Technology and Competition Economics

Abstract

Advances in technology are creating new business models. The internet means that consumers can access a wide variety of potential suppliers. Those suppliers may have extensive data on individual consumers, and the interactions between buyers and sellers may be moderated by large, potentially dominant, platforms such as Google and Facebook. Competition authorities and policy makers are grappling with the issues raised by technology. However, the tools available to regulators are often laws that were designed for a pre-internet world. It is not clear if these laws can adapt. This article briefly surveys three areas of particular concern for both economic researchers and competition authorities: the competitive implications of two-sided markets; price restrictions imposed by internet platforms on retailers; and the use of personalized data by sellers.     

The Legal Nature of the Firm and the Myth of the Firm-Market Hybrid

A sharp conceptual distinction used to be drawn between the firm and the market. However, since the 1970s, many economists and sociologists have argued that the boundaries of the firm are indistinct. Ideas emerged of 'internal markets' within firms, of the 'quasifirm', of 'hybrid firms' and of firms as 'quasi-markets'. This article re-examines the formal, legal conception of the firm. It is argued that there is no good reason to abandon this conception, even in the light of relational contracting, networking, subcontracting and other developments. To avoid confusion, additional terms such as 'supplier network' or 'conglomerate' should be used to describe these phenomena, rather than abandoning a legally-based definition of the firm. With this clarified definition, 'internal markets' and 'hybrid firms' disappear from view.     

Parity conditions and the efficiency of the Australian 90- and 180-day forward markets

Covered Interest Parity (CIP) holds in the 90 and 180 forward market for the AUD/USD spot exchange rate provided fully modified least absolute deviation model (FM-LAD) procedures are applied to daily data for the period from December 2, 1985 to December 29, 2000. CIP fails if corrected ordinary least squares (OLS) and fully modified OLS (FM-OLS) procedures are applied. However, UIP fails in both markets on early data: December 2, 1985 to December 31, 1991, but holds in the 90-day market in a later subperiod: January 2, 1992 to December 29, 2000 FM. UIP is modified (M) to accommodate a potential risk premium. The MUIP model does not provide strong evidence suggesting the presence of a time-varying risk premium (TRP).     

中美黄金市场的价格发现和动态条件相关性研究

本文运用向量误差修正模型、Hasbrouck信息份额分析法和Engle(2002)提出的动态条件相关多元GARCH模型,研究从2004年11月18日至2008年11月17日期间,中国黄金市场与美国黄金市场的价格发现和动态条件相关性。实证结果发现:中国黄金市场现货和美国黄金市场期货、ETF三者间存在长期均衡关系,美国黄金市场ETF和期货在价格发现过程中居主导地位;中美黄金市场间的相关性随时间变化而动态改变,上海黄金交易所开设夜市交易及延长夜市交易时间,增加了两个市场的关联性,但中国黄金期货的推出和2008年全球金融危机的加深,又使中美黄金市场间的相关性有所降低。     

银行卡产业运作机制及其产业规制问题研究——基于双边市场理论视角

银行卡产业近来受到来自理论界和政府部门的广泛关注。本文基于双边市场理论对银行卡产业的运作机制进行分析。研究表明:银行卡产业是个典型的双边市场,交换费和价格结构是银行卡产业市场正常运转的关键因素。文章对由银行卡产业的“特殊性”而带来的产业规制问题进行了评析,由此得出一些结论和对我国银行卡产业发展有益的启示。     

中国企业海外研发机构组织与管理问题述评

随着中国企业从“制造商”向“投资家”的转变,建立海外研发机构进而充分利用国际市场创新成果,成为中国企业实现创新驱动的重要转型升级道路。尽管现有研究已经充分认识到后发国家企业建立海外研发机构的动机和组织管理特征有别于发达国家企业,但遗憾的是针对后发企业设立海外研发机构的组织与管理问题的详细分析还没有系统展开,研究结论比较分散。以此为切入点,对比式地梳理国外企业和中国企业海外研发机构设立动机、进入模式、战略定位和组织形式等若干海外研发组织与管理核心问题,在此基础上提出中国企业海外研发机构的潜在研究方向。结论有利于弥补已有海外技术投资领域对新兴市场企业关注不足的缺陷,可为未来中国企业海外研发机构的实证研究提供文献基础。     

Recent Evidence on the Oil Price Shocks on Gulf Cooperation Council Stock Markets

The recent plunge in the price of oil affected many countries, especially major oil producers and exporters, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which accounts for half of the global oil reserves. This paper examines the impact of oil price changes on GCC stock markets, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates over a 10-year period, 2005–2015. We examine the direction of influence and influence absorption through Granger causality and impulse response function. The results are important for portfolio management at the international level, and provide insights for government and regulatory authorities in times of oil price change. Additionally, the evidence suggests the need for more economic diversification at the country level in the GCC region to mitigate high volatility in the event of oil shocks.     

Does Trading Volume Contain Information to Predict Stock Returns? Evidence from China's Stock Markets

This paper examines empirical contemporaneous and causal relationships between trading volume, stock returns and return volatility in China's four stock exchanges and across these markets. We find that trading volume does not Granger-cause stock market returns on each of the markets. As for the cross-market causal relationship in China's stock markets, there is evidence of a feedback relationship in returns between Shanghai A and Shenzhen B stocks, and between Shanghai B and Shenzhen B stocks. Shanghai B return helps predict the return of Shenzhen A stocks. Shanghai A volume Granger-causes return of Shenzhen B. Shenzhen B volume helps predict the return of Shanghai B stocks. This paper also investigates the causal relationship among these three variables between China's stock markets and the US stock market and between China and Hong Kong. We find that US return helps predict returns of Shanghai A and Shanghai B stocks. US and Hong Kong volumes do not Granger-cause either return or volatility in China's stock markets. In short, information contained in returns, volatility, and volume from financial markets in the US and Hong Kong has very weak predictive power for Chinese financial market variables.     

市场互联性、关系型合约与经济转型

本文通过将单一市场的关系型合约推广到互联的关系型合约,刻画了社会分工程度(市场范围)与微观治理机制(基于关系型合约的治理还是基于正式合约的治理)之间的互动关系:基于何种合约来治理受市场范围的影响,市场范围越小,关系型合约越重要,正式合约越不重要;反之则反是。特别地,从这个视角看,计划经济向市场经济转型的过程,是劳动分工不断深化和市场范围不断扩大的过程,在微观治理上是一个从互联的关系型合约不断向正式合约过渡的过程。中国的渐进式改革之所以成功,很大程度上是由于渐进式改革使原来自我实施的关系型合约没有受到很大程度的破坏,在正式合约缺位时,关系型合约仍然能够维持社会经济的运行;俄罗斯的激进式改革几乎在一夜之间破坏了自我实施的关系型合约的可维持性,而短期内又不可能建立依赖正式合约的治理模式,出现了微观治理失效。本文还解释了中国经济在缺乏正式的法律和产权体系下取得骄人绩效的“悖论”,即由于关系型合约的自我实施性,因而并不需要相应的正式制度安排。本文总体上支持“后华盛顿共识”的渐进改革路径,并为其提供了动态的微观机制。     

看法差异、信息不对称、卖空限制与价格形成

本文构建了一个有卖空限制的指令驱动的市场交易模型，在模型中考虑了交易者之间的信息不对称和看法差异，应用博弈均衡的分析方法，求解模型的均衡结果。通过对均衡结果的分析表明：市场均衡是知情与未知情者之间的一个混同均衡，均衡报价是未知情买卖者之间分配交易剩余的结果，其分配依据是买卖双方各自不能实现交易的相对风险。市场均衡时，一定存在正的买卖价差，价差由限价指令的执行风险补偿项和逆向选择风险补偿项构成。执行风险补偿项是资产分散度指标的减函数，是知情者比例的增函数，并且随交易者看法分散程度的提高而增大。逆向选择风险补偿项是资产分散度指标和知情者比例的增函数，并且随着未知情者对信息掌握程度的提高而减小。