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on Industrial Competition |
| By: | Ray, Sourav; Snir, Avichai; Levy, Daniel |
| Abstract: | We study the price rigidity of regular and sale prices, and how it is affected by pricing formats (i.e., pricing strategies). We use data from three large Canadian stores with different pricing formats (Every-Day-Low-Price, Hi-Lo, and Hybrid) that are located within a 1 km radius of each other. Our data contains both the actual transaction prices and actual regular prices as displayed on the store shelves. We combine these data with two “generated” regular price series (filtered prices and reference prices) and study their rigidity. Regular price rigidity varies with store formats because different format stores treat sale prices differently, and consequently define regular prices differently. Correspondingly, the meanings of price cuts and sale prices vary across store formats. To interpret the findings, we consider the store pricing format distribution across the US. |
| Keywords: | Price Rigidity; Sticky Prices; Regular Prices; Sale Prices; Filtered Prices; Reference Prices; Temporary Price Changes; Transaction Prices; Price Cuts; Pricing Format; Pricing Strategy; Every-Day-Low-Price (EDLP); Hi-Lo; Hybrid |
| JEL: | D22 D40 E31 E52 L11 L16 M30 M31 |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117784&r=com |
| By: | Bertin Martens |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the crucial role of search engines in modern digital economies and their impact on user welfare. |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:wpaper:node_9228&r=com |
| By: | Klaus Gugler (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Florian Szücs (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Ulrich Wohak (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of big-tech acquisitions on the incentives for investment and innovation. Using data on several hundred acquisitions by Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM), we study the evolution of venture capital investment and patenting relative to control groups. The results show a clear negative impact on investment, while the effect on innovation depends on the acquirer and period. Both outcomes improve over time, as GAFAM firms become more similar in terms of their product and tech-portfolios, increasing competition. Yet, around 10% of acquisitions impact both metrics negatively. |
| Keywords: | M&A, big-tech, innovation, investment |
| JEL: | D22 G34 K21 L41 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp340&r=com |
| By: | Gugler, Klaus; Szücs, Florian |
| Abstract: | We exploit the regulatory environment in the Austrian pharmaceutical market to study the effects of price regulation on market outcomes and consumer welfare. We evaluate all mergers of drug producers in the 2009-2017 period and find that the coexisting regulated and unregulated markets were unequally affected. While M&A have substantially increased prices without regulation, particularly for price-inelastic products, prices did not increase under regulation. Instead, variety increased in regulated markets. Therefore, regulation can successfully mitigate the effects of market power: whereas M&A decrease consumer welfare absent regulation, the additional product variety increases consumer welfare in the regulated market. |
| Keywords: | pharmaceuticals; regulation; market power; consumer welfare; pharma mergers; product variety |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:44832642&r=com |
| By: | Vitor Costa |
| Abstract: | I use matched employer-employee records merged with corporate tax information from 2003 to 2017 to estimate labor market-wide effects of mergers and acquisitions in Brazil. Labor markets are defined by pairs of commuting zone and industry sector. In the following year of a merger, market size falls by 10.8%. The employment adjustment is concentrated in merging firms. For the firms not involved in M&As, I estimate a 1.07% decline in workers earnings and a positive, although not significant, increase in their size. Most mergers have a predicted impact of zero points in concentration, measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). I spillover firms, earnings decline similarly for mergers with high and low predicted changes in HHI. Contrary to the recent literature on market concentration in developed economies, I find no evidence of oligopsonistic behavior in Brazilian labor markets. |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2306.08797&r=com |
| By: | Bovin, Andreas; Bos, Iwan (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Organisation, Strategy & Entrepreneurship) |
| Abstract: | Collusion theory robustly predicts non-cartel rivals to raise their price and increase their output. As the typical cartel cuts back production, its competitors are expected to gain market share during the collusive period and to lose market share in the period following the cartel's demise. We provide empirical support for this prediction by showing that it applied to the European truck cartel. We also illustrate how our analysis can be used in the prosecution stage. One truck manufacturer denied cartel participation, whereas the proposed market share test supports the European Commission's finding that this firm was, in fact, a member. |
| JEL: | L10 L40 |
| Date: | 2023–07–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2023011&r=com |
| By: | Javier Terrero-Davila; Cristiana Vitale; Eszter Danitz |
| Abstract: | A competition-friendly business regulatory environment is essential for the well-functioning of markets. It ensures that important policy goals are addressed, and market failures tackled. However, regulation can also create barriers to the entry and expansion of firms that may limit and distort competition and hinder the efficient allocation of resources, negatively affecting productivity and growth. Some of these barriers are necessary, but others may go beyond what is needed to address the policy objectives and the market failure(s) regulation is intended to solve. This paper relies on the last vintage of the Product Market Regulation indicators to determine to what extent Poland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan aims to create a more competition-friendly business environment. The analysis suggests that only a limited number of the measures included in the Plan may address regulatory weaknesses identified by these indicators. Therefore, the paper suggests OECD best practices that the country could consider to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers and boost the benefits that the investments envisaged in the Plan could bring about. |
| Keywords: | Business Environment, Competition, European Union, Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, National Recovery and Resilience Plans, Network Sectors, Poland, Product Market Regulation, Productivity, Professional Services, Public Procurement, Regulation, Regulatory Environment |
| JEL: | D02 D24 D4 H54 K23 K32 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L8 L9 M20 O52 |
| Date: | 2023–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1764-en&r=com |
| By: | 工藤（原）, 由佳; KUDO-HARA, Yuka; 宮澤, 優輝; MIYAZAWA, Yuki; 原, 泰史; HARA, Yasushi; 橘, 樹; TACHIBANA, Tatsuki; 軽部, 大; KARUBE, Masaru |
| Abstract: | 個別企業の戦略行動と産業レベルの市場形成はいかに相互に作用しながらイノベーションに結実するのか。本研究の目的は、カテゴリー論を援用しながら、低糖質市場の形成過程を個別企業の取り組みや製品動向、消費者による関連用語の利用に関するデータを通じて検討し、この問いに回答を導き出すことにある。カテゴリー論では、カテゴリーの境界や意味の曖昧さが、多様な企業や製品の参入を促し新規カテゴリーの形成を促進すると論じられている。本稿では、低糖質市場においても同様のメカニズムが働いたことを確認する。すなわち、マクロレベルでは標準的な基準や制度がないことが、ミクロレベルでの多様な企業や製品がカテゴリーへ参入を促し、その結果マクロレベルでは境界や意味が曖昧な市場カテゴリーの形成に寄与し、さらなる多様な企業や製品の参入を促すという一連のメカニズムである。, How do the strategic actions of individual firms and market formation at the industry level interact to result in innovation? The purpose of this study is to answer this question by examining the formation process of low-carbohydrate markets through data on individual firms' initiatives, product trends, and consumers' use of related terms, with the aid of category theory. Category theory argues that the ambiguity of category boundaries and meanings encourages the entry of diverse companies and products and the formation of new categories. This paper confirms that a similar mechanism worked in the low-carbohydrate market. That is, a series of mechanisms in which the lack of standardized criteria and institutions at the macro level encourages diverse firms and products to enter a category at the micro level, which in turn contributes to the formation of market categories with ambiguous boundaries and meanings at the macro level and encourages the entry of even more diverse firms and products. |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:iirwps:23-03&r=com |
| By: | KUSAKA Shoki; OKAZAKI Tetsuji; ONISHI Ken; WAKAMORI Naoki |
| Abstract: | We investigate the cause of the decline in labor share using highly-detailed plant level data from the cement industry. Using the information on production technology at each plant, we show that the major source of the decline is due to the diffusion of new technology; The labor share decreases for the plants adopting more advanced capital-intensive technology, whereas it remains steady for the plants keeping the same technology. The use of plant-level technology data is key to rejecting other potential hypotheses, such as increasing market power and monopsony power, and our conclusion would be qualitatively different without it. |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:23047&r=com |
| By: | Kong, Xiangwen; Liu, Xiaoou |
| Keywords: | Marketing, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335982&r=com |
| By: | Gugler, Klaus; Szücs, Florian; Wohak, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of big-tech acquisitions on the incentives for investment and innovation. Using data on several hundred acquisitions by Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM), we study the evolution of venture capital investment and patenting relative to control groups. The results show a clear negative impact on investment, while the effect on innovation depends on the acquirer and period. Both outcomes improve over time, as GAFAM firms become more similar in terms of their product and tech-portfolios, increasing competition. Yet, around 10% of acquisitions impact both metrics negatively. |
| Keywords: | M&A; big-tech; innovation; investment |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:44832240&r=com |
| By: | Mella-Barral, P.; Sabourian, H. |
| Abstract: | Firms can voluntarily create independent firms to implement their technologically distant innovations and capture their value through capital markets. We argue that when firms repeatedly compete to make innovations, there is inefficient external implementation of innovations and “excessive†creation of such firms. This inefficiency is most exacerbated in the early stages of an industry, when the number of firms is still limited. |
| Keywords: | Repeated Innovations, Spin-Offs, Voluntary Firm Creation |
| JEL: | M13 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2347&r=com |
| By: | McShane, William; Sevilir, Merih |
| Abstract: | We propose a novel mechanism through which established firms contribute to the startup ecosystem: the allocation of R&D tax credits to startups via the M&A channel. We show that when established firms become eligible for R&D tax credits, they increase their R&D and M&A activity. In particular, they acquire more venture capital (VC)-backed startups, but not non-VC-backed firms. Moreover, the impact of R&D tax credits on firms' R&D is increasing with their acquisition of VC-backed startups. The results suggest that established firms respond to R&D tax credits by acquiring startups rather than solely focusing on increasing their R&D intensity in-house. We also highlight evidence that startups do not appear to benefit from R&D tax credits directly, perhaps because they typically lack the taxable income necessary to directly benefit from the tax credits. In this context, established firms can play an intermediary role by acquiring startups and reallocating R&D tax credits, effectively relaxing the financial constraints faced by startups. |
| Keywords: | indirect effects, innovation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), research and development (R&D), startups, tax credits |
| JEL: | G00 G34 H24 M13 O31 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:152023&r=com |
| By: | Rimmer, Matthew (Queensland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Refereed Article. Matthew Rimmer, 'Shane Rattenbury, the Productivity Commission, and the Right to Repair: Intellectual Property, Consumer Rights, and Sustainable Development in Australia' (2023) 37 (3) Berkeley Technology Law Journal 989-1056. This Article tells the story of the fight for the right to repair in Australia. It is intended to complement comparative research elsewhere, looking at the right to repair in the United States and Canada; the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the European Union; and other jurisdictions, such as South Africa. Part II of this paper considers the politics of the right to repair in Australia. It explains how Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury has sparked a larger law reform inquiry by the Productivity Commission into the right to repair. It highlights how Australia is particularly promising in terms of law reform – due to an unusual consensus amongst the major political parties across the usual divides. Part III focuses on the debate over intellectual property and the right to repair in Australia, and the recommendations of the Productivity Commission. It argues that there needs to be more than just copyright law reform; there should be matching reforms in designs law, trade mark law, patent law, trade secrets, and data protection. Part IV considers the recommendations of the Productivity Commission regarding consumer law and competition policy. It highlights the need for further law enforcement action to protect the right to repair. Part V explores the discussion about the right to repair in the context of sustainable development–looking at submissions on e-waste, the circular economy, and sustainable development. It contends that there should be greater law reform in these areas (going well beyond the limited recommendations of the Productivity Commission in this area). Part VI concludes by noting that the Productivity Commission has asked for action in particular markets in respect of automobiles, agricultural machinery, and tablets. The Article calls for the Australian Parliament to go further and recognise a more broadly based right to repair. Such a recognition will require a holistic approach, involving reforms to intellectual property laws, consumer rights and competition policy, and regulation of the environment and sustainable development. It maintains that it is necessary that the jurisdiction of Australia keep pace on the right to repair with its comparative partners. |
| Date: | 2023–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:qp7kn&r=com |