In Japan, newspapers enjoy a special exemption from antimonopoly prohibitionsagainst resale price maintenance (suppliers' stipulations that bar downstreamfirms from price discounting), but are each required to set uniform pricesthroughout Japan. In fact, the newspapers have rarely changed their...

For 70 Japanese manufacturing industries, I test the simple Cournot hypothesis of proportionality between industry price-cost margin and Herfindahl index against the non-nested alternative that the industry price-cost margin remains constant in the face of varying Herfindahl index, as it would...

The leading economic explanation for tipping -that is, explanation why the practice is socially beneficial, not why individuals leave tips even though it is not narrowly advantageous to them- is that it confers an incentive to provide personal services. This fits many instances in which tipping...

This paper explores a panel data set matching establishment-based production statistics from Japan's Census of Manufacturers with wholesale price indices from the Bank of Japan, and Herfindahl indices from the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The data include annual observations over the period...

The demand for goods like seasonal fashion apparel is uncertain but the lead time needed for production is long, and so it is necessary to set the production quantity before the demand is fully known. Once sale begins, if demand is less than anticipated, the price will be low. In a futile...

In Japan, newspapers enjoy a special exemption from antimonopoly prohibitions against resale price maintenance (suppliers' stipulations that bar downstream firms from price discounting), but are each required to set uniform prices throughout Japan. In fact, the newspapers have rarely changed...

In Japan, the newspapers with the greatest daily circulation offer both morning and evening editions in most of their distribution areas. Their prices per page of actual content are different for morning-and-evening subscribers than for morning-only subscribers. So the subscription price...