Prominence and consumer search

This paper examines the implications of “prominence” in search markets. We model prominence by supposing that the prominent firm will be sampled first by all consumers. If there are no systematic quality differences among firms, we find that the prominent firm will charge a lower price than its non-prominent rivals. The impact of making a firm prominent is that it will typically lead to higher industry profit but lower consumer surplus and welfare. The model is extended by introducing heterogeneous product qualities, in which case the firm with the highest-quality product has the greatest incentive to become prominent, and making it prominent will boost industry profit, consumer surplus and welfare

In Litigation: How Far do the "Haves" Come Out Ahead?

This paper studies the consequences of asymmetric litigation costs. Under three differ- ent protocols: static legal process, dynamic legal process with exogenous sequencing and dynamic legal process with endogenous sequencing, solutions are obtained for the litigation efforts and the expected value of lawsuits on each side. Outcomes are evaluated in terms of two normative criteria: achieving `justice' and minimizing aggregate litigation cost. The theory implies that a moderate degree of asymmetry may improve access to justice. The dynamics of legal process may accentuate or diminish the effect of asymmetry. The en- dogenous sequencing protocol minimizes cost and may improve access to justice.access to justice;endogenous sequencing;dynamics of litigation process;re- source dissipation

In Litigation: How Far do the “Haves” Come Out Ahead

This paper studies the consequences of asymmetric litigation costs. Under three differ- ent protocols: static legal process, dynamic legal process with exogenous sequencing and dynamic legal process with endogenous sequencing, solutions are obtained for the litigation efforts and the expected value of lawsuits on each side. Outcomes are evaluated in terms of two normative criteria: achieving `justice' and minimizing aggregate litigation cost. The theory implies that a moderate degree of asymmetry may improve access to justice. The dynamics of legal process may accentuate or diminish the effect of asymmetry. The en- dogenous sequencing protocol minimizes cost and may improve access to justice.access to justice;endogenous sequencing;dynamics of litigation process;re- source dissipation.

Conditioning prices on search behaviour

We consider a market in which �firms can partially observe each consumer's search behavior in the market. In our main model, a �firm knows whether a consumer is visiting it for the �first time or whether she is returning after a previous visit. Firms have an incentive to offer a lower price on a �first visit than a return visit, so that new consumers are offered a "buy-now" discount. The ability to offer such discounts acts to raise all prices in the market. If �firms cannot commit to their buy-later price, in many cases �firms make "exploding" offers, and consumers never return to a previously sampled �rm. Likewise, if �firms must charge the same price to all consumers, regardless of search history, we show that they sometimes have the incentive to make exploding offers. We also consider other ways in which �firms could use information about search behaviour to determine their prices

The weighted v-spline as a double knot B-spline

The local support basis representation of the ‘weighted v-spline’ is derived in terms of double knot cubic B-splines, so providing a convenient form for computing and analysing the representation

Convexity of Bẻzier nets on sub-triangles

This note generalizes a result of Goodman[3], where it is shown that the convexity of Bèzier nets defined on a base triangle is preserved on sub-triangles obtained from a mid-point subdivision process. Here we show that the convexity of Bèzier nets is preserved on and only on sub-triangles that are "parallel" to the base triangle

Nanocellulose aerogel-based porous coaxial fibers for thermal insulation

Strong, continuous, and highly porous coaxial fibers with cellulose nanofibril (CNF) aerogel core and cellulose-rich sheath were fabricated by wet-spinning hollow fibers and infusing them with aerogel precursor for high-performance thermal insulators. The sheath contained multiscale pores, including microvoids (14.5 μm) and sub-micron pores (133 nm) in bulk, as well as ca. 25–26 nm surface nanopores, to function as a template and protective sheath for the microporous CNF aerogel core. The porous coaxial fibers had many desirable qualities, including low density (0.2 g cm3), high porosity (85%), high specific tensile strength (23.5 ± 2.5 MPa g cm−3), wide working temperatures (−20 to 150 °C), continuous and large-scale producibility, as well as biodegradability. The unique combination of multiscale porous sheath and ultra-low density aerogel core synergistically minimizes heat conductivity by all three mechanisms, i.e., restrain air circulation to limit convective heat transfer, while the poor conducting cellulose permitting little conductive heat transfer and the highly crystalline aerogel cellular walls prohibit infrared radiation, effectively suppresses radiative heat transfer under extreme temperatures