71 research outputs found
Market equilibrium with search and computational costs
Although it is an empirical regularity that in the trade of homogeneous goods there is persistent price dispersion and buyers search for low-priced items, theoretically we find that in market equilibrium, when buyers are optimisers (the neo-classical framework), these regularities do not occur. Summing this undesirable theoretical result to the fact that the computation of optimal strategies is demanding, the relevance of using optimisation models in rationalising human behaviour is put in question. Even so, Lucas (1981) claims that optimisation models should not be abandoned because only these are âable to isolate those aspects of behaviour that remain invariant to policy shifts from those that do notâ. In this work, following Lucasâ claim, we introduce economic agents as having computational limitations in the neo-classical optimisation model, which is new in the literature. As a result of this alteration to the model, in market equilibrium, we observe both price dispersion and search when buyers have information and computational limitations.Computational limitations, Optimisation, Search, Market equilibrium
Multi Product Market Equilibrium with Sequential Search
In this paper I investigate whether, in market equilibrium, one observes price dispersion and search when buyers intend to acquire several products whose price is unknown and exists a positive search cost. Although that seems fruitful, I prove that in market equilibrium it is not observed neither price dispersion nor search and shops act as if they where monopolists. Nevertheless, there is one property of the theory that is in accordance with empirical data, namely the continuous increase in the number and dimension of larger shops.Search, Price Dispersion, Market Equilibrium, Multi-products
The importance in the papers' impact of the number of pages and of co-authors - an empirical estimation with data from top ranking economic journals
On a regular basis the scientific output of academic people has to be evaluated, e.g. to decide tenure. A very important item in this evaluation is the published papersâ quality that tends to be approximated by its impact in the literature. As the measure of this impact requires a long-term analysis, thus it is used as its estimator the journal average impact where each paper is published. But some papers have a single author while others have several and some papers have one or two pages while others have more than fifty. In this work I validate the conjecture that these two variables have a significant and positive effect in papersâ future impact, i.e. in papers quality. Nonetheless, I quantify that this two variables jointly considered merely explain 2.8% of papersâ impact variability.Scientific Skill, Co-authorship, Papersâ impact
Animals domestication and agriculture as outcomes of collusion
Although it is known that there are circumstances where the competitive situation does not promote social welfare maximization, collusion is usually associated with firmsâ strategies that decrease welfare. In this paper, using the theoretical framework of the industrial organization, I demonstrate in a model with two sectors that the economic revolution induced by the animal domestication and the agriculture is an outcome from the strengthen in collusion between human beings in the course of historical time and not vice-versa.Collusion, welfare progress, domestication, agriculture emergence
Introdução à Teoria do Consumidor
Este livro Ă© um guia de apoio a Microeconomia contendo dois pontos programĂĄticos. No 1.Âș capĂtulo, apresento o mercado desagregado em trĂȘs Leis da Natureza: i) que as pretensĂ”es dos vendedores se agregam na função de oferta; ii) que as pretensĂ”es dos compradores se agregam na função de procura; e iii) que o mercado equilibra as pretensĂ”es dos compradores com as dos vendedores. No 2.0 capĂtulo apresento a função de procura com o resultado de consumidores que maximizam uma função de utilidade sob restrição do rendimento que tĂȘm disponĂvel e dos preços de mercado.Curva de indiferença, Restrição orçamental, Maximização da utilidade
A comment on efficiency gains and myopic antitrust authority in a dynamic merger game
This paper relaxes the Motta & Vasconcelosâ (2005) short-term assumption that firmsâ capital is fixed. We demonstrate that, contrary to the conclusion of that article, in the best interest of consumers, even when firms have large economies of scale, long-term forward-looking Antitrust Authorities must block firmsâ merger plans whenever profits of firms are positive.Antitrust policy, Economies of scale
Integrating fire risk into the management of forests
In a standard cash-flow data-sheet analysis, the quantification of the impact of exogenous variables and management decisions on the investmentâs Net Present Value is limited to only a few scenarios. This perspective is insufficient for an efficient risk management in complex business environments. In this work, I present a dynamic programming model that takes into consideration fire risk. Having applied the model to forest management, I conclude that when fire risk increases, it is optimal for the manager to increase the area used per tree and the cut-off weight of stems. Rather than increasing the business Expected Net Present Value (that, with real interest rate of 3%/year, is between 1.5âŹ/m2 and 2.2âŹ/m2), the optimal strategy decreases the business risk. Additionally, I conclude from the model that there is no private incentive to carry out fire risk prevention.Risk Management, Project Evaluation, Expected Net Present Val
How to control market power of activity centers? A theoretical model showing the advantages of implementing competition within organizations
One important issue in firms' governance is how to incentives so that activity centres can become more efficient. In this paper, we first introduce an agency contract where the salary of the manager of an activity centre that produces an intermediate product is dependent of its performance. Secondly, we add competition within the organization. This latter point is new in the literature. We then develop a "static analysis" comparing a firm that has only one activity centre producing an intermediate product with another firm that has two activity centres producing the same intermediate product, in a context where the technology manifests increasing returns to scale. We conclude that the introduction of internal competition makes the firm globally more efficient, even though it cannot fully explore the existence of increasing returns to scale.
A new economic journalsâ ranking that takes into account the number of pages and co-authors
In this article, I examine whether the academics reward policy must correlate positively with the number of published articles per co-author, the number of pages and journal reputation. This is accomplished by estimating a non-linear model with a panel data from 168 economics journals covered in the ISI-Web of Knowledge database (58825 articles). The data reinforces the conjecture that published article value is slightly increasing with the number of co-authors and is proportional to the number of pages. The data also suggests that there are 4 distinct groups related to journal quality that I name A, B+, B and Bâ.Co-authorship, Value of articles, Assessment of output
The Impact of Monetary Shocks on Product and Wages: A neoclassical aggregated dynamic model
In this work, I present an extension of Kydland and Prescottâs (K&P) model. The extension is to consider that prices and wages are nominal and that economic agents anticipate the probability of occurrence of exogenous shocks. Once calibrated the model, I compute the nominal and real dynamic response to a monetary shock. The results observed are in agreement with the economic stylised facts: there are permanent nominal effects but only short-term real effects. An interesting issue to pursue in future research would be to quantify the influence of money in the business cycle and to compare the results obtained with those in the real model of K&P.Business Cycle, Economic nominal variable, Monetary shocks, Microfoundation.
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