Forward Vertical Integration: The Fixed-Proportion Case Revisited

Assuming a fixed-proportion downstream production technology, partial forward integration by an upstream monopolist may be observed whether the monopolist is advantaged or disadvantaged cost-wise relative to fringe firms in the downstream market. Integration need not induce cost predation and the fringe firms’ margin may even increase. The output price falls and welfare unambiguously rises.Vertical integration; cost predation; cost asymmetries

Forward Vertical Integration: The Fixed-Proportion Case Revisited

Assuming a fixed-proportion downstream production technology, partial forward integration by an upstream monopolist may be observed whether the monopolist is advantaged or disadvantaged cost-wise relative to fringe firms in the downstream market. Integration need not induce cost-predation and the profits of the fringe may increase. The output price falls and welfare unambiguously rises.

Institutionalized Metzler Effects: Tariff-Rate Quota Liberalization in a Supply-Managed Industry

A supply management system governs Canada’s poultry sector. Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs), with prohibitive above-quota tariffs and low in-quota tariff, mimic import-quotas limit international competition in Canada’s poultry market. The quota part of the TRQs is a minimum access commitment under international trade agreement that is defined as a fraction of domestic production. We show in a 3-stage game involving negotiations between retailers and processors and between processors and farms that increasing minimum access commitment under current trade agreements can produce Metzler effects with larger price increases observed at the farm and processing levels. Simulations based on 2008 data support the Metzler paradox and shed light on import license allocations between retailers and poultry processors in Canada.Metzler paradox, tariff-rate quotas, chicken, negotiations, Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization, International Relations/Trade, F13, Q17,

Methodology to assess safety effects of future Intelligent Transport Systems on railway level crossings

There is consistent evidence showing that driver behaviour contributes to crashes and near miss incidents at railway level crossings (RLXs). The development of emerging Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure technologies is a highly promising approach to improve RLX safety. To date, research has not evaluated comprehensively the potential effects of such technologies on driving behaviour at RLXs. This paper presents an on-going research programme assessing the impacts of such new technologies on human factors and drivers’ situational awareness at RLX. Additionally, requirements for the design of such promising technologies and ways to display safety information to drivers were systematically reviewed. Finally, a methodology which comprehensively assesses the effects of in-vehicle and road-based interventions warning the driver of incoming trains at RLXs is discussed, with a focus on both benefits and potential negative behavioural adaptations. The methodology is designed for implementation in a driving simulator and covers compliance, control of the vehicle, distraction, mental workload and drivers’ acceptance. This study has the potential to provide a broad understanding of the effects of deploying new in-vehicle and road-based technologies at RLXs and hence inform policy makers on safety improvements planning for RLX

A JOINT TEST OF PRICING-TO-MARKET, MENU COST AND CURRENCY INVOICING

This paper investigates PTM behaviour and currency invoicing decisions of Canadian pork exporters in the presence of menu costs. It is shown that when export prices are negotiated in the exporter's currency, menu costs cause threshold effects in the sense that there are bounds within (outside of) which PTM is not (is) observed. Conversely, PTM is not interrupted by menu costs when export prices are denominated in the importer's currency. The empirical model focuses on pork meat exports from Canada to the U.S. and Japan. Hansen's (2000) threshold estimation procedure is used to jointly test for currency invoicing and PTM in the presence of menu costs. Inference is conducted using bootstrap methods. PTM effects are smaller when accounting for currency invoicing decisions and menu costs than under standard linear models. The data does not reject the null hypothesis that Quebec pork exporters exercise PTM behaviour in the Japanese market and invoice their sales in Japanese currency. Evidence of PTM behaviour and foreign currency invoicing is weak for the U.S. market. Ontario pork exporters do not exercise PTM behaviour in any market.International Relations/Trade,

Technical and Environmental efficiencies and Best Management Practices in Agriculture

An input distance function (IDF) is estimated to empirically evaluate and analyze the technical and environmental efficiencies of 210 farms located in the Chaudière watershed (Quebec), where water quality problems are particularly acute because of the production of undesirable outputs that are jointly produced with agricultural products. The true IDF is approximated by a flexible translog functional form estimated using a full information maximum likelihood method. Technical and environmental efficiencies are disaggregated across farms and account for spatial variations. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between technical and environmental efficiencies. The IDF is used to compute the cumulative Malmquist productivity index and the Fisher index. The two indices are used to measure changes in technology, profitability, efficiency, and productivity in response to the adoption of 2 selected best management practices (BMPs) whose objective is to reduce water pollution. We found significant differences across BMPs regarding the direction and the magnitude of their effect on profitability, efficiency and productivity.Environmental efficiency, distance function, phosphorus runoff, productivity, profitability, technical efficiency.

A Joint Test of Price Discrimination, Menu Cost and Currency Invoicing

This paper investigates price discriminating behaviour and currency invoicing decisions of Canadian pork exporters in the presence of menu costs. It is shown that when export prices are negotiated in the exporter’s currency, menu costs cause threshold effects in the sense that there are bounds within (outside of) which price adjustments are not (are) observed. Conversely, the pass-through is not interrupted by menu costs when export prices are denominated in the importer’s currency. The empirical model focuses on pork meat exports from two Canadian provinces to the U.S. and Japan. Hansen’s (2000) threshold estimation procedure is used to jointly test for currency invoicing and incomplete pass-through in the presence of menu costs. Inference is conducted using the bootstrap with pre-pivoting methods to deal with nuisance parameters. The existence of menu cost is supported by the data in three of the four cases. It also appears that Quebec pork exporters price discriminate and invoice in Japanese yen their exports to Japan. Manitoba exporters also seem to follow the same invoicing strategy, but their ability to increase their profit margin in response to large enough own-currency devaluations is questionable. Our currency invoicing results for sales to the U.S. are consistent with subsets of Canadian firms using either the Canadian or U.S. currency.

Adaptive beamforming for large arrays in satellite communications systems with dispersed coverage

Conventional multibeam satellite communications systems ensure coverage of wide areas through multiple fixed beams where all users inside a beam share the same bandwidth. We consider a new and more flexible system where each user is assigned his own beam, and the users can be very geographically dispersed. This is achieved through the use of a large direct radiating array (DRA) coupled with adaptive beamforming so as to reject interferences and to provide a maximal gain to the user of interest. New fast-converging adaptive beamforming algorithms are presented, which allow to obtain good signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) with a number of snapshots much lower than the number of antennas in the array. These beamformers are evaluated on reference scenarios