Platform market competition with endogenous side decisions

This paper develops a framework to analyze platform competition in two‐sided markets in which agents endogenously decide on which side of a platform to join. We characterize the equilibrium pricing structure and perform a comparative statics analysis on how the distribution of agents’ preferences affects the platforms’ profits. We also show that the market equilibrium under profit‐maximizing platforms leads to the first best social surplus, which illustrates the importance of the price mechanism to induce more balanced participation across the two sides. This framework can be applied to analyze market competition for “rental” or “sharing” platforms. In addition, we extend our analysis to consider an initial investment stage, which makes participants the owner of some durable goods to rent out.     

Social cost of CO2 abatement from energy efficiency and solar power in the United States

Frequently cited empirical analyses ask whether we should make the transition from reliance on fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and conclude that the transition is too costly so we should, instead, focus policy on how to adapt to global warming. This paper makes two improvements in the analysis. First, this empirical analysis accounts for existing low-cost alternatives that are substitutes for fossil fuels. Second, this empirical analysis incorporates existing estimates of externalities from fossil fuels. These two basic improvements in the analysis alter the conclusion; policy should focus on how rapidly and extensively to make the transition from reliance on fossil fuels to the alternatives. The corollary is that we should focus on the efficacy and cost of policy options that are designed to accomplish the transition.     

Integration, agglomeration and welfare

This paper studies the social desirability of agglomeration, and the efficiency arguments for policy intervention in a simple, analytically tractable new economic geography model. The location pattern emerging as market equilibrium is ‘bubble-shaped’, i.e. it features dispersion both at high and low trade costs and stable equilibria with partial and full agglomeration for intermediate levels of trade costs. We show that the market equilibrium is characterized by over-agglomeration for high trade costs and under-agglomeration for low trade costs, and we work out analytically that a net pecuniary externality is the underlying cause of this market failure. One particularly noteworthy result is that the net pecuniary externality is positive at high levels of trade freeness. However, there is no market under-agglomeration unless this positive net pecuniary externality interacts with an additional congestion force originating in the (per se efficient) competitive housing market.     

政府社会性规制与企业社会责任的契合——以食品行业为例

企业行为的外部性和内部性导致了企业社会责任和经济利益之间的冲突,从而导致企业社会责任的缺失。信息的非对称性使得公众对企业履行社会责任意识还不足以形成足够的约束,对脱离于价格机制之外的外部性和负内部性,必须通过政府社会性规制使不承担社会责任的企业面临受到惩罚的可置信威胁,收敛企业行为域,促使承担社会责任成为企业的自觉行动,进而成为企业提高社会责任的内在动因。     

The Economics of Minimum Pricing for Alcohol

This article explores a wide range of issues that proponents of setting minimum prices for alcohol must resolve before they can safely claim their proposals improve public health and decrease public health care costs. Problems range from inability to know ‘correct’ prices and why tacking on pricing regulations to markets already taxed makes sense, to various unintended adverse consequences such as generating higher demand for illegal drugs and alcohol. It also remains unclear why advocates would not prefer to raise taxes since this is the typical method that economists propose to correct markets in which harm spills over to innocent parties.     

电动汽车产业化条件及产业发展障碍研究

文章提出了我国电动汽车产业化所需具备的三大基本条件。从经济学的角度分析了电动汽车产业化实现的两大障碍:资源配置低效率以及技术外部性的存在。     

The effect of international tourism on economic development: An empirical analysis

The expansion of international tourism in developing countries is generally considered to promote their economic development. In this paper, the impact of international tourism on economic development is modelled using an aggregate production function framework. It specifically investigates intersectoral externalities and marginal factor productivity differences between the international tourism sector and the rest of the economy. The net effect of international tourism on GDP per capita is examined via an empirical analysis of 37 developing economies. The results indicate that international tourism may positively affect economic development in these countries.     

Geographical cluster and performance: The case of Iberian ham

This research examined whether firms that concentrate geographically perform better or worse than their more dispersed counterparts. While belonging to a cluster may have positive externalities for proximate firms, there can also be congestion economies that counterbalance these advantages. Having identified existing ham-producing establishments in the Iberian ham cluster, a sample of 265 firms was selected and it was confirmed that as the number of neighbouring firms increases performance increases. Also, the proximity to larger firms in the same province benefit smaller firms. This positive effect that geographical concentration has on performance is explained by access to valuable natural resources, workers, higher demand, knowledge spillovers, and lower transaction costs, which may help managers and policy-makers in their investment decisions, as well as contributing to the dearth of existing research and its contradictory nature.     

Strategic entry and externalities in groundwater resources: Evidence from the lab

This study uses economics experiments to extend the literature on common-pool resources by focusing on entry investment behavior in a stylized, spatially explicit aquifer. The model consists of a two-stage game, where participants make an entry decision in the first stage and, if they choose to enter, decide how much resource to extract in the second stage. Results show that entry behavior and groundwater pumping decisions are significantly affected by the underlying spatial externalities of the resource. In instances where the impacts of groundwater use are spread across all resource users, we observe both a greater number of users choosing to use the resource and a higher intensity of use. The results support expectations from the model that groundwater management policies should focus on entry in addition to decisions related to the volume of pumping. The results also discern the interplay of entry with both hydrogeologic characteristics of the resource and the option to exit and reveal that the option to exit increases the intensity of extraction as well as initial entry rates.     

Optimal product strategies in the presence of network externalities

A network externality exists when a user’s benefit from a product increases with the number of other users in the same network. We examine the possibility that a software firm may exploit network externalities by introducing a limited feature version of its commercially available software into the market. The two versions need not be perfectly compatible and network externalities are allowed to decline as the difference between the versions increases. We obtain conditions under which introducing a limited feature version is optimal.