We model a two period game with duopoly market under either quantity or price competition. In the first period, the manufacturer decides on whether to accept the returned products. The optimal ratio of refurbishing is then determined in the second period once the manufacturer has decided to do refurbishing. We identify the optimality conditions that lead to different possible equilibrium outcomes for different scenarios in which two firms may play symmetrically or asymmetrically. Our extensive numerical analysis substantiates the analytical results and we focus on the effect on the subgame perfect equilibrium caused by various parameters. Among our results, we find that, as the return ratio increases, the profits generated from the refurbished market become harder to compensate the loss in the new product market. Besides, the increase of substitution effect in the quantity competition enhances the degree of satisfaction for the refurbished products and it hurts firm¡¦s performance in the more profitable new product market. However, the effect of substitution effect in the price competition is entirely opposite. For instance, when the substitution effect is high, only one firm enters the refurbished product market; and when the substitution effect is low, both firms enter the refurbished product market.

This dissertation performs economic analysis of search advertising from a comprehensive picture of the competition facing advertisers---by incorporating the price competition to endogenously investigate advertisers' bidding incentive, and taking into account consumers' online search and the unique information structure associated with the search advertising format. It consists of three essays based on game-theoretic modeling. The first essay studies the oligopolistic price competition among advertisers placed in different advertising positions, considering distinctive features of consumers’ online search behaviors. We find an interesting local-competition pattern in which direct price competition occurs only between advertisers adjacent to each other. The second essay integrates the price competition into the bidding competition and investigates the endogenous bidding incentives of advertisers with different competitive strengths. Surprisingly, we find that an advertising position with a better exposure may not always be profitable for the advertisers with competitive advantage, even if it is cost free. We also show that the bidding outcome might not align with the relative competitive strength. The third essay further considers the effects of organic listing as a competing information source on the sponsored bidding competition and the outcome performances in search advertising. It provides answers to questions such as whether and why advertisers with sufficient exposure from the organic list may still be willing to bid for top sponsored positions, and how the existence of organic listing affects search engine’s revenue, consumer surplus, and social welfare. / text

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京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第21325号 / 経博第583号 / 新制||経||287(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 塩地 洋, 教授 田中 彰, 准教授 坂出 健 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

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A large part of the empirical work on differentiated products markets has focused on demand estimation and the pricing behavior of firms. These two themes are key inputs in important applications such as the merging of two firms or the introduction of new products. The validity of inferences, therefore, depends on accurate demand estimates and sound assumptions about the pricing behavior of firms. This dissertation makes a contribution to this literature in two ways. First, it adds to previous techniques of estimating demand for differentiated products. Second, it extends previous analyses of pricing behavior to models of price leadership that, while important, have received limited attention. The investigation focuses on the U.S. brewing industry, where price leadership appears to be an important type of firm behavior. The analysis is conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the recent Distance Metric (DM) method devised by Pinkse, Slade and Brett is used to estimate the demand for 64 brands of beer in 58 major metropolitan areas of the United States. This study adds to previous applications of the DM method (Pinkse and Slade; Slade 2004) by employing a demand specification that is more flexible and also by estimating advertising substitution coefficients for numerous beer brands. In the second stage, different pricing models are compared and ranked by exploiting the exogenous change in the federal excise tax of 1991. Demand estimates of the first stage are used to compute the implied marginal costs for the different models of pricing behavior prior to the tax increase. Then, the tax increase is added to the these pre-tax increase marginal costs, and equilibrium prices for all brands are simulated for each model of pricing behavior. These "predicted" prices are then compared to actual prices for model assessment. Results indicate that Bertrand-Nash predicts the pricing behavior of firms more closely than other models, although Stackelberg leadership yields results that are not substanitally different from the Bertrand-Nash model. Nevertheless, Bertrand-Nash tends to under-predict prices of more price-elastic brands and to over-predict prices of less price- elastic brands. An implication of this result is that Anheuser-Busch could exert more market power by increasing the price of its highly inelastic brands, especially Budweiser. Overall, actual price movements as a result of the tax increase tend to be more similar across brands than predicted by any of the models considered. While this pattern is not inconsistent with leadership behavior, leadership models considered in this dissertation do not conform with this pattern. / Ph. D.

This essay is investigating the increasing Swedish garment export during the period 1997-2003. Despite a long-lasting national production decrease and stronger global competition Swedish designed clothing are exported at higher rates than ever. The hypothesis that this increase is due to increased trade and changed production stage specialization is investigated. The theory used to investigate this is basic trade theory including Hecksher-Olin and New Trade theory with a focus on comparative advantage and specialization. This is completed with production theory that is particularly relevant for the garment industry: product and price competition, fashion cycles and vertical specialization. Trade, production and labor data is analyzed according to this and the main results are based on the unit price development: exports had a much higher growth in unit prices than imports. This is indicating that Sweden has a revealed comparative advantage in capital intensive production stages, a fact further supported by high education levels and high production value per worker. The industry has chosen to focus on product competition rather than price competition and has managed to shorten its product cycles in order to better exploit the fashion cycles. In some garment groups the image is more complex and one of the main theories of a design heavy garment such as jeans being the core of the success is revised. The export success is to a large extent due to an increasing specialization in the industry’s strong areas. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker tillväxten av Sveriges export i klädindustrin från 1997-2003. Trots att Sveriges klädproduktion har minskat i flera år och globalisationen tränger sig på så går svenska design plagg på högexport. Vår hypothes är att ökningen härstammar från ökad handel och specialisering i produktionsleden. Teorier vi har använt för att undersöka fenomenet är grundläggande handelsteorier så som Hecksher-Ohlin och New trade theory med fokus på komperativa fördelar och specalisation. Vi har valt att komplettera med produktions theorier som vi känner är relevanta för klädindustrin: produkt och pris konkurrens, mode cykler och vertikal specialisering. Handels-, produktions- och arbetskrafts- statistik har analyserats och huvudresultaten är baserade på utvecklingen av enhetspris: exporten har en högre tillväxt i enhetspris än importen. Detta indikerar att Sverige har en uppenbar komperativ fördel i de kapitalintensiva produktionsleden, detta bekräftas ytterligare genom höga utbildningsnivåer och en hög produktion per arbetare. Den svenska klädindustrin har valt att fokusera mer på produktkonkurrens än priskonkurrens, den har också lyckats med att minska sina produktions cykler för att unyttja marknaden bättre. I en del grupper är bilden mer komplex och en av våra huvudteorier var att jeans stod för stora delar av exportsuccen, denna teori fick vi dock avfärda. Vad vi kom fram till var att stora delar av exportsucceen kommer ifrån en ökning av specialiseringen.

<p>This essay is investigating the increasing Swedish garment export during the period 1997-2003. Despite a long-lasting national production decrease and stronger global competition Swedish designed clothing are exported at higher rates than ever. The hypothesis that this increase is due to increased trade and changed production stage specialization is investigated.</p><p>The theory used to investigate this is basic trade theory including Hecksher-Olin and New Trade theory with a focus on comparative advantage and specialization. This is completed with production theory that is particularly relevant for the garment industry: product and price competition, fashion cycles and vertical specialization.</p><p>Trade, production and labor data is analyzed according to this and the main results are based on the unit price development: exports had a much higher growth in unit prices than imports. This is indicating that Sweden has a revealed comparative advantage in capital intensive production stages, a fact further supported by high education levels and high production value per worker. The industry has chosen to focus on product competition rather than price competition and has managed to shorten its product cycles in order to better exploit the fashion</p><p>cycles. In some garment groups the image is more complex and one of the main theories of a design heavy garment such as jeans being the core of the success is revised. The export success is to a large extent due to an increasing specialization in the industry’s strong areas.</p> / <p>Den här uppsatsen undersöker tillväxten av Sveriges export i klädindustrin från 1997-2003. Trots att Sveriges klädproduktion har minskat i flera år och globalisationen tränger sig på så går svenska design plagg på högexport. Vår hypothes är att ökningen härstammar från ökad handel och specialisering i produktionsleden.</p><p>Teorier vi har använt för att undersöka fenomenet är grundläggande</p><p>handelsteorier så som Hecksher-Ohlin och New trade theory med fokus på</p><p>komperativa fördelar och specalisation. Vi har valt att komplettera med produktions theorier som vi känner är relevanta för klädindustrin: produkt och pris konkurrens, mode cykler och vertikal specialisering.</p><p>Handels-, produktions- och arbetskrafts- statistik har analyserats och</p><p>huvudresultaten är baserade på utvecklingen av enhetspris: exporten har en högre tillväxt i enhetspris än importen. Detta indikerar att Sverige har en uppenbar komperativ fördel i de kapitalintensiva produktionsleden, detta bekräftas ytterligare genom höga utbildningsnivåer och en hög produktion per arbetare. Den svenska klädindustrin har valt att fokusera mer på produktkonkurrens än priskonkurrens, den har också lyckats med att minska sina produktions cykler för att unyttja marknaden bättre. I en del grupper är bilden mer komplex och en av våra huvudteorier var att jeans stod för stora delar av exportsuccen, denna teori fick vi dock avfärda. Vad vi kom fram till var att stora delar av exportsucceen kommer ifrån en ökning av specialiseringen.</p>

My dissertation is a collection of three essays that study various aspects of non-price competition among firms using fully microfounded general equilibrium models. The first two chapters, both coauthored with Benedetto Molinari, introduce advertising expenditures by firms into a dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model (DSGE), in order to address the question of whether and how aggregate advertising expenditures provide important effects upon the aggregate economy. In particular, the first chapter provides a short-run analysis, by focusing on the implications of aggregate adverting expenditure upon the business cycle. The second chapter, in turn, focuses on long-run effects of advertising, by analyzing the implications upon the steady-state equilibrium of aggregate advertising expenditures by firms. The last chapter, by using a modified version of the canonical New Keynesian model, investigates the effect upon inflation dynamics of non-price competition among firms. / Esta tesis contiene tres ensayos que estudian varios aspectos de la competencia no en precio entre las impresas, utilizando modelos de equilibrio general micro-fundados. En los primeros dos capítulos, ambos coautorados con Benedetto Molinari, se introducen gastos en publicidad de las empresas en un modelo dinámico y estocástico de equilibrio general, a través del cual, se estudian las implicaciones de la publicidad en la economía agregada. El primer capítulo se focaliza en los efectos de corto plazo de la publicidad, analizando las implicaciones con respecto al ciclo económico. El segundo capítulo, estudia los efectos de largo plazo de la publicidad, con el objetivo de analizar las implicaciones sobra el estado estacionario del economía. En el último capítulo se utiliza una versión modificada del modelo Neo-Keynesiano que estudia los efectos de la competencia no en precio en relación la dinámica de la inflación.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:30:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Guilherme Azevedo Mauad.pdf: 2910298 bytes, checksum: 249a2bed427bd7a8dc926ab2d3586459 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Purchasing high quality and low price products has become a consumer fixation, mainly where the lowest price is demanded and in reverses auctions, whether electronic or not. The importance of establishing retail prices of projects, products and services has been increasing. Therefore, it has become a strategic and challenging task for managers while also being one of their great fears. In a global and highly competitive market, price setting may influence consumers buying choices: a product s value and quality, which meet their expectations, will sell a product or project. On the other hand, a price inaccurately fixed may turn offers down and lead a company into unwished results. Research shows that markup pricing method is still the most common technique used by companies. However, fixing a price based on this method and taking into account a deterministic cost value may lead a company into making the wrong decisions and taking unnecessary risks. Prices undergo the influence of several costs and market related factors, which, somehow, have some kind of uncertainty risk. Nevertheless, when one is dealing with costs this uncertainty becomes more latent. Therefore, they must be taken into consideration in the company s pricing process. The present research study, based on RiskMetrics concepts such as VaR and, mainly, CorporateMetrics, proposes and applies a pricing model named Cost at Risk based Price (PCeR) in a high technology venture. The model approaches costs incurred stochastically instead of deterministically and takes into account the risks inherent to their composing parameters. The model has proven to be a useful and flexible tool, which offers to managers greater understanding when fixing retail prices. That understanding may assist organizations to reach a market, overcome their competitors and grow profitably. / Adquirir produtos com qualidade e preços baixos tornou-se uma obsessão para o consumidor,principalmente, nas concorrências em que o menor preço é exigido e nos leilões reversos,realizados por meio eletrônico ou não. A fixação de preços de venda para projetos, produtos e/ou serviços adquire, a cada dia, maior importância. Torna-se uma atividade estratégica e um dos grandes desafios para os gestores e, porque não dizer, um dos seus grandes temores. Em um mercado global e altamente competitivo, o dimensionamento de preço pode influir na decisão de compra do consumidor: o estabelecimento de valor e qualidade que atendam à sua expectativa favorece a venda do produto, ou projeto, já um preço mal dimensionado pode fazê-lo refugar ofertas e levar a empresa a resultados indesejados. Estudos mostram que a precificação custo acrescido , ainda hoje, é a técnica mais utilizada pelas empresas, para cumprir essa função. Porém, definir o preço, com base neste modelo e considerar apenas um valor de custo determinístico, poderá levar a empresa a decisões errôneas e riscos desnecessários. Sabe-se que o preço sofre influência de uma série de fatores ligados ao custo e ao mercado que, de certa forma, contêm certo grau de incerteza, porém é nos custos que estas incertezas tornam-se mais latentes. Então, não se pode deixar de considerá-las no processo de precificação da empresa. Este trabalho, baseado nos conceitos propostos pelo RiskMetrics, como o VaR e, principalmente, nas CorporateMetrics, propõe e aplica, em uma empresa de alta tecnologia, um modelo de precificação denominado Preço baseado no Custo em Risco (PCeR), que aborda os custos incorridos não mais de maneira determinística, mas de forma estocástica, levando em consideração os riscos inerentes aos parâmetros que o compõem. O modelo mostrou ser uma ferramenta útil e flexível aos gestores, oferecendo uma maior visibilidade na definição do preço de venda, visibilidade essa que pode levar a organização a conquistar mercado, superar a concorrência e crescer com lucratividade.