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International audience; The tourism sector has voluntarily undertaken several initiatives to boost customer confidence in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in the hotel industry, three different strategies have been implemented: sending no COVID-19 safety signal; sending a moderate signal through a charter; or sending a strong signal through a label. This study aims to identify the main drivers of the hotels’ choice among these strategies and to analyze the influence of their choice on price setting. We estimate a system of three equations (hotel pricing, star rating, COVID-19 safety signal) on a sample of 418 rated hotels in the Hauts-de-France region. Results support three main findings: 1) star rating positively correlates with COVID-19 certification; 2) COVID-19 certification has a strongly negative impact on hotel prices; 3) star rating moderates positively the effect of COVID-19 certification on prices. Furthermore, error terms between the star rating level and COVID-19 certification equations are strongly correlated. Hence unobserved common factors play a role in the adoption of these quality signals. Our findings are consistent with the idea that managers implementing safety signaling strategies are more worried about recovery speed after lockdowns.

Public procurement bodies increasingly resort to pay-for-performance contracts to promote efficient spending. We show that firm responses to pay-for-performance can widen the inequality in accessing social services. Focusing on the quality bonus payment initiative in Medicare Advantage, we find that higher quality-rated insurers responded to bonus payments by selecting healthier enrollees with premium differences across counties. Selection is profitable because the quality rating fails to adjust for differences in enrollee health. Selection inflated the bonus payments and shifted the supply of highrated insurance to the healthiest counties, reducing access to lower-priced, higher-rated insurance in the riskiest counties.

International audience; This paper empirically analyzes the evolution of the quality of the sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) from 1972 till 2016 and verifies how consideration of quality affects the conclusions of the literature about the politics of the WHL. The quality of a site is proxied by the number of criteria set by UNESCO that the site satisfies. The analysis shows that, under a fixed stock of cultural and natural capital, as a country increases the number of sites in the WHL, their marginal quality decreases, because countries propose sites of decreasing quality over time. Contrary to previous studies focusing just on the number of sites included in the list, considering quality shows that the country's lobbying power does not matter for inclusion in the WHL, while the quality of its administration does. These results are robust to tests of the stability of the UNESCO evaluation criteria over time and to changes of econometric estimators.

International audience; Blockchain technology is a distributed network on decentralized machines that allows transactions to be carried out and validated. The term blockchain has covered various uses in the banking market for several years. By considering the architecture of the blockchain and the banking infrastructure, we clarifying at the uses of these technologies by showing the differences between distributed ledger (DLT) and blockchain. We present the obstacles created by public blockchains and the contributions of private blockchains in order to better understand their adoption possibilities in the banking environment. We also highlight the emergence of DLTs with permission and their role in the development of the banking system. DLT experiments with permission (Madre, Corda and Libra) allow us to illustrate current practices. The analysis shows that the consortium DLT is currently the most suitable prototype to meet the needs and constraints of the banking market.; La technologie blockchain est un réseau distribué sur des machines décentralisées qui permet d'effectuer et valider des transactions. Le terme blockchain recouvre des usages divers sur le marché bancaire depuis quelques années. En considérant l’architecture de la blockchain et l’infrastructure bancaire, nous clarifions les utilisations de ces technologies à partir des différences entre registre distribué (DLT) et blockchain. Nous présentons les obstacles créés par les blockchains publiques et les apports des blockchains privées afin de mieux cerner leurs possibilités d’adoption dans l'environnement bancaire. Nous mettons aussi en lumière l’émergence des DLT avec permission et leur rôle dans le développement du système bancaire. Les expérimentations des DLT avec permission (Madre, Corda et Libra) nous permettent d’illustrer les pratiques en cours. Il ressort de l'analyse que la DLT de consortium est le prototype le plus adapté actuellement pour répondre aux besoins et contraintes du marché bancaire.

International audience; This paper examines the agricultural supply relocation of products under geographical indication (GI) labels as an option to adapt to climate change. I develop a stylized framework that endogenously relates the delineation of the production area of the GI product to the distribution of specific geographical characteristics and their influence on the quality of the product and the corresponding comparative advantages. The model can then study how the GI production area responds to climate-related changes in the production conditions. The model shows that the GI production area can marginally expand as climate change worsens the production conditions, but it may disappear under more severe degradations. This opportunity to relocate current GIs hinges on striking a careful balance between mitigating climate-induced yield losses and altering quality, but it is also threatened by political economy barriers that govern the redistribution of GI rents.

International audience; This paper evaluates how three different international accreditations for business schools (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA) affect student preferences, expressed via enrollment decisions. Focusing on the French context, we build a relative preference indicator to compare schools using data collected by the central clearinghouse that allocates students to schools. We observe that all three accreditations positively and significantly influence students, but that the impact of the AACSB accreditation is larger than the other two accreditations. Having an AACSB accreditation is equivalent to moving up four places in rankings by L’étudiant magazine, whereas the impact of having EQUIS or AMBA is similar to moving up two places. We also find a sizeable “triple crown” effect, meaning that the three accreditations tend to complement each other. Our results are robust to different ways of assessing potential self-selection into accreditation.

This paper develops a theoretical framework to study the deployment of free-of-emissions green hydrogen in the transport sector. We consider a vertically related market with hydrogen producers upstream and fuel stations downstream. Production technologies differ in cost efficiency and carbon emissions. We show that when consumers have limited information about the hydrogen origin, no new green producers are able to enter the market. A label for green hydrogen allows multiple production technologies to co-exist, but society is better off when producers use vertical restraints to increase consumers' information.

International audience; This paper analyses the relationship between a country’s income distribution and its exports’ unit values. Using bilateral export flows, we not only confirm the positive association between a country’s average income and its export unit values, but further identify a heterogeneous relationship with income inequality: we find a greater income spread to be associated with higher export unit values in the case of poor countries only. These results are robust to the inclusion of controls for other determinants of export unit values, as well as to the use of alternative measures of income inequality and of the quality index. We finally discuss various theoretical rationalisations for this heterogeneous relationship between income inequality and the quality content of exports along the average income dimension, and show suggestive evidence that demand-side mechanisms can account for it, at least partly.

This article aims to estimate the effect of expert assessments on the prices for single malt Scotch whiskies on the investment market. Our results obtained using an original dataset combining data from Jim Murray's Whisky Bible and a web trading platform specializing in whisky investment show that the quality rating is not a powerful predictor of investor ask prices, especially when controlling for distillery and bottler reputation. This finding suggests that although the Murray score may embed information of use to unsophisticated investors, its effect on price can be outperformed by a detailed knowledge of the whisky industry. (JEL Classifications: L11, L15, Q13)

We explore the interplay between price signaling and independent monitoring for communicating information about the credence attribute of a good, such as environmental quality. We augment the standard model of price signaling allowing consumers to use the results of noisy monitoring as a complementary source of information. We show that monitoring restores the credibility of price signaling by saving partly or fully the signaling cost borne by green rms to deter cheating. A key reason for this is that monitoring compensates for the lack of information resulting from arbitrary beliefs based on surprising prices. The more accurate monitoring, the cheaper price signaling. The signaling behavior of green rms also depends on their number. We determine which proportion of rms choose to improve environmental quality.

Recent consumer research demonstrates that trust-worthiness of food chain actors and the openness of food manufacturers are strongly related to consumer confidence in food (Macready et al., 2020). Thus, the assumption of SFSC promoters is that this greater transparency translates into greater consumer confidence in producers and as a result more social, equitable and fairer trading practices between producers and consumers. Quality assurance and certification are the most common means used to communicate transparency and openness in both conventional and sustainable supply chains (UN environment, 2017). Prior research demonstrates that there are a variety of ways in which assurance and certification can be organized in order to credibly guarantee quality (Loconto, 2017a). Within this context, the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture has commissioned AGRI KULTI to develop an information and quality assurance system, that identifies management patterns across the connection of local production and gastronomy, both in Hungary and in the European Union (Food Track project). For this reason, a comprehensive and comparative data analysis is required. Thus, this study consisted of exploring and analysing initiatives, businesses or organizations in the EU that can be classified as SFSCs and that communicate their sustainability quality attributions (e.g., organic, local, healthy, agro-ecological, traditional, etc.) through a variety of forms of certification.The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of how to reconnect cities and rural areas by establishing transparent and close links between local (and small-scale) producers with urban gastronomy. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives were established: 1. Conduct a baseline study of quality assurance and information systems used across Europe in short circuit food chains using internet resources and an online survey when feasible 2. Elaborate 10 in-depth case studies that analyse the types of qualities and forms of quality assurance that have worked in practice.

We model of the search for predictors by speculators (active asset managers) and use it to analyze how the improvement in data processing power and the growth in available data (“data abundance”) affect the diversity of trading signals used by speculators, the dispersion of their profits and the similarities of their holdings. Our central message is that data abundance and computing power do not have the same effects. In particular, an improvement in computing power always raises the bar for the quality of predictors that managers consider good enough to exploit while more data lower it when data becomes sufficiently abundant. When this happens, the diversity of speculators’ signals and the dispersion of their trading profits increase in equilibrium while their holdings become less correlated.

International audience; We study the impact of airlines network design on excess travel times for the main US carriers between 2008 and 2017 and find that network configuration affects excess travel time. Based on graph theory and a principal component analysis we build four continuous indicators to measure the airlines networks. We observe that airlines serving more destinations, organizing flights landings and take offs around banks or moving towards a point to point configuration present higher levels of excess travel time. However, there does not seem to exist a preferred network configuration between hub and spoke or point-to-point configuration to reduce excess travel time. We also find a nonlinear impact of competition measured at the city-pair level over excess travel time. These results are robust when analyzing observed delays rather than excess travel time.

A website monetizes information it collects about its customers by charging third parties for targeted access to them. Allowing for third parties who are well-intentioned, a nuisance, or even malicious, the resulting consumer experiences might be good, bad, or neutral. As consumers learn from experience, the website especially risks losing those customers who su¤er a bad experience. Customer retention thus motivates the website to be cautious about monetization, or to spend resources to screen third parties. We study the website's equilibrium privacy policy, its welfare properties, competition in the market for information, and the impact of regulations improving transparency and consumer control.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are exerting growing pressure on firms to eliminate product components (such as palm oil) that are harmful to the environment (such as rainforests) or replace such components with NGO-certified sustainable components. Under which conditions does NGO pressure lead firms to eliminate basic components from their products or, alternatively, substitute damaging components with certified sustainable components? What are the ensuing effects on market structure, environmental quality, and social welfare? The paper addresses these issues using a model of two-dimensional vertical product differentiation. It shows that, for an NGO that collects certification fees to accrue its budget and finance its awareness campaign, it may — paradoxically — be optimal to reduce the certified product’s market share and eventually evict it.

News media operate in two-sided markets, offering bundles of content to readers as well as selling readers' attention to advertisers. Technological innovations in content delivery, such as the advent of broadcast television or of the Internet, affect both sides of the market, threatening the basic economic model of print news operations. We examine how the entry of television affected local newspapers as well as consumer media diets in the United States. We develop a model of print media and show that entry of national television news could adversely affect the provision of local news. We construct a novel dataset of U.S. newspapers' economic performance and content choices from 1944 to 1964. Our empirical strategy exploits quasi-random variation in the timing of the entry of television in different markets. We show that the entry of television was a negative shock for newspapers, particularly evening newspapers, in both the readership and advertising markets. Further, we find a drop in the total quantity of news printed, in particular original reporting, raising concerns about the provision of local news.

Purpose: Visitor satisfaction has become of significant importance and is a substantial asset in a museum’s strategic development plan. The present study elaborates on the issues of service quality, visitor satisfaction and future behavior intantions taking into consideration distinct museum settings in Greece. Methods: A survey though a self-administered questionnaire based on the dimensions of SERVPERF among 632 visitors in two distinct in terms of atmosphere, exhibits and activities museums, the Archaeological Museum and the Museum for Science and Technology in Thessaloniki provides empirical evidence. Results: The results indicate that the five dimensions of SERVPERF can successfully determine the degree of visitors’ satisfaction and predict future behavior. Future behavior is often subject to visitors’ place of residence. The type of museum is also a significant factor affecting satisfaction and future behavior. on and loyalty. Implications: Findings are somewhat consistent with prior studies in museums and support the significance of service quality on satisfaction. The correlation analysis for both museums shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between all SERVPERF dimensions with future behavior. Path analysis with structural equation modeling revealed a statistically significant positive effect only of tangibles for Science and Technology Museum and reliability for the Archaeological museum on visitors’ satisfaction.

This paper explores the effects of online customer ratings on debt capacity. Using a large sample of Parisian restaurants, we find a positive and economically significant relation between customer ratings and bank debt. We use the locally exogenous variation in customer ratings resulting from the rounding of scores in regression discontinuity tests to establish causality. Customer ratings affect financial policy through a reduction in cash flow risk and higher resilience to demand shocks. Restaurants with good ratings use their extra debt capacity to invest in tangible assets. Finally, favorable online ratings relax credit constraints mostly for moderately constrained restaurants.

International audience; On the basis of the conducted researches the strategic directions of development of the enterprise are scientifically based. The conceptual principles of creation and functioning of processes at Fudmaster Company JSC are formulated and the structural model of network of processes is created. The functional model and the mechanism of creation of process including its identification, formation, management and improvement are developed. The possibility of use of scientific methodology of FMEA analysis in technology of preparation of production "Kefir from Fudmaster" is shown. On the basis of the offered scientific and methodical approach the process of the production of fermented milk product "Kefir from Fudmaster" is structured. The standard of the organization for formation of processes of dairy production is developed and evidence-based.

Pay-for-performance is commonly employed to improve the quality of social services contracted out to firms. We show that insurer responses to pay-for-performance can widen the inequality in accessing social services. Focusing on the U.S. Medicare Advantage market, we find that high-quality insurance contracts responded to quality-linked payments by selecting healthier enrollees with premium differences across counties. The selection is profitable because the quality rating fails to adjust for pre-existing health differences of enrollees. As a result, quality improved mostly due to selection, and the supply of high-quality insurance shifted to the healthiest counties. Revising the quality rating could prevent these unintended consequences.

La technologie blockchain est un réseau distribué sur des machines décentralisées. Le développement du système bancaire pourra se faire sans adopter la blockchain en particulier. En se focalisant sur les dilemmes de l’architecture blockchain et la complexité de l’infrastructure bancaire, nous visons d’abord dans cet article non seulement à clarifier les ambiguïtés des utilisations technologiques substituables entre le registre distribué et la blockchain, mais aussi à montrer les risques de la normalisation internationale des terminologies sur la limitation du déploiement de la blockchain. A cet égard, nous étudions l’impact de telles confusions sur la mauvaise compréhension des fonctionnalités de la blockchain par les banques. Ensuite, nous identifions les enjeux des blockchains publiques pour la sphère financière et nous mettons en question l’utilisation de la blockchain privée par le système bancaire tout en apportant un regard critique sur le projet blockchain (Madre) de la Banque de France afin de dévoiler la réalité de la technologie expérimentée par le système bancaire. Enfin, et suite à l’exclusion de la blockchain, nous faisons une analyse des perspectives bancaires à propos des différents types de DLT afin de conclure que la DLT du consortium soit le prototype le plus pertinent pour l’infrastructure du marché, entraînant une évolution du rôle de système bancaire.

This article examines the main determinants of differences in ask prices set by investors for single malt whiskies from Islay in Scotland using an original dataset collected from a web trading platform specializing in whisky investment. We find strong evidence that the vintage age (the number of years between the distillation date and the data collection date) positively affects investor asking prices. More precisely, given that the characteristics of whisky, unlike wine, do not change over time once bottled, we disentangle the vintage age effect by subdividing the vintage age into whisky age (the time spent in the cask) and bottle age (the time spent in the bottle). Our results show that whisky age has a more pronounced impact (8.9% per year on average) than bottle age (6.7%). Other findings include the significant influence of distillery reputation, with a moderating effect for independent bottling (i.e., not in-house by the distiller itself) and a positive impact for cask strength whiskies compared to diluted ones. (JEL Classifications: G11, L15, Q11)

International audience; This paper documents the extent of copying and estimates the returns to originality in online news production. We build a unique dataset combining all the online content produced by French news media (newspaper, television, radio, pure online media, and a news agency) during the year 2013 with new micro audience data. We develop a topic detection algorithm that identi_es each news event, we trace the timeline of each story and study news propagation. We unravel new evidence on online news production. First, we show that one quarter of the news stories are reproduced online in less than 4 minutes. Second, we _nd that only 32.6% of the online content is original. Third, we show that reputation e_ects partly counterbalance the negative impact of plagiarism on newsgathering incentives. By using media-level daily audience and article-level social media statistics (Facebook and Twitter shares), we _nd that original content represents between 54 and 62% of online news consumption. Reputation mechanisms actually appear to solve about 30 to 40% of the copyright violation problem.

Today, the patent system is facing a paradox. It has never been so successful, yet at the same time it has attracted severe criticism, such as the call to return to the "commons". This article argues that the success of the patent at the 'macro' level is linked to the proliferation of the ways it is used at the ‘micro’ level: as a tool for the protection and diffusion of innovations, as an instrument of market power and technological valorisation, as a signal and instrument of negotiation, as a valuable corporate asset. These uses would somehow be superimposed since the genesis of the patent system, without cancelling the previous ones. This article proposes an analysis of the contemporary evolution of this legal institution by distinguishing different conventions for patent use as well as legal intermediaries which contribute to their definition, diffusion, and transformation, in particular patent attorneys. Although this explanatory outline draws mainly on the case of France, it can be extended to other countries.

https://www.afd.fr/fr/la-distance-est-elle-toujours-importante-pour-organiser-lapprovisionnement-alimentaire-urbain-le-cas-de-lagglomeration-de-rabat; La question de sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle (SAN) des populations des villes est devenue centrale ces dernières années suite aux phénomènes de métropolisation croissants, notamment dans les pays du sud. En effet, la dynamique d’urbanisation s’accompagne de nouveaux besoins alimentaires et nécessite le déploiement de nouvelles zones marchandes. Pour satisfaire cette demande urbaine, les systèmes de distribution alimentaire (SDA) doivent s’adapter. Les villes marocaines n’échappent pas à ce défi. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à comprendre quelles sont les zones de production qui alimentent la ville de Rabat au Maroc, dans un contexte où l’urbanisation avance mais où le secteur de distribution traditionnel reste dominant. Est-ce que les avancées technologiques et organisationnelles qu’effectuent aujourd’hui les grossistes marocains permettent de s’affranchir de la distance pour l’ensemble des produits ? Au travers d’enquêtes qualitatives et quantitatives auprès des protagonistes concernés, nos résultats montrent qu’à l’instar de nombreux pays, il y a bien un allongement des chaines d’approvisionnement alimentaire pour l’agglomération de Rabat. Cependant, nous montrons que pour certains produits, les SDA n’ont pas réussi à s’affranchir de la proximité notamment de part la nécessité d’acheminer rapidement les produits très périssables. Ainsi, pour les légumes feuilles (laitue, épinard, etc.) et les plantes aromatiques (menthe, coriandre, persil) très utilisées dans la diète marocaine, seule la proximité géographique supporte les échanges commerciaux avec la ville. Par ailleurs, nos résultats montrent que les SDA traditionnels et l’immense secteur informel de l’alimentation urbaine demeurent extrêmement dynamiques et résilients au Maroc. Les produits frais passent par des marchés de gros, en principe soumis à une réglementation, ou par d’autres circuits parallèles. Le système de distribution est complexe, peu maitrisé et désorganisé. Premièrement on assiste à la multiplicité de petits prestataires de services, d’intermédiaires de vente qui jouent un vrai rôle de services dans un contexte où les productions sont peu normées et où les technologies restent précaires. Deuxièmement, on recence une multiplicité de points de vente des fruits et légumes dans l’espace de la ville et sa périphérie, donnant lieu à des déplacements et des flux intra urbains de produits, de marchands et de consommateurs. L’existence et la pérennité de ces lieux de distribution sont fortement dépendantes des niveaux de prix du marché de gros et de liquidité des acteurs.

International audience; In this paper I investigate the role of e-reputation mechanisms on illegal platforms that specialize in drug sales. I ask whether online reputation systems can limit the risk of scamming (i.e. fraud) by dishonest sellers, and thus prevent Akerlof-like market destruction. I do so by analyzing all published offers on the second-largest platform operating on March 18th 2017 (Hansa). Three types of drugs show relatively low scamming risks, with the average probability that a random seller effectively send the ordered good of over 83%. The recent shutdowns of the two leading platforms are likely to increase this probability by 2.7 to 9.7%. Endogeneity may either lead us to overestimate the effect of e-reputation mechanisms (e.g., unobserved heterogeneity in sellers) or underestimate it (e.g., better-functioning markets may attract more scammers).

International audience; By introducing a nationalization policy in the agroalimentary sector, we analyze the conditions in which such a regulation (i) is efficient in the market in which it is led and (ii) positively affects economic outcomes in a more global commercial framework. We develop a model of mixed duopoly in which a firm is able to select the market in which it intends to develop its activity (here, national market or foreign market) and we identify two effects, namely regulatory effect and structural effect, whose combination explains several results. We first show that the setting up of a nationalization policy is locally efficient only for high levels of horizontal product differentiation degree in the national market. We secondly highlight that such a policy is nevertheless likely to introduce market distortions and lead to suboptimal outcomes in a rather united economic framework.; L’article évalue les effets en termes de qualité et de bien-être social d’une politique de nationalisation dans le secteur agroalimentaire. Nous analysons les circonstances pour lesquelles celle-ci est efficace (i) sur le marché où elle est appliquée et (ii) dans un cadre économique élargi. Nous construisons un modèle de duopole mixte où une firme peut choisir le marché (national ou étranger) sur lequel elle désire s’installer et nous identifions deux effets, respectivement un effet réglementaire et un effet structurel, dont la combinaison explique plusieurs résultats. Nous montrons que la mise en œuvre d’une politique de nationalisation n’est pertinente localement que si le degré de différenciation horizontale des biens proposés sur le marché national est suffisamment élevé. Nous mettons cependant en évidence que le comportement d’installation de la firme qui en résulte peut aboutir à des résultats socialement sous-optimaux dans un cadre économique élargi.

International audience; This special issue focuses on empirical and theoretical papers that help us to better understand the strategy and governance of entrepreneurial networks, such as franchise chains, alliances, and cooperative networks. The following central themes are covered: (I) Which formal governance mechanisms do entrepreneurial networks use in order to reduce transaction cost/agency cost and to increase strategic value? (II) What is the role of relational governance mechanisms (such as information exchange and social ties) for the performance outcomes in franchise chains and cooperatives? (III) Which alliance strategies do entrepreneurial firms pursue to realize a competitive advantage, and what is the impact of resources and capabilities on performance outcomes of entrepreneurial firms. To address these issues, insights from organizational economics (transaction cost theory, agency theory, signaling theory), strategic management perspectives (resource-based, knowledge-based and organizational capabilities theory), entrepreneurship theory and the relational governance view are used.

For-profit certifier's eco-labelling is common in industries where firms have some “countervailing power” on sharing gains from labelling. We show that the certification standard for an environmental quality is lowered when firms have strong “power.” A certifier with too low bargaining power will prefer to sell to the best offer rather than bargain. This switch in the selling mechanism also thwarts his incentives in setting the standard. This is consequential for evaluating policies. The dimensions and even signs of welfare changes induced by taxes and subsidies depend upon the mechanism used, and ultimately upon firms’ countervailing power.; La certification écologique par un certificateur à but lucratif est une pratique commune dans des industries où les entreprises ont un certain pouvoir compensateur sur le partage des gains de cette certification. On montre que la norme standard de certification pour une certaine qualité écologique est réduite quand les firmes ont un grand ≪ pouvoir ≫. Un certificateur qui a un pouvoir de marchandage trop faible va préférer vendre ses services au meilleur prix qui lui est offert plutôt que de négocier. Ce changement dans le processus de vente affecte aussi les incitations du vendeur dans sa définition de la norme. Voilà qui porte à conséquence dans l’évaluation des politiques. La taille et même le signe des changements de bien-être déclenchés par des taxes ou subventions dépendent du mécanisme utilisé et, en dernière instance, du pouvoir de négociation des entreprises.

International audience; This paper examines the effect of competition intensity on software vendors' security investments when the software is provided free of charge to users. We study the case of software at the center of Internet security, namely the web browser, in which vendors derive their revenue from advertising, and compete in quality. Specifically, using a pooled cross-sectional data set on security patch release on web browsers from 2009 to 2018, we examine how competition intensity affects web browser publishers' promptness to release a security patch. Contrary to many empirical works examining the link between competition and quality, we find that market concentration is not necessarily harmful to quality provision: a higher market concentration positively impacts the vendor's responsiveness in patching vulnerabilities, although this effect is reduced when the vendor is too dominant.

We develop a model of costly quality provision under biased disclosure. We define as friendly an environment in which the disclosure probability increases with quality, and as hostile an environment in which the opposite holds. Hostile environments produce a positive externality among sellers and potentially multiple equilibria. In contrast, friendly environments always yield a unique equilibrium. We establish that the environment that maximizes quality generates signals contradicting buyers' expectations. Hence, hostility produces greater incentives for quality than friendliness when costs are low and monitoring resources high. (JEL D82, L15, L82)

We build a model of collective reputation under moral hazard to analyze incentives under collective reputation. Producers can produce high quality, but it is only imperfectly detected. Products not detected as of high quality are pooled by to the collective reputation structure. Collective reputation can yield higher quality and welfare than individual reputation. While groups unravel in absence of transfers even when efficient, simple collective reputation contracts implement the First Best.

International audience; This paper estimates the impact of contract design on the enforce-ability of quality in outsourced public contracts. Using panel data from 102 cleaning contracts, our results suggest that quality enforcement depends highly on the ex ante contracting process. Such findings are consistent with recent theoretical contributions which consider that the verifiability of agents' actions is endogenously determined by the principals' investments in drafting an explicit contract pertaining to the quality of the agent's output. Moreover, since those quality improvements are not accompanied by price increases, our results suggest that public contract managers have significant leeway to reduce oppor-tunistic behavior for standard transactions.

How are eco-label strategies affected by consumer confusion arising from the profusion of eco-labels? This article provides a theoretical insight into this issue using a double differentiation framework. We assume that consumers perceive a label as a sign of quality compared to an unlabeled product, but that they cannot fully assess the environmental quality associated with each label and only see each label as a particular variety of a similar product. We analyze the pricing strategies of three firms, each one providing one product: a labeled product, with high or medium environmental quality, according to the eco-label, or an unlabeled product. We infer lessons for eco-labeling policies, according to the identity of the certifying organization: the regulator, an NGO or the firms. We show that the firm supplying the eco-labeled product with a high environmental quality is weakened by consumer confusion while the firm selling the unlabeled product suffers from strict labeling standards, to the benefit of the firm providing the labeled product with a lower environmental quality, which gains a competitive advantage. Most labeling policies consist of harmonizing labeling criteria, but only certification by a third party, the regulator or a NGO, guarantees the high environmental quality of labeled products, whereas certification by firms leads to a uniform undemanding standard. However, when both labels are provided by two different certifiers, including a firm, harmonization of environmental standards does not occur and the NGO's or regulator's eco-labeling standard will be much more stringent than the firm's one, preventing NGO's or public eco-labeling policy to significantly enhance quality of the environment and welfare.

This paper examines the evolution of drug use in Colombia over the past years. Our analysis, based on surveys from the Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes, shows that drug consumption grew substantially between 1996 and 2013. The growth occurred for both genders, all ages, socioeconomic strata and types of occupation. The results also suggest that men of high socioeconomic strata who regularly consume alcohol and cigarettes and who are between 18 and 24 years of age are more likely to use drugs. Finally, the paper presents some indirect evidence that contradicts the alleged effects of the judgment of the Constitutional Court (Sentencia C-221 of May 1994) that decriminalized the personal dose on the consumption of drugs in Colombia.

International audience; Software firms that produce and sell proprietary software can use dual licensing (DL) strategies,that is, they can distribute their products under different (proprietary, OS, e.g., open source)licensing terms. We investigate the relevance and impacts of such distribution strategies in thepresence of an OS software competitor. We determine the conditions for this strategy to be profitablefor the software firm, and its impact on price, market share, and welfare. We show that aDL strategy can be used to crowd the OS software out of the market. This strategy then is profitablefor the software firm only if the spillovers coming from the hybrid software (i.e., second distributionlaunched by the software firm) are sufficiently high and result in both a higher price anda lower market share for the proprietary software. We also consider a situation where the introductionof DL leads to a market shared between the firm's software and the OS competitor. Inthis situation, the profitability of the DL strategy depends also on the degree of compatibilitybetween the proprietary software and its OS competitor. We show also that this situation cangenerate conflicts of interests between proprietary software vendors and users, resulting in suboptimaloutcomes.

référence interne : CNRS2; International audience; Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a credence attribute of products, which can be signaled either through a label certified by a third party, or via unsubstantiated claims used as part of a brand-building strategy. We use an experimental posted-offer market with sellers and buyers to compare the impact of these signaling strategies on market efficiency. Only third-party certification gives rise to a separating equilibrium and an increase in CSR investments. Unsubstantiated claims can generate a halo effect on consumers, whereby the latter are nudged into paying more for the same level of CSR investments by firms.

We investigate the effects of carbon reduction labels using a detailed scanner data set. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that having a carbon label has no impact on detergent prices or demand. We also investigate possible heterogeneous effects of carbon labels using the synthetic control method. We find no evidence to indicate that the prices for the counterfactual detergents without the label would have been any different from the prices of the carbon-labeled detergents. We investigate the reasons for these results and conclude that the specific design of the carbon label is responsible for its lack of success. (JEL D12, D83, L15, Q54)

International audience; We study the impact of communication on behavior in a two-stage coordination game with asymmetric payoffs. We test experimentally whether individuals can avoid a head-to-head confrontation by means of coordinated strategies. In particular we analyze whether and how quickly a conflict-avoidance take turn strategy can emerge. First, our results show that players learn to solve the conflict by choosing opposite options at both stages of the game. Second, many adopt a take turn strategy to sustain coordination over time and alleviate the inequality induced by the asymmetry of payoffs. Third, communication increases the likelihood of conflict resolution regardless of whether communication is unilateral or bilateral.

International audience; Ensuring the success of agriculture is at the heart of food security, and it is necessary to examine strategies that tackle agricultural development through the production and consumption of sustainable food products. One way to increase food security in small island states is to develop local food sectors by increasing consumers’ awareness about local products with sustainable characteristics. We designed an economic experiment to assess consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for yams with sustainable characteristics: the origin, the intrinsic quality of an alternative variety and the mode of production. The results showed that labelling significantly changes consumers’ valuation of the different yam profiles. Consumers’ WTP for local yams (2.85 € kg-1) was significantly higher than for imported yams (1.80 € kg-1), while the organic mode of production derives a significant premium if information on production methods has been disseminated. The results also suggested that organoleptic characteristics of new varieties should not be overlooked. We conclude on how the labelling strategy could be facilitated through a policy targeting the development of the local food sector.

Chapitre 6.6.; De nombreuses caractéristiques alimentaires qui importent au consommateur sont cachées au moment de l'achat, certaines demeurent encore cachées au moment de la consommation, certaines le restent à jamais. C'est la raison pour laquelle l'information nutritionnelle des consommateurs est un enjeu important.

Newspapers’ advertising revenues have declined sharply in recent decades. We build a model to investigate the consequences on newspapers’ content and prices of a reduction in advertisers’ willingness to pay. Newspapers choose the size of their newsroom, and readers are heterogeneous in the relative amount of journalistic-intensive content they prefer. We show that a reduction in advertising revenues lowers newspapers’ incentives to produce journalistic-intensive content, which affects the composition of their readership. We also build a unique dataset on French newspapers between 1960 and 1974 and perform a difference-in-differences analysis using a “quasi-natural experiment”: the introduction of advertising on television, which affected national newspapers more severely than local ones. We find robust evidence of a decrease in both the amount of journalistic-intensive content produced and the subscription price, which may help rationalize current industry trends. We also provide evidence that national newspapers’ readership became less educated and affluent following the change in prices and content.

International audience

International audience; The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for whether the hierarchical position (determined by firm’s quality strength) of different types of quality supply chain categories implies the same hierarchy in terms of economic gains. Using the French survey on Organisational Change and Computerisation (COI-TIC), we distinguish four types of quality supply chain categories that help us to empirically construct a relationship betweenfirms and their suppliers (quality certified/non quality certified). Our findings, from a two regime switching model, reveal that there is a positive correlation between the hierarchical positions of the quality supply chain categories and the impact on firm performance.; L'objectif de cet article est d’identifier empiriquement si l’importance accordée par l’entreprise à la gestion de la qualité dans sa production et sa chaîne d’approvisionnement est corrélée avec l’importance des gains qu’elle en retire. À partir de l’enquête Changements Organisationnels et Informatisation (COI-TIC), on distingue quatre types de chaînes d'approvisionnement selon la place faite à la gestion de la qualité, mesurée par le recours aux standards et procédures de qualité, dans les relations entre les entreprises et leurs fournisseurs. S’appuyant sur l’estimation d’un modèle à changement de régime, nos résultats montrent qu'il existe bien une corrélation positive entre la position hiérarchique de l’entreprise dans sa chaîne d’approvisionnement, telle que définie par les enjeux de gestion de la qualité, et sa performance économique.

This paper studies the effect of firm and country reputation on exports when buyers cannot observe quality prior to purchase. Firm-level demand is determined by expected quality, which is driven by the dynamics of consumer learning through experience and the country of origin's reputation for quality. We show that asymmetric information can result in multiple steady-state equilibria with endogenous reputation. We identify two types of steady states: a high-quality equilibrium (HQE) and a low-quality equilibrium (LQE). In a LQE, only the lowest-quality and the highest-quality firms are active; a range of relatively high-quality firms are permanently kept out of the market by the informational friction. Countries with bad quality reputation can therefore be locked into exporting low-quality, low-cost goods. Our model delivers novel insights about the dynamic impact of trade policies. First, an export subsidy increases the steady-state average quality of exports and welfare in a LQE, but decreases both quality and welfare in a HQE. Second, there is a tax/subsidy scheme based on the duration of export experience that replicates the perfect information outcome. Third, a large reputation shock is self-fulfilling when the economy has multiple steady states. Finally, a minimum quality standard can help an economy initially in a LQE moving to a HQE, but is not necessarily welfare improving.

International audience; The repercussions of product innovation crisis in big pharma drive the generic pharmaceutical industry to lower its dependence on original pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, an important change is happening in the classic model of R&D in pharmaceutical industry. How is generic industry coping with this evolution? This study aims to understand how generic firms orchestrate and promote innovation strategy in product portfolio, while ensuring the value creation for a sustainable presence on the market. A qualitative research methodology consisting of a literature review and several in-depth interviews with senior managers working in both the technological and business development areas were realized between 2011 and 2013. The results were analyzed by using Nvivo10 software. Our results show that switching to more investment in R&D is becoming a new marketing strategy in generic pharmaceutical industry. New organizational design of low risk innovation is emerging in the strategies of R&D model, the change is observed in: (1) form of the R&D organization, and (2) the tools for R&D, all aiming to capture the entire markets rather than following them. The classic product vision in generic pharmaceutical industry is evolving toward a new phase with regard to emerging marketing challenges and the demand for low risk innovation models. This implies using new technology platforms in drug delivery, to preserve a competing and sustainable market share.

International audience; We empirically examine the effects of industry consortia on the coordination of innovation strategies of the members. Our analyses utilize membership data from 32 consortia in wireless telecommunication technology subfields from 2000 to 2005 and prior art citations in standard-essential patents. We find that connections among firms in informal and technically-oriented consortia significantly increase the likelihood that firms cite each other's patents in subsequent patents essential for the UMTS wireless telecommunication standard. Inventions that are likely to become part of the UMTS system tend to build on inventions by firm peers who were members of the same consortia, controlling for patent or firm fixed effects, technology class, and other characteristics. Consortia may enhance productivity of invention and increase the incentives to invest in R&D by internalizing potential externalities. They may also enhance efficiency of standardization by facilitating the interaction of committee and market processes. Consortia thus structure and constrain the process of innovating standardized technologies. This is problematic if consortia are not truly accessible for all the relevant parties. Policymakers thus need to balance these effects. For managers, the results show that participation in a variety of technical consortia enables influencing peers' innovation strategies related to compatibility standards.

Capital confiance et performance durable - À qui confier les clés ? résulte d’une confrontation des résultats de deux études : l’une, auprès des dirigeants, porte sur les nouveaux enjeux de la performance pour les entreprises, menée par Sylvie Rolland, directrice de la chaire Performance des organisations de Paris-Dauphine ; l’autre réalisée auprès de directeurs Qualité, par Anne-Laure Mauduit, responsable du pôle Études du Groupe AFNOR. La partie prospective du livre émane des travaux des membres du réseau de clubs de dirigeants QHSE* Parcours Croisés, synthétisés par Christophe Villalonga, auteur du livre Devenez Manager qualité 2.0 ! Penser autrement, se comporter différemment, agir durablement. En trente ans, la fonction s’est installée dans le paysage des entreprises : elle pèse aujourd’hui plus de 100 000 emplois en France et mobilise directement plus de 200 000 personnes. Plus d’un million d’entreprises dans le monde, dont 32 000 en France, se sont emparées de la norme ISO 9001 pour augmenter le niveau de confiance avec leurs marchés.

We develop a new methodology to identify high-end variety exporters in French fi rm level data. We show that they do not export to many more countries, but they export to more distant ones. This comes with a greater geographic diversi cation of their aggregate exports. In contrast to low-end export(er)s, we find that distance has almost no eff ect on high-end variety export(er)s. We also show that high-end export(er)s are more sensitive to the average income of the destination country. Because of this di erent sensitivity to gravity variables at the micro-level, specializing in the production of high-end varieties has two macroeconomic implications for countries. First, the sources of a country's aggregate exports volatility are modi ed. The higher sensitivity to per capita income increases the sensitivity of high-end variety exports to destination-speci c demand shocks, and thus their volatility on a given market. However, their lower sensitivity to distance allows for a greater geographic diversi cation of their exports, which in turn reduces aggregate volatility through a portfolio e ect. Second, the lower sensitivity to distance allows highend varieties to bene t more from demand growth, especially when it arises in distant markets.

This paper approaches international trade in luxury goods from demand side. It associates demand for luxury goods with within-country income disparities, via a social interactions component, the so-called Veblen effect (Veblen 1899). In the theoretical part, we propose a simple model of vertical differentiation with preferences displaying a Veblen effect. The model predicts that demand for luxury goods increases with the income gap between the two socio-economic groups (wealthy and non-wealthy agents). Furthermore, wealthy individuals in societies with higher income disparities have higher incentives to purchase luxury goods and hence they are willing to pay more for these. Next, we provide an empirical validation of these predictions on a sample of French high-end exporters (as defined by Martin and Mayneris, 2013) from French 8-digit CN custom data for 2006 at firm-product-destination level. Both demand for and average firm-product unit values of luxury goods are increasing with the income gap in importer country. The relationship is robust to inclusion of control variables as well as to use of alternative measures of income dispersion.