Pricing, Sunk Costs, and Market Structure Online: Evidence from Book Retailing

While online consumers are less concerned than traditional consumersabout firm location, they may be more concerned about unobservablequality and, to signal this, online retailers rely more on advertisingthan traditional retailers. Imperfect price competition mayarise because of vertical product differentiation, incompleteconsumer awareness, and near-perfect information exchange betweenretailers. This paper evaluates alternative theories of competitionand market structure in online retailing. Advertising, productdevelopment, and revenue data for the online book market revealthat consumers respond to advertising and website spending ratherthan low prices. As the market size expanded, during 1997–2001,these endogenous sunk costs escalated and there was no majornew entry. Advertising-to-sales ratios and market-concentrationratios are much higher than for traditional bookselling. Usingprice and demand information for individual books over a numberof weeks, we find counter-cyclical and cross-sectional pricevariation inconsistent with perfect price competition.     

Agricultural Chemical Residues as a Source of Risk

Exposures to individual agricultural chemical residues are a relatively small source of risk across selected environmental and human health end points; nutrients in water, of which agricultural uses are only one source, may be an exception. This may explain recent policy decisions to tighten regulation of nutrients in water resources. However, uncertainty about nutrient damages hinders design of an efficient policy to deal with nutrients.     

Big Business: The Corporatization of Primary Care in the UK and the USA

The corporatization of primary care in the USA and the UK over recent years has transformed the way that these services are managed and delivered. Traditional approaches based around small practices of doctors and their teams as the primary organizational unit have been largely overtaken by new models in which doctors, nurses and other primary care professionals work within much larger organizations. This article explores the experience in the USA and the UK of seeking to organize primary care more corporately, and suggests that a tightly managed organizational model does not work well in primary care. Looser, network-based models are needed in which some of the benefits of corporatization can be achieved while the traditional small-organization virtues of primary care can continue to thrive.     

探析旅游卫星帐户(TSA)的基本思想

本文陈述了旅游卫星账户(TSA)方法作为国家账户体系有机延伸的基本内涵,描述了TSA框架之内旅游、旅游商品、旅游业等概念的定义与范围,介绍了国家账户体系的相关内容与TSA之间的关系,结合加拿大TSA方法用于旅游经济影响分析的实例,对中国的情况给出建议.     

Graduate Employability: Policy and Performance in Higher Education in the UK

The UK government is introducing new sets of indicators designed to measure the performance of universities. A first wave of indicators was published in December 1999. A performance indicator based on graduate employment outcomes will follow. This paper proposes a method for developing employment-related performance indicators based on the analysis of data on the first destinations of a full cohort of leavers from pre-1992 universities in the United Kingdom. We analyse the determinants of graduate first destinations and suggest a method for the construction of university performance indicators. We also discuss limitations of league tables based on university performance indicators.     

Cluster Dynamics: Corporate Strategy, Industry Evolution and Technology Trajectories - A Case Study of the East Midlands Aerospace Cluster

High-technology clusters have attracted the attention of researchers and policy-makers but studies have focused primarily on the computer, electronics and biotechnology industries; aerospace has attracted less attention. An example of a high-technology cluster based on aerospace is to be found in the East Midlands region of the UK. This paper analyses this cluster. The analysis focuses on the structure of the cluster and the implications of this structure for cluster dynamics. The impact of factors such as corporate strategy, industry evolution and technological trajectories on cluster development are analysed. Finally, the implications of cluster structure for economic development policy in the region are evaluated.     

Tactics of Labor Struggles

Some actions by employers have the potential to generate outrage due to perceived injustice or abuse. Employers have five main methods to inhibit such outrage: covering up the action, demonizing the workers, reinterpreting what is happening, referring the matter to official channels that give only the appearance of justice, and using intimidation and bribery. Examples from Australian labor struggles are used to illustrate these tactics and how they can be opposed.     

An Alternative Perspective On Information Asymmetry; Implications For Consumer Authority In Physician Services Markets

This paper looks at the impact of patient knowledge on utilization and quality in physician services markets, developing a theoretical framework based on an alternative to the "market failure" perspective first proposed by Arrow (1963) . Specifically, this paper looks at how outcomes in physician services markets are determined by whether patient and physician knowledge are substitutes or complements in health production. Empirical testing of the theoretical predictions indicates patient and physician knowledge have changed from substitutes to complements in recent years, and that this change may be hindering a more consumer-driven market from ensuring high quality outcomes.