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on Microeconomics |
| By: | Ernst Fehr; Alexander Klein; Klaus M Schmidt |
| Date: | 2005–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:najeco:666156000000000626&r=mic |
| By: | Faruk Gul; Wolfgang Pesendorfer |
| Date: | 2005–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:najeco:666156000000000635&r=mic |
| By: | James Andreoni; Marco Castillo; Ragan Petrie |
| Date: | 2005–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:najeco:666156000000000644&r=mic |
| By: | Chrysovalantou Milliou; Emmanuel Petrakis |
| Abstract: | Contrary to the seminal paper of Horn and Wolinsky (1988), we demonstrate that upstream firms, which sell their products to competing downstream firms, do not always have incentives to merge horizontally. In particular, we show that when bargaining takes place over two-part tariffs, and not over wholesale prices, upstream firms prefer to act as independent suppliers rather than as a monopolist supplier. Moreover, we show that horizontal mergers can be procompetitive, even in the absence of efficiency gains. |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we051507&r=mic |
| By: | Joan R. Roses |
| Abstract: | This paper examines changes in the organization of the Spanish cotton industry from 1720 to 1860 in its core region of Catalonia. As the Spanish cotton industry adopted the most modern technology and experienced the transition to the factory system, cotton spinning and weaving mills became increasingly vertically integrated. Asset specificity more than other factors explained this tendency towards vertical integration. The probability for a firm of being vertically integrated was higher among firms located in districts with high concentration ratios and rose with size and the use of modern machinery. Simultaneously, subcontracting predominated in other phases of production and distribution where transaction costs appears to be less important. |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wh051302&r=mic |
| By: | Xavier Labandeira; José M. Labeaga; Miguel Rodríguez |
| Abstract: | Sharp price fluctuations and increasing environmental and distributional concerns, among other issues, have led to a renewed academic interest in energy demand. In this paper we estimate, for the first time in Spain, an energy demand system with household microdata. In doing so, we tackle several econometric and data problems that are generally recognized to bias parameter estimates. This is obviously relevant, as obtaining correct price and income responses is essential if they may be used for assessing the economic consequences of hypothetical or real changes. With this objective, we combine data sources for a long time period and choose a demand system with flexible income and price responses. We also estimate the model in different sub-samples to capture varying responses to energy price changes by households living in rural, intermediate and urban areas. This constitutes a first attempt in the literature and it proved to be a very successful choice. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2005-04&r=mic |
| By: | Xavier Labandeira; José M. Labeaga; Miguel Rodríguez |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaeee:196&r=mic |
| By: | Gallo, Fredrik (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Firms agglomerate in one region due to increasing returns, input-output linkages and transportation costs. In the de-industrialised region factor prices are lower and a new technology may be profitable to adopt in that region instead, inducing a change in the technological leadership. This paper shows that the risk of locking in to an old technology is monotonically increasing in the benefits of agglomeration. Greater incompatibility between technologies also increases the risk of rejecting potentially superior manufacturing processes. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; lock-in; new economic geography; technological leapfrogging |
| JEL: | F12 F43 O33 |
| Date: | 2005–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2005_022&r=mic |
| By: | Gallo, Fredrik (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We analyse a two-stage location-quantity game with many firms and two regions. We show that the firms will never agglomerate in the same location if transportation is costly between the regions. We also analyse the effects of differences in market size and economic integration on the allocation of industrial activity. For high levels of trade costs firms locate in different regions. Lowering the trade costs beyond a critical level triggers an agglomeration of industry in the larger region. This process of agglomeration is gradual in nature and trade costs have to be successively lowered for a full-scale agglomeration to take place. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; cross-hauling; market size effects; spatial Cournot competition |
| JEL: | D43 F12 L13 R30 |
| Date: | 2005–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2005_023&r=mic |
| By: | Rumen Dobrinsky; Gábor Kõrösi; Nikolay Markov; László Halpern |
| Abstract: | Under perfect competition and constant returns to scale, firms producing homogeneous products set their prices at their marginal costs which also equal their average costs. However, the departure from these standard assumptions has important implications with respects to the derived theoretical results and the validity of the related empirical analysis. In particular, monopolistic firms will charge a markup over their marginal costs. We show that firms’ markups tend to be directly associated with the employed production technology, more specifically with their returns to scale. Accordingly, we analyze the implications for the markup ratios from the incidence of non-constant returns to scale. We present quantitative results illustrating the effect of the returns to scale index on the firms’ price markups, as well as the relationship between the two indicators, on the basis of firm-level data for Bulgarian and Hungarian manufacturing firms. |
| Keywords: | markup pricing, market imperfections, return to scale, Bulgaria, Hungary |
| JEL: | C23 D21 D24 |
| Date: | 2004–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2004-710&r=mic |