This was a study of the personal apparel and clothing interest of Virginia Polytechnic Institute male professors in regard to their class size, academic rank, college affiliation, and age. Data were obtained by use of mailed questionnaires completed by 440 men who were age twenty-five years or older and had taught at least one year. Each participant was classified as: (1) leader of large or small classes; (2) full professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or instructor; (3) member of one of the four Colleges of Agriculture, Architecture and Arts and Sciences, Business, or Engineering; (4) and member of one of three age categories. Chi square was used to test for significant differences among classifications. Principal findings were: (1) Differences between college affiliation of respondents and their clothing behavior were significant. The agricultural faculty was most likely to wear one or two average priced suits, short sleeved broadcloth shirts, solid colored ties, and no vests; members of the combined Colleges of Architecture and Arts and Sciences were most inclined to grow beards and mustaches, and wear cuffless trousers, contrasting vests, and oxford cloth shirts; architects were most likely to always wear trousers with tweed or corduroy sportcoats, bow ties, calf length socks, and to have high clothing interest; natural scientists had the greatest tendency to wear ankle length socks, and a sweater or open neck shirt with trousers; business teachers were most likely to have three or more high priced suits with matching vests for classroom wear, to leave their jackets on in class and wear medium length socks; engineers were most inclined to make a major clothing purchase less than once a year, pay the lowest suit prices, remove jackets in class, have cuffed trousers, and wear ties daily. (2) Leaders of large groups had a greater tendency to wear long sleeved shirts regardless of weather. (3) Age and rank were similarly related to apparel: the oldest men had about the same practices as full professors. Faculty members age fifty years or older had the greatest tendency to wear suits and have three or more for school; cuffed trousers with waistline pleats; white broadcloth shirts with long sleeves and plain, pointed collars; wing tip or plain, laced shoes cleaned as needed; solid colored ties, and tweed and corduroy sportcoats. The youngest respondents were most likely to wear shirts or sweaters with trousers; turtleneck or colored oxford cloth shirts with buttondown collars, short sleeves, and open necks; loafer type shoes; empty breast pockets; beards; cuffless trousers with a smooth waist; vests; a variety of jacket fabrics; club or striped ties; and jackets removed in class. Respondents in the middle years were in a period of transition between extremes of older and younger men. / M. S.

This paper contrasts the dynamical behaviors of fixed and flexible price regimes for a monopolistically competitive manufacturing sector in which firms base decisions on expectations about product demands. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Since 1970, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have studied the effects of a game technique called the tearns-games-tournament method on the achievement scores, attitudes, and classroom process of elementary and junior high students. Their findings raised many questions about the applicability of team-games to affect achievement at the high school level or in subject areas other than math and English. In 1980, the National Science Foundation allocated funds for the creation of TGT materials for seventh-grade science, even though research of its effectiveness for science courses had not been conducted. This study was designed to provide answers to the following questions: Would high school students playing teams-games-tournaments have greater academic achievement in a high school biology course than students in classes using traditional classroom methods? Would high school students in TGT classes have greater retention of knowledge after a delayed period of time than those students in classes using traditional classroom methods? Would high school students in TGT classes have more positive attitudes toward the subject of biology than students in classes using traditional classroom methods? Would high school students like TGT better as a means for studying chapter material than traditional methods? Eight biology classes were involved in the seven-week treatment period. Analysis of variance was used to compare control and experimental groups for (1) pre-test cognitive knowledge, (2) post-test cognitive knowledge, (3) delayed post-test cognitive knowledge, (4) pre-test attitudes towards biology, and (5) post-test attitudes towards biology. Analysis of covariance was computed using I.Q. and pre-test scores as covariates for post-test cognitive means and delayed post-test cognitive means. A dependent t-test was computed for attitudes of experimental classes towards team-games. TGT had no significant effect on the biology achievement scores or attitudes towards biology of high school students in this study. Experimental classes did like team-games and sustained their attitudes towards them for the duration of the study. / Ed. D.

We investigate the impact of consumer search and competition on pricing strategies in Germany's electricity retail. We utilize a unique panel dataset on spatially varying search requests at major online price comparison websites to construct a direct measure of search intensity and combine this information with zip code level data on electricity tariffs between 2011 and 2014. The paper stands out by explaining price dispersion by differing pricing strategies of former incumbents and entrant firms, which are distinct in their attributable shares in informed versus uninformed consumers. Our empirical results suggest causal evidence for an inverted U-shape effect of consumer search intensity on price dispersion in a clearinghouse environment as in Stahl (1989). The dispersion is caused by opposite pricing strategies of incumbents and entrants, with incumbents initially increasing and entrants initially decreasing tariffs as a reaction to more consumer search. We also find an inverted U-shape effect of competition on price dispersion, consistent with theoretical findings by Janssen and Moraga-González (2004). Again, the effect can be explained by opposing pricing strategies of incumbents and entrants. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The existing theoretical and empirical literature to investigate the existence of local market power is typically based on spatial competition models in the tradition of Hotelling's (1929) linear city and Salop's (1979) circular city. In models of this kind, strong assumptions are made that lead to a spatial homogeneity (symmetry) of firms in a highly stylized one-dimensional market space. However, some of these assumptions are hardly satisfied in many (retail) markets. The present thesis builds on a recent model by Chen and Riordan (2007), in which the market is characterized by a star-shaped graph with a central intersection. In an extension of Chen and Riordan, I distinguish between firms close to the center and firms in the periphery of a spatial market. This spatial heterogeneity leads to an asymmetric competition between firms. A central firm directly competes with a larger number of firms than remote firms do. The implications of the theoretical model are tested in two empirical applications to the retail gasoline market of Vienna and Austria. Using station level data on diesel prices, I estimate price reaction functions for gasoline stations in two different approaches. In the first approach the Austrian retail gasoline market is divided into numerous highly localized and delimited markets. The second approach analyzes the metropolitan area of Vienna and treats the whole market as one big network of gasoline stations, which are connected through the road network. In both approaches I apply econometric spatial autoregressive (SAR) models. The estimated parameters of the slopes of the reaction functions are used to evaluate the impact of individual gasoline stations on equilibrium market prices depending on their location within the market (network). All results obtained provide evidence for (more) central suppliers serving as a stronger reference in pricing than (rather) remote suppliers. Thus, the assumption of a symmetry in spatial competition which is usually implied by spatial competition models in theoretical and applied research, is rejected. (author's abstract)

We empirically investigate the importance of centrality (holding a central position in a spatial network) for strategic interaction in pricing for the Austrian retail gasoline market. Results from spatial autoregressive models suggest that the gasoline station located most closely to the market center - defined as the 1-median location - exerts the strongest effect on pricing decisions of other stations. We conclude that centrality influences firms' pricing behavior and further find that the importance of centrality increases with market size. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We highlight the importance of "centrality" for pricing. Firms characterized by a more central position in a spatial network are more powerful in terms of having a stronger impact on their competitors' prices and on equilibrium prices. These propositions are derived from a simple theoretical model and investigated empirically for the retail gasoline market of Vienna, Austria. We compute a measure of network centrality based on the locations of gasoline stations in the road network. Results from a spatial autoregressive model show that prices of gasoline stations are more strongly correlated with prices of central competitors.

This note analyzes a simple Cournot model where firms choose outputs and capacities facing varying demand and price-cap regulation. We find that binding price caps set above long-run marginal cost increase (rather than decrease) aggregate capacity investment. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers / Research Institute for Regulatory Economics

In many procurement auctions, entrants determine whether to participate in auctions accounting for their roles of intermediaries who search for the best (or the cheapest) input suppliers. We build on a procurement auction model with entry, combining with intermediary search for suppliers. The novel feature is that costs of bidders are endogenously determined by suppliers who strategically charge input prices. We show the existence of an equilibrium with price dispersion for inputs, generating cost heterogeneity among bidders. Interestingly, the procurement cost may rise as the number of potential bidders increases. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We empirically investigate the importance of centrality (holding a central position in a spatial network) for strategic interaction in pricing for the Austrian retail gasoline market. Results from spatial autoregressive models suggest that the gasoline station located most closely to the market center - defined as the 1-median location - exerts the strongest effect on pricing decisions of other stations. We conclude that centrality influences firms' pricing behavior and further find that the importance of centrality increases with market size.