Monopoly Versioning of Information Goods When Consumers Have Group Tastes

Large sunk costs of development, negligible costs of reproduction, and distribution resulting in economies of scale distinguish information goods from physical goods. Versioning is a way firms may take advantage of these properties. However, in a baseline model where consumers differ in their tastes for quality, an information goods monopolist only offers one version, and this differs from what we observe in practice. We explore formulations that add features to the baseline model that result in a monopolist offering multiple versions. We examine versioning where consumers differ in individual tastes for quality, and groups of consumers that share the same group taste are delineated by segments of individual tastes. We find that if groups have mutually exclusive characteristics—a horizontal dimension—that they value relative to the shared characteristics, then versioning is optimal. Consequently, any horizontal differentiation in product line design favors versioning. In addition, when group tastes are hierarchical such that higher taste groups value characteristics that lower taste groups value but not vice versa—a vertical dimension—as long as the valuations of the higher and adjacent lower taste group are sufficiently close, then versioning is also optimal. Our conditions, which also help determine how many versions are optimal, are based on exogenously defined parameters so that it is feasible to check them in practice.     

Simple components

Interpretation of principal components is difficult due to their weights (loadings, coefficients) being of various sizes. Whereas very small weights or very large weights can give clear indication of the importance of particular variables, weights that are neither large nor small (‘grey area’ weights) are problematical. This is a particular problem in the fast moving goods industries where a lot of multivariate panel data are collected on products. These panel data are subjected to univariate analyses and multivariate analyses where principal components (PCs) are key to the interpretation of the data. Several authors have suggested alternatives to PCs, seeking simplified components such as sparse PCs. Here components, termed simple components (SCs), are sought in conjunction with Thurstonian criteria that a component should have only a few variables highly weighted on it and each variable should be weighted heavily on just a few components. An algorithm is presented that finds SCs efficiently. Simple components are found for panel data consisting of the responses to a questionnaire on efficacy and other features of deodorants. It is shown that five SCs can explain an amount of variation within the data comparable to that explained by the PCs, but with easier interpretation.     

集体产权共有制村庄公共品策略性供给行为研究

村庄是公共品供给的重要主体,其供给效率一般与供给能力密切相关,然而村庄供给能力增强不一定会转化为供给意愿提升。基于对珠三角方村的田野调查,通过构建村民—村庄—政府三维分析框架,结合案例探讨集体产权共有制村庄公共品策略性供给行为的生成逻辑。研究发现：集体经济发达的村庄具有公共品供给能力,但将供给责任推卸给政府,呈现出策略性供给行为,具体表现为：依附式策略性供给、卸责式策略性供给、均衡式策略性供给和应付式策略性供给。该行为产生是因为村民保护集体产权按份共有制“私有财产”、村庄形式化民主反噬公共性和政府弱嵌入结构消解动员能力等多重因素相互交织的结果,其转向的关键在于明确政府公共品供给的边界、完善自主供给制度和重塑村庄社会资本等。     

我国工业制成品的产业内贸易状况

产业内贸易是衡量一国或地区某个产业在国际市场牛应变能力和在国际分工中地位的重要指标。采用测量产业内贸易的G-L指数,研究我国工业制成品的产业内贸易状况。通过计算从1991年到2006年16年间各类工业制成品的G-L指数以及机械及运输设备细分产品的G-L指数分析说明我国工业制成品产业内贸易的特点和存在的问题并提出相应的建议。     

Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea

Sociological and cultural research on market participation has been preoccupied with creative markets and traditional labor markets, overlooking alternate types of markets, particularly those of human goods which have proliferated in Asia. This article analyzes South Korea's cosmetic surgery market to examine how and why consumers participate in markets of human goods on the microlevel vis-à-vis macrolevel social structures in an advanced capitalist economy. This article theorizes two cognitive frames (normative conformity and competitive edge) that rationalize and motivate surgical modifications as an alternative vehicle for financial and marital stability in response to macrolevel economic challenges from the nation's developmental trajectory and cultural anxieties from its Confucian traditions about marriage.     

Multilevel public goods game: Levelling up,substitution and crowding-in effects

In an online multilevel public goods experiment, we implement four treatments where we gradually increase the marginal per capita return of the global public good. First, we find evidence of an increase in the contribution to the global good (levelling-up effect). Secondly, subjects fund their higher contribution to the global good by reducing their contribution to the local good (substitution effect) rather than by increasing total contribution, i.e., the sum of their contributions to the local and the global good (marginal crowding-in effect). Moreover, we observe that total contribution increases as a consequence of the mere introduction of the global good (categorical crowding-in effect). Finally, we observe that subjects continue to contribute to both public goods even when they are dominated in terms of costs and returns.     

Investor preferences for positive social externalities and state-owned enterprises’ facilitated access to capital

State-ownership of commercial companies exists around the world, and it is important to understand its effect on financing and investment decisions. Empirically, firms that are partially state-owned (SOE) usually profit from easier access to capital. We propose a novel explanation for this: investors’ social preferences can affect capital allocation if SOEs are perceived as socially beneficial. In support of this we found that people attribute social benefits more to SOEs than to private firms, and their propensity to invest depends on this attitude. Further, in an incentivized modified stochastic public goods game, participants invested in risky options with positive externalities even when the aggregate of private return and externality was lower than the return of an investment option with only private returns. For the case of the EU, we discuss alternative explanations such as state guarantees and political lending in the light of regulations of state aid. We conclude that even if these regulations prohibit direct or indirect state aid for SOEs, state-ownership can affect capital allocation through investors’ social preferences.     

体育用品制造业空间集聚与全要素生产率变化——理论机理与实证检验

体育用品制造业是我国国民经济中具有相当体量规模的重要产业，也是深化供给侧结构性改革的主战场。运用Malmquist生产率指数法测算2004—2013年15个省区体育用品制造业全要素生产率，结果显示:体育用品制造业全要素生产率年均增长3.7%，技术变化是增长动力源泉。基于动态面板回归模型的结果显示，主营业务收入区位熵、企业平均资产规模、区域人口平均受教育年限均对体育用品制造业全要素生产率有显著正向影响。指出，新常态下我国体育用品制造业应坚持走集群化、规模化、集约化的发展道路。