Advertising, Its Determinants, and Market Structure

This study derives a formal model of firm advertising behavior and applies it to the industry level to figure out the relationship between advertising and market structure. The firm advertising model shows that both consumer preference andfirm-specific advertising competence jointly determineprofit-maximizing advertising intensity. At the industry level, advertising intensity is represented multiplicatively by consumer preference and a measure of market structure, which reflects the joint distribution of the levels of advertising competence and market shares among firms. The new market structure measure suggests that those single-dimensional measures of market structure such as seller concentration and the Herfindahl index are inadequate in explaining interindustry differences in advertising intensity, and that the long-debated advertising-concentration relationship differs depending primarily on the appropriability of advertising. An empirical analysis of 426 five-digit Korean manufacturing industries shows that an inverted U-shaped relationship between the Herfindahl index and industry advertising intensity is observed for consumer goods industries but a lazy J-shaped relationship for producer goods industries.     

聚集外部性的非对称性承受与人口过度集中

由于农民工工资与城市生活成本的非相关性、农民工和应届大学毕业生对城市病的不敏感性、以及大城市居民中劳动人口数量很大的迁移成本等问题的存在,大城市工人部分丧失了向厂商索取较高名义工资以补偿其较高生活成本的能力。此时,厂商享受着大城市较高的聚集经济带来的高效率,却不用对工人较高生活成本进行完全补偿。这种厂商和工人承受聚集外部性的非对称性,必然引发生产与人口在大城市过度集中问题。     

Lending technologies,banking relationships,and firms’ access to credit in Italy: the role of firm size

This paper analyses the role of lending technologies and banking relationships on firms’ credit access in Italy. Using EFIGE firm-level data, we show that the depth and strength of firm–bank relationships have heterogeneous effects on credit demand and rationing probabilities depending on the size of the borrower. Multiple banking relationships alleviate financial constraints for small firms, while borrowing from a large number of lenders hinders access to credit for large companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises with a higher share of debt with the main bank have a lower probability of being credit denied, as debt concentration contributes to overcome the opacity problems typical of the SMEs. Long-lasting relationships, by reducing information asymmetries, significantly improve access to credit for small and large firms. Conversely, we find that medium-sized enterprises are more exposed to financing constraints as relationship duration increases, due to possible lock-in effects. Finally, firms maintaining banking relationships based on transactional technologies are more likely to be credit denied, while the use of relationship lending technologies improves credit availability for both small and large enterprises.     

股权结构、代理问题与公司现金持有——基于我国上市公司面板数据的分析

基于代理问题角度,利用我国2001~2005年上市公司面板数据,研究了我国上市公司股权结构与公司持有现金之间的相互关系。实证结果发现,两者之间的相互关系符合代理问题存在的基本表征,即代理问题较为严重的上市公司拥有更高的现金持有水平。控股股东尤其是国有股东,并没有随着持股比例增加产生通常意义上的地下利益攫取行为,而是更多地支持了控股股东提升公司绩效的假说。     

Network concentration and airport congestion in a post de-regulation context: A case study of Brazil 2000–2010

This paper empirically investigates the main drivers of airline network concentration in an air transport market subject to rapid growth. We consider the Brazilian air transport industry of the 2000s, in which network concentration rapidly increased and was followed by a period of massive flight delays and cancelations, which resulted in the “big blackout” of 2006–2007. We develop an econometric model of network concentration, accounting for demand, cost and competition variables that may affect the propensity of carriers to concentrate flights and passenger connections on a few airports of a network. The main focus of the paper is on the relation between networks leading to the problems of the blackout episode. We investigate the dynamic pattern of the evolution of concentration before and after the abnormal period of operations and find that concentration began to rise at least six quarters before, and persisted at a high level until two quarters after the blackout – and then plunged steeply toward the end of the decade. We believe that our analysis contributes to an improved understanding of the behavior of air transport systems subject to network concentration and congestion. With respect to methodology, we suggest and employ the use of alternative measures of network concentration to check the robustness and validity of our results.     

中国企业贸易类型与国际贸易集中度的关系——基于中国制造业企业微观数据的实证研究

运用2005—2006年中国制造业企业的微观层面数据,将参与贸易的企业划分为4类,采用Gini系数和Theil系数研究企业贸易类型与国际贸易集中度的关系。研究结果表明:在制造业内,中国制造业企业的贸易活动相对集中于少数制造业细分子行业;在制造业细分子行业内,少数企业的进出口贸易额占总贸易额的大部分,只有少数企业有较多的出口目的地和进口来源地,并且企业的进口来源地更为集中。     

How do income and education affect health inequality: evidence from four developing countries

Using household survey data from four countries ? Albania, Nepal, Tajikistan and Tanzania ? this article calculates income-related inequality in health care utilization. We measure health disparity separately for generally and chronically ill individuals by constructing two models: one for the probability of a visit to a physician and another for the number of visits. Following model-based measurements, we decompose inequality into two major parts: one accounted for by identity-related factors and another by socioeconomic and other factors such as education, geography and distance to a clinic. We propose a new method to quantify the effect of changes in income and education on health disparity. One of our important findings suggests that health disparity is pro-rich in all our sample countries. The pro-rich disparity is prevalent among generally ill as well as chronically ill patients, in both visit probability and visit frequency models. Health inequality seems primarily driven by income differences followed by nonidentity factors. Further, the principle of equal treatment for equal need is not fulfilled in any of our countries. Among policy implications, increasing average income and education in a way that also reduces disparity in income and education, respectively, will substantially shrink inequality in health care utilization.     

管理层持股、股权集中度与公司资本结构——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文以1176家上市公司为样本,实证检验了资本结构与股权结构之间的关系。实证结果表明:①管理层持股比例与负债率负相关,但不显著;②较高的股权集中度导致高的负债率;③管理层持股比例与公司债务之间的关联性不受公司股权集中度影响;④股权集中度与公司债务之间的关联性受管理层持股比例的影响;⑤管理层持股比例和股权集中度的相互作用能够调节股权与资本结构之间的关系。本文得出了许多有助于诠释资本结构之谜的结论。