Sofronis Clerides

University of Cyprus · Department of Economics

We study the market response to firm‐specific demand shocks in a natural experiment setting. In 2006, a boycott of Danish products in several Arab countries was devastating for Danish cheese products firms. In Saudi Arabia their market share collapsed from 16.5% in January to below 1% in March and never fully recovered: by 2009 it was 6.3%. By anal...

We build on recent work that analyzes consumers’ ability to save by exploiting price dispersion in grocery stores. We show that store expensiveness varies across consumers depending on the basket they consume, meaning that consumers can save more by shopping at a store that is cheaper for their basket rather than at a store that is cheaper overall....

We investigate the link between crude oil prices, retail gasoline prices and consumer sentiment in the euro area. Our results reveal that consumer sentiment and its key components deteriorate notably as a response to positive shocks to real gasoline prices at the pump. On the contrary, positive oil-specific demand shocks do not trigger such a stron...

Quantity surcharges occur when retailers carry a product in two sizes and offer a promotion on the small size: the large size then costs more per unit than the small one. When quantity surcharges occur, sales of the large size decline only slightly even though the same quantity can be purchased for less. We document this behavior in two data sets a...

We estimate the degree of competition in the banking sectors of 148 countries over the period 1997-2010 using three methods: the Lerner index, the adjusted Lerner index, and the profit elasticity. Marginal cost estimates required for all methods are obtained using a flexible semi-parametric methodology. All three indices show that competitive condi...

{Vehicle taxation based on CO2 emissions is increasingly being adopted worldwide in order to shift consumer purchases to low-carbon cars, yet evidence on its effectiveness and economic impact is limited. We focus on feebate schemes, which impose a fee on high-carbon vehicles and give a rebate to low-carbon automobiles. We estimate demand for automo...

The Cypriot banking system has suffered a severe blow last Friday night, after the results of the Eurogroup meeting were announced. Life in the banking system is different since Saturday morning: solutions that were feasible until last Friday (e.g. bank resolutions) might not be feasible this week due to capital flight risk. Moreover, the economics...

Did the rise in anti-American sentiment caused by the Iraq war affect sales of US goods abroad? We address this question using data on soft drink and fabric detergent sales in nine Arab countries. We find a statistically significant negative impact of the war on sales of US soft drinks in seven countries. The impact dissipates after a few months in...

We estimate demand for automobiles in Greece using a discrete choice model of product differentiation and use the model to evaluate carbon-based tax schemes that could shift consumer purchases towards low-CO2 cars and thus lead to the reduction of fuel use and CO2 emissions. We find that careful policy design, supported by appropriate modeling, can...

Vehicle taxation based on CO2 emissions is increasingly being adopted worldwide in order to shift consumer purchases to low-carbon cars, yet little is known about the effectiveness and overall economic impact of these schemes. We focus on feebate schemes, which impose a fee on high-carbon vehicles and give a rebate to purchasers of low-carbon autom...

Vehicle taxation based on a car’s CO2 emission levels is increasingly adopted in countries around the world. This paper describes a model of oligopolistic competition in markets with differentiated products, simulating automobile demand and supply under alternative tax regimes. The objective is to perform simulations in order to evaluate policies t...

Vehicle taxation based on CO2 emissions is increasingly being adopted worldwide in order to shift consumer purchases to low-carbon cars, yet little is known about the effectiveness and overall economic impact of these schemes. We focus on feebate schemes, which impose a fee on high-carbon vehicles and give a rebate to purchasers of low-carbon autom...

There is no widely accepted definition of price discrimination with differentiated products. Either absolute price-cost differences or percentage price-cost markups are used as benchmarks for comparison. I show that the two criteria are qualitatively different: one may indicate price discrimination when the other does not. Moreover, anything other...

as a Diffusion Process Motivated by the growing importance of international trade in a globalizing world, we analyze the process of internationalization of the firm via the adoption of an exporting strategy. Our modeling framework generalizes standard diffusion models to allow for a changing pool of potential adopters and to include firms that aban...

Quantity surcharges occur when firms market a product in two sizes and offer a promotion on the small size: the large size then costs more per unit than the small one. When quantity surcharges occur the sales of the large size decrease only slightly despite the fact that the small size is a cheaper option - a clear arbitrage opportunity. This behav...

We investigate the relationship between tourism specialization and economic growth. We deviate from previous studies – which have reported mixed evidence – by allowing the relationship to take a nonlinear form. We find that tourism specialization is associated with higher rates of economic growth at relatively low levels of specialization but event...

Did the rise in anti-American sentiment caused by the Iraq war affect sales of US goods abroad? We address this question using data on sales of soft drinks and fabric detergents in nine Arab countries. We find a statistically significant but modest and short-lived negative impact of the war on sales of US soft drinks in some countries but no impact...

A large literature has documented and proposed explanations for the large spike in sales of promoted grocery store items. Using a new dataset we set out to identify a broad set of stylized facts about sales promotions that can be observed in aggregate, store-level data. A promotion has an impact on sales of competing products as well as sales of th...

There is a widely held belief that retail fuel prices rise very quickly following an increase in international oil prices but fall slowly when oil prices decrease. This study uses data from European Union countries to investigate the response of retail gasoline prices to changes in the world oil price. The findings indicate significant variation in...

We examine whether the spread of an exporting strategy can be characterized as a diffusion process using a general framework that accounts for attrition and changes in the pool of potential adopters and allows the diffusion rate to vary according to firm and market characteristics. Our findings indicate that the diffusion of exporting is described...

We empirically investigate the relationship between tourism specialization, development and economic growth. Descriptive cross-country comparisons indicate a link between tourism specialization and level of development. Econometric analysis shows that tourism specialization is associated with higher rates of economic growth at relatively low levels...

The number of foreign workers in Cyprus has been increasing sharply in the last 15 years. This paper investigates the impact of foreign workers on unemployment, labour force participation and part-time employment in Cyprus, using data from the EU Labour Force Surveys for the period 1999-2005. This is examined overall, and by age group, or education...

We investigate the relationship between tourism specialization and economic growth. We deviate from previous studies - which have reported mixed evidence - by allowing the relationship to take a nonlinear form. We find that tourism specialization is associated with higher rates of economic growth at relatively low levels of specialization but event...

I investigate the welfare effects of trade liberalization by exploiting a natural policy experiment in the economy of Cyprus. A 1993 law relaxed import restrictions on used vehicles and enabled the importation of second-hand Japanese automobiles into the country. This led to a dramatic shift of consumer purchases from new to used cars and a substan...

There is an intense debate over whether fuel economy standards or fuel taxation is the more efficient policy instrument to raise fuel economy and reduce CO2 emissions of cars. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of standards and fuel prices on new-car fuel economy with the aid of cross-section time series analysis of data from 18 countri...

We construct a theoretical framework to study the impact of quality standards for used durable goods on trade [fl]ows, pro[fi]ts and consumer welfare. We show that asymmetric quality standards generate trade in used goods from high- to low-standard countries while at the same time reducing trade in new goods. Producers in the exporting country bene...

Intermediaries often arise in order to facilitate trade in markets characterized by asymmetric information. In the travel industry, policymakers have tried to address information asymmetries by providing hotel ratings. We show that those ratings are noisy indicators of quality because of the use of nonuniform standards across countries and limited...

There is an intense debate over whether fuel economy standards or fuel taxation is the more efficient policy instrument to raise fuel economy and reduce CO2 emissions of cars. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of standards and fuel prices on new-car fuel economy with the aid of cross-section time series analysis of data from 18 countri...

We investigate differences in book prices between the United States and other countries. We find that general audience books are similarly priced internationally, but textbooks are substantially more expensive in the United States (often more than double the price). This disparity is much more pronounced for commercial publishers than for universit...

We show that books for general audiences are similarly priced internationally but textbooks are substantially more expensive in the United States. We argue that cost factors cannot explain this phenomenon and discuss several demand-side explanations. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tourism has traditionally been a major source of income and a driver of economic growth in Cyprus. Over the last few years however, tourism as an economic activity has entered a slowdown phase and the Cypriot tourist product has undergone a continuous loss of competitiveness, due to both exogenous and endogenous factors. This paper provides an over...

We examine the impact of the very substantial increase in the employment of foreign workers on production, the growth in output and the wages of domestic workers using time series and cross-sectional data. We find that most recent growth in output can be explained by the increase in foreign workers, which also impacted favourably on the wages of th...

The annual Eurovision Song Contest provides a setting where Europeans can express their sentiments about other countries without regard to political sensitivities. Analyzing voting data from the 25 contests between 1981-2005, we find strong evidence for the existence of clusters of countries that systematically exchange votes regardless of the qual...

This paper calculates indices of central bank autonomy (CBA) for 163 central banks as of end-2003, and comparable indices for a subgroup of 68 central banks as of the end of the 1980s. The results confirm strong improvements in both economic and political CBA over the past couple of decades, although more progress is needed to boost political auton...

We exploit a unique and detailed dataset to explore the relationship between market con-centration and price discrimination (nonlinear pricing). In detergent markets of six countries we observe the entire price schedule for each product line of each active firm. We also observe shares of each product within its product line. Preliminary results are...

When the automobile was developed near the beginning of the last century, it was the relatively new fuel gasoline, not the familiar ethanol that became the fuel of choice. We examine the intersections of the early development of the automobile and the petroleum industry and consider the state of the agriculture sector during the same period. Throug...

RAE ratings have been criticised as biased in favour of universities that are old, located in England, large and represented on the assessment panel. We investigate these accusations for the 1996 and 2001 RAE ratings of economics departments using independent rankings from the academic literature as quality controls. We find RAE ratings to be large...

We study the intermediary role of tour operators in the market for package tourism. Intermediaries often arise in order to facilitate trade in markets characterized by asymmetric information. In the travel industry policy-makers have tried to address information asymmetries by providing hotel ratings. We argue that those ratings are not accurate in...

We construct a theoretical framework to study the impact of asymmetric quality standards on used durable goods on trade flows, profits and consumer welfare. We show that asymmetry in quality standards generates trade in used goods from high to low standard countries while at the same time reducing trade in new goods. Producers in the exporting coun...

We construct a theoretical framework to study the impact of asymmetric quality standards on used durable goods on trade flows, profits and consumer welfare. We show that asymmetry in quality standards generates trade in used goods from high to low standard countries while at the same time reducing trade in new goods. The industry in the exporting c...

This paper investigates the welfare effects of trade liberalization by exploiting a natural policy experiment in the small open economy of Cyprus. A 1993 law relaxed import restrictions on used vehicles and facilitated the flow of used Japanese vehicles into the country. This led to a dramatic shift of consumer purchases from new to used cars and a...

There is no widely accepted definition of price discrimination with differentiated products. Either absolute price-cost differences or percentage price-cost markups are used as benchmarks for comparison. I show that the two criteria are qualitatively different: One may indicate price discrimination when the other does not. Moreover, anything other...

There is no widely accepted definition of price discrimination with differentiated products. Either absolute price-cost differences or percentage price-cost markups are used as benchmarks for comparison. I show that the two criteria are qualitatively different: One may indicate price discrimination when the other does not. Moreover, anything other...

Most countries enforce automobile safety and emission standards. These standards are broadly similar with respect to new automobiles, but quality requirements for used cars can vary substantially across countries. The durable nature of automobiles implies that the different treatment of used cars will impact trade flows in both new and used car mar...

Intermediaries often arise in order to facilitate trade in markets characterized by asymmetric information. In this paper we study the intermediary role of tour operators in the market for package tourism. Policymakers have tried to address information asymmetries in this market by providing hotel ratings. We show that those ratings are not accurat...

We investigate price and quality differences between holiday packages to Mediter-ranean destinations. We examine the extent to which the star ratings and other in-formation supplied by the tourist operator convey quality and whether official tourist agencies systematically misrepresent the quality of their tourist accommodations. We find that altho...

Publishers produce books in hardcover and paperback versions with different prices and time of market introduction. Analysis of detailed book-level data reveals that (i) price-cost differentials cannot be explained by cost differences, making this an example of quality discrimination; (ii) market introduction time strongly affects sales, suggesting...

Publishers produce books in hardcover and paperback versions with different prices and time of market introduction. Analysis of detailed book-level data reveals that (i) market introduction time has a strong effect on sales, suggesting that time is the crucial dimension of discrimination; (ii) differences in markups cannot be explained by cost diff...

Do firms become more efficient after becoming exporters? Do exporters generate positive externalities for domestically oriented producers? In this paper we tackle these questions by analyzing the causal links between exporting and productivity using plant-level data. We look for evidence that firms' cost processes change after they break into forei...

Is there any empirical evidence that firms become more efficient after becoming exporters? Do firms that become exporters generate positive spillovers for domestically-oriented producers in their industry or region? In this paper we analyze the causal links between exporting and productivity using firm-level panel data from three semi-industrialize...

This paper investigates the welfare effects of trade liberalization by exploiting a natural policy experiment in the small open economy of Cyprus. A 1993 law relaxed import restrictions on used vehicles and facilitated the flow of used Japanese vehicles into the country. Imported vehicles were of high quality and considerably cheaper than local use...

The Eurovision Song Contest provides a setting where Europeans can express their sentiments about other countries without regard to political sensitivities. Analyzing voting data from the 25 contests between 1981-2005, we find strong evidence for the existence of clusters of countries that systematically exchange votes regardless of the quality of...

Intermediaries often arise in order to facilitate trade in markets characterized by asym- metric information. In this paper we study the intermediary role of tour operators in the market for package tourism. Policymakers have tried to address information asymmetries in this market by providing hotel ratings. We show that those ratings are not accur...

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Yale University, 1998 Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-104) Photocopy s