Statistical Moments Analysis of Production and Profits in Multi-Product Cournot Oligopoly

Our context involves N firms producing M products at constant marginal costs, and behaving as Cournot oligopolists. When preferences are quasi-linear, we study the relationships between second moments of unit costs and second moments of firm-level production. Larger variance in unit costs of a product increases own output variance and variance of any other output. We also investigate how second moments of unit costs affect the first and second moments of profit across firms. Larger variance in unit costs can reduce profit variance, even for a single product oligopoly.

Does China Still Have a Labor Cost Advantage?

In recent years wages in China have been rising and the yuan has appreciated, potentially eroding China’s cost advantage in manufactures. This paper explores the evolution of China’s relative unit labor costs in manufacturing over 1998-2009. Between 1998 and 2003 China’s unit labor costs fell, but since 2003 they have increased both absolutely and relative to US unit labor costs. Much of the rise in China’s relative unit labor costs can be traced to a real appreciation of the yuan against the dollar. Despite the recent rise, China’s unit labor costs remain low relative to those in most other countries.China, labor costs, productivity, international competitiveness, real exchange rate

Unit labor costs and the price level

Prices ; Wages

"Unit Labor Costs in the Eurozone: The Competitiveness Debate Again"

Current discussions about the need to reduce unit labor costs (especially through a significant reduction in nominal wages) in some countries of the eurozone (in particular, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) to exit the crisis may not be a panacea. First, historically, there is no relationship between the growth of unit labor costs and the growth of output. This is a well-established empirical result, known in the literature as Kaldor's paradox. Second, construction of unit labor costs using aggregate data (standard practice) is potentially misleading. Unit labor costs calculated with aggregate data are not just a weighted average of the firms' unit labor costs. Third, aggregate unit labor costs reflect the distribution of income between wages and profits. This has implications for aggregate demand that have been neglected. Of the 12 countries studied, the labor share increased in one (Greece), declined in nine, and remained constant in two. We speculate that this is the result of the nontradable sectors gaining share in the overall economy. Also, we construct a measure of competitiveness called unit capital costs as the ratio of the nominal profit rate to capital productivity. This has increased in all 12 countries. We conclude that a large reduction in nominal wages will not solve the problem that some countries of the eurozone face. If this is done, firms should also acknowledge that unit capital costs have increased significantly and thus also share the adjustment cost. Barring solutions such as an exit from the euro, the solution is to allow fiscal policy to play a larger role in the eurozone, and to make efforts to upgrade the export basket to improve competitiveness with more advanced countries. This is a long-term solution that will not be painless, but one that does not require a reduction in nominal wages.Competitiveness; Eurozone; Income Distribution; Unit Labor Costs

The costs of scaling up HIV prevention for high risk groups: lessons learned from the Avahan Programme in India.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective is to measure, analyse costs of scaling up HIV prevention for high-risk groups in India, in order to assist the design of future HIV prevention programmes in South Asia and beyond. DESIGN: Prospective costing study. METHODS: This study is one of the most comprehensive studies of the costs of HIV prevention for high-risk groups to date in both its scope and size. HIV prevention included outreach, sexually transmitted infections (STI) services, condom provision, expertise enhancement, community mobilisation and enabling environment activities. Economic costs were collected from 138 non-government organisations (NGOs) in 64 districts, four state level lead implementing partners (SLPs), and the national programme level (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)) office over four years using a top down costing approach, presented in US$2011. RESULTS: Mean total unit costs (2004-08) per person reached at least once a year and per monthly contact were US$ 235(56-1864) and US$82(12-969) respectively. 35$ 477 per person reached in 2004 to US$145 per person reached in 2008). At the service level also unit costs decreased slightly over time from US$ 68 to US$ 64 per person reached. CONCLUSIONS: Scaling up HIV prevention for high risk groups requires significant investment in expertise enhancement and programme administration. However, unit costs decreased with programme expansion in spite of an increase in the scope of activities

Inflation and Budget Deficit: What is the Relationship in Portugal?

The main causes of Portuguese inflation, based on annual data from 1954 to 1995, using the Johansen method, allows us to conclude that variation in Portuguese inflation is determined essentially by foreign inflation and by variation in the effective exchange rate of the Portuguese Escudo (PTE). In the long-term, the relationship between inflation rate and the growth rate of unit labour costs is almost unitary. However, the response of inflation change to the equilibrium error between inflation rate and changes in unit labour costs is slow and almost insignificant, while the response of unit labour costs to this disequilibrium is fast and significant, what suggests that the direction of causality is much more evident from the inflation rate on unit labour costs, than the reverse. The budget deficit as a percentage of GDP, are not significant in the short-term, in relation to variation in inflation as a dependent variable. However, it is significant in the relation to unit labour costs as a dependent variable, so we can have an indirect positive relation between inflation and lagged budget deficit.Inflation, Budget Deficit, Unit Roots, and Cointegration

DIAGNOSTIC ANALYSIS OF THE COST PER UNIT OF PRODUCT

This paper treats the methodology used in the product unit diagnostic analysis by entities where products are obtained in several subordinated entities with management autonomy. It also presents the relations based on which overall effects of the structural changes on cost per product unit are quantified, as well as the relations used in the analysis of some calculation items.cost per product unit; structure; constant costs; variable costs

VARIABLE AND FIXED COSTS IN COMPANY MANAGEMENT

The cost absorbs all the expenses of production for a company at acertain level of the activity. For eliminating the influence of the fixed costs’sabsorbtion and for a better supervision of other causes of digressions, the managerscan apply the method of rational imputation of the fixed costs. The managers should,in some cases, take into consideration the total costs and not the unit costs. Variablecosts, fixed costs and unit costs should be taken into consideration at all times. Whenmanagers decide on the products to be manufactured, they have to know how theincome and expenses vary along with the changes in the production volume. That iswhy they have to separate the fixed and the variable costs. The identification of avariable or fixed cost helps the manager to forecast the total costs and to take thedecisions based on an existent situation.fixed costs, variable costs, the cost of the under-activity