NETWORK EXTERNALITIES AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

In this article, I examine how the network externalities of communications activities and trading opportunities interact to determine the structure of comparative advantage. These interactions are examined by constructing a two‐country, three‐sector model of trade involving a country‐specific communications network sector. The role of the connectivity of network providers, which allows users of a network to communicate with users of another network, is also explored.     

Romancing the alpaca: Passionate consumption, collection, and companionship

With their inquisitive nature, apparent intelligence, and aesthetic appeal, alpacas draw humans to them. This article spotlights alpaca breeders in an exploration of collecting as passionate consumption [BelkRussell, W. Collecting in a Consumer Society. London: Routledge, 1995.] and consumers' relationships with their animal companions [Hirschman Elizabeth. Consumers and their animal companions. Journal of Consumer Research 1994; 20 (March): 616-32.; Holbrook MB. Stephens DL. Day E. Holbrook SM. Strazar G. A collective stereographic photo essay on key aspects of animal companionship: The truth about dogs and cats. Academy of Marketing Science Review 2001; (1) 1-16.]. Multiple data sources provide stories of alpaca ownership. These sources comprise books, newspaper clips, and magazine articles about alpacas, as well as the author's own experiences as an alpaca breeder over the past 10 years. Building from Belk's work on collection, this article both introduces the idea of dynamic-and-transforming collections and illustrates how passionate consumption can lead to rejuvenation and re-enchantment with life. By concentrating on consumption experiences, this work adds to the growing body of consumer research that moves beyond a narrow focus on purchase behavior.     

住宅消费外部性及其治理研究

住宅消费的满足程度不仅取决于自身的居住空间,还受到邻居行为、社区公共环境等影响.分析了住宅消费外部性产生的原因和影响,提出了治理住宅消费外部性的相关对策.     

Shared Tax Sources and Public Expenditures

This paper deals with a specific vertical assignment of public functions in a federation: Two levels of government share both the same tax source and expenditure on a productivity increasing public service. We consider surplus maximizing Leviathan governments which provide public services in order to increase their potential tax base. The Nash equilibrium is characterized by overtaxation and relative to surplus maximization—depending on whether or not the public goods are sufficiently complementary with the entire tax base—either underprovision or overprovision of the public service. The implications of these results, in terms of welfare and potential use for earmarking taxes are also considered.     

Duopolistic competition between independent and collaborative business-to-business marketplaces

This paper studies imperfect price competition between two intermediaries in an electronic business-to-business matching market with indirect network externalities. The intermediaries have different ownership structures: an independent incumbent competes with a collaborative buy side consortium to attract buying and selling firms. When firms can register exclusively with one intermediary, the incumbent can deter entry only if the number of consortium owners is sufficiently small. Otherwise, the consortium can enter and monopolize the market. When firms can register with both intermediaries simultaneously, the consortium can always enter and both intermediaries stay in the market with positive profits.     

我国居民消费偏低的原因和对策研究

近些年来，随着我国经济的快速发展，虽然国民生产总值不断提高，但居民收入增长缓慢，收入差距逐步扩大，整个社会消费倾向偏低，导致消费率偏低。提高消费率有利于解决内需不足引发的一系列问题，提高全国人民的生活水平和质量，为构建和谐社会奠定坚实的基础。     

Competition for goods in buyer-seller networks

Abstract. This paper studies competition in a network and how a network structure determines agents' individual payoffs. It constructs a general model of competition that can serve as a reduced form for specific models. The paper shows how agents' outside options, and hence their shares of surplus, derive from “opportunity paths” connecting them to direct and indirect alternative exchanges. Analyzing these paths, results show how third parties' links affect different agents' bargaining power. Even distant links may have large effects on agents' earnings. These payoff results, and the identification of the paths themselves, should prove useful to further analysis of network structure.     

How sensitive are consumer expenditures to retail energy prices?

There is growing evidence that the primary effect of energy price shocks on the U.S. economy involves a reduction in consumer spending. We quantify the direct effect on real consumption of unanticipated changes in discretionary income, shifts in precautionary savings, and changes in the operating cost of energy-using durables. The possibility of asymmetries in the response of real consumption to energy price shocks is also considered. We demonstrate that linear models are consistent with the symmetric behavior of real consumption in 1979 (when energy prices increased sharply) and in 1986 (when they fell sharply). It is shown that historically energy price shocks have been an important factor in explaining U.S. real consumption growth, but by no means the dominant factor.     

Distributional effects of environmental taxes on transportation: evidence from Engel curves in the United States

Indirect taxes on transportation activities that pollute can correct externalities and close the gaps between private and social costs. However, policy makers often find such Pigou taxes difficult to implement because of political resistance due to possibly adverse affects on equity. For this reason it is important to assess the distributional aspects of environmental levies. This article estimates properties of the demand for transportation in parametric and non-parametric analyses of Consumer Expenditure Surveys for the United States and finds patterns in the resulting set of Engel curves. Private transportation using air flights and new cars has Engel elasticity above unity while public transportation via mass transit has Engel elasticity below unity. The findings can be interpreted in an important way since they show that a differentiated scheme of environmental taxes on transportation may function progressively. A Pigou scheme with larger taxes on modes of transportation that pollute more appears to coincide with larger levies on luxury modes preferred by richer households.