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Rents
Kinds of Rents Terms modified by Rents Selected AbstractsON FINANCE AS A THEORY OF TFP, CROSS-INDUSTRY PRODUCTIVITY DIFFERENCES, AND ECONOMIC RENTS,INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Andrés Erosa We develop a theory of capital-market imperfections to study how the ability to enforce contracts affects resource allocation across entrepreneurs of different productivities, and across industries with different needs for external financing. The theory implies that countries with a poor ability to enforce contracts are characterized by the use of inefficient technologies, low aggregate TFP, large differences in labor productivity across industries, and large employment shares in industries with low productivity. These implications are supported by the empirical evidence. The theory also suggests that entrepreneurs have a vested interest in maintaining a status quo with low enforcement. [source] A Dual-track Strategy for Managing Mauritania's Projected Oil RentDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Richard Auty High rent creates contests for its capture that, unless skilfully managed, degrade political institutions and distort the economy, leading to a collapse of growth if unreformed. Mauritania's projected oil stream risks such an outcome because past rent-driven growth has left a legacy of Dutch disease effects, rent-seeking and dependent social capital. This article proposes a dual-track strategy for deploying the oil rent as a politically practical means of managing social tensions and improving the economic outcome. Track one promotes a dynamic market economy in the hitherto neglected rural areas, while track two gradually reforms the rent-driven urban sector, thus postponing confrontation with established rent-seekers while the dynamic sector drives competitive diversification of the economy and builds a pro-reform political constituency. [source] Bodies for Rent: Labor and Marginality in Southern LouisianaANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 3 2005Rylan Higgins Abstract In southern Louisiana, supplying a workforce for the offshore oil and gas industry's least desirable jobs requires manipulation of non-market forces that shape access to labor. Specifically, a labor camp system, evolving since the late 1970s, recruits and deploys disempowered workers (or "bodies") to fulfill the manual labor needs of a wide variety of oil and gas companies,a process that generates profits for the individuals who own labor camps while reproducing the continuities between work and poverty for the marginalized underclass of US cities. This essay explores the perpetuation of the camp system, arguing that it is not company desires for cost-saving mechanisms but demands for a tractable workforce that explain the primary relationships between camp workers, managers and owners, on the one hand, and oil company management, on the other. Understandings of how social capital, cultural capital and drug dependency factor into employment at one camp provide key insights into the anatomy of the labor camp system. [source] Extending the Resource-based View to the Mega-event: Entrepreneurial Rents and InnovationMANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Marc J. Dollinger abstract The resource-based view of the firm has previously been expanded by including relational rents and rent from network and alliance participation. This paper extends the Dyer-Singh-Lavie synthesis by considering the special circumstances arising from the relationships, alliances, and networks of a mega-event, using the Beijing Olympics as a case for our analyses. The mega-event that is organized as a cartel increases the pricing power of the participants, produces relational rent, and is an ideal venue to introduce innovations. We discuss six factors that can influence the rent creation and capture from a mega-event and offer related propositions: periodicity (Proposition 1), event location (Proposition 2), governance structure (Proposition 3), media coverage (Proposition 4), network connectivity (Proposition 5), and membership rules (Proposition 6). We identify four innovation types associated with such mega-events and contend that the same factors can affect the entrepreneurial rent creation and capture within these innovation types (Proposition 7). [source] Consumption, Housing Rents and Housing Price: A Test Of A Real Estate Pricing Model Using Hong Kong DataPACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2003Francis K. Cheung The present study investigates whether Hong Kong's volatile real estate market is consistent with a non,linear consumption,based,asset,pricing model. It finds that the asset,pricing model is not rejected for some types of properties. However, the differentials between the returns to residential properties and risk,free rate are too large to be explained by the model. [source] The Effect of Clustering on Office Rents: Evidence from the Amsterdam MarketREAL ESTATE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009Maarten G.J. Jennen This article examines the rent effects of office clustering in the Amsterdam office market for the period 2000,2005. We isolate the rent effects of location density based on geographic information system (GIS) methodology, while controlling for variations in object characteristics in a cross-sectional hedonic model. While controlling for the age, location and quality of the object, we find a strong positive effect of being located in dense office areas. We find that the vicinity of other office objects is priced into rent levels, regardless of market conditions. This article extends existing literature by examining the influence of clustering outside the United States, during changing economic tides and by application of novel methodology, based on objective clustering schemes, which can be replicated for other geographic areas. [source] Implicit Forward Rents as Predictors of Future RentsREAL ESTATE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004Peter Englund This paper investigates the relation between the term structure of rents and future spot rents. A rich database of office rental agreements for various maturities is used to estimate the term structure of rents, and from this structure implicit forward rents are extracted. The data pertain to commercial properties in the three largest Swedish cities for the period 1998,2002. A positive relation between forward and spot rents is found in some regions, but forward rents underestimate future rent levels. Another contribution of the paper lies in the area of rental index construction. We provide evidence that rental indices should not only be quality constant (i.e., control for characteristics), but should also be maturity constant. [source] Elites, Rent-Cycling and Development: Adjustment to Land Scarcity in Mauritius, Kenya and Côte d'IvoireDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2010Richard M. Auty According to rent-cycling theory, low rent aligns the interests of the elite and the majority in providing public goods and efficiency incentives to promote economic growth, while high rent risks deflecting the elite into self-enriching rent deployment, which distorts the economy and triggers a collapse from which recovery is protracted because rent recipients resist reform. The theory also predicts, however, that this collapse will self-correct by shrinking per capita rent, which strengthens incentives for wealth creation. This article tests the prediction in Mauritius, Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire where intensifying land scarcity has shrunk per capita rent; Mauritius meets the prediction, but Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire do not. [source] Not by Rent Alone: Analysing the Pro-Poor Functions of Small-Scale Fisheries in Developing CountriesDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2010Christophe Béné The dominant view in academic and policy arenas is increasingly one in which the major contribution of capture fisheries to development should be derived from the capacity of society to maximise the economic rent of fishery resources. Drawing upon empirical experience from the South, this article highlights the potentially disastrous consequences that a universal implementation of the rent-maximisation model would have in developing countries, and argues that a more gradual approach would be preferable. The welfare function of small-scale fisheries, namely, their capacities to provide labour and cash income to resource-poor households, should be preserved until the appropriate macroeconomic conditions for rent-maximisation and redistribution are fulfilled. [source] A Dual-track Strategy for Managing Mauritania's Projected Oil RentDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Richard Auty High rent creates contests for its capture that, unless skilfully managed, degrade political institutions and distort the economy, leading to a collapse of growth if unreformed. Mauritania's projected oil stream risks such an outcome because past rent-driven growth has left a legacy of Dutch disease effects, rent-seeking and dependent social capital. This article proposes a dual-track strategy for deploying the oil rent as a politically practical means of managing social tensions and improving the economic outcome. Track one promotes a dynamic market economy in the hitherto neglected rural areas, while track two gradually reforms the rent-driven urban sector, thus postponing confrontation with established rent-seekers while the dynamic sector drives competitive diversification of the economy and builds a pro-reform political constituency. [source] Natural Resources and Regional Development: An Assessment of Dependency and Comparative Advantage ParadigmsECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2003Thomas Gunton Abstract: The role of natural resources in regional development is the subject of a debate between dependency theorists, who argue that natural resources impede development, and comparative-advantage theorists, who argue that resources can expedite development. This debate is assessed by a case study analysis of the impact of resource development on a regional economy. The case study uses a model to estimate the comparative advantage of the resource sector. The results show that natural resources have the potential to provide a significant comparative advantage relative to other economic sectors by virtue of generating resource rent, which is a surplus above normal returns to other factors of production. The case study also shows that there are considerable risks in resource-led growth, including the propensity to dissipate rent and increase community instability by building surplus capacity. These risks are amenable to mitigation because they are largely the result of poor management of resource development. The case study demonstrates that the most productive analytical approach for understanding the role of natural resources in the development process is a synthetic approach, which combines the insights of the dependency and comparative-advantage paradigms into a unified framework. It also demonstrates that the concept of resource rent, which has frequently been ignored in development theory, must be reintegrated into the unified framework to improve the understanding of the role of natural resources in the regional development process. [source] Efficiency Pricing, Tenancy Rent Control and Monopolistic LandlordsECONOMICA, Issue 278 2003Kaushik Basu This paper presents a model of ,tenancy rent control' where rent increases on, and evictions of, sitting tenants are prohibited but nominal rents for new tenants are unrestricted. If there is any inflation, landlords prefer to take short-staying tenants. If there is no way for landlords to tell a tenant's type, an adverse selection problem arises. If landlords have monoply power, then they may prefer not to raise the rent even when there is excess demand for housing. These ,efficiency rents' show that tenancy rent control can give rise to equilibria that look as if there were a flat ceiling on rents. [source] Smokers with financial stress are more likely to want to quit but less likely to try or succeed: findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country SurveyADDICTION, Issue 8 2009Mohammad Siahpush ABSTRACT Objective To examine the association of financial stress with interest in quitting smoking, making a quit attempt and quit success. Design and participants The analysis used data from 4984 smokers who participated in waves 4 and 5 (2005,07) of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey, a prospective study of a cohort of smokers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Measurement The outcomes were interest in quitting at wave 4, making a quit attempt and quit success at wave 5. The main predictor was financial stress at wave 4: ,. . . because of a shortage of money, were you unable to pay any important bills on time, such as electricity, telephone or rent bills?'. Additional socio-demographic and smoking-related covariates were also examined. Findings Smokers with financial stress were more likely than others to have an interest in quitting at baseline [odds ratio (OR): 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22,2.19], but were less likely to have made a quit attempt at follow-up (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.57,0.96). Among those who made a quit attempt, financial stress was associated with a lower probability of abstinence at follow-up (OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.33,0.87). Conclusions Cessation treatment efforts should consider assessing routinely the financial stress of their clients and providing additional counseling and resources for smokers who experience financial stress. Social policies that provide a safety net for people who might otherwise face severe financial problems, such as not being able to pay for rent or food, may have a favorable impact on cessation rates. [source] Forecasting the Adoption of Genetically Modified Oilseed Rape Prognosen hinsichtlich der Einführung von gentechnisch verändertem Raps Prévisions sur l'adoption de colza transgéniqueEUROCHOICES, Issue 2 2009Gunnar Breustedt Summary Forecasting the Adoption of Genetically Modified Oilseed Rape We explore farmers' willingness to adopt genetically modified oilseed rape prior to its commercial release and estimate the ,demand' for the new technology. The analysis is based upon experiments with arable farmers in Germany who were asked to choose among conventional and GM rapeseed varieties with different characteristics. Our analysis has shown that ex ante GM adoption decisions are driven by profit expectations and personal as well as farm characteristics. Monetary and technological determinants such as the gross margin advantage of GM oilseed rape varieties, expected liability from cross pollination and restricted flexibility in returning to conventional oilseed rape growing affect the willingness to adopt GM rape in the expected directions. The results further indicate that neighbourhood effects and public attitudes matter a lot, such that individual farmers may not feel entirely free in their technology choice. Our demand simulations suggest that monopolistic seed prices would be set at between ,50 and ,100 per hectare, leaving farmers with a small share of the GM rent. This raises the question as to whether the farmers surveyed would actually benefit from the approval of GM rape varieties if the technology were to be provided by a single firm. Nous explorons le consentement des agriculteurs à utiliser du colza transgénique avant sa mise en marché et estimons la demande de cette nouvelle technologie. L'analyse se fonde sur des expériences menées auprès de cultivateurs allemands à qui l'on a demandé de choisir entre des variétés de colza conventionnelles et transgéniques aux caractéristiques différentes. Notre analyse a montré que les décisions a priori concernant l'adoption de variétés transgéniques sont fonction des profits attendus et des caractéristiques de l'agriculteur et de l'exploitation. Les facteurs financiers et technologiques comme les avantages des variétés de colza transgénique en termes de marge brute, ainsi que les risques possibles de fertilisation croisée et les contraintes relatives au retour vers des cultures de colza conventionnelles ont les effets attendus sur le consentement à adopter des variétés transgéniques. Les résultats montrent également que les effets de voisinage et l'attitude du public comptent beaucoup, de sorte que les agriculteurs individuels pourraient ne pas se sentir complètement libres de choisir leur technologie. Nos simulations sur la demande semblent indiquer que les prix des semences en situation de monopole seraient fixés entre 50 et 100 , par hectare, ce qui laisserait aux agriculteurs une faible part de la rente transgénique. Cela soulève la question de savoir si les agriculteurs de l'enquête tireraient vraiment avantage de l'approbation de variétés de colza transgéniques si la technologie n'était fournie que par une seule compagnie. Wir untersuchen die Bereitschaft von Landwirten, gentechnisch veränderten Raps einzuführen, bevor dieser auf den Markt gebracht wird, und schätzen die ,Nachfrage' nach dieser neuen Technologie ein. Unsere Analyse stützt sich auf Versuche mit Ackerbauern in Deutschland, bei denen sich die Landwirte zwischen herkömmlichen und gentechnisch veränderten Rapssorten mit verschiedenen Eigenschaften entscheiden mussten. Unsere Analyse zeigt, dass ex ante die Entscheidungen über die Einführung von gentechnisch verändertem Raps aufgrund von Gewinnerwartungen sowie von persönlichen und betrieblichen Charakteristika getroffen werden. Monetäre und technologische Bestimmungsgrößen wie z.B. der Vorsprung des gentechnisch veränderten Raps beim Deckungsbeitrag, die erwartete Haftbarkeit bei Fremdbestäubung sowie die nur eingeschränkte Flexibilität, zum herkömmlichen Rapsanbau zurückkehren zu können, beeinflussen erwartungsgemäß die Bereitschaft, gentechnisch veränderten Raps anzubauen. Desweiteren zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass Nachbarschaftseffekte und öffentliche Meinungen eine große Rolle spielen, so dass sich einige Landwirte womöglich bei der Wahl der Technologie in ihrer Entscheidungsfreiheit eingeschränkt fühlen. Unsere Nachfragesimulationen deuten darauf hin, dass sich monopolistische Saatgutpreise zwischen EUR 50 und EUR 100 pro Hektar bewegen würden, so dass den Landwirten ein kleiner Teil der ökonomischen Rente der GV-Technologie verbliebe. Dies wirft die Frage auf, ob die betrachteten Landwirte überhaupt von der Zulassung der gentechnisch veränderten Rapssorten profitieren würden, wenn die Technologie nur von einem einzigen Unternehmen angeboten würde. [source] Geographies of Housing Finance: The Mortgage Market in Milan, ItalyGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2007MANUEL B. AALBERS ABSTRACT The geography of financial exclusion has mainly focused on exclusion from retail banking. Alternatively, and following the work of David Harvey, this paper presents a geography of access to and exclusion from home mortgage finance. The case of Milan shows that capital switching to the built environment is partly a sign of economic crisis and partly a sign of the intrinsic opportunities that the built environment provides. A major factor in both is the deregulation of the mortgage market that has enabled the loosening of historically stringent lending criteria, leading to a tremendous growth of the mortgage market, while leaving the co-evolution of family and home ownership intact. In addition, capital switches within sectors of the economy and between places. In Milan, once "unattractive" but currently gentrified nineteenth-century districts underwent cycles of devalorisation and revalorisation. Even though access to mortgages has increased throughout Milan, geographical disparities in mortgage lending persist: at present, yellowlining (differential access, based on less favourable terms) is common in parts of the Milanese periphery. The creation of boundaries makes the realisation of class-monopoly rent possible; while the subsequent redrawing of these boundaries creates new submarkets in which surplus value can be extracted. Based on the Milan case, one cannot explain the timing and geography of formation and reformation of submarkets in other cities, but it helps us to see how Harvey's abstract ideas of class-monopoly rent, submarket creation, and capital switching take place in the real world. [source] SCREENING ETHICS WHEN HONEST AGENTS CARE ABOUT FAIRNESS*INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2006Ingela Alger A principal faces an agent with private information who is either honest or dishonest. Honesty involves revealing private information truthfully if the probability that the equilibrium allocation chosen by an agent who lies is small enough. Even the slightest intolerance for lying prevents full ethics screening whereby the agent is given proper incentives if dishonest and zero rent if honest. Still, some partial ethics screening may allow for taking advantage of the potential honesty of the agent, even if honesty is unlikely. If intolerance for lying is strong, the standard approach that assumes a fully opportunistic agent is robust. [source] The question of rent: the emerging urban housing crisis in the new centuryINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2004Michael Turk The emergence of a new housing crisis in the United States for low-income renter households at the outset of the twenty-first century can be traced to an increasing lack of affordability, where the average cost of housing as a portion of income has risen steadily over the last half-century. In turn, this rise in housing costs can be attributed to a growing and dramatic shortage of low-cost rental housing. Ultimately, the evocation of homeownership as the embodiment of the ,American Dream' has made renting the ,stepchild' of housing options, and this has had hidden, but nonetheless deleterious effects upon US cities, which remain major concentrations of rental housing and financially-strapped tenants. Aux Etats-Unis, on peut imputer la nouvelle crise du logement du début du vingt-et-unième siècle touchant les ménages locataires à faibles revenus à une impossibilité croissante d'accessibilité financière, la part du coût moyen d'un logement dans le revenu ayant progressé constamment au cours du demi-siècle précédent. Par ailleurs, cette élévation des coûts du logement peut être attribuée à une pénurie accrue et dramatique de l'habitat à loyer modéré. Enfin, évoquer l'accession à la propriété comme incarnation du ,Rêve américain' a fait de la location le ,parent pauvre' des possibilités de logement, ce qui a eu des effets latents, quoique néfastes, sur les grandes villes américaines, lesquelles restent des concentrations dominantes de logements locatifs et d'occupants désargentés. [source] Hunger: The Silent Epidemic Among Asylum Seekers and Resettled RefugeesINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2008Linda Piwowarczyk Refugees and asylum seekers face challenges after arriving in a host country. They carry the trauma that they may have experienced in their countries of origin, during fight, and in countries of asylum. Other stressors impact on their adjustment after arriving in the United States including basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. This is a retrospective review of data collected as part of a needs assessment by a program, which serves survivors of torture and refugee trauma. Asylum seekers (n=65) and refugees were compared (n=30). Asylum seekers were more apt to be from Africa (p<.001), need family reunification (p=.027), speak more languages (p<.001), suffer from political persecution (p<.001), move from place to place due to not having a permanent place to live (p=.031), and be unable to contribute to the rent (p<.001). Unadjusted, asylum seekers were also more likely than refugees to have gone to bed hungry in the previous two weeks (p<.001) or since arriving in the United States (p<.001). Refugees were more likely to be eating more food now than before feeing, and asylum seekers the opposite (p<.001). Being an asylum seeker made one 3.7 times more likely to suffer from food insecurity than being a refugee, and 5.3 times more likely to not have work authorization. Among asylum seekers, adjusting for gender, age, education, lack of permanent housing, English fluency, and self-reported health status, not having work authorization made one 5.6 times more likely to suffer from hunger. Independently, being a torture survivor made one 10.4 times more likely to suffer from hunger. Asylum seekers must wait 150 days before applying for asylum in the United States. For humanitarian reasons, mandatory-waiting periods for work authorization for asylum seekers should be eliminated. Les réfugiés et les demandeurs d'asile se heurtent à différentes diffcultés à leur arrivée dans le pays d'accueil. Ils sont porteurs des traumatismes qu'ils peuvent avoir vécus dans leur pays d'origine, durant leur déplacement ou dans des pays d'asile. D'autres facteurs de stress compliquent encore leur acclimatation sur le territoire des Etats-Unis, parmi lesquels la satisfaction de besoins fondamentaux tels que le gîte, le couvert et l'habillement. La présente étude constitue un examen rétrospectif des données recueillies dans le cadre d'une évaluation des besoins, pour un programme destinéà aider des personnes ayant subi la torture et des réfugiés victimes de traumatismes. Elle établit ainsi une comparaison entre les demandeurs d'asile et les réfugiés. Les demandeurs d'asile sont le plus souvent originaires d'Afrique, en attente de regroupement familial, s'expriment dans plus d'une seule langue, se disent victimes de persécutions politiques, semblent avoir du mal à fixer leur résidence en un point précis et ne pas être en mesure de contribuer au paiement d'un loyer. S'ils n'ont pas encore accompli leur adaptation, ils sont en outre plus susceptibles que les réfugiés de s'être couché le ventre vide au cours des deux semaines précédentes ou depuis leur arrivée aux Etats-Unis. Pour leur part, les réfugiés sont plus susceptibles de manger davantage qu'avant leur départ, au contraire des demandeurs d'asile. Le fait d'être demandeur d'asile signife être 3,7 fois plus exposé qu'un réfugié au risque d'insécurité alimentaire, et 5,3 fois plus à celui de ne pas obtenir une autorisation de travail. Parmi les demandeurs d'asile qui rencontrent des diffcultés d'adaptation liées au sexe, à l'âge, au niveau d'éducation, à l'absence de logement durable, à l'incapacité de communiquer facilement en anglais et à un état de santé défaillant, la non-obtention d'une autorisation de travail fait courir un risque de souffrir de la faim 5,6 fois supérieur. Indépendamment de ce qui précède, une personne ayant subi des actes de torture est 10,4 fois plus susceptible de souffrir de la faim. Aux Etats-Unis, les demandeurs d'asile doivent attendre 150 jours avant de pouvoir déposer une demande d'asile. Pour des raisons humanitaires, les périodes d'attente obligatoire de permis de travail devraient être supprimées pour les demandeurs d'asile. Los refugiados y solicitantes de asilo tienen que hacer frente a toda una serie de retos cuando llegan a un país de acogida. Traen consigo el trauma que han experimentado en sus países de origen, en su huída y en los países de asilo. Otros factores de estrés repercuten en su adaptación tras la llegada en los Estados Unidos, a saber, en necesidades tan elementales como los alimentos, la ropa y el albergue. Este recuento retrospectivo de los datos acopiados forma parte de una evaluación de necesidades de un programa que sirve a los sobrevivientes a torturas y a refugiados traumatizados. En este estudio se compararon solicitantes de asilo (n= 65) con refugiados (n= 30). Los solicitantes de asilo provenían mayormente de África (p<.001), venían por razones de reunifcación familiar (p=.027), fueron objeto de persecución (p<.001), se desplazaron de un lugar a otro sin tener un lugar permanente de residencia (p=.031), y no podían pagar un alquiler (p<.001). Los solicitantes de asilo inadaptados eran mayormente refugiados que habían pasado hambre durante los últimos quince días (p<.001) o desde que llegaron a los Estados Unidos (p<.001). Se observó que los refugiados comían más alimentos que antes de huir, mientras que el fenómeno inverso se produjo con los solicitantes de asilo (p<.001). El solicitante de asilo tenía 3,7 veces más probabilidades de sufrir de inseguridad alimenticia que el refugiado, y tenía 5,3 veces más probabilidades de no contar con un permiso de trabajo. Los solicitantes de asilo, clasifcados por sexo, edad, educación, falta de vivienda permanente, conocimientos de inglés y situación sanitaria autosufciente, que no contaban con autorización de trabajo eran 5,6 veces más propensos a sufrir de la hambruna. Independientemente, el ser un sobreviviente a la tortura hacía que se fuera 10,4 veces más propenso a sufrir de la hambruna. Los solicitantes de asilo tienen que aguardar por lo menos 150 días antes de solicitar el asilo en los Estados Unidos. Por razones humanitarias, convendría suprimir estos periodos de espera obligatorios para que los solicitantes de asilo obtengan permisos de trabajo. [source] Competition and Market Structure of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated QuotationsINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 3-4 2007YOUNGSOO KIM ABSTRACT In this paper, we study the relation among market structure, trading costs, and competition in National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ). In particular, we address the following questions: Do NASDAQ dealers exercise market power and extract economic rents in setting bid-ask spread? How persistent is the market power of dominant dealers? Our estimate of the rent is approximately ¢8.76, or 0.54% of stock price. The half-life of the persistence of this rent is approximately 20 months for the entire sample, while the half-life of younger stocks tend to be shorter than those of more mature stocks. Our result supports Schultz: NASDAQ dealers make markets only for stocks where they have competitive advantages in accessing order flow and in information. It might take a while before a market maker poses effective competition to existing dominant market makers. In the meantime, incumbent market makers are able to exercise market power and appear to earn abnormally large profits. [source] Activity-Based Pricing in a MonopolyJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 3 2003V. G. Narayanan abstract In this article, I study the interaction between cost accounting systems and pricing decisions in a setting where a monopolist sells a base product and related support services to customers whose preference for support services is known only to them. I consider two pricing mechanisms,activity-based pricing (ABP) and traditional pricing,and two cost-accounting systems,activity-based costing (ABC) and traditional costing, for support services. Under traditional pricing, only the base product is priced, whereas support services are provided free because detailed cost-driver volume information on the consumption of support services by each customer is unavailable. Under ABP, customers pay based on the quantities consumed of both the base product and the support services because detailed cost-driver volume information is available for each customer. Likewise, under traditional costing for support services the firm makes pricing decisions on cost signals that are noisier than they are under ABC. I compare the equilibrium quantities of the base product and support services sold, the information rent paid to the customers, and the expected profits of the monopolist under all four combinations of cost-driver volume and cost-driver rate information. I show that ABP helps reduce control problems, such as moral hazard and adverse selection problems, for the supplier and increases the supplier's ability to engage in price discrimination. I show that firms are more likely to adopt ABP when their customer base is more diverse, their customer support costs are more uncertain, their costing system has lower measurement error, and the variable costs of providing customer support are higher. Firms adopt ABC when their cost-driver rates for support services under traditional costing are noisier measures of actual costs relative to their cost-driver rates under ABC and when the actual costs of support services are inherently uncertain. I also show that cost-driver rate information and cost-driver volume information for support services are complements. Although the prior literature views ABC and activity-based management (ABM) as facilitating better decision making, I show that ABC and ABP (a form of ABM) are useful tools for addressing control problems in supply chains. [source] Forecasting the Adoption of GM Oilseed Rape: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment in GermanyJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2008Gunnar Breustedt C42; C81; Q12; Q16 Abstract This paper explores farmers' willingness to adopt genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape prior to its commercial release and estimates the ,demand' for the new technology. The analysis is based upon choice experiments with 202 German arable farmers. A multinomial probit estimation reveals that GM attributes such as gross margin, expected liability from cross pollination, or flexibility in returning to conventional oilseed rape significantly affect the likelihood of adoption. Neighbouring farmers' attitudes towards GM cropping and a number of farmer and farm characteristics were also found to be significant determinants of prospective adoption. Demand simulations suggest that adoption rates are very sensitive to the profit difference between GM and non-GM rape varieties. A monopolistic seed price would substantially reduce demand for the new technology. A monopolistic seed supplier would reap between 45% and 80% of the GM rent, and the deadweight loss of the monopoly would range between 15% and 30% of that rent. The remaining rent for farmers may be too small to outweigh possible producer price discounts resulting from the costs of segregating GM and non-GM oilseed rape along the supply chain. [source] Market-Share Contracts with Asymmetric InformationJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 2 2009Adrian Majumdar In this paper, a dominant firm and competitive fringe supply substitute goods to a retailer who has private information about demand. We show that it is profitable for the dominant firm to condition payment on how much the retailer buys from the fringe (market-share contracts). The dominant firm thereby creates countervailing incentives for the retailer and, in some cases, is able to obtain the full-information outcome (unlike in standard screening models, where the agent earns an information rent in the high-demand state and output is distorted in the low-demand state). Our results have implications for fidelity rebates, all-units discounts, and competition policy. Although some crowding out of the fringe may occur when demand is low, we show that market-share contracts need not be harmful for welfare. [source] The ,reversal of fortune' thesis and the compression of history: Perspectives from African and comparative economic history,JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 8 2008Gareth Austin Abstract Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson have dramatically challenged the tendency of economists to confine their empirical search for the causes of economic growth to the recent past. They argue that the kind of institutions established by European colonialists, either protecting private property or extracting rents, resulted in the poorer parts of the pre-colonial world becoming some of the richest economies of today; while transforming some of the more prosperous parts of the non-European world of 1500 into the poorest economies today. This view has been further elaborated for Africa by Nunn, with reference to slave trading. Drawing on African and comparative economic historiography, the present paper endorses the importance of examining growth theories against long-term history: revealing relationships that recur because the situations are similar, as well as because of path dependence as such. But it also argues that the causal relationships involved are more differentiated than is recognised in AJR's formulations. By compressing different historical periods and paths, the ,reversal' thesis over-simplifies the causation. Relatively low labour productivity was a premise of the external slave trades; though the latter greatly reinforced the relative poverty of many Sub-Saharan economies. Again, it is important to distinguish settler and non-settler economies within colonial Africa itself. In the latter case it was in the interests of colonial regimes to support, rather than simply extract from, African economic enterprise. Finally, economic rent and economic growth have often been joint products, including in pre-colonial and colonial Africa; the kinds of institutions that favoured economic growth in certain historical contexts were not necessarily optimal for that purpose in others. AJR have done much to bring development economics and economic history together. The next step is a more flexible conceptual framework, and a more complex explanation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] INTERCITY RENT DIFFERENTIALS IN THE U.S. HOUSING MARKET 2000: UNDERSTANDING RENT VARIATIONS AS A SOCIOLOGICAL PHENOMENONJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2009JOHN I. GILDERBLOOM ABSTRACT:,This study extends the intercity rent differentials investigation by Gilderbloom and Appelbaum (1988) in relatively independent housing markets to see how it can be replicated using U.S. census data from the year 2000 against the 1970 and 1980 models with the addition of several new variables to measure its impact on intercity rents. We find that region, race, and climate no longer explain rent differentials in 2000 as it did in the 1980 research, while affirming that a large percentage of old houses and small mom-and-pop landlords causes rents to fall. We find that both the cost of homeownership and the level of household income remain critical factors in explaining the level of median rent across cities. We also find a strong correlation between cities with extensive anti-war activity in the late 1960s and same sex households having higher rents, although more research needs to be done before we argue a causal relationship. We contend that sociology needs to be put back into the equation in order to understand how rents vary from city to city. Our explanation of rent variations adds a social dimension that most other researches miss. We also show how the amount of explanatory power is increased significantly by adding in a sociological dimension. [source] Extending the Resource-based View to the Mega-event: Entrepreneurial Rents and InnovationMANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Marc J. Dollinger abstract The resource-based view of the firm has previously been expanded by including relational rents and rent from network and alliance participation. This paper extends the Dyer-Singh-Lavie synthesis by considering the special circumstances arising from the relationships, alliances, and networks of a mega-event, using the Beijing Olympics as a case for our analyses. The mega-event that is organized as a cartel increases the pricing power of the participants, produces relational rent, and is an ideal venue to introduce innovations. We discuss six factors that can influence the rent creation and capture from a mega-event and offer related propositions: periodicity (Proposition 1), event location (Proposition 2), governance structure (Proposition 3), media coverage (Proposition 4), network connectivity (Proposition 5), and membership rules (Proposition 6). We identify four innovation types associated with such mega-events and contend that the same factors can affect the entrepreneurial rent creation and capture within these innovation types (Proposition 7). [source] Strategic managerial incentives under adverse selectionMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 8 2005Michel Cavagnac We extend the strategic contract model where the owner designs incentive schemes for her manager before the latter takes output decisions. Firstly, we introduce private knowledge regarding costs within each owner,manager pair. Under adverse selection, we show that delegation involves a trade-off between strategic commitment and the cost of an extra informational rent linked to decentralization. Which policies will arise in equilibrium? We introduce in the game an initial stage where owners can simultaneously choose between control and delegation. We show that if decision variables are strategic substitutes, choosing output control through a quantity-lump sum transfer contract is a dominating strategy. If decision variables are strategic complements, this policy is a dominated strategy. Further, two types of dominant-strategies equilibrium may arise: in the first type, both principals use delegation; in the second one, both principals implement delegation for a low-cost manager and output control for a high-cost one. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] GROWTH AND MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY IN AN UNREGULATED FISHERYNATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 3 2009ANNE B. JOHANNESEN Abstract Complete information is usually assumed in harvesting models of marine and terrestrial resources. In reality, however, complete information never exists. Fish and wildlife populations often fluctuate unpredictably in numbers, and measurement problems are frequent. In this paper, we analyze a time-discrete fishery model that distinguishes between uncertain natural growth and measurement error and in which exploitation takes place in an unregulated manner. Depending on the parameterization of the model and at which point of time uncertainty is resolved, it is shown that expected harvest under ecological uncertainty may be below or above that of the benchmark model with no uncertainty. On the other hand, when stock measurement is uncertain, expected harvest never exceeds the benchmark level. We also demonstrate that the harvesting profit, or rent, under uncertainty may be above that of the benchmark situation of complete information. In other words, less information may be beneficial for the fishermen. [source] A MODEL FOR THE BIOECONOMIC EVALUATION OF MARINE PROTECTED AREA SIZE AND PLACEMENT IN THE NORTH SEANATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 4 2002ALASDAIR BEATTIE ABSTRACT. The use of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a basic management tool to limit exploitation rates in marine fisheries has been widely suggested. Models are important in predicting the consequences of management decisions and the design of monitoring programs in terms of policy goals. However, few tools are available that consider both multiple fleets and ecosystem scale dynamics. We use a new applied game theory tool, Ecoseed, that operates within a temporally and spatially explicit biomass dynamics model, Ecopath with Ecosim, to evaluate the efficacy of marine protected areas in the North Sea in both ecological and economic terms. The Ecoseed model builds MPAs based on the change in values of predicted economic rents of fisheries and the existence value of biomass pools in the ecosystem. We consider the market values of four fisheries operating in the North Sea: a trawl fishery, a gill net fishery, a seine fishery, and an industrial (reduction) fishery. We apply existence values, scaled such that their aggregate is similar to the total fishery value, to six biomass pools of concern: juvenile cod, haddock, whiting, saithe, seals, and the collective pool ,Other predators' that include marine mammals. Four policy options were considered: to maximize the rent only; to maximize the existence values only; to maximize the sum of the rent and existence values; and, finally, to maximize the sum of the rent and the existence values, but excluding only the trawl fleet from the MPA. The Ecoseed model suggests that policy goals that do not include ecological considerations can negatively impact the rents obtained by the different fishing sectors. The existence values will also be negatively impacted unless the MPA is very large. The Ecoseed model also suggests that policy goals based solely on existence values will negatively impact most fisheries. Under policy options that included ecological considerations, maximum benefits were derived from an MPA that covered 25,40% of the North Sea, placed along the southern and eastern coasts. Finally, the Ecoseed model suggests that an exclusion of the trawl fishery only from the MPA can provide small-to-substantial positive impacts to most species and fleets; this relative impact depends on level of interaction between the trawl fleet and the other fleets target species (e.g., through bycatch). [source] Revenue management: A real options approachNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2004C.K. Anderson Abstract Revenue management is the process of actively managing inventory or capacity to maximize revenues. The active management typically occurs through managerial levers such as price, promotion, or availability. We present a novel real options approach to revenue management that is specifically suited to the car rental business. We illustrate the concept with actual car rental data. The model produces minimally acceptable prices and inventory release quantities (number of cars available for rent at a given price) as a function of remaining time and available inventory. The pricing and inventory release recommendations of the developed model confirm earlier empirical analysis that suggested current practises discount too deeply early in the booking cycle. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004 [source] The economics of transit oil and gas pipelines: a review of the fundamentalsOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009Ekpen J. Omonbude The growing relevance of transit oil and gas pipelines is reflected in the general anticipation of an increase in their construction in the future because of factors such as the increasing discoveries of reserves in remote and land-locked locations, the depletion of reserves close to established markets, and improvements in cost-effective technological methods of exploration and production in previously uneconomic reserves. Recent disputes between parties to transit pipeline agreements demonstrate, in addition to other problems, the relevance of a fundamental analysis of the workings of oil and gas pipelines in economics. The objective of this paper therefore is to provide a fundamental framework for understanding and analysing transit oil and gas pipelines. The paper finds that the concept of economic rent, natural monopoly and basic cost concepts clearly explain the rationale behind the imposition of a transit fee, although they do not sufficiently define how they are determined. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||