Exclusive Dealing through Resellers in Auctions with Stochastic Bidder Participation

This paper demonstrates that a seller prefers to exclude final consumers from an auction and sell only to resellers when these resellers can gain access, at a cost, to a sufficiently bigger market than the seller himself. The intuition is that resellers recoup their expenses for marketing the item by reselling it to final consumers. If some consumers participate in the first auction and are outbid by the resellers, then their values for the item are relatively low. Outbidding part of their customer base is “bad news” for the resellers, and this depresses their bids when consumers compete with them. The socially optimal and revenue-maximizing choices of auction format may not coincide: Restricting participation of consumers may be socially optimal but privately suboptimal and vice-versa. The results suggest that (i) the exclusion of final consumers in some auctions may not be driven by transaction cost considerations, and (ii) sellers should not necessarily sell directly to consumers, even though new technologies allow them to do so at essentially zero cost, unless they can access a sufficiently large portion of the market.     

Changes in consumer choice: Further investigation of similarity and attraction effects

Attraction and substitution effects have been shown to be important determinants of brand choice when a new brand is added to a choice set. A simple framework is proposed for predicting the effect on relative market shares when a new brand is added to the choice set in an experimental setting. The study attempts to replicate previous results concerning the relative impact of attraction and similarity and to extend empirical findings to brand attribute positionings not examined in recent research on the attraction effect. Generally, the proposed framework operates as hypothesized, and results suggest that, in some instances, a new brand may benefit substantially from the joint effects of attraction and similarity.     

Intra-industry foreign direct investment: Its rationale and trade effects

Zusammenfassung Intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen im Ausland: Ihre Gründe und Auswirkungen auf den AuΒenhandel. — Der Aufsatz zeigt, daΒ intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen oder die daraus finanzierte Produktion im Ausland Formen des internationalen wirtschaftlichen Engagements sind, die ihre Begründung sowohl im intra-industriellen Handel als auch in der inter-industriellen Produktion finden. Dies wird an Hand einer Taxonomie aufgezeigt. Es wird argumentiert, daΒ intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen im Ausland eine natürliche Folge der gleichen Faktoren sind, die zu intra-industriellem Handel führen, wobei unternehmensspezifische Vorteile wichtiger sind als die in einem Land begründeten Vorteile. Intra-industrielle Auslandsinvestitionen bedeuten auΒerdem, daΒ internationale Transaktionen am besten in hierarchischer Form und nicht über (Kassa-)M?rkte durchgeführt werden, und zwar aus Gründen, die den g?ngigen Theorien über multinationale Operationen entnommen werden k?nnen. Ganz sicher folgt sowohl aus der Theorie als auch aus den verfügbaren Daten, daΒ die intra-industrielle Produktion wahrscheinlich an Bedeutung gewinnen wird, vor allem dann, wenn keine Eingriffe durch die Regierungen erfolgen.

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Résumé Investissement étranger direct intra-industriel: sa base raisonnée et ses effets commerciaux. — L’article démontre que l’investissement étranger direct intra-industriel (IE-DII) ou la production correspondante comme forme d’engagement international économique est soumise à des motifs rationnels qui basent sur le commerce intra-industriel (Cll) et la production inter-industrielle. Les auteurs arguent que l’IEDII est une conséquence naturelle des facteurs économiques qui ménent au CII et qui même sont déterminés par la nature de ?l’industrie? dans laquelle le CH se passe. En plus, cependant, l’IEDII implique que les transactions internationales sont conduites le mieux par des hiérarchies et non par des marchés à cause des raisons qui peuvent être déduites par des théories recues des opérations internationales. Il apparait clairement, de la théorie aussi bien que des données disponibles que probablement la production intra-industrielle gagnera en importance, particuliérement si elle restera libre de l’intervention gouvernementale.

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Resumen Inversion extranjera directa en la industria: razón de su impacto sobre el comercio. — El artfculo muestra como la inversión extranjera directa intra-industrial o la producción como forma de participación económica internacional tiene una razón de ser basada en el comercio y en la producción intra-industrial. Se propone que la inversión extranjera directa es una conscuencia natural de los factures económicos que llevan el comercio intra-industrial, los que a su vez están determinados por la naturaleza de la industria en el que el comercio tiene lugar. La inversion extranjera directa implica adicionalmente sin embargo que las transacciones internacionales se ejecutan mejor a travès de jerarqufas que a travès de mercados por razones que pueden ser derivadas de conocidas teorias sobre operaciones multinacionales. Es evidente, por medio de la teoria y de las estadisticas disponibles, que se puede esperar un crecimiento de la producci?n intra-industrial, especialmente si se le libèra de interferencia gubernamental.

     

Recent trends in health care expenditure and utilization in OECD countries

Conclusions High unemployment and low economic growth continue to plague many OECD countries, putting strong pressures on governments to reduce social spending. Health is the second largest social expenditure program and has been one of the fastest growing. Health care financing and delivery systems which were designed to achieve access have not proven themselves effective in ensuring efficient production and consumption of services.The inability to measure the effects of health expenditures on health outcomes, the lack of clinical standards of appropriateness of treatment, and indeed the sensitivity of health status to non-medical systems' aspects of society further confound the problems of developing policies to promote efficiency and equity. Moreover, future demographic and technological changes could place substantial new budgetary pressures on governments.Understanding the nature of the problem, effective measures taken, and the transferability of such measures to particular situations or systems are essential for preserving access while assuring efficiency under current as well as future economic and demographic constraints.Invited address at the Twenty-Third International Atlantic Economic Conference and the International Health Economics and Management Conference, April 20–27, 1987, Munich, West Germany. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the OECD.     

Determinants of environmental management systems standards implementation: evidence from Greek industry

This paper employs logistic regression analysis to test a model that predicts the implementation or non‐implementation of Environmental Management Systems Standards (EMSSs) by considering various factors as explanatory variables. The dependent variable is dichotomous: industrial firms either implementing or not implementing EMSSs. From past experience we identify 15 major variables contributing to implementation of EMSSs. A sample of 259 respondents (84 implementing and 175 not) is used to estimate the parameters of the logistic regression model employing maximum likelihood. The results show an overall significant model with four of the 15 variables significant. The significance of management perception of environmental issues on their decision to implement EMSS was confirmed with regards to their perception on win–win possibilities. Pressure on companies to improve their environmental performance does not result in higher uptake of the standards. Company image and size are important factors in its decision to implement EMSS. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment