Strategic procurement, openness and market structure

We examine strategic procurement behaviour by governments and its effect on market structure in sectors, such as defence and pharmaceuticals, where the government is the dominant consumer. In a world economy with trade between producer countries, and between producers and non-producers, we use a modified Dixit–Stiglitz utility function with an independent taste for variety. There is free entry and exit by firms, but by anticipating their participation constraint governments can indirectly choose the number of domestic firms and their size through its choice of procurement price. Unlike the standard model with no independent taste for variety and no external sector of non-producer countries, there are incentives for subsidies, openness impacts on industrial structure and procurement coordination between producer countries affects firm numbers.     

Business groups and market failures: A focus on vertical and horizontal strategies

Drawing from transaction cost economics and strategic management, this paper develops a series of propositions that link market failure with corporate strategy. In doing so, the paper focuses on both vertical and horizontal strategies as strategic approaches that could be used to address different types of market failure. The significant contribution of the paper lies in its deconstruction of the various types of market failure and developing a theoretically grounded set of propositions that identifies appropriate corporate strategic responses that can be used to ameliorate the negative consequences of each type of failure. In doing so it also explores the evolution of business groups and the viability of strategic choices that groups are likely to make as they navigate the emerging market terrain.

Local network externalities and market segmentation

This paper models interaction between groups of agents by means of a graph where each node represents a group of agents and an arc represents bilateral interaction. It departs from the standard Katz–Shapiro framework by assuming that network benefits are restricted only amongst groups of linked agents. It shows that even if rival firms engage in Bertrand competition, this form of network externalities permits strong market segmentation in which firms divide up the market and earn positive profits. The analysis also shows that some graphs or network structures do not permit such segmentation, while for others, there are easy to interpret conditions under which market segmentation obtains in equilibrium.     

Smallholder market participation: Concepts and evidence from eastern and southern Africa

This paper reviews the evidence on smallholder market participation, with a focus on staple foodgrains (i.e., cereals) in eastern and southern Africa, in an effort to help better identify what interventions are most likely to break smallholders out of the semi-subsistence poverty trap that appears to ensnare much of rural Africa. The conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that interventions aimed at facilitating smallholder organization, at reducing the costs of intermarket commerce, and, perhaps especially, at improving poorer households’ access to improved technologies and productive assets are central to stimulating smallholder market participation and escape from semi-subsistence poverty traps. Macroeconomic and trade policy tools appear less useful in inducing market participation by poor smallholders in the region.     

Making sense of a market information system for superior performance: The roles of organizational responsiveness and innovation strategy

This article conceptualizes the relationships among strategic resources, strategic actions, and consequent performance by incorporating the strategic sense-making perspective into the resource-based view. Specifically, the study suggests that the firm can use both market-driven strategic actions such as organizational responsiveness and market-driving strategic actions such as innovation strategy to make sense of strategic resources such as a market information system. The firm can then translate the strategic resources into a competitive marketing advantage, which leads in turn to superior financial performance. The study tests this framework by surveying 180 manufacturing firms in China. The empirical results support the theoretical framework.     

The impact of firm cost and market size asymmetries on national mergers in a three-country model

This paper studies the impact of firm cost and market size asymmetries on merger decisions. I consider a model where a small and a large country compete in a third (world) market. Each of the two countries has two firms (with potentially different costs) that supply the domestic market and export to the third market. Merger decisions in the two countries are modeled as a simultaneously move game. The paper finds that firms in the large country have more incentives to merge than firms in the small country. In contrast, the government of the large country has more incentives to block a merger than the government of the small country. Thus, the model predicts that conflicts of interest between governments and firms concerning national mergers are more likely in large countries than in small ones.     

产业结构、对外贸易与碳排放——基于长三角地区41个地级市的实证分析

本文选取长江三角洲41个地级市作为研究对象,基于近20年的面板数据,将产业结构、对外贸易和碳排放结合在一起,分析长三角地区碳排放空间特征,采用空间邻接权重矩阵、地理距离矩阵和经济距离矩阵结合空间杜宾模型探究产业结构、对外贸易与碳排放的联系。研究发现:(1)长三角地区碳排放量存在显著的正空间相关性;(2)从直接效应来看,产业结构高级化和产业结构合理化会抑制本地区碳排放量的增长,但会增加邻近地区的碳排放量;(3)对外开放水平的提高会增加本地区和邻近地区的碳排放量。     

Implementing market segmentation using full-refund and no-refund customer returns policies in a dual-channel supply chain structure

Products returned by customers are common in the retail industry and result in costs to both the supplier and the retailer. In practice, retailers implement returns policies that may give customers a full, partial, or no refund for returned products. In this paper, we examine how a firm that faces customer returns can enhance profit by using different customer returns policies, full-refund and no-returns, as a device to segment its market into a dual-channel structure. We also show the impact of customer returns on the firm's pricing and ordering decisions, as well as on the firm's profit in such a dual-channel structure.     

基于制造业技术创新的战略性贸易政策与我国产业结构优化研究

文章采用理论分析、数理建模、实证分析等方法,对战略性贸易政策在制造业技术创新、产业结构升级与优化中的重要作用进行了研究。研究结果表明：（1）LZFTR（政府资金投入）与CJP（初级品）的相关系数r＝-0.964,LZFTR与ZCP（工业制成品）的相关系数r＝0.982（P＜0.01）。表明战略性贸易政策能够有效降低初级品出口比重,增加工业制品的出口比重,从而促进出口贸易结构不断升级与优化;（2） 战略性贸易政策对高技术制造业产品出口贸易固定效应、随机效应模型系数值均为正,战略性贸易政策政府研究发展补贴每增加100%,高技术产业对外贸易结构就会优化0.0042,说明战略性贸易政策对高技术制造业产品的外贸易结构变化有正向促进作用;（3）战略性贸易政策对各高技术制造行业贸易结构的影响不尽相同,其对医药制造业及各小类行业对外贸易出口产业结构优化均有明显的促进作用,其对仪器仪表出口贸易结构优化有着明显的促进作用,但是对医疗设备与器械制造出口贸易结构优化的促进作用并不显著。在此基础上作者提出了推动我国实现产业结构优化的相关战略性贸易政策建议,以期为提高我国制造业的自主创新能力,优化产业结构提供一定的理论参考。     

Social protection 2.0: Exploring issues, evidence and debates in a globalizing world

This paper reviews the growing literature on social protection. While not new, the concept evolved remarkably in recent years. It is approached from a multitude of perspectives, and intersects with broader bodies of literature – particularly around public policy, pro-poor growth, rights, humanitarian strategies, and aid effectiveness – as well as feeding into specific programmatic issues (e.g. conditionality, targeting and transfer selection). This blend of challenges and approaches has often made debates elusive and polarized. The paper examines the evolution and definitions of social protection, and unbundles critical policy, institutional and implementation quandaries. Taken together, these considerations shape a set of context-specific models of social protection. The paper’s five core conclusions may help chart future directions for social protection research and practice.     

Product price and performance level in one market or two separated markets under various cost structures and functions

Market characteristics, including intrinsic demand and customer sensitivity on price and product performance level, are distinct at different markets. Comparisons of various product development strategies in one market or two geographically separated markets are conducted for three classes of products: development intensive products (DIPs) with constant unit cost, marginal cost-intensive products (MIPs) with constant fixed cost, and marginal and development intensive products (MDIPs) with non-constant unit cost and fixed cost. Results show that larger demand size, less customer sensitivity on price and/or more sensitivity on performance level lead to more profit, a higher sale price and a not-lower product performance. The customer reservation or the saturation performance level should be generally adopted though the optimal performance level does exist occasionally. Unit cost and/or fixed cost must increase in performance at an increasing rate for the existence of one optimal performance level. Due to the impact of demand size, one high-end (low-end) MDIP or DIP could be introduced into one low-end (high-end) market at a different price if the demand size is significantly large in the low-end market. For DIPs, offering one niche high-end product is not worse than offering the low-end product into two markets. For MIPs with negligible fixed cost, the product line strategy is not worse than the standard product development strategy. Additionally, the product cost reduction approach adopted in one product line has significant effects on the best product development strategy and sequence.     

Objectives, topics and methods in industrial organization during the nineties: Results from a survey

We conducted a survey among 114 experts on industrial organization regarding their opinions on the way markets work, on the proper role of competition and industrial policy, and on the methods which should be used to analyse industrial markets. The experts assessed the importance of research topics and methods during the last year and their probable development in the future. The sample appears to provide a valid representation of European experts, the response pattern does not seem to depend on the personal characteristics of the respondents.     

产业结构、贸易开放与 M2/GDP 比例关系研究——基于发达经济体与新兴市场国家的实证检验

在后金融危机时代,全球 M2/GDP 比例的持续上升态势引起经济学家及各国货币政策制定者的格外关注,并对其与宏观经济运行的关系加以深入探讨。本文利用69个国家和地区 1991~2014 年间的面板数据资料,区别不同经济发展程度的国别群体,通过面板数据的平稳性检验、协整分析和构建误差修正模型,检验产业结构、贸易开放与经济增长等因素变量与M2/GDP比例的长期均衡及短期因果关系,并以此为依据提出有利于经济发展的经济货币化政策和建议。