The adoption of Web 2.0 services: An empirical investigation

The paper investigates the factors associated with the intensity of use of three Web 2.0 services - video sharing, social networking and social bookmarking - by looking at the users' characteristics and at the technological features. It relies upon a theoretical framework that combines the diffusion of innovation model with the technology acceptance model. However, it goes beyond them by focusing not simply on the determinants of adoption, but on the determinants of the intensity of use, and by introducing variables related to the social influence. The empirical analysis is based upon a survey of 300 users of Web 2.0 services. We find that the compatibility with users' needs and behaviours plays an important role for the intensity of usage of both video sharing and social networking services, while the ease of use positively affects the intensity of usage of social networking services, but has a negative effect on the intensity of usage of video sharing services. Extrinsic job-related motivations are important drivers of the intensive usage of social bookmarking and social networking services, while sharing contents is relevant for video sharing and social networking services. Finally, individual characteristics such as age, education and IT endowment also play an important role.     

The impact of a ‘soda tax’ on prices: evidence from French micro data

Based on an original data set of more than 500,000 non-alcoholic beverage price records, we evaluate the impact on consumer prices of the ‘soda tax’, an excise on drinks with added sugar or sweetener, introduced in France in January 2012. We adopt a difference in differences approach and find that the tax was gradually passed through to the prices of the taxed beverages. After 6 months of its introduction, it was fully shifted to soda prices and almost fully shifted to the prices of fruit drinks, while the pass-through for flavoured waters was incomplete. We also find that the pass-through was heterogeneous across brands and retail groups.     

Me and you and everyone we know: An empirical analysis of local network effects in mobile communications

This paper investigates the importance that consumers assign to local network effects, i.e. the extent to which they take account of their contacts’ mobile operators when choosing a provider for themselves. The authors identify individual characteristics that affect the importance consumers attach to local network effects. The study relies on a survey of 193 Italian students. The results show that consumers are highly heterogeneous with respect to the importance they give to the operators chosen by their friends/family members in choosing which provider to use. This heterogeneity is associated with individual innovativeness and patterns of mobile phone usage. For instance, consumers who are more interested in local network effects are typically more-aware users, who use voice services quite intensively. These consumers, who pay attention to local network effects, spend comparatively little proportional to the intensity of their mobile usage.     

Diversification strategies in network-based services: The case of mobile virtual network operators

This paper aims at discussing the entry process and competitive strategies of MVNOs in Italy and France. It illustrates the features of competition in a sector – the mobile telecom service industry – which is characterized by market saturation and demand heterogeneity. In doing so, it looks at the characteristics of the two countries in terms of competition and entry of new operators, at the motivations behind the entry of MVNOs, and at the performance of different companies. Results show that the most successful MVNOs are those characterized by the ability to find a perfect match between their core competencies (large network management, strong brand reputation) and the needs of specific segments of demand that had not been previously fulfilled. In this context, companies with ICT network management skills, whether coming from the telecom sector or from other network-based service industries such as postal operators, have been particularly successful in the market. From a policy perspective, despite the failure of some MVNOs, customers have benefited from the increased competition between MNOs and MVNOs in terms of range of service offerings and prices.     

A multidimensional measure of social origin: theoretical perspectives,operationalization and empirical application in the field of educational inequality research

Quality & Quantity - This article describes the theoretical reasons and empirical operationalization of a multidimensional social origin measure. It is assumed that different parental resources...     

Green technological diversification of European ICT firms: a patent-based analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates whether and how diversified firms in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector innovate in green technologies and assess the potential impact of these innovations on firm performance. The analysis relies on a balanced panel dataset of European ICT firms in the period 2009–2013. The results suggest an inverted u-shaped relationship between the extent of technological diversification and the likelihood to develop green technologies. Technological diversification generally increases the likelihood of green innovations, but too high a dispersion of resources across a large variety of different technologies decreases the intensity of green innovations. The results show also that the development of green technologies is positively associated with firm performance: ICT firms involved in green patenting activity perform better than ICT firms with no green patents.     

The value of state education to consumers in the UK

This paper considers the value of state schooling, as perceived by consumers, taking into account that many households supplement the minimum education provided free of charge with out-of-pocket payments through acquiring accommodation in the catchment area of a high-quality state school. It suggests ways to circumvent difficulties in modelling household behaviour arising from joint housing-education consumption in the context of a two-stage demand system, where the proposed money metric of state schooling can be estimated from data readily available in household expenditure surveys. The empirical analysis, based on UK data, estimates this money metric as the amount households with school-age children would be willing to accept in order to opt out of the state education system. The efficiency and distributional implications of the empirical findings are discussed.     

An open-economy new Keynesian Phillips curve for the U.K.

We estimate a pricing equation or “new Keynesian Phillips curve” (NKPC) obtained from a structural dynamic model of price setting based on Rotemberg [1982. Sticky prices in the United States. Journal of Political Economy 90(6), 1187-1211] and extended to capture employment adjustment costs and the openness of the United Kingdom. This model nests the baseline Galí and Gertler [1999. Inflation dynamics: a structural econometric analysis. Quarterly Journal of Economics 110, 127-159) and Sbordone [2002. Prices and unit labor costs: a new test of price stickiness. Journal of Monetary Economics 49, 265-292] relationship between inflation and marginal cost in the limiting case of no employment adjustment costs, no impact of relative prices of imported inputs on real marginal cost and a constant equilibrium markup. Our findings indicate that each of our modifications to the baseline NKPC model is important for U.K. data, so that inflation in the U.K. is explained both by changes in employment and by changes in real import prices, in general, and real oil prices, in particular. External competitive pressures also seem to affect U.K. inflation via their impact on the equilibrium price markup of domestic firms.