The Impact of Consumer Loss Aversion on Pricing

We develop a model in which a profit-maximizing monopolist with uncertain cost of production sells to loss-averse, yet rational, consumers. We first introduce (portable) techniques for analyzing the demand of such consumers, and then investigate the monopolist's pricing strategy. Compared to lower possible purchase prices, paying a higher price in the firm's pricing distribution is assessed by consumers as a loss, decreasing demand for the firm's product. We provide conditions under which a firm with continuously distributed marginal cost responds by (locally) eliminating this "comparison effect" and choosing a discrete price distribution; that is, prices are "sticky". Price stickiness is more likely to obtain when the cost distribution has high density, the price responsiveness of demand is low, or consumers are likely to purchase. Whether or not prices are sticky, the monopolist wants to at least mitigate the comparison effect, leading to countercyclical markups. On the other hand, if consumers expect to buy the product, they experience a loss if they end up not consuming it, increasing their willingness to pay for it. Thus, despite the tendency toward price stability, there are also circumstances in which a firm with unchanging cost offers random "sales" to increase customers' expectation to consume, attracting more demand at higher prices. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Strategisches Preissetzungsverhalten mit verlustaversen Konsumenten) Wir analysieren das optimale Verhalten eines profitmaximierenden Monopolisten mit stochastischen Produktionskosten, der an rationale, verlustaverse Konsumenten verkauft. Hierzu entwickelt der Beitrag übertragbare Techniken, die es erlauben, die Nachfrage von verlustaversen Konsumenten herzuleiten, und bestimmt die optimale Preissetzungsstrategie des Monopolisten. Ein Konsument empfindet einen Verlust, wenn er den von ihm gezahlten Kaufpreis mit erwarteten niedrigeren Preisen des Monopolisten vergleicht. Dieser Verlust reduziert die Zahlungsbereitschaft des Konsumenten und senkt somit seine Nachfrage. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, unter welchen Bedingungen eine Firma mit kontinuierlich verteilten Grenzkosten diesen "Vergleichseffekt" (lokal) eliminiert, indem sie eine diskrete Preisverteilung wählt --- also, eine Preisverteilung mit Preisstarrheit. Diese Preisstarrheit tritt umso eher auf, je höher die Dichte der Kostenverteilung, je niedriger die Nachfrageelastizität oder je größer die Kaufwahrscheinlichkeit des Konsumenten ist. Unabhängig davon, ob die optimale Preisverteilung Preisstarrheit aufweist oder nicht, schwächt der Monopolist diesen Vergleichseffekt ab in dem er antizyklische Preisaufschläge verlangt. Auf der anderen Seite führt die Kauferwartung des Konsumenten dazu, dass er einen Verlust realisiert, wenn er das Gut nicht konsumieren kann. Eine höhere Kauferwartung führt somit zu einer höheren Zahlungsbereitschaft des Konsumenten. Daher kann es trotz der Tendenz zur Preisstarrheit auch Umstände geben, unter denen eine Unternehmung mit fixen Grenzkosten zufällige "Sonderangebote" macht, welche die Kauferwartung des Konsumenten erhöhen und somit mehr Nachfrage bei höheren Preisen generieren.Gravity Reference-dependent utility, price stickiness, monopoly pricing, kinked demand curve, countercyclical markups, sales, promotions, (seemingly) predatory pricing.

Measuring the degree of virtualization. An empirical analysis in two Austrian industries.

Strategic management literature suggests that especially in young and dynamic industries Virtual Corporations are more likely to emerge, as this type of organization is flexible enough to deal with rapidly changing environments. This paper challenges the proposition that environ-mental uncertainty and technological change lead to organizational adaptation towards virtual structures. We analyzed companies of two Austrian industries, data processing and engineering, which are characterized by different rates of innovation and environmental uncertainty, and compare their strategic, structural, and process characteristics by measuring their Degree of Virtualization. Results indicate almost no difference in the Degree of Virtualization. From these findings, we draw implications for the theoretical concept of Virtual Corpora-tions as well as for empirical research. (author's abstract)Series: Report Series SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science

A gender perspective on artificial intelligence and jobs: The vicious cycle of digital inequality. Bruegel WORKING PAPER | ISSUE 15/2022 | 30 AUGUST 2022.

The worldwide artificial intelligence market is expected to increase enormously in the next few years. Because of AI’s immense potential, virtually all industries will be affected by the implementation of AI systems, resulting in the digitalisation and automation of work processes. This will cause disruptive shifts in labour markets, in terms of the number and profiles of jobs in industries as well as worker skill requirements. We take a gender perspective and analyse how gender stereotypes and gendered work segregation on the one hand, and digitalisation and automation (as a consequence of AI implementation) on the other hand, are entangled and result in a vicious cycle of digital gender inequality. We provide insights into the gender-specific impact of AI technologies, which is relevant for the mitigation of the potential risk of the creation of social inequality and exclusion. We show that existing empirical evidence already indicates that AI will not increase gender equality but will somewhat further exacerbate the gender inequality in labour markets, ranging from further horizontal and vertical occupational gender segregation to an increase in the gender pay gap. We summarise policy guidance and measures to decrease gender inequality in the future

High Q Operation of SRF Cavities The Impact of Thermocurrents on the RF Surface Resistance

We present a study concerning the operation of a superconducting RF cavity non doped niobium in horizontal testing with the focus on understanding the thermoelectrically induced contribution to the surface resistance. Starting in 2009, we suggested a means of reducing the residual resistance by warming up a cavity after initial cooldown to about 20 K and cooling it down again [1]. In subsequent studies we used this technique to manipulate the residual resistance by more than a factor of 2 [2]. We postulated that thermocurrents during cooldown generate additional trapped magnetic flux that impacts the cavity quality factor. Since several questions remained open, we present here a more extensive study including measurement of two additional passband modes of the 9 cell cavity that confirms the effect. We also discuss simulations that substantiate the claim. While the layout of the cavity LHe tank system is cylindrically symmetric, we show that the temperature dependence of the material parameters result in a non symmetric current distribution. Hence a significant amount of magnetic flux can be generated at the RF surface resulting in an increased surface resistance [3]

Knowledge of Functional Foods by Consumers

Our research topic is current because of the fact that one of the main issues in human food consumption in Hungary today is the proper nutrition of people, or you are what you eat". In our work, we compare conventional foods with functional foods in terms of consumer awareness. We chose these two food types which can be produced in different ways because we investigate what is the opinion of consumers based on their different sexes, ages, and quality of life. We examine what is their feeling about conventional and functional foods, how well they know them

La pathogenèse du virus du syndrome reproducteur et respiratoire porcin (VSRRP) dans un nouveau modèle de cellules épithéliales des voies respiratoires du porc génétiquement modifiées (NPTr-CD163)

Le syndrome reproducteur et respiratoire (SRRP) est une maladie virale répandue en Amérique du Nord et est la source de grandes pertes économiques dans l’industrie porcine. Son agent étiologique, le virus du SRRP (VSRRP), est un virus ayant besoin de plusieurs récepteurs afin d’entrer dans une cellule. Un de ceux-ci est le récepteur CD163 qui est essentiel à l’internalisation complète du virus. En effet, l’ajout du récepteur à des cellules n’étant pas permissives au virus les rendent permissives. Puisque ce récepteur semble crucial à l’infection du VSRRP, des porcs ont été génétiquement modifiés afin de ne pas posséder le récepteur CD163. Ces porcs modifiés sont complètement résistants au virus et ne comportent pas de différences phénotypiques comparativement aux porcs non modifiés. Récemment, dans notre laboratoire, une lignée cellulaire porcine a été génétiquement modifiée afin d’étudier la pathogenèse du VSRRP lors de co-infection avec d’autres pathogènes porcins. Plus précisément, des cellules de trachée de porcelet naissant (NPTr) ont été modifiées afin d’exprimer le récepteur CD163 et permettre la réplication du VSRRP. Cependant, le VSRRP est habituellement connu pour causer la mort des cellules qu’il infecte par apoptose, comme c’est le cas dans les macrophages alvéolaires porcins (PAM) et les MARC-145. Intéressement, le VSRRP peut se répliquer dans les NPTr-CD163 à une vitesse similaire que dans les MARC-145, mais sans causer de mort cellulaire. De plus, le VSRRP est un virus ayant un haut taux de mutations et ceci pourrait favoriser éventuellement son adaptation pour infecter des cellules sans récepteur CD163. Nos hypothèses, sont que le VSRRP peut s’adapter à des cellules ne possédant pas de récepteur CD163 et que la réponse cellulaire des NPTr-CD163 contre le VSRRP est mieux adaptée ce qui permet la survie des cellules infectées. Afin de déterminer si le VSRRP peut s’adapter à des cellules sans récepteur CD163, la souche québécoise de référence du VSRRP de type 2 IAF-Klop a été répliquée sur des ratios grandissants de cellules NPTr ne possédant pas le récepteur CD163 nommées NPTr-N2. Aussi, afin de déterminer l’impact de l’infection du VSRRP dans les NPTr-CD163 et les MARC-145, la modulation de l’expression des ARNm de ces deux lignées cellulaires a été déterminée par séquençage à haut débit (SHD) en utilisant la technologie Illumina. Les résultats de la première expérience furent étonnants puisque contrairement à notre hypothèse, le virus ne s’est pas adapté aux cellules sans récepteurs CD163. Au niveau du deuxième objectif concernant la modulation de l’expression des ARNm des cellules MARC-145 et NPTr-CD163 infectées par le VSRRP, les résultats ont permis de démontrer qu’il y a une certaine activation des gènes impliqués dans la voie de signalisation de l’apoptose dans les NPTr-CD163, mais qu’il y a aussi une forte inhibition, ce qui pourrait expliquer la survie de ces cellules. Ces résultats permettent une meilleure compréhension de la réponse de ces deux lignées cellulaires à l'infection virale.Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a widely spread disease in North America that causes huge economic losses in porcine industry. The PRRS virus (PRRSV) needs a lot of receptors to enter the cells. One of them is CD163, a crucial receptor to the virus internalization. Due to the importance of this receptor, researchers have genetically modified pigs to not express the CD163 receptor, providing them a resistance to PRRSV. Recently, a porcine cell-line was genetically modified to study PRRSV co-infection pathogenesis with other swine pathogens. More precisely, newborn pig trachea cells (NPTr) were modified to express the CD163 receptor, to allow PRRSV infection. However, PRRSV is known to trigger death of permissive infected cells through apoptosis, such as porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM), and MARC-145 cells. Interestingly, PRRSV can replicates into NPTr-CD163 cells at a similar rate than in MARC-145 infected cells but without inducing cell death. Also, PRRSV genome possesses high mutation rate, allowing possibility to adapt to cells without CD163 receptor. Those observations lead to the following question: how does PRRSV affect gene expression in MARC-145 cells and in NPTr-CD163 cells. Our hypothesis is that NPTr-CD163 cells response against PRRSV infection is better adapted which allow cells survival compared to MARC-145 infected cells. We also think that PRRSV could adapt to cells without CD163 receptor. Therefore, type-2 PRRSV strain, IAF-Klop, was used to infect cells at several passages containing lower to higher ratios of NPTr cells without CD163 receptor (called NPTr-N2). Also, mRNA expression modulation of the MARC-145 and the NPTr-CD163 infected cells was determined by an RNA-Seq experiment using the Illumina technology. Surprisingly, PRRSV was not able to adapt and infect NPTr-N2 cells. For the RNA-Seq experiment, an activation of the genes involved in the apoptosis pathway could be observed in NPTr-CD163 cells, but a lot of surviving genes were also expressed. This experiment gave us important insights in regards to the different mechanisms involved into PRRSV pathogenicity

Advanced study of the thermoelectrically generated magnetiv field in a nine cell cavity during the superconducting phase transition

Today s superconducting radio frequency srf cavities approach quality factors up to 1011. With the decrease in overall dissipation the loss contributions previously considered minor gain in importance. One contribution is trapped magnetic flux. Superconducting rf cavities have to be cooled down to their cryogenic operating temperature. During the process, high temperature differences can occur in the system driving thermoelectric currents in the cavity wall and the surrounding liquid helium tank. The associated magnetic field can get trapped in the superconductor during its phase transition from the normal conducting into the superconducting sc state and significantly increase dissipation during later operation. The existence of this effect has been proven in general. The study presented here now adds experimental data and simulations on the amplitude and distribution of the trapped magnetic flux after the sc phase transition in the complete nine cell cavity geometry. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior in the thermoelectrically generated magnetic field during the phase transition is evaluated. DOI 10.1103 PhysRevAccelBeams.22.052001 I. INTRODUCTION For many modern accelerators, continuous wave superconducting radio frequency srf cavities are a key component. Presently, significant research and development is concentrating on reducing the power dissipation in these cavities to reduce the often prohibitively large cryogenic load. During the process it was found that the surface resistance Rs can be impacted by a number of different treatments. Various annealing techniques for high purity high residual resistivity ratio RRR amp; 8776; 300 niobium with titanium or nitrogen were established in the past years [1,2]. They mainly influence the temperature and rf field dependence of the BCS surface resistance. In contrast, we expand here o

An agency relationship under general conditions of uncertainty: A game theory application to the doctor-patient interaction

The supply of information, particularly of bad news, in an agency relationship is a sensitive issue. We employ a game theory approach to investigate conflicts in the particular case of the doctor–patient relationship when information affects the emotions of patients. The doctor does not know the type of agent and the patient does not know how much information he is given. Hence, the paper obtains results when there is conflict, rather than common interest in the objectives of the two parties. The perfect Bayesian equilibrium describes beliefs and strategies which guarantee adherence to the doctor’s recommendation. We show also that the patient may non-adhere to the recommendation not only when the doctor fails to identify the patient’s needs but also if he falsely believes that the doctor has not done so

Disappointment aversion and social comparisons in a real-effort competition

We present an experiment to investigate the source of disappointment aversion in a sequential real-effort competition. Specifically, we study the contribution of social comparison effects to the disappointment aversion previously identified in a two-person real-effort competition (Gill, D., and V. Prowse. “A Structural Analysis of Disappointment Aversion in a Real Effort Competition.” American Economic Review, 102, 2012, 469–503). To do this we compare “social” and “asocial” versions of the Gill and Prowse experiment, where the latter treatment removes the scope for social comparisons. If disappointment aversion simply reflects an asymmetric evaluation of losses and gains we would expect it to survive in our asocial treatment. Alternatively, if losing to or winning against another person affects the evaluation of losses/gains, as we show would be theoretically the case under asymmetric inequality aversion, we would expect treatment differences. We find behavior in social and asocial treatments to be similar, suggesting that social comparisons have little impact in this setting. Unlike in Gill and Prowse we do not find evidence of disappointment aversion. (JEL C91, D12, D81, D84