Market chain analysis of goat in south omo zone of SNNPR, Ethiopia

This study was initiated to identify market chain actors and their function in the market, investigate the structure conduct and performance of goat marketing in south omo zones of SNNPR, Ethiopia during the year 2018. Primary data were collected from sampled pastoralists and agro pastoralists, traders and brokers. Before the household survey, key informant interview and focus group discussions were conducted with producers, traders and brokers. Descriptive Statistics and qualitative data analysis techniques were employed to analyze the goat market structure, conduct and performance. The results show that producers, brokers, traders and consumers were the major goat market actors. Regarding the market structure, cattle market is known to be dominated by few traders. Although the degree of competition varies, goat market structure in the study area has an oligopolistic nature. This shows that only few traders have the majority of market share and earn abnormal profit. Besides, goat market is characterized by entry barriers, distant market point, high trucking cost, seasonality of marketing, information asymmetries and unfriendly relation between actors. As the pastoralists and agro pastoralists mainly depend on goat for their livelihoods and other cultural values, traders take advantage of the asymmetric market information towards them. The larger share of the market gains remains with end traders thereby limiting the pastoralists and agro pastoralists chance to realize the economic gains in goat production. Thus, linking producers to market and its benefits, establishing cooperatives and development of infrastructure could play a significant role for optimization of the sector. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(2): 52-60, Dec 2021

An Empirical Study of Platform Enterprises’ Privacy Protection Behaviors Based on fsQCA

Firms’ privacy protection strategies are affected by multiple factors. This study adopted a configurational perspective to examine how regulation policy environment, market structure, and the heterogeneity among enterprises affect their privacy protection policies. Using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis of Chinese listed platform enterprises, we found that three configuration conditions were associated with enterprises formulating a privacy policy with a high level of protection and two configuration conditions were associated with enterprises formulating a privacy policy with a low level of protection. The results showed that privacy protection laws were a necessary condition to ensure that enterprises actively exercised privacy protection. Coordinated regulation systems based on the Personal Information Protection Law and industry standards are recommended as the best practice to safeguard privacy protection in China. As lack of competition can result in two polarized privacy protection strategies, regulatory policies should emphasize the balance between data protection and encouraging necessary data sharing. Furthermore, the conjunctive effect between market structure and business models affected privacy policy formulation, which suggests that the positive effects of users’ rational choices in a competitive market should be further reinforced.

The role of transition regime models for corn prices forecasting

Given the relevance of corn for food and fuel industries, analysts and scholars are constantly comparing the forecasting accuracy of econometric models. These exercises test not only for the use of new approaches and methods, but also for the addition of fundamental variables linked to the corn market. This paper compares the accuracy of different usual models in financial macro-econometric literature for the period between 1995 and 2017. The main contribution lies in the use of transition regime models, which accommodate structural breaks and perform better for corn price forecasting. The results point out that the best models as those which consider not only the corn market structure, or macroeconomic and financial fundamentals, but also the non-linear trend and transition regimes, such as threshold autoregressive models.

Analysis of Russian Segment of the Web Development Market Operating Online on Upwork

The Russian segment of the web services market in the online environment, on the platform of the Upwork freelance exchange, is considered, its key characteristics, the composition of participants, development trends are highlighted, and the market structure is identified. It is found that despite the low barriers to entry, the web development market is very stable, since the composition of entrenched firms that have been operating for more than six years remains. The pricing policy of most Russian companies indicates that they work in the middle price segment and have low budgets, which is due to the specifics of the foreign market and high competition.

Monopoly in the container shipping market: an econometric approach

PurposeSince the 2010s, market conditions for container shipping companies have been deteriorating owing to decreasing container cargo trade and increasing supply capacity. This study aims to contribute to the empirical literature on the container shipping industry market structure. Specifically, this study aims to investigate the extent of market competition.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes the market structure and evaluates the market power of shipping companies through a non-structural test.FindingsThe H-statistic for the entire period of 2004–2018 was 0.37, which is significantly different from zero. This indicates the absence of monopoly pricing throughout the entire period. For the time-phased estimates, the H-statistic between 2004 and 2008 is 0.15, which is not significantly different from zero. On the other hand, the H-statistic from 2009 to 2018 was 0.40, which differs significantly from zero.Originality/valueAs the Far East Freight Conference had released tariffs and charge rates by item for container shipping routes, monopolistic pricing is said to have appeared until the European Union abolished the European Economic Community (No. 4056/86) in 2008, before the economic crisis. However, this study indicates that pricing in the container shipping industry has been distinctly non-monopolistic; further, competition seems to have intensified since 2008. Industry competitiveness is of interest not only to academics but also to practitioners, including policymakers, especially when considering competition policies.

The Market Structure Simulation of Heterogenous Firms

The paper aims at the need for economic policy evaluators to assess how and whether specific measures can influence the development of markets in a way that achieves greater wealth. Therefore, this study concentrates on well-documented firms’ heterogeneity that significantly impact their ability to compete, influence the market structure, and decide to participate in trade. For the initial attributes and features of the simulated model, we chose Ottaviano demand function. However, we took a different approach regarding demand and its elasticities in the market by employing distributional functions to model the market demand and the demand for each firm’s product. Allowing for the evolution of the market structure, the model reveals the importance of endowment factors and suggests the crucial role of firms’ abilities to compete. What is more important—it affects the time needed for the market structure formation. Although the model does not track all the aspects of a firm’s heterogeneity, it might guide economic policy makers to not only support the business in increasing its capabilities but keep it struggling over the competition to impede the collecting of Ricardian rents.