There has been considerable interest in finding and explaining the basic elements that can
drive product quality up. In the literature this is largely done by modelling the effects of
investing in learning and process improvement, and of cost reduction. In the first essay,
demand is modelled as a function of price and quality. With this demand function, the
firm should produce output of higher quality, the increase in quality being dependent on
consumers’ sensitivity to quality and to price, and the effect of technological improvement
on product price and quality are very different from those when the demand is a function
of price alone.
Some twenty states in the U.S. have passed recycling laws which mandate consumption
of old newspaper by the newsprint industry. To study the effect of regulation, a model
is used in which two firms compete under the regulatory constraint—one firm producing
the recycled product, the other the virgin product. Assuming the regulatory constraint
is binding, and the demand for the recycled product is derived solely from the legislation,
interesting results such as the two firms share equal profits, and consumers pay higher
average price in competitive equilibrium than the cartel price, are obtained in the second
essay. The two firm model is generalized to include n firms which compete under the
same kind of regulatory constraint in the third essay. Results similar to the two firm case
are obtained.
When the recycled product and the virgin product are partially substitutable, regulation that mandates consumption of the recycled product results in infinitely many
equilibria. A dominating equilibrium exists if the demand parameters satisfy a certain
condition, otherwise it is not clear how to select an equilibrium. On the other hand, a
suitable tax on the virgin product, or its producer, serves to induce compliance with the
recycling policy and equilibrium selection. The equilibrium prices and profits of the two
firms under the schemes of production tax, excessive consumption tax and progressive
profit tax are examined and compared in the fourth essay. It is interesting to find that
the tax rate for excessive consumption is comparatively low and, in equilibrium, this tax
scheme collects no tax payment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6891 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Mok, Yat-Koon |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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