李佳宁 | Jianing Li

Abstract. The emergence of ride-hailing platforms has significantly impacted the automotive industry, influencing both the sales and rental markets. Dealers and rental agencies, once operating in separate markets, have become indirect competitors due to this transformation. Therefore, considering both markets simultaneously is crucial to understanding the platforms' impact. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive model that incorporates the manufacturer, dealer, and rental agency, allowing us to analyze how a platform’s presence influences firm decisions and total car ownership. We show that the dealer increases its orders for products with high marginal costs due to the value enhancement effect, wherein car ownership becomes more valuable with the presence of a platform. Importantly, we find that neglecting the rental market - as most of the existing literature does - underestimates this effect. While the value enhancement effect does not extend to the rental market, a platform's presence may motivate the rental agency to increase its orders for products with low marginal costs and new-car valuation. However, the increase in rental cars is generally relatively modest compared to the decrease in personally owned cars, resulting in an overall increase in total ownership only for products with sufficiently high marginal costs and rental-car valuation. Moreover, we show that failing to consider both markets and their interactions may lead to inaccurately assessing the total change in ownership compared to the platform's absence. Finally, we discuss the implications of car owners' partial or heterogeneous participation rate in the platform and demonstrate that our results generally hold.

Abstract. This paper analyzes the effects of a supply-constrained regulation on sharing platforms on the equilibrium of the housing rental market, including its quantity, price, and social welfare implications. Using the data from Airbnb, Zillow, and the United States Census Bureau, we examine how a supply-constrained regulation on sharing platforms can balance the equilibrium of the housing rental market. Specifically, we examine the impact of San Francisco's 2017 policy, which sets criteria for homeowners who wish to rent their properties through Airbnb. Our analysis reveals that the introduction of this regulation leads to a reduction in the number of Airbnb listings and a decrease in monthly entrants. Additionally, reservation days and revenue for surviving listings both fall. We also investigate the regulation's heterogenous effects on different types and supply patterns of listings on the platform and different segments of the long-term rental market. Our findings show that the regulation crowds out opportunistic landlords and some seasonal housing providers, leading to a decrease in rental prices, especially for high-end houses in the long-term rental market. While customer welfare decreases in the online (short-term) sharing market, it increases in the local (long-term) market. In conclusion, our analysis demonstrates that the supply-constrained regulation implemented in San Francisco is effective in reducing the supply of short-term sharing rentals and in reducing the equilibrium prices in the long-term rental market. Moreover, we find that the price effect is less pronounced in affordable housing segments compared to high-end housing segments. As a result, the regulation helps to make the sharing economy a more genuine sharing experience and prevents exploitation. These findings have important implications for policymakers and stakeholders in the housing rental market, particularly in terms of balancing short-term and long-term rental markets and promoting equitable access to affordable housing. 

In this project, we investigate the Zero-Emissions initiative of ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft, where the platforms strive to achieve 100% electric vehicle adoption through various subsidy policies. This endeavor is crucial as it addresses the pressing need to reduce the environmental footprint of transportation services. Our primary goal is to discern the most efficient approach to designing and implementing subsidies, thus playing a pivotal role in advancing sustainability objectives within the ride-hailing industry. 

In this research project, we leverage data from Airbnb, the United States Census Bureau, and COVID-19 records to examine the impact of short-term rental restrictions during the pandemic on the behavior of Airbnb hosts and the trajectory of the pandemic itself. Our preliminary results indicate that these restrictions prove highly effective in pandemic containment efforts. Given their potential for easier enforcement compared to stay-at-home policies, they emerge as a valuable tool in effectively managing pandemics of this nature.

Abstract. When entering into a market dominated by the product of the incumbent, the firm faces various choices and difficulties, and these choices are essential to the development of the newcomer because the entry strategy will affect the entrant’s reward and competence directly. Considering the situation that the market is dominated by a monopoly firm, its product has a great brand reputation among the consumers. The entrant should first analyze the effect of the innovativeness of the product and the incumbent’s brand reputation on the market entry strategy. Because these two factors will affect the choice behavior of consumers, consumers' utility should combine innovativeness and brand reputation. In this paper, we consider that there are two kinds of market entry strategies based on the R&D level of the product. The imitation strategy means the firm enters into the market with a product similar to the incumbent’s existing offering, and the innovation strategy means the firm offers an entirely novel new one. Then, the entrant and the incumbent will decide their own products’ prices simultaneously. We model the game between the entrant and incumbent and analyze the pricing game. The consumer mentioned in our paper has a preference for both the product’s quality and its brand. By analyzing the game between incumbent and entrant, we study how the two main drivers, brand reputation and innovativeness, affect the choice of entry strategy. Our preliminary results are as follows: We find that entrant always imitates when the cost of innovative product development is too high. When its cost is not too high and the brand reputation of the incumbent, compared to the innovativeness of the product, has a dominant effect on the customer’s utility, the entrant innovates. However, when the innovativeness of the product, compared to the brand reputation of the incumbent, has a dominant effect on the customer’s utility, the entrant always imitates the cost of new product development. In this condition, the imitation strategy is good for both the entrant and the incumbent. 

Abstract. In the context of durable product sales, notably household appliances and 3C (Computer, Communication, and Consumer electronics) products, the adoption of extended warranty services by both retailers and suppliers has become a prevalent strategy to enhance service quality. With the burgeoning influence of e-commerce as a pivotal channel for durable goods, online retailers have also embraced the practice of offering extended warranties to customers. Notably, online retailers wield distinct advantages in the realm of consumer behavior data collection and analysis compared to their offline counterparts. This study investigates the intricate interplay between consumer behavior and the pricing strategies of extended warranty services adopted by retailers. It delves into the determinants of these strategies, with a specific focus on the influence of retail pricing dynamics and their decision-making authority. The foundational model employed in this research characterizes consumer behavior through individual product preferences and future product usage expectations, from which optimal extended warranty pricing is derived. Our preliminary results show that the decision-making power vested in retail pricing significantly shapes the retailer's approach to pricing strategies for extended warranty contracts. Retailers equipped with pricing power will always provide services at low prices to expand demand, while without that power, the retailer might use high-price services for additional profit. We plan to expand our model to more complex warranty service contracts. 

Abstract. In this paper, we investigate a buyer's procurement contract design when the supplier privately knows yield uncertainty. Our preliminary results show that, with a given contract structure where the payment depends partly on order quantity and partly on yield quantity, the supplier has the motivation to report a lower yield rate under an asymmetric environment, and when the supplier's yield rate is two-point distributed, we prove that the buyer will provide either shut-down contracts or pooling contracts. Moreover, compared with complete information, the buyer's profit is always declined by the asymmetry while the supplier does not certainly benefit. It means sharing information could be a win-win policy when the supplier has a lower yield rate. Our future research aims to further investigate if different contract structures, such as profit-sharing contracts, would drive different results.