Regulating prices for shifting between service providers

The price that a regulated access provider charges for shifting customers between service providers has significant welfare implications. Typical regulatory approaches to pricing, such as pricing based on fully allocated cost or incremental cost, ignore the characteristics of consumer demand. A theoretical alternative, Ramsey pricing, considers only the elasticity of demand for given products. This paper directs attention to the competitive process. Using US long-distance telephone services as an example, this paper shows how empirical evidence concerning customer acquisition costs, customer switching costs, and churn among service providers can help to inform price regulation.     

The critical discount factor as a measure for cartel stability?

This paper considers the stability of tacit collusion in price setting duopolies with repeated interaction. The minimum discount factor above which tacit collusion can be sustained in a subgame perfect equilibrium is called the critical discount factor δ*. In addition, δ* is often used as an intuitive measure for the stability of a tacit cartel, assuming that a collusive equilibrium is more difficult to sustain when δ* increases. However, according to standard theory the distance δ − δ* between the actual and the critical discount factor does not matter for stability as long as δ > δ*. This paper contributes experimental evidence that supports the intuitive idea that a larger critical discount factor makes collusion a less likely outcome.      

Macro-economic determinants of consumer price knowledge: A meta-analysis of four decades of research

For the past four decades, dozens of researchers have studied consumer price knowledge, often with disagreements on the extent of consumer' ignorance about prices. While some of these disagreements have been attributed to research design variations among studies, no inquiry has yet been made on the role of the economic environment on consumer price knowledge. Nevertheless, environmental factors such as interest rates, unemployment, and economic growth may significantly influence consumers' knowledge of prices. Certain economic environments may therefore provide marketers with the ability to utilize pricing tactics which rely on limitations in consumers' knowledge of product prices. Using a meta-analytic framework, this paper synthesizes the results of 297 previous price knowledge studies to document the effects of inflation, unemployment, GDP growth, interest rates, country of study, and passage of time on consumer price knowledge. The meta-analysis results demonstrate that economic factors have considerable influence on explaining variations in consumer price knowledge. Managerial and public policy implications of the findings in light of turbulent economic environments are discussed.     

我国货币政策传导机制有效性研究:条件与结论

对几种货币政策传导机制的利用是否有效,取决于市场失衡的程度与开放的程度以及经济发展不同时期的机遇。目前我国新兴市场资金流动与各市场间的联系主要受资产价格传导机制作用的引导,而不是利率传导。人民币升值带来的机遇并非仅发生在商品市场,更发生在资本市场,汇率传导机制的作用虽然影响了出口,但是目前却更有利于资本输出下的海外收购与兼并,从而降低了通货膨胀传递下商品市场的投资成本。     

Consumers' reaction to fair trade motivated price increases

Consumer perception of price increases and their reactions are a topic of great relevance for marketing research and practice. We investigate consumers' acceptance of price increases justified by higher costs due to company's corporate socially responsible activities by conducting two experimental studies. In the first study we examine perceived fairness and intentions following a price increase justified by a fair trade commitment. To assess the green attitude–behavior gap in consumer behavior our second study incorporates a real world experiment to explore actual consumer behavior against stated intentions. Our investigation adds nuance to our understanding of the effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer response to price increases. Our results reveal that a price increase due to a fair trade commitment is perceived as fair and does not have a negative impact on purchase behavior. We contrast our findings with a price increase due to higher taxes and due to profit increase. Our results demonstrate that fair trade justified price increases can skim twice the amount compared to tax justified increases. Furthermore, consumers' actual buying behavior reveals no difference to their stated intentions. Hence, prior research proclaiming an attitude–behavior gap in the context of consumers' socially responsible buying behavior has to be called into question.     

Industry equilibrium under price distribution and cost shifts

Using a reference utility entry and exit criterion, we consider an equilibrium model of production where market price is random but endogenous with respect to industry output. General conditions are identified for industry output to increase under shifts in costs and in the distribution of demand. Comparative statics of firm level production and firm numbers are also studied. Results confirm the intuition that improvements in cost and demand conditions increase industry production. However, firm level responses are not as intuitive, and depend upon the relationship between the source of disturbance and the compensation through the altered distribution of output price.     

中国与东盟5国对美国出口劳动密集型产品的竞争分析

本文首先在出口总量和结构上,考察了中国与东盟5国劳动密集型产品出口结构的相似程度与竞争关系,其次通过价格比较,证明了各国出口同一产品的竞争关系存在,并且分析了各国出口价格竞争优势与出口增长的联系,最后,提出了改善竞争关系与加强合作的一些建议。     

An empirical analysis of national and local advertising effect on price elasticity

This paper investigates the interaction effect of advertising and price on the market share of a consumer nondurable product. We postulate a model in which local advertising is thought to primarily affect the consumers' purchase by making the demand more price sensitive, and national advertising to affect the consumers' preference, thus making the demand less price sensitive. Moreover, we hypothesize that local advertising interaction will have more immediate effect, while national advertising interaction will have longer term interaction effects. We apply these ideas empirically, and find support for our hypotheses. Thus, the interaction effect of advertising and price can be characterized by both increased and decreased price sensitivity, depending on the type of advertising. Moreover, these effects may be present simultaneously for the same product.