Timothy C. G. Fisher

Synchronization of price changes by multiproduct firms: evidence from Canadian newspaper prices

Abstract Using data for Canadian daily newspapers we find that price changes of papers owned by the same firm are synchronized. On the other hand, independently owned newspapers do not appear to change their prices together.

Evolution, extinction, or status quo? Canadian performing arts audiences in the 1990s

Abstract This paper contributes to the ‘culture of consumption’ [Poetics 28 (2000) 207] research stream. Specifically, we examine hypotheses laid out by Peterson [Poetics 21 (1992) 243] using Canadian musical concert audience data from the 1990s. Results show that while the number of those who attend only classical music concerts (‘snobs’) is in decline, those who attend both classical and other types of music concert (‘omnivores’) is up sharply. Overall, the classical music concert attendance is unchanged for the period. Multivariate regression analysis is used to identify sources of the changes in the incidence of snobs and omnivores. We find that shifts in individual behaviour, as opposed to demographic changes in the population, are primarily responsible for the decrease in snobs. In addition, snobs are increasingly more likely to be drawn from older age groups. Omnivores are younger and more likely to live in urban areas than snobs. Despite their more varied choices, omnivores display the same level of attendance frequency as snobs at classical music events and a greater attendance frequency than snobs at theatre and dance performances.

Should We Abolish Chapter 11? Evidence from Canada

Chapter 11 has been severely criticized over the last decade. Some American jurists arguing in favor of revising Chapter 11 have raised the possibility that the Canadian reorganization system might be a good alternative. This article examines data on firms undergoing reorganization under the Canadian bankruptcy system and argues that there are fruitful lessons to be learned from the Canadian experience with court‐supervised reorganization. Canadian reorganization plans have very high rates of acceptance, confirmation, and consummation. Firms in Canada are almost eight times more likely to survive reorganization than are firms in Chapter 11. Further, small firms are just as likely as large firms are to emerge from reorganization in Canada, contrary to experience in the United States. The data also show that Canadian reorganization procedure offers a very rapid solution to financial distress and that creditors gain, in expected value terms, from reorganization over liquidation. We use our analysis of the relative performance of the two systems to suggest some avenues for reform of Chapter 11.

Inflation and Costly Price Adjustment: A Study of Canadian Newspaper Prices

The paper studies the effect of inflation on price behaviour using price data from Canadian daily newspapers. We test the Sheshinski and Weiss (1977) monopoly price adjustment model on a sample of monopolistic as well as oligopolistic newspapers, in contrast to earlier studies that used data from oligopolistic or monopolistically competitive markets. The results depend crucially on the assumptions about how often the firm collects information and revises its optimal pricing policy. With infrequent policy revisions, the results for monopoly newspapers support the model. The results for oligopoly newspapers are similar.

Will the Bankruptcy Reform Work? An Empirical Analysis of Financial Reorganization in Canada

The new Bankruptcy Act has two clear aims: (i) to increase the number of firms opting for reorganization over liquidation, and (ii) to increase protection for wage earners at bankrupt firms. The paper examines a unique micro data set of 338 commercial financial reorganization proposals filed in Canada during the period 1978-87 to determine whether these aims are likely to be met. Estimates from a logit model of reorganization plan acceptance indicate that the new Act will result in a roughly 7 percentage point increase in the number of reorganization plans that creditors accept. Everything else being equal, these changes are estimated to save about 120 jobs per year in Canada. Thus, while the new Act will increase the rate at which creditors accept reorganization plans, the actual impact of a higher acceptance rate will be quite small.

The relative rigidity of oligopoly pricing

Abstract Evidence on Canadian daily newspaper prices shows that, unlike in Rotemberg and Saloner ( American Economic Review , 1987, 77, 917–926), monopolies change prices more frequently than oligopolies.

Unionized Oligopoly and Trade Liberalization

The authors analyze various forms of trade liberalization in a three-country model with unions. Oligopolistic firms in two countries face unionized workers, while an oligopolistic firm in the third country faces a competitive labor market. The general result is that a country with a union benefits from trade liberalization with a country that also has a unionized work force, while liberalization of trade between a country with a union and a country with a competitive labor market always makes the country with a union worse off.

Union bargaining power, relative wages, and efficiency in Canada

We use a computable general equilibrium model incorporating trade unions, efficient Nash contracts, existing distortions, and international trade to measure the deadweight loss in Canada arising from the ability of unions to raise wages above competitive levels. The model incorporates two features new to CGE analysis: parameterization of union bargaining power and variations in union preferences. Estimates indicate the deadweight loss to be no more than 0.04 per cent of GNP. However, the small aggregate effect masks considerable adjustments at the industry level, in imports and exports, and in the distribution of income. Adjustments are also larger with employment-oriented unions.

An Asymmetric Information Model for Lockouts

This note proposes an asymmetric information model of collective bargaining where the firm has the bargaining power and the union the private information. Results show that the firm may use lockouts to induce the union to reveal its private information. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Board of Trustees of the Bulletin of Economic Research

EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS AND THE EFFECT OF POLLUTION ON SHRIMP FARMS IN THE MEKONG RIVER DELTA

This article investigates the efficiency of intensive, semi-intensive, and extensive shrimp farming practices as well as the difference between the upstream and downstream efficiency of shrimp farms in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), Vietnam. Our article is the first to compare the efficiency of the 3 shrimp practices and investigate the difference between the efficiency of downstream and upstream farms. The efficiency of shrimp farms is measured using group-frontier and meta-frontier analysis on a sample of 292 farms. The results show that, on average, shrimp farms are inefficient; extensive farms are more efficient than intensive and semi-intensive farms; and, controlling for key socio-economic factors, upstream farms are more efficient than downstream farms, suggesting that pollution from upstream farms may influence shrimp farm efficiency. The results give some direction for improvement and some evidence to shrimp farmers and policymakers in the MRD to take the pollution problem seriously and find solutions for more sustainable development.