Norbert Schulz

Fragmentation in Property: Towards a General Model

This paper develops a general model of anticommons fragmentation in property. To this end, we differentiate between different forms of property fragmentation. With the use of several functionally related examples, we consider the equilibria obtained under different scenarios. The various illustrations are later utilized as building blocks for the development of a general model of fragmented property. The model reveals that the private incentives of excluders do not capture the external effects of their individual decisions. Specifically, our model suggests that the results of underutilization of joint property increase monotonically in both (a) the extent of fragmentation; and (b) the foregone synergies and complementarities between the property fragments. Within this context, we explore some of the important implications for the institutional responses to issues of property fragmentation.

Simultaneous and Sequential Anticommons

This paper defines a framework for anticommons analysis based on the fragmentation of property rights. In differentiating between sequential and simultaneous cases of property fragmentation, we describe and assess the equilibria obtained under each scenario. Our model reveals how the private incentives of excluders do not capture the external effects of their decisions. Moreover, our model suggests that the result of underutilization of joint property increases monotonically in both (a) the extent of fragmentation; and (b) the foregone synergies and complementarities between the property fragments. Within this context, we can therefore explore important implications for possible institutional responses to a range of issues raised by the concept of property fragmentation.

Competition of newspapers and the location of political parties

In this paper we suggest a model for an analysis of how newspapers and political parties determine their ideological orientation and how both decisions depend on each other. Quite naturally dissemination of information plays an important role. The model is set up as a two-stage game. Because elements of horizontal as well as vertical product differentiation are present in this model location patterns in ideology space exhibit in general neither maximal nor minimal differentiation, although we keep quite close to the Downs model, with information as the most important distinguishing feature. Furthermore, the model shows by way of example that economic theory can be a useful tool to investigate issues which are central to communication science.

Unternehmensgründungen und Markteintritt

Vor dem Hintergrund einer nicht abgeschlossenen Debatte uber die Berechtigung von Existenzforderungsprogrammen verwundert es, dass der Prozess der Unternehmensgrundungen mit seinen Determinanten bisher nicht umfassend aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht untersucht worden ist. Dieses Buch baut dieses Defizit ab. Im ersten Teil wird deskriptiv das Grundungsgeschehen der BRD in den 80er Jahren dargestellt. Der zweite Teil arbeitet die empirischen Beitrage zu den Determinanten des Grundungsprozesses kritisch auf. Die dortige Analyse findet ein erhebliches Defizit an theoretischer Untermauerung der empirischen Ansatze. Daher werden in dem zentralen dritten Teil theoretische Ansatze entwickelt und vorhandene auf ihren Nutzen fur empirische Untersuchungen hin analysiert.

Are Markets More Competitive if Commodities Are Closer Substitutes

Equilibrium prices of the variants of a differentiated commodity are shown to increase if the variants become closer substitutes, under a set of circumstances, which is by no means pathological. Rather, the underlying argument has a bearing on market prices, whenever a potential buyer does not know with certainty the characteristics of the variants for sale before inspecting them, and therefore must incur some information costs before the final purchase decision.

Review on the Literature of Mergers on Innovation

Both M&A and innovation are instruments for growth and competitive advantage. Therefore they are fundamental to each firms competitive strategy. Usually, both instruments have been studied separately, but much less in conjunction. This is unfortunate as both processes - the process of innovation and the process of mergers and acquisitions - are intimately connected. The impact of mergers on innovation can only be rigorously assessed, if the converse direction of influence - mergers caused by innovation - is accounted for. Therefore this review tries to take a balanced view on both processes and to point out links between them. Nevertheless, the focus is on the impact of mergers on innovation.

A Comment on Yin, Xiangkang and Yew-Kwang Ng: Quantity Precommitment and Bertrand Competition Yield Cournot Outcomes: A Case with Product Differentiation

This comment points out a gap in the proof of Theorem 2 contained in the paper by Yin and Ng. It is shown that the price reaction functions in their modelling approach are not continuous for all capacity subgames, contradicting the claim of Lemma 1. Possible remedies are suggested. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd/University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia

Good and Bad Competition in Spatial Markets for Search Goods: the Case of Linear Utility Functions

This paper compares the decisions of s single product oligopolists and of a multiproduct monopolist with respect to pricing, product choice, location and entry, within a 3 stage game on the part of the oligopolists. It turns out that from the consumers point of view a monopolistic versus competitive market structure may be good or bad depending on their choosiness.

Welfare Economics and the Vector Maximum Problem

It is probably well known to everyone working in the field of multi-criteria optimization that the roots of this field can easily be traced back to welfare economics, more precisely to the contributions of Vilfredo Pareto (Ref. 1). As a matter of fact, Stadler’s survey on multicriteria optimization (Ref. 2) gives a fairly detailed review of the historical development of multicriteria optimization in the context of welfare theory. There is obviously no point in duplicating his effort. There are also many standard textbooks on welfare economics (e.g., Refs. 3–6). These texts are written for economists, but just translating and summarizing them for noneconomists could certainly not be adequate in this volume.

Resale Maintenance and the Service Argument: Efficiency Effects

Proponents of RPM argue that RPM helps to sustain a high level of service at the point of sale and that such a high level is efficient. This paper provides a simple model which leads to the following conclusions: 1) RPM may increase or decrease the level of service. 2) Whether the service level is more efficient under RPM does not depend on the fact that service increases due to RPM. It may be lower under RPM and more efficient. 3) Whether the service level is more efficient depends on the characteristics of the heterogeneous consumers. A feature of the model which deviates from those found in the literature is the introduction of a class of consumers who do not search but decide on a purchase spontaneously.