2,269 research outputs found
Market Transparency, Adverse Selection, and Moral Hazard
We study the effects of improvements in market transparency on eBay on seller exit and continuing sellersâ behavior. An improvement in market transparency by reducing strategic bias in buyer ratings led to a significant increase in buyer valuation especially of sellers rated poorly prior to the change, but not to an increase in seller exit. When sellers had the choice between exitingâa reduction in adverse selectionâand improved behaviorâa reduction in moral hazardâ, they preferred the latter because of lower cost. Increasing market transparency improves on market outcomes
Ownership and Control in a Competitive Industry
We study a differentiated product market in which an investor initially owns a controlling stake in one of two competing firms and may acquire a non-controlling or a controlling stake in a competitor, either directly using her own assets, or indirectly via the controlled firm. While industry profits are maximized within a symmetric two product monopoly, the investor attains this only in exceptional cases. Instead, she sometimes acquires a noncontrolling stake. Or she invests asymmetrically rather than pursuing a full takeover if she acquires a controlling one. Generally, she invests indirectly if she only wants to affect the product market outcome, and directly if acquiring shares is profitable per se.Differentiated products; separation of ownership and control; private benefits of control
Last Minute Feedback
Feedback mechanisms that allow partners to rate each other after a transaction are considered crucial for the success of anonymous internet trading platforms. We document an asymmetry in the feedback behavior on eBay, propose an explanation based on the micro structure of the feedback mechanism and the time when feedbacks are given, and support this explanation by findings from a large data set. Our analysis implies that the informational content of feedback records is likely to be low. The reason for this is that agents appear to leave feedbacks strategically. Negative feedbacks are given late, in the "last minute," or not given at all, most likely because of the fear of retaliative negative feedback. Conversely, positive feedbacks are given early in order to encourage reciprocation. Towards refining our insights into the observed pattern, we look separately at buyers and sellers, and relate the magnitude of the effects to the trading partners' experience
Adverse selection and moral hazard in anonymous markets
We study the effects of improvements in eBayâs rating mechanism on seller exit and continuing
sellersâ behavior. Following a large sample of sellers over time, we exploit the fact
that the rating mechanism was changed to reduce strategic bias in buyer rating. That improvement
did not lead to increased exit of poorly rated sellers. Yet, buyer valuation of the
staying sellersâespecially the poorly rated onesâimproved significantly. By our preferred
interpretation, the latter effect results from increased seller effort; also, when sellers have the
choice between exiting (a reduction in adverse selection) and improved behavior (a reduction
in moral hazard), then they prefer the latter because of lower cost
Advances in Composite Manufacturing of Helicopter Parts
This study investigates and compares different methods for improving standard autoclave composite manufacturing in order to find suitable approaches to a more efficient composite production. The goal is not only a reduction in manufacturing times and costs but also quality enhancement. Improved part quality while decreasing costs enables a manufacturer of composite parts to expand its market share, especially in the helicopter market, which has been constantly shrinking over the last two years. Various approaches such as improved tooling technology, the use of automated systems for lamination as well as outsourcing are examined to provide an overview of possible advancements in the area of autoclave manufacturing. The results firstly suggest that a thermal tooling optimization provides significant improvements; secondly, the use of automated systems and outsourcing will improve efficiency only under the condition that the relationship of potential cost reduction and the required investment is beneficial
Pressure-tuning of -RuCl towards the ideal Kitaev-limit
We report the discovery of an intriguing pressure-driven phase transformation
in the layered Kitaev-material -RuCl. By analyzing both the Bragg
scattering as well as the diffuse scattering of high-quality single crystals,
we reveal a collective reorganization of the layer stacking throughout the
crystal. Importantly, this transformation also effects the structure of the
RuCl honeycomb layers, which acquire a high trigonal symmetry with a single
Ru--Ru distance of 3.41\r{A} and a single Ru--Cl--Ru bond angle of 92.8{\deg}.
Hydrostatic pressure therefore allows to tune the structure of
-RuCl much closer to the ideal Kitaev-limit. The high-symmetry
phase can also be stabilized by biaxial stress, which can explain conflicting
results reported earlier and, more importantly, makes the high-symmetry phase
accessible to a variety of experiments
- âŠ