Critical Situations for Decision Making: A Support Based on a Modelling Tool

This paper proposes to give a toll to help decision makers in critical situations. The principle of our research is based on a modelling approach for Cooperative Knowledge Based Systems. This approach is based on a Task/Method paradigm that we describe. We then propose to take into account collateral effects of tasks in order to support decision makers in a critical context. The proposed tool can then generate a degraded solution for which, collateral effects of previous tasks have been taken as new goals to reach. This study is possible thanks to the definition of several kinds of models: a Good Functioning Model and a Degraded Tasks Library.     

CEO Incentives and Corporate Social Performance

This paper examines the relationship between CEO incentives and strong and weak corporate social performance. Using the KLD database we find that incentives have no significant relationship with strong social performance. Salary and long-term incentives have a positive association with weak social performance.     

From pushchairs to wheelchairs: understanding tensions in family decision making through the experiences of adult children caring for ageing parents

Abstract

Within a modern family life, roles have changed significantly; however, relatively little attention has been given to the increased health and longevity of parents. This article focuses on the tensions relating to the transitional role of parent as ‘carer of the child’ to child as ‘carer of the parent’ as parents age. This article focuses on the experiences of adult children as they care for their parents and the related tensions that emerge and coping strategies that are adopted. Adopting an interpretive approach we shed light on the decision-making practices around shopping, residential arrangements and other consumer choices and how they take place in complex arenas of intricate family interactions, influence and power. Key themes that emerged were strategies adopted by both the adult child and ageing parent to attain or retain control in an increasingly sensitive environment where there is no roadmap to guide either party.     

Free entry in successive oligopolies

In the present paper, we propose an extension of Spengler's (1950) analysis of successive oligopolies, to study the effects of entry in the downstream and upstream markets. Free entry is analyzed using replica economies à la Debreu and Scarf (1963) . We find that free entry may have different effects in the upstream and in the downstream market. Namely, the usual convergence of the price to the corresponding marginal cost only occurs in the downstream market.     

Banking in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Post-Dayton Economy and Financial System

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Getting Wisconsin to work

Since the mid-1980s the state of Wisconsin has been pre-eminent in the field of welfare reform. With a consensus across the political spectrum, the state has pioneered a series of bold and innovative programmes which have slashed cash assistance by $30 million a month, compared with 1987 levels, and reduced its caseload by 85%. The latest programme, Wisconsin Works, is known as W-2, and is widely regarded as the most successful of the many welfare-to-work initiatives which have appeared throughout the USA.     

Building e‐support for cause‐related marketing through strategic alliances

New opportunities for nonprofit organisations to reach new donors and volunteers are being generated by an accelerated interest in cause‐related marketing on the part of both consumers and business firms, in conjunction with the emergence of the Internet. Together, these conditions have created a climate conducive for nonprofit alliances with corporations to become one of the fastest growing forms of marketing today. This paper examines online cause‐related marketing from the fundraiser's perspective, and sets forth a series of marketing management implications of building relationships with businesses and their customers as potential donors on the Internet. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

DOES SAMPLE DESIGN MATTER FOR POVERTY RATE COMPARISONS?

Poverty comparisons—an increasingly important starting-point for welfare policy analysis-are almost always based on household surveys. Therefore they require that one be able to distinguish underlying differences in the populations being compared from sampling variation: standard errors must be calculated. This has typically been done assuming that the household surveys are simple random samples. However, household surveys are more complex than this. We show that taking into account sampling design has a major effect on estimated standard errors for well-known poverty measures. In our samples they increase by around one-half. We also show that making only a partial correction for sample design (taking into account clustering, but not stratification, whether explicit or implicit) can be as misleading as not taking any account of sampling design at all.     

Cost efficiency and the effect of mergers on the Taiwanese banking industry

This study addresses the cost efficiency, economies of scale and scope of the Taiwanese banking industry, specifically focusing on how bank mergers affect cost efficiency. Adopting stochastic frontier analysis, we employ a translog cost function for efficiency estimation. Composite error terms are used to account for managerial inefficiency and environmental effects. Empirical results suggest that economies of scale and scope exist at small and medium-sized banks. Meanwhile, government-owned or -controlled banks are the most cost efficient. Non-performing loans increase the inefficiency of the banking sector by just under 10 per cent. Further analysis reveals that bank merger activity is positively related to cost efficiency. Mergers can enhance cost efficiency, even though the number of bank employees does not decline. The banks involved in mergers are generally small and were established after the banking sector was deregulated.