Given the recent abundance of brand choice data from scanner panels market researchers have neglected the measurement and analysis of perceptions. Heterogeneity of perceptions is still a largely unexplored issue in market structure and segmentation studies. Over the last decade various parametric approaches toward modelling segmented perception-preference structures such as combined MDS and Latent Class procedures have been introduced. These methods, however, are not taylored for qualitative data describing consumers' redundant and fuzzy perceptions of brand images. A completely different method is based on topology-sensitive vector quantization (VQ) for consumers-by-brands-by-attributes data. It maps the segment-specific perceptual structures into bubble-pie-bar charts with multiple brand positions demonstrating perceptual distinctiveness or similarity. Though the analysis proceeds without any distributional assumptions it allows for significance testing. The application of exploratory and inferential data processing steps to the same data base is statistically sound and particularly attractive for market structure analysts. A brief outline of the VQ method is followed by a sample study with travel market data which proved to be particularly troublesome for conventional processing tools. (author's abstract) / Series: Report Series SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science"

Abstract This text is the role studying the policy finance and acting in the course of economic development, probe into the government 2001 as the background through the holding company law of the finance, inspected it over the last three years after the government removed and controlled, change in the economic and social category of the local capital market of Taiwan. While studying the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises in the past, documents lacked the deep financing behavior of analyzing small and medium-sized enterprises and bank to study, Uzzi (1999) Think that it influences and promotes private information in the network to share to embedded ties relatedly, at the same time the advantage of the market relation lies in obtaining the public information of the price and loan chance on the market, so different one has different advantage and characteristic relatedly in this financing network. This research asks on the view of regional development, ' the relation finance ' on earth finances of relations whether lower the ground cost effectively? Control the fund that can be apter to draw or tighten even more through the government remove the finance? So, this research is with Granovetter mainly (1985) think that the social embeddedness, analyse the turn of the market of the regional capital from three literary composition surfaces: Including the capital market structure, the debt-credit standard awards the policy of the lender with the bank, and inlay to the related embedded ties role in the debt-credit course. This research adopte the questionnaire and interview law of the depth. Aim at the difference among different banks, such as understanding that credit is close to, service range, and debt-credit way etc. especially give the commercial behavior of small and medium-sized enterprises, the reference while regarding doing as the public decision of regional development in financing about the silver. 1. In remove on gold change by regional capital market structure government to Kaohsjung after changing, it removes and controls the assisting of a gang of banks and local banks to still needing the officer on the financing channels of regional small and medium-sized enterprises of the area of Kaohsjung, have on the financial service of the area again, the financial serivce object that the private gold accuses of is to rely mainly on consumption finance, the service to regional small and medium-sized enterprises is had and still needed to make great efforts. 2. Credit policy of financial institution, after investigation and analysis of this research,it accuse of gangs of bank and officer stock by bank to in enterprise award letter the procedures and loan to put getting looser in standard. In addition as to with pay attention to being greater than the private money accusing of and private bank person who do in the test of market factor, linking the more deeply of its embedability of bank of the local characteristic especially the smaller in scale, the deeper the doing in the test amount is by the factors of people. 3. To small and medium-sized enterprises of the area of Kaohsjung, it has already been used to doing the trade of credit in the bank with local characteristic ; In scale of the capital, the bank of the capital with the larger volume, the procedure has put tediously more long to the loans of small and medium-sized enterprises, must often seek the letter via accusing of two times in charge of the centre , the cost obtaining the fund to small and medium-sized enterprises naturally will be higher, so, the government should offer the norm and respect in considering the localization of the market that the bank classifies, make the big pet bank coexist altogether flourishly.

The origin of market value has not been sufficiently explored in the social sciences. While there is a tendency among economists and sociologists to see value as imported to the market from external sources (e.g. culture, internal preferences), I argue that shifts in market value are often endogenous to the market setting. Perceptions of value, or collective beliefs that specific sets of assets will yield benefits for the owner, are most malleable when markets are unstable. Instability is caused by intense competition and rapid technological change, both of which upset firms' abilities to make consistent profits and retain their market position. Instability amplifies general uncertainty about the best ways to create value.Perceptions of value emerge in unstable markets as firms monitor and mimic their peers, who act as information proxies about the future value of assets. I look at acquisitions within the communications industries from 1997 to 2002 to assess this claim. I expect that firms acquire target assets in the same segments as their closest competitors and market leaders. Unstable market conditions amplify the extent to which firms use their peers to guide their acquisition choices. The collective flow of acquisitions caused by this mimicry creates perceptions of value that become reflected in concrete, standard measures of market value. Investors and other third-party observers use peer behavior as an interpretive frame for estimating value creation. They assume the collective acquisitions are social proof that value is being created and this is reflected in their investment behavior, which in turn drives up the stock prices of acquiring firms.Regression findings support these propositions; although there is weak evidence that market value gains from peer mimicry are long-term. Instead, I find that using peers to frame acquisition value tends to lead to initial overvaluation, which is subsequently corrected through a long-term value discount. I suggest that unstable market conditions tend to lead to speculative behavior and inefficient market pricing.

This is a summary of doctoral dissertation on evaluation of market structure in stock exchange industry under network formation. The summary arguments the relavance of the research, its aim and objectives. It summarizes the contents of dissertation and presents its outcomes and conclusions. / Tai yra daktaro disertacijos, kurios tema Vertybinių popierių biržų sektoriaus rinkos struktūros vertinimas formuojantis tinklams, santrauka. Joje argumentuojama tyrimo problema ir jos aktualumas, tinklas bei uždaviniai. Santraukoje trumpai pristatomas disertacijos turinys, tyrimo rezultatai ir išvados.

No description available.

This thesis extends the literature on trade-linked international environmental policy by quantifying the effects of collective taxes on polluting intermediate inputs under varying trade, market structure and labour market assumptions. Using a CGE model augmented to include emissions from intermediate inputs, I simulate the effects of coordinated and harmonized environmental taxes on output, trade, and market structure. The main objectives are to ascertain whether free trade improves regulatory policy outcomes, and to demonstrate how market structure and the relative size of trading partners affect policy responses. To this end, I consider three cases: (a) asymmetric regions competing under perfect competition (b) asymmetric regions competing under imperfect competition and (c) symmetric regions competing under imperfect competition. Using Canada-EU and NAFTA-EU trade to represent asymmetric and symmetric trade ties, the results reveal the following: When regions are asymmetric, free trade unambiguously improves regulatory outcomes for the EU, but yields mixed results for Canada. In addition, regulatory costs are lower when trading partners are symmetric. However, free trade can result in perverse outcomes. For asymmetric regions, output and market structure changes are stronger under imperfect competition, and in the presence of real wage unemployment. Results also suggest that aggregate trade flows are not very sensitive to environmental taxes but are sensitive to changes in border taxes. Finally, welfare effects do not follow a predictable pattern because they partly depend on market structure changes.

This dissertation analyzes information, market structure, and firm pricing strate-gies. I begin the dissertation with an analysis of the market structure of the mortgage in-dustry. I find that the configuration of the mortgage market at its present state is vastly different than its historical structure. The reduction in the cost of transmitting informa-tion has increased the collaborative environment and facilitated the dis-integration of the supply chain. Generally, the mortgage industry has been successful at reducing principal-agent problems and minimizing asymmetric information concerns that arise in segmented markets. In the first essay I provide a theoretical explanation of the effect of the internet on market outcomes. Search models assume that the reduction in search frictions would lead to competitive markets. However, I argue that gatekeepers operating in online markets may create an anticompetitive effect, in addition to reducing the consumers’ search cost. Therefore, the conduct of the gatekeeper can cause prices in online markets to be higher than in retail markets and provide online firms with larger profits. In the second essay “I empirically examine the role of the internet and Internet Comparison Search sites in reducing consumer search costs and their effects on the prices consumers pay for mortgages. Additionally, I expand the study to test for the effects of the internet on firm profits. Using a unique data set, I examine a mortgage firm’s pricing strategies and profits in online and retail markets, and find evidence of market power in online markets that do not exist in retail markets. The presumed benefits to the consumer from the reduction of search cost are offset by the anticompetitive environment in online markets. In the final essay, I examine a mortgage firm’s portfolio choice. I investigate the loan characteristics that affect the firm’s decision to retain mortgages as part of its own portfolio. I find that the decision to retain loans as a lender is driven by unobservable qualities. The firm does sort loans by quality, but it also prices non-brokered loans lower based on unobservable qualities. The sorting behavior suggests that asymmetric information exists between the lender and the secondary market.

Esta tese tem como elemento central a estrutura de mercado, cujos resultados são inéditos até onde conhecemos. Na primeira parte, tratamos de inovação e estrutura de mercado, dada a apropriabilidade. Analisamos P&D em particular e inovação em produto e processo para empresa e para o mercado, bem como formas de apropriabilidade além de patentes, tais como copyright e desenho industrial complexo. Entre os resultados empíricos que encontramos vale destacar que: (i) estrutura de mercado tem impacto positivo sobre inovação, via de regra, quando considerado junto com gasto com propaganda ou com um mix de mecanismos de apropriabilidade; (ii) lucratividade defasada, via de regra, tem efeito positivo sobre a decisão de gastar ou não em P&D e de inovar ou não, seja em produto ou processo, para a empresa ou para o mercado; (iii) exceto gastos com propaganda, os outros indicadores de apropriabilidade aqui considerados isoladadamente, via de regra, não têm impacto positivo sobre os indicadores de inovação; e (iv) em geral, o mix de mecanismos de apropriabilidade tem impacto positivo e significativo tanto sobre gastos com P&D quanto sobre a decisão de gastar em P&D e inovar. Na segunda parte tratamos de salários e estrutura de mercado dada a qualificação dos trabalhadores sob uma perspectiva muito recente. Verificamos empiricamente em que medida o poder de mercado das empresas da indústria brasileira de transformação no mercado de produto influenciou os salários dos trabalhadores, dadas suas qualificações, no período 1998 a 2005. Para tal, adotamos um procedimento pouco presente na literatura sobre mercado de trabalho: experimento quase natural (no caso, o overshooting cambial de 2002-2003), como forma de corrigir a potencial simultaneidade entre salários e parcela de mercado. Entre os resultados desta seção vale destacar que: (i) a parcela de mercado tem efeito positivo sobre os salários dos trabalhadores de escolaridade alta, mas negativo sobre os de média, sugerindo que as empresas da indústria brasileira de transformação usam o poder no mercado de produto para pagar melhores salários para os trabalhadores mais qualificados e pagar menores salários para os menos qualificados – algo que tende a ampliar a polarização dos rendimentos no mercado de trabalho brasileiro. Dado que parcela de mercado também é uma forma de medir tamanho de empresa, este resultado sugere também que as firmas maiores da indústria brasileira de transformação pagam os trabalhadores mais qualificados melhor que as firmas menores. E (ii) atividades de P&D tiveram efeito negativo sobre escolariadade alta, mas inovação em geral teve efeito positivo sobre os mais qualificados, sugerindo que a competição no mercado de produto aumenta atividades inovativas em geral, acirrando a disputa por mão de obra qualificada. Porém, esta mesma competição no mercado de produto não aumenta a atividade de P&D e, portanto, a disputa por mão de obra qualificada para esta finalidade. Pelo contrário. A evidência empírica obtida sugere que a competição no mercado de produto diminui esta atividade, bem como a procura por mão de obra qualificada para este fim. / The central point of this dissertation is market structure, whose results are unpublished as we know. In the first section we consider innovation, market structure and appropriability in the Brazilian manufacturing sector in 2003 and 2005. We analyse not only R&D but also process and product innovation to the firm and to the market, as well many appropriability mechanisms further than patents, as copyright and complex industrial design. Among the main empirical results we found are: (i) market structure has positive impact on innovation, especially joint with advertisement expenditure or mix of appropriability mechanisms; (ii) lagged profits has positive effects on R&D expenditure decision and innovation decision, no matter if it is product or process innovation to the firm or to the market; (iii) all apropriability mechanisms except advertisement don`t have positive impact on innovation; and (iv) in general mix of appropriability mechanisms has positive impact on R&D expenditure and R&D expenditure and innovation decision. In the second section we analyse wages and market structure. We check empirically how Brazilian manufacturing firms product market power impact on worker wages, conditional to workers skills, between 1998 and 2005. We use a rare procedure in empirical labour market literature: a quasi-natural experiment (in this case the 2002-2003 Brazilian exchange rate overshooting) as source of exogeneity, which help us correct potential simultaneity between wages and market share. Among the main results we found are: (i) market share has positive effect on high skilled workers wage but negative on the medium skilled, which suggest that Brazilian manufacturing firms use their product market power to pay higher wages to high skilled workers but to pay lower wages to the less skilled – which can increase wages polarization in the Brazilian labour market. As market share also means firm size, this result also suggests that the biggest firms in the Brazilian manufacturing pay better than the smallest. And (ii) R&D activity has negative effect on high skilled workers but innovation as a whole has positive effect on the high skilled, which suggests that competition on product market increase innovative activity as a whole, increasing high skilled labour demand. However, competition in the product market does not increase R&D activity and, as consequence, does not increase high skilled labour demand. In fact, the empirical evidence shows us the opposite: the competition on product market reduce R&D activity and high skilled labour demand as well to this objective.

Esta tese tem como elemento central a estrutura de mercado, cujos resultados são inéditos até onde conhecemos. Na primeira parte, tratamos de inovação e estrutura de mercado, dada a apropriabilidade. Analisamos P&D em particular e inovação em produto e processo para empresa e para o mercado, bem como formas de apropriabilidade além de patentes, tais como copyright e desenho industrial complexo. Entre os resultados empíricos que encontramos vale destacar que: (i) estrutura de mercado tem impacto positivo sobre inovação, via de regra, quando considerado junto com gasto com propaganda ou com um mix de mecanismos de apropriabilidade; (ii) lucratividade defasada, via de regra, tem efeito positivo sobre a decisão de gastar ou não em P&D e de inovar ou não, seja em produto ou processo, para a empresa ou para o mercado; (iii) exceto gastos com propaganda, os outros indicadores de apropriabilidade aqui considerados isoladadamente, via de regra, não têm impacto positivo sobre os indicadores de inovação; e (iv) em geral, o mix de mecanismos de apropriabilidade tem impacto positivo e significativo tanto sobre gastos com P&D quanto sobre a decisão de gastar em P&D e inovar. Na segunda parte tratamos de salários e estrutura de mercado dada a qualificação dos trabalhadores sob uma perspectiva muito recente. Verificamos empiricamente em que medida o poder de mercado das empresas da indústria brasileira de transformação no mercado de produto influenciou os salários dos trabalhadores, dadas suas qualificações, no período 1998 a 2005. Para tal, adotamos um procedimento pouco presente na literatura sobre mercado de trabalho: experimento quase natural (no caso, o overshooting cambial de 2002-2003), como forma de corrigir a potencial simultaneidade entre salários e parcela de mercado. Entre os resultados desta seção vale destacar que: (i) a parcela de mercado tem efeito positivo sobre os salários dos trabalhadores de escolaridade alta, mas negativo sobre os de média, sugerindo que as empresas da indústria brasileira de transformação usam o poder no mercado de produto para pagar melhores salários para os trabalhadores mais qualificados e pagar menores salários para os menos qualificados – algo que tende a ampliar a polarização dos rendimentos no mercado de trabalho brasileiro. Dado que parcela de mercado também é uma forma de medir tamanho de empresa, este resultado sugere também que as firmas maiores da indústria brasileira de transformação pagam os trabalhadores mais qualificados melhor que as firmas menores. E (ii) atividades de P&D tiveram efeito negativo sobre escolariadade alta, mas inovação em geral teve efeito positivo sobre os mais qualificados, sugerindo que a competição no mercado de produto aumenta atividades inovativas em geral, acirrando a disputa por mão de obra qualificada. Porém, esta mesma competição no mercado de produto não aumenta a atividade de P&D e, portanto, a disputa por mão de obra qualificada para esta finalidade. Pelo contrário. A evidência empírica obtida sugere que a competição no mercado de produto diminui esta atividade, bem como a procura por mão de obra qualificada para este fim. / The central point of this dissertation is market structure, whose results are unpublished as we know. In the first section we consider innovation, market structure and appropriability in the Brazilian manufacturing sector in 2003 and 2005. We analyse not only R&D but also process and product innovation to the firm and to the market, as well many appropriability mechanisms further than patents, as copyright and complex industrial design. Among the main empirical results we found are: (i) market structure has positive impact on innovation, especially joint with advertisement expenditure or mix of appropriability mechanisms; (ii) lagged profits has positive effects on R&D expenditure decision and innovation decision, no matter if it is product or process innovation to the firm or to the market; (iii) all apropriability mechanisms except advertisement don`t have positive impact on innovation; and (iv) in general mix of appropriability mechanisms has positive impact on R&D expenditure and R&D expenditure and innovation decision. In the second section we analyse wages and market structure. We check empirically how Brazilian manufacturing firms product market power impact on worker wages, conditional to workers skills, between 1998 and 2005. We use a rare procedure in empirical labour market literature: a quasi-natural experiment (in this case the 2002-2003 Brazilian exchange rate overshooting) as source of exogeneity, which help us correct potential simultaneity between wages and market share. Among the main results we found are: (i) market share has positive effect on high skilled workers wage but negative on the medium skilled, which suggest that Brazilian manufacturing firms use their product market power to pay higher wages to high skilled workers but to pay lower wages to the less skilled – which can increase wages polarization in the Brazilian labour market. As market share also means firm size, this result also suggests that the biggest firms in the Brazilian manufacturing pay better than the smallest. And (ii) R&D activity has negative effect on high skilled workers but innovation as a whole has positive effect on the high skilled, which suggests that competition on product market increase innovative activity as a whole, increasing high skilled labour demand. However, competition in the product market does not increase R&D activity and, as consequence, does not increase high skilled labour demand. In fact, the empirical evidence shows us the opposite: the competition on product market reduce R&D activity and high skilled labour demand as well to this objective.

This article provides an exploratory analysis of the process for determining intermediation margins in the Peruvian banking system. In the period between 2001 and 2010, this process was influenced primarily by two occurrences: the international financial crises towards the end of the 1990s, and the application of the Financial System Consolidation Program (Programa de Consolidación del Sistema Financiero) in Peru. The analysis delivers some evidence that in the case of Peruvian banking, market power and, specifically, the existence of market power-related inequalities between banks may be relevant factors in the process of determining financial intermediation margins. / El presente artículo muestra un análisis exploratorio sobre el proceso de determinación de los márgenes de intermediación en el sistema bancario. Proceso que en el período de 2001 al 2010, fue influenciado por la ocurrencia de dos hechos principales: las crisis financieras internacionales de finales de la década de 1990; y la aplicación del Programa de Consolidación del Sistema Financiero. Este análisis muestra cierta evidencia de que el poder de mercado, y específicamente, la existencia de desigualdades entre bancos, en cuanto al poder de mercado, podría ser uno de los factores relevantes en el proceso de determinación de los márgenes de intermediación financiero, en el caso de la banca peruana.