How social comparison influences reference price formation in a service context

What is the influence on reference price when the source of price information is anonymous versus social? This article investigates the formation of reference prices given an observed sequence of past prices in a service context. An experimental study suggests that, considering the same price information, if the source is social (i.e., the prices paid by colleagues), then consumers want to pay less. More specifically, social comparison changes the way individuals weigh information, attributing more importance to the lowest historical prices and to the range in price variations

Price competition within and between airlines and high-speed trains: the case of the Milan–Rome route.

In the travel industry high-speed trains and airlines are increasingly competing for passengers, and the diffusion of price optimization based on real time demand fluctuations poses new challenges in the analysis of price competition between operators. This paper presents an analysis of how different competitors simultaneously adjust their prices in the short run. The empirical model accounts for dynamic price variations, exploring both intramodal and intermodal price competition. The results, based on 12,506 price observations, show that intermodal competition presents some kind of asymmetric behaviour, with airlines reacting more than trains to competitors' price changes. The paper concludes with the implications of this heterogeneous behaviour for the tourism and travel industries

Neutronic benchmark of the FRENETIC code for the multiphysics analysis of lead fast reactors

The FRENETIC code is being developed at Politecnico di Torino in the frame of the international effort for the deployment of lead fast reactors technology. FRENETIC is a multiphysics computational tool solving the neutronics and thermal-hydraulics equation at the full-core level, aiming at performing steady-state and time-dependent simulations in different conditions. In the present work, the validation activity of FRENETIC is carried forward by performing a benchmark against a reference computational model for the ALFRED design implemented in Serpent. Different core configurations in FRENETIC and different temperature distributions are considered, performing consistent comparisons between the two codes. All the results obtained show an extremely good agreement between the two models, implying that the ALFRED core can be well characterized by the FRENETIC code. The present study sets the basis for the future application of the code to simulate safety-relevant transients with FRENETIC

Thermal stability and spectroscopic properties of erbium-doped niobic-tungsten-tellurite glasses for laser and amplifier devices

Er3+ doped niobic-tungsten-tellurite glasses doped with concentration of Er3+ ion up to 3 wt% were fabricated. The effect of Er3+ doping concentration on thermal stability and optical properties was investigated in order to obtain the most suitable rare earth content for developing 1.5 micron compact fiber amplifier pumped with a commercial telecom 980 nm laser diode. The maximum doping concentration allowed was found to be around 1.77 x 10^20 ions/cm^3, for which a broad 1.5 micron emission spectra of 65 nm FWHM and a lifetime of 3.4 ms for the 4I13/2 level was measure