The Economics of E-Commerce and Networking Decisions Also by Yew-Kwang Ng
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Economics of E-Commerce and Networking Decisions Also by Yew-Kwang Ng: WELFARE ECONOMICS: Towards a More Complete Analysis The Economics of E-Commerce and Networking Decisions Applications and Extensions of Inframarginal Analysis Edited by Yew-Kwang Ng, Heling Shi and Guang-Zhen Sun Department of Economics Monash University Australia Editorial matter and selection © Yew-Kwang Ng, Heling Shi and Guang-Zhen Shun 2003 Chapters 1 and 2 © Yew-Kwang Ng Remaining chapters © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-333-99932-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43329-2 ISBN 978-1-4039-3837-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403938374 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The economics of e-commerce and networking decisions : applications and extensions of inframarginal analysis / edited by Yew-Kwang Ng, Heling Shi, and Guang-Zhen Sun. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Electronic commerce. I. Title: Electronics of e-commerce and networking decisions. II. Ng, Yew-Kwang. III. Shi, Heling, 1965- IV. Sun, Guang-Zhen. HF5548.32.E25 2003 381’.1–dc21 2003053276 10987654321 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 Contents Notes on the contributors vii Preface x 1 Introduction 1 Yew-Kwang Ng Part I Keynote Speeches 9 2 Inframarginal Versus Marginal Analysis of Networking 11 Decisions and E-Commerce Yew-Kwang Ng 3 A Review of the Literature of Inframarginal Analysis of 24 Network of Division of Labour Xiaokai Yang Part II E-Commerce 53 4 E-Commerce, Transaction Cost and the Network of Division 55 of Labour: a Business Perspective Heling Shi and Hayden Mathysen 5 An Equilibrium Model of Hierarchy 69 Xiaokai Yang 6 A General Equilibrium Model with Impersonal Networking 101 Decisions and Bundling Sales Ke Li 7 Legislation, Electronic Commerce and the Common Law: 134 the Growing Legislative Framework, How it Compares Internationally, and its Failings in Australia Andrew Field 8 E-Commerce in China: Problems and Potential 151 John Wong and Wong Chee Kong Part III Impersonal Networking and Endogenous 169 Specialization: Theory and Applications 9 Towards a Theory of Impersonal Networking Decisions 171 and Endogenous Structure of the Division of Labour Guang-Zhen Sun, Xiaokai Yang and Shuntian Yao v vi Contents 10 Identification of Equilibrium Structures of Endogenous 195 Specialization: a Unified Approach Exemplified Guang-Zhen Sun 11 Transaction Efficiency, Division of Labour and Foreign 214 Direct Investment: a Unified Model Dexin Yang 12 The Division of Labour and the Allocation of Time 248 Monchi Lio Part IV Transaction Costs and the Division of Labour: 265 Measurement and Empirical Analysis 13 An Indirect Approach to the Identification and Measurement 267 of Transaction Costs George Rivers 14 An Empirical Study on the Division of Labour and Economic 298 Structural Changes Monchi Lio and Meng-chun Liu 15 Endogenous Transaction Costs and Division of Labour 311 Xiaokai Yang and Yimin Zhao Index 328 Notes on the Contributors Andrew Field is Lecturer in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University, Australia. In addition to conducting research into the developing legal framework of electronic commerce, his research inter- ests include public and private international law and commercial law generally. Ke Li is Assistant Professor in Economics, St Joseph’s University, USA, and Associate Professor at Nihon University Japan. His main research interests are property rights system, economic organization, economics of state, new economy, and economics of specialization. Monchi Lio is Assistant Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University; his PhD is from National Taiwan University. His research interests are eco- nomic organization and uncertainty, economic history and empirical studies on transaction infrastructure. Meng-Chun Liu is Research Fellow at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taiwan. His PhD is from Monash University. His research inter- ests are international trade, economic organization, economics of techno- logical change, and empirical studies on transaction infrastructure. Hayden Mathysen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics, Monash University, Australia. His PhD and principal research interests are in the spheres of bounded rationality, focal points and experimental co- ordination games. Yew-Kwang Ng graduated with a BCom from Nanyang University (Singapore) in 1966 and a PhD from Sydney University in 1971. he has been a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia since 1980. he has published refereed papers in economics, biology, mathematics, philoso- phy, and psychology, and articles in the popular press. Books published include Welfare Economics (1979), Mesoeconomics: a Micro-Macro Analysis (1986), Social Welfare and Economic Policy (1990), Specialization and Economic Organization (1993 with X. Yang), Increasing Returns and Economics Analysis (1998, co-edited with K. J Arrow and X. Yang), Efficiency, Equality, and Public Policy: with a Case for Higher Public Spending (Macmillan, 2000), Welfare Economics: Towards a Complete Analysis (Macmillan, forthcoming). He has also published a Kungfu Novel in Chinese serialized in Nanyang Business Daily (Malaysia) and as a book The Unparalleled Mystery (1994). vii viii Notes on the Contributors George Rivers is a continuing lecturer in the Department of Economics at Monash University. His research interests relate to the theory of the firm, including mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and transaction costs. He is currently a candidate in the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, which is in the process of being finalized. He is the joint author of Rivers and Ward ‘Economics in the Business Environment’. He is also a director of the Master of Applied Economics and a member of the Faculty of Business and Economics Marketing Advisory Group. He has been involved with various consulting engagements including, most recently, cost–benefit work with the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, The Victorian Qualifications Authority and The Royal Botanical Gardens. Heling Shi is Senior Lecturer In Economics, Monash University. He has applied inframarginal economics in the areas of international trade and globalization, economics growth, industrialization, e-commerce, eco- nomics of property rights and the international comparison of living standards. Guang-Zhen Sun is Logan Fellow in Economics at Monash University and Assistant Professor of Economics, the University of Macau. His current research interests are microeconomic analysis of the division of labour and evolutionary economics. Wong Chee Kong completed his Master’s degree at the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore. His research interests include the Chinese economy, the development of information technology and the Internet in China and the economics of network industry. John Wong is Research Director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. He was formerly Director of the Institute of East Asian Political Economy (1990–96). His research interests are on economics development of China, Asian NIEs and ASEAN economies, and other economic issues of East Asia. He has written more then ten books and published numerous articles and papers on China and other East Asian economies. Dexin Yang is Associate Professor of Economics at Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics. His research interests are foreign direct investment and regional economic development. Xiaokai Yang is Professor of Economics at Monash University. His 1993 book, Specialization and Economic Organization, with Yew-Kwang Ng, has been described by Ben-Ner, in Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (1995, p. 571), ‘as a veritable technical and intellectual tour de Notes on the Contributors ix force’. Their new framework has spawned many research papers shedding new lights upon many economic issues. Shuntian Yao is Associate Professor in Economics at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and a Charter Member of the Game Theory Society. Yao’s main research interests are in Game Theory and Mathematical Economics,