Aggregative games and best-reply potentials

This paper introduces quasi-aggregative games and establishes conditions under which such games admit a best-reply potential. This implies existence of a pure strategy Nash equilibrium without any convexity or quasi-concavity assumptions. It also implies convergence of best-reply dynamics under some additional assumptions. Most of the existing literature’s aggregation concepts are special cases of quasi-aggregative games, and many new situations are allowed for. An example is payoff functions that depend on own strategies as well as a linear combination of the mean and the variance of players’ strategies.     

An agglomeration payment for cost-effective biodiversity conservation in spatially structured landscapes

Connected habitats are ecologically more valuable than isolated habitats for many species. A key challenge when designing payments for biodiversity in fragmented landscapes is to increase the spatial connectivity of habitats. Based on the idea of an agglomeration bonus we consider a scheme in which land-owners only receive payments if habitats are arranged in an ecologically favourable configuration. We compare the cost-effectiveness of agglomeration payments to spatially homogeneous payments on a conceptual level. Our results suggest that positive efficiency gains exist for agglomeration payments. We use Large Blue butterfly habitat in Germany as a specific case study, and find the agglomeration payments may lead to cost-savings of nearly 70% relative to homogenous payments.     

Bare promises: An experiment

Is truth-value of a statement what lying aversion is all about? We propose an experimental test and find only limited support. In this context with ‘bare promises’, we also test for guilt aversion and again find only limited support.     

Contests and the Private Production of Public Goods

The private provision of public goods generally suffers from two types of efficiency failures: sorting problems (the wrong individuals contribute) and quantity problems (an inefficient amount is provided). Embedding the provision game into a contest that rewards larger contributions with higher probabilities of winning a prize may remedy such failures. Applications include tenure decisions at universities, electoral competition among politicians, etc. We identify a tradeoff between the value of the prize and the decisiveness of the contest. High‐powered incentives in contests may cause an overprovision of the public good or wasteful participation of unproductive individuals in the contest.     

HARVESTING VALUE FROM ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS

This article discusses ways for entrepreneurs to gain liquidity from their businesses, either with or without a sale of the business. In today's financial arena there is a wide variety of methods and financing vehicles that can enable private companies to harvest liquidity to meet their own needs for growth, the consumption requirements of their founders, or the challenges of tax and estate planning. For companies with limited growth opportunities but fairly stable cash flows, the alternatives range from orderly liquidation to highly leveraged transfers of ownership such as those accomplished by leveraged buyouts, ESOPs, and mezzanine finance. For companies with abundant growth opportunities, value is typically maximized through sale to a strategic buyer or an initial public offering of equity (although a new hybrid called the "private IPO" has recently emerged that looks more like an LBO than an IPO).
In order to achieve its full potential, a company should be financed in such a way that enables it to continue through its natural business lifecycle, regardless of whether that matches the human lifecycle of its founder. So long as leadership succession can be arranged, the business lifecycle can determine the course of the company. Indeed, selling the business is the value-maximizing solution only if there is a strategic buyer willing to pay a premium above the business's stand-alone value, or if the founder wants to withdraw from the business and has no preferred successor.
Moreover, for the vast majority of companies, going public is not the recommended means for "cashing out." An IPO is likely to be a value-maximizing (and emotionally satisfying) experience only for (1) companies with valuable growth prospects that require funding for investment and (2) owner-entrepreneurs who are willing to subject themselves to the scrutiny and fluctuations of the market.     

Information Technology and Establishment Size in America: Rybczynski Redivivus☆

The Rybczynski Theorem is one of the staples of international trade theory. In their article in this issue of the journal, J.J. Rosa and J. Hanoteau apply the theorem to a two-by-two world in which the two “industries” are small firms and large firms, and the two inputs are information and all other. The assumption that small firms are more information intensive, coupled with the fact that information has become pervasive in recent decades, allows them to derive the prediction that small firms will account for increasingly larger proportions of total output and employment in the economy. We highlight a couple of issues that we find problematic in the Rosa–Hanoteau study, and then develop two different empirical strategies to probe the connections between IT and the size distribution of establishments. First, we combine County Business Patterns with input–output data to explore whether the share of small plants has grown at a faster pace among industries that demand IT more heavily. Second, we explore, on an industry-by-industry basis and taking into account the potential endogeneity of IT location, whether clustering of IT firms in specific US counties is associated with a relatively large share of small establishments, on average, in those counties.     

Carbon Taxation, Fuel Substitution and Welfare in Australia

This paper examines the potential role for fuel substitution in electricity production in reducing carbon dioxide emissions over a ten-year time horizon. This is achieved by adding fuel substitution to output changes resulting from demand responses arising from a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. A time profile of adjustments is developed. The tax required for Australia to meet a 20 per cent reduction in emissions from 1993 levels is calculated and effects on inequality and social welfare are examined. The paper also examines the potential effect of a subsidy towards the use of low-emission fuels, financed from the carbon tax. A subsidy produces an improvement in emissions abatement and a lower tax required to reach the emissions target.