Product price and performance level in one market or two separated markets under various cost structures and functions

Market characteristics, including intrinsic demand and customer sensitivity on price and product performance level, are distinct at different markets. Comparisons of various product development strategies in one market or two geographically separated markets are conducted for three classes of products: development intensive products (DIPs) with constant unit cost, marginal cost-intensive products (MIPs) with constant fixed cost, and marginal and development intensive products (MDIPs) with non-constant unit cost and fixed cost. Results show that larger demand size, less customer sensitivity on price and/or more sensitivity on performance level lead to more profit, a higher sale price and a not-lower product performance. The customer reservation or the saturation performance level should be generally adopted though the optimal performance level does exist occasionally. Unit cost and/or fixed cost must increase in performance at an increasing rate for the existence of one optimal performance level. Due to the impact of demand size, one high-end (low-end) MDIP or DIP could be introduced into one low-end (high-end) market at a different price if the demand size is significantly large in the low-end market. For DIPs, offering one niche high-end product is not worse than offering the low-end product into two markets. For MIPs with negligible fixed cost, the product line strategy is not worse than the standard product development strategy. Additionally, the product cost reduction approach adopted in one product line has significant effects on the best product development strategy and sequence.     

信用:成本、风险与收益分析

信用活动中,筹资者为获取收益往往要花费一定成本、承担一定风险,资信越好的筹资者能以较小风险筹集到更多低成本资金;决定筹资者能否获得信用支持的主要因素是筹资者的经济规模、经济结构以及由此决定的市场竞争力;投资者为获取收益也要花费必要成本并面临诸多风险;信用短缺不仅使微观经济主体受损,更会使整个社会经济交易成本上升、交易规模下降、社会资源闲置,甚至会诱发金融危机.     

降低公共危机防控成本刍议

公共危机防控这一非常态下特殊公共服务所面临的多方面需求与供给能力相对较低的矛盾,是导致公共危机防控成本高昂、难以控制和难以衡量的主要原因.当前,要降低公共危机的防控成本,需要着力于观念形塑、完善政府问责制、实现复合治理和能力建设等方面.     

Evaluation of the long-term cost-effectiveness of IDegLira versus liraglutide added to basal insulin for patients with type 2 diabetes failing to achieve glycemic control on basal insulin in the USA

Background and aims: IDegLira, a fixed ratio combination of insulin degludec and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist liraglutide, utilizes the complementary mechanisms of action of these two agents to improve glycemic control with low risk of hypoglycemia and avoidance of weight gain. The aim of the present analysis was to assess the long-term cost-effectiveness of IDegLira vs liraglutide added to basal insulin, for patients with type 2 diabetes not achieving glycemic control on basal insulin in the US setting.

Methods: Projections of lifetime costs and clinical outcomes were made using the IMS CORE Diabetes Model. Treatment effect data for patients receiving IDegLira and liraglutide added to basal insulin were modeled based on the outcomes of a published indirect comparison, as no head-to-head clinical trial data is currently available. Costs were accounted in 2015?US dollars ($) from a healthcare payer perspective.

Results: IDegLira was associated with small improvements in quality-adjusted life expectancy compared with liraglutide added to basal insulin (8.94 vs 8.91 discounted quality-adjusted life years [QALYs]). The key driver of improved clinical outcomes was the greater reduction in glycated hemoglobin associated with IDegLira. IDegLira was associated with mean costs savings of $17,687 over patient lifetimes vs liraglutide added to basal insulin, resulting from lower treatment costs and cost savings as a result of complications avoided.

Conclusions: The present long-term modeling analysis found that IDegLira was dominant vs liraglutide added to basal insulin for patients with type 2 diabetes failing to achieve glycemic control on basal insulin in the US, improving clinical outcomes and reducing direct costs.     

Beyond the flat rate bias: The flexibility effect in tariff choice

Flat rates are a prominent pricing scheme for telecommunications services and are often preferred by consumers although average costs would be lower in an alternative usage-based tariff. Reasons are that flat rates protect against unexpectedly high costs (insurance effect), are more likely to be chosen if actual usage is overestimated (overestimation effect), and prevent any disutility that is associated with the immediate perception of marginal costs (taximeter effect). This study complements the literature on tariff biases by highlighting that a lack of tariff flexibility is a major impediment to choosing a flat rate: empirical support for this flexibility effect is found, while, at the same time, the insurance and overestimation effect that run in favor of flat rates are confirmed. Finally, the managerial implications of the findings for the introduction of the new cost cap tariff are discussed. The hybrid cost cap tariff can combine the flexibility and the insurance property, and may, therefore, exert a cost cap bias on consumers.     

政府补助、保险支付与老年临终照料成本——基于2002-2014年CLHLS死亡人口追踪数据的分析

为应对日益增大的老年人照料压力,我国各地试点通过政府补助或社会保险支付的方式满足老人的照料需求。基于2002-2014年CLHLS死亡人口追踪数据,文章用两部分模型、Heckman选择模型和结构方程模型,分析了政府补助、保险支付对老年临终照料直接成本和总成本的影响及其中介机制。研究发现,老年临终照料服务由保险支付的直接成本和总成本都比家庭支付明显更高,政府补助的直接成本比家庭支付更高,保险支付的直接成本比政府补助更高。保险支付和政府补助对照料成本影响的机制存在差异,保险支付主要通过收入效应对照料成本产生显著影响,但替代效应也发挥了中介作用,政府补助则主要通过替代效应对照料成本产生显著影响。文章的研究结论具有重要的政策含义。我国发展长期护理保险,应合理界定政府、市场、社会和家庭对老年人的照料责任,并明确长期护理保险的有限责任,尽量降低可能的收入效应和替代效应对照料成本的影响。     

关于社会成本问题的评述

本文通过对科斯的《社会成本问题》和《社会成本问题的注释》,以及盛洪的《〈社会成本问题〉的问题》等文章的评论,指出“科斯定理”的核心是认识到社会成本问题的交互性以及权力转移的重要性,并且在交易费用为正的条件下,不同制度安排的选择会影响资源配置的效率,所以制度安排至关重要;另外,本文认为在盛洪的《〈社会成本问题〉的问题》一文中有几个问题值得商榷,即需要根据交易费用是否为零来讨论产权界定不同对收入分配的影响。以及最佳产权的存在性问题。     

超额管理费用与企业“真实”业绩:促进还是抑制

企业支付超额管理费用超额管理费用^①指超过企业正常组织与管理生产经营活动的费用（如高于正常水平的业务招待费、差旅费、通讯费等）。若企业管理费用"激增",则可能说明企业支付了高额费用寻求政治庇佑,从而影响企业业绩。寻求政治庇佑,对企业业绩会产生什么影响呢?本文利用中国A股上市公司财务数据,实证检验了超额管理费用与企业"真实"业绩之间的内在关系。研究发现,短期内超额管理费用能够促进企业"真实"业绩,但随着超额管理费用的提高,将对企业"真实"业绩产生越来越强的抑制作用,两者之间呈倒U型关系。并且,超额管理费用对企业"真实"业绩的影响在不同企业中表现出了差异性：国有股比例较高的企业其"真实"业绩对超额管理费用的敏感性敏感性（Sensitivity）是约瑟夫奈和基欧汉在《权利与相互依赖》中创造的用于分析国际政治的概念,它是指依赖效应的大小与快慢,用来描述体系中某个部分的变化会在多短的时间内导致其它部分也发生变化。在本文中用来表示超额管理费用对企业业绩的影响程度^②更强烈;市场化程度较高的企业其"真实"业绩对超额管理费用促进作用的敏感性更强烈,对超额管理费用抑制作用的敏感性较弱。文章验证了超额管理费用与企业业绩的非线性关系,企业通过支付超额管理费用不能促进业绩的实质增长,必须通过创新与改革来推动企业业绩发展。     

Measuring the cost of liquidity in agricultural futures markets: Conventional and Bayesian approaches

Estimating the cost of liquidity in agricultural futures markets is challenging because bid‐ask spreads are usually not observed. Based on an ability to reflect simulated data from Roll's spread model, we assess the effectiveness of conventional and Bayesian bid‐ask spread estimators under different market conditions. Conventional serial covariance and absolute price change spread estimators appear to be biased. Hasbrouck's Bayesian estimator generates small costs of liquidity whose values depend on the correlation and noise in the data. The absolute value Bayesian estimator is precise and works well under conditions of high levels of noise and correlation usually found in agricultural futures markets. Using data from live cattle (LC) and lean hog (LH) contracts, we find similar patterns of performance that produce economically meaningful cost of liquidity differences.