Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Viktoria Kahui Author-Name-First: Viktoria Author-Name-Last: Kahui Author-Email: viktoria.kahui@otago.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand Author-Name: Claire W. Armstrong Author-Name-First: Claire W. Author-Name-Last: Armstrong Author-Email: Author-Workplace-Name: University of Tromso, Norway Title: Search and destroy: a bioeconomic analysis of orange roughy fisheries on seamounts in New Zealand Abstract: This paper develops a bioeconomic model that captures the underlying incentives driving the serial depletion of pristine seamounts. The determinants under New Zealand's Quota Management System relate to unit cost savings from bottom trawling for orange roughy on seamounts, where catch rates are high, for a constrained yearly catch, yielding superior rent and driving the continued search for pristine seamounts. Despite known patterns of seamount depletion, catch and effort data collected by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries lack information on the bathymetry of harvesting locations. We provide descriptive statistics of the Ministry's data on catch, effort and location between 2001 and 2010, which examine associations between high catch rates and pristine seamounts. The bioeconomic model formalises the expected gains of unit cost reductions and shows that bottom trawling activity on pristine seamounts ceases only when the expected reduction in harvest costs is equal to the search cost per unit of harvest. We contend that New Zealand's policies to date to protect seamounts do not address the spatial determinants of rent appropriation under the quota system and that the imposition of a 'seamount' fee levied on the bottom trawlers' harvest activities may provide a way to internalise the cost of seamount destruction more effectively. Such a policy has a number of advantages, the most important of which is that the fee ties the impacts of habitat destruction to the choice of fishing method, thereby providing an impetus to develop and adopt more selective fishing practices. Length: 27 pages Creation-Date: 2012-06 Revision-Date: 2012-06 File-URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/economics/research/otago076652.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf File-Function: First version, 2012 Number: 1201 Classification-JEL: Keywords: orange roughy; seamount; bioeconomic model; policy Handle: RePEc:otg:wpaper:1201 Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Simona Fabrizi Author-Name-First: Simona Author-Name-Last: Fabrizi Author-Email: s.fabrizi@massey.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand Author-Name: Steffen Lippert Author-Name-First: Steffen Author-Name-Last: Lippert Author-Email: steffen.lippert@otago.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand Title: Corruption and the Public Display of Wealth Abstract: We build a principal-agent-client model of corruption, allowing for heterogeneity in the value of public projects relative to the cost of monitoring their execution and for uncertainty of corruptors regarding the value of a project conducted. We derive the conditions under which officials with low-value projects have an incentive to signal their projects' type, and thereby facilitate their corruption, by means of public displays of wealth. While such public displays reduce the probability with which bribes are offered to officials conducting high-value projects, they increase the probability with which these officials accept bribes sufficiently to offset any positive effect. Length: 26 pages Creation-Date: 2012-06 Revision-Date: 2012-06 File-URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/economics/research/otago076653.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf File-Function: First version, 2012 Number: 1202 Classification-JEL: D73, D82 Keywords: Corruption, Incentives, Signaling, Public Displays of Wealth Handle: RePEc:otg:wpaper:1202 Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Simona Fabrizi Author-Name-First: Simona Author-Name-Last: Fabrizi Author-Email: s.fabrizi@massey.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand Author-Name: Steffen Lippert Author-Name-First: Steffen Author-Name-Last: Lippert Author-Email: steffen.lippert@otago.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand Author-Name: Clemens Puppe Author-Name-First: Clemens Author-Name-Last: Puppe Author-Email: clemens.puppe@kit.edu Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Author-Name: Stephanie Rosenkranz Author-Name-First: Stephanie Author-Name-Last: Rosenkranz Author-Email: s.rosenkranz@uu.nl Author-Workplace-Name: Utrecht School of Economics, The Netherlands Title: Suggested retail prices with downstream competition Abstract: We analyze vertical relationships between a manufacturer and competing retailers when consumers have reference-dependent preferences. Consumers adopt the manufacturer's suggested retail price as their reference price and perceive losses when purchasing above the suggested price and gains when purchasing below it. In equilibrium, retailers undercut price suggestions and the manufacturer suggests a retail price if consumers are sufficiently bargain-loving and perceive retailers as sufficiently undifferentiated. The manufacturer engages in resale price maintenance otherwise. Consumers can be worse off with suggested retail prices than with resale price maintenance, prompting a rethinking of the current legal treatment of suggested retail prices. Length: 23 pages Creation-Date: 2010-04 Revision-Date: 2012-08 File-URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/economics/research/otago076654pdf.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf File-Function: Revised version, 2012 Number: 1203 Classification-JEL: D03, D43, K21, L42 Keywords: suggested or recommended retail prices, resale price maintenance, reference-dependent preferences, vertical restraints, competition law and policy Handle: RePEc:otg:wpaper:1203 Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Mathias Sinning Author-Name-First: Mathias Author-Name-Last: Sinning Author-Email: mathias.sinning@anu.edu.au Author-Workplace-Name: Australian National University, RWI and IZA Author-Name: Steve Stillman Author-Name-First: Steve Author-Name-Last: Stillman Author-Email: steven.stillman@otago.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand Title: Where Should I Live? The Locational Choices of Australians and New Zealanders Abstract: This paper exploits the existence of the trans-Tasman travel agreement and the availability of comparable census data in Australia and New Zealand to examine the extent to which individuals respond to different labour market conditions in the two countries (and their subregions), as well as measures of local amenities and cost of living when deciding where to live. Our findings suggest that the trans-Tasman travel agreement did contribute to a mutual exchange of migrants with many similarities regarding the size and human capital endowment of migration flows in both directions. However, considerable differences between the two countries remain with regard to internal, trans-Tasman and other international migration. Length: 49 pages Creation-Date: 2012-09 Revision-Date: 2012-09 File-URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/economics/research/otago076655.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf File-Function: First version, 2012 Number: 1204 Classification-JEL: F22, F55, R23 Keywords: International Migration; International Agreements; Regional Labour Markets Handle: RePEc:otg:wpaper:1204 Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Dan Farhat Author-Name-First: Dan Author-Name-Last: Farhat Author-Email: dan.farhat@otago.ac.nz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand Title: Artificial Neural Networks and Aggregate Consumption Patterns in New Zealand Abstract: This study uses artificial neural networks (ANNs) to reproduce aggregate per-capita consumption patterns for the New Zealand economy. Results suggest that non-linear ANNs can outperform a linear econometric model at out-of-sample forecasting. The best ANN at matching in-sample data, however, is rarely the best predictor. To improve the accuracy of ANNs using only in-sample information, methods for combining heterogeneous ANN forecasts are explored. The frequency that an individual ANN is a top performer during in-sample training plays a beneficial role in consistently producing accurate out-of-sample patterns. Possible avenues for incorporating ANN structures into social simulation models of consumption are discussed. Length: 26 pages Creation-Date: 2012-12 Revision-Date: 2012-12 File-URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/economics/research/otago076656.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf File-Function: First version, 2012 Number: 1205 Classification-JEL: F22, F55, R23 Keywords: International Migration; International Agreements; Regional Labour Markets Handle: RePEc:otg:wpaper:1205