We evaluate the external effects of 183 large mergers at the market level by assessing the impact on the main competitors of the merging firms. Using synthetic control groups and difference in difference estimation, we find that the return on assets of rival firms increases significantly after a merger. The size of the effect varies strongly with market characteristics and the intensity of competition.

<p>Search advertising refers to the practice where advertisers place their text-based advertisement on the search engine's result page along with the organic search results. With its growing importance, search advertising has seen a recent surge in academic interest. However, the literature has been ignoring some practical yet important problems of advertisers, including the keyword selection problem. In my dissertation, I focus on the keyword selection problem, more specifically, the choice of branded keywords in search advertising.</p> <p>My dissertation begins with an observation on different patterns of branded keyword purchase behavior by the brand owner and its competitor. Under some branded keywords, we observe in the sponsored link, only the brand owner or only the competitor. However, under some other branded keywords, we observe both firms, or neither of them. Upon this phenomenon, I aim to understand what drives this puzzling pattern in a competitive environment. To this purpose, I develop a duopoly model where two firms compete in the product market with both horizontally and vertically differentiated products. Their products are evaluated by consumers whose perception is affected by what they see in search advertising. With this setup, Then I derive a subgame perfect equilibrium of the two stage game.</p> <p>In a pricing equilibrium, I find that any benefit a firm gets from search advertising either due to exposure benefit or due to contrast or assimilation, helps this firm charge higher price while forcing the other firm charge lower price. This result affects the incentive for each firm to buy the branded keyword in the advertising stage. Specifically, firms have an incentive to buy the keyword only when the cost of advertising is justified by the exposure benefit but even in that case, each firm buys only when the detrimental context effect is not present. If the quality difference between the brand owner and the competitor is large and thus there exists a contrast between the two firms, the competitor with low quality product refrains from buying the keyword, because the contrast effect hurts the competitor. On the other hand, if the quality difference is small and thus two brands are assimilated, the brand owner with high quality product refuses to buy the keyword, because it is hurt by the assimilation effect. If the quality difference is in the intermediate range so that neither context effect is harmful to neither firm, both firms buy the keyword at the same time. On probing further the underlying incentives, I find that in some cases, the brand owner may buy its own keyword only to defend itself from the competitor's threat. In contrast, I also identify the case where the brand owner chooses to buy its own keyword and precludes the competitor from buying it. My result also suggests that both firms may be worse off by engaging in advertising, as in the prisoner's dilemma case.</p> <p>On an extension, I provide an analysis on the impact of the insufficient advertising budget. If the budget is limited, both firms may have an incentive to hurt the other firm taking the higher slot, by increasing the bid amount and thus quickly exhausting the competitor's budget. The budget constraint also deprives the advertisers of the incentive to buy the keyword and thus, the budget-constrained advertisers may refuse to match the competitor's purchase of the keyword. Finally, the experimental investigation shows the existence of the exposure effect and the context effects. It also supports the model prediction based on estimated model parameters together with the empirical observation.</p> / Dissertation

Red deer males aggregate during the period of antler growth to bachelor groups. Social position - Rank - is unstable in these groups. Previous experiments revealed that rank modulated by agonistic behaviour influence the antler growth and antler cycle timing. Antlers are the secondary sexual characteristics of the deer family and one of the fastest growing tissue in vertebrate taxa. Their development is modulated by androgenic hormone, testosterone. In our experiment, we observed agonistic behaviour of 19 males. They were equipped with GPS collar and observation lasted for two hours in the evening an in the morning, once or twice a week from the end of May to the end of August. Deer were handled regularly for blood samples and downloading the telemetrical data from collars. Base on a statistical analysis we found that in our bachelor group 13 stags kept similar interindividual distances which did not exceed the 22 metres level. These stags - the closest associates - differed in the sum of agonistic interactions. Those who reached 8 or less interactions were called Friends, while subgroup of the others reaching much more interactions were classified as Rivals. We found that number of interactions depended on average distance among males in groups (Friends and Rivals). Rivals with increasing distance...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-19T18:20:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BARTOLOMEU RODRIGUES MENDONCA.pdf: 758474 bytes, checksum: 63df74b2f405a4a40e0b80ad2b952e61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-28 / This work search to put in doubt the concepts and expreiences to linked to the ecological arrangement, socials, culturals and economicals created and used from the residents of the coast region of the Baía do Tubarão, situated in the eastern coastal maranhense, from the observation of the thinkig, the feeling and the making of the residents and of knowledges tecnical-scientifics that argument about the theme of nature, preservation, support, development, technology, people and traditional populations. Having like principal argument the understanding that the ecological systems, the studied area, remained more or less in conditions naturals in functions of theways of life, characteristic for the low condictions of access and manipulation of technologies of the market, owns of the groups that handling directly the naturals resources with potentials to available to them food and shelter. This estabilished, add to the rest of informations that has in this study, it might be useful to light up and/or to question politics of protection and intervention, in the enviromrnt area, to turned to the groups juridically called from people and traditional populations, beyond constitute it in document that will help the groups target of this academic investigation, or with similar characteristics, in the chore of the understand him in theirs productive practice and cultural in function of the handling of ecological systems. / Este trabalho busca problematizar conceitos e práticas vinculados aos arranjos ecológicos, sociais, culturais e econômicos criados e utilizados pelos moradores da região costeira da Baía do Tubarão, localizada no litoral oriental maranhense, a partir da observação do pensar, do sentir e do fazer de moradores e de saberes técnico-científicos que versam sobre as temáticas de natureza, preservação, conservação, sustentabilidade, desenvolvimento, tecnologia, povos e populações tradicionais. Ressalta-se como argumento principal o entendimento de que os sistemas ecológicos, da área estudada, se mantiveram mais ou menos em condições naturais em função dos modos e meios de vida, caracterizados por baixas condições de acesso e manipulação de tecnologias de mercado que são próprias de grupos que manejam diretamente os recursos naturais com potenciais para disponibilizar alimento e abrigo. Esta constatação, somada às demais informações contidas ao longo deste estudo, poderão ser úteis para iluminar e/ou questionar políticas de tutela e intervenção, na área ambiental, direcionadas aos grupos juridicamente chamados de povos e populações tradicionais, além de se constituir documento que ajudará aos grupos alvo desta investigação acadêmica, ou com características semelhantes, na tarefa de se auto perceberem em suas práticas produtivas e culturais em função do manejo de sistemas ecológicos.

The study aims to detect the influence of the initial cross-listing of Taiwanese enterprises on the variety of the stock price of the listing company and its rival firms. However, the limitations from the Taiwanese authorities on the local company¡¦s direct listing in the oversea market are not a few. Accordingly, I employ GDR instead of direct international listing to delve the phenomenon of information content and intra-industry transfer derived from a company¡¦s initial GDR offering. Recent studies focusing on the same issue rarely inspect the situation of Taiwanese industries. Thus, the research intends to excavate the effect and the aftermath of a Taiwanese firm¡¦s initial GDR offering on its local market price as well as on the one of its rival company that concurrently does not have GDR offering. To delineate the complication of the issue, the study develop three trajectories mainly based on various approaches, including reference review, event study method, and multi-regression analysis. The first aspect attends to the research result of event study method and multi-regression analysis that exposes the stock price of the GDR offering company has abnormally positive rise accompanying with the announcement of its GDR offerings, particularly in the period before the announcement. That reflects the investors regard the GDR offering as a positive news for a company while the situation turns out to be the opposite for the rival firms. The research also finds that industry differences might dominate the consequence of the GDR offering. Hence, the exemplary simples are divided into the ¡§hi-tech¡¨ industry group and the ¡§non hi-tech¡¨ industry group. Based on the reference review of Melvin and Valero-Tonone¡]2005¡^ and the outcome of the multi-regression analysis, the influence of GDR offering on both industry group will be carefully scrutinized. In addition, the study places another attention on the discussion of intra-industry transferring and the contagion effect of the GDR offering on the offering company and its rival firm. Although Taiwanese enterprises offer GDR mainly in four main trade locations from London, Luxembourg, New York, and NASDAQ, the study exposes that the trade location has less influence on a company¡¦s and its rival firm¡¦s SCAR variation. That implies that Taiwanese investors might recognize the fact of a company¡¦s GDR offering in the oversea market, whereas, they seldom be aware of the trivial differentiation of the disparate trade location. In conclusion, the GDR offering of Taiwanese enterprises indeed encompasses information content that might motivate the alteration of the stock price in Taiwan stock market. Besides, the action of GDR offering supplies intra-industry information transferring effect. Even though the strategy of offering GDR of a Taiwanese company does not rely on consulting the action of its rival firms, in reality and according to the application of game theory, the implementing efficiency of a company¡¦s strategies might probably be impinged by its opponents¡¦ behavior. In other words, while a company offers GDR, its rival firms should propose expedients to reduce the damage that might be caused by the issue information.

Les caractéristiques de l'offre de gaz en Europe et les spécificités du marché gazier ont conduit les régulateurs à adopter des régulations asymétriques, prenant la forme de gas release et d'objectifs de pertes de parts de marché. Les expériences empiriques montrent, en accord avec la théorie économique, que ces mesures rendent des concurrents actifs sur le marché et ne découragent pas les investissements. En terme de concurrence, les effets sont plus mitigés. Certains effets positifs trouvent certainement leur cause dans la croissance de la consommation qui est parfois exponentielle ou le développement des infrastructures d'importation et de transport. Ces mesures peuvent cependant favoriser les comportements collusifs, les stratégies d'écrémage ou de « reverse cherry picking », ainsi que des entrées inefficaces, rendues possibles car le concurrent est protégé pour une période de temps donnée. Un gas release crée une relation commerciale entre l'opérateur historique et son concurrent, ainsi qu'un système de contraintes sur les capacités de chacun. Les stratégies de prix ou de quantités sont alors modifiées. Les prix d'équilibre sont plus volatils et peuvent s'éloigner nettement du « mark-u p » de concurrence. De même, les stratégies d'un modèle de COURNOT se complexifient. L'opérateur historique, si les quantités rétrocédées sont fortes et ses approvisionnements faibles, peut laisser augmenter volontairement ses coûts pour accroître ses profits. Cette stratégie d'augmentation des coûts des rivaux est d'autant plus possible que le prix de rétrocession est proche de ses coûts d'approvisionnement. Elle ne détériore pas le surplus des consommateurs mais diminue le bien-être. Le régulateur peut restaurer l'incitation à l'efficacité en fixant une proportion rétrocédée en fonction du niveau des approvisionnements observé. Cette proportion ne doit pas être trop faible pour faire bénéficier le marché de l'incitation à l'efficacité de l'opérateur historique et des ventes plus importantes des deux opérateurs. Dans un même temps, une proportion trop élevée accentue les possibilités d'augmentation des coûts des rivaux ou de collusion.

The following will explore the operation of evolved mechanisms connected with cycling fertility. I first address strategic shifts in women’s behavior near ovulation and hypothesize that certain behavioral shifts at high fertility reflect an increase in women’s intrasexual competition tactics when conception is most probable. A simulated, online shopping program was designed to track women’s spending patterns (at varying budgets) on clothing, undergarments, shoes, jewelry, and other fashion accessories – items that likely enhance a woman’s ability to attract a high quality mate and effectively compete with same-sex rivals. Additionally, a laboratory task was created to assess women’s likelihood of incurring a risk to appear more attractive and have access to more resources than same-sex peers. Studies 1-3 will explore the effect of fertility on women’s consumer behavior and the influence of same-sex peers on fertility-induced motivation to appear more attractive. Study 4 will further examine fertility-induced shifts in women’s intrasexual competitiveness by measuring context-specific risks women take to gain a positional advantage over same-sex peers. The current studies present new data that provide novel insights into human adaptations to cycling fertility and highlight important decision-making processes that guide women’s social competition within a variety of domains. / text

We examine the effect of merger announcements on the stock performance of acquirers' industry rivals in the context of Chinese and US deals between 1994 and 2017. Our analysis reveals that investors of rivals are able to earn abnormal returns during days around merger announcement, meaning that markets are not fully efficient as implied by the Efficient market hypothesis. We conclude that in a reaction to the announcement, US rivals achieve generally negative abnormal returns with higher magnitude and volatility compared to Chinese rivals. Additionally, we observe that Chinese investors' perception of mergers turned out to be more conservative after the Global financial crisis. During days around the merger announcement, signs of rivals' abnormal returns also differ on whether the target is public or private in both countries. Rivals operating in industries that are substantially supported by Chinese government such as real estate, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals experience positive reaction on mergers of their competitors. Furthermore, we find that industries with increasing im- portance in Chinese developing economy such as banking, telecommunications, and cyclical consumer products show a positive reaction of rivals' returns on merger announcements while in the developed US economy, a negative...