| dc.description.abstract | Since the third generation mobile communication systems were invented in 2003, the manufacturers have continually provided many kinds of 3G mobile phones in order to increase their market share. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the features of each mobile phones and its price and to know more details about how suppliers make mobile prices and how much consumers are willing to pay. The data we use are from CALL magazine, PhoneDaily and Sogi website, targeting on the time from January 2003 to December 2007.
This paper is divided into two major topics. One is to compare the differences of semi-log and Box-Cox models and use Hedonic Price Model to calculate the average marginal prices. The other focuses on process innovation, product innovation and brand premiums of 3G mobile Phones.
As for characteristic variables, we generally classify them into six major categories based on their properties. These categories are Basic Mobile Feature, Brand Type, Screen Type, Degree of Light and Handy, Additional function and Fashion. Furthermore, in order to take the endogenous problem into consideration, we use two-stage least squares (2SLS) to estimate. The empirical results show that all the explained variables are significant and the directions of coefficients are like what we expected on the 1% significant level. Weak Instrument Test, Hausman Test and Overidentifying Test are also conducted to make our results more reliable.
Finally, in the analysis of 3G mobile phones, the empirical results confirm the theories of process and product innovation advanced by Baumol (2002). As for the brand premiums, Sony Ericsson is the highest, and the next two are ASUS and Motorola respectively. | en_US |