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on Economic Design |
| By: | Riegel, Max |
| Abstract: | I study pricing and product design choices of multiproduct firms in a model of directed search. Product design introduces vertical differentiation à la Gabszewicz and Thisse (1979) as well as Shaked and Sutton (1982). While all consumers have a preference for a more niche product design, consumers with lower search costs benefit relatively more. Firms gain from dispersion in tastes through product design and choose maximum differentiation in equilibrium. The firm with the broader product design sets a lower price and attracts consumers with high search costs. |
| Keywords: | product design; vertical differentiation; consumer search; directed search; search cost heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D43 D83 L15 |
| Date: | 2023–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119384&r=des |
| By: | Boeing, Geoff (Northeastern University); Pilgram, Clemens; Lu, Yougeng |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the relationships between street network characteristics and transport-sector CO2 emissions across every urban area in the world and investigates whether they are the same across development levels and urban design paradigms. The prior literature has estimated relationships between street network design and transport emissions---including greenhouse gases implicated in climate change---primarily through case studies focusing on certain world regions or relatively small samples of cities, complicating generalizability and applicability for evidence-informed practice. Our worldwide study finds that straighter, more-connected, and less-overbuilt street networks are associated with lower transport emissions, all else equal. Importantly, these relationships vary across development levels and design paradigms---yet most prior literature reports findings from urban areas that are outliers by global standards. Planners need a better empirical base for evidence-informed practice in under-studied regions, particularly the rapidly urbanizing Global South. |
| Date: | 2024–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:r32vj&r=des |
| By: | Zamanbin, Mehri; Yerkes, Mara A.; Javornik, Jana |
| Abstract: | Affordable, good quality childcare creates opportunities for many parents to better reconcile work and care or reduces family care to enable other valuable contributions to society. However, childcare studies often overlook parents of children with complex care needs. The often too limited understanding of the availability of affordable, good quality childcare for parents of children with complex care needs is problematic. These parents spend a greater amount of time on caregiving, providing care that goes beyond that of parents of typically developing children. As such, their opportunities beyond caregiving can be limited, and resources, like childcare services, are crucial in supporting the reconciliation of care with other valued activities in life. This article contributes to the cross-national childcare policy literature by conceptualizing comparative indicators to assess the availability, accessibility, and affordability of childcare policy design for children with complex care needs. It then applies these indicators to a comparison of childcare policy design in the UK and the Netherlands, providing an operationalization for further empirical analysis. Broadening childcare policy analysis to include the availability, accessibility, and affordability of childcare for parents of children with complex care needs improves our understanding of child-related care services in cross-national perspective and provides conceptual innovation for improving comparative childcare indicators. |
| Date: | 2023–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:s3fmn&r=des |