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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of price adjustment speed on the stability of Bertrand–Nash equilibrium in the context of a dual-channel supply chain competition.

The paper considers a dual-channel supply chain comprising a manufacturer, a traditional retailer and an online retailer. A two-dimensional discrete dynamical system is used to examine the Bertrand competition between the retailers. The retailers are assumed to follow bounded rational expectations. Local stability of Bertrand–Nash equilibrium is investigated with respect to the price adjustment speed.

As the price adjustment speed increases, the stability of Bertrand–Nash equilibrium is lost, leading to complex chaotic dynamics. The results showed that chaotic dynamics deteriorates the profit of the retailers. The authors also found that the chaos can be controlled using an adaptive adjustment mechanism and the retailers enjoy higher profit when the chaos is controlled.

This study helps retail managers to choose an appropriate price adjustment speed to maximize profit.

The heterogeneity of the retailers is not considered in the studies involving dynamics of retailer competition. This paper contributes to the literature by considering the operational difference between a traditional retailer and an online retailer, i.e. price adjustment speed. In addition, the study establishes a link between price adjustment speed and profit.

The role of money and monetary policy of the central bank in pursuing macroeconomic stability has significantly changed over the period since the end of World War II. Globalization, liberalization, integration, and transition processes generally shaped the crucial milestones of the macroeconomic development and substantial features of economic policy and its framework in Europe. Policy-driven changes together with variety of exogenous shocks significantly affected the key features of macroeconomic environment on the European continent that fashioned the framework and design of monetary policies.

This chapter examines the key basis of the central bank’s monetary policy on its way to pursue and preserve the internal and external stability of the purchasing power of money. Substantial elements of the monetary policy like objectives and strategies are not only generally introduced but also critically discussed according to their accuracy, suitability, and reliability in the changing macroeconomic conditions. Brief overview of the Eurozone common monetary policy milestones and the past Eastern bloc countries’ experience with a variety of exchange rate regimes provides interesting empirical evidence on origins and implications of vital changes in the monetary policy conduction in Europe and the Eurozone.

Through a questionnaire survey, the purpose of this paper is to understand and analyse the cognitions of medical service price of medical workers in various regions of China, and discuss the policy suggestions on the price dynamic adjustment of medical service.

The authors conducted a questionnaire survey on the cognition of medical service price medical workers in various regions of China, and then the grey relational analysis theory is used to analyse the data obtained from the questionnaire survey.

The investigation and analysis shows some cognitions of hospital workers on the price of medical services in various regions in China, the authors analyse the results of grey relational analysis and come up with suggestions for relevant departments.

Although a plenty of research on the current situation of medical service price cognition of China is discussed in the paper, it is not complete; thus, a large amount of information needs to be consulted further. The data obtained from the questionnaire are less used and the utilisation rate is lower, which may result in one-sided results and need further investigation.

Through the investigation and analysis, the authors can determine about the implementation of medical service prices in various parts of China from the perspective of hospital workers to a certain degree, and try to explore the relevant policy recommendations for the dynamic adjustment of medical service prices.

The price of medical services refers to the fees for registration, diagnosis, inspection, surgery, nursing and medicine. In a narrow sense, the price of medical services refers to the standard of charge for medical services except drugs. This paper mainly refers to the narrow sense. As one of the important means and methods for the government to control the medical service market, medical service price is also an important basis for the economic source of medical institutions. The adjustment of medical service price is related to the interests of all aspects of society.

Medical service price is an important basis for the economic source of medical institutions, the adjustment of medical service price is related to the interests of all aspects of society and it is a hot issue of social concern. Through the investigation and analysis, the authors use grey relational analysis to know about the medical service prices in various parts of China from the perspective of hospital workers to a certain degree, and try to explore the relevant policy recommendations for the dynamic adjustment of medical service prices.

The purpose of this paper is to test the overshooting effects of monetary expansion on prices of agricultural products at farm production, processing and circulation stages in China, and to investigate the heterogeneity of the overshooting mechanisms in these three links.

Empirical results are obtained through the vector error correction model and the overshooting framework proposed by Saghaian et al. (2002b). Specifically, we first apply the Dickey–Fuller generalized least squares (DF-GLS) method to test the stationarity of the key variables, and then use the Johansen’s (1991) method to conduct the cointegration test. Finally, the vector error correction model is employed to examine the overshooting hypotheses in the three stages of China’s agricultural sector.

Empirical results indicate that overshooting of prices relative to monetary expansion in China’s agricultural sector is a common phenomenon, but with significant heterogeneity. Firstly, at the stage of agricultural production, the overshooting degree and restoration rate of material price are greater than those of agricultural products price. Secondly, at the processing stage of agricultural products, both the purchase price of agricultural products and industrial producer price have an overshooting effect, but the overshooting effect of the former is more significant than the latter. Thirdly, at the circulation stage of agricultural products, the overshooting coefficient of the wholesale price index of agricultural products is the most significant, while that of the retail and purchase price of agricultural products is not significant.

The paper contributes to proposing a comprehensive framework on testing the overshooting effects for three main stages of agricultural sector in China and empirically investigating the heterogeneity of the overshooting mechanisms in different stages with time series methods.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze how the choice of entity‐level investment criteria (net present value, or accounting rate of return) and negotiation terms (redistribution mechanisms for costs and assets) affect each entity's willingness to participate in supply chain management initiatives.

The paper is based on numerical examples for a supply chain that consists of a single manufacturer and a single distributor. We assume information symmetry and a willingness of each company to participate only if its own entity‐level investment criterion is not adversely affected. The innovation may lead to positive or negative changes in the manufacturer's and distributor's unit costs and asset levels, as well as to implementation costs. We investigate the redistribution of these effects. The paper is also based on empirical results from a short case study.

Price adjustments are not always feasible for creating an acceptable redistribution of overall benefits. More opportunities exist if it is possible to transfer assets while the ownership remains with the company that has the lower discount rate or target for their accounting rate of return. Implementation costs reduce the possibilities for finding a solution, but this can only be analyzed using a net present value approach.

This paper contributes to the literature on economic barriers for supply chain implementation by providing an application of economic theory to a supply chain setting. The paper also provides a real‐world illustration of some of the issues identified.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the attitude of patients towards the current medical service price and the effect of policy implementation, and explore the existing problems of the current medical service price policy in the region in order to provide a research basis for the dynamic adjustment mechanism of the medical service price.

Literature analysis and expert interviews are used to design the questionnaire of the dynamic adjustment of medical service price formation mechanism. A convenient sampling method is used to extract data of 600 patients from the five areas, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Liaoning, on-site to fill out the paper-based questionnaire and electronic questionnaire. The grey relational analysis is used to explore the difference in the attitudes of patients towards the price of the medical service. Combined with the research results and expert interview results, some improvement suggestions related to the current price policy of medical service in five areas are put forward.

The overall average score of respondents in the five areas, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Liaoning, is found to be 3.861. In terms of surgical operation fee and examination fee, the average score is higher than 4, i.e. 4.097 and 4.011, respectively, indicating “relatively high” nodes. According to grey relevancy sorting, the correlation between the health service price attitude and the overall score in the five regions is in the following order: Shandong > Tianjin > Beijing > Liaoning > Hebei.

In this study, patients’ attitude towards the current price of medical services in their local areas, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Liaoning, is investigated in order to explore the existing problems of medical service price reform and thus provide the basis for further improvement in the medical service price policy.

As a financial policy, dividend policy significantly affects firm value. This chapter analyzes how stock prices react to dividend decisions. First, a dividend payment is an extraction of value; therefore, stock price theoretically drops by the dividend amount on the ex-dividend day. In practice, the price drop and the dividend magnitude are not equal because of tax clientele, short-term trading, and market microstructure. Investors are indifferent in trading stocks before and after stocks go ex-dividend if they obtain equal marginal benefits from the two trading times. The difference in tax rates on dividends and capital gains leads to the gap between the price drop and the dividend amount. Moreover, if transaction costs are considerable, investors have high incentives to short-sell stocks until they cannot obtain more profits. The final outcome of this short-term trading is the difference between the price drop and the dividend amount. Furthermore, market microstructure factors such as limit orders, bid-ask spread, and price discreteness also create this gap. Second, dividend announcements convey valuable information to outsiders. When firms announce increases (decreases) in dividends, their stock prices tend to increase (decrease). Third, dividend policy is negatively related to stock price volatility. This negative relationship is explained by duration effect, rate of return effect, arbitrage realization effect, and information effect. Empirical evidence for this relationship is found in many countries. Finally, dividend smoothing is also considered as a signal about firms' future earnings. Consequently, firms with stable dividends have higher market value. In other words, dividend stability has a positive effect on stock prices.

The aim of this study is to investigate why housing prices differ between regions, and to estimate the speed‐of‐adjustment.

A variety of factors explains the differences in the prices of single‐family houses. Changes in disposable income over time and across regions as well as the cost of capital are important determinants. The model is based on a DiPasquale and Wheaton model where the developments of the house prices are a function of macroeconomic factors such as economic growth, changes in employment and interest rate. It is estimated on a two‐equation error correction model: first, the long‐run price equation and, second, a short‐run price model.

The estimates suggest that the speed‐of‐adjustment ranges from 16 to 78 per cent (around 50 per cent on average) depending on the region. In regions with a low population density, higher price adjustment rates are observed. Moreover, the speed‐of‐adjustment is higher in an upturn economy than in a downturn reflecting that negative housing stock adjustments is much slower than positive adjustments.

The main contribution is that the speed‐of‐adjustment to the long‐run equilibrium price for 21 regions is estimated instead of at a national level and, furthermore, cyclical asymmetry in responses is tested and such differences are found. It is estimated that the rate of adjustment to long‐run equilibrium price varies considerably between regions.

Mises (1949[1963], p. 692) explains that market-failure justifications for state actions, such as economic regulation “ascribe to the state not only the best intentions but also omniscience.” He then points out that neither assumption is valid: government is not benevolent since both, those who are employed by the state and those who demand state actions, have subjective self-interests, and it is not all knowing since knowledge is widely dispersed and the cost of coordination is infinitely high, particularly without market profits and prices as coordinating mechanisms. Furthermore, Mises suggests that dropping either assumption undermines the conclusions that state intervention is necessarily desirable even if some sort of market failure is actually identified. Austrian economists in the Mises tradition have tended to focus on the knowledge problem in their challenges to regulation, however. Many Austrians obviously recognize the interest problem, of course, but they often assume it away in order to illustrate that government interference with markets is not desirable even if it is well intended. In contrast, public-choice analysis tends to focus on the interest problem as source of government failure, although some public-choice analysts also obviously recognize the knowledge problem. Indeed, this difference in perspective is so pronounced that Ikeda (1997, p. 240) explicitly distinguishes between Public Choice and Austrian political economy by suggesting that the Austrian approach assumes benevolence on the part of government officials, while the public-choice approach assume narrow interests.¹ Ikeda (1997, p. 150) also suggests that the separation of these two approaches is justified because “Austrian political economy and public choice are each capable of standing on their own [so] public-theorists…find it optimal simply to continue to pursue their research along the line of either the former or the latter approaches.” The following presentation questions this assertion. Instead, both assumptions should be dropped, and the resulting integrated Austrian-public-choice model should be expanded to include assumptions about the relationships between regulations, property rights security, and both market and political behavior.²

This chapter examines the issue of policy coordination as conceived by the Eurozone institutional setting. After having briefly recalled the meaning of fiscal and monetary policy coordination in the Keynesian and present paradigm, it describes the meaning of coordination inside the Eurozone: it emerges as a marked subordination of national fiscal policies to the objective of the stability of the common currency, in term of prices and interest rates. This feature generates two main fragilities to which the entire Euro Area is exposed: the first deriving from the role assigned to financial markets and the second one linked to the presence of external imbalances. Some reflections about the need to build up common policy institutions as a mean to grant stability and growth in the Eurozone are provided.