Retaliatory Equilibria in a Japanese Ascending Auction for Multiple Objects

We construct a family of retaliatory equilibria for the Japanese ascending auction for multiple objects and show that, while it is immune to many of the tacitly collusive equilibria studied in the literature, it is not entirely immune when some bidders are commonly known to be interested in a specific object.     

Efficient provision of public goods with endogenous redistribution

We study a balanced mechanism that is capable of implementing in Nash equilibrium all the Pareto-efficient individually rational allocations for an economy with public goods. The Government chooses a set of weights directly related to the Lindahl prices corresponding to the Pareto-efficient allocation to be implemented. The mechanism then guarantees that initial endowments are re-allocated so that the chosen vector of Lindahl prices is indeed a Lindahl equilibrium, and implements the corresponding Lindahl allocation. Finally, besides being balanced, our mechanism is simple. Each agent has to declare a desired increase in the amount of public good, and a vector of redistributive transfers of initial endowments (across other agents).Received: 9 May 2003, Accepted: 22 October 2003, JEL Classification: C79, H21, H30, H41We wish to thank Jeremy Edwards, Andrew Postlewaite and Emanuela Sciubba for helpful comments. Of course, any remaining errors are our own.     

On the Social Desirability of Patents for Sequential Innovations in a Vertically Differentiated Market

We consider a market for vertically differentiated goods where firms enter over time, after having developed innovations characterised by different quality levels. We show that patent height and length interact to determine the ultimate emergence of duopoly. In general, imposing quality improvements on later entrants entails the persistence of monopoly, while a duopoly equilibrium emerges when the second innovator is allowed to produce a sufficiently inferior quality and the patent protection granted to the first innovator is not too long-lasting.     

Price regulation of drugs: Lessons from Germany

This paper purports to explain the pricing policy of pharmaceutical companies in Germany prior and after the introduction of reference prices (RP) in 1989. First, the threat of such regulation may have kept prices finite despite a completely insured market. Next, the pricing policies of both the producer of an innovative drug and of a competing generic under RP are predicted. These predictions are then confronted with actual pricing policy for three products in the guise of case studies. Finally, the impact of modified copayment rules on pricing decisions is analyzed.The authors would like to thank Dr Michael Wiegand (Bonn) for valuable information and two anonymous referees for helpful criticisms.     

Consumer (goal) satisfaction: A means‐ends chain approach

This study investigates the role that service attributes, customer subgoals, and goals play in forming the satisfaction judgment. Drawing on means‐ends chain theory, and on satisfaction research, satisfaction is conceptualized as the result of a process in which customers activate multiple comparative referents. In a pilot study, a paper‐and‐pencil laddering technique was used to collect attributes and goals connected to the satisfaction judgment. These elements were then used as items in a satisfaction survey of 200 customers. A mixture regression model revealed that both attribute‐related dimensions and goal‐related dimensions determine overall satisfaction, albeit not homogeneously among customers. Two customer segments were identified: Socializers, whose satisfaction is driven primarily by the goal of well‐being, and Achievers, whose satisfaction is generated mainly by the goal of efficiency. Two directed graphs describe the satisfaction path of the two groups of customers, illustrating how service attributes are connected to the satisfaction of lower‐order and higher‐order goals. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Discretionary Government Consumption, Private Domestic Demand, and Crisis Episodes

This paper analyzes the dynamic impact of discretionary government consumption purchases on private demand. Using a panel of 132 countries from 1960 to 2008, we find that while discretionary changes in government consumption lead to crowding-in effects in the short run, crowding-out effects take over in the medium run. In addition, we also find that both short-term crowding-in and medium-term crowding out effects are amplified once we control for periods of crisis.     

The Fort McMurray demonstration project in social marketing: Health- and safety-related behaviour in a prosperous industrial community

Abstract

This is the first in a series of surveys conducted in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, as part of the Fort McMurray Demonstration Project in Social Marketing. The Project is a community-based, cooperative program designed to demonstrate and to evaluate the application of social marketing and community animation to health- and safety-promoting interventions. This baseline survey was for the purpose of planning specific interventions and to support evaluation of the impact of these interventions. In 1992, a survey of Fort McMurray residents was conducted by telephone. Respondents to the survey tended to be disproportionately women (60%) and aged 30 to 44 (men 55%, women 54%). Most of the findings reported describe a generally affluent community with good self-reported health status and satisfaction in the quality of life. Occupational and personal health-and safety-related behaviours showed some contradictions. Both hearing protection and eye protection are much more frequently practiced at work than at home by both men and women. Protection from ultraviolet radiation, in the form of sunscreens or clothes cover, is practiced with about the same frequency at home or at work, suggesting that this behaviour is conditioned by lifestyle attitudes. Warm-up exercises are much more commonly practiced by both men and women before exertion at home than at work. We conclude that safety-related practices at home and at work are often at variance. The strategy of encouraging generalization of safety-related behaviours, to be practiced consistently both at home and at work, seems to hold promise for achieving greater compliance and promoting both community and workplace safety.