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on Marketing |
| By: | R. Cellini; L. Lambertini; A. Mantovani |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:564&r=mkt |
| By: | Michael Kremer; Edward Miguel |
| Abstract: | The history of foreign development assistance is one of movement away from addressing immediate needs to a focus on the underlying causes of poverty. A recent manifestation is the move towards “sustainability,” which stresses community mobilization, education, and cost-recovery. This stands in contrast to the traditional economic analysis of development projects, with its focus on providing public goods and correcting externalities. We examine evidence from randomized evaluations on strategies for combating intestinal worms, which affect one in four people worldwide. Providing medicine to treat worms was extremely cost effective, although medicine must be provided twice per year indefinitely to keep children worm-free. An effort to promote sustainability by educating Kenyan schoolchildren on worm prevention was ineffective, and a “mobilization” intervention from psychology failed to boost de-worming drug take-up. Take-up was highly sensitive to drug cost: a small increase in cost led to an 80percent reduction in take-up (relative to free treatment). The results suggest that, in the context we examine, the pursuit of sustainability may be an illusion, and that in the short-run, at least, external subsidies will remain necessary. |
| Keywords: | foreign development assistance, poverty, sustainability, public good, externality, subsidy |
| JEL: | O15 H23 H41 H31 F35 I32 I12 I18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:35&r=mkt |
| By: | Finn Valentin; Henrich Dahlgren; Rasmus Lund Jensen |
| Abstract: | Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategize in this core of their activity. Popular views on Dedicated Biotech Firms (DBFs) see the inherent uncertainty of research as defying notions of strategizing, directing instead the attention to the quality of their science, or the roles of boards, management, and collaborative networks etc. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper analyzes their research strategies. Adopting a Simonean point of departure we develop a contingency view on complex problem solving which structures the argument into three steps: 1) Characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; 2) Testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; 3) Testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. Findings demonstrate that Shonhoovens classical argument that “strategy matters” is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Even though a lot more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management, and financing of these firms. |
| Keywords: | Biotechnology; research strategy; discovery fields; valuation; performance measures |
| JEL: | L25 L65 O32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-11&r=mkt |
| By: | Jiawei Chen (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine) |
| Abstract: | Empirical work on bank loans typically regresses loan spreads (markups of loan interest rates over a benchmark rate) on observed characteristics of banks, firms, and loans. The estimation is problematic when some of these characteristics are only partially observed and the matching of banks and firms is endogenously determined because they prefer partners that have higher quality. We study the U.S. bank loan market with a two-sided matching model to control for the endogenous matching, and obtain Bayesian inference using a Gibbs sampling algorithm with data augmentation. We find evidence of positive assortative matching of sizes, explained by similar relationships between quality and size on both sides of the market. Banks' risk and firms' risk are important factors in their quality. Controlling for the endogenous matching has a strong impact on estimated coefficients in the loan spread equation. |
| Keywords: | Two-sided matching, Loan spread, Bayesian inference, Gibbs sampling with data augmentation |
| JEL: | C11 C78 G21 L11 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:060702&r=mkt |
| By: | Jan K. Brueckner (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Ricardo Flores-Fillol (Departament d’Economia i d’Historia Economica, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simple model of airline schedule competition that circumvents the complexities of the spatial approach used in earlier papers. Consumers choose between two duopoly carriers, each of which has evenly spaced flights, by comparing the combinations of fare and expected schedule delay that they offer. In contrast to the spatial approach, the particular departure times of individual flights are thus not relevant. The model generates a number of useful comparative-static predictions, while welfare analysis shows that equilibrium flight frequencies tend to be inefficiently low. |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:050629&r=mkt |
| By: | Granier, L.; Trinquard, S. |
| Abstract: | This paper fills the gap in the theoretical literature concerning mergers between brand-name and generic laboratories in pharmaceutical markets. To prevent generic firms from increasing their market share, some brand-name furms produce generics themselves, called pseudo-generics, enabling them to set up barriers to entry. We develop this topic by considering the pseudo-generics production as a mergers.catalyst. We show, in a duopoly model with substitutable goods, in which a brand-name firm and a generic firm compete à la Cournot, that a brand-name company always has an incentive to purchase its competitor. The key insight of this paper is that the brand-name laboratory can increase its merger gain by producing pseudo-generics beforehand. In some cases, pseudo-generics would not otherwise be produced. |
| Keywords: | Mergers, Pharmaceutical Market, Pseudo-Generics. |
| JEL: | I11 L12 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mop:lasrwp:2006.21&r=mkt |