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We build a heterogeneous agents life cycle model that captures a large number of salient features of individual male labour supply over the life cycle, by education, both along the intensive and extensive margins. The model provides an aggregation theory of individual labour supply, firmly grounded on individual-level micro-evidence, and is used to study the aggregate labour supply responses to changes in the economic environment. We find that the aggregate labour supply elasticity to a transitory wage shock is 1.75, with the extensive margin accounting for 62% of the response. Furthermore, we find that the aggregate labour supply elasticity to a permanent-compensated wage change is 0.44.

This paper proposes a new proportional-sharing approach for fixed cost allocation (FCA) among a group of decision-making units (DMUs) based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). We first prove the proportional invariance in DEA-based FCA. Then, we show that the “all-efficient” assumption in existing models usually leads to the use of unrealistic weights in efficiency analysis. To address this issue, we relax this assumption and adopt a weight constraint approach. Further, we illustrate that some DMUs would always be allocated with zero fixed cost if only the goal of efficiency maximizing is considered. Therefore, some weight constraints are added, and a new bi-objective model is proposed to allocate the fixed cost among the DMUs in order to simultaneously maximize the efficiencies of the DMUs and make the allocation as close as possible to the one generated according to the DMUs’ operation sizes. A mono-objective nonlinear program, which can be solved using dichotomy and a linear program solver, is used to obtain a non-dominated or Pareto-optimal trade-off solution for the bi-objective model. With the use of our approach, neither unrealistic weights nor zero fixed cost appears in the result. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to a numerical example and a commercial bank case study.

Costly product consideration reduces consumer demand for variety and intensifies competition at the extensive margin. Individual demand for consumer packaged goods shows discrete jumps between zero and large quantities, under a marginal change in price. Ruling out multiple alternative explanations, this paper provides evidence from microdata in the yogurt category that these jumps are caused by consumer fixed purchasing costs per product. We formulate and estimate a model in which (1) such fixed costs limit the number of different products considered and (2) consumers use prices to screen a product in and out of their consideration set. Our structural estimation finds that the consumer incurs fixed costs of $0.81 to consider a product. These costs are increased by 280% if she has not purchased the product for a year and are decreased by 59% when the product is featured in the store; the dependence of fixed costs on information shifters suggests that these costs are incurred because of consideration. Consideration being scarce at the shelf, firms compete fiercely for customers: We simulate counterfactual markups in a world full of feature advertising and find that firms enjoy higher equilibrium markups because the provision of information softens competition for consideration. Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1108 .

Manufacturers make production decisions and carry inventory to satisfy uncertain demand. When holding and shortage costs are high, carrying inventory could be even more expensive for a capacitated production system. Recent developments in information technology and sales strategies enabled firms to acquire, collect, or induce advance demand information. We address a periodic-review, stochastic, capacitated, finite and infinite horizon production system faced by a manufacturer who has the ability to obtain advance demand information. We establish optimal policies and characterize their behavior with respect to capacity, fixed costs, advance demand information, and the planning horizon. With a numerical study, we quantify the value of advance demand information and additional capacity for specific problem instances. We illustrate how advance demand information can be a substitute for capacity and inventory.

We examine the role of fixed costs in research and development (R&D) in the market for genetically modified (GM) corn seed. In a mixed model of horizontal differentiation by genetic traits and vertical differentiation by productivity, we derive the empirically testable lower bounds to R & D concentration when R&D investments and market entry are jointly determined. When R&D investments translate into higher product quality, industries are said to be characterized by endogenous fixed costs such that the lower bound to R&D concentration increases with market size, but is less than the lower bound to market concentration based on sales. Using data on field trial applications of GM corn seed, we estimate the lower bound to R&D concentration, and find evidence of endogenous fixed costs with R&D concentration that is significantly greater than perfectly competitive levels. These endogenous fixed costs imply that concentration in the agricultural biotechnology industry is occurring due to the nature of R&D investment in product quality and not through anticompetitive practices. Adjusting for past merger and acquisition activity significantly raises the lower bound for infinitely-sized markets, but has no impact upon current market sizes, implying the industry may still undergo additional consolidation.

We estimate a model of importers in Hungarian microdata and conduct counterfactual analysis to investigate the effect of imported inputs on productivity. We find that importing all input varieties would increase a firm's revenue productivity by 22 percent, about one-half of which is due to imperfect substitution between foreign and domestic inputs. Foreign firms use imports more effectively and pay lower fixed import costs. We attribute one-quarter of Hungarian productivity growth during the 1993-2002 period to imported inputs. Simulations show that the productivity gain from a tariff cut is larger when the economy has many importers and many foreign firms.

This paper concerns the shared cost allocation problem by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is observed in practical applications such as public services and production processes. In the management context, the cost allocation problem tries to balance the different desires of two management layers: central manager and each sector manager. The cost can be assigned in an equitable way to the various Decision Making Units (DMUs). To achieve this goal, we present a new DEA-based method for dividing a fixed cost among DMUs. In the proposed method, the fixed cost is assigned to DMUs such that the efficiency measures and the Returns to Scale classifications of all DMUs before and after assigning the fixed cost remain unchanged. Also, the gaps among the costs allocated to DMUs will be minimized. The proposed method has the flexibility to consider the management standpoints. Finally, numerical results of an elucidatory example are furnished to demonstrate the applicability and reliability of our scheme.

This note studies the optimal dynamic decision-making problem for a retailer in a price-sensitive, multiplicative demand framework. Our model incorporates lost sales, holding cost, fixed and variable procurement costs, as well as salvage value. We characterize the structure of the retailer's (discounted) expected profit-maximizing dynamic inventory policy for both finite and infinite selling horizon problems.

In this study, we measure the utilization costs of free trade agreement (FTA) tariff schemes. To do that, we use shipment-level customs data on Thai imports, which identify not only firms, source country, and commodity but also tariff schemes. We propose several measures as a proxy for FTA utilization costs. The example includes the minimum amount of firm-level savings on tariff payments, i.e., trade values under FTA schemes multiplied by the tariff margin, in all transactions. Consequently, the median costs for FTA utilization in 2008, for example, are estimated to be approximately US$2000 for exports from China, US$300 for exports from Australia, and US$1000 for exports from Japan. We also found that FTA utilization costs differ by rule of origin and industry.

We estimate the effect of temporary tax incentives on equipment investment using shifts in accelerated depreciation. Analyzing data for over 120,000 firms, we present three findings. First, bonus depreciation raised investment in eligible capital relative to ineligible capital by 10.4 percent between 2001 and 2004 and 16.9 percent between 2008 and 2010. Second, small firms respond 95 percent more than big firms. Third, firms respond strongly when the policy generates immediate cash flows, but not when cash flows only come in the future. This heterogeneity materially affects investment-weighted estimates and supports models in which financial frictions or fixed costs amplify investment responses.