Price Dynamics in Repeat-Purchase Markets*

A retail market in which customers repeat purchase is modelled. When customer movement between firms is sluggish, price overshooting characterizes firms' optimal response to demand or cost shocks. Thus retail prices would be predicted to be more variable than wholesale prices, a prediction at variance with empirical evidence. Uncertainty in demand and customer imperfect information are introduced into the model to attempt to reconcile this inconsistency between theory and evidence. The introduction of demand uncertainty actually increases the magnitude of price overshooting. By contrast, the introduction of imperfect customer information reduces the variability in retail prices.     

ENDING RESTRICTIONS TO MIGRATION FROM THE NEW EU MEMBER COUNTRIES: SECTORAL TRADE AND REAL WAGE EFFECTS

Most EU-15 countries have kept restrictions to migration from the new member countries but committed to removing them within seven years from the 2004 enlargement. This article predicts the sectoral trade and real wage impact on high-income, mid-income, and low-income members of removing those restrictions, given two extreme scenarios: either all migrants are skilled or all are unskilled. The main effect of skilled migration is the relocation of high-scale economy, skill-intensive industries from mid-income into high-income countries. The main effect of unskilled migration is the relocation of low-scale economy, low skill-intensive industries from low-income into mid-income countries. Both high-income and low-income members would be better off with skilled migration, but those with mid-income would benefit from unskilled migration. ( JEL F1, F15, F22, J31, L6)     

DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY,ENTRY MODE,AND PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE OF CHOICE AND CONSTRAINTS

Despite theoretical arguments matching type of diversification strategy with mode of entry, the exact form of relationships between strategy, mode of entry, and performance remains enigmatic. Our analysis, based on two samples, demonstrates that matches between strategy and mode did improve performance in one time period, but not a second. In addition, the results show that exclusive reliance on a single mode (internal development or acquisition) can restrict performance. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PERSISTENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND INCREMENTAL INNOVATION*

In a model of competitive innovation, I derive theoretical conditions for an entrant to displace the incumbent firm by innovating in an undeveloped, substitute (emerging) technology. The main result presents conditions on profitability and innovation speed that yield a Markov Perfect Equilibrium in which the entrant pursues the emerging technology, while the incumbent chooses to persist with the established technology and collect short‐run profits. Notably, this result does not require the entrant's superiority to the incumbent for innovation. Finally, when the model is calibrated to hard drive industry data, its predictions are consistent with the observed outcomes.