The effects of bargaining power on trade credit in a supply network

We develop a multi-tier supply network model, rooted in social network theory, to evaluate the effect of bargaining power on trade credit and to track the effect of buyers' trade credit on suppliers' trade credit. We apply social network analysis to measure companies' bargaining power in the supply network of Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M, the Swedish clothing retailer). The results show that the buyer's bargaining power significantly affects the choice of trade credit, and that the supplier's “upstreamness” is significantly associated with its trade credit. We find limited evidence to support the notion of a financial bullwhip effect, a result that merits further research, since this study is limited to the network of one company up to its fourth tier of suppliers in one financial year. Our results can be applied by companies seeking to control their cash flow and, therefore, the financial pressure within their supply network. This study contributes to the literature by bringing social network measures into the buyer–supplier financial flow, as well as offering one of the first empirical examinations of the propagation of financial pressure in a multi-tier supply network.     

Welfare-improving policy on medical tourism and labor productivity: A theoretical analysis

This paper considers welfare and wage inequality effects of developing medical tourism on the host country from a theoretical point of view. Due to the competition between public healthcare provision and medical tourism, the development of medical tourism might reduce labor productivity and thus widen wage inequality via the increased wage rates of healthcare workers and decreased wage rates of production workers. In addition, the expansion of medical tourism can lower social welfare of the host country through a decline in labor productivity caused by reduced public healthcare provision. A tax-subsidy welfare-improving scheme is suggested to mitigate the unfavorable productivity effect of medical tourism on the host economy. This theoretical result fits into current empirical evidence on medical tourism.     

Production quality and pricing strategy for substitutable products under comparison effects

Comparison effects have been studied extensively in many fields. In particular, existing operations management articles have discussed the impact of comparison effects on enterprises' production and pricing decisions. Research has also shown that consumers' purchasing decisions are primarily determined by three factors: product quality, selling price, and comparison effects. The current study introduces the concepts of social and temporal comparison effects to examine how comparison effects influence a monopolist’s production quality and pricing strategy for substitutable products. Results reveal the following: (1) Setting different prices for even two types of substitutable products with negligible quality differences can divide customers into three groups under the influence of social comparison effects in a single-stage model. (2) The monopolist should avoid using a price discrimination strategy in which products with a short market life cycle have the same quality but different prices. (3) When the market life cycle of products is sufficiently long in the single-product market and the market with two substitutable products, the monopolist’s optimal choice in the second stage is to keep production quality constant and increase the selling price. Consequently, the number of buyers does not decrease because of temporal comparison effects. Therefore, the firm increases its revenue. (4) For the market with two substitutable products with quality differences, one approximate optimal strategy for the enterprise in the second stage is to keep the selling price constant with the assumption that product quality cannot be adjusted after the first period. At this point, the consumption situation in the market is the same as that in the first stage. Therefore, when no external constraints exist, the monopolist firm can obtain more benefits in the second stage than in the first stage by exploiting the temporal comparison effects of consumers in the second stage. (5) When consumer identity information can be confirmed in the market, social comparison effects, similar to temporal comparison effects, could help the enterprise increase its price and profit while maintaining product quality. These social and temporal comparison effects constrain consumers. Thus, the number of people who continue to buy products does not decrease.     

INCENTIVES AND SOCIAL NORMS: A MOTIVATION‐BASED ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NORMS

Abstract It is now commonplace to regard social norms as a subject of growing interest in the economic literature (e.g. game theoretical approaches based on ‘other‐regarding’ individual preferences, the analysis of the impact of rewards or punishment on individuals’ behaviour through experimental economics as well as field experiments, the revival of the institutionalist tradition spurred on by the influential work of Douglas North and followed by many others and the growing influence of neuroeconomics). In this paper, we focus on the relationship between incentives and social norms and survey the literature that could constitute the foundations of a motivation‐based economic analysis of social norms. Our main findings are that (1) the interaction between incentives and social norms is far from obvious since taking social norms into account involves the introduction of supplementary motives, in addition to self‐interest, into the economic analytical framework; (2) the analysis of the interaction between incentives and social norms resists an approach exclusively in terms of crowding‐in and ‐out effects because it is sensitive to whether it concerns behaviours driven by honour or by social stigma; (3) as a result, it is difficult to precisely evaluate the policy implication of the interactions between incentives and social norms.     

THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC REGULATION IN THE ISTANBUL TAXICAB MARKET

This paper discusses the regulation of the Istanbul taxicab market and its consequences. While price and entry regulations are common to many taxi markets, there are significant differences in their institutional frameworks. We examine the problems of the Istanbul market and offer recommendations to improve its efficiency.     

消费者群体隐性需求濡染扩散模式研究

在进行营销模式的本土化创新以及开创新的市场空间时，关注创新采用的隐性需求及其在关联需求网络中的扩散机制，对于洞察消费者隐性需求的层次，细分消费者的群体特征以及进行产品和市场创新均具有重要意义。     

中国彩票业对经济发展的影响分析

彩票经济随着彩票销量的不断攀升,彩票市场的逐渐繁荣和彩票业的迅速发展应运而生,并成为推动我国经济发展的重要因素.在经济学上,专家把彩票看做是“第三次分配”.彩票行业经过25年的发展已逐渐形成,彩票消费已日益成为现代经济生活中一种重要的经济现象.彩票业对我国整体经济的发展具有“软税收”、拉动内需、增加就业、提供社会保障资金支持、推动普惠型社会福利事业的发展,但同时在彩票业发展中也存在着穷人购彩、购彩者投机心理过重等不利于经济发展的负面影响.因此,为实现我国彩票业的健康与可持续发展,应当加强我国彩票业的规范化管理,提高法律层级,加强彩票资金的监管力度,同时加强彩票文化建设,引导彩民理性购彩.     

省级社会保障公共支出分类比较研究

中国省级社会保障公共支出存在着类型化的可能。通过选取"社会保障公共支出水平"、"经济发展水平"和"政府力量"三个变量作为分类框架和指标,利用2005—2008年度截面数据测算,可以将各省份区分为东中西三大类型区域。统计分析发现,这三类区域不仅在省级社会保障公共支出相对比重之间存在着显著的差异,而且各区域也形成了不同的社会保障发展机制。     

The impact of relative residence times on the distribution of heavy drinkers in highly distinct environments

Alcohol consumption is a function of social dynamics, environmental contexts, individuals' preferences and family history. Empirical surveys have focused primarily on identification of risk factors for high-level drinking but have done little to clarify the underlying mechanisms at work. Also, there have been few attempts to apply nonlinear dynamics to the study of these mechanisms and processes at the population level. A simple framework where drinking is modeled as a socially contagious process in low- and high-risk connected environments is introduced. Individuals are classified as light, moderate (assumed mobile), and heavy drinkers. Moderate drinkers provide the link between both environments, that is, they are assumed to be the only individuals drinking in both settings. The focus here is on the effect of moderate drinkers, measured by the proportion of their time spent in “low-” versus “high-” risk drinking environments, on the distribution of drinkers.A simple model within our contact framework predicts that if the relative residence times of moderate drinkers are distributed randomly between low- and high-risk environments then the proportion of heavy drinkers is likely to be higher than expected. However, the full story even in a highly simplified setting is not so simple because “strong” local social mixing tends to increase high-risk drinking on its own. High levels of social interaction between light and moderate drinkers in low-risk environments can diminish the importance of the distribution of relative drinking times on the prevalence of heavy drinking.