Location Equilibrium for Cournot Oligopoly in Spatially Separated Markets

Consider a two-stage non-cooperative Cournot game with location choice involving n≥ 2 firms each with several facilities. There are m≥ 2 spatially separated markets constituting the vertices of a network. Each firm first selects the locations of their facilities and then selects the quantities to supply to the markets to maximize its profit. There exists a Nash equilibrium in the quantities offered by each firm at the markets. Furthermore, when the demand in each market is sufficiently large, each firm chooses to locate its facilities only at vertices. With linear demand in each market, there exists a Nash location equilibrium.     

‘Milking The Elephant’: Financial Markets as Real Markets in Kenya

Financial liberalization policies in the 1990s were intended to raise formal sector interest rates, enhance competition and expand access for users. This article investigates patterns of provision and use in a local financial market in Karatina, Kenya, at the end of the 1990s after a period of financial and economic liberalization. It takes a holistic approach, examining both formal and informal financial arrangements and microfinance interventions. This is because the role of the informal financial sector is particularly important for poor people and has received relatively little attention in the discussion of the consequences of reform. The author does this using a ‘real’ markets approach that sees markets as socially regulated and structured. Significant provision by the mutual sector (formal and informal), and poor lending performance by the banking sector is explained through an examination of the characteristics of the services on offer and their embeddedness in social relations, culture and politics.     

Simulation of Spatially Variable Seismic Underground Motions in U-Shaped Canyons

This paper focuses on the study of simulations for spatially variable seismic underground motions in U-shaped canyons. First, a canyon ground cross-coherence function based on commonly used coherence function models of flat terrain, is deduced and presented. To further obtain the underground cross-coherence function, a mathematical expression, including its specific deduction process for describing the relationship between coherence functions of multi-support ground and underground motions, is also given in detail and adopted. Then, the key factors (i.e. canyon underground power spectrum density and canyon underground coherence function) for simulating the spatially variable seismic underground motions are obtained by a two-step transferring method from flat-ground to underground soil. Furthermore, a program is coded for generating the spatially variable seismic underground motions. The effectiveness of the generated seismic motions is further verified. Finally, two numerical examples are taken to validate the proposed simulation approach, illustrating the specific characteristics of canyon coherence function. The analysis results show the apparent differences of the simulated seismic motions using the canyon coherence function from those using conventional coherence function models of flat terrain. The proposed approach provides some insights for anti-earthquake analysis of soil-structure interaction or underground structures in canyon topography.     

Modeling Interaction in a System of Markets

This paper develops a nested family of market interaction models for the general case of spatial or aspatial goods. Market structure effects are identified in the form of intraregional and extraregional competition. The competing destinations and competing central place models are shown to be special cases of the general modeling framework. An empirical example, using survey data collected from Chicago-area Management and Public Relations (SIC 874) firms, illustrates how the family of models may be used to identify market structure.     

Optimal Timing and Location in Competitive Markets

The choice of a good location strategy is one of the most crucial decisions facing a retailer. While a number of recent articles have addressed the issue of site selection, the related issue of optimal timing and preemption has been largely ignored. In this paper, we present an integrated location allocation model that allows a retailer to formulate an overall location strategy by addressing the questions of how many stores to open, where to open them, and when to open them. In addition, the model explicitly incorporates demand growth scenarios and takes into account the dynamics of competitive actions. As an illustration of its use, the model is applied to a simple yet realistic decision scenario.     

Spatial Price Discrimination in Two-Dimensional Competitive Markets

Intuition suggests that firms that can apply price discrimination make higher profits than firms that are restricted in their pricing policy. In this paper, we show that, in general, this is not the case. In the framework of a two-dimensional spatial model with elastic demand à la Lösch, we further investigate the interplay of transport costs, competition, and price policy. One of our results is that under realistic specifications of parameters each firm gains a monopolistic area in the center of its market that has the same shape as the entire market, but with a convexly or concavely distorted separating line, depending on the extension of the market.     

断代通史著作的成功尝试

中国社会科学院近代史研究所组织编撰的《中国近代通史》近期已由江苏人民出版社出版。全书共10卷,约550万字,各卷名称如下:第1卷《近代中国历史进程概说》,第2卷《近代中国的开端(1840—1864)》,第3卷《早期现代化的尝试(1865—1895)》,第4卷《从戊戌维新到义和团(1895—1900)》,第5卷《新政、立宪与辛亥革命(1901—1912)》,第6卷《民国的初建(1912—1923)》,第7卷《国共合作与国民革命(1924—1927)》,第8卷《内战与危机(1927—1937)》,第9卷《抗日战争(1937—1945)》,第10卷《中国命运的决战(1945—1949)》。本书的出版,完成了近代史研究所几代人的夙愿。对于1840—1949年完整的中国近代史来说,本书的撰写还是一个尝试。本刊特别约请我国近代史学界几位著名学者通过笔谈的形式发表看法,以期引起关注和讨论。     

Female Migration and Urban Labour Markets in Tianjin

The spontaneous, large-scale population movement from the countryside to the cities witnessed in China since the early 1980s has drawn increasing attention in academic circles. However, research has tended to focus on quantitative macro-level data collection and interpretation rather than on the experiences of those involved in the migratory process. Using qualitative research methods, this article presents the experiences and perceptions of the Chinese rural female migrants as narrated by themselves. It attempts to identify by this means the major forces behind rural women's out-migration and the institutional changes and structural barriers that have shaped women's lives and experiences in the migratory process. The author argues that women are actors and agents in this unprecedented economic and social transformation. Through their active engagement in the urban labour market, female migrants have challenged both the traditionally defined gender roles and the spatial and socio-economic boundaries that have been structurally designated to them. Their actions may catalyse a radical rearrangement of the social, political and sexual orders.     

Testing for the Law of One Price and Identifying Price-Leading Markets: An Application to Corn Markets in Benin

A data-determined method is proposed to test for the law of one price as a long-run equilibrium condition and to identify which markets in a network of spatially dispersed commodity markets quote the reference price. The method consists of supplementing Johansen's FIML cointegration procedure with a permanent-transitory decomposition and rules of inference in linear time-series models with unit roots. As an example, we apply our method to prices of six corn markets in Benin. We find that the law of one price holds in the long-run. It appears that two rural markets quote the reference price: their prices adjust fastest towards the permanent change induced by the common stochastic trend.