and Loss in the Marketplace

Generally speaking, markets serve as provisioning mechanisms, facilitating the supply of goods and services to customers. Extensive supply chains with specialist intermediaries create a flow of diverse items to consumers. However, market institutions can also serve as a de-provisioning technology, taking things away from customers. That is, markets can work in reverse. One example is the repossession of a vehicle. The process is often detrimental to low income and minority individuals.     

A concentration index for differentiated products: the case of religious competition

In the past, scholars have used a Herfindahl–Hirschman Index using denominational market shares to measure the competitiveness of religious markets. However, this approach ignores both the imperfect substitutability between denominations and the degree of competition within denominations. These two shortcomings make the current index a suspect measure of religious competition; it often falsely identifies which market micro-economists would generally consider the more competitive one. We develop a new religious competition index that incorporates intra-denominational competition and creates a ‘substitutability parameter’ to better specify the appropriate degree of inter-denominational competition. While the model developed in this article applies specifically to religious markets, our index of competition could be expanded to other economic markets where such a substitutability parameter is meaningful.     

On the Anthropological Study of Economies: A Comment

This paper deals with the moral justification behind policy positions. Squeezed between the inevitability of having a welfare ideology and the mantra of value-neutrality (depoliticization), neoclassical policy economists tend to disguise their normative positions on policy matters as common sense. This attitude is particularly pronounced in what I will call "the rhetoric of worthiness," whereby the neoclassical approach justifies its advocacy that certain people should not be helped. This normative position is disguised by a vocabulary (e.g., moral hazard) claimed to be politically neutral. The present paper criticizes this neoclassical mode of policy evaluation in favor of a more socially conscious and innovative policy approach.     

Ownership of firms and efficiency: The competence argument

To assess alternative forms of ownership of firms and allocation of capital, the standard incentive argument is complemented and qualified by an argument considering competence. Regarding capital as a currency conveying decision authority for organizing production, this argument recognizes that the competence for exercising this authority is scarce. The allocation of this competence is studied as the key part of the allocation of scarce economic competence, which requires organizational change and determines the efficiency of allocation of all scarce resources, including economic competence itself. Comparative institutional analysis reveals the superiority of a constitution that requires private and tradeable ownership of firms and open entry to capital markets in the organization of supply, while it limits economic inequalities and provides for policies intervening in competence-requiring final demand.     

公共物品的特许经营

公共物品性质使公共物品的提供和管理天然具有垄断性，公平和效率难于兼顾。委托代理制在解决公平和效率问题上仍然有缺陷。竞争性特许经营是解决公共物品提供的优化方式。     

A new angle for glp-1 receptor agonist: the medical economics argument

Abstract

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) are relatively new medications for diabetes that offer a weight-loss profile that can be considered desirable for patients with both type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity. GLP-1 RA are effective in combination with insulin, and even slightly superior or at least equal to short-acting insulin in T2D; however, since they work in the incretin system, they may not be effective in long-standing disease. Additionally, only recently have publications reported their cardiovascular safety, and there is limited evidence for long-term effectiveness. The work presented by Huetson et al. offers a much needed perspective through a medical economic model for the long term cost-effectiveness of GLP-1 RA. The authors found benefits in quality-adjusted life years and reduced lifetime healthcare costs. While there are a few limitations, this study contributes to the understanding of these agents and their impact on the epidemics of obesity in T2D, where weight management is no longer an option, but an essential component of the diabetes plan of care.     

Competition for exclusive customers: comparing equilibrium and welfare under one-part and two-part pricing

Abstract.  This paper compares one-part and two-part pricing in a discrete-continuous choice model, providing more extensive welfare results than prior literature. Under two-part pricing, firms may set fixed fees with or without 'unit-price commitment,' where the lack of unit-price commitment is consistent with 'after-market monopolization.' We find that two-part pricing with unit-price commitment is firms' dominant unilateral and joint pricing policy. Two-part pricing without unit-price commitment is the least desirable policy from a welfare standpoint. Under appropriate conditions, one-part pricing produces the highest consumer and social welfare, but the lowest profits.     

日本政府如何破解科技型中小企业融资难问题

中小企业金融问题是非常重要的、世界性的难题。日本政府为解决中小企业、特别是科技型中小企业融资难问题做出了长期努力,建立起完整有效的风险投资、中小企业金融与担保体制等投融资体系,并不断出台相关的扶持政策与措施。实践证明其成绩显著,值得学习借鉴。     

谁来支付合作成本?——对乡村建设合作收益与合作成本问题的一般分析

由于农民合作社实现了以较低的内部合作成本对较高的外部交易成本的替代,使得农民通过社区内部多领域的合作,降低了成本,提高了收益,还获得了许多非经济收益,因而农民愿意支付合作成本,将合作社继续办下去。实际上,农民合作社的组织成本相对于外部人对农村资源的利用和价格支付是微乎其微的。只是由于显性收益(经济收益)太小,才导致了对显性成本(已经支付的物质成本)支付的捉襟见肘。而巨大的隐性收益(非经济收益)的获得,在支付隐性成本(机会成本)之余,也抵偿了部分显性成本支付上的不足。继续扩大隐性收益,并努力提高显性收益,才能解决合作社面临的成本支付问题。     

Using scenarios for roadmapping: The case of clean production

Roadmapping and scenarios are two widely used futures techniques which help R&D managers set priorities for research. These techniques are combined in a Foresight exercise assessing development of clean production in metal manufacturing, drawing on the European CLEANPROD project. The aim of the project is to develop a set of roadmaps for metal processing R&D to achieve breakthrough sustainability — “clean production”.Scenarios, a frequently used Foresight method, are used to set the context for the exercise, inform the design of technology roadmaps and influence the wider policy context. Roadmaps are developed for three process areas of metal manufacture - surface preparation, machining and coating - on four levels including long run visions up to 2020, interim targets up to 2015, key R&D areas and specific project topics. Roadmaps are appraised in the light of alternative scenarios on the future of manufacturing. Promoting sustainability highlights gaps in a “business as usual” roadmap, suggesting a different portfolio of research projects. A revised overall scenario is used to shape public policy.R&D teams usually adopt one particular methodology to support resource allocation. However joint use of futures techniques helps if there is uncertainty over competing alternative technologies. Roadmapping often focuses on a single future. Scenario building as a Foresight technique introduces “multiple futures” thinking.     

Job market outcomes for IDPs: The case of Georgia

Internally displaced people (IDPs) constitute a serious economic, social and cultural problem for many countries, including countries in transition. Despite the importance of the problem, there are only a handful of previous studies investigating the issue of labour market outcomes for IDPs. Moreover, the impact of protracted displacement has not been addressed in academic work at all. We aim to fill this gap in the literature using 13 years (2004–2016) of Integrated Household Surveys from Georgia, which has experienced a large flow of internal migrants from the early 1990s until now. Our analyses indicate that the labour market outcomes for IDPs are much worse than those for local residents. Specifically, IDPs are 3.9–11.2 percentage points less likely to be in the labour force, depending on the period and duration of IDP status. IDPs are also up to 11.6 percentage points more likely to be unemployed, even after 20 years of forced displacement. Finally, IDPs residing in a locality for more than five years receive persistently lower wages than local residents with similar characteristics, with the gap widening over time, reaching some 11% in the last period under analysis.     

The dynamics of a differentiated duopoly with quantity competition

We analyse the dynamics of a Cournot duopoly with heterogeneous players to investigate the effects of micro-founded differentiated products demand on stability. The present study, which indeed modifies and extends Zhang et al. (2007) (Zhang, J., Da, Q., Wang, Y., 2007. Analysis of nonlinear duopoly game with heterogeneous players. Economic Modelling 24, 138–148) and Tramontana, F., (2010) (Tramontana, F., 2010. Heterogeneous duopoly with isoelastic demand function. Economic Modelling 27, 350–357), reveals that a higher degree of product differentiation may destabilise the market equilibrium. Moreover, we show that a cascade of flip bifurcations may lead to periodic cycles and ultimately chaotic behaviours. Since a higher degree of product differentiation implies weaker competition, then a theoretical implication of our findings, that also constitute a policy warning, is that a fiercer (weaker) competition tends to stabilise (destabilise) the unique positive Cournot–Nash equilibrium.     

Demographic variables in demand systems: The case for generality

This paper provides evidence in favour of greater generality in the demographic demand literature. We propose two demographic demand procedures. One extends the Gorman model by allowing non additive interaction between overheads and Barten scaling. The other extends Price Scaling, by allowing the equivalence scale to vary with utility, and offers a test of Equivalence Scale Exactness (ESE). The rejection of ESE is robust to the assumed demand functional forms (RNLPS, QAIDS), to items chosen, and the estimation method (MLE, GMM). The results show that published cell averages yield well determined estimates of the demographic generalisation parameters.This paper was written during my visit to the UBC in Vancouver, Canada in 1992/93. I am grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful remarks on an earlier version. The disclaimer applies.     

Technology roadmaps for transition management: The case of hydrogen energy

Technology roadmaps are increasingly used by governments to inform and promote technological transitions, such as a transition to a hydrogen energy system. This paper develops a framework for understanding how current roadmapping practice relates to emerging theories of the governance of systems innovation. In applying this framework to a case study of hydrogen roadmaps, the paper finds that roadmapping for transitions needs to place greater emphasis on ensuring good quality and transparent analytic and participatory procedures. To be most useful, roadmaps should be embedded within institutional structures that enable the incorporation of learning and re-evaluation, but in practice most transition roadmaps are one-off exercises.     

The case for global governance

This article looks at the concepts of government, governance and sovereignty. The author traces the origins of various systems of order to Westphalia (1648) and highlights how they affect our world today through the Multilateral System, the post-WWII heir to the Westphalian System. Drawing upon his experience as a professor and former ambassador to the OECD, he suggests that exploring better ways of managing our world and seeking alternative methods of global governance may be overdue given the current social, economic and environmental problems. The article closes with a futurist's wagering on the imminence of global governance.