Greasing the wheels of rural transformation? Margarine and the competition for the British butter market

This article considers an example of the impact of a new good on producers of close substitutes: the invention of margarine and its rapid introduction into the British market from the mid‐1870s. This presented a challenge to the traditional suppliers of that market, butter producers from different European countries. We argue that the capacity to react quickly to the appearance of this cheap substitute by improving quality and establishing product differentiation was critical for the fortunes of butter producers. This is illustrated by a discussion of the different reactions to margarine and quality upgrading in Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. A statistical analysis using monthly data for Britain from 1881–7 confirms that margarine had a greater impact on the price of poor quality butter than that of high quality butter, presumably because it was a stronger substitute.     

生猪价格视角下肉类价格溢出效应研究

基于2016年5月至2021年6月的中国主要肉类的每周价格数据,构造整个市场内的溢出指数,研究突发事件冲击对肉类价格的时变性影响.结果表明,溢出指数可以准确捕捉突发事件对整个肉类市场的冲击强度和方向,但是价格波动的方向不同,价格传导的路径也不同.在非洲猪瘟造成猪肉价格上涨后,鸡肉作为猪肉的平价替代产品,吸收了猪肉价格剧烈波动的冲击.应以此为契机,健全市场波动风险预警机制,增强突发事件冲击的应对能力;健全积极主动的政策干预体系,保证市场供给稳定;激发同类产品发挥替代作用,减缓市场供需失衡的压力;多方面多渠道切实降低突发事件造成的价格冲击对肉类市场的影响.     

金融资产价格跳跃研究综述：从发现引入到聚焦检验

以价格跳跃行为宏观到微观的探索为主线,梳理了价格模型中对跳跃成分的引入、跳跃检验方法的发展和跳跃检验在我国金融市场的应用。进一步地,评述了各部分研究之间的不同视角以及其相应的不足之处,展现出其研究特点,最后在此基础上进行总结并展望资产价格跳跃行为未来可能的研究方向,并以此对金融资产价格跳跃行为在价格模型中的引入及其检验方法进行文献综述。     

Competition between branded and nonbranded firms and its impact on welfare

We examine a quantity competition among branded and nonbranded firms. The market comprises two consumer segments: one purchases only branded products (the high-end market), while the other segment's consumers purchase less expensive products (the low-end market). When branded firms take actions sequentially, we show that the branded leader has an incentive to restrict its quantity to avoid entering the low-end market. As the follower recognizes this incentive, it can restrict the leader by implementing a quantity constraint, which is affected by the number of nonbranded firms. We find that both the branded leader and follower could benefit from the nonbranded firms and that the leader prefers to have more nonbranded firms in the market than the follower does. Furthermore, we show that the free entry of nonbranded firms could negatively affect total surplus as well as consumer surplus even without any costs, because of the premium pricing of branded products.     

Market Definition Using Consumer Characteristics and Cluster Analysis

Competition authorities commence merger investigations with a definition of the relevant market, i.e. the collection of products or regions that compete with the firm(s) under investigation. Market definition relies on evidence of cross‐price elasticity. When the econometric estimation of cross‐price elasticities is not possible, analysts have to rely on qualitative assessment and a set of quantitative tools relying only on a subset of information or less precise quantitative evidence. Under these conditions, a statistical analysis of the similarity of consumer characteristics of different products can offer a useful addition to this toolkit. Cluster analysis can be used to identify meaningful groups of substitutes (and hence markets) on the basis of homogeneity of products’ consumer characteristics. Cluster analysis is useful not only in drawing market boundaries, but also in ranking the competitors within the boundaries. In a recent radio merger case in South Africa, competition authorities and counter parties struggled to obtain systematic evidence for market definition and ultimately relied on mostly qualitative impressions based on a range of evidence from industry experts and company strategy documents. The substitutes suggested by the cluster analysis matches the closest substitutes suggested by the Competition Tribunal, although the results do not support the Tribunal's list of weaker substitutes.     

First mover advantage by product proliferation in multiproduct duopoly

This study aims to show that the product proliferation strategy in multi‐product duopoly is first‐mover advantage. We consider simultaneous and Stackelberg variety competitions. A firm producing more varieties charges a higher price, produces larger total quantities, and earns higher total revenue. When firms sequentially choose the masses of varieties and then simultaneously decide prices, the leader produces more varieties and enjoys first‐mover advantage. The masses of varieties can be regarded as strategic substitutes in the same way that quantities are. Finally, the market is likely to provide too few varieties relative to the social optimum.     

碳交易背景下考虑公平关切的双渠道闭环供应链定价决策

考虑到碳交易政策和公平偏好会影响双渠道闭环供应链定价决策，分别构建碳交易背景下公平中性、零售商公平关切信息对称与不对称时双渠道闭环供应链进行最优决策的Stackelberg动态博弈模型。通过求解各个均衡解，研究各个均衡解与制造商和零售商公平关切的关系。通过数值算例分析，着重考虑零售商公平关切信息对称与不对称时制造商和零售商公平关切对双闭环供应链最优定价决策的影响，并进行对比分析。研究结果表明：无论零售商公平关切信息对称还是不对称，新产品的销售价格与制造商和零售商公平关切都成正比，再制品的销售价格不受公平关切的影响；新产品的市场需求与制造商和零售商公平关切都成反比，再制品的市场需求与制造商和零售商的公平关切都成正比；公平关切会降低企业利润，公平关切信息不对称会加剧这一现象。     

The Persistence of Dominant‐Firm Market Share: Raising Rivals' Cost on the New York Stock Exchange

To explain the persistence of dominant New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market share in stock trading of listed securities from 1992 to 2002, we develop a dominant‐firm price leadership model and hypothesize that NYSE specialists raised the costs of rival market makers. The model predicts that natural and induced cost advantages will determine the NYSE's market share vis‐à‐vis the regional exchanges, electronic trading systems, and NASDAQ dealers. Empirically, NYSE market share increases with economies of scale and scope, abnormal price volatility, high asymmetric information, and with trading practices that raise rivals' costs, such as failure to display limit orders that bettered the existing quotes.     

Estimating the value of generic entry and intellectual property litigation in the pharmaceutical market

In this study, we examine the relationship between, and implications of, the market entry and intellectual property litigation of brand name and generic pharmaceuticals from 2003 to 2012 in Japan. We focus on the effects of a firm’s litigation behavior on market competition, including not only anticipated damage and injunction costs but also reputation and reliability costs. The results show that market entry of generic pharmaceuticals decreases market sales of brand name pharmaceuticals by 45%. However, in the case of intellectual property rights, litigation increases market sales of branded pharmaceuticals by 120%.     

Endogenous Price Leadership and the Strategic Acquisition of Information

We model a differentiated Bertrand duopoly in which a firm's earlier knowledge of market demand than its competitor results in endogenous price leadership with the information advantaged firm leading. In such a setting with second‐mover advantage, we then study the firms’ incentives to acquire information and analyze an information acquisition game. Both (i) neither firm acquiring information and (ii) one firm acquiring information can arise as subgame perfect equilibrium, but both firms acquiring information is never an equilibrium outcome, even if information is free. Information may have a negative value if it causes a change in the timing of price competition.     

Impact of Competition and Taxes on Responsibility Center Organization and Transfer Prices*

We show that a firm can use its decentralized organizational structure and transfer price as commitment devices to obtain strategic advantage in the product market only when there are nonstrategic reasons to decentralize and to distort transfer prices away from marginal costs, such as the sales office's local knowledge about market conditions and the presence of tax rate differentials across the two tax jurisdictions. Surprisingly, an increase in the sales office's tax rates may help a firm increase overall profits. An increase in the sales office's tax rates causes the firm to increase its transfer price, which in turn dampens the sales office's competition and may more than offset the effect of increased tax rates on the firm's overall profits.     

MEASURING THE ALLOCATION OF ESKOM'S PRODUCTIVITY DIVIDEND1

The methodology developed by Lawrence, Diewert and Fox and Lawrence and Richards is used to determine the contribution of productivity and price changes to changes in Eskom's profitability over time. This methodology enables the calculation of the distribution of the benefits of Eskom's productivity improvements – its “productivity dividend”– among the three key stakeholder groups: consumers, input suppliers (including employees) and Eskom's owners. The results of this study show that Eskom passed on substantially more than the benefits from productivity improvements over the 10 years to 2002 to consumers in the form of real price reductions and to labour in the form of higher real wages.     

Economic transition and demand pattern: Evidence from China's paper and paperboard industry

In this study, we investigate the demand pattern and structural changes during the economic transformation using data from the paper and paperboard industry in China. Instrumental variable estimations as well as co-integration analysis and error correction models are applied to the analysis. Our results show that in the early stages of economic reform before 1993, the demand did not respond to price changes; while in the later stages, the demand shows significant responses to its own-price and the price of international markets. In particular, since 1992, the own and cross-price elasticity of demand for domestically made paper and paperboard products becomes, respectively, − 0.69 and 0.59, in the range found in some market economies. We also find that imports are substitutes for domestically made paper and paperboard products, but the reverse is not true; and in the later stage of economic transition, the reliance on international market has increased, as reflected by the lower price elasticity of imports.     

云南普洱茶市场价格预警指标体系的设计与测度

基于云南普洱茶市场面临的国内外环境状态,依据经济预警和农产品预警理论基础,以及指标优选原则,设计包括警情、警源和警兆的云南普洱茶市场价格预警指标体系,并以勐海沱茶的市场价格波动为例,应用时差相关分析法得到9个先行指标,5个同步指标和10个滞后指标,由此反映云南普洱茶市场价格时滞的影响因素。这既有利于帮助决策者根据指标的等级变化采取针对性措施,又为进一步研究打下良好的基础。     

The Price of Electricity in Indonesia

Persistent shortages of electric power and of capital to fund power system expansion have recently prompted the Indonesian government to allow the private sector to supply electricity. Price has become a controversial issue—both the retail price private producers would charge the public, and the wholesale price at which they would seil in bulk to the state utility, PLN The government has traditionally kept the retail price below cost to support economic development objectives, and subsidies have covered PLN's losses. Opponents of private power argue that without subsidies private suppliers would have to raise the retail price to unacceptable levels—according to PLN, almost 50% more per kilowatt-hour than its own price. The paper assesses PLN's claim by quantifying hidden subsidies, and demonstrates that, if these were properly taken into account, the average retail price per kilowatt-hour for 1980–93 should have been 46% higher than it was.     

Impacts of Food and Energy Price Hikes and Proposed Coping Strategies

Based on sample survey data for the years 2006 and 2007, we find that inflation of food and energy prices in China is moving at a slower pace than in the international market; however, the livelihood of low income groups has been significantly impacted. Urban sample households in low income groups have been shifting from consumption of high value food to lower value substitutes; and all of the rural sample households are reducing their total consumption expenditure in real terms. The Engel＇ s coefficient of the rural household enlarged while their proportion of spending on clothing and energy declined. Farmers＇ households are moving toward more imbalanced diets, and the nutritional status of the poor is apparently deteriorating. The emergency-response measures that the government should implement include stopping subsidies to biofuel producers, who use foodstuffs as inputs, and providing food aid to the poor. The mid-term strategies should include anti-monopoly tactics, improving the market environment for the right competition, and eliminating price distortion. Midterm and long-term socioeconomic policy reform must be undertaken to adjust the social structure, to correct the mechanism of factor price formation, and to transform the pattern of economic growth.     

An Experimental Investigation of Increased Professional Education Requirements*

Abstract. We experimentally investigate the effects of a mandatory increase in education on the market for professional labor services when several service qualities are assumed to exist. We show that when suppliers have insufficient incentives to offer high-quality services in a free market, an increase in mandatory education can improve the coordination of supplier decisions and increase efficiency. If suppliers voluntarily provide a sufficient quantity of high-quality services, an education constraint can have the opposite effect. In both instances, however, an increase in the mandatory level of education can be expected to reduce the price of high-quality services while increasing the price of lower service qualities. Résumé. Les auteurs ont procédé à une analyse expérimentale des conséquences qu'aurait une hausse imposée du niveau d'études sur le marché des services professionnels, si l'on suppose l'existence de plusieurs qualités de services. L'analyse démontre que lorsque les stimulants sont insuffisants pour inciter les fournisseurs à offrir des services professionnels de qualité supérieure dans un marché libre, une hausse imposée du niveau d'études peut améliorer la coordination des décisions des fournisseurs et augmenter l'efficience. Si toutefois les fournisseurs offrent de leur propre chef une quantité suffisante de services de qualité supérieure, le fait d'imposer un niveau d'études supérieur peut avoir l'effet contraire. Dans les deux cas, on peut s'attendre à ce qu'une hausse du niveau d'études obligatoire réduise le prix des services de qualité supérieure tout en augmentant le prix des services de qualité plus faible.     

基于供应商入侵的两级供应链批量博弈及决策

考虑由一个供应商和一个零售商组成的两级供应链,构建了三阶段博弈模型,研究在不对称信息下供应商入侵对零售商订单量及供应商库存量决策的影响。通过设计市场规模阈值及调查市场规模,进而得出每一阶段下供应商和零售商的利润。对3个阶段供应商和零售商利润先后进行比较分析,发现当后一阶段利润大于前一阶段时,供应链成员才会对订单量及库存量进行调整,从而得出在每阶段零售商订单数量及供应商库存数量范围。结果表明,供应商入侵在一定的零售商订单量及供应商库存量范围内可以提高供应链利润。     

Endogenous price leadership in a duopoly: Equal products, unequal technology

In the present paper we study endogenous price leadership in the context of a homogeneous product Bertrand duopoly model in which the firms have different, strictly convex cost functions. In such a framework it is well known that a simultaneous move price choice game does not have an equilibrium in pure strategies, but it has an equilibrium in mixed strategies. In the Stackelberg games with an exogenous price leader, we show that a pure strategy subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE) always exists. Although the SPNE might not be unique, the payoffs are the same across all SPNE. Finally, we analyze the issue of endogenous price leadership using the continuous version of the Robson (1990) timing game. The result is unexpected. One would expect the more efficient firm to emerge as the endogenous price leader. This is not always true. In most cases the endogenous leader is the firm with the highest "threshold" price. However, we also provide conditions under which the more efficient firm emerges as the leader. Our paper essentially complements Yano (2001) , which is based on the Hamilton and Slutsky (1990) framework.     

Was It Possible to Stabilise the Price of Wool? Organised Wool Marketing 1916 to 1970

Wool is the only Australian commodity for which there has been an attempt to organise price stability through a buffer stock scheme (1970–91). Growers pressed for the introduction of a scheme since the early 1920s. We test the veracity of claims that the sale of the stockpiles optimised growers' returns. We also simulate the likely outcomes of the reserve price schemes (RPS) proposed in 1925 and 1952, respectively. Our findings are that post-war stockpile disposals did not optimise wool growers' incomes, the undercapitalised proposed RPS of the 1920s would have collapsed in the depression, and that the post-1952 RPS would have been in considerable difficulty.