1,721,122 research outputs found
The Fixed Wage Puzzle: Why Profit Sharing Is So Hard to Implement
It is well known that profit sharing arrangements Pareto-dominate fixed wage contracts. Share agreements are (far) less than ubiquitous, however. This paper offers a solution of this "fixed wage puzzle“ by adopting a perspective of bounded rationality. We show that share arrangements that fulfill ”plausible“ constraints are not generally acceptable to both firms and unions.Profit Sharing, Share Economy, Remuneration Systems
Price Competition, Business Hours, and Shopping Time Flexibility
We analyze differentiated retail industries where shops engage in two-stage competition with respect to opening hours and prices. We explore the effects of consumers' shopping time flexibility by comparing bi-directional consumers with forward- or backward-oriented consumers, who can either postpone or advance their shopping, but not both. We demonstrate that retailers with longer opening hours charge higher prices and that opening hour differentiation softens price competition. We calculate both symmetric and asymmetric subgame perfect equilibria in closing hours and demonstrate how the equilibrium configurations depend on the cost increases associated with extended business hours, as well as the relative densities of day and night shoppers. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Preiswettbewerb, Öffnungszeiten und Flexibilität der Einkaufszeit) Wir analysieren unterschiedliche Einzelhandelsindustrien, in denen Läden in einem zweistufigen Wettbewerb bezüglich Öffnungszeiten und Preisen stehen. Wir erforschen die Effekte von Kundenflexibilität, indem wir völlig flexible Kunden mit vor- bzw. rückwärtsorientierten Kunden vergleichen können, welche ihren Einkauf nur vorziehen oder verschieben können, aber nicht beides. Wir zeigen, dass Einzelhändler mit längeren Öffnungszeiten höhere Preise verlangen und dass die Differenzierung der Öffnungszeiten den Preiswettbewerb abschwächt. Wir berechnen sowohl symmetrische als auch unsymmetrische teilspielperfekte Gleichgewichte für die Öffnungszeiten und zeigen, wie die Ausgestaltung der Gleichgewichte von den zusätzlichen Kosten der ausgedehnten Öffnungszeiten und der relativen Dichte von Tag- und Nachteinkäufern abhängt.Business Hours, Delayed or Advanced Shopping, Differentiated Business Hours, Price Competition, Shopping Time Flexibility.
Erkki Koskela* - Rune Stenbacka**
We investigate the interaction between labour and credit market imperfections for equilibrium unemployment in the presence of profit sharing. Our analysis highlights the critical role of the outside option available of employees for the evaluation of the employment implications of intensified credit market competition. In a partial equilibrium with exogenous outside options increased bargaining power of banks has adverse employment effects. In a general equilibrium with endogenous outside options this relationship is frequently reversed; intensified credit market competition increases equilibrium unemployment if the labour market imperfections -- measured by the bargaining power of trade unions - are sufficiently strong
Rethinking the Roles of Banks: A Call for Narrow Banking
What services do bank depositors seek? Oz Shy and Rune Stenbacka argue that they often seek money storage and payment services, but they get much more than they bargain for.
Price Competition, Business Hours and Shopping Time Flexibility
We analyse retail industries with two-stage competition in opening hours and prices. We explore the effects of consumers' shopping time flexibility by comparing bi-directional consumers with forward- or backward-oriented consumers, who can either postpone or advance their shopping, but not both. We demonstrate that retailers with longer opening hours charge higher prices and that opening hour differentiation softens price competition. We show that competition does not create incentives for retailers to expand their business hours beyond social optimum. In this respect our model does not justify restrictions on shopping hours. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Journal compilation (C) Royal Economic Society 2008.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
WIDER Discussion Paper 2001 073
Abstract The core industries of the new information economy are characterized by imperfect competition, asymmetric information or external effects. Thus, well-designed microeconomic policies, in the form of competition policies, technology policies or combinations of these, have strong potential of generating welfare improvements and promoting social efficiency. This paper emphasizes innovation-intensive competition, strong technological scale economies, network effects and complementarity between system components as characteristic features of the core industries in the information economy. With reference to these features the study explores the implications for microeconomic policies from the point of view of competition analysis. The combination of strong technological scale economies on the supply side and network effects on the demand side makes market structures with high concentration and dominant firms both likely and efficient. On the other hand, a firm possessing a dominant market position and operating in a network industry has access to a more efficient set of instruments in order to abuse its dominant market position relative to a firm operating in a traditional industry. This study argues that the recognition of these …/... Keywords: competition policy, technology policy, network industries JEL classification: L40, L50, O3 two counteracting aspects forms a necessary condition for the design of successful microeconomic policies in contemporary high-tech markets. It is also emphasized that efficient competition policy in these markets has to face an inherent structural trade-off between the exploitation of strong scale economies and the promotion of entry and small enterprises
Microeconomic Policies in the New Economy
This survey emphasizes innovation-intensive competition, strong technological scale economies, switching costs, network effects and complementarity between system components as characteristic features of the core industries in the information economy. With reference to these features the study explores how to design welfare-improving microeconomic policies, in the form of competition policies, technology policies or combinations of these, in the digital economy. In particular, a number of prevalent business practices typical of the digital economy are evaluated from the point of view of a microeconomic policy perspective.
Variations on the Author
“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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