En konkurranseøkonomisk analyse av ulike motiver for å bruke en kategorikaptein.

Denne masteroppgaven er en teoretisk gjennomgang av kategorikapteinordningen. En kategorikaptein er en produsent som blir valgt til å hjelpe til med kategoristyring for en bestemt produktkategori. Det innebærer at den typisk er ansvarlig for å anbefale detaljisten utvalg, hylleplass, promotering og prising. Diskusjonen om kategorikapteiner er tosidig. På den ene siden har man effektivitetsgevinster og på den andre siden har man konkurransedemping. Gjennomgangen min av eksisterende litteratur finner at kategorikapteinen stort sett fremmer effektivitet. Den forbedrer effektivitet på to måter. For det første sørger den for optimal forvaltning av kategoriene gjennom etterspørselfremmende investeringer. For det andre fører den til informasjonsdeling og gir et utvalg i kategorien som er skreddersydd konsumentene. Samtidig som den fremmer effektivitet er det noen tilfeller hvor kategorikapteinen virker konkurransedempende og fasiliterer samarbeid. Spesielt situasjoner hvor en dominerende produsent får ansvar for å prise og detaljisten har lav forhandlingsmakt, kan være nødvendig å granske. Oppgaven er skrevet i Scientific Workplace 5.

Price and competition in emerging shared e-scooter markets

Jørgen Aarhaug, Nils Fearnley, Knut Johannes Liland Hartveit, Espen Johnsson, Price and competition in emerging shared e-scooter markets, Research in Transportation Economics, Volume 98, 2023, 101273, ISSN 0739-8859, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101273.The rapid deployment of shared dockless electric scooters (e-scooters) has resulted in attention from the public and regulators. Recurring issues include fleet size and the number of operators in the market. In this paper we study market development in two Norwegian cities and discuss how these experiences point towards future e-scooter regulation and ask if market regulation based on price competition in the e-scooter market is plausible. We study this by focusing on two natural experiments. First, we analyse the market entry of a low-cost e-scooter company in Drammen. We discuss how that entry impacted two incumbent e-scooter companies and the total market. Second, we look at the change in e-scooter regulation in Oslo in September 2021. This change represents a movement from a laissez faire market approach to a fleet cap of 8000 divided evenly between 12 different e-scooter companies. We study these experiments using data obtained from selected e-scooter operators (GPS location, start/stop time, e-scooter id), municipalities (fleet size, trips) and a web page tracking e-scooter fares. We find that competition between e-scooter companies varies across user segments, with trips made for traveling purposes being less price sensitive, and joy rides being more price sensitive. Also, we find that there are substantial advantages in being a large actor.publishedVersio

Value of travel time by road type

Travel time is less costly if it is comfortable or can be used productively. One could hence argue that the value of travel time (VTT) of car travellers in economic appraisal should be differentiated by road type, reflecting differences in road quality. We explain the theoretical foundation for such a differentiation, review the relevant literature and show the results of an empirical case study based on actual route choice of highway drivers in Norway. We find little existing literature discussing the link between road type and VTT, but closely related findings suggest that that the impact on VTT could be substantial. Our empirical case study also suggests that the VTT is lower on higher quality road types. Applying this to economic appraisal would imply higher user benefits of road projects that improve road quality