Influence Of Over‐ And Underconfidence On A Marriage Market*

This paper examines misconfidence (over‐ or underconfidence) and marriage proposal strategies in a two‐sided search model with non‐transferable utility. Single agents are vertically heterogeneous—there exists a ranking of marital charm (types). It is shown that there are two externalities to over‐ or underconfident behaviour: someone's over‐ or underconfidence affects: (i) the duration of search for others who directly meet over‐ or underconfident agents; and (ii) the marriage decision of others who directly or indirectly meet over‐ or underconfident agents. Furthermore, these externalities prevent the lowest‐type agents from marrying in an equilibrium.     

Does oligopsony power matter in price support policy design? Empirical evidence from the Thai Jasmine rice market

In the oligopsony market, farmers may receive low prices and policy analysis assuming perfect competition can yield serious bias results. In this paper, we estimate oligopsony power between processors and farmers and evaluate the welfare impact of the paddy pledging program (PPP), a generous price support program in the Thai Jasmine rice market, with an imperfect competition model. We develop a model that consists of rice supply equation and derived demand equation. We then simultaneously estimate these equations using system estimation methods to recover oligopsony power parameters. Finally, we use these parameters to assess the welfare impact of the price support program. Using annual panel data running from crop marketing year 2001/2002–2015/2016 and exploiting the institutional feature of the PPP, we find strong evidence of some oligopsony power, a moderate level of oligopsony price distortion, and a negative relationship between price support and oligopsony power. We also find that the PPP is inefficient but effective in income redistribution. Moreover, the program benefits both farmers and consumers. With better policymaking decisions, the PPP can be efficient by setting a suitable support price. Therefore, our results show that in the case of the Thai Jasmine rice market, the generally accepted “wisdom” about agricultural price support policy does not necessarily hold, and price support can be designed to improve the efficiency of the market.     

Mindscapes: How to understand specific situations in multicultural management

The strength of the mindscape analysis lies in its usefulness in dealing with specific situations which generalized theories do not differentiate adequately. Examples with specificity are discussed. Dimension reduction, autodox, exoparadox and exotication are some of the limitations of the theories which fail to appreciate the epistemological differences in mindscape types.The author is a Professor at the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa.     

Policy for international talent utilization

We are facing an internationally uneven dzdrzbutzon of excess and shortage of engineers, professionals and rnultzculturally experzenced managers, resulting zn acute problems for head-hunting, in-house trumzng and staff retentzon. Excellent trained engineers may deteriorate in outmoded jactories in some countries. Matching between corporate culture and host county culture is crucial. Cross-national career advancement is increasingly practised with or without awareness of cultural differences. This article gives actual examples of problems and solutions in major firms.     

Experience looping,design looping and concept crossing: The key to successful product invention,development and adaptation

The management of product invention, development and adaptation (PIDA) is as important as technology transfer, although some PIDA principles are not culturally transferrable. This article discusses three principles which are applicable in a variety of cultural contexts-experience looping, design looping and concept crossing. The firm which can successfully incorporate such principles into its PIDA planning, particularly in overseas operations, is likely to improve market share.     

The logic of franchise contracts: Empirical results of Japan

This paper examines the factors determining the choice between company-owned outlets and franchising. A number of researchers have based their studies on the data of retail contracting in the US. However, there has been little empirical analysis in the case of Japan. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive assessment of various alternative hypotheses about franchising by using Japanese data. The principal-agent model of franchising that assumes risk-sharing and moral-hazard is supported by our data.     

Supermarkets in Vietnam: Opportunities and Obstacles

The present paper is the first study to link the perceptions of Vietnamese consumers to the barriers and prospects related to the development of supermarkets in Vietnam by applying quantitative and statistical analysis to Hanoi consumer survey data. It is found that shopping habits related to the purchase of fresh produce in traditional markets, combined with the proximity and low prices these outlets provide, act as a major deterrent to supermarket development. Supermarkets have made considerable advances in the sales of processed food and non-food products. However, without expanding their fresh food category, lowering prices and enhancing their location convenience, supermarkets cannot expand their current position.     

INTRA-INDUSTRY TRADE AND NATIONAL ENTRY POLICY

Abstract.  This paper analyses entry policy in an open economy using an intra-industry trade model. Entry policy is the policy by which a government regulates the number of firms in the country. Implementation of this policy is accompanied by subsidies. In this paper, only one country implements this policy and the other country does not enforce any regulations. We show that the national entry policy makes both countries better off than they would be at the market equilibrium if a certain condition is met. This means that national entry policy is not necessarily a beggar-thy-neighbour policy.     

Estimation of finite sequential games

I propose a new estimation method for finite sequential games that is efficient, computationally attractive, and applicable to a fairly general class of finite sequential games that is beyond the scope of existing studies. The major challenge is the computation of high-dimensional truncated integration whose domain is complicated by strategic interaction. This complication resolves when unobserved off-the-equilibrium-path strategies are controlled for. Separately evaluating the likelihood contribution of each subgame-perfect equilibrium that generates the observed outcome allows the use of the GHK simulator, a widely used importance-sampling probit simulator. Monte Carlo experiments demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed method.     

Crop failure,price regulation,and emergency imports of Japan's rice sector in 1993

In 1993, an extraordinarily cool summer in Japan brought about low rice yields, which caused considerable disturbances to the rice markets. Japan imported a large amount of rice as an emergency measure. Two controversies about Japan's rice policies were raised, particularly in that period. The first centred on the effectiveness of the price regulation policies in stabilizing rice prices and farmers’?incomes. The second involved the newspapers’?arguments that the emergency imports harmed other countries, especially developing countries. These controversies were examined with a world trade computable general equilibrium model.