Relating Product Prices to Long-Run Marginal Cost: Evidence from Solar Photovoltaic Modules

A basic tenet of microeconomics is that for a competitive industry in equilibrium the market price of a product will be equal to its marginal cost. This paper develops a model framework and a corresponding empirical inference procedure for estimating long-run marginal cost in industries where produc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Reichelstein, S. (Author), Sahoo, A. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 01664nam a2200193Ia 4500
001 10.1111-1911-3846.12319
008 220706s2018 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 08239150 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Relating Product Prices to Long-Run Marginal Cost: Evidence from Solar Photovoltaic Modules 
260 0 |b Wiley-Blackwell  |c 2018 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12319 
520 3 |a A basic tenet of microeconomics is that for a competitive industry in equilibrium the market price of a product will be equal to its marginal cost. This paper develops a model framework and a corresponding empirical inference procedure for estimating long-run marginal cost in industries where production costs decline over time. In the context of the solar photovoltaic (PV) module industry, we rely primarily on firm-level financial accounting data to estimate the long-run marginal cost of PV modules for the years 2008–2013. During those years, the industry experienced both unprecedented price declines and significant expansions of manufacturing capacity. We compare the trajectory of average sales prices with the estimated long-run marginal costs in order to quantify the extent to which actual price declines were attributable to reductions in production costs. The trajectory of estimated product costs is then extrapolated to forecast an equilibrium trend line for future PV module prices. © CAAA 
650 0 4 |a Cost estimation 
650 0 4 |a Learning-by-doing 
650 0 4 |a Long-run marginal cost 
650 0 4 |a Price dynamics 
700 1 |a Reichelstein, S.  |e author 
700 1 |a Sahoo, A.  |e author 
773 |t Contemporary Accounting Research