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Korea is not only a top paprika exporter to Japan, but also Japan is the largest Korean paprika importer. In this situation, investigating who has price leadership contributes to fill a gap in previous literature. This study examines paprika price relationships between wholesale prices in Korea, import prices in Japan and wholesale prices in Japan using monthly data from 2007 to 2017. A threshold vector autoregressive model (TVAR) and Granger causality test are used to test the price leadership between Korean exporters and Japanese importers. Moreover, forecasted prices based on TVAR show that Korean exporter’s paprika prices will be lower than Japanese importer’s price in the future. The results show that Japanese importers provide price leadership to wholesalers in Korea and Japan. Our findings suggest that paprika farmers could benefit from policies designed to address the trade situation.

Purpose: The key objectives of the study are to investigate whether increased bank size is essential for banking efficiency in Pakistan, further, to explore the influence of market power or economies of scale on size–efficiency relationship. Design/Methodology/Approach: The dynamic two-step system GMM approach is applied on bank-level data of a panel set of 31 commercial banks of Pakistan, over the period 2006 to 2022. For robustness, the selected period is further divided into three time spans, 2006–2010, 2011–2019, and 2019–2022, and to explore size-efficiency association among different size categories, the entire data is divided into two groups. Findings: The study reveals two key outcomes. First, size is a c ore variable in describing efficiency movement in Pakistan as a significant positive relationship is evinced between bank size and net interest margin in both groups even in the period of COVID-19. Second, both market power and economies of scale strongly influence size–efficiency relationship. However, the impact of these variables is insignificant for medium and small banks. Further, all bank-specific and macroeconomic variables are significantly allied with banking efficiency. Originality: The study is premiered to examine the bank size–efficiency relationship in the light of market power and economies of scale for the banking sector of Pakistan. The originality of this research is the deep examination of bank size–efficiency relationship with two effectual macroeconomic variables. Research Implications: The core policy implication is that size is a fundamental factor while market power and economies of scale are driving forces of size–efficiency association in Pakistan.

This paper examines the effect of bank competition on bank liquidity creation and explores whether the effect varies by the diversification level of banks, using a sample of Malaysian banks from 2001 to 2017. Our preliminary analysis shows that the aggregate, on- and off-balance sheet liquidity creation of banks decreases when their market power drops, suggesting an adverse effect of bank competition on bank liquidity creation. However, the adverse effect diminishes or disappears for highly diversified banks, and this result holds for both asset and income diversification. The results identify diversification as a “buffer” through which banks could insure their liquidity creation business against competition by generating new income sources for the banks and enhancing their tolerance to intermediation margin compression.

In a globalized world, the distribution of value-added across firms depends on a number of factors that vary across space. A key factor is related to the different types of competition on the multilayer structure of production, which are characterized by different types of (market) power. In this paper, we first argue that PageRank centrality is able to capture sectoral market power within the complex structure of global production. We then study the empirical properties of this market power measure and demonstrate a power-law relationship between sectoral PageRank centrality and relative sectoral profits. This power-law relationship has (international) political economy implications as it demonstrates the high incentives of sectors to become more central to increase their relative profits.

This paper employs a real options approach to analyze optimal investment decisions. When investment projects have the characteristics of irreversibility, uncertainty and the option to wait or exit, the traditional net present value (NPV) method would underestimate the value of investment, since it neglects the values of timing and operational flexibility. The distinctive feature of this paper is that the effects of product life cycle (PLC) as well as market power are incorporated into the model. In addition, and different to the approach in Liao et al. [Optimal investment decision and product life cycle: A real options approach, Sun Yat-Sen Management Review 11(3) (2003) 1–36], we introduce the concept of technological innovation into the model. It is shown that the optimal waiting time for the investment is longer than both those in the American call options model of McDonald and Siegel [The value of waiting to invest, Quarterly Journal of Economics 101(4) (1986) 707–727], which does not incorporate dividend yield, and Liao et al. [Optimal investment decision and product life cycle: A real options approach, Sun Yat-Sen Management Review 11(3) (2003) 1–36], but is shorter than that in Dixit and Pindyck's [Investment under Uncertainty (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1994)] model, which incorporates dividend yield. Finally, a comparative static is used to analyze the determinants of optimal investment decisions. Our results indicate that the investment-ratio threshold will be higher, and thus the optimal entry time for an investment will be delayed, when (1) the PLC is longer, (2) the uncertainty is greater, (3) the discounting rate is higher, (4) market power is larger, (5) jump size intensity is stronger and (6) the payoff out ratio (R&D/revenue) is larger.

This paper examines the determinants of firm growth in the Swedish energy sector using a sample of 200 energy firms active from 2000 to 2010. The article has two aims. First, we seek to investigate whether there is reason to believe that the Swedish energy market will become more concentrated in the future, dominated by a few firms. That would be the result if, for example, large firms systematically and over time grew faster than the smaller firms in the Swedish market. Second, we investigate whether firm growth can mainly be explained by firm-specific variables, supporting Penrose's [1] suggestion that internal resources are the key determinants of firm growth rates. To this end, quantile regression is used in addition to ordinary least squares regression, to provide a more complete estimation of the growth distribution of firms conditional on different attributes. The results indicate that large firms do not grow faster than other firms in the sector, and that energy firms' internal resources are indeed the key determinants of firm growth in the Swedish energy industry.

We develop a model of a multi-national firm producing commodities for a global market in multiple locations with location-specific risks and different regulatory standards. Salmon aquaculture and disease outbreaks provide an empirically relevant example. We specifically examine details of the infectious salmon anemia outbreak in Chile in the late 2000s, the multi-national nature of some firms operating in Chile, and the overall market structure of the salmon farming industry as motivation for our theoretical model. In the model, market structure and the regulatory environments in multiple countries interact to influence how intensively firms use aquatic ecosystems. Downward-sloping market demand can lead to a perverse outcome in which high environmental standards in one country both lower the provision of disease management in the other country and reduce industry-wide output. We extend this model to consider additional locations, types of firms, and within-location risk spillovers. We find that the risk of outbreak in a given location is decreasing with greater firm concentration within the location, increasing with the outside production of operators within the location, and increasing with lower risk (or more regulation) in other locations where the operators produce. We suggest other applications of multi-national risk management.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• A theoretical framework
  • Literature review
  • Theoretical expectations
  • The UK electricity generation industry - modelling assumptions
  • Model
    • Environmental regulation
    • Economic regulation
    • Implications of the non-co-operative regulatory regime
    • Cupertino

• Conclusions

• References

On March 26, 2018, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) launched Shanghai crude futures as part of its efforts to enhance the region’s energy security. The PRC’s crude futures performed far beyond the market’s expectation in terms of liquidity, volume, and price signal, and thus reignited interest in launching natural gas futures. Any futures of natural gas or liquefied natural gas will be heavily derivatized from efficient benchmark price indexes, which are assessed and reported at the regional market hubs. Instead of having a couple of centralized exchange centers or virtual trading hubs, the web of efficient multiple regional physical and marketing hubs strategically located across the nation would contribute to regional cooperation between the PRC, Japan, and the Republic of Korea; fundamentally change global gas market dynamics; enhance the PRC’s energy security; and support Asian pricing index development. It is the prime time to fast track the establishment of such market hubs in the PRC. We study market participants’ needs and functions of market hubs, identify key success factors of establishing such market hubs, recommend what would make commercially viable and efficient hubs in the PRC in a 14-stage blueprint, and evaluate major policy implications for the PRC, and broadly Asia.

The basis for competition in many high technology industries is fundamentally different from that in more mature and stable industries. Most obviously, there is a much greater emphasis on performance-based, rather than price-based, competition. In addition, the competitive dynamic is different as well, with product often highly differentiated and periodic discontinuous paradigm shifts that can completely overwhelm per-existing market positions. The objective of this paper is to review and evaluate some of the traditional techniques used to define markets and measure market power in antitrust analysis. Most significantly, the limitations of these techniques when applied in high technology contexts are revealed, particular when inherently static analytical frameworks are employed. Often their use results in markets that are defined too narrowly, with the consequence that market power is overestimated. To rectify these problems, several alternative methods are suggested. Any method applied in a high technology context must have due regard for the dynamic nature of competition in such industries and must utilize an appropriate time horizon for analysis.

We study the price effects of mergers in airline networks. Guided by a review of the existing theoretical and empirical literature, we develop two classifications of routes possibly affected by an airline merger. Subsequently, we apply a difference-in-differences approach to exemplarily investigate the price effects of the America West Airlines — US Airways merger completed in 2005. We find that although average prices increased substantially on routes in which both airlines competed either on a non-stop or one-stop basis prior to the merger, substantial average price reductions observed for routes without any pre-merger overlap suggest that the merger led to a net increase in consumer welfare.