Appointments: Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins University: July 2009 - present Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Policy at National University of Singapore: July 2010 - Education: Ph.D. in Economics, the University of Chicago, June 2009 BA in International Relations, Kyoto University, March 1999 Research Field: Empirical Industrial Organization Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University 465 Mergenthaler Hall, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21218 nishida (at) jhu.edu or mitsukuni.nishida (at) gmail.com last updated: November 1, 2009 |
Working Papers:
- "Estimating a Model of Strategic Network Choice: the Convenience-Store Industry in Okinawa," NET Institute Working Paper No. 08-27, Nov 2009
- Abstract:
This paper examines the impacts of the merger of two multi-store firms, using new cross-sectional data from the convenience-store industry in Okinawa, Japan. I propose a general methodology for estimating a game of network choice by two multi-store firms. I use lattice-theoretical results to deal with the huge number of possible network choices. I integrate the entry model with post-entry outcome data, while correcting for the selection of entrants by simulations. Parameter estimates find the acquirer of a hypothetical merger of two chains would increase its number of stores in the city center in Okinawa but would decrease its number in suburbs. The trade-off of cost savings and lost revenues from clustering its own stores plays a central role in explaining this seemingly odd result. I also examine the impacts of eliminating the zoning regulation introduced in 1968, which has been a major urban policy issue.
Abstract: We investigate the findings in several recent studies using plant-level data that report negative growth in the reallocation component of aggregate labor productivity growth. This empirical finding is counter to almost all theoretical models of aggregate productivity growth, where inputs reallocate on average from lower-value to higher-value activities. We attempt to solve this puzzle for two countries in South America, Chile and Colombia. We cannot explain the puzzle away by conditioning productivity growth on two types of labor and capital instead of just one labor type. We do find that the puzzle disappears when we define aggregate productivity growth in terms of its impact on aggregate final demand. By this definition, labor reallocation contributes positively to economic growth in most years. We explore other possible reasons for the negative covariance between labor inputs and measured productivity growth.
Works in Progress:
- “Network Pricing in the US Airline Industry,” May 2009
Abstract: This paper provides a methodology to study the effect of multimarket contact on pricing in the airline industry. I model the pricing behavior in the airline industry as an n-Player game. To deal with the computational burden arising from allowing for interaction of prices across markets, I provide sufficient conditions to formulate the game of Bertrand oligopoly with differentiated substitutable products into supermodular game. The methodological novelty of this framework is that the work provides us with a computational algorithm to solve for a pure strategy Nash equilibrium pricing game with more than two players. I use the Airline Origin and Destination Survey Data Bank for the years 1999 through 2002. With the parameter estimates, I run two counterfactual simulations. First, I study the degree of competitiveness in the US airline industry. To this end, I conduct out-of-sample predictions by using an estimated noncooperative oligopoly model and a collusive oligopoly model to see which describes the reality better. Second, I study the effect of mergers. By reducing the number of players, I study the effect of a change in the number of players on equilibrium airfare.
- "Estimating Aggregate Productivity Growth with Plant Level Data when Markets Are Not Competitive,” (Joint with Amil Petrin), 2008
- “Why Does a First Mover Get Benefits? Evidence from the Convenience-Store
Industry,” 2009
