Decentralization and Transfer Pricing Under Oligopoly

This paper presents a simple model of a partially decentralized multinational firm (MNF) in competition with a rival firm. It is shown that transfer pricing can be used as a rent-shifting device by the MNF to compete with the rival. This arises because the MNF headquarters uses the transfer price to manage different subsidiaries. The specific value of the transfer price chosen by the MNF depends on whether the rival firm produces the intermediate good, the final good, or both and whether the rival is integrated or not. In particular, both decentralization and competition with a fully integrated rival result in lower transfer prices.     

Environmental regulation,firm heterogeneity,and intra-industry reallocation

We describe a model with firm heterogeneity and endogenous pollution abatement to show how emission intensity and exit/entry selections vary across firms. Using Chinese firm-level emission and production data, we find evidence that low productivity firms have higher emission intensity. The emission intensity of firms with productivity below 10 percentile is 5.26 times larger than firms with productivity above 90 percentile. Combining the Annual Survey of Chinese Industrial Enterprises (CIE) data, and applying a triple-difference research design, we find that firms with high emission intensity or low productivity have a higher probability of exit when exposed to strict environmental policy. We also find the exit of unproductive firms contributes to aggregate productivity and strict environmental policy can help to reduce misallocation.     

Multigenerational Families and Food Insecurity

The prevalence of multigenerational families is on the rise in the United States, as is food insecurity. We estimate the association of resident grandchildren on transitions in food insecurity using longitudinally linked two‐year panels of the Current Population Survey from 2001 to 2010. We find that rates of food insecurity in families with a grandchild present are at least twice as high in a typical year compared with families without a resident grandchild, and the extent of very low food security increased substantially faster among these households over the past decade. The rise in food insecurity during and after the Great Recession is due to both increased entry into food insecurity and decreased exit out of food insecurity. A similar trend accounts for the rise in multigenerational households during the recession—grandchildren were more likely to move in with their grandparents, and once there, were less likely to move out. Our transition models show that whether grandchildren remain, or in periods of transition, multigenerational families are at heightened risk of entering food insecurity and remaining in this state. However, the entry of a grandchild may not always be a negative for the family's food security, nor the exit of the child a positive. Entrance of a child seems to buffer the family from extreme forms of food insecurity while exit exposes the family to risk of deeper food insecurity.     

The information content of M3 for future inflation in the Euro area

The Information Content of M3 for Future Inflation in the Euro Area. — The information content of M3 for future inflation in the euro area is investigated from a number of perspectives. Our results confirm that a significant positive association exists between the real money gap and future inflation up to five to six quarters ahead. It is also shown that, although the extended P-star model outperforms the rival model in some respect, the hypothesis that no useful information is contained in rival evidence can be rejected.     

PRODUCTIVITY AND FIRM DYNAMICS: CREATIVE DESTRUCTION IN INDONESIAN MANUFACTURING, 1994–2000

This paper examines the entry and exit, and the labour productivity, of Indonesian manufacturing firms with 20 workers or more, using a firm-level panel dataset constructed for the years 1994–2000. Overall change in manufacturing labour productivity reached 27.2%—an average growth of 3.5% per annum—between 1994 and 2000, a period that includes the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis, which hit Indonesia hard. Vibrant firm dynamics characterised this period, in which about 10% of manufacturing enterprises were renewed in any one year. By 2000, one-third of all enterprises in existence in 1994 had closed, but the number of enterprises that closed was lower than the number that entered and survived up to the year 2000. The replacement of exiting firms with newly entering firms contributed significantly to increases in overall labour productivity. Regulatory reform in support of this process should lead to gains in productive employment for Indonesian workers.     

Monopsony and competition: The impact of rival leagues on player salaries during the early days of baseball

During the early days of professional baseball, the dominant major leagues imposed a “reserve clause” designed to limit player wages by restricting competition for labor. Entry into the market by rival leagues challenged the incumbent monopsony cartel's ability to restrict compensation. Using a sample of player salaries from the first 40 years of the reserve clause (1880–1919), this study examines the impact of inter-league competition on player wages. This study finds a positive salary effect associated with rival league entry that is consistent with monopsony wage suppression, but the effect is stronger during the 20th century than the 19th century. Changes in levels of market saturation and minor-league competition may explain differences in the effects between the two eras.     

On the optimality of information sharing between integrated and vertically separated competitors

A manufacturer relies on an exclusive subcontractor for production and competes horizontally against an integrated rival that produces in-house. The exclusive agent is privately informed about the marginal cost of production. When marginal costs are correlated across companies, information sharing benefits both companies due to reduced uncertainty, but it affects the contracting terms within the vertical hierarchy and creates horizontal externalities between companies. We show that the manufacturer who suffers from agency cost benefits more from sharing information than his rival performing in-house production only when costs are highly correlated, and in this case, information sharing may actually benefit consumers.     

分利抑制与经济增长

本文建立了一个资源在生产性行为和非生产性行为①之间分配的一般均衡模型,分析了在政府作为仲裁者的情况下,模型均衡的决定因素.分析的重点是当经济体处于无分利行为的均衡时,政府所能起到的作用.本文得到的结论是两个个体按利益最大化原则进行资源分配,并不能完全杜绝分利行为,即达不到无分利行为的均衡.只有在政府以仲裁者的身份参与博弈时,才有可能达到无分利行为的均衡状态.因此,在经济发展过程中,自由放任并不是政府的最佳选择,政府应该扮演重要的角色.本文最重要的贡献在于,给出了政府干预经济的一个准则.     

The Effects of Competition from S Corporations on the Organizational Form Choice of Rival C Corporations

Subchapter C of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code levies an entity‐level tax on corporate profits, whereas Subchapter S allows corporations meeting specific criteria to elect out of this tax. Despite these differences, C and S corporations regularly compete for customers and capital. We examine whether and the extent to which competition from S corporations influences the future organizational form choice of rival C corporations and explore outcomes of this choice. Using data for 4,462 private U.S. commercial banks grouped by Metropolitan Statistical Area during 1997–2010, we find that greater competition from S corporation banks increases the likelihood that rival C corporation banks convert to Subchapter S status. We estimate that the aggregate first‐year tax savings from S conversion exceed $372 million. Consistent with these savings being used to maintain competitive parity with rivals, we find that converting banks increase their interest rates on customer deposits and advertising intensity. Our findings provide insight into whether competition from tax‐advantaged firms influences the organizational form choice of rival tax‐disadvantaged firms.     

Optimal Exit Costs of Foreign Direct Investment

This paper examines the optimal policy on exit costs of foreign direct investment for a host country considering the impact of varying income level and host country’s risk aversion against volatile FDI flows. Based on a dynamic model about the impact of the exit costs on FDI inflows and capital formation, we demonstrate that a host country should determine the exit cost considering two counterbalancing factors, that is, facilitating higher FDI inflows and reducing volatility of FDI inflows. When a host country is less vulnerable to volatility with inelastic risk aversion against FDI volatility, it is optimal for the host country with a negative income shock to take a more aggressive approach to induce FDI inflows by lowering exit costs. However, if the host country is more vulnerable to volatility with elastic risk aversion, the host country is advised to take a conservative approach by increasing exit costs to reduce FDI volatility. These findings, supported by the OECD data on 42 countries’ exits costs, implicate that developing countries are recommended to lower exit costs to induce higher FDI inflows when they are not highly vulnerable to volatility shocks.     

贫困、经济增长与脱贫时间:基于中国城镇居民调查数据的分析

贫困指数是衡量社会总体贫困程度的指标,在众多的贫困指数中.本文选择具有良好性能的瓦特指数和由此派生出来的脱贫时间指数,分析了我国城镇上个世纪90年代以来的贫困变化趋势.研究发现,城镇贫困在1997年达到高峰,然后逐渐缓和;贫困人口的收入增长在初期能使脱贫时间迅速下降,但边际效果是递减的;贫困人口之间的收入分配不平等延长了脱贫时间:如果贫困人口的初始收入增加,会明显降低脱贫时间.     

TO PREY OR NOT TO PREY? WELFARE AND INDIVIDUAL LOSSES IN A CONFLICT MODEL1

We analyse a generalised form of the Hirshleifer‐Skaperdas predation model. In such a model agents have a choice between productive work and appropriation. We suggest that such a model can usefully be thought of as a continuous form of the Prisoners' Dilemma. We present closed form solutions for the interior equilibria and comparative statics for all Cournot equilibria and analyse the social welfare losses arising from predation. We show that predation is minimised under two quite different regimes, one in which claiming is very ineffective and another in which one of the players becomes marginalised. The worst outcomes seem to arise when claiming is effective, but inequality in power is significant but not extreme. This, arguably, is the situation in a number of transition societies.     

Business Conditions and Exit Risks Across Countries

The risk of market exit that business firms face is significant and differs widely across countries. This paper explores the links between countries’ business conditions and the exit risk at the country level. We set up a general equilibrium model which allows us to derive sharp predictions concerning how key factors which shape a country’s business and trade environment impact on the exit risk of firms which operate in these environments. The model is able to explain the negative correlation between countries’ average labor productivity and the perceived risks of exit borne out in the facts and its predictions accord with evidence on country differences in business conditions.     

Development Cost Capitalization During R&D Races

We investigate the economic effects of capitalizing development costs during a race between two firms to discover and develop a new technology. Winning the race requires success in the research stage and success in the development stage. Development costs are expensed in some settings, but capitalized in others. Capitalization of development costs provides a credible signal regarding progress in the race, allowing the rival to make a more informed decision regarding whether to proceed with development. We study the effects of this signal on the firms’ investment decisions and social welfare. We show that if both firms capitalize instead of expense development costs, aggregate investment in research weakly increases but aggregate investment in development weakly decreases. We also characterize the accounting policies that the two rival firms would adopt if they could freely choose either an expensing policy or a capitalization policy.     

The impact of tariff reductions on firm dynamics and productivity in China: Does market-oriented transition matter?

This paper investigates the impact of trade liberalization on firm dynamics and productivity in the context of dramatic tariff reductions after China's accession to the WTO, and how this impact varies across regions with different marketization levels. Our results show that (a) on average, output tariff reductions tend to reduce firm entry rate and increase firm exit rate, while input tariff reductions help to increase both firm entry rate and exit rate, furthermore, regional marketization strengthens the impact of trade liberalization on firm dynamics; (b) trade liberalization exerts greater impact on the likelihood of exit for the least productive firms while it tends to reduce the probability of exit for the more productive firms, with regional marketization strengthening such a reallocation process of trade liberalization; (c) firm dynamics effect contributes approximately 43% of the growth of productivity, and it (especially the firm exit effect) is an important channel through which trade liberalization fosters productivity growth, and domestic market reform is found to strengthen such an impact.     

经济复苏下的非常规货币政策退出——理论分析与中国的选择

本文从非常规货币政策退出的时机判断、策略选择、工具取舍和效果预测与评估等四个方面构建了一个经济复苏背景下的非常规货币政策退出的理论分析框架,在此基础上,对中国非常规货币政策退出中涉及的相关问题进行了探讨。研究表明,时机判断、退出策略、退出工具的选取以及效果预测和评估是非常规货币政策退出决策中相互依存、相互制约的四个有机组成部分。在经济复苏阶段,中国非常规货币政策退出的目标应是在维护币值稳定的基础上兼顾其他目标的实现。在退出的节奏上应循序渐进,在财政政策与货币政策的退出次序上应"先财政、后货币"。同时,应加强与其他国家间货币政策退出的协调与沟通,强化对非常规货币政策退出效果的预测和评估。     

Retirement Incentives in Belgium: Estimations and Simulations Using SHARE Data

The paper studies retirement behavior of wage-earners in Belgium—for the first time using a rich survey dataset to analyze retirement incentives as faced by individuals. Specifically, we use SHARE data to estimate a model à la Stock and Wise (Econom Econ Soc 58(5):1151–1180, 1990). Exploring the data on individual life-histories from SHARELIFE, we construct a measure of financial incentive to retire. Our analysis explicitly takes into account the different take-up rates of the various early retirement exit paths across time and ages. The results show that financial incentives play a strong role. Health and education also matter, as do regional differences. Against the general background of the 2020 strategy, we perform a set of policy simulations and illustrate the scope but also the limits associated with selective parametric reforms.     

Entry and the accumulation of capital: A two state variable extension to the Ramsey model

In this paper we consider the entry and exit of firms in a dynamic general equilibrium model with capital. At the firm level, there is a fixed cost combined with increasing marginal cost, which gives a standard U‐shaped cost curve with optimal firm size. Entry is determined by a free entry condition such that the cost of entry is equal to the present value of incumbent firms. The cost of entry (exit) depends on the flow of entry (exit). Equilibrium is saddle‐point stable and the stable manifold is two‐dimensional. Transitional dynamics can, under certain circumstances, be non‐monotonic.     

Electoral rules and free trade agreements as a campaign issue: The case of political disputes over the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Japan

This study empirically examines what drives candidates to oppose a free trade agreement (FTA), focusing on the difference in electoral rules and progress of FTA negotiations. We use as case studies Japan's 2013 and 2016 Upper House elections, a main issue of which was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Candidates’ promises about the TPP are unrelated to whether they run for one-seat, multi-seat, or proportional representation constituencies. Candidates who have more rival candidates belonging to the same party are less supportive of the TPP, whereas candidates who face fiercer competition with rival candidates of other parties are more supportive. This result, however, is not observed after the conclusion of the TPP negotiations. The presence of agriculture in local economies relates to candidates’ opposition of the TPP before the conclusion of negotiations, but not thereafter. Conversely, candidates’ stances on the TPP are affected by their parties’ policies and own ideologies regardless of the different stages of promoting the TPP. These results indicate that the major determinants of candidates’ positions toward an FTA vary according to the changes in circumstances surrounding the FTA.     

ENTRY AND EXIT, CYCLES, AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH

This paper examines the impact of cycles on long-term growthin the presence of entry and exit of firms It is argued thatwhereas mild fluctuations may be beneficial for growth, moresevere fluctuations will be detrimental for growth The essentialpoint is whether recessions go beyond the point that triggers(large-scale) exit of firms Mild fluctuations may have a positiveeffect through the intertemporal substitution between productionand productivity improving activities Severe fluctuations, however,which lead to exit of firms, cause losses of knowledge and skillsduring recessions, and are therefore bad for long-term growth