Equilibrium Location and Economic Welfare in Delivered Pricing Oligopoly

We investigate the equilibrium location pattern and welfare implication in delivered pricing model (or spatial price discrimination model) with a linear city. First, we extend a delivered pricing duopoly with Bertrand competition of Hamilton et al. (1989) to an n-firm model and explicitly solve the equilibrium location pattern. Next, we investigate welfare implication of the equilibrium location pattern. Given the Bertrand competition in the second stage we consider the welfare effect of relocations from the equilibrium locations. The equilibrium distance between firms is smaller than in the first best case, while it is too large from the second best viewpoint.

Equilibria for circular spatial Cournot markets

This paper investigates a location-quantity model in a circular city. Pal (1998) investigates a duopoly model and finds that an equidistant location pattern appears in equilibrium. Matsushima (2001a) investigates an n-firm oligopoly model and shows that, if the number of firms is even, another equilibrium exists where half of the firms agglomerate at one point and the other firms agglomerate at the opposite point. We find that there exist many other equilibrium patterns that include the above two patterns as special cases.circular city

Mixed oligopoly and spatial agglomeration in quasi-linear city

We apply a spatial model that includes both circular-city and linear-city models as special cases to the analysis of location-quantity model in mixed oligopoly. We find that the equilibrium pattern continuously moves from that of the circular-city to that of the linear-city and that the linear-city result is more likely in our setting as the equilibrium location.Linear-city, Circular-city, Location-quantity, Mixed oligopoly

Slimebot: A Modular Robot That Exploits Emergent Phenomena

Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, April 200

Japanese Economic Policy After the Burst of the Bubble Economy

研究ノー

The Nireco Poison Pill: The Impact of a Court Injunction

The emergence of a market for corporate control in Japan is a phenomenon that many commentators on Japan’s business and legal environs had been anticipating since the turn of the new millennium. A gradual decline in corporate crossshareholding and stable shareholding by financial institutions along with a concomitant increase in foreign and individual shareholders, a significant number of inefficient firms still being affected by Japan’s prolonged recession until recent years and trading at prices below their market value, and Commercial Code revisions making the legal environment more conducive to merger and acquisition activity and providing for more flexible restructuring mechanisms, all pointed to a potential hostile takeover trend akin to that which occurred in the United States during the 1980s. However, it was not until early 2005, when Takafumi Horie, CEO of the internet firm Livedoor, made an unsolicited bid for majority control over Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc., that the hostile-takeover era seemed to have officially arrived upon Japan’s doorstep. The ensuing media frenzy surrounding the rare hostile takeover attempt and the eventual decision by the Tokyo District Court to block Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc.’s issuance of stock purchase warrants to a friendly shareholder to thwart the takeover attempt compelled Japan’s government and business sectors into action. The result was a wide embrace of an ntitakeover mechanism commonly known as the “poison pill.” A Japanese manufacturer of hi-tech measuring devices was the first to officially act, when on March 14, 2005, just days after the Tokyo District Court’s first ruling in the Nippon Broadcasting case and a couple of months before the Japanese government would respond with its recommendations on the adoption of anti-takeover mechanisms, the board of directors of Nireco Co. voted to adopt a poison pill as a preliminary antitakeover device. The Nireco poison pill authorized the issuance of stock purchase warrants to the company’s current shareholders. These warrants could be exercised to dilute a hostile bidder’s shareholding in circumstances where the board of directors deems the acquisition not to be in the long-term interests of the company. However, the Nireco poison pill did not go unchallenged. On May 9, 2005, an investment fund owning 6.8% of Nireco’s outstanding shares filed a petition for a provisional injunction against the poison pill, arguing that the issuance of stock purchase warrants in the absence of a hostile bidder was grossly unfair because it would cause unforeseen financial harm to existing shareholders as well as to future shareholders. This Article focuses upon the attempt by Nireco’s board of directors to implement what would have been Japan’s first poison pill and the subsequent decision by the Tokyo courts to enjoin the preliminary anti-takeover device as grossly unfair. The authors examine the substantive and procedural characteristics of the poison pill, including the deficiencies prompting the Tokyo District Court to block Nireco its implementation, as well as the potential impact of the ourt’s decision on future business practice in Japan. By placing the court’s decision in the Nireco case within the history of jurisprudence relating to corporate issuances of new shares or stock purchase warrants challenged as grossly unfair under Japan’s Commercial Code, now the Company law, the authors seek to emphasize (1) the court’s shift away from the main purpose rule standard of judgment in favor of a reasonable means standard for evaluating anti-takeover mechanisms, whether adopted in the face of a hostile acquirer or simply as a preliminary anti-takeover device; (2) the court’s addition of pure economic harm to the list of potential harms to shareholders; and (3) lingering questions regarding the role of the general shareholder meeting in approving an anti-takeover mechanism. While the authors eschew any strong stance on the appropriateness of the poison pill within Japan’s corporate governance structure, they do predict that the judiciary will play a prominent role in the future development of anti-takeover mechanisms like the poison pill, in part due to the developments in the Nireco case

実務英語教育における英語スピーチ訓練導入への実践方略 : 理容師美容師養成施設での"My Dream"スピーチからの一考察

This paper explores some benefits, and instructional approaches, related to the introduction of English speech practice, especially in the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) educational field. An ESP program offered at a hairdressing college is referred to as an example. One principal benefit, which English speech practice in ESP classes brings out, is to reinforce learners\u27 awareness of their "instrumental need" to learn ESP. An investigation conducted herein shows that in introducing English speech practice in ESP classes, especially at the beginner\u27s English level, instructors are required to deliberate if they need to provide a subtitle and/or supplementary instructions to explain a speech assignment. Whether to offer them, or not, affects how the students express their "instrumental need" to learn ESP, in their own speeches

Nature of the Karakawa moor, Iwami-cho, Tottori Prefecture : topography, geology and vegetation

The Karakawa moor situated in the mountainous area of eastern part of Tottori Prefecture west Japan was investigated geologically and vegetationaty as the basic study for conservation of natural environments. The 26 hand orger drillings revealed the buried topography under the moor. There are small ridge and two shallow valleys under the moor. The formation of moor was promoted by deposition of dam upped sediments at the junction of these two valleys, The sediments are composed of gravel, silt and clay, volcanic ash and black organic soil (peat) in ascending order. The volcanic ash is considered as secondary deposits and identified as mixture of Aira Tn ash (ca.25ka) and Daisen Uh ash (ca.20 ± α ka) by means of thermomagnetic and also EDX analyses. From the results of fossil pollen analysis, the black organic soil is divided into three pollen zones in ascending order as follows; A zone (145-130 cm depth: Castanea & Castanopsis, Taxodiaceae &Cupressaceae, Betula, Cryptomeria), B zone (130-90 cm depth: Castanea & Castanopsis, Taxodiaceae & Cupressaceae, Cyclobalanopsis, Aesculus), C zone (90-35 cm depth: Taxodiaceae & Cupressaceae, Castanea & Castanopsis, Aesculus, Tsuga). the vegetation of the moor was inbestigated phytosociologically in 1980-1981 and 1988-1989. As the result of the studies, 5 communities were recognized. The following 3 communities with 2 sub-communities as a typical moor vegetation among them were discussed with the comparison of a secular change. 1) Eriocaulon miquelianum - Rhyncospora fauriei community 2) Hosta montana - Arundinella hirta community 　(2-1) Rhynchospora fauriei - A.hirta sub-community 　(2-2) Carex dispalata - A.hirta sub-community 3) Lythrum anceps - C.dispalata community (1) is an oligotrophic community favored by pudding water flowing from percolating underground water. (3) is an eutrophic community confined to the area near the stream