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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]

Cross‐asset order flow provides an incremental and novel nonlinear price discovery channel. Structural vector autoregressions of synchronized intraday message data reveal distinct patterns in the comovement of order flow and its influence on returns and volatility. While cross‐market order flow usually reconciles prices through small‐stakes arbitrage in periods of low volatility and comovement during medium volatility associated with information arrival, it can exacerbate price dislocation from fundamental values during extraordinary volatility. While applying market‐wide circuit breakers (MWCB) mitigates the extreme negative spillovers by jointly halting markets, we identify room for further harmonization during the MWCB market reopening process. [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]

We propose a theory of how market power affects wage inequality. We ask how goods and labor market power jointly determine the level of wages, the skill premium, and wage inequality. We then use detailed microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau between 1997 and 2016 to estimate the parameters of labor supply, technology, and the market structure. We find that a less competitive market structure lowers the average wage of high‐skilled workers by 11.3%, and of low‐skilled workers by 12.2%, contributes 8.1% to the rise in the skill premium, and accounts for 54.8% of the increase in between‐establishment wage variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neil Fligstein's Conceptions of control have multiple theoretical origins in the institutional, political, and cultural perspectives of the new economic sociology. However, conceptions of control as a key concept of market structure have not systematically been formulated in Fligstein's works, remaining insightfully but relatively fragmentally. This paper summarizes the normative, power, and cognitive dimensions of conceptions of control, respectively corresponding to market agreement, dominant relationship and common understanding. On this basis, this paper provides a clear definition of conceptions of control. Additionally, this paper summarizes the formation of the conceptions of control and its change, distinguishes the differences between conceptions of control and other related concepts, and presents the evolution of the concept that has taken place in subsequent studies, as well as the criticisms to which it has been subjected. This paper suggests that this concept needs to be expanded in terms of the connotation of market actors, the role of government, and the forms of existence. Conceptions of control provide a concise conceptual tool for analyzing market transformation. We believe that the market changes triggered by the new business formats in the digital economy era will be more frequent, and conception of control will have a broader application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyse the effect of collusion on profitability with the use of evidence from a natural experiment of policy reform: the introduction of anti-cartel legislation in the UK in the late 1950s. This caused an intensification of price competition in previously collusive industries but did not affect industries that had not been collusive. Three main results are established: First, a comparison of the two groups of industries shows that the breakdown of collusion had no significant overall effect on profitability in the long run—although it had a strong negative effect on firm numbers. Second, the larger was the decrease in firm numbers, the smaller was the decline of profitability in previously collusive industries; however, no such correlation exists in industries that were not affected by the cartel law. Third, most cartels did not restrict entry; but in industries where entry had been restricted, profitability rather than firm numbers decreased when collusion broke down. These results are consistent with theories that emphasise the role of entry conditions for profitability: Cartels are often unprofitable because of entry even when collusion is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessments of the bike-sharing industry traditionally focus on its effects on other markets, municipalities, or general well-being. This paper deviates from this on how the market is organised. Using information on the aggregate number of firms in cities and greater cities across Europe, we found non-proportional changes in market size with respect to changes in market structure. This is crucial information inferring changes in profits, costs, or degree of product differentiation. To distinguish between these three sources, we utilised additional firm-level data on capacity and type of service provided. Our results suggest that the non-proportional increase in market size after an entry is most likely associated with increased intensity of competition and new forms of offered services, i.e. product differentiation. We did not find evidence that newcomers have been entering with substantially larger capacities per capita compared to incumbents. From a policy perspective, entry into the bike-sharing industry has benefited consumers through market expansion and caused a potential decrease in profits. • A non-proportional market size increase after the entry of the second and third firms. • No association for entry barriers; no entries with larger capacity. • Increases likely associated with differentiation: entrants likely dockless or e-bikes. • Entry and competition benefited consumers through market expansion and may decrease profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of Brazilian listed companies, our study investigates the directional cause–effect relationship between market structure, ESG performance, and firm efficiency under a Stochastic Structural Relationship Programming (SSRP) model. Our empirical evidence is threefold. First, our findings indicate that firms with better environmental performance are more efficient, whereas lower ESG performance and poorer corporate governance practices are associated with a higher level of efficiency. Second, our study suggests that market structure measures (i.e., competition, concentration, and market power) have heterogeneous impacts on various ESG indexes. Specifically, higher market competition is associated with a lower concentration, better ESG performance and environmental performance, but worse corporate governance performance, although market power can only enhance the environmental and governance performance of firms. Third, the market structure proxies employed in this study are significantly attributed to firm efficiency. Our findings provide practical implications for various stakeholders and suggest avenues for future studies that can build on our evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is not only the largest sector in the world economy, but also one of the fastest growing emerging industries in the world. Unlike other economic sectors that transport products to consumers, tourism enables people to migrate to places where tourism resources are concentrated. These resources are consumed somewhere. With the development of social economy, tourism has increasingly shown its important position in the national economy. After years of development, Kazakhstan's tourism industry has made significant contributions to the national economic development. At the same time, the industry has also accumulated many problems and contradictions in the long-term development process. From a macro level, the development situation of Kazakhstan's tourism industry is good, with total tourism revenue and tourist numbers rising rapidly. From a micro level, tourism enterprises are small in scale, have poor operations, and have low overall competitiveness. From the industrial level analysis, the main problems and contradictions of Kazakhstan's tourism industry are related to its market structure characteristics. Structural issues are core issues in the development of tourism in Kazakhstan. Using structural ideas and methods to study the tourism industry in Kazakhstan can guide the sustainable development of the tourism industry and provide a basis for decision-making by the government. Based on the literature review of the tourism market structure, the authors analyze the optimization path based on the Kazakhstan tourism market structure and effectively promotes the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Java long pepper (Piper retrofractum Vahl.) is a potential export commodity. One of the centers of Java long pepper production in Indonesia is Sumenep Regency. However, in marketing, farmers only act as price takers, and prices fluctuate a lot. This study aimed to describe the structure, conduct, and performance of the Java Long Pepper market in Bluto District, Sumenep Regency. Sampling was carried out using the snowball sampling method to obtain a sample of 31 farmers, 2 small traders, and 1 large trader. The analysis technique used is the SCP (structure, conduct, and performance) with qualitative and quantitative approaches. Market structure is analyzed by calculating CR and IHH, market conduct by analyzing pricing methods, marketing channels, and marketing functions, and market performance by marketing margin and farmer’s share. Based on the research results, it is known that the market structure that occurs is an oligopsony with a high concentration and collusion price leadership types by the dominant firm. Market conduct shows that farmers cannot bargain, and traders determine absolute prices. Market performance is seen from marketing channel I which is considered the best, with a marketing margin IDR2.000,00 and a farmer’s share of 97.30%. This condition of imperfect market competition needs to be controlled and paid attention to so that it can be managed well, create healthy business conditions, and avoid monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African Aubergine is an indigenous tropical crop cultivated in Nigeria. Agricultural marketing creates incentives that accelerate the promotion of further production and consumption of harvested produce. Therefore, this study analysed African Aubergine marketing and income disparity among traders in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Primary data collected via multistage sampling from ninety-five (95) respondents was analysed using descriptive statistics, marketing margin and efficiency analysis, Ordinary Least Square regression and Gini Coefficient index. The results show that the mean age, years spent in school, household size, trading experience and quantity of bags sold were 37 years, 8 years, 7 people, 9 years and 8 bags per month, respectively. The estimated marketing margin and efficiency index were 1,250 and 0.36, respectively. The estimated coefficients of Ordinary Least Square regression (R2) were 0.773. Thus, the variables (marketing experience, cost price, quantity sold and marketing cost) in the regression model accounted for 77% of the variation in the marketing margin of African Aubergine traders in the study area. The estimated Gini Coefficient was 0.59, indicating a moderate level of income disparity (inequality) in the sales income of the respondents. Several marketing constraints were observed in the study area. Therefore, this study recommends improved credit access and market information dissemination, commodity cost subsidisation, storage technology adoption, market infrastructure development and interventions, commodity price control and policy modification that regulates market activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent extreme events and the disruptions they caused have made food supply chain resilience a key topic for researchers and policymakers. This paper provides input into these discussions by evaluating the efficiency and resilience properties of the leading policy proposals. We develop a conceptual model of a prototype agricultural supply chain, parameterize the model based on the empirical literature, and conduct simulations to assess the impacts on resilience and economic welfare of four key policy proposals: (i) intensified antitrust enforcement to improve market competition, (ii) subsidization of entry of additional processing capacity, (iii) prevention of price spikes through anti‐price‐gouging laws, and (iv) diversification of production and processing across multiple regions. Results show that some of the policies have potential to improve supply‐chain resilience, but their impacts depend on the existing market structure, and resilience gains often come at the cost of reduced efficiency. [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]

In its heart, competition represents an important driver of productivity growth that has slowed in European countries since the financial crisis. This study examines the non-linear relationship between productivity growth and market power, using data on Central European manufacturing firms, from 2009 to 2017. The results show concave relationships between both variables, and that firms in competitive industries respond more sensitively to market power. This study contributes to the literature by applying not only the standard firm-level measure of Lerner indexes, but also by calculating them from production functions and checking robustness with country-industry-level concentration measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we formulated a dynamic game model of the firms' process innovation with technological spillover under different market structures (market competition intensity) in a duopoly market, in which the firms are concerned about relative profits as well as their own profits and investigated the relationship between the degree of competitiveness faced by the firms and their R&D expenditure. Our results showed that, under certain conditions, the system always admits saddle point steady-state equilibrium under independent ventures and R&D cartel games, respectively, and although the process innovation investment under R&D cartel is higher than that under the independent ventures, whether the marginal production cost under R&D cartel is less (higher) than that under the independent ventures depends on the degree of technological R&D spillover and the market competition intensity. Furthermore, the marginal production cost under independent ventures is not monotonically decreasing with spillover for the given region of market competition intensity; while the marginal production cost under R&D cartel game always monotonically decreases with spillover for any market competition intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the in-depth effect of bank competition on liquidity hoarding by using a comprehensive strategy for empirical measurement. More precisely, we include all asset-, liability-, and off-balance-sheet items when generating our measures of bank liquidity hoarding. For a multiple-aspect assessment of banking market structure, we simultaneously employ non-structural proxies (Lerner index, Boone indicator, and H-statistic index) and structural measures (top-bank market concentration ratio and Herfindahl–Hirschman index). Through bank-level financial data from 30 Vietnamese banks during 2007–2021, we find strong and consistent evidence that higher bank competition increases total liquidity hoarding. Disaggregate analysis reveals that the increased accumulation in total liquidity hoarding is driven by asset and liability items on the balance sheet, though our findings indicate that bank competition reduces liquidity hoarding off balance sheets. We further shed light on how the impact of competition on liquidity hoarding depends on bank-level heterogeneity. The results suggest that the link is less pronounced for banks that are larger in size, hold more equity capital, and yield better profitability. Our set of results consistently supports the view that financially healthier banks are more effective in handling competitive pressures in the banking market, and thus they may have a better position to mitigate the liquidity hoarding effect from bank competition. Multiple robustness checks are employed to lend further strength to our conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Purpose: The study examines the impact of uncertainty on bank opacity while particularly taking into account the moderating role of market structures. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of Vietnamese banks from 2007 to 2019, the paper measures uncertainty at the disaggregate level of the banking sector through the dispersion of bank shocks and capture bank opacity from the perspective of bank earnings management based on discretionary loan loss provisions. The authors apply both structural and non-structural proxies of bank competition/concentration to better explore the role of market structures. Empirical regressions are conducted using the fixed effect regressions with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors and the two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) technique, and then verified by the least squares dummy variable corrected (LSDVC) estimator. Findings: Bank earnings opacity is less severe in periods of higher uncertainty. Further analysis documents that the negative impact of uncertainty on bank earnings opacity is stronger when the level of bank competition increases or when bank market power decreases. Originality/value: The finding highlighting the conditioning role of market structures is entirely novel in the uncertainty-bank opacity literature. Moreover, in providing additional evidence on the significant impact of uncertainty on bank opacity, while prior related studies explore economic policy uncertainty, the authors utilize micro uncertainty in banking that exhibits enormous superiority. [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]

Trading in shares in the European Union (EU) is fragmented across a large number of execution venues applying varying degrees of transparency. The review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) aims at creating the right conditions for the establishment of an entity, the consolidated tape provider, that provides a consolidated picture of core trading data to the market. Co-legislators principally disagreed on whether or not such a consolidated picture should include close to real-time data on prices and volumes on all pre-trade transparent trading venues (pre-trade data). Authors argue that important use-cases require the inclusion of pre-trade data and that the provisional political agreement reached on 29th June rightly recognises this. The review of MiFIR also includes amendments to the conditions under which individual execution venues are required to publish such pre-trade data. While there are good reasons for allowing 'dark trading', too much dark trading could harm the quality of price formation for shares. There is no strong evidence that the 'volume cap' which caps certain variants of dark trading has positive effects. The authors argue in this paper that a holistic and data-based approach to capping dark trading can contribute to the quality of price formation for shares. The consolidated tape will provide relevant data for such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I study the relationship between competition and innovation, focusing on the distinction between product and process innovations. By considering product innovation, I expand upon earlier research on the topic of the relationship between competition and innovation, which focused on process innovations. New products allow firms to differentiate themselves from one another. I demonstrate that the competition level that creates the most innovation incentive is higher for process innovation than product innovation. I also provide empirical evidence that supports these results. Using the community innovation survey, I first show that an inverted U-shape characterizes the relationship between competition and both process and product innovations. The optimal competition level for promoting innovation is higher for process innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the market structure of the Hungarian insurance market, which operated as a monopoly market until 1986. After the regime change this sector started to develop rapidly. But the Hungarian insurance market has a strong oligopolistic character, and thus raises an interesting question as to how close the market is to a state of perfect competition. Based on the Panzar and Rosse (J Ind Econ 35:443–456, 1987) methodology we estimate the elasticity of total revenues with respect to changes in input prices, so that we can determine the market structure. The estimation of input price elasticity is made with a static and a dynamic panel model. According to research the structure of the Hungarian insurance market significantly differs from the perfect competition case between 2010 and 2019. The market is in long-run equilibrium, and the hypothesis of the monopoly case cannot be rejected. The market structure of a sector is important for modelling phenomena and new regulations effectively, which is relevant for insurance and competition supervision in the protection of customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do changes in labour taxes affect innovation and aggregate productivity growth? To answer this question, we propose a quantitative, general equilibrium growth model featuring product and quality innovation with endogenous market structure, estimate its parameters and provide empirical validation for the propagation mechanism of labour tax changes. We find that a temporary cut in flat-rate labour taxes produces a growth acceleration in aggregate productivity, permanently increasing the path of real GDP per capita. Moreover, such permanent gains are sizeable even without long-run growth effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to study the structure of the market of heat energy producers by organizational and legal forms of economic management and by types of ownership, to determine on this basis the directions of reforming the communal heat and power industry. To achieve the aforementioned goal, the available regional registers of licensees-economic entities in the field of heat supply, as well as the resolutions of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission on the issuance of licenses and/or setting the tariffs for heat energy, are analyzed. The accomplished analysis covers the period from 2014 to the first half of 2023 inclusive. 980 economic entities that carried out economic activity during the analyzed period, among them 844 that operated at the end of this period, are identified. These economic entities have different forms of ownership and different organizational and legal forms of economic management. It is determined that the well-known statement that the municipal heat and power industry has been in a state of crisis is valid only for the communal utilities operating large district heating systems. Such enterprises are characterized by a high level of wear and tear of equipment, unsatisfactory financial condition, and inefficient management of the enterprise. Along with the latter, the private sector enterprises are actively developing in Ukraine. Of the total number of economic entities included in the sample (844), more than half (492) are private enterprises, limited liability companies, or individual entrepreneurs. Such economic entities operate effectively in regional markets without receiving any subsidies from local budgets; many of them have been around for more than 10 years. On the basis of the performed analysis, directions of reforming heat and power enterprises of various forms of ownership, first of all, the State-owned and municipal enterprises, are suggested. It is proposed, when expecting an increase in the level of management of a municipal utility enterprise, in particular, to have all kinds of activities unbundled and to implement the outsourcing of the non-core functions. Prospects for further research on this topic would be the study of the organization of heat supply in certain regions and settlements of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a firm's research and development (R & D) investments for abatement technology innovation is modeled as a non-cooperative two-stage game. Parameters are introduced to simulate the spillover effects and market structure. Our advanced analysis together with numerical experiments reveals that (i) as the market structure becomes more competitive, the firm's investments for abatement technology innovation under non-cooperative setting is more likely to be preferred to the investments for abatement technology innovation under cooperative setting; (ii) for a given emission tax, the firm's investments for abatement technology innovation increase with the increase of the spillovers, while the investments for abatement technology innovation decrease with the increase of the competition intensity; (iii) for a given emission tax, the optimal solution of the firm's investments for abatement technology innovation is stable for both non-cooperative and cooperative cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete games provide the means to analyze market dynamics with limited data. However, computing such games with many players—especially in a complete information setting—is computationally infeasible because the strategy space increases exponentially with the number of players. This study presents a novel and practical method to compute and estimate discrete games. To do so, the study introduces two methodological innovations. First, we develop an efficient simulator that requires fewer random draws to evaluate the likelihood of discrete games with multiple equilibria. The augmented simulator avoids random draws that are not compatible with the observed equilibrium outcome and, thus, efficiently uses all draws to evaluate the likelihood. Second, we utilize general‐purpose computing on graphics‐processing unit (GPGPU), using multiple processing cores in a graphics‐processing unit, to increase computational speed. The two features allow us to estimate the model significantly faster compared to traditional methods. The study's empirical application examines the effect of Apple's company‐owned stores on the retail market structure. The results show that agglomeration effects exist between Apple and upscale firms. The presence of an Apple store attracts high‐income customers, promoting the entry of upscale firms and the exit of discount firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a method to analyze market structures using changes in the number of farms and amount of farm incomes, taking Korea as a case study. We discern the market structures in agriculture by scrutinizing the impact of variations in agricultural added-value and production costs on the count of farms and farm-type specific agricultural incomes using the method. We also explore the significant influence of policy changes on agricultural market structures. As a result, in response to the increase in agricultural value-added, most types of farm households are in a short-term equilibrium state with both the number of farm households and amount of agricultural incomes increasing. In response to the increase in agricultural management costs, results of the distribution of farm households and agricultural incomes depend on farm types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether a concentrated interbank market stimulates bank collusion or monopolistic pricing towards enhancing performance. We explore this nexus by incorporating the role of bank conduct into the structure–performance paradigm. The results show that the interbank market structure provides a channel for banks to collude and engage in monopolistic pricing in the market for bank and business loans to consequently increase bank performance. Further, while the interbank market structure is both profit and cost efficient for non-conglomerate banks, it is cost efficient for foreign banks. Hence, collusion and other anti-competitive behaviours in the interbank market may exacerbate incentives for foreign and non-conglomerate bank entry. We also explored the theoretical and policy implications of these findings. Our results are robust to alternative measures of market structure, bank conduct and performance, and the use of a wide range of specifications and econometric models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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]

The purpose of this study is to describe the structure conduct performance in the skipjack fish industry in Banda Aceh City, Analyze the influence of structure conduct performance in the skipjack fish industry in Banda Aceh city, and analyze the factors that affect the performance of the skipjack fish industry in Banda Aceh city. The number of samples is 4 companies that manage Skipjack Fish in Banda Aceh City. The market structure of the skipjack fish industry in Banda Aceh is oligopoly as seen from the value of market concentration and barriers to entry from 2011 to 2020. During this time span, the structure of the skipjack fish industry also showed market concentration and barriers to entry that were getting lower in value from year to year. This shows that competition in the skipjack fish industry is increasing. The skipjack fish industry in Banda Aceh sets a price strategy by following price rules made by outside parties such as the United States importing countries, for product strategies are carried out by classifying products based on the size and type of product treatment such as fresh skipjack fish and frozen skipjack fish. In the performance dimension, it was found that the average value of PCM for the 2011-2020 period was 33.88 percent with the largest PCM value occurring in 2018 at 44.33 percent and the lowest PCM in 2014 at 19.07 percent. Meanwhile, the average value on x-eff for the 2011-2020 period was 102.93 percent. The largest amount of internal efficiency occurred in 2019 at 147.99 percent, and the smallest x-eff value occurred in 2017 at 71.42 percent. The independent variables that are considered to affect the dependent variable (PCM) are CR4, MES, X-eff, PROD, and JLP. However, only x-eff and PROD have a significant effect on PCM. The rest such as CR4, MES, and JLP have an intangible effect because the value is greater than the real level of 0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A precise understanding of the market structure of an industry forms the basis for any entrepreneurial decisions. The combination of Bishop's cross-price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of demand forms the mathematical basis for determining the market structure. However, these formulas are time-independent, which does not adequately capture the complex dynamics of today's economy. This paper attempts a systemic dynamic extension of the cross-price elasticity of demand and the price elasticity of demand by adding a temporal dimension to these formulas. This ensures that entrepreneurial and industry-specific decisions can be made more accurately by following a system-dynamic approach. This paper provides a methodological extension based on Estola's econophysical theory and combining it with Bishop's approach for determining the market structure of an industry. Econophysics ensures that the temporal dimension is taken into account in economic formulas and therefore providing a more accurate view on current economic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel approach to optimizing the structure of the electricity market by mitigating market power through the use of forward contracts. The IEEE 30 node test system is used as a case study for the paper, which employs nodal pricing and a Cournot model with recursive optimization. The findings show that forward contracts can reduce market power and lead to a more competitive market structure with fewer participants. The study emphasizes the importance of successor companies having a well-balanced mix of generation technology. Six players with a different generational mix are optimal in the constrained nodal pricing scenario, while five players with slightly different mixes are optimal in the Cournot case study. These findings have important implications for policymakers and industry stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of efficient electricity markets. Market power can be reduced by using forward contracts and establishing an appropriate number of market participants, resulting in more efficient and sustainable electricity markets. Overall, this study provides useful insights for improving electricity market structures and increasing competition in the electricity sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the reallocator of liquidity from banks with excess to banks with a deficit, the interbank money market (IMM) plays a fundamental role in the proper functioning of the banking system and the economy as a whole. The aggregate uncertainty derived from stochasticity of the overall level of the demand for short-term liquidity and the likelihood of domino failures of tightly connected competitors who lend themselves vast amounts of liquidity explains the complexity of decisions in this environment. To identify the most significant factors influencing actors' strategies, we first present the five underlying patterns discovered through a bibliometric analysis of 609 scientific documents in this field: contagion and systemic risk, stability, market structure, relationship and trust, and default and failure. Then, our detailed study findings on 160 recent works indicate elements that affect central banks' strategies in reducing systemic risk and preventing financial contagion, as well as managing the interbank network in a way that makes it more stable and resilient to shocks to conserve market confidence. Furthermore, they address factors that influence banks' strategies to maintain their lending relationships and mitigate default risk. In addition to summarizing potential research directions, this paper provides market participants with a strategy fact-sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On an online shopping platform, for users on one side (buyers or sellers), the affiliation decisions depend not only on their stand-alone valuations for the platform's services, but also on the platform's user base on the other side. This paper investigates online shopping market structure based on platform services on the two sides and cross-group network effects. We find that the entry of inactive platforms hinges on the side where the strength gap between active platforms and inactive platforms is smaller, i.e. the side on which the average stand-alone valuation of users for platform services is relatively high. Specifically, given the sum of the average stand-alone valuations on the two sides, the market structure is more competitive when the proportion of the average stand-alone valuation on one side to the other is too high or too low. Furthermore, the market structure is more monopolistic when cross-group network effects are strong. We also find that social welfare and the total surplus of users on the two sides may both be lower when the market structure is more competitive. In a case where users on one side multi-home, we find that inactive platforms should pay attention to the average stand-alone valuation on the multi-homing side to enter the markets, whereas active platforms should pay attention to the average stand-alone valuation on the single-homing side to prevent the entry of inactive platforms. [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]

Firms use standard contracts and possibly include unfavorable fine print which consumers may read at some positive cost. We propose a comparison between a monopoly and a perfect competition market under (1) an unregulated legal regime (duty to read) and (2) a regulation that mandates clause disclosure (duty to disclose). If consumers bear the duty to read contract terms, regardless of market structure, sellers disclose in equilibrium only if it is cheaper than reading for consumers. Conversely, if sellers bear the duty to disclose contract terms, then such regulation is never welfare improving in either market; it may turn out to be consumer protective only if there are several sellers, whereas it is uneffective on this regard in a monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyse the market structure, conduct, and performance of the star hotel industry in North Sumatra. The study was conducted in 2019 with time series data for the period of 2013 to 2018. The market structure is measured using the methods of concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and barriers to entry, while descriptive methods are used to analyse the conduct and performance of five-star hotels. The results of the study show that: (i) there is a concentration of three- and fourstar hotels, and that the concentration of four- and five-star hotels have an oligopolistic structure; (ii) the market structure of star hotels tends to be monopolistic; (iii) the minimum efficient scale index of star hotels is relatively small, which means that new hotels have a good opportunity to get a larger market share; (iv) the level of service and the level of availability of star hotel facilities are classified as good; and (v) the star hotel market structure influences hotel business behaviour in North Sumatra, which in turn affects hotel business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the endogenous determination problem of strategies for each firm in a duopoly market. Particularly, we focus on the scenario wherein each firm behaves as a Kantian duopoly. In a Kantian duopoly with substitutes, we demonstrate that Bertrand competition can be uniquely observed in equilibrium if each firm's marginal cost is high relative to any degree of homogeneity between goods produced by each firm. Conversely, Cournot competition can also be observed in equilibrium if its marginal cost is low relative to degree of homogeneity. Conversely, in a Kantian duopoly with complements, we demonstrate that the two asymmetric market structures relative to each rim's strategy can be observed in equilibrium if its marginal cost is high relative to the degree of homogeneity. Cournot competition, however, can also be observed in equilibrium. Furthermore, in a Kantian duopoly, we find that the area of the degree of homogeneity and each firm's marginal cost such that the equilibrium market structure(s) can coincide with the socially preferable market structure(s) is larger when the goods are complements than when they are substitutes. Consequently, in a Kantian duopoly, each firm's free determination of its strategy should be permitted rather when the goods are complements than when goods are substitutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HSR affects air traffic directly and indirectly via airfare adjustment. • Airfare plays different roles in competition, feeding and long-term effects. • HSR quality and pre-entry airline market structure affect airfare adjustment. • Feeding effect dominates competition effect, causing more airline CO2 emissions. • Airfare adjustment mitigates HSR-induced air traffic and airline CO2 emissions. Airfare reduction is proposed by a theoretical paper to be a possible source of observed air traffic increase in some markets where high-speed rail (HSR) enters and competes with airlines. This paper aims to empirically test whether and to what extent the air traffic impact is channeled by the adjustment in airfares. To understand the varying empirical results found in the literature, we examine heterogeneous airline responses in traffic and airfare in relation to HSR qualities measured by HSR-air travel time difference and pre-entry market structure of airline as well as decompose HSR impacts into competition, feeding and long-term effects. Using a panel dataset of Chinese air routes, we find that airfare adjustment plays crucial roles in channeling HSR's air traffic impact. Our estimation suggests that HSR introduced over 16.5 million additional passengers to the sampled air routes in our study period, generating 2.17 million tons of extra CO2 emissions from air flights. However, these numbers would increase to 32.2 million additional passengers and 3.4 million tons of extra CO2 emissions after removing the price adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using quarterly data for Uruguayan banks we find that this sector is a concentrated oligopoly that exhibits global economies of scale. Specific product economies of scale are statistically significant in households and corporate loans. There are economies of scope between varieties of loans, deposits in local currency and portfolio management. The credit market to households is the least competitive, behaving like a monopoly or under implicit collusion. The credit market to firms exhibits greater competition than that suggested by the structure of the market, especially in local currency. Overall, the results suggest that there exists room for development and increasing competition in the Uruguayan banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the impact of market share on exchange rate pass‐through to Turkish manufacturing sector prices using four‐digit industry level disaggregate data. Our findings provide evidence that exchange rate pass‐through in the manufacturing sector has an asymmetric U‐shape with respect to market share, implying that highly competitive and concentrated industries pass‐through exchange rate movements in both directions (appreciation and depreciation) to local producer prices more than moderately concentrated sectors. However, when directional asymmetries of exchange rate movements are added to the models, results become more revealing, that is, highly monopolized industries pass‐through exchange rate depreciation at higher rates than highly competitive industries. We also find that the size of the exchange rate movement has an impact on the asymmetry and the curvature of the U‐shaped Exchange Rate Pass‐Through (ERPT) curve with respect to the market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the thematic landscape of the transition from monopoly to oligopoly in the Telecommunications industry in the post-privatization era literature. The study utilizes a systematic literature review method extended with bibliometric and network analysis. The paper also presents a thorough content analysis of the 56 selected articles (spanning from 1990 – 2020) on oligopolistic competition in the Telecommunications industry. The study extracts nine major themes from the corpus, with market competition as the most prominent feature. It summarizes the insights with a schematic framework presenting the inter-relations of the significant features of the market competition. It also lists the gaps and future scopes for further research in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to review the structural transformation in the container shipping industry from 1995 to 2020 and identify the growth strategies of global carriers to enhance their market presence. Along with large investments in mega vessels, the growing deployment of charter capacity in all ship sectors has been a prominent trend in fleet expansion. The waves of mergers/acquisitions and bankruptcies have narrowed the group of global carriers. In addition to internal and external growth, they have been increasingly involved in strategic alliances to expand service coverage and compete well with powerful rivals. A few mega carriers have progressively captured the industry. In 2020, the Top 12 controlled 88 % of the global supply, and nearly 56 % was in the hands of the Top 4. Besides the substantial expansion of the four biggest carriers, we can identify the de-concentration within this gigantic group through the less inequality between their market shares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most markets, buyers differ in their ability or willingness to switch supplier. This note proposes a novel industry concentration measure that takes this heterogeneity into account. The index increases in the share of captive sales, coincides with the Hirschman–Herfindahl Index when none of the buyers are captive, and takes the "pure monopoly" value of 1 when all are captive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse the whisky market in relation to international competitiveness and international market structure. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses Herfindahl–Hirschman index and net export index to describe the international market structure, and revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) index to measure export competitiveness. In addition, it was developed this stability and duration through regression analysis, and used Kaplan–Meier estimator to characterize the competitiveness survival in international whisky market. Findings: The results reveal that imports market structure remained unconcentrated and, on the other hand, exports market structure is highly concentrated. Concerning the trade characteristics, UK and Ireland have a strong tendency to export; Australia, France, Japan and Spain have a strong position on import and consumption; and Latvia, The Netherlands and Singapore to re-export. About the RSCA, UK, Ireland and Latvia have highest values. UK and Ireland are totally stable during the period analysed, and other countries such as USA, Singapore and Latvia also have a greater survival rate of RSCA. Originality/value: This study provides a comprehensive and current analysis of the international whisky market structure and competitiveness, contributing to the analysis of the international market for products that have differentiation and focus appeal, such as whisky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the background of green and low-carbon development, many enterprises still have illegal emission behaviors to obtain excess revenue. Therefore, it is an urgent problem to restrain the illegal emission behaviors of enterprises through external supervision. This paper mainly studies the regulatory system composed of government and enterprises. We divide the regulation into two phases: loose regulation and strict regulation, analyzed the impact of government regulatory intensity on carbon emission behavior enterprises and industry market structure through the evolutionary game model. The results show that with the increase of the intensity of government supervision, leading enterprises will gradually complete the transformation and upgrading from low carbon to compliant production. The leading enterprises with low carbon technology have strengthened their dominant position in the market, while the enterprises without low carbon technology are constrained by carbon emissions and can only continue to stay in the industry market by buying carbon emission rights or exiting the market. The industry market structure gradually changed from a decentralized competition structure to a centralized oligopoly structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of market structure and market share on the performance of the Islamic banks operating in the Iranian banking system based on the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm. Design/methodology/approach: The Iranian Islamic banking system's market structure is evaluated by using the econometrics method to test the validity of the traditional SCP paradigm. For this purpose, the authors estimate a simple regression model that is consisted of several independent variables, such as the market share, bank size, real gross domestic product, liquidity and Herfindahl-Hirschman index as a proxy variable for concentration and one dependent variable, namely, the profit as a proxy for performance. The panel data includes a data sample of 22 Islamic banks operating from 2006 to 2019. Data are extracted from the balance sheet of Islamic banks and the time-series database of the Central Bank of Iran and World Bank. Findings: The study's findings indicate that both concentration and market share have a positive impact on the performance of banks in the Iranian Islamic banking system. This result is contradicted with both traditional SCP and efficient structure hypotheses; however, it confirms the existence of oligopoly or cartel in the Iranian Islamic banking system that few banks try to gain the highest share of profit and maintain their market share by colluding with each other. This result is in contradiction with other research studies about the market structure in the Iranian banking system that claimed that banks in Iran operate under monopolistic competition. In addition, it shows that the privatization of some banks in Iran does not improve and help competition in the Iranian banking system. Originality/value: This paper is a pioneer empirical study analyzing the market structure, concentration and collusion based on the SCP paradigm in Iranian Islamic banking. The results of the study support the existence of collusive behavior among the Islamic bank in Iran that is not aligned with Sharia. This study clearly shows the difference between ideal Islamic banking and Islamic banking in practice in Islamic countries. This clearly indicates that only prohibiting some operations like receiving interest, gambling and bearing excessive risk is not enough. In fact, the Islamic banking system should be based on the Sharia rule in all aspects and much more modification and study have to be done to achieve an appropriate Islamic banking system. These possible modifications to overcome the issues of cartel-like market structure and collusive behavior in the Iranian Islamic banking system include making the Iranian banking system more transparent, letting foreign banks enter the Iranian banking system and minimizing the government intervention in the Iranian banking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]