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This paper analyzes the behavior of the Argentine chocolate bar industry during the period 2019-2022. It mainly focuses on the level of competition between the firms in the industry, estimating conduct parameters that signal the existence of harder or softer competition. We first calculate a conduct parameter without taking into account the phenomenon of product differentiation, using two alternative specifications: linear and logarithmic. While the linear specification produces an estimation that is consistent with the absence of market power (i.e., perfect competition), the logarithmic specification generates a result which signals some kind of imperfect competition. This last result is reinforced when we explicitly model product differentiation at the level of the supplying firms. This new specification allows discarding the hypothesis of perfect competition and also the hypothesis of collusion, and it slightly favors the existence of quantity (Cournot) competition over price (Bertrand) competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Spanish is a relatively unified language, in the sense that people from very distant locations manage to understand each other well, there are several phonetic phenomena that distinguish geographically separated varieties. The total number of native speakers of Spanish is above 400 million, and roughly 10% of them live in Argentina (Instituto Cervantes 2014). The accent described below corresponds to formal Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires, and the main allophones are indicated by parentheses in the Consonant Table. The recordings are from a 49-year-old college-educated male speaker, who has lived all his life in either the city of Buenos Aires or the province of Buenos Aires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a procedure to evaluate the possible existence of negative correlation between three language ratios (phonemes per syllable, syllables per word, and words per clause), based on a synergetic linguistics' approach. It uses partial correlation coefficients and simultaneous-equation regressions, and the analysis is performed on data obtained from the fable "The North Wind and the Sun", translated into 50 languages. After controlling for phenomena related to geographic and genetic factors, we end up with the conclusion that the three ratios are negatively correlated between themselves, and this can be seen as a signal of the possible existence of complexity trade-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Investigación Lingüística is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ensayos Economicos is the property of Banco Central de la Republica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

11 I thank Reinhard Köhler, Mariano Fernández and two anonymous referees for their extremely useful comments and suggestions to a previous version of this article. This paper proposes a method to analyse linguistic data using simultaneous equation regressions, and applies that method to a database of 100 languages and four phonological variables (consonant inventory size, vowel inventory size, stress distinctiveness and tone distinctiveness). The proposed method is based on some principles of synergetic linguistics, since its equations can be derived from an optimization problem that assumes that the levels of the phonological variables are chosen to maximize decoding ease and to minimize production effort. It is also good to replicate the most significant correlation coefficients of the database, and to solve a puzzle concerning the sign of some of those coefficients. With the aid of this method, we build a linear statistical model of phonological structure, according to which consonants, vowels and tone are all negatively related to stress distinctiveness. This result can be related to some findings of the literature about quantitative phonological typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El presente trabajo busca identificar los principales continuos dialectales de la lengua española a través de la comparación de ocho características fonéticas (seseo, yeísmo, aspiración de /s/, aspiración de /x/, asibilación de /ʝ/, asibilación de /r/, velarización de /n/ y desafricación de /tʃ/) que sirven para delimitar zonas dialectales. Utilizando un criterio dialectométrico amplio, se llega a la conclusión de que en el mundo hispanohablante existen dos grandes continuos dialectales: uno que abarca el norte, centro y este de la península ibérica (continuo peninsular norteño) y otro que abarca Hispanoamérica y las Islas Canarias (continuo latinoamericano). Aplicando un criterio más estrecho, el primero de tales continuos dialectales queda dividido en dos, y el segundo queda dividido en seis. Con cualquiera de los dos criterios, la zona andaluza queda fragmentada en dos áreas (Andalucía oriental y Andalucía occidental), y la última de ellas no forma parte de ningún continuo dialectal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a methodology for estimating demand systems, calculating critical elasticities to be used in market delineation, and simulating the unilateral effects of horizontal mergers. The whole method is based on the use of estimated long-run price elasticities, and it is essentially the same when used to define relevant markets and when to simulate mergers. The paper also includes an empirical application of the method, which relies on data from the Argentine biscuit market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a pure strategy Bertrand equilibrium in a model of price competition with fixed costs. It unveils an interesting and unexplored relationship between Bertrand competition and natural monopoly. That relationship points out that the non-subadditivity of the cost function at the output level corresponding to the oligopoly break-even price, denoted by D(pL(n)), is sufficient to guarantee that the market sustains a (not necessarily symmetric) Bertrand equilibrium in pure strategies with two or more firms supplying at least D(pL(n)). Conversely, the existence of a pure strategy equilibrium ensures that the cost function is not subadditive at every output greater than or equal to D(pL(n)). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the model proposed by Chiappori, Levitt, and Groseclose to test for mixed-strategy Nash equilibria in a game between a kicker and a goalkeeper in the situation of a penalty kick in soccer. The main contribution of this article is to develop an alternative testing methodology on the basis of the use of a simultaneous-equation regression approach that directly tests the equilibrium conditions. Using the same data as Chiappori et al., the author finds results similar to theirs and also separately analyzes the behavior of different types of players (classified according to which foot they use to kick the ball and to the strategies they choose to mix). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a version of the proportionally calibrated almost ideal demand system (PCAIDS) model, useful for merger simulations, which can be econometrically estimated using price data for two firms in a market. PCAIDS is therefore seen as a set of restrictions to be imposed in an econometric estimation, and not only as a pure calibration method. The proposed model is applied to a database of the Argentine gasoline market, and its results are compared to the ones obtained with other alternative specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the extent of gasoline price differences among provinces in Argentina during the period 1998-2000, and tries to impute those differences to price discrimination and non-price discrimination causes. It also tries to measure the effects of those differences on quantities and welfare. We conclude that price discrimination exists but it is relatively irrelevant to explain most geographic price differences. We also find that, in this case, eliminating price discrimination would lead to ambiguous changes in welfare, but moving to a uniform price scheme (i.e., preventing all geographic price differences) will almost certainly reduce total surplus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents alternative models of oligopoly behavior for the Argentine gasoline market. Analysis on the effect of Repsol-YPF merger on the gasoline market; Information on the price of gasoline; Consequences of the merger.