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In the overlapping global emergencies of the pandemic, climate change and geopolitical confrontations, supply shocks have become frequent and inflation has returned. This raises the question of how sector-specific shocks are related to overall price stability. This paper simulates price shocks in an input–output model to identify sectors which present systemic vulnerabilities for monetary stability in the United States. We call these prices systemically significant. We find that in our simulations the pre-pandemic average price volatilities and the price shocks in the COVID-19 and Ukraine war inflation yield an almost identical set of systemically significant prices. The sectors with systemically significant prices fall into four groups: energy, basic production inputs other than energy, basic necessities, and commercial infrastructure. Specifically, they are "Petroleum and coal products," "Oil and gas extraction," "Utilities," "Chemical products," "Farms," "Food and beverage and tobacco products," "Housing," and "Wholesale trade." We argue that in times of overlapping emergencies, economic stabilization needs to go beyond monetary policy and requires institutions and policies that can target these systemically significant sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years ago, the Federal Trade Commission stopped enforcing its fictitious reference pricing guidelines, emphasizing the search qualities of price and the belief that competition would drive out deceptive behavior. Yet this practice of posting false, inflated comparison prices alongside sale prices has proliferated. Building on prior analytic work and the documented effects of reference pricing on search behavior and consumer choice, the authors develop a descriptive model explaining why fictitious reference pricing has spread instead of being extinguished by competition. After summarizing the model with a series of generalizations, the authors consider potential regulatory solutions to the problem. They propose that disclosure of the true normal price charged may be the only solution that could plausibly influence both consumer and firm behavior. Then, based on the existing literature, interviews with practitioners and regulators, an analysis of other nations' approaches, and the results of a laboratory study of 900 consumers to examine how they integrate "true normal price" information into deal evaluations, the authors develop a set of propositions about the likely effects of requiring firms to disclose recent selling prices for goods, identifying both potential benefits and challenges associated with such a requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with a court ruling on the formulation surcharge for eye drops that were manufactured by a pharmacy and dispensed to insured persons. It is determined that the formulation surcharge, according to the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation, can only be claimed once per contract doctor's prescription and not for each application unit. The health insurance company objected to the pharmacy's billing and made a claim for reimbursement. The social court dismissed the pharmacy's lawsuit. The pharmacy's appeal was also rejected. [Extracted from the article]

The article deals with discharge management and the organization of follow-up rehabilitation. It emphasizes the importance of increasing the minimum volumes for the care of premature and full-term infants weighing less than 1250 g. The search for a rehabilitation place lies primarily with the rehabilitation provider. The article describes a legal dispute between a hospital and a statutory health insurance provider. The court ruled that the hospital is entitled to reimbursement and that this claim is not extinguished by the offsetting of the provider. It also explains the pricing regulations for hospital reimbursement for publicly funded hospitals, including the compounding surcharge and reclassification by the health insurance company. [Extracted from the article]

Among major development organizations, the unchallenged consensus is that war and conflict are development issues ravaging local economies, often leading to forced migration, refugee populations, and acute food insecurity. Food insecurity when caused by a rise in food prices is a threat for violent conflict. This study was conducted in Nigeria using three types of quantitative data which are the general household panel data, monthly retailed commodity prices, and violent conflict data from 2010 to 2019. This study examines the linkages between conflict, food price shocks, and food security outcomes of households in Nigeria. Per capita daily calorie intake, household dietary diversity, and per capita monthly food consumption were the three food security outcomes used for this study. Fixed effects panel regression models were used to determine the effects of conflict-induced food price shocks on the food security outcomes of households. I was found that dietary diversity appeared to be higher in the first wave than in the other three waves. The measure of dietary diversity for the post-harvests were slightly higher than the post-plantings. The high dietary diversity associated with the post-harvest periods is partly related to the relatively higher net value of foods consumed during the same season. This is because the amount of food calories consumed during the post-harvest periods are relatively lower than the amount consumed during the post-planting periods. Regardless of the conflict level in Nigeria, an increase in conflict-induced price shock of wheat, and rice is associated with a decline in calorie intake, dietary diversity, and the actual food value consumed. The conflict-induced price shocks of other cereals negatively influence the actual food value consumed, and dietary diversity. It is concluded that violent conflict influences some aspects of food insecurity, through adjustment in diets in response to price increases. Conflict-induced price shocks is a necessary condition for food security. Therefore, policy issues aimed at improving the food security outcomes of households in the face of conflict-induced price shocks should focus on price scheme that will stabilise price placing a price floor on food commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: The loyalty penalty refers to a pricing strategy where companies charge higher prices to loyal customers for exploitation while offering lower prices to nonloyal customers for attraction. To address this unfair business practice, various regulatory agencies, such as the Competition and Markets Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, have proposed or implemented regulations aimed at promoting fairness in pricing. In this study, we analyze the impact of such regulations on both firms and consumers. Methodology/results: We develop a stylized model to investigate duopoly competition in two symmetric markets, where consumers exhibit loyalty to different firms in each market. The regulatory intervention mandates that the price difference between the two markets, set by each firm, must not exceed a certain threshold. Our analysis reveals an intriguing interaction between market competition and price fairness regulation. When competition is intense, fairness regulation can alleviate cutthroat competition between firms, resulting in Pareto improvements compared with a scenario with no regulation. On the other hand, when competition is weak, fairness regulation can further enhance firms' existing monopoly power, potentially leading to collusive high prices that are detrimental to consumers and society. We also consider several extensions to enrich our findings, including fairness regulation on relative price discounts, asymmetric markets, and a two-pronged policy regulating the price gap and price cap. Managerial implications: Our study reveals the economic consequences of price fairness regulations; firms can benefit by pricing fairly, but well-intended fairness requirements may have adverse effects on consumers. Funding: P. Gao is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72201234 and 72192805], the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (the Collaborative Research Fund) [Grant C6032-21G], and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mathematical Foundations for Artificial Intelligence [Grant 2023B1212010001]. Y.-J. Chen acknowledges financial support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council [Grants CRF HKUST C6020-21GF, GRF 16500821, and GRF 16501722]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0552. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how militarized regimes of narcotics and price control sustain unpalliated cancer pain in Pakistan. It shows how these regimes of control—reimagined as "regimes of pain"—render morphine, a cheap, effective opiate analgesic, scarce in hospitals. Meanwhile, heroin, morphine's illegal derivative, proliferates in illicit circuits. The article highlights a devastating consequence of the global wars against drugs and "terror": the consignment of cancer patients to agonizing end‐of‐life pain. Widening the analytic lens upon palliation beyond bodies and their clinical encounters, the article offers a geopolitics of palliation. It shows how narcovigilance targeting illicit drugs has the perverse effect of throttling morphine's licit supply. It shows further how unviably low price ceilings, purported to ensure a poor population's access to morphine, render it scarce on the official market. These mutually reinforcing regimes of control thus thwart their own purported objectives, consigning cancer patients to preventable, yet unpalliated, pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to study the production of consumption goods within a price floor carbon emission trading scheme. A stochastic Stackelberg game is set up between the environment authority (Player 1), and the manufacturer/producer (Player 2). In such a hybrid emission trading scheme, the authority sets an emissions target and producers will choose to participate in carbon trading on this basis, subject to a stochastic demand with information delayed. When the stochastic demand is determined by the market sale price and the scale of carbon emission reduction, we apply the maximum principle to obtain both the optimal production and market price. We show when the demand is determined by both the market sales price and carbon emission reduction, manufacturers are persuaded to set the market sales price first (ex ante incentive) and then proceed to a carbon trading scheme, thus providing a backward-looking advantage to manufacturers. Consequently, the manufacturer and the environmental authority can find a subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium via backward induction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a subsample of low-income American Voices Project respondents who rent their homes to examine how households coped with housing insecurity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, some renters reported more housing stability because of the expansion of existing programs. However, access to and distribution of these resources was uneven. Second, renters continued to rely on social ties to secure housing but the interpersonal and financial issues that often arise with such arrangements remained during the pandemic. Third, the pandemic provided some renters with reason to request and receive flexibility in payment plans on existing leases, though landlord largess was far from universal. Our findings reveal the limitations of temporary policy responses that are administered in uneven ways, require eligible individuals to seek out and enroll in novel benefit programs, and do not intervene directly in markets to increase supply or control prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on the employment effect of environmental regulations focus exclusively on regulated sectors, but labour demand in unregulated sectors can also be affected in a general equilibrium framework. Using the designation of Key Cities for Air Pollution Control in 2001 in China as a quasi-experiment, we employ PSM and DDD methods and find that the policy lowers employment in emission-intensive polluting firms, but it also increases employment in labour-intensive non-polluting firms, providing evidence of relocation of workers from regulated to unregulated industries. Evidence from city-level aggregate data suggests that the overall employment effect is minimal, and no evidence is found to suggest that workers move from the manufacturing sector to the services sector. The results are robust to a host of robustness checks. The finding implies that the job-killing effect of environmental regulations is over-stated, and non-polluting industries are not suitable comparison units in previous DID literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents new perspectives by empirically examining the impact of trade in environmental goods and remittances on tourism development in RCEP countries over the period 1995-2021. We deployed the novel 2SIV-DPD model, the two-step system GMM and the D-K standard error approach. Results found new evidence that trade in environmental goods and remittances boost tourism development while economic growth hampers foreign tourism in RCEP countries. In addition, our results suggested that RCEP countries should bolster trade in environmental goods, improve infrastructure networks of transfer channels, and control price levels to achieve tourism development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating use of artificial intelligence in marketing significantly impacts all aspects of consumer life. This research, grounded in attribution theory and S–O-R theory, employs scenario-based experimental methods to simulate two distinct purchasing contexts. The aim is to investigate consumers' psychological and behavioral responses to AI-initiated pricing. Through SPSS analysis of variance and Bootstrap analysis, the mechanisms of influence of AI-initiated pricing on consumer behavior are tested, revealing the mediating variables of mind perception and consumer perceived ethicality, as well as the mediating variables of perceived enterprise control. Data were collected from Chinese customers to test the model of this study. A total of 841 valid questionnaires were analyzed using ANOVA and Bootstrap analysis with SPSS. The results show that: (1) Consumers exhibit higher repurchase and word-of-mouth recommendation behaviors and lower complaint and switching behaviors for AI-initiated pricing compared to marketers; (2) AI-initiated pricing leads to diminished mind perceptions and augmented ethical perceptions among consumers. Ethical perceptions serve as a complete mediator, while mind perceptions play a less significant mediating role; (3) Perceived enterprise control plays a moderating role in the impact of AI-initiated pricing on consumer behavior. That is, when consumers know that the enterprise can control pricing agents, AI-initiated pricing leads to lower repurchase and word-of-mouth recommendation behaviors, and higher instances of complaining and switching behaviors than humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s and 2000s, many developing nations accepted fixed exchange rate regimes to sustain price stability. By pegging their currencies to an anchor currency (i.e. US dollar), developing countries could bring credibility and confidence into their economies. The study tries to analyse the impact of the pegged exchange rate regime on inflation in BRICS countries for the period spanning from 2003 to 2022. The result points to the loss of monetary policy autonomy due to the ‘impossible trinity’ coming into play with a steady increase in capital inflows. The country’s large trade surpluses and extensive trade relationships may buffer the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on domestic prices, as changes in the exchange rate may be absorbed by changes in trade volumes or pricing strategies. Other factors like demographic trends or government interventions in markets could overshadow the influence of the exchange rate regime on inflation. The impact of changes in the exchange rate regimes on inflation may operate with lags, meaning that any effects may not be immediately observable in the data. The analysis in this study proposes that exchange rate regimes choice and money supply influence the inflation dynamics in the BRICS countries. It merely reflects the success of the central bank in neutralizing its very effort of maintaining the pegged rate, which gives rise to inflationary growth of the money supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how monetary policy can be calibrated to promote a greening of finance. The paper reviews existing literature and notes a tendency to either focus narrowly on one policy instrument or provide a menu of options, without much depth or discrimination. This Perspective paper undertakes a theory-based analysis of green monetary policy options using an institutional approach to monetary economics. In so doing, it identifies a policy mix that would reorient finance by structurally modifying the relative incentives of financing green vs dirty assets. More specifically, the proposed green central banking strategy consists in the combined adoption of several, recalibrated monetary policy instruments. The two main ones are core elements of central banks' collateral policies: making (more) green assets eligible in credit operations with central banks and using so-called 'haircuts' to give green assets preferential treatment over dirty assets in those credit operations. Combined, the adoption of the proposed, recalibrated instruments promises to reorder the collateral asset hierarchies that are the backbone of modern financial systems, providing strong financial incentives for enhanced financing of investment in green assets and divestment from dirty assets. Monetary policy can help speed up a greening of the financial sector. Enhanced financing of green assets, as well as divestment from dirty assets, can be incentivized through a range of monetary policy tools. Among the most potent green monetary policy tools is differentiated treatment of green and dirty assets in credit operations, known as collateral policy. Several green monetary policy options can be pursued without compromising other monetary policy objectives (such as price stability). While most central banks currently remain reluctant to engage proactively with such policy tools, the increasing manifestation of climate change is likely to erode such resistance in coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marketing authorization of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) in Brazil is recent. The features of these therapies impose specialized regulatory action and are consequently challenging for developers. The goal of this study was to identify the industry's experience in clinical development, marketing authorization and access to ATMPs through the Unified Health System (SUS, acronym in Portuguese), from a regulatory perspective. A survey containing structured questions was conducted among research participants who work at companies that commercialize ATMPs. A descriptive analysis was performed. We invited 15 foreign pharmaceutical companies, of which 10 agreed to participate. Overall, participants assessed that Brazil has a well-established regulatory system, especially the sanitary registration by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), which ensures the quality, safety, and efficacy of the products. The Agency's good interaction with the regulated sector, the harmonization of sanitary and ethical assessment systems with other countries, and the analysis time in the biosafety assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) stand out as positive in industry's evaluation. On the other hand, it is important to advance the pricing regulation for these products since Brazilian regulations do not establish specific criteria for ATMP. One of the biggest challenges is the difficulty for the SUS in reimbursing these very high-cost therapies, especially using current Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methods. Considering the increasing number of approvals of cell and gene therapies in Brazil in the coming years, a close dialogue between the industry and the public sector is recommended to advance regulatory improvements (pricing and HTA). Additionally, the construction of policies to promote the national Health Economic-Industrial Complex, based on a mission-oriented vision that encourages innovative models of financing, especially those that consider risk-sharing and co-financing technologies, will help provide the population with universal, equitable and sustainable access to ATMP in the SUS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that the test for excessive pricing set out in United Brands is vague in a number of aspects and subsequent judgments of the EU courts have not provided much clarity on the matter. This article examines the evolution of the EU case law on excessive pricing for the last four decades including the most recent excessive pricing case investigated by the European Commission in the Aspen case. In particular, the article discusses the important question of what constitutes an excessive price that is "unfair in itself" and the question of how economic value is to be assessed. The article concludes that, although the abuse of unfair excessive pricing is likely to remain a difficult area for regulators to handle, the Commission's commitment decision in Aspen, despite the fact that it cannot change or replace judicial decisions, provides very important clarification of the legal test for excessive pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conventional LTE homogeneous network, sufficient transmit power of user equipment (UE) is determined by open-loop power control (OL-PC) and closed-loop power control (CL-PC) schemes. However, in a Het-Net environment, setting the UE’s transmit power requires delicate responsiveness to handle the severe and complicated uplink interference. In this paper, an interference-aware uplink power control mechanism based on Heuristic game theory approach is proposed for devices coexisting in a heterogeneous wireless network. Various wireless constraints like channel response, path loss, fading, shadowing, interference and metrics like SNR, SINR, throughput and bit rates are considered. Uplink power is controlled by suitably selecting the penalization factor (β) based on a simple Heuristic game theory approach considering the possible wireless constraints of each user depending on its location in the cell under consideration. The algorithm is framed in such a way to reduce inter-cell interference, limit transmit power, enhance bit rates and throughput of users. A significant improvement of 5.2% in the user coverage/ distribution is achieved as a result of interference management compared to conventional power control scheme and power control with convex pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article estimates the pass‐through of different shocks into different U.S. prices that are important for policy makers. The investigation is based on a structural vector autoregression model, where quarterly data are used. The empirical results depict oil price pass‐through, exchange rate pass‐through, import‐price pass‐through, and producer price pass‐through into import prices, producer prices, and consumer prices for the U.S. economy. Policy implications suggest that achieving and sustaining consumer price stability highly depend on monitoring the developments in oil prices, followed by import prices and producer prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intricate relationship between gambling preferences and stock market dynamics, with a focus on the repercussions of a more lenient price limit regulation. Specifically, we examine the effects of expanding the price limit range from 10% to 20% for stocks listed on the second board market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Employing a difference-in-differences methodology for causal inference, our research reveals a notable surge in price volatility, particularly evident among lottery stocks. To validate these findings, we employ various statistical techniques, including propensity score matching tests, parallel trend hypothesis tests, placebo tests, and alternative volatility measurements. Our study unveils that looser price limits contribute to heightened stock price volatility through two primary channels: the inherent lottery characteristics of certain stocks and the increased attention from retail investors. Moreover, we identify that the amplified volatility is more pronounced within non-state-owned enterprises and small-cap entities. In summary, our results indicate that price limits play a crucial role in stabilizing emerging stock markets by mitigating the gambling tendencies of retail investors. This research sheds light on the positive aspects of price limits regulation, offering valuable insights for market policymakers and participants alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction to an article by Salvatore Nisticò, addressing an error in the welfare criterion derivation. The error does not affect the theoretical results, and updated numerical results and sensitivity analysis are provided. The document explains the two layers of heterogeneity in the model and discusses the welfare effects of cross-sectional dispersion. It also provides a corrigendum for equations in a previous paper by the same author. The numerical analysis shows that the revised welfare criterion has a marginal effect and strengthens the insights of the paper. The document evaluates different policy regimes and their implications in terms of cyclical and welfare properties, highlighting the importance of considering financial-wealth effects in monetary policy design. The results demonstrate that ignoring financial instability leads to higher welfare losses, and the total welfare costs of ignoring financial-wealth effects are substantial. The sensitivity analysis confirms these findings. [Extracted from the article]

We consider the classical machine scheduling, where n jobs need to be scheduled on m machines, and where job j scheduled on machine i contributes p ij ∈ R to the load of machine i, with the goal of minimizing the makespan, i.e., the maximum load of any machine in the schedule. We study the inefficiency of schedules that are obtained when jobs arrive sequentially one by one, and the jobs choose the machine on which they will be scheduled, aiming at being scheduled on a machine with a small load. We measure the inefficiency of a schedule as the ratio of the makespan obtained in the worst-case equilibrium schedule, and of the optimum makespan. This ratio is known as the sequential price of anarchy (SPoA). We also introduce two alternative inefficiency measures, which allow for a favorable choice of the order in which the jobs make their decisions. As our first result, we disprove the conjecture of Hassin and Yovel (Oper Res Lett 43(5):530–533, 2015) claiming that the sequential price of anarchy for m = 2 machines is at most 3. We show that the sequential price of anarchy grows at least linearly with the number n of players, assuming arbitrary tie-breaking rules. That is, we show SPoA ∈ Ω (n) . At the end of the paper, we show that if an authority can change the order of the jobs adaptively to the decisions made by the jobs so far (but cannot influence the decisions of the jobs), then there exists an adaptive ordering in which the jobs end up in an optimum schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, what should central banks do in response to these catastrophic events? Looking at IMF reports for 34 disaster‐years, which occurred in 16 disaster‐prone countries from 1999 to 2017, reveals lack of any systematic approach adopted by monetary authorities in response to climate shocks. Using a small‐open‐economy New‐Keynesian model with disaster shocks, we show that consistent with textbook theory, inflation targeting remains the welfare‐optimal regime. Therefore, the best strategy for monetary authorities is to resist the impulse of accommodating in response to catastrophic natural disasters, and focus on price stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using weekly data from January 2020 to December 2021 on the prices of various links in the Chinese broiler industry chain and the COVID-19 epidemic, we employed a time-varying parametric vector auto-regressive (TVP-VAR) model to investigate the dynamic effects of public health events on price fluctuations of upstream, midstream, and downstream products in the Chinese broiler industry chain. Our findings showed that the COVID-19 epidemic had different effects on the prices of various broiler products, both in direction and magnitude, at different lags and time intervals. Chicken and live chicken prices were impacted the most, followed by broiler chick prices, while broiler feed prices were impacted the least. The epidemic constantly impacted broiler chick and chicken prices, while its effect on live chicken prices was initially negative but turned positive afterwards. Additionally, the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on broiler product prices consistently increased with more extended lag periods. The impulse responses at different epidemic time points were heterogeneous. With the results of this study, policy recommendations can be suggested to relevant government departments to optimize the prevention and control measures for public health emergencies and ensure price stability in the broiler industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventing food waste is important. Analyzing the effects of food waste attitudes on urban residents' waste production behaviors is necessary to reduce food waste. As Shanghai is a mega-city with a population of 24 million people, once food is adequately supplied, more attention is paid to the safety of food in terms of quantity, quality, and nutrition. COVID-19 gave a shock to the food supply in Shanghai, which in turn resulted in food waste behavior. The moderating effect of pandemic during the COVID-19 is one that has rarely been mentioned in previous studies. An investigation of urban residents was conducted in Shanghai. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected in October 2020. This study examined the influence of food waste attitudes on food waste behavior under the moderating effects of pandemic expectations, quantity safety, quality safety, and price stability using a multivariate ordered probit model. The results show that food waste attitudes had a significant negative effect on food waste behavior at a p < 0.01 level of significance, which means that the more people feel shame about food waste, the less food waste they will have. The interaction coefficient between food waste attitudes and pandemic expectations was positive at a p < 0.1 level of significance. This paper concludes with strategies for dealing with food waste in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to specialty or high-quality coffees, sensory qualities are crucial because coffee marketers use samples to assess bean and cup quality, which is then used to create a score based on the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) protocol. This score is then used to determine the purchase and price. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the processes developed during training for high-quality coffee production with three shade-grown organic coffeeproducing organizations in the state of Chiapas. The goal was to improve harvest and postharvest practices in order to increase the sensory quality of the coffee. Each training session used the washed, natural, and honey methods to process the coffee. Statistically significant differences were found in the different types of post-harvest processing for each organization. In the sensory analyses, washed coffees were classified as excellent (between 85 and 86 points). In general, the coffees obtained scored between 80 and 86 points, which, according to the SCA protocol, are classified as very good to excellent. The washed processes obtained the highest score; however, the natural and honey processes are a good alternative for producers who lack water during harvesting. Selective harvesting and monitoring of the fermentation processes help to increase the sensory quality of the coffee, improving its opportunity to access specialty markets in order to obtain better prices and greater stability in the medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to disclose the peculiarities of accounting and controlling the formation of the price of wine products in the world market, taking into account their qualification categories. The quality of wine products is ensured by a set of regulatory documents aimed at protecting both vineyards and production technology. The research is based on the compliance of the producing countries with the status of "wines of controlled designations and origins" (wines of CDO). The study of exports and imports of wine on the world market has proven that the dominant role in consumers' choice of wine is played by the quality characteristics defined by the standards. Using the grouping method, a categorical classification of wine in the leading countries was formed: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. The wine classifications of the producing countries are characterized. The instruments of quality of Ukrainian wine products are allocated. The originality of the study lies in controlling the formation of the price of wine products in the world market, taking into account their categorical classification. The categorical classification of wines will allow consumers to identify the wine's compliance with established standards, geographical origin and other categories and confirm the qualityprice statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of two-wheeler ride-hailing platforms has transformed urban mobility, offering convenience and cost-effectiveness. However, the unregulated pricing strategies of these services pose challenges for both consumers and drivers. This study explores the urgency to implement pricing regulations and identifies the primary beneficiaries and those in need of such measures. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature, stakeholder interviews, and market analysis, it becomes evident that price regulation can stabilize fares, ensuring affordability for riders while providing fair compensation for drivers. Riders, particularly from low and middle-income groups, benefit most from regulated pricing as it guarantees predictable and reasonable fares, enhancing their access to reliable transportation. Drivers, often facing income volatility due to fluctuating ride demand and pricing schemes, also stand to gain significantly from a regulated system that ensures fair wages and job security. Furthermore, regulatory frameworks can foster competitive equity among ride-hailing companies, preventing monopolistic practices and encouraging healthy market competition. Therefore, the regulation of pricing for two-wheeler ride-hailing platforms is crucial not only for consumer protection but also for safeguarding driver welfare and promoting a balanced market ecosystem. The findings advocate for policymakers to urgently address this regulatory gap, ensuring that the benefits of ride-hailing services are equitably distributed across all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain has experienced a history of chronically high and intractable unemployment. The Job Guarantee has been theorized as a policy proposal that aims to produce tight full employment and enhances macroeconomic and price stability. This paper provides an overview of some of the explanations to the causes of unemployment and the performance of traditional active labor management policies. A simulation of a job guarantee programme for the historic 1999–2019 period is provided using an econometric model of the Spanish economy. In addition to eradicating unemployment, we find that the job guarantee programme attenuates the economic cycle, sustains higher real incomes, and does not compromise price stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care accounts for a substantial amount of government spending and is one of the most vulnerable sectors of theeconomy. Having a significant role to play in saving lives, health care services are very valuable to customers, and without appropriatecontrol, the price of such services can be very high. Due to this, the government oversees a significant portion of healthcare costs andenacts special pricing controls. In this paper, exclusive domestic production of licensed brand drugs is studied by forming acooperative strategy between a domestic manufacturer and a foreign licensor. This strategy increases the manufacturer's income; as aresult, the government also expects discounts from the cooperative firm. A Nash bargaining solution based on cooperative gametheory is proposed to model the related pricing negotiations between partners. A real-life pharmaceutical company case study isapplied to the proposed model. The cooperative strategy indicates that the market share of the licensor in the local market and thereturn on capital of the local licensee manufacturers positively affect the equilibrium price at a lower price than the new equilibriumprice, the foreign company will not benefit from the coalition significantly and will not have any incentive for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stablecoin represents a unique subset of cryptocurrencies designed to offer price stability, achieved either through backing by specific assets or by employing algorithms that adjust their supply in response to market demand. In its landscape, algorithmic stablecoin is one special type that is not backed by any asset, and it stands to revolutionize the way a sovereign fiat operates. As implemented, algorithmic stablecoins are poorly stabilized in most cases; their prices easily deviate from the target or even fall into a catastrophic collapse and are as a result often dismissed as a Ponzi scheme. However, what is the essence of Ponzi? In this paper, we try to clarify such a deceptive concept and reveal how algorithmic stablecoin works from a higher level. We find that Ponzi is basically a financial protocol that pays existing investors with funds collected from new ones. Running a Ponzi, however, does not necessarily imply that any participant is in any sense losing out, as long as the game can be perpetually rolled over. Economists call such realization as a rational Ponzi game. We accordingly propose a rational model in the context of algorithmic stablecoin and draw its holding conditions. We apply the model and use historical data to examine if the major types of algorithmic stablecoins meet the criteria for being a rational Ponzi game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harvesting Solar Power Foments Prices in a Vicious Cycle: Breaking the Cycle with Price Mechanisms An important paper in this issue quantifies and explores how residential solar power adoption affects the price of electricity and the profit of a utility firm. It reveals the mechanism behind what is known as the "utility (death) spiral." As more residences adopt solar power generation, the price of electricity goes up, whereas the profit of utility firm comes down. The study finds the equilibrium of a game played between consumers deciding to adopt residential solar power and the utility deciding on prices in a regulated market. The equilibrium, involving a potential bankruptcy for the utility firm and a high price for a nonadopter consumer, is desirable for neither. To avoid this, it suggests either decreasing the buyback price that the utility pays for the excess power of an adopter or introducing a subscription for adopters. These suggestions can inform pricing policies in the power market. Distributed solar power generation is growing but not necessarily benefiting the utility firms. Reducing the demand, it hinders the coverage of utility costs with reasonable retail electricity prices. Utilities raise prices, unintentionally reducing both demand and affordability of electricity, and are said to be caught in a utility (death) spiral. The reduced affordability adversely affects consumers who cannot invest in solar generation. Environmentally desirable solar power paradoxically can be socially undesirable. Market regulators are challenged to keep prices low within the current pricing mechanisms. We provide a profit maximization formulation for a regulated utility and reveal the interaction between optimal price increases and growing solar power adoption. Iterating with this interaction, we study the utility death spiral for myopic and forward-looking consumers. We consider new pricing mechanisms with a buyback price and a subscription fee paid only by solar power-generating consumers. The fee mitigates the optimal retail price increase by allowing for the coverage of fixed costs in part. We find appropriate values for the buyback price and subscription fee to, respectively, slow or stop the utility spiral. These mechanisms are important not only for the utility and its regulator but also for all electricity consumers. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2021.0756. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of blockchain technology on platform supply chains from the perspectives of information transparency and transaction cost. We build a hybrid-format supply chain in which one supplier adopts an agency selling format and sells a product through the platform by paying a commission fee, while the other supplier adopts a reselling format. A game theory model is adopted to solve the key question: What is the best blockchain strategy for each supply chain member? Our research shows that blockchain technology can be a powerful weapon for platforms to adjust prices and control the market. As for the two suppliers in our supply chain, they will become better off with blockchain technology due to the elimination of information asymmetry and transaction costs. Moreover, the optimal strategies for platforms strongly depend on transaction cost, commission rate, and blockchain's operation cost. Furthermore, we also provide a side-payment contract to help different players achieve Pareto improvement, thus reaching a win-win-win outcome. Our findings not only provide guidance for the adoption of blockchains in the platform economy but also complement the gap in research on information sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nutrition North Canada (NNC) program, introduced in April 2011 is a federal strategy to improve access to perishable, nutritious foods for remote and isolated communities in northern Canada by subsidising retailers to provide price reductions at the point of purchase. As of March 2023, 123 communities are eligible for the program. To evaluate existing evidence and research on the NNC program to inform policy decisions to improve the effectiveness of NNC. A scoping review of peer-reviewed articles was conducted in ten databases along with a supplemental grey literature search of government and non-government reports published between 2011 and 2022. The search yielded 172 publications for screening, of which 42 were included in the analysis. Narrative thematic evidence synthesis yielded 104 critiques and 341 recommendations of the NNC program across eight themes. The most-identified recommendations focus on transparency, communication, and support for harvesting, hunting, and community food initiatives. This review highlights recommendations informed by the literature to address critiques of the NNC program to improve food security, increase access to perishable and non-perishable items, and support community-based food initiatives among eligible communities. The review also identifies priority areas for future policy directions such as additional support for education initiatives, communication and transparency amidst program changes, and food price regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the proportion of distributed renewable energy sources in distribution networks is continuously increasing, while electric vehicles (pure electric and hydrogen-powered) are experiencing substantial growth within the transportation network. Addressing how to coordinate the regulation of renewable power generation and guide electric vehicle charging, thereby ensuring secure distribution network operations and enhancing traffic network efficiency, has become an urgent issue. This paper proposes a novel strategy for coordinated regulating the coupled system through adjusting hydrogen flow via a joint electricity price–hydrogen price–charging price mechanism. Electricity prices serve to control the electrical energy flow; hydrogen prices control the hydrogen energy flow; and charging prices control the charging patterns of electric vehicles. Two pricing mechanisms are compared: one considering only electricity prices and charging prices (without hydrogen energy flow), and another incorporating electricity prices, hydrogen prices, and charging prices (with hydrogen energy flow). Based on these pricing mechanisms, two methods are contrasted: a rule-based price updating approach and a reinforcement learning-based DDPG (Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient) price decision method. Results show that in the proposed price mechanism (with hydrogen energy flow) DDPG strategy, the voltage deviation has decreased by 0.007 (p.u.) compared to the old price mechanism (without hydrogen energy flow) rule-based strategy. However, there is no significant improvement observed in terms of transportation network regulation capability, in the proposed price mechanism DDPG strategy, the waiting time and time loss have increased by 2.2% and 1.2% compared to the old price mechanism rule-based strategy. Results reveal that the proposed joint electricity price–hydrogen price–charging price mechanism exhibits superior performance, which can effectively control the electrical energy flow-hydrogen energy flow-traffic flow. However different coupling devices exhibit varying degrees of sensitivity to price changes. In addition, the DDPG method proves more effective. In future research, the main focus is on addressing the insufficient explainability of deep reinforcement learning. [Display omitted] • Adjusting hydrogen flow via electricity price–hydrogen price–charging price. • Mathematics formulation of the novel strategy considering hydrogen flow. • The novel strategy can control the electrical-hydrogen-traffic flow. • Different coupling devices exhibit varying degrees of sensitivity to price changes. • DDPG price decision method can reduce the voltage deviations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal trade in totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) is causing adverse social, ecological, and economic impacts. This illegal activity is accelerating the overexploitation of totoaba and pushing the critically endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus) closer to extinction. Despite extensive efforts to recover vaquita populations, scant attention has been given to the totoaba trade as an independent issue. As a result, data on the totoaba trade are limited, which hampers robust analyses and development of effective interventions to reduce illegal harvesting. We used a previously developed framework specifically designed to examine dynamics of illegal markets and guide measures to mitigate illegal use of totoaba. This framework separates markets into 3 analytical levels: characterization of participating actors (e.g., fishers, intermediaries); examination of how actors interact within the market (e.g., organization of supply chains); and assessment of the overall market dynamics that result from these interactions (e.g., factors determining price and quantity). We reviewed existing literature (108 initial articles) and interviewed key market actors, academics, and nongovernmental organization experts (14) to obtain data for this framework. Our findings offer an overview of the totoaba illegal market operation, highlighting intervention points (e.g., customs agents) and areas where additional information is required to decrease information gaps (e.g., US local market). We describe the structure and complexity of this market, emphasizing the influential role of organized crime in shaping its dynamics (e.g., controlling prices paid to fishers and stockpiling). By providing a systematic and in‐depth understanding of the market operation, we aimed to establish a benchmark for effective interventions and future research aimed at reducing uncertainties. Our results provide a crucial step toward addressing this critical issue and can help facilitate development of effective strategies to combat the illegal totoaba trade and promote biodiversity conservation more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the often-overlooked contributions of John Witherspoon to the Scottish Enlightenment, the American Revolution, and the formation of the American republic. Topics include a brief overview of Witherspoon's life and career, the significance of a rare letter he wrote to George Washington in 1778 about the dangers of price controls, and his early career and role in the Jacobite uprising.

This article analyses how the European Council, and its support structures, have been dealing with the energy crisis. On a theoretical level, it sheds light on how the EUCO system deals with polycrisis, which requires high-level political engagement, combined with deep technical expertise and out-of-the-box thinking. I contend that in a polycrisis the process as such can become an important part of the solution, thereby challenging outcome-oriented approaches to EU crisis management. I use embedded process tracing to analyse, in real-time, how the EUCO system sought to shape and steer policy-making on energy prices. The analysis shows how, in spite of deep divisions between member states, the EUCO system 'process managed' its way out of this politics trap, and managed to square the circle on the issue of a price cap. Through positive politicisation, the EUCO system prevented an oscillating process from derailing, and eventually tunnelled a way out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to identify trends in the development of the Russian economy during the new anti-Russian sanctions. To this end, the paper analyzes the impact of the new sanctions on the budgetary sphere, the development of economic sectors and industries and the Russian regions.Methods: the work uses data from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), the Federal Treasury, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Economic Development), the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), the Federal Tax Service (FTS), the Federal Customs Service (FCS), the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). For their analysis, graphical, tabular, and analytical methods are used.Results: the new anti-Russian sanctions caused significant changes in the structure of the Russian exports and trade balance. The reduced inflow of foreign currency put significant pressure on the ruble exchange rate, which created inflation risks. The devaluation was restrained by the Bank of Russia new currency regime. The favorable situation in the energy market in 2022 led to an increase in budget revenues. In 2023, economic growth resulted from an active fiscal policy supported by moderate monetary expansion. However, it was achieved at the cost of an increase in the budget deficit and public debt. The response of different industries and regions to the sanctions shock was heterogeneous. The development of certain adaptive strategies by economic entities, as well as the response of the authorities played an important role. The new sanctions regime prompted a revision of the state economy regulation paradigm. Dirigisme manifested itself in the increase of state orders, subsidies and other support for protected industries with one-time withdrawals of opportunistic revenues of big business. Monetary and fiscal policy gradually acquired a hybrid character. Direct and indirect price regulation became an important instrument of state regulation during the sanctions.Scientific novelty: it consists in a comprehensive analysis of development trends during the new anti-Russian sanctions, their impact on foreign economic parameters, budgetary sphere, financial system, development of Russian industries and regions.Practical significance: statistical information on various aspects of the Russian economy development during the new antiRussian sanctions was summarized and analyzed. The work can be useful to researchers studying the functioning of the Russian economy under sanctions, as well as to businesspersons for assessing the risks, opportunities and prospects of their businesses development, and to government agencies for forming an effective anti-crisis policy.

Background: Although countries worldwide have launched a series of pro-competition reforms, the literature on the impacts of hospital competition has produced a complex and contradictory picture. This study examined whether hospital competition contributed to an increase in the quality of outpatient care. Methods: The dataset comprises encounter data on 406,664 outpatients with influenza between 2015 and 2019 in China. Competition was measured using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). Whether patients had 14-day follow-up encounter for influenza at any healthcare facility, outpatient facility, and hospital outpatient department were the three quality outcomes assessed. Binary regression models with crossed random intercepts were constructed to estimate the impacts of the HHI on the quality of outpatient care. The intensity of nighttime lights was employed as an instrumental variable to address the endogenous relationship between the HHI and the quality of outpatient care. Results: We demonstrated that an increase in the degree of hospital competition was associated with improved quality of outpatient care. For each 1% increase in the degree of hospital competition, an individual's risk of having a 14-day follow-up encounter for influenza at any healthcare facility, outpatient facility, and hospital outpatient department fell by 34.9%, 18.3%, and 20.8%, respectively. The impacts of hospital competition on improving the quality of outpatient care were more substantial among females, individuals who used the Urban and Rural Residents Basic Medical Insurance to pay for their medical costs, individuals who visited accredited hospitals, and adults aged 25 to 64 years when compared with their counterparts. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that hospital competition contributed to better quality of outpatient care under a regime with a regulated ceiling price. Competition is suggested to be promoted in the outpatient care market where hospitals have control over quality and government sets a limit on the prices that hospitals may charge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper evaluates the performance of the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) deep learning algorithm in forecasting Bitcoin and Ethereum prices during the COVID-19 epidemic, using their high-frequency price information, ranging from December 31, 2019, to December 31, 2020. Deep learning (DL) techniques, which can withstand stylized facts, such as non-linearity and long-term memory in high-frequency data, were utilized in this paper. The LSTM algorithm was employed due to its ability to perform well with time series data by reducing fading gradients and reliance over time. The obtained empirical results demonstrate that the LSTM technique can predict both Ethereum and Bitcoin prices. However, the performance of this algorithm decreases as the number of hidden units and epochs grows, with 100 hidden units and 200 epochs delivering maximum forecast accuracy. Furthermore, the performance study demonstrates that the LSTM approach gives more accurate forecasts for Ethereum than for Bitcoin prices, indicating that Ethereum is more prominent than Bitcoin. Moreover, the increased accuracy of forecasting the Ethereum price made it more reliable than Bitcoin during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. As a result, cryptocurrency traders might focus on trading Ethereum to increase their earnings during a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature is undergoing a rapid decline, due to factors such as changes in land use, climate change and pollution, potentially leading to the sixth mass extinction of species. This process jeopardises ecosystem services and therewith the global economy. Over half of the global economy relies on nature and its degradation can affect supply chains, weather patterns, commodity prices and economic growth prospects. This paper finds that nature-related risks are in fact financial risks and offers empirical evidence that these risks are priced in corporate bonds, a relevant asset class for central banks. In light of this, central banks can acknowledge and evaluate the impact and dependency of their operations on nature, incorporating these considerations into their risk management framework, encompassing identification, assessment, mitigation and disclosure. This will help to ensure price stability and sustainable development, while enabling them to safeguard their balance sheets. The guidelines provided by this paper extend to other financial institutions, underscoring the need for a holistic approach to the challenges posed by nature loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that a consumer price-neutral reform of consumption taxes and import tariffs is welfare-improving. This paper shows that such price controls are inferior to quantity controls in terms of welfare improvement. The paper next turns to a comparison of different abatement strategies. Whether or not policy changes should fix private abatement or public abatement relates to the level of earmarking, and depends on the relationship between private production and public abatement. There are cases in which increased public abatement only improves welfare by more than both increased private and public abatement together. The paper recommends that environmental earmarking in the form of public abatement should be delivered to cushion price hikes and sustain private energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptocurrency is the most advanced technology and financial product and the focus of attention of investors pursuing safe-haven assets. This study evaluates the asymmetric multifractality of the cryptocurrencies in the different phases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) through a novel approach of asymmetric multifractality detrended fluctuation analysis. The study is a valuable contribution by analyzing the multifractality in the downward and upward price movements. The outcomes show that the major cryptocurrencies have multifractals, which increase as the fractal scale increases. The higher multifractality is observed in the downward (upward) movements for Bitcoin and Ripple, suggesting that both are less efficient and weaker safe havens against unpredictability during the pandemic and throughout the period. The multifractality is greater in the upside (downside) for Ethereum and the market efficiency improves during the pandemic and the full period, as indicated by the greater upward deviation than the downward. The results explore that cryptocurrencies are inefficient during the pandemic. Ethereum requires special attention to monitor such sudden changes in the price dynamic and regulations are extremely critical. This will help investors to develop portfolios to minimize risk and forecast future price trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maize is considered an important commodity with promising market prospects. Given the importance of maize, there is a need to increase maize production to meet people's needs and maintain price stability. This study aims to group maize production in Indonesia by region, with the hope of finding areas that have the potential to become maize production centers to reduce dependence on imports. The data used in this research was obtained from the Central Statistics Agency, covering information from 34 provinces during the 2017-2021 period. This analysis uses the K-Means method with the Python programming language. The number of groups is determined using the Elbow Method. The results of this research show that there are three categories of maize production regions: regions with low maize production (below average), regions with medium maize production, and regions with high maize production. A total of 25 provinces are in the low production category, eight provinces are in the medium category, and only East Java is in the high production category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess the impact of regional differences related to energy transition on average costs and allowed revenues for a panel of Dutch electricity distribution system operators (DSOs) subject to yardstick competition. Yardstick competition entails that the allowed revenues of DSOs are based on the average costs of the entire industry, which requires that these DSOs are comparable. This comparability requirement is challenged by the penetration of distributed generation and other distributed energy resources, which may cause regional differences among DSOs. Estimating an average-cost function for the entire population of Dutch DSOs for the period 2012–2020, we find that the installed capacity of solar PV, installed capacity of on-shore wind and number of public electric-vehicle charging points have a significant effect on unit costs of DSOs. If yardstick competition does not take these effects into account, the allowed revenues for some DSOs (having above-average shares of energy-transition variables) are too low, whereas allowed revenues for other DSOs (having below-average shares of energy-transition variables) are too high. We find that taking the impact into account can change the price caps of individual DSOs with a percentage up to around 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several major on-line platforms operate two channels: An agency channel in which suppliers retain control over prices and quantities and pay a portion of sales revenue to the platform, and a reselling channel in which the platform purchases goods from the supplier and resells them to consumers. These two channels run in parallel and many suppliers interact with only one of them. Although it is quite easy for a supplier to sell through a platform's agency channel, they must typically be invited to participate in the reselling channel. We develop a model of a powerful platform that can offer a supplier a two-part contract to induce it to participate in its reselling channel instead of its agency channel. When the supplier sells through the platform's agency channel, we find that if the competition among the traditional resellers is at least moderate and the on-line platform is a close enough substitute for traditional resale channel, then the equilibrium quantities sold through the on-line and traditional channels both exceed the first best quantities. This would not occur if the supplier sold through either the on-line or the traditional channel in isolation. Nor would it occur if the supplier sold through the platform's reselling channel. As a consequence, we find that when competition among traditional resellers is at least moderate, and both the commission rate and the substitutability between the on-line platform and the traditional resale channel are sufficiently high, there is a Pareto improving reselling contract between the supplier and the platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scarce public resources are allocated at below-market-clearing prices and sometimes for free. Such "nonmarket" mechanisms sacrifice some surplus, yet they can potentially improve equity. We develop a model of mechanism design with redistributive concerns. Agents are characterized by a privately observed willingness to pay for quality, a publicly observed label, and a social welfare weight. A market designer controls allocation and pricing of a set of objects of heterogeneous quality and maximizes the expectation of a welfare function. The designer does not directly observe individuals' social welfare weights. We derive structural insights about the form of the optimal mechanism, leading to a framework for determining how and when to use nonmarket mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]