Presque Isle Maine: A Town Worth While

A pamphlet highlighting Presque Isle, Maine, including information on the town\u27s churches, The Northeastland Hotel, W. A. G. M. radio broadcast station, area agriculture, schools, state sanatorium, sporting camps, municipal buildings and library, Northern Maine Fair, airport, and railroads (Aroostook Valley Railroad, Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad)

Merchants National Bank of Bangor

This undated pamphlet, likely published in 1960, provides information about Merchants National Bank services. Included are picture of the interior and exterior of Merchants locations at 25 Broad Street, Bangor, Union Street at 14th, Bangor, 77 North Main Street, Brewer, and at Dow Air Force Base.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1124/thumbnail.jp

To surcharge or not to surcharge? A two-sided market perspective of the no-surchage rule

In Electronic Payment Networks (EPNs) the No-Surcharge Rule (NSR) requires that merchants charge the same final good price regardless of the means of payment chosen by the customer. In this paper, we analyze a three-party model (consumers, merchants, and proprietary EPNs) to assess the impact of a NSR on the electronic payments system, in particular, on competition among EPNs, network pricing to merchants and consumers, EPNs' profits, and social welfare. We show that imposing a NSR has a number of effects. First, it softens competition among EPNs and rebalances the fee structure in favor of cardholders and to the detriment of merchants. Second, we show that the NSR is a profitable strategy for EPNs if and only if the network e¤ect from merchants to cardholders is sufficiently weak. Third, the NSR is socially (un)desirable if the network externalities from merchants to cardholders are sufficiently weak (strong) and the merchants' market power in the goods market is sufficiently high (low). Our policy advice is that regulators should decide on whether the NSR is appropriate on a market-by-market basis instead of imposing a uniform regulation for all markets. JEL Classification: L13, L42, L80American Express, Discover, Electronic payment system, market power, MasterCard, network externalities, no-surcharge rule, regulation, two-sided markets, Visa

Triadic Power Relations with Production, External Markets and Multiple Agents

We discuss whether Basu's (1986) model of triadic power relations is robust to generalizations where we allow multiple landlords, merchants and laborers. In the special case of one landlord and multiple merchants we show that the landlord's threat towards any laborer becomes credible even in the original stage game model. For the case of multiple landlords we need to generalize more recent solution concepts. We add realism by allowing the laborers' reservation utilities to vary with the costs of trading in external markets and the characteristics of the laborers. We allow production by landlords and merchants, as well as Cournot competition among merchants. In equilibrium the rural wages are a function of the number of landlords and merchants, the characteristics of the laborers and distance to external markets. We estimate the model, using household survey data from Nepal, and find strong support for the triadic model.

How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York

This paper argues that Jewish merchants have historically dominated the diamond industry because of their ability to reliably implement diamond credit sales. Success in the industry requires enforcing executory agreements that are beyond the reach of public courts, and Jewish diamond merchants enforce such contracts with a reputation mechanism supported by a distinctive set of industry, family, and community institutions. An industry arbitration system publicizes promises that are not kept. Intergenerational legacies induce merchants to deal honestly through their very last transaction, so that their children may inherit valuable livelihoods. And ultra-Orthodox Jews, for whom participation in their communities is paramount, provide important value-added services to the industry without posing the threat of theft and flight

Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data

Recent studies find that cash remains a dominant payment choice for small-value transactions despite the prevalence of alternative methods of payment such as debit and credit cards. For policy makers an important question is whether consumers truly prefer using cash or merchants restrict card usage. Using unique shopping diary data, we estimate a payment choice model with individual unobserved heterogeneity (demandside factors) while controlling for merchants’ acceptance of cards (supply-side factors). Based on a policy simulation where we impose universal card acceptance among merchants, we find that overall cash usage would decrease by only 7.7 percentage points, implying that cash usage in small-value transactions is driven mainly by consumers’ preferences

Community Enforcement of Informal Contracts: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York

The diamond industry is home to many unusual features: the predominance of an ethnically homogeneous community of merchants, the norm of intergenerational family businesses, and a rejection of public courts in favor of private contract enforcement. This paper explains that the diamond industry\u27s unique attributes arise specifically to meet the particularly rigorous hazards of transacting in diamonds. Since diamonds are portable, easily concealable, and extremely valuable, the risk associated with a credit sale can be especially costly. However, the industry enjoys valuable organizational efficiencies if transactions occur on credit between independent, fully incentivized agents. Thus, an efficient system of exchange will find ways to induce merchants who purchase on credit to fulfill their payment obligations. The very features that give the diamond industry an unusual profile are responsible for providing institutions to support credit sales. A system of private arbitration spreads information regarding merchants\u27 past dealings, so a reputation mechanism to monitor merchants can take hold. Intergenerational legacies, though restricting entry only to those who can inherit good reputations from family members, resolve an end-game problem and induce merchants to deal honestly through their very last transaction. And the participation of Ultra-Orthodox Jews, for whom inclusion and participation in their communities is equally paramount to their material wealth, serve important value-added services as diamond cutters and brokers without posing the threat of theft and flight

Simplified uniform accounting system for retail coal merchants

The National Retail Coal Merchants Association, in connection with the preparation of its Complete Uniform Accounting System, has prepared a Simplified System requiring only a limited knowledge of bookkeeping and a minimum expenditure of time and effort, but furnishing all essential information as to the cost of doing business and the profits resulting therefrom, information without which no retailer in coal or any other commodity can hope to meet successfully the competition incident to modern business methods