Pricing Practices of Resellers in the Airline Industry: Posted Price vs. Name‐Your‐Own‐Price Models

I find that when a reseller with market power serves an airline company and only linear contracts are feasible, the airline prefers that the reseller utilizes the Name‐Your‐Own‐Price (NYOP) (a la Priceline) instead of the Posted Price (PP) (a la Hotwire) model. Essentially, the airline can better extract the surplus of the reseller if power over pricing is in the hands of numerous consumers, each bidding according to her preferences, instead of being concentrated in the hands of the reseller. Introducing two part tariff contracts or competition among resellers eliminates the distinction between the two pricing models. Either form of pricing generates the same outcome as vertical integration of the airline with the downstream market of resellers.     

Austerity,Growth and Inflation: Remarks on the Eurozone's Unresolved Competitiveness Problem

While the financial protection measures enacted by the ECB and the community of Eurozone members have calmed financial markets, they have left the competitiveness problem of the Eurozone's southern countries and France unresolved. The paper compares price inflation before the crisis with the necessary and actual price cuts that have taken place since the outbreak of the crisis, predicting a decade of stagnation for the south and inflation for the north. Keynesian demand policy is counterproductive in the south and unnecessary in the north. The necessary realignment of relative goods prices and current account imbalances can be achieved if market forces are allowed to redirect capital flows to the north instead of being artificially steered to uses they are keen to avoid.     

Individual efficiency and club performance: a panel analysis of professional baseball

This paper investigates whether players' individual‐ and club‐level efficiency has substantial impact on club performance in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Using data from 1990 to 2000, and a stochastic frontier model, we propose a different way to measure club‐level efficiency. Our empirical results indicate that club‐level efficiency is crucial to club performance, measured by the winning percentage. Although the literature shows that some inefficient clubs with abundant resources are still very successful on the diamond, our results confirm that club‐level efficiency has a moderate impact on the success of a baseball club in the CPBL. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategic R&D investment,competitive toughness and growth

We show, within a single industry, the possibility that R&D‐investment is non‐monotonically related to competitive toughness: increasing when competition is soft and decreasing when competition is tough. This possibility results from the combination of a Schumpeterian markup squeezing effect discouraging innovation, and a concentration effect spurring innovators. It is obtained in a sectoral model where the number of innovators is random and where non‐successful investors may remain productive. The result is extended to a multisectoral stochastic endogenous growth model with overlapping generations of consumers and firms, the number of which is endogenously determined in the capital market.     

When an NGO Takes on Public Participation: Preparing a Plan for a Neighborhood in East Jerusalem

It is often non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote empowered participation processes, and assume active roles in leading them. However, the ability of NGOs to take on such processes is under‐theorized. In many cases empowered participation involving NGOs takes place without political support from above (or with limited or conditional support). Our goal in this article is to use a case study of participatory planning in East Jerusalem to theorize processes of empowerment in an oppositional political environment. We argue that it is useful to analyze such processes of empowered participation through the concept of power. We describe the process of empowerment as a speculative process in which the NGO has to hedge two mediums of power: it has to build the power of the community to discuss its own goals; and it has to simultaneously manage the transfer of decision‐making power from government bodies to the community.     

Age of first hunting experience: Results from a nationwide recreation survey

Abstract

Hunting participation, as indicated in the 1983 Nationwide Recreation Survey, is examined to determine the relationship between age of first hunting experience and adult level of participation. A statistically significant association between these two variables is found. In addition, more than 83 percent of those who hunt began their involvement by 18 years of age. The findings have implications for future hunting participation and the provision of programs for hunters.