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In response to political gridlock at the federal level and concerns about market concentration in the private health insurance industry, several U.S. states have proposed their own bills to establish state-based public option programs, including three that recently became law in Washington State, Colorado, and Nevada. I study Washington State's Cascade Care Law, which implemented a state-based public option program in its individual health insurance market starting in 2021. I use plan offering data and administrative enrollment data from the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, Washington's state-based Affordable Care Act exchange, to provide a descriptive analysis of how market structure, insurers' plan offering decisions, individual enrollment, and market concentration evolved during the 2020–2022 plan years. A key descriptive finding of this paper is that county-level insurance market competition has improved since Washington's state-based public option program was implemented; with thirteen and twelve insurers offering plans in 2021 and 2022, respectively, up from nine insurers in 2020. I also document considerable variation in the set of plans insurers decided to offer and the set of counties they served. Enrollment in the public option plans that were offered was low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence technologies have elicited a range of policy responses in India, particularly as the Government of India attempts to position and project the country as a global leader in the production of AI technologies. Policy responses have ranged from providing public infrastructure to enable market-led AI production, to nationalising datasets in an effort to enable Big Data analysis through AI. This paper examines the recent history of AI policy in India from a critical political economy perspective, and argues that AI policy and governance in India constructs and legitimises a globally-dominant paradigm of informational capitalism, based on the construction of data as a productive resource for an information-based economic production, and encouraging self-regulation of harmful impacts by firms, even as it attempts to secure a strong hand for the state to determine, both through law and infrastructure, how such a market is structured and to what ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of digital capability gaps (DCG); the relative difference of a firm's ability to design and control products, services, and processes by utilising digital technologies in relation to customers and partners. These DCGs matter as they affect SME's strategic responses and the value-creating relationships. Our findings reveal that strategic responses differ according to the magnitude of DCGs: Large DCGs may offer the opportunity for 'digital diversification' by using the capabilities developed to enter new domains. In cases of moderate DCGs, firms respond by adopting the role of a 'digital parent' and innovate on behalf of customers. Finally, in the cases of small DCGs, firms may respond by forming 'digital collaborations.' Our study also unpacks the influencing factors that affect DCGs: the consolidation or fragmentation of customer portfolio and competitive landscape and the extent to which players have a similar digital pressure for adopting digital capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the reintegration of tacit skills among Polish and Lithuanian migrants returning from the UK amid Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a CAWI survey of 740 returnees, it explores the application of tacit skills acquired abroad in their origin countries’ labor markets. The research reveals the challenges return migrants face in utilizing their overseas-acquired skills, influenced by local labor market structures, employers’ attitudes, and individual experiences. The findings contribute to understanding the role of international migration in skill distribution and labor market dynamics, focusing on the personal and economic reintegration of return migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptive technology (DT) has the power to reshape markets and societal structures, necessitating both protection and regulation. This paper aims to examine DT protection and regulation strategies at both micro and macro levels through policy texts. We construct an analysis framework integrating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles, innovation theory, and DT growth process. Key measures are extracted by content analysis, and dynamic topic model is used to discover evolving policy focuses. The framework is applied to analyze DT policy files of major powers. The results indicate that supply-side policy tools are employed to promote sustainable development in DT innovation, while environmental tools are utilised for early governance to preempt potential risks and innovation damage. The focuses of DT policies exhibit three evolution trends: attenuation, reinforcement, and fluctuation. Protective policies show concentration and coherence, while regulatory policies demonstrate integration and correlation. This study broadens existing perspectives and analytical frameworks, providing valuable insights for DT development and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between equality and social Europe, which has remained underdeveloped in the process of European integration. In contrast to the social dimension of the EU, the principle of equality has been significant from the beginning of European integration. The paper opens with an overview of how equality functions as the basis for a social Europe. Next, two interpretations of equality are introduced. The EU's preferred interpretation, which is based on merit, is in sync with market ideals. One of the shortcomings of merit-based equality as a foundation of social Europe, however, is its inability to properly disconnect the vulnerable person from the employment market. This paper argues that an alternative interpretation of equality based on value is more suitable, because value-based equality can challenge the potentially harmful social structure of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs) are exchange-traded futures and the main means of risk management for shipping spot freight. The relationship between the FFA market and the shipping spot market has attracted much attention, but few studies focus on the dynamic FFA term structure and its correlation with the spot price. In this study, we establish the dynamic term structure of the FFA market by quantifying the level factor, the slope factor and the curvature factor of the FFA term structure to reveal the underlying information in the shipping derivatives market, and further scrutinize the impact of the FFA term-structure factors on the shipping spot market. The empirical results indicate that the term-structure factors have significant time-varying effects on the BDI and BPI: The effect of the term-structure factors on BDI and BPI changes with shipping market conditions and economic environment. The level factor has a positive effect, while the slope factor and the curvature factor both have negative effects, with the impacts on the BPI being about twice as large as the impacts on the BDI. The three factors all have their strongest effect in the short term and the weakest effect in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's labor market has changed dramatically since the beginning of reform and opening up. Previous studies have pointed out that marketization changed the segmentation structure of China's labor market. However, there was a lack of theoretical derivation of the mechanism, and empirical analysis was relatively rough due to methodological limitations. In this study, a pseudo-employer mobility temporal network was constructed for China's labor market from 1994 to 2018. Based on the temporal network analysis, this study finds the following: first, China's labor market is now structurally more open and flexible than it was before market-oriented reforms; second, the labor market in China has seen a shift from work unit segmentation to occupational segmentation; third, non-smoothness manifests itself in the structural changes in China's labor market. China's labor market quickly disintegrated after the launch of market-oriented reforms in the 1990s and then ushered in a turbulent period of drastic changes. It was after this turbulent period had ended that the present labor market structure took shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial institutions have focused on technology to enhance efficiency and reduce operating costs. We argue that due to competitive pressures, banks may not benefit from these technological investments, which may incur an extra charge to the bank. This research examines if being technologically advanced increases banks' financial performance in a competitive market. The contribution of this study is threefold; it examines, first; the impact of technology adaptation on financial performance, second; the effect of bank competition on banks' financial performance and third; we integrate the theories on tech-performance nexus and competition-performance nexus and examine if competition impacts the relationship between technology and financial performance. The findings suggest that technology enhances banks' financial performance, and competition makes banks fragile, supporting the competition-fragility theory. Moreover, the results on the impact of competition on the tech-performance nexus suggest that banks only benefit from investments in technology under low or moderate levels of market competition and that under highly competitive pressures, technology might not bring that extra competitive advantage to banks. With the said empirical evidence, it becomes clear how important technology can be for banks. The study carries vital policy insights for regulators and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biopesticides are considered as the effective measure to combat environmental consequences brought by chemical pesticides. However, due to the comparatively high price of biopesticides and unreasonable government subsidies, the trade-off between economy, society and environment represents a daunting task for pesticide supply chains. This study establishes a pesticide supply chain including manufacturers, retailer and government to study the production and sales strategies of pesticides under two different structures: monopoly and duopoly. Based on the equilibrium and numerical analyses, we find that: first, only when the government subsidy falls within a reasonable range, it can incentivise the chemical pesticide manufacturer to produce biopesticides in both monopoly and duopoly markets. Interestingly, the subsidy can improve the profit of pesticide supply chain in monopoly market, however the consumer surplus and social welfare are greater in duopoly market with the increase of subsidy. Second, the profit of pesticide supply chain is better after launching biopesticide and the retailer gains more profits in duopoly market than in monopoly market with the increase of farmer's biopesticide acceptance. Third, the launch of biopesticides can decrease the influence of environment pollution in both market structures, and less environmental impact in monopoly market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, most reforms in major arms-producing countries focus on keeping costs under control by either promoting competition between suppliers or by reducing information asymmetry through audits and controls. Indeed, cost escalation represents a challenge but, in fact, these reforms try to adjust the functioning of defence market rather than questioning the institutional features of this latter. The success of defence acquisition structures also explains their limits. The current organisation of defence market was perfectly adapted to the geostrategic context of Cold War and a technological momentum that favours symmetrical arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even if these structures still help deliver advanced capabilities, they can be considered as not sufficient to cover all the operational needs of armed forces. The conception of capabilities needs to go beyond a long-term planning while industrial approaches open the way to more agile development and manufacturing. An alternative defence industrial policy is necessary to complement the existing one. More modular architectures for complex systems provide the opportunity to increase the reactiveness of capability deliveries and to foster both innovation and competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a unique chapter in the history of Romanian-Dutch relations. During the 19th century, the hinterland at the mouth of the Danube was an important centre for the supply of grain to European warehouses, and from the 1880s onwards, international trading houses became increasingly interested in placing the main commodity of Moldo-Wallachian production structures on the markets of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Due to its entrepreneurial and infrastructural connections with Germany, the port of Rotterdam became a transit and temporary storage point for grain dedicated to the Rhine-Ruhr industrial region. This study is based on unpublished documents from archives, databases, and statistical yearbooks in the Netherlands and Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More people are listening to more recorded music than any other time in history. While record labels have largely rebounded from the lean 'Napster years' of the early 2000s, remuneration for artists remain low. This article moves beyond an investigation of label-artist contracts – largely blamed for low recording royalties – and considers the broader array of consequences brought by the institutional structure of the streaming economy. Three factors explain dynamics within the music economy: music as a non-rival, non-excludable good; digital service providers (DSPs) as interchangeable market substitutes; and the concentration of Major Label market power due to their discretion to grant or withhold catalog access to DSPs. The ultimate consequence of this market structure is to depress prices in the music economy; value that can be captured largely rests with rights holders. With the DSPs as nearly perfect substitutes, the music industry is constrained in its ability to increase its revenues. Due to market power asymmetries, the burden of this contracted market size is borne by musicians, and to a lesser extent, by DSPs. To illustrate the problematic dynamics of the music streaming economy, music is compared to another non-rival, non-excludable good with a divergent market structure and outcomes: video streaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an agent-based micro-simulation model to acquire the responses of road freight transportation systems like the productivity of trucks, the capability of road freight transportation companies, and the economic state of actors to different regulatory reforms. The shippers, freight companies, and drivers are the key decision-makers. These agents have different choices, including transport carrier choice, shipping price, truck allocation to shipment, and empty backhauls. Performance measures were used for the calibration phase with less than 3.7% average error. Finally, three viable regulatory reforms were evaluated, and their performance measures were estimated and discussed. We found that the shipping cost will reduce by 6% if a competitive market structure replaces the mandatory freight assignment procedure. Furthermore, we observed a 20% increase in the market share of the top fifty transport companies and a 3% improvement in the overall productivity when the physical freight companies' branch requirements are relaxed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the attributes and the significance of the roughness of oil market volatility. We employ unspanned stochastic volatility models driven by rough Brownian motions that yield semi-analytical prices for future options entailing efficient calibration applications. By performing a Monte Carlo simulation study, we show that the semi-analytical pricing performs well thus establishing its efficiency for calibration applications. Thus we calibrate option prices written on oil futures and provide empirical evidence of the roughness in oil volatility. Introducing just one additional parameter, the Hurst parameter, indicating the roughness of the volatility improves the calibration by almost a factor of 10. The calibrated option-implied Hurst parameter varies over time, but the entire set of parameters becomes more stable than in the non-rough case corresponding to a fixed Hurst parameter 1/2. These results underscore the importance to model the time dependency of the roughness of oil market volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates both theoretically and empirically the impact of market structure on the price discovery process at the opening of trading of IPOs. Some papers suggest that IPO value uncertainty is not fully resolved at the offering but continues into the aftermarket. Our model predicts that this ex-post uncertainty, i.e. the residual uncertainty about the firm value in the aftermarket, is related to the level of fragmentation in the aftermarket. Our model further predicts that consolidated markets are more efficient in resolving ex-post uncertainty than fragmented markets. Using the introduction of the opening IPO Cross on Nasdaq as a natural experiment, our empirical analysis provides compelling evidence that IPOs in fragmented markets exhibit larger levels of ex-post uncertainty and, consequently, larger underpricing than in consolidated markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vietnamese construction sector is arguably the country's industry most vulnerable to corruption, leading to poor functioning of the sector. This analysis empirically investigates how corruption affects competition in the construction industry, and how different market structures shape different types of corruption and its potentially different impacts. Our empirical models for industry competition are estimated on a panel of 33,045 year-observations using the Fractional Binomial Logit model. The findings demonstrate that corruption reduces competition, and that the effects of corruption depend on the type of corruption and market structure in which firms operate. We find evidence that corruption is characterized by collusion between local authorities and dominant firms in highly concentrated markets, leading to the persistent concentration of the sector in highly corrupt areas. In areas with lower corruption, corruption is characterized by bureaucratic holdups while lowered corruption increases industry competition. Petty corruption is observed in less corrupt areas while it does not affect industry competition. The finding suggests that promoting transparency in public procurement regulatory processes enhances industry competition and mitigates corruption risks associated with different market structures. Additionally, implementing reforms to ensure equitable access to reliable public reporting and services can facilitate a more concentrated yet efficient industry structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore how digitalization impacts young firms' growth. A longitudinal panel analysis of the EU's new ventures during 2010–2018 reveals that digital sectoral capabilities affect young firms' growth autonomously and via interaction with other sectoral capabilities. Digital sectoral capabilities play an important complementary role in facilitating the upscaling of young firms operating in R&D-intensive contexts as they mature and within environments rich in tangible capital investments. In business contexts characterized by high digital but low human capabilities, young firms struggle to grow, flagging a mismatch of skills' composition. The effects of digitalization vary depending on the level of competition within each sector. The results on complementarities of sectoral capabilities suggest that horizontal policy solutions favouring specific capabilities in isolation may have limited or counterproductive effects. Instead, policy should target a portfolio of capabilities and consider their complementarities under competitive market structures. Our analysis shows that effective innovation policy should be broadly defined and closely integrated with competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality improvement and price-matching are two commonly used competing strategies by the retailers. However, it is still unclear how the retailers should deliberate over the two strategies when selling in both online and offline markets. In this paper, we consider two dual-channel retailers selling a substitutable product to consumers in both online and offline markets. Especially, the retailers compete in the online market, and their offline markets are exclusive to themselves. We establish a game-theoretical model to investigate the trade-off between quality improvement and price-matching in competition, and the impact on retailers' profits and consumer surplus in the dual-channel market structure. The analysis shows that, first, a retailer should choose to improve its quality to avoid price competition when the online market is small; second, when retailers engage in price competition, the retailer with larger offline market is more willing to adopt price-matching, while the retailer with a small share of offline market can be hurt; third, quality improvement can always increase the consumer surplus, while price-matching always hurts consumer surplus due to price collusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a Closed-loop Supply Chain game-theoretic model that mimics the DellReconnect Supply Chain. Within this framework, we characterise a game between an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and a social collector, who work together to recover electronics. The market comprises three segments: consumers purchasing only new goods, consumers purchasing only used goods, and indifferent consumers. The social collector decides whether the returns will be used to serve the used-market segment or the indifferent market segment first, thereby establishing the market structure and deciding whether to opt for competition or coopetition. We find that, whereas the social collector is indifferent when it comes to a choice between coopetition and competition, the OEM strictly prefers coopetition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Museums and Wealth: The Politics of Contemporary Art Collections" by Nizan Shaked critically examines the relationship between museum collections and wealth, particularly in the United States. Shaked argues that the current art market and museum structure reinforce class hierarchies and inequality. The book features diverse case studies and explores topics such as the role of wealthy donors, the publicness of museums, and the need for changes in museum evaluation and governance. While some of Shaked's proposed solutions may be idealistic, the book raises important questions about the function and curatorship of museums in today's society. [Extracted from the article]

This study proposes an analytical approach to support the selection of intervention strategy in response to conditions of food insecurity. This is done by assessing the functionality of the local market providing particular attention to the simulation of supply response. The consideration that price changes can play a major role in raising the trader's entrepreneurial attitude raises the question whether a price rise is required before trader's action can be expected. At the same time, the consideration that such a decision is not merely the result of price changes, but involves other contextual factors, as faced or perceived by the trader, highlights the need for a system capable of combining and analyzing information on these contextual factors. Results of the analysis stress the relevance of local market structure and functionality as predictors of the inflationary consequences of a cash injection. This leads to a proposal for a simple way to generate quick and rough estimates of expected price changes, which can turn out particularly useful when the feasibility of field data collection is severely constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a framework to analyze the strategic value of integration, when separation of ownership and control is considered. According to this framework, we investigate the optimal integration strategy in different control distribution and discuss how external market influences the best strategic choice. Beside theoretical analysis, we also provide evidence from Chinese listed firms to validate our research. The key results of our study show that first, unintegrated strategy works best, if the level of control-ownership disparity is extremely high. Second, in general, vertical strategy is more appropriate for substitute markets, while horizontal strategy may bring more benefits in a highly complementary market. Third, the impact of integration strategy on a firm's performance is negatively moderated by control-ownership disparity. However, this moderate effect may be weakened by market structure. Our results provide a new and comprehensive perspective for understanding the inconsistent results from previous studies. Moreover, the analysis in this study also highlights a firm's strategic decision and market regulation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculates tourism source market structure indicators and investigates their impact on the international tourism demand for Antalya of Turkey. Tourism source market structure may influence tourism demand depending on its consequences regarding competitiveness and risk structure. To determine this influence, this paper estimates tourism demand functions within the framework of the two-stage system generalized method of moments (GMM). The tourism source market structure variables were calculated by considering the number of tourists by nationality and the estimations are based on the datasets of 37 source countries for 2001–2019 years. According to the calculated market structure indicators, the tourism source market concentrated in the early 2000s and diversified in the last years of the research period. Findings of the system GMM indicated that the tourism source market concentration boosts and diversification weakens the tourism demand for Antalya. In other words, tourism demand, which comes predominantly or intensively from a small number of countries, increases this demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entry barrier has long been considered as a major determinant of firm profitability. Although a less competitive market structure has been commonly known as an indicator of an entry barrier, pieces of past empirical evidence are mixed. Moreover, technological factors, such as R&D intensity, have also been considered. However, no satisfactory empirical analysis has been made, mostly due to the lack of a suitable proxy variable that can reflect the technological environment of a sector. This study addresses this problem by trying a new proxy variable, cycle time of technologies (CTT), and shows, using the US firm data, that firms in a sector with a long CTT tend to enjoy higher profitability and values than others. A long CTT of a sector presents a high entry barrier against any entrant because in such sectors, an existing stock of knowledge tends to be important for a longer period of time, making new innovation continuously rely on old knowledge owned by incumbents and protected by patent rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many electricity markets in the world have experienced the vertical unbundling where the generation and transmission sectors were separated from a vertically-integrated monopolistic power company. This restructuring could positively impact the productivity of the firms because of intensified competition and enhanced autonomy but could also negatively aect the productivity because of the loss of synergy and scaled economy. By exploiting the vertical unbundling that took place in China in 2003, this study finds that vertical unbundling increased the labour use of the generation firms and the material use of the transmission firms. Additional investigation reveals that generation firms suffer from an efficiency loss in labour use due to the loss of coordination after vertical unbundling and the transmission firms face an increased transaction cost in acquiring material and bear the additional cost transferred from the efficiency loss of the upstream generation firms. Our findings suggest that benefits of vertical unbundling relative to integration critically hinge on the market structure of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of international trade on technological change and productivity is an important and well-researched topic. The existing literature focuses on spillovers of knowledge, market size effects, Schumpeterian effects, and escape competition effects. Separately, economists working in the areas of Economic Growth and Industrial Organization have looked for a relationship, often nonlinear, between market structure and innovation. This paper investigates the indirect role of trade on innovation through a contribution to domestic competition. Using a unit of analysis of HJT technology subclass, I construct a panel data set that spans the period from 2002 through 2012. Trade adjusted and unadjusted concentration ratios are constructed for HJT technology subclasses and used to deconstruct the contribution of trade to innovation through this indirect channel. This novel approach to the data also uncovers strong evidence of a nonlinear relationship between innovation and market concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that competition exerts a feedback effect on market structure via the process of innovation. First, downstream competition increases the willingness to pay for a more efficient technology (the direct effect). Second, a sufficiently large innovation may offer the licensees a robust strategic advantage that forces non-adopters out of business. In turn, this raises the licensee's willingness to pay to survive in the market (the indirect effect). More specifically, if competition is intense, even a tiny innovation may result in drastic effects in the market. This work also demonstrates that royalties do not always imply the complete adoption of a superior technology because of competition's indirect effect on innovation. If granted the possibility of denying access to innovation to some downstream manufacturers, an inventor or rights holder may prefer to license a substantial patent to a subset of manufacturers at a discounted price, regardless of the contract scheme enforced. Finally, this article suggests that a ban on obsolete technology is not welfare-improving from a policy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines multiple shocks to the external market of China's manufacturing industry based on a trade model with multi-level unobserved factors. We find that the global external market of main industries is suffering constant downward shocks since 2008, while the traditional (non-traditional) markets are further affected by downward (upward) shocks. Private enterprises are more sensitive to shocks. Further, the adjustment of US trade policy toward China has caused China's exports to the US to deviate from the normal path by around 10% from 2015 to 2019, while having no significant effect on China's exports to the other traditional markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides methods for flexibly capturing unobservable heterogeneity from longitudinal data in the context of an exponential family of distributions. The group memberships of individual units are left unspecified, and their heterogeneity is influenced by group-specific unobservable factor structures. The model includes, as special cases, probit, logit, and Poisson regressions with interactive fixed effects along with unknown group membership. We discuss a computationally efficient estimation method and derive the corresponding asymptotic theory. Uniform consistency of the estimated group membership is established. To test heterogeneous regression coefficients within groups, we propose a Swamy-type test that allows for unobserved heterogeneity. We apply the proposed method to the study of market structure of the taxi industry in New York City. Our method unveils interesting and important insights from large-scale longitudinal data that consist of over 450 million data points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates price relationships along the Norwegian salmon value chains in France, the EU's leading consumption market for salmon, and Poland, the EU's largest "processing hub." Using a vector error correction model framework, our results indicate that the salmon price determination is a supplier-driven process, with the export prices in Norway influencing prices in France and Poland, but not vice versa. Results also suggest that price linkages are strong between the export market in Norway and the retail market in France and the processing industry in Poland; however, the Polish retail sector is separated from markets at the upstream level, while price discovery at the French wholesale market is dominated by the retail market. Our findings imply that the evolved market structures lead to efficiently functioning retail markets in France and wholesale markets in Poland, but put the French wholesale and Polish retail markets at a disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the relationship between efficiency and firm growth as well as the relationship between firm growth and market structure (CR4) to evaluate whether the quiet-life (QL) and/or efficient structure (ES) hypothesis applies in the Indonesian palm oil industry. This study uses large and medium industry survey data sourced from the Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics (BPS) for the period from 1990 to 2017. The efficiency score is calculated using data envelopment analysis (DEA) using a bootstrapping approach. The two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) and panel vector auto regression (PVAR) are used to test the two hypotheses. The results show that technical efficiency can increase a firm's market share, market concentration, and market power. These results support the ES hypothesis. This research also finds that market structure (CR4) has an impact on firm efficiency, providing evidence supporting the QL hypothesis. These results indicate that the ES and QL hypotheses apply in Indonesia during a business cycle that needs to be considered by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the retail price and quality effort joint decisions in a virtual product supply chain with information sharing. The virtual product supply chain consists of a supplier, who develops a virtual product, and a distributor, who distributes the product. We model two popular competitions as Stackelberg and Nash games and identify the equilibrium conditions for the pricing and quality effort decisions. In Stackelberg game, the supplier's profit monotonically increases in the elasticity of quality effort. In Nash game, and a higher elasticity of quality effort does not always benefit the supplier. The distributor will voluntarily share demand information only with a large quality economy. Our analyses reveal that the double marginalisation is weaker when the distributor shares information. However, the distributor's mark-up decision is independent with the cost of quality effort. With a large quality economy, information sharing benefits both supply chain players under certain conditions. We show that supply chain game structure does not affect the distributor's decision in information sharing, and the decision only depends on the market structure. In the extension, nonlinear demand functions are investigated, and the results show that most of the results from the main analyses still hold with a few exceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I introduce the concept of patriarchal marketing in examining the persistence of gender inequality in marketing and consumer culture. I define patriarchal marketing as marketing that operates in accordance with a male-dominated power structure, in turn dominating, oppressing and exploiting women. I name this as a problem that produces the symbolic annihilation of women. In turn, this has three effects: trivialisation of the complexities of women's lives, omission of those outside of the hegemonic feminine ideal and condemnation of women's corporeality. I propose that the adoption of a feminist standpoint can challenge the oppressive power structures of patriarchal marketing that symbolically annihilate women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of malicious hacking incidents in our increasingly IT-enabled world has been increasing over the years. Conventional wisdom focuses on negative impacts of these malicious hacker activities. We posit that malicious hacker activities also might lead to some unintended consequences, specifically related to altering of software market structure, and associated stakeholder consequences. In this study, we model the competition between two software platforms in the presence of malicious hackers who perform cyberattacks against one or both software platforms. We compare a benchmark case where malicious hackers are either absent, or if present do not target the software platforms, against a first scenario where only one software platform is targeted, and a second scenario where both software platforms are targeted. Interestingly, we find the presence of malicious hackers' activities is not always detrimental to all software industry stakeholders. In general, the results suggest that the presence of malicious hackers is more likely to result in a competitive market, while their absence is more likely to result in a monopoly. Furthermore, we show that under certain market conditions, the unsecure software platform targeted by hackers potentially can drive its more secure competitor out of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud services are transforming business and government at an ever-increasing rate. As a form of cloud service, software as a service (SaaS) is one of the fast growing segments of the information technology and has become an attractive alternative to the on-premises software. In this paper, we study the optimal pricing strategies of a cloud service provider in an incumbent-entrant setting under user upgrade cost and switching cost. Our results show that in equilibrium the market structure is not unique. The specific market segmentation depends on the incumbent's pricing strategy whether to provide discounted price to its old customers and the levels of user upgrade cost and switching cost. When faced with customers who are heterogeneous in the sensitivity to the related costs, the incumbent firm may need to offer a discount to the new customers rather than to those who have purchased from it. This implies that the entry of a SaaS firm into the market is a potential threat to the incumbent on-premises software firm, especially in capturing new customers from the untapped market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The privatization of state-trading enterprises (STEs) is posited as enabling dynamic upgrading. Malaysia has trialled this approach through Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) as the lead firm in charge of development in the rice industry. Using published information, this study makes a longitudinal analysis at the structure, conduct, and performance post privatization through the global value chain theory. It shows that the entity has developed from a rice importation monopoly into a virtual monopoly/monopsony in rice value chain stages. In that patronage system, privatization and concentrated market structure have limited upgrading opportunities to their associated partners. Concurrently, it has morphed to a private company. The efficacy of allowing the pillar of national food security to be controlled by a private monopoly needs close examination. Only through that can governments ensure that broader social and development objectives are met, while minimizing the risks associated with both excessive reliance on a particular firm and the abandonment of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several emerging economies have embarked on structural adjustment reform programs that focused more on short-run-oriented stabilization reforms. Yet, longer-term structural policies that can shift their potential GDP were not fully taken into consideration. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, we contrast the effects of stabilization and allocation policies in order to examine to what extent they complement or substitute each other. Second, we analyze how the effects of such policies can differ in the short and long term and with different market structures (perfect vs. imperfect competition). Third, we develop a CGE model for Egypt that was subject to a recent reform program developed with the IMF. Our main findings show that stabilization reforms reduce economic growth by 2.5% in the short run. Yet, they positively affect it over time especially if they are accompanied by structural reforms. Indeed, the latter increase economic growth (of 8.6% in the long run). Furthermore, from a social perspective, stabilization reform deteriorates households' welfare in the short run. Finally, we find that negative effects of stabilization and structural reforms are more pronounced under imperfect competition pointing out the importance of an effective competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrification of the transportation sector is a pivotal strategy to curb carbon emissions from traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles. China, the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) market, leads this transformative shift. This paper aims to unravel the past decade's development story of the EV industry in China. We first provide a comprehensive overview of the EV development trend in China, including analysis of market structures, regional development variations, technology advancements, and the development of the essential infrastructure. We then summarize the different forms of subsidy programs, both monetary and non-monetary, designed to promote EV at both central and local levels, and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and their contribution to reducing carbon emissions. We conclude by highlighting key aspects that could enhance the efficiency of subsidy programs and further propel the development of the EV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology is one of the candidate technologies for resolving supply chain issues that may occur as a result of the complex and continuously changing market structures of the present day. In addressing the problems encountered in such a system, blockchain technology has emerged as a target technology due to its notable advantages, such as smart contracts and product traceability. Since a supply chain consists of suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and industrial customers, blockchain technology can be considered inter-firm technology. However, the literature mainly focuses on technical, individual, and environmental aspects of technology acceptance depending on technology acceptance theories. Therefore, more information is needed about how inter-firm relations and their aspects affect organizational blockchain technology acceptance. Consequently, this study aims to identify the inter-firm characteristics and their influence on the acceptance of blockchain technologies in supply chains using network theory. The research methodology design consists of two elements. First, based on the expert judgments, the relationships between the indicated parameters regarding blockchain acceptance intention are analyzed using the DEMATEL technique, based on expert opinion. In the second part, with the data obtained from 361 supply chain managers, the validity of the linked assumptions in the proposed model is confirmed by applying PLS-SEM. The present study enhances our knowledge of inter-firm technology acceptance behavior by incorporating trading partner trust, initial firm power, the dependency between partners, knowledge sharing, and cooperation. According to the findings of DEMATEL, there is a strong association between inter-firm technology acceptance characteristics in explaining behavioral intention. Whereas other variables mainly influence dependency, trust has the most significant impact on those variables with cooperation. On the other hand, PLS-SEM analysis delivers remarkable results that describe the complicated structure of blockchain acceptance from an inter-firm perspective. Cooperation is the most influential variable affecting behavioral intention (0.614), followed by dependency (0.156) and knowledge sharing (0.153). Even though the direct effects of inter-firm trust and the initial firm's power on behavioral intention were found insignificant, dependency fully mediates the effects of these variables on behavioral intention. Similarly, the relationship between trading partner trust and behavioral intention is fully mediated by knowledge sharing, while it also partially mediates the influence of cooperation. Examining the direct impacts reveals that cooperation is the most influential variable on behavioral intention, which is consistent with the DEMATEL conclusion. The current study demonstrates that the network theory is appropriate for explaining the acceptance of blockchain technology from an inter-firm perspective within the context of supply chain interactions. Since the theory can delve into the underlying characteristics of these relationships, it helps justify the target behavior. On the other hand, the DEMATEL approach validates the relationships between variables in the theoretical model. Then these associations are verified using PLS-SEM considering the primary data obtained from supply chain managers. The primary purpose of the DEMATEL method was to elucidate the relationships between variables and provide empirical support for the structure of the theoretical model. The networks of linkages that developed from the DEMATEL approach based on expert opinions corroborate the relationships in the theoretical model based on the literature, suggesting a significant connection between the two methodologies. Such methodological designs are essential for boosting the results' trustworthiness and applicability. Cooperation is the most significant explanatory variable regarding blockchain technology acceptance. Following the nature of the supply chain, this conclusion highlights the significance of relationships between partners in chain. In their projects for blockchain technology, managers should examine the benefits of these technologies for themselves and other stakeholders in the chain. This study demonstrates issues with the inter-firm acceptance of blockchain technologies regarding the influence of trust and power on the final acceptance behavior. Nevertheless, the growth in inter-firm dependence enhances the efficiency of these effects. Therefore, managers must understand how to utilize their resources for chain gain. While this makes it easier for them to preserve their authority and influence the conduct of their partners over the long run, the appropriate allocation of resources across dependent stakeholders will ultimately strengthen the perception of trust. Our results also prove that knowledge sharing increases the effects of cooperation and inter-firm trust on behavioral intention. This indicates that managers should convince the other partners about the benefits of target technology by sharing key and timely information. This study makes numerous original contributions and provides new insights. This study contributes to general knowledge of the acceptance of blockchain technologies in the supply chain by focusing on the inter-firm technology perspective. In this vein, the results produced through the investigation of mediation relations are novel and presented to the literature. On the other hand, DEMATEL and PLS-SEM are integrated for the first time considering blockchain acceptance in supply chain studies, to our knowledge. Furthermore, this is the first study to combine network theory and inter-firm perspective to explain the acceptance of blockchain technology in supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to determine how inclusion, as understood in the literature on responsible research and innovation (RRI), should be acknowledged in the global innovation system in Norway for CRISPR salmon. The authors conceptualize inclusion from a systems perspective (i.e., systemic inclusion) and use global innovation systems (GIS) as a conceptual framework. The analysis is based on an actor-network map comprising innovation projects and actors drawn from empirical data by applying socio-technical configuration analysis (STCA). The authors find that inclusion should be addressed by acknowledging that CRISPR salmon innovation is performed in a market-anchored GIS. This means that "footloose" knowledge should be prioritized in order to understand the problems that CRISPR innovation aims to tackle and the type of risks that it implies, but also that local valuations should be prioritized in order to build a functional legal and market structure along with local social concerns. The authors conclude that the approach is necessary because although it is recognized that the inclusion of new and diverse perspectives needs to be done strategically when innovating with CRISPR technology, there is no clear rationale that can help when defining a strategy for who should be included and why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the evidence on the relevance of the ownership choice for electricity and water and sanitation utilities with respect to access and affordability in developing countries. It shows that most of the widely quoted evidence is outdated and fails to reflect the long-term effects of choices made in the 1990s. The most recent data suggests that ownership affects social outcomes less than regulatory governance and market structure. The evidence is however not precise enough yet. More research is needed to determine how context and institutional constraints, including regulatory capacity, should influence ownership choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To absorb modernity's perils, insurers and reinsurers developed sophisticated collective risk sharing markets. The logic of pooling mega risks—pandemics, nuclear catastrophes, natural disasters, etc.—seemed obvious. In recent decades, however, this enduring market structure has been disrupted by the introduction of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and financial derivatives. This article presents a political account of the convergence between once-separate reinsurance and capital markets. The force driving change is a struggle for risk and price information: the protection of information by incumbent reinsurers and the search for information by capital market entrants. Large reinsurers in a position to bridge reinsurance and capital markets have been able to exploit the institutional discontinuities created in this battle. Disturbingly, as global risks escalate, the analysis explains why ILS markets have emerged sub-optimally, not efficiently, and the hollowing out of traditional reinsurance markets. More broadly, the argument develops a political conceptualization of market self-organization and structure. In this view, markets never spontaneously form as neutral fields of efficient exchange. Markets are always geared and distorted from within—through bitter internal conflicts among contending market groups bargaining over market organization and technical design, struggles that are political even if states remain peripheral to them—to produce distinctive global economic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Goodwin pattern' — an anti-clockwise rotation in real activity × wage share space recurring at intervals that correspond roughly to the duration of business cycles — is an enduring feature of high-frequency dynamics in capitalist economies. It is well known that the centre or focus of this rotation shifts over time. More recently, however, the Goodwin pattern seems to have broken down, the wage share no longer increasing as the real economy improves over the course of short-term booms. In this paper, the apparent breakdown of the Goodwin pattern is associated with the consolidation of an 'incomes policy based on fear' that is part-and-parcel of neoliberalism. As a result of this incomes policy based on fear, the institutional structure of the labour market disciplines labour at any rate of unemployment. This decouples wage-share dynamics from the state of the real economy, with the result that as recently witnessed in the US, the wage share is rendered invariant to improvements in economic performance over the course of short-term cyclical booms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of prosumers in district heating networks brings new challenges to the market and the network operation since they can change the thermal flow and increase competition. Thus, it is mandatory to develop new market structures and network management mechanisms. In this scope, this work proposes the implementation of a coordination methodology based on a peer-to-peer market without a supervising entity. The goal is to achieve higher revenue by coping with the requirements of each agent. Furthermore, the model is validated through network nodal analysis inspired by the power sector. The results in a Nordic network point out that the coordination methodology can provide compromise solutions between market negotiation and network operation. This methodology succeeded in providing reliable network solutions, fixing 99.88% of network burdens just after one iteration, and encouraging prosumers' integration. This increases market competition which lowers the energy costs for consumers while avoiding the network's operating burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the influence of sustainability on the probability of achieving successful investment crowdfunding offerings. We use a sample of 1,741 investment crowdfunding offerings launched by 1,569 firms in the US during the period May 2016–September 2019 under the Form-C requirements of the JOBS Act. After accounting for potential endogeneity concerns affecting the degree of sustainability of each offering, results show that sustainability-related factors do not boost the chances of successful investment crowdfunding offerings. This result is not homogeneous across firms, operations, or financial environments. We obtain evidence on the influence of firm characteristics and on how offering affects the extent to which sustainability impacts success. Moreover, alternative funding sources and the market structure for funding portals also shape the influence of sustainability on offering success. Results are robust to considering both firm- and offering-level factors traditionally linked with success, as well as to different specifications of the econometric model, and to additional robustness tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how consumers deliberate and incorporate concerns for sustainability in their consumption behaviours, through the lens of children's clothing provisioning. Frustrated by the limited acknowledgement for sustainable issues within the UK mass market fashion retail sector, the participants reveal engaging with social innovation exchange initiatives, including networks of used children's clothing. The research is informed by 28 professionally working mothers who navigate between meeting the social needs of themselves and their family with their growing knowledge for sustainability. The networks are symbolic of shared social values and building supportive communities that provided emotional and practical pathways for family provisioning. The research illustrates how societal discourse around sustainability is growing and how alternative market structures provide routes that appeal to consumers practically, socially and ideologically. Moreover, the research contributes to understanding opportunities that advance the sustainability agenda, for marketing, social innovation initiatives and progressing sustainable businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores possible options of the upstream mixed-ownership reform with imperfect substitute products in a vertically related market composed of one upstream SOE and two downstream profit-maximising retailers. Its focus is not only on incorporating the issue of privatisation into a vertical market structure, but also on extending the traditional upstream–downstream competition model by allowing the active contribution of retailers to enhance values at different costs. It finds that in a vertically related market where retailers' effort matters, the socially optimal policy towards the upstream SOE is partial privatisation regardless what product differentiation is involved, but the specific degree of privatisation is negatively correlated to the level of effort costs. By contrast, in a vertically related market without retailers' effort, the government tends to choose full nationalisation of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex relationship between human mobility and global climate change remains contested. In this viewpoint, the themes of human mobility, adaptation and climate change are explored from a political ecology perspective. A framework of political ecology of human mobility in relation to climate change is applied to the context of Vietnam's Mekong Delta (MKD). The Vietnamese government, popular media and academic studies often present the MKD in dystopian ways in which there is sometimes no more place for poor and landless farmers as a direct result of climate change. In 2019 and 2020, the MKD faced one of its most severe droughts in recent history largely tied to upstream hydropower development. In this viewpoint article, we contend that future studies can no longer establish a direct and causal relationship between climate change and human mobility, especially in light of these recent events. The underlying drivers as well as the broader context, which are shaped by political economy, market structures and forces, power relations, government policy, geopolitics, and transboundary water issues deserve a more prominent role in the analysis of human mobility patterns in the MKD and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scale of global exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has shown an explosive growth trend; however, research on the impact of ETF activity on the stock market is still in its infancy. While ETFs increase the volatility of the U.S. stock market, there is scant literature on the impact of ETF activity on the volatility of the emerging A-share market. Owing to the large differences in the institutional and investor structure of the A-share market, will there be significant differences in the impact of ETFs on the volatility of the A-share market? This study found that ETF activity significantly reduced idiosyncratic volatility but increased systemic volatility. Since the decrease in idiosyncratic volatility was greater than the increase in systemic volatility, the overall volatility showed a downward trend. Further research on the impact mechanism showed that the idiosyncratic volatility of the A-share market was positively correlated with noise information. ETF activity reduced idiosyncratic volatility by reducing the noise information. Systematic volatility was positively correlated with faster information integration speed. ETF activity improved systematic volatility by improving information integration speed. This study elucidated the impact of ETF activity on stock price volatility under different market backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]