Local water markets for irrigation in southern Spain: A multicriteria approach

Spanish authorities have recently approved a new legislative framework for the creation of local water markets to improve allocative efficiency for this scarce resource. This paper analyses the potential impacts of the policy. A utility function for three groups of farmers was elicited, using a method that does not require interaction with the decision-makers. Utility was measured as a function of the first two moments of the distribution of total gross margin. The utility functions were then used to simulate farmers' responses to changes in the price of water.     

government and the PSBR

The government has changed its view of how to gauge the size of the budget deficit. Nick Parsons and David Coleman, of Union Discount, argue that this change is an ill-omen for the control of public spending.     

保险业要么锁定客户，要么收购

贝恩公司调查发现,仅有1／10的保险公司成功地实现连年持续地创造价值。许多公司最终表现欠佳的主要原因在于,他们严重误判自己提供客户所需产品／服务的能力。当高级主管被问及是否认为本公司提供最佳客户体验时,77％的高管自认为是,但仅有6％的客户认同。那么,究竟什么才是保险业实现最佳股东回报的关键呢?     

The false promise of technological determinism: the case of enterprise resource planning systems

According to software vendors and consultants, Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) transform the nature, structure and management of work regardless of organisational context. This paper contests this technologically deterministic view of organisational change by demonstrating the role that discourse plays in the social construction of ERPs.     

Ethiopia: Man-made Disaster

Highly publicised Western, aid to Ethiopia will do little to relieve the source of her distress, Nick Elliott (right), at the University of York, blames the attempted eradication of markets by Mengistu's regime.     

系统动态仿真在运载火箭多项目批产计划管理中的应用分析

我国"长征"系列运载火箭在经历了单发和小批量研制生产阶段后已进入了批产阶段,"十一五"期间年均发射密度将达到10发,其科研管理方法正在从型号或项目管理向多项目管理,从单一项目的关键路径控制向多项目的资源优化统筹过渡.因此需要对过去以单发产品为主的管理模式和方法作必要的改进和完善,以适应因任务和发射密度增加所带来的新形式.     

Technical efficiency in the Spanish agrofood industry

This study estimates frontier production functions with cross-section data lor the Spanish agrofood industry by using deterministic and stochastic parameuic approaches. We compute the individual technical efficiency for each firm, compare the results and explain the relationship between technical efficiency and other relevant quantitative variables. The results indicate that the Spanish agrofood industry has a level of efficiency between 68% and 93%; which means that it is potentially capable of increasing production without increasing its Consumption of inputs. This efficiency level is positively related to factor productivity and unitary labour costs.