Price Competition, Business Hours, and Shopping Time Flexibility

We analyze differentiated retail industries where shops engage in two-stage competition with respect to opening hours and prices. We explore the effects of consumers' shopping time flexibility by comparing bi-directional consumers with forward- or backward-oriented consumers, who can either postpone or advance their shopping, but not both. We demonstrate that retailers with longer opening hours charge higher prices and that opening hour differentiation softens price competition. We calculate both symmetric and asymmetric subgame perfect equilibria in closing hours and demonstrate how the equilibrium configurations depend on the cost increases associated with extended business hours, as well as the relative densities of day and night shoppers.Wir analysieren unterschiedliche Einzelhandelsindustrien, in denen Läden in einem zweistufigen Wettbewerb bezüglich Öffnungszeiten und Preisen stehen. Wir erforschen die Effekte von Kundenflexibilität, indem wir völlig flexible Kunden mit vor- bzw. rückwärtsorientierten Kunden vergleichen können, welche ihren Einkauf nur vorziehen oder verschieben können, aber nicht beides. Wir zeigen, dass Einzelhändler mit längeren Öffnungszeiten höhere Preise verlangen und dass die Differenzierung der Öffnungszeiten den Preiswettbewerb abschwächt. Wir berechnen sowohl symmetrische als auch unsymmetrische teilspielperfekte Gleichgewichte für die Öffnungszeiten und zeigen, wie die Ausgestaltung der Gleichgewichte von den zusätzlichen Kosten der ausgedehnten Öffnungszeiten und der relativen Dichte von Tag- und Nachteinkäufern abhängt

Liberalization of Opening Hours With Free Entry

This paper studies competition in prices and opening hours in a model with free entry. It is shown that under free competition a market failure arises: Entry is excessive and opening hours are under-provided. Restrictions on opening hours aggravate this failure. I analyze the impact of a liberalization of opening hours. The model predicts that in the short run prices will remain constant, but increase in the long run. Concentration in the retail sector will rise and opening hours will increase in two steps, immediately after deregulation and further over time. Finally, employment in the retail sector increases

Two novel missense mutations in the myelin protein zero gene causes Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2 and Déjérine-Sottas syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) phenotype caused by mutation in the <it>myelin protein zero (MPZ) </it>gene varies considerably, from early onset and severe forms to late onset and milder forms. The mechanism is not well understood. The myelin protein zero (P₀) mediates adhesion in the spiral wraps of the Schwann cell's myelin sheath. The crystalline structure of the extracellular domain of the myelin protein zero (P₀ex) is known, while the transmembrane and intracellular structure is unknown.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>One novel missense mutation caused a milder late onset CMT type 2, while the second missense mutation caused a severe early onset phenotype compatible with Déjérine-Sottas syndrome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The phenotypic variation caused by different missense mutations in the <it>MPZ </it>gene is likely caused by different conformational changes of the MPZ protein which affects the functional tetramers. Severe changes of the MPZ protein cause dysfunctional tetramers and predominantly uncompacted myelin, i.e. the severe phenotypes congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy and Déjérine-Sottas syndrome, while milder changes cause the phenotypes CMT type 1 and 2.</p

Person-to-Person Electronic Funds Transfers: Recent Developments and Policy Issues

The paper investigates the reasons why person-to-person electronic funds transfers are still not very common in the United States compared with practices in many other countries. The paper also describes recent enhancements to online and mobile banking that provide account holders with low-cost interfaces to manage person-to-person electronic funds transfers via automated clearing house (ACH). On the theoretical side, the paper characterizes the critical mass levels needed for payment instruments to become widely adopted. Given the Fed's long-term heavy involvement in check clearing, the paper concludes with policy discussions of whether intervention is needed

Outsourcing with debt financing

This paper investigates the effect of capital structure on a firm’s choice between vertical integration and outsourcing. We model the production decision in a Principal-Agent framework and show that suppliers use debt as a strategic instrument to collect the surplus from outsourcing as their wealth constraint or limited liability ensures them more attractive compensation schemes. Investigating the buyer’s capital structure, we find that outsourcing with risky debt is more likely to occur for high values of the outsourcing surplus.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Systemic Approach to Multi-Party Relationship Modeling

Socio-economic systems exist in a wide variety of activity domains and are composed of multiple stakeholder groups. These groups pursue objectives which are often entirely motivated from within their local context. Domain specificities in the form of institutional design, for example the deregulation of Public Utility systems, can further fragment this context. Nevertheless, for these systems to be viable, a management subsystem that maintains a holistic view of the system is required. From a Systems perspective, this highlights the need to invest in methods that capture the interactions between the different stakeholders of the system. It is the understanding of the individual interactions that can help piece together a holistic view of the system thereby enabling system level discourse. In this paper we present a modeling technique that models industry interactions as a multi-party value realization process and takes a Systems approach in analyzing them. Every interaction is analyzed both from outside – system as a black box and from within – system as a white box. The design patterns that emerge from this whole/composite view of value realization provide the necessary foundation to analyze the working of multi-stakeholder systems. An explicit specification of these concepts is presented as Regulation Enabling Ontology, REGENT. As an example, we instantiate REGENT for the urban residential electricity market and demonstrate its effectiveness in identifying the requirements for time-based electricity supply systems

Airline customer loyalty through analysis of stated preference

This study evaluates airline customer loyalty and estimates the switching costs for a domestic airline route in Brazil through a stated preference survey. Several structures of discrete choice models were tested to represent the choice of behavior: multinomial logit, mixed logit random coefficients, multinomial logit incorporating systematic variations of preferences, mixed logit error component and mixed logit error component incorporating systematic variations of preferences. The results showed that loyal passengers are more likely to choose the dominant Brazilian airline Tam. The switching costs of passengers loyal to Tam, for this sample, are equivalent to 15% of the fare, which represents much more than the percentage for other companies. These passengers are less sensitive to variations in the fares and incur higher costs not to switch airlines

Laser excitation of the 1s-hyperfine transition in muonic hydrogen

The CREMA collaboration is pursuing a measurement of the ground-state hyperfine splitting (HFS) in muonic hydrogen ($\mu$p) with 1 ppm accuracy by means of pulsed laser spectroscopy to determine the two-photon-exchange contribution with $2\times10^{-4}$ relative accuracy. In the proposed experiment, the $\mu$p atom undergoes a laser excitation from the singlet hyperfine state to the triplet hyperfine state, {then} is quenched back to the singlet state by an inelastic collision with a H$_2$ molecule. The resulting increase of kinetic energy after the collisional deexcitation is used as a signature of a successful laser transition between hyperfine states. In this paper, we calculate the combined probability that a $\mu$p atom initially in the singlet hyperfine state undergoes a laser excitation to the triplet state followed by a collisional-induced deexcitation back to the singlet state. This combined probability has been computed using the optical Bloch equations including the inelastic and elastic collisions. Omitting the decoherence effects caused by {the laser bandwidth and }collisions would overestimate the transition probability by more than a factor of two in the experimental conditions. Moreover, we also account for Doppler effects and provide the matrix element, the saturation fluence, the elastic and inelastic collision rates for the singlet and triplet states, and the resonance linewidth. This calculation thus quantifies one of the key unknowns of the HFS experiment, leading to a precise definition of the requirements for the laser system and to an optimization of the hydrogen gas target where $\mu$p is formed and the laser spectroscopy will occur.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure