Essays in Industrial Organization: The Effects of Vertical Integration on Prices and New Product Introduction

This dissertation consists of three essays that study the effects of vertical integration in the field of industrial organization. The first chapter studies the effects of vertical integration on the vertically integrated company, specifically, the effects on prices and new product introduction. The second chapter studies the effects of vertical integration on the vertically integrated company's competitor. The third chapter studies the effects of vertical integration on the new product introduction in detail, and discusses the important policy implications.In the first chapter, I study the effects of vertical integration on the vertically integrated company, specifically, the effects on prices and new product introduction. Upstream and downstream companies both charge markups, and separated production generally incurs higher cost. Different incentives of upstream and downstream companies and high negotiation costs may impede new product introduction process. Vertical integration solves these problems. This chapter studies empirically the effects of vertical integration: whether it leads to a price decrease, which comes from synergy and the elimination of double marginalization; and whether it leads to more new products introduced to market, because it eases the new product introduction process. Specifically, this chapter studies the 2010 vertical integrations of the two largest soda companies, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, with their largest downstream bottlers, respectively, by using bottlers’ territory maps together with prices and sales data. In this chapter, all carbonated soft drink master brands of The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are included in the analysis. Results show that the vertical integrations lead to 0.3%-0.6% price decrease for products of The Coca-Cola Company and 1.4%-1.6% price decrease for products of PepsiCo; and they lead to more new products introduced to vertically integrated markets: annually 9%-10% more new products for The Coca-Cola Company, and 5%-8% more new products for PepsiCo.In the second chapter, I study the effects of vertical integration on the vertically integrated company's competitor, specifically, the effects on prices and new product introduction. The vertically integrated bottlers (Coca-Cola Enterprises, Pepsi Bottling Group and Pepsi Americas) bottled Dr Pepper's products both before and after the vertical integration. For Dr Pepper Snapple Group, its competitors, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, controlled its downstream bottlers after the vertical integrations. In the soda industry, the bottlers set the price of final products. Furthermore, if the upstream company wants to introduce a new product, it needs to negotiate with downstream bottlers for them to bottle and distribute the products. After the vertical integration, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo have incentives to increase the price of the Dr Pepper's products so that consumers will substitute from Dr Pepper's products to Coca-Cola's and Pepsi Cola's products. Furthermore, when Dr Pepper wants to introduce a new product, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo may impede this process, leading to fewer new products from Dr Pepper, which will be beneficial for The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. Empirically, only products of three master brands, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and Dr Pepper, are included in the analysis. Results show that the vertical integrations lead to 0.7%-1.0% price decrease for products of Coca-Cola, 1.4%-2.2% price decrease for products of Pepsi Cola, and 0.3%-0.7% price increase for products of Dr Pepper. For the new product introduction, vertical integrations lead to more new products for the vertically integrated company and fewer new products for the vertically integrated company's competitor: annually 12%-13% more new products of Coca-Cola, 10%-12% more new products of Pepsi Cola, and 9%-15% fewer new products of Dr Pepper.In the third chapter, I study more about these new products and about how vertical integration affects new product introduction process. Products are defined using six characteristics. For each new product, I find out what is the new characteristics of this product. For all the new products introduced before vertical integration, I draw the distribution of these new characteristics, and I do the same for all new products introduced after vertical integration. I then study how vertical integration affects the distribution of new characteristics. For the new products of the vertically integrated company, after vertical integration, the distribution of new characteristics shifts from less innovative characteristics to more innovative characteristics. That is to say, the new products introduced after vertical integration are more innovative. For the new products of the vertically integrated company's competitor, after vertical integration, the distribution of new characteristics shifts from more innovative characteristics to less innovative characteristics. That is to say, the new products introduced after vertical integration are less innovative.I also discuss the important policy implications in the third chapter. The effect of vertical integration on new product introduction has not drawn much attention in vertical merger reviews and evaluations. The results of this research show that the effect of vertical integration on new product introduction should be emphasized in anti-trust policies and their enforcement. This policy implication is very important, especially when many recent high-profile merger cases are vertical integrations, such as the AT&T and Time Warner merger, etc. And the recent development of anti-trust policies echoes the results of this research

The role of accessory proteins in controlling the thyroid hormone regulation of transcription of the malic enzyme gene.

Triiodothyronine (T3) stimulates a 70-fold or greater increase in transcription of the malic enzyme gene in chick embryo hepatocytes. Previous work has shown that the effects of T3 on malic enzyme transcription are mediated in large part by sequence elements located within a liver-specific and T3-inducible DNase I hypersensitive region in the 5′-flanking DNA of the malic enzyme gene. Within this DNase I hypersensitive region is a cluster of nuclear T3 receptor (TR) binding sites that together constitute a T3 response unit (TAU). Flanking the T3RU are accessory elements that enhance T3 regulation conferred by the T3RU in chick embryo hepatocytes. In this dissertation, I have characterized the proteins that bind TR accessory elements in the malic enzyme gene. I demonstrate that the homeodomain proteins, Pbx and Meis1, interact with a strongly active TR accessory element designated as region E. In addition, using a dominant-negative approach, I have developed functional evidence demonstrating that the liver-enriched transcription factor, CCAAT/Enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP), interacts with another TR accessory element referred to as region F. Results from transfection and protein-protein interaction assays suggest that the Pbx-Meis1 bound to region E and C/EBP bound to region F stimulate T3 responsiveness of the malic enzyme gene by directly interacting with TR bound to the T3RU. In further work, I have identified two new TR accessory elements that enhance T3 regulation of malic enzyme transcription in chick embryo hepatocytes. One element (designated as region G) binds chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor and the other element (designated as region H) binds an unidentified E-box binding protein. In summary, a wide variety of transcription factors mediate the potent effects of T3 on malic enzyme transcription in hepatocytes

On Classification-Calibration of Gamma-Phi Losses

Gamma-Phi losses constitute a family of multiclass classification loss functions that generalize the logistic and other common losses, and have found application in the boosting literature. We establish the first general sufficient condition for the classification-calibration of such losses. In addition, we show that a previously proposed sufficient condition is in fact not sufficient.Comment: 21 page

Computerized Stock Trading System

This IQP combines fundamental and technical analysis by adding value to the stocks selected by the Guru Stock Screener through utilizing the concept of complete trading strategies. We utilize TradeStation trading platform to evaluate four additional screening criteria: Moving Average Crossover, Average Directional Index, Volatility and Efficiency indicators on 100 stocks that are selected by the Guru Stock Screener to further refine the stock list down to only five stocks plus GOOG and X that satisfy certain criteria

Improving the bilateral сooperation between Ukraine and the people's republic of China

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the bilateral economic and trade relations between China and Ukraine, and to assess prevailing trade and investment conditions and offer reference suggestions for both enterprises and governments. We use the analysis results of this thesis, combined with the current trade and investment conditions, to provide some reference suggestions for enterprises and governments. In this study, we will try to identify and evaluate the main areas of cooperation between China and Ukraine; determine the main directions and forms of cooperation between Ukraine and China; analyze the development of political relations between Ukraine and China at the government level; and understand the current situation of economic cooperation between Ukraine and China. main issues and prospects. In accordance with the set goal, the following tasks were defined and solved in the dissertation: to analysis of the content and principles of bilateral cooperation; to tools and methods of evaluating bilateral cooperation; to analysis of economic and trade integration and potential between Ukraine and China; to evaluation of Ukrainian-Chinese bilateral cooperation in the field of multinational corporate activities; to analysis of Ukraine - bilateral cooperation with China, focusing on the impact of technology transfer and immigration processes; to forecast of the prospects of bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and China; Analysis of the causes of bilateral economic and trade development problems between Ukraine and China; to suggestions for improving bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and China;Метою дослідження є ретельне дослідження двосторонніх економічних та торговельних відносин між Китаєм та Україною, аналізування провідних умов торгівлі та інвестування, а також рекомендації та пропозиції як для підприємств, так і для урядів. Завдання: розкрити походження та характер двостороннього співробітництва; вивчити механізм функціонування двостороннього співробітництва; проаналізувати реальний стан розвитку двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною та Китаєм; проаналізувати масштаби та структурні характеристики двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною та Китаєм з двох аспектів: масштаби та тенденції двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною та Китаєм та структурні характеристики імпортних та експортних товарів; розрахувати ступінь торговельної інтеграції між Україною та Китаєм та дослідити потенціал розвитку двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною та Китаєм шляхом побудови гравітаційної моделі; проаналізувати проблеми, що існують у розвитку двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною та Китаєм, та виявити їхні причини; окреслити поточні торговельні та інвестиційні умови білатерального співробітництва і надати рекомендації для бізнесу та урядів країн

A combinatorial characterization of the annihilator varieties of highest weight modules for classical Lie algebras

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a classical Lie algebra. Let $L(\lambda)$ be a highest weight module of $\mathfrak{g}$ with highest weight $\lambda-\rho$, where $\rho$ is half the sum of positive roots. In 1985, Joseph proved that the associated variety of a primitive ideal is the Zariski closure of a nilpotent orbit in $\mathfrak{g}^*$. In this paper, we will give some combinatorial characterizations of the annihilator varieties of highest weight modules for classical Lie algebras. In fact, we will give two algorithms, i.e., bipartition algorithm and partition algorithm.Comment: 40page

An Automatic Evaluation Framework for Multi-turn Medical Consultations Capabilities of Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have achieved significant success in interacting with human. However, recent studies have revealed that these models often suffer from hallucinations, leading to overly confident but incorrect judgments. This limits their application in the medical domain, where tasks require the utmost accuracy. This paper introduces an automated evaluation framework that assesses the practical capabilities of LLMs as virtual doctors during multi-turn consultations. Consultation tasks are designed to require LLMs to be aware of what they do not know, to inquire about missing medical information from patients, and to ultimately make diagnoses. To evaluate the performance of LLMs for these tasks, a benchmark is proposed by reformulating medical multiple-choice questions from the United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE), and comprehensive evaluation metrics are developed and evaluated on three constructed test sets. A medical consultation training set is further constructed to improve the consultation ability of LLMs. The results of the experiments show that fine-tuning with the training set can alleviate hallucinations and improve LLMs' performance on the proposed benchmark. Extensive experiments and ablation studies are conducted to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework.Comment: 10 pages, 9figure