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作者：Arbatskaya, Maria
作者单位：Emory University
摘要：I present an ordered-search model that, in contrast with random-search models, yields an intuitively appealing equilibrium in which there is price dispersion, prices and profits decline in the order of search and consumers with lower search costs search longer and obtain better deals. These features of the search equilibrium hold regardless of whether consumers are informed of prices prior to searching.
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作者：Saha, Souresh
作者单位：National University of Singapore
摘要：Firms often conduct both product and process R&D. Consumer preferences typically play a vital role in determining these R&D choices. The economics literature, however, has mostly ignored the interrelationship between the R&D choices of firms and consumer preferences. I study product and process R&D from the perspective of their relationship with consumer preferences. In doing so, I find a novel distinction between the two kinds of R&D. This distinction can explain several empirical observation...
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作者：Joskow, Paul; Tirole, Jean
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics
摘要：We derive the optimal prices and investment program for an electric power system when there are price-insensitive retail consumers served by load serving entities that can choose any level of rationing contingent on real-time prices. We then examine the assumptions required for competitive electricity markets to achieve this optimal price and investment program and the implications of relaxing several of these assumptions. We analyze the interrelationships between regulator-imposed wholesale m...
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作者：Chen, Yongmin; Riordan, Michael H.
作者单位：University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; Columbia University
摘要：This article uncovers an unnoticed connection between exclusive contracts and vertical organization. A vertically integrated firm can use exclusive dealing to foreclose an equally efficient upstream competitor and to cartelize the downstream industry. Neither vertical integration nor exclusive dealing alone achieves these anticompetitive effects. The cartelization effect of these two practices may be limited when downstream firms are heterogeneous and supply contracts are not contingent on unc...
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作者：Ishii, Jun; Yan, Jingming
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Irvine
摘要：An empirical model of the make or buy decision faced by independent power producers (IPPs) in restructured U.S. wholesale electricity markets is derived to analyze power plant investment decisions by major IPPs from 1996 to 2000. The estimated investment cost and expected profit functions are used to evaluate the effectiveness of divestiture programs (which sold utility power plants to IPPs) in encouraging greater IPP participation. The estimates and counterfactual simulations indicate that a ...
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作者：Qiu, Larry D.; Zhou, Wen
作者单位：Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; University of Hong Kong
摘要：We develop a model of endogenous mergers to study their dynamic process. Firms choose whether, when, and with whom to merge. Two necessary conditions are identified for mergers to occur:firm heterogeneity and negative demand shocks. We show that mergers are strategic complements and therefore tend to occur in waves. Moreover, some mergers occur for strategic reasons in order to precipitate further mergers.
