Gotta Have Money to Make Money? Bargaining Behavior and Financial Need of Microentrepreneurs
中文摘要
通过与加纳微型企业主就实际价格进行议价,我们表明,家庭人均流动性较低的卖方会同意以更低的价格成交。这一关系在企业间以及企业内跨时间均稳健成立,即便在控制了大量随时间变化的可观测变量之后依然如此。一项通过随机化初始支付额度设计的计算机议价实验,印证了实际议价的发现。这一模式可以用古典议价理论的一个应用来解释,该应用纳入了禀赋以及具有递减绝对风险厌恶的效用函数。定价行为潜藏的贫困放大效应,是理解微型企业盈利能力障碍的一个关键前沿。(JEL D22, G51, L25, L26, O12, O14)
Abstract
Bargaining over real prices with microenterprise owners in Ghana, we show that sellers with less per capita household liquidity agree to lower sale prices. This relationship is robust across firms and within firms over time, even after controlling for a plethora of time-varying observables. A computerized bargaining experiment, with randomized initial payout sizes, corroborates the real-bargaining findings. This pattern can be explained by an application of classical bargaining theory that includes endowments and utility functions with decreasing absolute risk aversion. The potential poverty-multiplying implications of pricing behavior is a key frontier in understanding barriers to the profitability of microenterprises. (JEL D22, G51, L25, L26, O12, O14)