Technical Efficiency of Rice Farms in Different Agroclimatic Zones in the Philippines: An Application of a Stochastic Metafrontier Model*

Rice producers in the Philippines operate in spatially diverse physical environments that are largely beyond their control. We decompose total factor productivity into technical efficiencies and environment–technology gap ratios across four climatic zones for selected years from 1996/1997 to 2005/2006 using farm‐level panel data. Results show surprisingly little interzonal and intertemporal variation in productivity. It appears that Philippine rice producers have been able to adapt their crop management strategies sufficiently to suit their particular agroclimatic conditions. However, after an increase in the first 5 years of the study period, mean environment–metatechnology gap ratios stagnated in the second 5 years. The metafrontier does not appear to have substantially shifted outwards over the whole period, suggesting that rice producers achieved little technological progress and increased total factor productivity.     

Wahrgenommene Preisfairness — Ansatzpunkte für eine segmentspezifische Marktbearbeitung

Mit der zunehmenden Preisdifferenzierung in immer mehr Branchen rückt die wahrgenommene Preisfairness verst?rkt in das Interesse der Marketingpraxis — denn nicht jeder Kunde sch?tzt in jeder Situation differenzierte Preissysteme und beurteilt sie als fair. Je nach Kommunikation und Kundengruppe zeigen sich unterschiedliche Auspr?gungen der wahrgenommenen Preisfairness. Das Marketing muss bei der Gestaltung und Kommunikation von differenzierten Preissystemen diesen unterschiedlichen Einsch?tzungen Rechnung tragen. Der vorliegende Artikel zeigt segmentspezifische Unterschiede in der wahrgenommenen Preisfairness am Beispiel der Transportbranche an einer Untersuchung der SBB und leitet Ma?nahmen für das Marketing ab. So zeigt sich, dass insbesondere Personen mittleren Alters, Gesch?ftsreisende und Pendler besonders kritisch auf die Preisdifferenzierung reagieren und entsprechend mit klaren, eher undifferenzierten Systemen angesprochen werden sollten.     

Can sustainable investments outperform traditional benchmarks? Evidence from global stock markets

To contribute to overcoming global sustainability challenges, investors have been increasingly interested in making sustainable investments and incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their portfolio selection decisions and managerial activities. However, these investors and other agents interested in sustainable investment need updated and robust information to support their decision making. We analyzed the performance of several Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSIs) and compared them with their respective market benchmarks from 2013 to 2018. The indices comprise the following regions and countries: the world, the Asia‐Pacific, Europe, emerging markets and the US. The analysis was conducted based on both classic and modern portfolio metrics. The results suggest that sustainable investment performance is still heterogeneous worldwide, but there is a promising opportunity for investors to obtain superior risk‐adjusted returns in certain regions while incorporating sustainable investment practices. The findings are of utmost importance to financial market practitioners, business managers, academics and other stakeholders interested in promoting investments, corporate practices and scientific knowledge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

Preference for Landings’ Smoothing and Risk of Collapse in Optimal Fishery Policies: The Ibero-Atlantic Sardine Fishery

Several world fish stocks are being explored at unsustainable levels and require management plans to rebuild stock abundance. Defining a management plan is, however, a complex task that entails multidisciplinary work. In fact, while it requires solid scientific knowledge of fish stocks, the inclusion of economic and social objectives is crucial to a successful management implementation. In this paper we develop an age-structured bioeconomic model where the objective function is modified to accommodate preferences from different stakeholders. In particular, we consider important characteristics that a management plan should take into account: profit maximization, fishermen’s preference for reducing landings’ fluctuations and risk of fishery collapse. Modeling preferences for reducing landings’ fluctuations is accomplished by defining a utility function with aversion to intertemporal income fluctuations. Building upon biology literature, we model precautionary concerns by incorporating a probability of collapse that depends on current spawning biomass. We illustrate how this framework is able to assist in the analysis and design of harvest control rules applying it to the Ibero-Atlantic sardine stock.     

Management Accounting Systems and Organisational Structure

In this paper we present an empirical analysis to test whether organisation configurations and management accounting systems change simultaneously. Using the original application of the fuzzy logic methodology, we analyse the level of development and implementation of the management accounting system and the organisational configuration on a sample of 501 Italian firms. Even though we employ a cross-sectional approach, the results may be interpreted according to the life cycle model. Our findings show that the evolution of the organisational configurations is not always coherent with the relevance assumed by management accounting systems. In particular, we find a large group of companies with a simple organisational configuration and a well-developed management accounting system. We interpret the presence of this cluster dynamically as an intermediate stage of growth towards more complex forms of organisation.     

Telecommunications and investment decisions in the Philippines

This article is a rejoinder to the article written by R.J. Saunders published in the December 1983 issue of Telecommunications Policy on investment decisions in telecommunications. The author, in this brief paper, attemps to discuss the decision-making process in telecommunications investments described by Saunders and as it relates to the practical experience of the Philippines and other developing countries in a similar situation. Attention is given to how the national telephone programme in the Philippines is being developed. Efforts have been exerted to identify the similarities and basic differences of the Philippines to other developing countries.