Exclusive versus Common Dealership

In a setting with two differentiated producers and identical retailers, we analyzed whether the producers will have a distribution system with one or several retailers. In contrast to the existing literature, we allow for full foreclosure under both types of distribution systems. We find, in contrast to what has been shown in the received literature, that the producers will prefer a distribution system with a single common retailer to a system with separate exclusive dealers.     

Entitlements to continued life and the evaluation of population health

Review of Economic Design - We analyze the implications of axioms formalizing entitlements to continued life for the evaluation of population health, when combined with basic structural axioms. A...     

Moments of cross-sectional stock market returns and the German business cycle

Based on monthly data covering the period from 1987 to 2021, we analyse whether cross-sectional moments of stock market returns may provide information about the future position of the German business cycle. We apply in-sample forecasting regressions with and without leading indicators as control variables, pseudo-out-of-sample exercises, autoregressive distributed lag models, and impulse-response functions estimated by local projections. We find in-sample predictive power of the first and third cross-section moments for the future growth of industrial production, even if one controls for well-established leading indicators for the German business cycle. Out-of-sample tests show that these variables reduce the relative mean squared error compared with benchmark models. We do not find a long-run relation between the moment series and industrial production. The dynamic response of industrial production to a shock on the cross-section moments is in line with the other results.     

Are cryptocurrencies homogeneous?

This article investigates if cryptocurrencies returns' are similarly affected by a selection of demand- and supply-side determinants. Homogeneity among cryptocurrencies is tested via a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model where determinants of Bitcoin returns are applied to a sample of 12 cryptocurrencies. The analysis goes beyond existing research by simultaneously covering different periods and design choices of cryptocurrencies. The results show that cryptocurrencies are heterogeneous, apart from some similarities in the impact of technical determinants and cybercrime. The cryptocurrency market displays evidence of substitution effects, and design choices related explain the impact of the determinants of return.     

Unpaid crowd complementors: The platform network effect mirage

Platforms have evolved beyond just being organized as multi‐sided markets with complementors selling to users. Complementors are often unpaid, working outside of a price system and driven by heterogeneous sources of motivation—which should affect how they respond to platform growth. Does reliance on network effects and strategies to attract large numbers of complementors remain advisable in such contexts? We test hypotheses related to these issues using data from 85 online multi‐player game platforms with unpaid complementors. We find that complementor development responds to platform growth even without sales incentives, but that attracting complementors has a net zero effect on on‐going development and fails to stimulate network effects. We discuss conditions under which a strategy of using unpaid crowd complementors remains advantageous. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.