Search results for "microeconomics"
showing 10 items of 442 documents
Offshoring along the production chain
2009
Recent contributions on offshoring often assume that firms can freely split their production process into separate steps which can be ranked according to the cost savings from producing abroad. We replace this assumption by the notion of a technologically determined sequence of production steps. In our model, cost savings from offshoring fluctuate along the production chain, and moving unfinished goods across borders causes transport costs. We show that, in such a setting, firms may refrain from offshoring even if relocating individual steps would be advantageous in terms of offshoring costs, or they may offshore (almost) the entire production chain to save transport costs. Small variations…
Exit with vertical product differentiation
2005
Abstract This paper presents a duopoly model of exit from a declining industry with vertical product differentiation. It extends previous IO models on exit that have so far ignored demand effects. The model shows how the interplay between demand and technological factors determine the order of exit. Therefore, demand factors are relevant and should be taken into account. Thus, the firm with a longer tenure as a profitable monopolist does not necessarily outlast its rival. In addition, this paper argues that the low-quality firm may find it optimal to stay in the market despite making temporary losses to outlast its rival.
Duopoly signal jamming
1993
This paper examines a repeated duopoly market with heterogeneous outputs. Firms have (common) prior beliefs over the values of an unknown parameter of each firm's demand curve. Firms cannot observe rivals' quantities, but can observe market prices, which are subject to random disturbances and hence provide noisy information that firms use to update their beliefs concerning the unknown parameters' values. Each firm can potentially signal jam, or strategically vary its output level in order to manipulate the distribution of likely market prices and hence the likely inferences drawn by the opponent. We find that the opportunity to signal-jam introduces two conflicting effects, arising out of t…
Estimating the substitutability between private and public consumption: the case of Spain, 1960–2003
2005
This paper examines the relationship between private and public consumption using Spanish data over the period 1960–2003, using a two-good permanent-income model. We extend previous analysis addressing the question of whether this relationship is stable over time, or exhibits a structural break allowing the instability to occur at an unknown point in time. Our empirical results indicated the existence of a long-run relationship between private and public consumption. We also detect a structural change of regime shift in the cointegration regression around the time of 1973–74. Finally, the estimated intratemporal and intertemporal elasticities of substitution between the two types of expendi…
Cost and profit efficiency in the Spanish banking sector (1985–1996): a non-parametric approach
2003
The aim of this article is to analyse the efficiency in costs and in profits of the Spanish banking sector (SBS) in the period 1985–1996 using a non-parametric approach. The results obtained show the existence of profit efficiency levels well below those corresponding to cost efficiency, alternative profit efficiency being below standard profit efficiency. These results imply the existence of market power in the setting of prices and/or the existence of differences in the quality of bank output reflected in the differences in prices. With regard to the immediate future, of full economic and monetary integration, the reduction of profit levels associated with higher competitive pressure may …
Revealed preference and portfolio choice
1993
Abstract We show that the necessary and sufficient conditions for expected utility rationalizability of a single observed portfolio choice are identical to the necessary and sufficient conditions for non-expected utility rationalizability.
Sharing R&D investments in cleaner technologies to mitigate climate change
2014
This paper examines international cooperation on technological development as an alternative to international cooperation on GHG emission reductions. It is assumed that when countries cooperate they coordinate their investments so as to minimize the agreement costs of controlling emissions and that they also pool their R&D efforts so as to fully internalize the spillover effects of their investments in R&D. In order to analyze the scope of cooperation, an agreement formation game is solved in three stages. First, countries decide whether or not to sign the agreement. Then, in the second stage, signatories (playing together) and non-signatories (playing individually) select their investment …
Equilibrium open interest
2010
Abstract This paper analyses what determines an individual investor's risk-sharing demand for options and, aggregating across investors, what the equilibrium demand for options. We find that agents trade options to achieve their desired skewness; specifically, we find that portfolio holdings boil down to a three-fund separation theorem that includes a so-called skewness portfolio that agents like to attain. Our analysis indicates also, however, that the common risk-sharing setup used for option demand and pricing is incompatible with a stylized fact about open interest across strikes.
Deterministic versus probabilistic consequences of trust and trustworthiness: An experimental investigation
2014
Abstract There is overwhelming evidence of reciprocal behavior, driven by intentions. However, the role of consequences is less clear cut. Experimentally manipulating how efficient trust and reciprocity can be in deterministic and uncertain environments allows us to study how payoff consequences of trust and trustworthiness affect reciprocity. According to the results for our modified Investment Game, trustees reward trust more when trust is more efficient but do not adjust rewards when the efficiency of rewarding is varied. Furthermore, higher deterministic benefits result in higher levels of reciprocity for all trust levels, whereas an uncertain environment diminishes reciprocity.
Scoring rules: A cooperative game-theoretic approach
1999
In this work we define the game of the alternatives for each preference profile, and establish relations between scoring rules and cooperative solution concepts for that game, such as the family of semivalues and the family of least square values.