1,721,004 research outputs found

    Brand premia driven by perceived vertical differentiation in markets with information disparity and optimistic consumers

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    We have considered a duopoly with perceived vertical differentiation, information disparity and optimistic consumers. When firms compete for informed and uninformed consumers, the former contribute to raise product quality, while equilibrium prices increase with optimistic misperception of the latter, in our first equilibrium. Brand premium includes a quality premium and a misperception rent. In our second equilibrium, informed consumers buy low-quality goods and minimum product differentiation without Bertrand competition occurs. The brand premium is just a misperception rent, however, an increase of the informed consumers share implies price re-balancing and rent reduction. Consumers externalities arise in both equilibria. Firms compete only for informed consumers within our third and fourth equilibrium, as uninformed ones are passive and represent a captive market. Uninformed consumers in one case are overoptimistic, they buy the high quality good and can be cheated in equilibrium. Uninformed consumers approach the real quality differential in the fourth equilibrium, and the model reduces to standard vertical differentiation with perfect information

    Emotional distress in Catholic priests and religious sisters during COVID-19: the mediational role of trait positivity

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    The present study focused on the mediating role of positivity in the relationship between emotional stability, conscientiousness, with positive affect, negative affect, and anxiety, among priests and religious sisters during the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. We examined the role of positivity as a basic disposition predisposing individuals to a positive mode of viewing reality for priests and religious sisters during the quarantine. We used data from 205 religious participants, collected during the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. Results revealed that emotional stability and conscientiousness significantly and indirectly predicted positive affectivity, but were significant and negative indirect predictors of negative affect, and state anxiety. This study emphasizes the protective role of positivity in the specific population of priests and religious sisters during a pandemic outbreak

    Price discrimination in the Italian medical device industry: an empirical analysis

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    In this paper we ascertain that the Italian market for medical devices is characterized by significant price dispersion. We have, therefore, carried out an econometric analysis, as well as a Bayesian network analysis to verify if price dispersion is due to price discrimination. We have found that ASLs (Aziende Sanitarie Locali) incur higher procurement costs than AOs (Aziende Ospedaliere), which purchase larger quantities as Centralized purchasing agencies do. Consequently, second-degree price discrimination may be one of the causes of price differences. Price levels are also inversely related to product age because of intense innovative activity, making product differentiation more likely than price discrimination. Public procurement agents located in Southern Italy pay higher prices than those located in Northern or Central Italy. This is due to the higher probability for Southern procurement agents to purchase from independent wholesalers, rather than from producers, implying a double marginalization effect which raises final prices. It is also more likely that obsolete medical devices are sold to Southern health care providers

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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