Inference on Reliability in Two-parameter Exponential Stress–strength Model

The problem of hypothesis testing and interval estimation of the reliability parameter in a stress–strength model involving two-parameter exponential distributions is considered. Test and interval estimation procedures based on the generalized variable approach are given. Statistical properties of the generalized variable approach and an asymptotic method are evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. Simulation studies show that the proposed generalized variable approach is satisfactory for practical applications while the asymptotic approach is not satisfactory even for large samples. The results are illustrated using simulated data.     

Technology Collaboration and Foreign Equity Participation: A Theoretical Analysis

Technology transfer to the developing nations has been predominantly characterized by technology collaborations between the multinationals and the local firms of these developing countries. When a multinational offers a new technology to a local firm, the firms may have different perceptions regarding the success rate of the technology in the local conditions. This paper discusses various types of contractual arrangements with equity participation by the multinational, which dominate pure technology collaboration agreements.     

A measure of authorship by publications

Measuring publication success of a researcher is a complicated task as publications are often co-authored by multiple authors, and so, it requires comparison of solo publications with joint publications. In this paper, like Price (1981), we argue for an egalitarian perspective in accomplishing this task. More specifically, we justify the need for an ethical perspective in quantifying academic author by identifying certain ethical difficulties of some popular contemporary indices used for this purpose. And then we show that for any given dataset of research papers, the unique method satisfying the ethical notions of identity independence and performance invariance must be the egaliatarian E-index proposed by Bose, Pal, and Sappington (2010) and Price (1981). In our setting, this egalitarian method divides authorship of joint projects equally among authors and sums across all publications of each author.     

When Are Investors Rational?

Taking our cue from certain recent advances in experimental psychology, the authors propose a plausible theory of conflict between rationality and inherent behavioral biases of investors. In this theory no investor is fully rational or fully behavioral at all times. An investor faces a continuum between behavioral and rational positions. A movement toward rationality is a choice; it is costly to be fully rational which requires serious mental calculations. On the other hand, there could be some benefits to rationality in special circumstances that compensate for the costs. Using a unique and extensive investor-level database, the authors show that the degree of nonrationality decreases as rational behavior becomes more attractive. In the empirical setting, the proxy for rational behavior is investor's use of private predisclosure information during earnings announcement periods, while the disposition effect they display serves as an estimate of their behavioral bias. The paper contributes to the existing literature in several dimensions.     

Quantity,Quality, and Efficiency for a Partially Super-Additive Cost Function: Connecticut Public Schools Revisited

The dual cost function is partially super-additive when an output quantity bundle of a given quality can be produced at a lower cost by breaking up the output into a number of smaller bundles of the same quality to be produced by several firms instead of the entire bundle being produced by a single firm. In this paper, we build on Maindiratta's concept of size efficiency and propose a nonparametric method using mixed integer programming to measure cost efficiency allowing for partial super-additivity of the cost function. The proposed method is applied to data from Connecticut public school districts for the years 1980–81 through 1983–84.     

Environmental Regulation: An Incentive for Foreign Direct Investment

Empirical evidence has so far failed to confirm that lenient environmental regulation attracts investment from polluting firms. In a Cournot duopoly with a foreign firm and a domestic firm, we show that the foreign firm may want to relocate to the domestic country with stricter environmental regulation, when the move raises its rival domestic firm's cost by sufficiently more than its own. The domestic (foreign) country's welfare is (usually) lower with foreign direct investment.     

Licensing a new product: Fee vs. royalty licensing with unionized labor market

In an economy with unionized labor market, we show that the payoff of an outside innovator may be higher under royalty licensing than under fixed-fee licensing and auction, if bargaining power of the labor union is sufficiently high. This result holds for both decentralized and centralized bargaining. It follows from our analysis that a combination of fixed-fee and output royalty can be preferable to the innovator compared to both royalty only licensing and auction (or fixed-fee licensing). We discuss the implications of positive opportunity costs of the licensees.     

MAXIMUM ENTROPY REVISITED

Maximum entropy or minumum information distributions have their flexibilities severely curtailed if R or R₊ is the domain and α is imposed as a Lebesgue measure. Tremendous flexibility is gained by removing these restrictions.     

ON CONSISTENT INTERGROUP COMPARISONS OF PURCHASING POWER OF MONEY

There is some advantage in comparing price levels using consistent methods because this gives unique results. This paper examines some available methods of consistent comparison, pointing out difficulties associated with heterogeneous data, and suggesting adaptations yielding better comparisons. Next, the problem of non-availability of price and quantity decomposition is considered. Another problem relating to non-identical lists of commodities and quality differences is tackled by using linear programming instead of regression methodology, both methods using some transformed variables. The procedure suggested is likely eventually to be useful for comparison of dissimilar countries. Computations on some Indian population groups illustrate the findings.