The value of reputation on eBay: A controlled experiment

We conducted the first randomized controlled field experiment of an Internet reputation mechanism. A high-reputation, established eBay dealer sold matched pairs of lots—batches of vintage postcards—under his regular identity and under new seller identities (also operated by him). As predicted, the established identity fared better. The difference in buyers’ willingness-to-pay was 8.1% of the selling price. A subsidiary experiment followed the same format, but compared sales by relatively new sellers with and without negative feedback. Surprisingly, one or two negative feedbacks for our new sellers did not affect buyers’ willingness-to-pay. JEL Classification D82 · L14 · Z13     

对商业银行内部会计监督管理体制的若干思考

目前,商业银行内部会计控制失效的现象越来越严重,特别是国有商业银行,其内部控制的失效将会直接导致国有资产的流失.所以,建立一套适合新环境的内部会计监督管理制度,是商业银行亟待解决的一个重要问题.     

Geographic concentration and vertical disintegration: Evidence from China

Existing theoretical literature predicts that geographic concentration encourages vertical disintegration of firms. Nevertheless, empirical evidence of this prediction is limited, especially in developing countries. Using data on manufacturing firms from China, this paper documents a positive correlation between geographic concentration and vertical disintegration. Additionally, this paper uses the instrumental variable approach to address the issue of endogeneity and finds that geographic concentration has a positive causal effect on vertical disintegration.     

Consumption norms,trickle-down and the video/microwave syndrome

A new method is presented for investigating empirically the presence or not of consumption norms in the ownership of durables amongst different socioeconomic groups (although the method is more generally applicable to any situation in which a number of characteristics, and not just durables, may be acquired in a specific sequence). In order to illustrate the method, some results are presented for the ownership of durables as sampled by the National Readership Survey for 1985 and 1990. As a further application of the method, particular attention is paid to the changing incidence of ownership of videos and microwaves. Both theoretically and empirically, the trickle-down model of consumer choice is critically assessed and found to be wanting.     

Hachemeister's Bayesian regression model revisited

Hachemeister's (1975) regression model is discussed from a number of viewpoints including credibility theory, Gauss-Markov theory and the Kalman filter. The last formulation facilitates recursive premium formulae including forecast errors. Recursive estimation of structural parameters is also briefly mentioned and an illustration involving a data set is presented. The paper basically serves to unify a number of recently developed ideas rather than present new results.